Complete Narrative Analysis of The Stanley Parable 

I love how despite how close to comprehensive this video is, you still pointed to more recommended viewing, like you're not going to pretend that you've said everything there is to say about this game. huge respect

I think the point of the Confusion ending is actually that the Narrator *cannot* make meaningful choices. As a part of the game, any apparent "choice" he might make is simply part of the game's script, and the "confusion" of the ending's name actually refers to the narrator confusing the boundary of his role and the player's, resulting in him becoming the one making the choices that progress the story - which, of course, can only ever lead the story down an entirely linear, predetermined path, because the game can never actually choose between two options, only act like it is. We can see this brought into clearest relief with the penultimate room, in which the narrator forces the player to simply walk in circles while he decides which door to go through - except his logic is clearly absurd and each door turns out to lead to the exact same place, meaning that his choice was completely meaningless (In fact, his logic does make sense, but only for a narrator - whichever door he happens to pick is "correct", because it's the one that leads where you're going). That's then exactly what we see in the room - every apparent choice he had made was pre-scripted and set in advance, and that's exactly what he complains about - "That's all this is? One giant ending? ... That's really how all this goes? It's all... determined?". It's also tied into the Narrator's musings on journeys and destinations - does the meaning of a destination change depending on whether there was a meaningful decision made to select it in the first place? I think it's also relevant that the sound effect that plays at the very end is the same as at the ending of the Stanley Parable demo, when the demo "breaks". That suggests that the narrator, in his confusion of his role in the story, finally actually does manage to make a choice not written in the ending schedule, and in doing so similarly breaks the narrative construct of the game, forcing it to restart. Also, I don't think you give the Minecraft and Portal segments enough credit. They essentially serve as caveats for the game's themes - when the narrator complains about Minecraft being too open-ended, the game is telling the player "okay, there are some games that don't have the kind of narrative structure we're really talking about here, where you can make fairly open decisions about what you want to do". Similarly, Portal is the exact opposite - a game where the narrator is always in control and the player has no input beyond continuing to go forwards. The game wants you to know that it's talking about a particular type of game, where the player and story interact, and that not all games fall into the parable it's telling. When the player falls into the old map, it's so dark precisely because the game wants the player to be lost and baffled - the story is what gives the game context, and now the narrator has left, all the player can do is wander around in the dark with no idea what they're supposed to be doing. As the narrator says when you pick the blue door, "You see? There's nothing here." It's saying that, while there is always conflict between what a player might want to do and what the story or gameplay systems allow, ultimately, the player has to be willing to go along with the limits of the game if he wants his actions to be acknowledged by the game and to have meaning within it - it's definitely no coincidence that this is the ending you get to when you make every "disobey" choice possible.

I think the idea of the game is that there really is no comprehensive interpretation. It's a game that fixates on choice but all of your choices are taken away from you. It's like the game doesn't understand its own message sometimes, and that's by design. I also find it very strange that it's by obeying the voice completely that Stanley escapes mind control. Interesting, considering he just obeyed all of the directions to get there. Is he really free?

Okay, I'll try to explain 47:57. In simpler terms, The Narrator is saying that the nature of reality only exists within the personal observation of sentient beings. No beings to observe= no nature of reality (look up "solipsism"). Now, The Narrator has consciousness. He himself is an observer. But for the Narrator to be able to observe, he has to, well, exist. And the very nature of his existence is that he is only exists within the office (or the game itself; he doesn't exist in real life). But the nature of his existence is only a thing because Stanley is there to observe the office. Stanley, in his own perception, is creating the nature of The Narrator purely because he is there. No Stanley to observe office = No Narrator. With that being said, the Narrator then asks if the office itself is his own consciousness. I personally can't answer that. The Narrator can either exist within the office (separate from him) and Stanley perceives both of them, OR The Narrator IS the office, which is perceived by Stanley the same way. I hope I made it clear lol

I love the line "come Stanley, Our Destiny Awaits," followed by literally the destiny that the rest of the ending SHOULD be going on. Neat touch in the writing department

Something I would like to add about the Confusion Ending is that on the first fake restart, the fade in that usually happens when you restart is present, due to the fact the player doesn't know that the restart is fake. Once it's revealed that something is up, all future restarts don't have the fade-in, due to the fact that it's obvious that this is part of a continued ending.

my take on the existence of “wrong choices” like in the museum ending and the free choice ending is that the game not only has a game and a metagame, but something below the base game, or an infragame so to speak. the infragame being what the narrator is allowed to control and what he expects to be possible, the game itself is what the game actually allows you to do, and the metagame being the game as a file on your computer. the game itself can change and shift without the narrator’s influence as seen in the confusion ending, which ironically makes the “metanarrator” as described in the narrator, while the “narrator” is more of an infranarrator. it also explains the dichotomy of stanley, the player, and the controller, as stanley is the infragame, the player is the game, and the controller is the metagame god this game is so good

This is the best Stanley Parable analysis that I see so far, I love this game, I first played 5 years ago, completed blind about what is was, and I never wanted so bad, to see all the content in a game, It was incredebly captivating , after spend many hour and found many secrets by myself, I will confess that in the end I cheated and look some stuff online, things like the console and the escape pod ending. But after I did everthing I was still not done, I have the feeling of missing something, I wasnt able to be done with the game even that the game have anything else to offer. I start to watch gameplays, comparing other peoples playthrough to my one, I was incredible corious how many different ways people would play this game, what happend in every playthrough, what was unic to mine, and what are unic to them, see what was people reaction and theories about this unexpected game, but after all that became repetitive, I start to see more reviews, interviews of the creators, things to learn more about the reasons of things the game, why every choice is a choice and why is good, but I never see any review that completed fill my expetations and thoughts of the game, I was still feeling I was missing somethings, not that every analysis that I see was bad, I like a bunch and they built up to my view of the game, but only now, 5 years later I think a found a analysis that I feel complete and tackle the parts that I wanted. TL;DR: Thanks for your incredible analysis PS: the most ironic part is that I fannily done with the game, but very soon I will play more, when the Deluxe version realese. PS2: Sorry if my bad grammar, make it difficult to you understand me, English isnt my first language, but I feel like I need to thanks anyway.

Ok, slight critism of the third reason in the "reasons games don't need meaningful choices" bit, and a mistake I'm especially confused by considering you literally just talked about how Undertale handled this exact kinda thing; You don't need to make the choices limited by some arbitrary number. You just need to make the choices permanent. As I implied, Undertale does this brilliantly; you are given every chance to stop the genocide run while playing, right up to the very end, where you can actually just stop and quit the game if you don't want to kill flowey (which, as you established, is in fact a real option). But if you don't... Your game is forever marred. No matter how much you reset, how much you try and try again, no matter how many times you pacifist the game, the game will never let you forget that you did that, by forever marring your happy ending. An ending that even extends into Deltarune. Now, of course, you could do a full uninstall and clean install, but that is also a choice, and not one you'll forget. Because the game won, abd the only way for you to win is to delete the universe of the game, in the meta and literal senses. This leaves the choice to kill Flowey, the choice to complete the run and see all the content, as impactful in the very real way Narrator 2 electric boogaloo was implying. That is it. That is my only critique of this two hour video, a segment that lasted less then two seconds. For shame. I can't believe you'd be so careless.

DID YOU GET THE BROOM CLOSET ENDING???!?!? THE BROOM CLOSET ENDING WAS MY FAVOURITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

"You will never find the free choice ending." Uuuh... that was my second ending after the gaming ending. And no, I didnt have a guide.

Have you noticed, if you click your mouse anywhere it makes a keyboard click noise. This could be that the Stanley parable could be in th emend of Stanley and his own self awareness and whenever you click that is Staley irl doing his job.

When you realize that one of the game’s choices happened outside the game. You “chose” to buy, install, and play The Stanley Parable

34:50 something else I wanted to talk about here, the apartment ending where narrator asks you to not push a button next time when asked for. I made a streamer I watch regularly play this game, and when he got to this point in the game, he literally just stopped. he left the headset at the pc, went on his bed [which was shown on the webcam] and just did nothing 5 minutes straight. I'm not joking. and then he started browsing his phone, probably open up chat to see if I said anything. this guy wanted so badly to prove that he can just not do what he's asked for that he refuses to move forward. this was one of his first endings. he eventually did get back on the game after a while, but this moment made him not want to play that much, as a result he never went for any small ending like out-of-bounds one or any other small ending/"ending". although gotta say they appreciated the broom closet ending I'm trying to think rn if the game should've given you a voice line if you refused to push anything for 10 minutes or so... because this time the game really gives you nothing and just guilts you [and betrays you since once you disobey the narrator twice at the start of the game, if you listen to him right away, he just does this]

I think the first ending, the Gaming Ending, works more to establish the TONE than to establish the gameplay. When I first played this game, I was absolutely mesmerized by it. I think it works perfectly for what it's trying to be, which is to establish the tone to a new player, rather than the gameplay.

I saw the lack in the gaming ending was on purpose. The game is very... Hateful? Of video games. Discouraging the player from exploration IS the point! Especially if you consider how this is what happens if you never listen to the narrator! It's as if it's him saying "look how unrewarding exploration is! Better listen to me from now on!" Just my observation.

I very much disagree with the assertion that the "games ending" is the one most people will go for on their first try. While the two initial disobediences are easy to spot and execute, the "jump off the moving platform on to the seemingly decorative railing is quite a leap of logic. Even after that, the first time I got to the red/blue door situation I didn't realize that the third blue door actually excited, instead thinking it's a joke on the fact that the narrator no longer gives you the choice and was only clued into it with the first line of the zending. The ending I think is the one people go for first is the phone ending. You ride the elevator up while the narrator talks to you, you don't notice the phone cord, you don't realize you can quit. The path of least resistance with low conformity. The path where the narrator is straight up hostile to you.

I’ve actually seen many RU-vidrs and people I know quite enjoy the gaming ending despite its narrative disconnect, I feel like it’s disconnect might be purposeful in tricking the player’s understanding of the purpose of the game and also In order to play into the topic of the ending, game developers struggling to understand what players want, which is what the developers of the game greatly struggled with

I really love rewatching this video. Not only it gave me more reasons to like The Stanley Parable even more, but also it is a great help for my Master’s thesis I’m currently writing on art and video games. I have quoted your video several times in a chapter about The Stanley Parable and it is only appropriate to thank you for being an awesome source!

This game is so interesting, I would say that it's somewhat poetic. By making it about itself, it became a tool that doesn't just dissect and deconstruct its own premises, but a tool that refers to all other games and more. This reminds me of the power and paradoxes that often arise from self-referencing (like "The next sentence is true. The previous sentence is false"). Your video has definitely inspired me to think more about this game from different angles, after already seeing quite a few other interpretations of it. There are just so many "conclusions" one can pull out of this game. Is this game about whether we the players are the ones playing the games, or is it that the games are playing (manipulating) us the players? Overt hinting at the possibility of hurting yourself to get different dialogues to encourage such behavior; using a competitive leaderboard to manipulate player's psychology into investing more time into an otherwise lacking game; removing the storytelling and narrative aspect of a game which can be argued to have been borrowed from cinema and literature, to expose the bare mechanics of the game in the Art Ending, to show that in order for a game to be engaging, it needs to please/stir up/manipulate the player's emotions; etc. Is this game about free will vs. determinism? The entire game is based on what happens when you seemingly disobey your "fate" by exercising your free will, only to realize that (almost) every choice you thought to be free were all anticipated or even pre-determined. I especially like the narrator's lines at the end of the Confusion Ending: "How would we even know? Will someone come for us? Will something happen?" We who perceive ourselves as free entities, were dropped into this universe without any (obvious) purposes or guides. Once we finally find our goals, make up our minds, complete our paths, follow our fates to their ends or break free from our fates, will there be a way for us to know if we've done well? Or taken from another angle: do gods exist (that "someone" that might come for us, let us "know", and make "something" happen) or are we truly alone? Is this game about the role of authorities in our life? How should we balance between our own thoughts and opinions, and the guidance or expectations from society, our family, the education system, our friends, etc.? In the game, if we follow the narrator completely, we end up with a false freedom. If we completely rebel against it and even make extra efforts (by jumping off the platform onto the otherwise inaccessible corridor), we realize that there does need to be a voice to wrap up our experience, a reference point to which we can organize our thoughts about the chaotic world. All other paths in this game exist in between these two extremes. The Explosion Ending is what happens when we disobey at the last moment in hope of gaining control, but it seemed to be too late. The Confusion Ending is by disobeying, then obeying, then disobeying. It is a mix of the two extremes, a compromise, and hence the game showed its most overtly paradoxical ending, possibly to illustrate the paradox between these two? The Escape Pod Ending and the Gaming Ending show that we need the narrator to go forward. The Free Choice Ending shows that the narrator needs us. The Museum Ending shows that we need each other. So perhaps there lies or answer. Finally, as you have beautifully illustrated at the end of the video, "the end is never the end." This is true of this game, but isn't it true about everything in this world? Things we experience have lasting impacts on us, and things we do have lasting impacts on the world. Questions with definite answers are few and between. Most questions can never have a definitive, best answer or solution, it's just impossible. So perhaps we should treat them with more open-mindedness, never being so confident in a certain view and become reluctant to discussion or change. Or on a similar line as what you have said, we shouldn't try to label everything with a definition, a tag, a conclusion, a QED. These things might simplify our life and our thoughts, but they can also blocks us from further insights if we are to mistakenly take these artificial constructs as identical to the the original, thus flattening the richness that exists in the world.

1:09:52 I don't think the point the game was making is that choices become meaningless within the game, rather that things like a brutal death "you" are experiencing, or actions you're made to feel guilty for, and such, can easily lose a lot of their impact with the knowledge that you're experiencing preset paths.

13:35 here you talk about the gaming ending, the last segment where you just walk in dark rooms of the original stanley parable map, you claim that they serve no meaning but just to stretch the ending. I disagree, I got 6-7 of my friends to play the game and I watched them do all the endings each, their initial reaction, how do they decide on choices, and so on. I learnt a lot of game design and other things from this, and regarding this segment I mentioned earlier, I believe it's purpose was to be creepy, at least half of the people I watched got a little terrified or spooked. sometimes I would poke fun at them and tell them that there may be a jumpscare. people I watched with low horror game tolerance [including myself] were kind of unsettled. I can tell you that it's supposed to be somewhat creepy.... but I can't tell you why or what they achieved, I am just saying the reaction I saw a lot of people have, which is something you didn't fully cover I agree when you said that it's a bit disappointing that there's missing content on the second rating, and that it's frustrating to try to see all the dialogue options, however in my experiment, nobody actually wanted to replay to see the other voice lines when reviewing, even those who wanted to 100% and looked up secrets and stuff online. another little note on this ending, in the experiment I ran, I think absolutely everyone were really amazed when they saw the minecraft segment, they were very hyped and as intended they thought it's more to it than it actually is. It was a welcoming surprise to say the least, even if you can't interact much. 2 of those people were visibly disappointed when it ended, but for most it ended before they reached the end of the last tunnel so they thought it'd be more to it if they explored more, so that left a nice mark on them

I finally watched this to prepare for the release of Ultra Deluxe, and this might be the most satisfying take on the game I've ever seen. It was a long, winding journey and worth every bit of it, much like the experience of the game itself - thank you so much for helping me reignite my excitement for this game

I've always found it interesting how this game manages to be both silly but also thought provoking at the same time. Like sure, you have other games and stuff that balance comedy and commentary but The Standly Parable seems to be able to do both at the same time. A lot of the jokes make you think and the more you think, the more funny it becomes in concept. This truley is a Stanley Parable

I think the line at 18:15 means that since what the narrator is saying is based around what Stanley thinks of the office, then what the narrator thinks about him is not only something he knows, but also, that would mean that Stanley is thinking that he is thinking about something which he has no way of knowing would matter in the first place. So in a weird way, it would apply to when a character in a game finds out about something, he really always knew, as that was in the code of the game, although I'm not completely sure.

Hi so, according to you I did something nobody else did and quit during the apartment ending, I don't think I count though because the game bugged and the commands to press buttons didn't show up, still it means I got an extra ending and I'm pretty happy about it.

I like the fact that you realized that people might get confused with The Game's Ending and The "Games Ending"

I immediately heard the Machinarium soundtrack in the background as you explain further your discoveries regarding the Confusion Ending, I am truly overjoyed!!! Tis such a little old gem of a game

I think the most meta aspect about this game is that people who play this game and commentate on it become meta-narrators themselves and create a ceaseless dialog of the Stanley Parable, thus ensuring the game never runs out of things to say about itself.

Watched this video while I was considering a choice between getting a degree in Quantum Physics or Philosophy. It's really very good, and had a profound impact on me. Anyways, let me tell you about spooky action at a distance...

i dont think anyone played the gaming ending first, its not very obvious that you have to jump onto the catwalk

Zending and the out of bounds ending brought me to tears. I know that's corny to say about a video game that makes so many gags they become the main "plot" but this game made me shed tears for the narrator. He sounds so distressed when you leave the zending room, I almost couldn't bring myself to kill Stanley because I wanted the narrator to be happy. And in the out of bounds ending, he sounds so legitimately concerned and upset in his tone and choice of wording, it gets to me everytime I here him plead to Stanley with "so... You hear me?" 🥲

1:19:11 here you talk about the "free choice" ending. if you pick door on the right, game breaks. once it fully breaks and rewinds time, if you go on the door of the right again, it will rewind everytime. here you mentioned that you can do this forever.... and I wanna mention that the same streamer I mentioned in one of the other comments that I made to play the game, they legit went on the right door every single time and rewinded a bunch of times..... the thing is, after the 3rd or 4th time, the game legit crashed somehow... and that was terrible, cuz the player didn't get to see what happened if he did pick the left door. so he went back to do it, but it was quite a drag, listening to that strange unskippable commercial again, walking all the way and... they did do it, but it was a pain for them and for me cuz of this. There's not much to take out of it, except that, there's a small chance if you keep going on the right you do crash, and there's an extremely small chance that that's intended and it's kind of like an ending I don't see listed anywhere. While talking about this bug, I've found a ton of bugs when watching people play. mainly on the "escape pod" ending, if you spam click to open doors as fast as possible, which is 2/3 of the players who I watched did, if you spamm click the door leading directly to the initial 2-doors choice, it will open, close, then get locked [and the area in front of you literally despawns, I checked with noclip] and you are literally soft-locked until restart. Also in the "museum" ending, there's a specific spot that if you go through, there's just a 50 50 chance to crash, and that spot is very close to where you're supposed to go and the crash typically happens after exploring the museum for some time.

This is criminally under rated Keep up the good work

It's also important to remember that the Metanarrator is a character in the story, like the narrator. And I think she's meant to be wrong. I think it's very important that the Museum Ending takes place in a museum. A place where people go to look at things without interacting with them. But Museums are still important. Museums have a purpose and should exist even if you aren't affecting anything.

Finally starting to take on this video. Its going to take some time. But I'm ready to dive in. Thank you for your ambition.

A fantastic Analysis just watched it all! My mind is blown by some of the things you covered!

This video is a gem! Excellent breakdowns, and as someone new to TSP and searching for video essays, the recommendations are very helpful!

I love the “right door” joke. I always understood it as “will taking the right (correct) door lead us to our destination? Yes! So the door on the right must be the correct one.”

Absolutely have to revisit this game now. I'd seen pretty much everything it had to offer and nothing in this video was really news to me, but it was immensely enjoyable remembering everything this game did. Seeing you compile everything, however, double-backing and countering counterarguments to your counterarguments made my head spin. Good job keeping track of everything! First video I've seen from you but I really enjoyed it, well done. My head hurt

As for that confusing line about subjective mental experience by the Narrator around 47:20: "If my experience of your existence rests inside of your subjective experience of this office, is this office, in fact, the skeleton of my own relative experimental mental subjective construct?" Now people have other good ideas in this comments section I recommend you read, but I think I got something coherent by tying it in with the talk of journeys. He said that the journey (subjectively, at least) "creates" a destination, now he seems to point out the lack of any outside frame of reference for the office ("my experience of your existence rests inside of your subjective experience of this office"), and so wonders if the office could have been created for their journey (this could also be read as the narrator almost getting meta), he specifically wonders if it's actually inside his own mind ("is this office, in fact, the skeleton of my own relative experimental mental subjective construct?"). I don't know how strong of an analysis this is, but I feel like it makes the most sense as a direct continuation of his train of thought. (It also seems possible the narrator doesn't really understand either, based off of him saying "that got a bit weird there", and not following up, though whether that means he did actually construct a meaningful idea but didn't really understand (relatable), or he just got a bit lost in existentialism is up to interpretation.)

I just wanted to say, good work on the video! Your channel deserves more views!

The narrator is the game developer. He is taking the opportunity to mess with you. He does this in a way that is just entertaining and witty enough to keep you playing. I think you are meant to see an analogy to the real world. The real world in which people play computer games all day.

It is not everyday that I get an existential crisis by a video game commentary video, but my god this made me stare at a wall for half an hour and just, blink like a gasping fish on land. What an amazing analysis!!!

I just wanted to say that the music does not loop forever in the out of bounds ending. It takes roughly 5 minutes but the guitar strings (power down). After which you are met with only silence until you do restart. Also, your assertion that you will never find the free choice ending because the plug is so hidden out of sight is missing vital information when actually playing the game. For example, the picture you posted at 1:28:28 does make it seem like it's so out of the way that people would never find it. However you're missing the fact that the light is swinging, in the game when the light is swinging your eyes naturally follow to see what it reveals. If you look around the room nothing is revealed except for that plug, and it is continuously swinging continuously revealing that very same plug repeatedly until you either pick up the phone or unplug the plug. The game is constantly "revealing" that choice to you by swinging the light back, hiding the plug again, only to once again reveal it seconds later. Portal 2 does the exact same thing, despite the mass of underground areas you are in for half the game, where your objective is on the complete opposite side of the map you still know that's what you're supposed to be because that particular area is lit up. The light guides you much like how the light guided us to that plug. There is actually a video about this that I am no longer able to find. It was something like "How Portal 2 guides the player" or "How Valve guides the player". Regardless, it had some pretty neat ideas in there and I wish I could have linked it.

Ok, I don't get it, you claim this is not a review of any sort, and the very first segment of the video is directly complaining about 'missing content' and how much the player *enjoys* this ending, which you promptly assume off the top that most people will get first just because you think most people have this sort of rebellious streak in them. What gives?

I think one aspect you didn't really get into in the Games ending is that its very much a pretty deliberate taunt of the player. I think going against and disrespecting the narrator so many times is supposed to be kinda analogous to behavior like... Really stubbornly trying to glitch your way into a room you aren't supposed to go into, when it's obvious that's not meant to be part of the game just because you want to know if you can. Something I've personally done with that one gate in New Vegas just to get... A bunch of default textures on the other side. So the game taunts you for it, gives you a third door that goes nowhere, puts you at the bottom of the leaderboard, asks you to complete a tedious and annoying task to see "Real art" to get what amounts to just a congratulations screen. Until finally it asks "If you didn't want to actually play the game, why are you still here? Why aren't you playing other games?" Shows you a more open ended game that you could be playing before cutting it off. Open world games not really your thing? Well here's a fun linear game you could be playing instead, and then takes everything away. But the player stubbornly sticks it out so you get what the result of doing something like trying to get to an area in a game where you're not supposed to be... A bunch of boring stand-in textures that you can't really interact with. Stanley's fate of getting stuck there meant to be a sort of karmic punishment. For the game to finally pull the plug and say "You know, you need to acknowledge the boundaries a game sets for you because you need some boundaries to actually play a game."

Dude this is SO well made. Subbed.

I really enjoyed this video , very high quality , I wish you spent more time talking about the cold feet ending and how the narrator essentially challenges you to fall to your characters death , and the implications of “soft” “endings “ like the broom closet and white board ending

A nearly 2 hour video with less than 600 subscribers, this is truly a project of passion rather than demand or profit, I seriously respect that

watching this on the leadup to ultra deluxe (4/27 hopefully...) and you really summed up everything well :D

Finally got around to finishing this. Very well done Stanley

Awesome video, subscribed!

Meanwhile, in Ultra Deluxe: BUCKETS

This video deserves a million views, not just 600! I'm gonna send this to all my friends, you deserve way more viewers than this.

Your content is underrated dude keep this up.

14:53 Why are you so convinced that it's 'Missing' content? Did any of the devs mention it? Were there leftover unused quotes in the code?? It's the Narrator belittling Stanley by ignoring his opinion. That's it.

Oh my god, you found the [SPOILER REDACTED], holy moly! You have an eagle eye of what crows' seeds I gave you.

The only truly rebellious ending is jumping off the tower in the screen room, since that was a bug and thus, the only action a player can take that the game devs didn’t want.

The confusion schedule doors sounds like a way I would solve a math problem

I think that the freedom ending being the only good ending is meant to be commentary on how the canon ending In multiple ending games is usually the "good ending". This whole game is a commentary on video game storytelling as a whole.

50:05 "logically, doors lead to places. also the door on the right is arbitrarily probably where we wanna go lmao"

I Disagree with the "Free Choice" Ending being too hidden. When you already did the office ending, you are ANGRY at the narrator for lying to you, so when you come back to that ending, you look around the room for any way to go agaist picking that phone up out of spite. That is when you find the cord and pull it out. Even pewdiepie found this ending, man.

The Stanley Parable is a story that really only can be told through the medium of video games. Well, perhaps you could re-create something like it in a "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" book, but even that is far more limited.

Great video!! Would love to hear your thoughts on ultra deluxe and some of the new endings added :)

Can't wait to see what people have to say in addition to the Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe's content. Isn't that what we want? More content? It's always more more more!

This video is fantastic.

The claim that the Gaming ending will be most players' first ending is debatable. I don't think most players would think to jump onto the catwalk in their first playthrough, and some players, especially with the console re-release, might experience stick drift or accidentally tap their joystick, resulting in the powerful ending instead

Not sure why this video showed up only after Ultra Deluxe came out when I was looking for analysis videos but better late than never. Hope you make an update video for the new game.

great video

What does it tell about me that the "free choice" ending was my first?

I hope you come back for the ultra deluxe edition :)

10:38 there is no missing dialogue there, the game just disregards your feedback there on purpose

So this really long bit you do around the "Free Choice" ending and how it is to hard to get and all, which can create issues for the player. It was literally my first ending and idk what that says about me, though honestly I don't find it to crazy to find. The light lamp highlights the cord and my eyes were pulled insteantly to that option. idk because of that I just find your point a bit weaker.

15:18 Missed opportunity for you to put "It ends soon. Very soon" on screen

I mean when I played the very first ending I got was the Freedom Ending, I guess I’m different from a lot of gamers cos my instinct is to start by following the rules of a game to see what experience the developers intended before starting to fuck around and push the boundaries

I don't know if anyone else as mentioned this, (this video is 3 years old, surely people know by now), but the song the Narrator plays by saying that you *are* sick of this gag in the OoB ending *does* actually end. The narrator plays the song to completion with lyrics, then 2 more times as a guitar (or ukulele or whatever he is playing) solo then a string breaks and the song stops playing.

you deserve more subs :)

I think the line starting at 47:58 means that the Narrator is experiences Stanley's existence as the subjective/opinionated version of their experience in their office building and the Narrator is questioning if the office is what is left of a construct of his experience of Stanley's existence. More simply put, the office is a manisfestation of memories the Narrator has left of what he knew of Stanley. (Past here is very theoretical and how I interpret it) Perhaps meaning the Narrator created the game to mourn the loss of his friend Stanley and wants to guide Stanley to freedom because he wants to help his friend to be happy because he couldn't help them before they died.

Thank You.

i really disagree w the idea that the Gaming Ending is missing content. the Narrator’s responses to the second 1-5 rating are all the same because he’s simply distracted. your answer doesn’t matter because he just wants to show you this other thing he did, rather than listen. if we’re continuing the metaphor, I guess one could liken it to when devs ignore player feedback or even double down when given critique. unless I’ve misremembered something from the first game (im p sure it plays out the same way there?), or maybe I’ve just rly misunderstood, I don’t see any evidence that something is missing here. Anyway, I don’t see any issue with the Narrator being audible despite us being away from Stanley. he’s omniscient and omnipresent. it’s cartoon logic. But now I’m curious to know which ending ppl statistically tend to get first. I got the Self-Destruct ending first and I would’ve thought the Games and/or Art Ending would’ve come in far, or at least not the very first or second ending one gets. tho maybe I’m assuming based on nothing but my own experience

Great video, but how did you get the voice activated door to open? I thought it couldn’t be opened?

Me burning time due to not being able to sleep: this looks FUN

Rad vid!

with the gaming ending, im pretty sure its so long because they knew that would be a lot of players' first endings, seeing as people like to defy the narrator so much, making it longer and adding those references would make people more intrigued and want to play more endings, the questions that arise are simply answered by "hes the narrator" he narrates stuff, he isnt anywhere, hes just narrating whats happening

i dont know why and how i got recomended this, but thank god for the youtube algorythim

14:38 the escape pod ending isn’t completed in the code either though

What if *we* are the narrator? In control of what's going on, and able to hear the narrator at the end of the Gaming ending despite the Narrator being away from Stanley, I think maybe that's a nice new theory that could be fleshed out more by someone who cares to follow it

Jesus Christ this analysis was amazing.

Because this is youtube and someone says in a video that they do not know why this part is here... I must make myself clear that I am smarter. So at 13:00 that map is proof that the narrator hasn't started with making this game and played it over and over and over ect. It overlaps with the mind control startup ending since they both prove the same point when the narrator confesses about co-workers. Everyone must think I am very powerful. This is likely gonna be a chain so I apologize.

the gaming ending was my favirote ending cause it felt....cozy? being in other games I've played. Kinda like being in bed while it rains. A nice warm feeling alongside some funny dialogue

With the advent of A.I the possibility for an infinite game that will generate new never before seen content completely narrated will destroy everything we understand about conventional story telling.

51:33 I kinda like the idea that The Narrator only knows as much as Stanley

This game gave me so much trippy feelings and creeped me out, I couldn't do more than a few endings because it was too heart wrenching. Please describe what the endings are and your analysis and dont tell me to walk through it again. it is a good game but mentally hurts to play!

damn i am about to cry

The meaning is probably that all our choices change nothing at the end, we will all die someday, and we experience life without questioning anything, and when we do, we realise that life has no meaning, the free choice ending is when you eventually get to the bottom of meaning of life, there is none That’s just my take anyway

1:09:59 "And charging money for a game you can "run out of" in 2019 is challenges, and tbh is just wrong to do" What exactly do you mean by that?

good video

Okay, but what about you trapping yourself in your office at the very beginning?

Did the music actually play forever in the original game? I ask, because in the Ultra Deluxe Version, the music keeps playing for about 1 minute 46 seconds, before stopping, as if the motor of a record player stopped working. If the music really doesn’t stop in the original version of the game, we really have a difference, how the endings are viewed between the two versions of this game.