Analyzing the Narrator from Slay the Princess 

All you really need to know from him is that you’re on a path in the woods and at the end of that path is a cabin. In the basement of that cabin is a princess. You’re here to slay her. If you don’t, it will be the end of the world

The narrator has no ties to the trout population.

all in all, he's a terrified man holding on to the old, but wouldn't you do that, saving the world from a world ending threat is considered heroic by most, so why do we judge him for trying to do it?

There's a certain line that I think is really telling of the Narrator's beliefs. If you tell him he's delusional at the end he responds with, "I'm only delusional if I'm wrong, and I'm...not wrong. I can't be."

So, I may actually be the Narrator's worst enemy. I went through the game far more enamored with the Princess and the Long Quiet, so I never asked any questions about what was outside the construct, and then I reached the loop ending. In the loop ending, if you have asked him about the world outside, an option comes up to make sure the Princess keeps the Narrator's world in existence during the reset, and she says that it is up to the player to make sure that happens. By entering the loop without knowing of the world outside of the construct, that world has ended while the construct continues without creating the next universe.

Is it just me who was severely disappointed by how little we learn about the Narrator other than his motivation? I want to know how a mortal was able to tear apart and entrap a deity. I wish that there was more emphasis on what he sacrificed and a better explanation of nature of what he became and how he connected to Long Quiet to the point where Shifty confused him with one of the Voices, more backstory and development as a whole. Especially given that he is the only one to provide a mortal's perspective to Long Quiet, right before a confrontation that will decide the fate of mortals. As it is, what could have been a great character became little more than a tool. Alternatively, maybe making him more vague and open to interpretation would have been beneficial

I feel so many people hate Him but I can't help giving Him the benefit of the doubt. Since death is something I haven't experienced, then maybe he's right, and an eternity of nothing ever changing is better than dying. One of my favorite characters in media for sure!

Narrator and the two gods are some of the most tragic and touching characters I know by far. The stakes are insanely high and it took the Narrator everything in his humanity to create the game essentially. I always thought that the end of the world he was referring to was the natural heat death of the universe or an atomic war, something his people naturally had to face or brought to their selves. Glad to see someone also interprets it that way.

Something I noted while doing the Nightmare route: if you attempt to walk off the edge of the stairs into the void below, and tell him you did so because you were scared of having to face the Princess, he actually reveals some hypocrisy in saying that anything would be better than an eternity spent in a void. And I'm not sure anyone needs a reminder of what his "reward" is if you do everything he tells you to exactly how he tells you to do it.

My main problem with the narrator, as someone very analytical and skeptical, is the vaugeness with which he tries to frame his solution as the only solution. It just invites asking more questions, and due to the nature of the Princess and The Construct, means he already lost; the clean kill needed for the good ending was just never going to happen until after one vessel had already been collected.

Well. I never in my wildest dreams imagined this shitpost channel owner to be capable of such quality writing. Spectacular video essay - a bit short but that's good, straight to the point. Here's to it blowing up.

Funnily enough, the only reason why the voices are neutral at best towards The Narrator is because we chose to disobey him ourselves. If we simply do what He wants, we will be "eternally happy" till the end of our conscience and will get the you know what ending. However, once we decide to not follow Him, everything goes against His plan, so of course He gets hostile and of course we respond to hostility with hostility of our own due to the fact that He cant even make a convincing reason for us to kill the princess. Also i just realized that the supposed "good ending" where we leave the cabin with the princess is the worst one because we meet the said oblivion. Honestly living as a god with hot goddess gf seems more appealing now. Wait, doesn't that mean that all He needed to do was to convince us convince her to stop the world from ending? Welp, time to have my mind torn apart by these thoughts for another week or so. Edit: some grammar mistakes were made, whoops!

On my view with the Narrator, I like to headcanon that his fear of death and his desire to ultimately erase the concept of it was because of his past experiences that made him greatly fear and perhaps even hate it for most of his life since the moment he was born. As he lived like any other mortal, he slowly grew obsessed with it as he suffered many close calls with death (at least one that was nearly fatal to him) in his life along with losing many friends and families (and perhaps maybe a love of his own but who knows, really) that it greatly traumatized him. As he grew up and became a successful scientist/alchemist (whatever really with how ambiguous things are outside the Construct) through many tireless years studying and discovering new things of how the concept of the universe works and trying to find the absolute answer on how to finally destroy the concept of death, he kept gazing into the infinite depths of the old universe that is slowly dying during his career...... and as he recalled many his unpleasant experiences of his life that involved death, it eventually made him witness the depths of the universe had gaze back at him.

My first playthrough I got tons of wholesome princess chapters like thorn and damsel. The narrator was about to explain what’s going on and I immediately smash the mirror and reunite with my beloved

7:02 I think you got that wrong, if you ask the Echo if stagnation won’t be worse that death, he basically responds with ,,Anything is better than oblivion” so he knows that everything will stuck in one place Even in your own video at 6:41 he says that everyone will be in a constant state of forgetfulness Furthermore when you ,,fight” the Shifting mount she multiple times depending of your routes comments that without change and struggle there would be no growth, so it’s possible that this not only include progression, but also literal growth as in people will stop growing and multiply And even with the argument that the Narrator preserved a tiny portion of change within you, when you kill the Princess, the Hero ask you how your feeling and you respond that it feels like part of you have died, the Hero responds with ,,Literally or figuratively” implying that it may be literally and the part of you that died was the change, because you literally killed change in her entirety, this is very speculative, but it’s weird that he says it like this (because in normal circumstances it’s obvious that it’s figuratively) and it will further put the nail in the coffin that the Narrator’s philosophy is not only wrong, but his plan wasn’t going to work in the first place And also the dying star, you know, the star in the process of dying, it’s not only a prove that the world is in stagnation, but also can you imagine how unbearably HOT it will be to live in a world in which its star is in a brink of death, these people will WISH death was still a concept

The Narrator should've just found the Eye of the Universe smh Non joke comment: it's very fitting that the achievement for asking the narrator all of the questions is "Death of the Author", the concept that stories take on a life of their own once released, and the author's interpretation becomes just one of many interpretations.

I would have democratically elected this bird as Narrator for a fateful god.

The fact the 2 beings have a little of each other in themselves shows that they don’t work without each other so their escape is inevitable even if they go through every ending. Though in personifying them he might have save the world or at least ensured that in giving them self recognition in a form of self he can understand, the next world to come into existence would be one that he would have been able to comprehensible to his definition of mortals.

Tricking silence into killing death is a gigachad move. Its only hubris if it fails 6:40 in my headcanon the world created by killing the shifting mound is the game Rainworld. Its a cyclical world without death. 12:20 if you think about it, he kinda wins in that scenario, at least on the level of not forgetting. Two eternal gods know he existed and spoke to him, in a way their memmory is his immortality.

Oh my god! 2 months in the making. this already starts out with firelink music. this is already a master peice.

super based analysis. he's just a terrified shadow of a man trying to do every he thinks is the best for his loved ones. i Will absolutely still let Contrarian bully him tho

To be entirely honest I was expecting this to be a saxophone witch setup, but this was really, really good! I don't see much speculation about the Narrator, just Quiet and Shifty, so this was a much welcome breath of fresh air

It seems so fitting to me that the same man who voiced Jonathan Sims from The Magnus Archives also voices a character who so feared and hated death that he literally tore reality in half to stop it.

Amazing video! Its very cool to see someone give the narrator the benifit of the doubt rather then painting him as a straight up evil villian. Personally I side with the narrator, which is what makes the story so much more tragic and amazing for me. Emotionally, I want to save the princess and have the happy ending of being together and no longer being alone. But the more utilitarian side of me believes/knows that the right thing to do is to plunge the dagger. I don't think any other game has had me so divided on a choice and had me thinking about it for so long.

I've always been a fan of stories where conflict is born through identical morals and mindsets, but applied to different people or groups. I feel this applies to the slayer and the narrator, because if you take his mindset and simply apply it to the slayer, it would mean he should save the princess, because that would save her from oblivion and yourself from eternal torment at having ended the only other thing in existence like you with your own hands, and you'd be doing it at the cost of an outside world where nothing is truly like you and her and where nothing ever really ends, just changes form. This is an easy mirror to the narrators reasoning behind his choice, choosing to subject you two infinite beings to torture just to save his own world from oblivion. It is simply the willingness to subject an utterly alien outsider to misery, albeit in a manner that doesn't ever truly kill them, so that you and everything you care for may never truly die. This mindset describes both the narrator is his actions to rid the world of death, and the slayer in his condemnation of an infinity of universes to life and death so that he and the princess may always be together. This can also be seen as the reason why it doesn't matter if you leave with Shifty or with the Princess as they both mean the same thing, though they can change your interactions with each other. Though I'd always leave with Shifty because, if you saw absolutely everything with your beloved other half would you suddenly stop loving them? Of course not, I'm happy to dance again with her, and if she makes me forget that is part of the flow. Semi related, i love how similar the relationship of slayer/princess is to the Hero/greatest enemy and lover from Marathon. It's how I like to imagine their dynamic after the game ends, their bodies die but they return again and again to dance and clash and rage anew.

This is so beautifully written it's almost indistinguishable from the story itself, like it's written with the story's narrative language. And it was beautifully done and you nailed it. It is not only poetry, but the absolute truth of the story, and told by painting a picture. Thank you for this.

I like to think that Jonathan Sims (the va for the Narrator) plays himself again, like in the Magnus Archive. But as his echo this time lol

I had a thought after a couple of playthroughs. The “real” narrator did change the nature of reality forever; dividing a single, pantheistic being into two separate entities. But more than that he created two beings who learned about mortality and feared death like he did. It was likely unintentional on the Narrator’s part, but my head canon is that the cruel situation he created for the Long Quiet and the Shifting Mound made them appreciate the promise and perils of mortality. The Long Quiet and the Princess / Shifting Mound was once a likely pantheistic being. A being which couldn’t understand mortality as they were above such things. Now there are two (or one) new beings watching over existence that now recognize what mortal beings know all too well. Would they become angry gods? I like to imagine that the life and death struggle they endured would make the Long Quiet and the Shifting Mound quite the opposite.

Did the Narrator consider that freezing everything in stasis would probably cause more problems than it solves (e.g. overpopulation, stopping the next universe from forming)? Being stuck in an infinite timeloop sounds more like a purgatory than a paradise.

Ultimately his biggest mistake was trying to begin with, an echo cannot learn or change, and thus cannot guide the gods to the right conclusion. Also, maybe they would've listen to him if he wasn't an absolute jerk..

"Firelink Shrine" playing over the opening lines. *chef's kiss* Excellent!

No f***ing way! You started making video essays?! LET'S GOOO!

Nice lore vid cant wait for the constructs slightly deeper speculation

Righty! Time for some speculation! Here's a point (before watching the video) of speculation that I feel are note worthy: A. The 'Narrator' is Humanity's perceived *God.* A piece of speculation that may be a bit far flung, however, it makes sense when we look at the clues. - The Characters are specifically human / humaniod. Only straying from this detail when our view is altered of them. - The Long Quiet is humaniod in form yet carries aspects of an unknown creature (assumedly a Crow or Raven. It is implied they are a part or fragment of the Narrator, which is why they can only hear them). - The Princess (Shifting Mound) is shown to be a Human (though, it is revealed to be of her own choosing based on our perception, implying we know what a human is. And the Narrator is the creator of 'The Long Quiet', leading to concepts being inherented). - The environment is natural in appearance, aside from the cabin. Appearing more Earth-like then anything else (Though it may be to prevent the possibility of straying and or raising questions about other people). - The Narrator's reason for wanting to 'removed' The Shifting Mound (Also the physical embodiment of change) was to preserve humanity. Their own creation, in theory. The main point that ties it together is... - The Fear of Change", or best describe as the "Fear of the Unknown" which is reflected in the perceived God that is the Narrator. If we view the Narrator being depicted as a Raven, it may symbolize a number of things but primarily, an Omen. A warning of what's to come or simply change in a negative light. While viewing them as a Crow, could be reference to Destiny. An inevitably.

I wanted a video about The Narrator and out of nowhere, the meme channel does it, and its good. Great video.

Great video

Quite an insightful video on the lore of the video. I hope there is more content like this

Damn god damn, I never thought a 13 minutes video about a weird bird guy from one of my favorite games would make me cry, but here I am, drawing fan art to cope with the existential nature of death o7

A fun watch. The music mixing at the end of the script obscures the ending though.

Thanks for making an analysis for him!

You make an excellent point about the narrator only focusing on what he desires. It had the opposite effect on me though. The narrator was very obvious with his ulterior motives, which made me think he was a bit stupid, but had his heart in the right place. I also agreed with him that avoiding oblivion is preferable. A reality with death can be just as horrifying as a reality without it and we were never given evidence of why the latter would be worse. With all due respect, I feel the biggest flaw of this game is how unappealing the voice of the princess is. I was never even slightly swayed to her side because of it.

This was amazing! Beautiful, even. The Narrator is such an interesting character and I'm glad to see people appreciate Him despite his flaws. The writing was exquisite and the narrator of the video has a nice voice. I love your vids hehe ♥🌹

britisch bird

ooooooooooh an analysis for Narrator? Thank you!

A lot of this feels like a literalization of the concept of "death of author". You can never actually interact with the author of a story when you are experiencing it. It is at most a memory; an echo of the author at the time they were writing it. And of the course the author was alone, most are when they are writing their stories.

That was a really great video.

I unconditionally sympathize with The Narrator, he's the true hero of this story. Fuck death.

I got major Azathoth vibes from the being "The Long Quiet".

Holy shit this is an amazing deep dive! Awesome job Captain C: o7

To be fair, The Narrator is a hero no matter how you view the story, simply because of the nature of infinity. The "Resume the cycle of creation and destruction" and "restart the Construct" endings are essentially the same. How? If you cast a dice infinite amount of times, what is a chance of you rolling a specific value? 100%. It doesn't matter what value you pick and how many sides this die has, everything will happen, simply because of the nature of infinity. And creation of The Construct is possible, so it will happen again and again and again. Now, the problem is that there is an ending where everything gets destroyed. "Refusing to go to the cabin" leads to an end of all worlds. And, as we know, if something CAN happen it WILL happen as long as the cycle exists. The only way to save the world from self-destruction is to break the cycle. To kill the Princess. Otherwise, there will be other Constructs and one of them may be created by someone who WANTS the world to end. So, no matter what your opinion on The Narrator and death is, He is doing the good thing

The Narrator attempts to make The Long Quiet percieve The Princess in an extremely specific way. But, by being cut from the same cloth, The Long Quiet is able to think, to change, and thus is able to percieve the princess in his own way, that is the mistake the narrator made, giving the cut off piece of The Long Quiet the ability to think But it may have been an inevitability, The Long Quiet in its whole is change, you can't seperate it from what it is no matter how fragmented you make it. But you also can't make it die without it being the catalyst to destroy itself, since only it can cause change. The very nature of The Long Quiet needing to cause its own change was the Narrator's plan and downfall.

the youtube video essayist germ is spreading but anyways great video. you clearly did your research and didnt misrepresent the nuanced nature of the narrator. he is neither a saint nor evil. he is just a terrified human doing its best to survive and make the world better

So, the narrator is Emet-Selch from FFXIV. That's really sad and tragic.

I definitely see a missed opportunity for the narrator to achieve his goal here. If the Long Quiet had focused his energy only on keeping the souls that were alive, well, still alive, then as the pure force of eternal stagnation he likely would have have been able to keep that one thing from ever changing while the Shifting Mounds nature took everything else eventually. I see essentially a reincarnation cycle, not entirely unlike the construct, except with new ever changing worlds to keep each cycle fresh. The Mound would likely TRY to end these souls but of the two the Quiet seems to be the stronger of the two gods, since he even has the option to kill her. Then comes the question of "could he do this forever?" I think yes. He the god of things unchanging and while the ragged cut leads to him being unhappy with "everything" eternally unchanging, to have just this one thing unchanging would be more in line with his being than simply joining the Mound in the "good' ending.

I wholeheartedly believe the Narrator is Right, the Princess is literally the incarnation of Human Suffering.

i am against him. however it is mainly because i feel his plan being rather "shortsighted". we need to get rid of death, this will make the world better, can you not see this, along with his refusal to properly elaborate when challenged gives me the feeling that he just wants it gone and has given no thought of the consequenses. i have not seen the updates but based on some dialouge with the mound it would seem that suffering would be yeeted alongside death should he succed (but i personally doubt it), so that does ease some of it. yet there is still the sense of a compleate and total lack of what else would happen, how life in general would be affected, would thing still grow in size and grow old, could things still wither, could living things still procreate, will there even be anymore living things in this new world? i question him not because i disagree but i want to know if he has any ideas for what will come next and all i get is "that world will not have death, therefore it is automaticly better". i would prefer a bit more than that when i am supposed to remove such a seemingly fundemental part of existance from existance.

I just started the vid and had to comment; narrator my crush 😊

more vids like this

To bad bro is not the cheater

مادة جيدة والفيديو

Make the narrator play outer wilds

I feel that the narrator is a foolish and stubborn and very scared man. Ultimately, that is the summation of who the narrator is, he is someone so afraid of death, that he is willing to eliminate change itself and leave the world to stagnation. He only sees life through a narrow black and white lens, with no room for grey, death is bad, and that is all it can be, and in that he is so painfully mortal, and cannot change his mind for anything because he is so stubborn that he would shatter himself into pieces than to live in a world where death happens, because to him death is all suffering. And change causes death so change causes suffering. So he leads half of a god to kill the other half that he impisoned, all 3 in fractured pieces, as slowly the now 2 gods piece themselves together from broken perspectives, unbeknownst to him. And in that he is tragic, but maybe he finds relief in the end.

are you actually british 😢

ooooooooooh an analysis for Narrator? Thank you!