YES, this can also apply to relationships! Indecisiveness and being unable to make important decisions can lead to you depending on you're partner to often make important decisions for you, leading to a one-sided dependent and power imbalance relationship. On the other hand, though having certainty in you're actions is good, the morality and situation of you're actions is what's more important. If you carelessly do something to you're partner without knowing the situation or looking more into it, you can cause great harm to you're said partner, leading to a starined and one-sided relationship
@@madnessoverload7824 the spectre is interesting because being decisive (attacking immediately just like Ch1) will create the Wraith, being indecisive (hesitating about letting her in and leaving) will create the Wraith. The Spectre is more about accepting you were wrong and finding redemption before bad blood turns to seething. It will be interesting to see what the new Ch3 Spectre is about
This might just be my take, but I think The Adversary being in a cave structure make sense. It's polar opposite princess is kept in a temple-like setting, worshipped and known. Whereas The Adversary is kept in a hole in the earth, much like a pre-Helenistic cult would meet in. One has structures made in her honor, the other is secretly given praise in earthen tunnels.
Also is it just me or do the barbs of The Adversary also kinda look like runes? The Adversary in Christian mythology definitely got merged with ancient pagan deities to create our modern interpretation of the Devil.
To also add on to this, one princess is a fully angelic being. She is above us all, hovering, and makes us submit because of belief. The other literally has cloven hooves and horns, and is ready to make one submit by merit. I like my Greek and Pre-Hellinistic idea, just recognized some other things.
His voice had become so normalised to us as the narrator we didn’t even realise we have been watching play-throughs for a long period of time. We think we only caught it when we heard someone say something about it/ we looked it up. We felt so not flabbergasted but more like we rolled a 3 on a perception check. Jon has so many distinct voices and our brain just does not process it properly, like ah yes our favourite ineffable narrator. Huh it also explains why it felt so comfy for us.. yeahh this also strangely follow the thematic sort of themes we noticed in The Magnus Archives, and maybe the mechanisms of his works and those which he has been part of being made up of strong concepts with levels of nuisance and blurred borders over where any interpretations are in any semblance the intended ones. Also eyes for terror really? Hmmmm Something looks familiar
I would like to say that the Nightmare does the most absolutely terrifying thing she could have done, which is break the lock, see you asleep, *move the table and purposefully overturn it*, leave the door *ajar,* and then wait for you to wake up. The purposefulness of those actions when I woke back up put the fear of god into me more then anything else she ever dead. Just. So perfectly done.
And just to make things even more terrifying, if you didn't take the knife then went back for it then decided to lock her away after seeing her arm, it will float with her exactly in the place it should be. And it doesn't flicker with the rest of her.
I dont entirely agree that each part represents a failed relationship, rather than...just a part of a relationship, but great essay all the same. Especially the whole ending section, that conclusion to understanding each perspective was beautiful.
That is a very fair criticism. Despite having written a whole stupid video about what things in this game mean, I am still very back and forth on what represents what day to day lol
Your theory about the mirror gave me a thought. The mirror never gives us time to interact with it before disappearing. This could be hinting at how we never spend time reflecting on ourselves, always charging head first into a situation. When we see the mirror again, it’s after we “lose” the princess. When we look at our reflection, we slowly see ourselves unwinding, as if breaking down from each failed relationship. Your analysis on the game gave me new insights to ponder over. This was really well-crafted and spoken! Thank you for this wonderful video.
I absolutely agree with your theory! The fact that The Narrator can't see The Mirror and the Voices become silent when we touch it only enforces that theory. The only one that can make change in they're actions and morals is themselves. The way we change and grow is through self reflection but to do that we need time to ourselves and the Mirror disappearing until the end does an excellent job of showing us that we sometimes don't have enough time to self reflect until it's too late( I like to think that The Long Quite is the one that made The Mirror in an effort to piece themselves together and gain back their identity )
That makes sense. The only times I can recall the voices genuinely wanting to use the mirror in chapter 2 are for superficial reasons like Smitten checking if there’s a feather out of place, not true self reflection. Not to mention how Hunted outright confirmed that it wasn’t actually there by how the air was going through it to drive home how they’re never going to see their reflection in chapter 2.
@WDinATX there is at least one instance of all the voices accepting the mirror. But only after a chapter 3 and only because they accept they are flawed.
42 minute mark, all I could think of when you were talking bout the little men in your head was Whenever you hate yourself, picture your emotions at a war table, they are attacking each other, breaking the wooden table. All you gotta do to break the fight is "GENTLEMEN, NO FIGHTING HERE THIS IS THE WAR ROOM!"
When I'm confused about something, or my emotions are getting complicated, I pretend to be two (or more) people, and in my thoughts (I don't usually do this out loud), I start talking to myself, arguing with myself. It makes things much simpler - makes it easier to tell what I'm really thinking.
@@ceinwenchandler4716 I do this too. In part because I'm neurodivergent and that makes every emotion I have too much to contain, so I have to express it by talking to myself. I talk about my favorite things, consider how I could react to a situation if it happens, contemplate things that are difficult to articulate otherwise, etc. I happen to be very interesting to talk to, apparently. I like me.
Honestly, I like this idea better than my original one (namely, the idea of a pair of clashing blades, since that idea frankly would have lent itself far better to the Razor lol)!
"i’ll be going over a lot of routes" thorn! thorn! thorn! "and i’ll be skipping some of the best ones" awww dang i love her, i have the poster they released up in my living room
@@KatieAndCatburger it's always heartbreaking when something you love just doesn't fit into the script also, this is a really good essay! it made me want play the game again and really dig into analysis instead of just that first initial experience i had, really get my thoughts on it solidified. it's also one of the videos i'll take notes on in the future to figure out how to write better myself, i really enjoyed it!
For longing, I see the cartoonist depiction of wind. It's a common thing to see when someone is searching for something, like half the I want songs portray this
If you ask me, the connection of wires to The Adversary is the idea that although they are sharp, they intertwine as equals. Isn't that what Rivalry is all about? There's a reason Rivals to Lovers is a thing in the FanFiction community.
Honestly i think the mirror is just more of an incentive to continue playing , but also consider that once we finally see into the mirror, we understand our godhood. Not a reflection, but that you are the long quiet, and i think its really cool
Yeah, we don't see a reflection in the mirror at chapter 2 since we are mostly empty by that point, we only see a reflection once we recover for good the memories of past loops, so it can actually reflect a bit of what we are, buut works pretty well with the vid proposal
@@KatieAndCatburgerAlso, I believe that the shape of the player character is that of the person who created the construct. After all, in the final mirror section, you do say-"wait, that's not really you, is it?"
This conclusion was the same I had: Been married for a very long time and the complexity of changing together and separately, but moving forward together is encapsulated wonderfully in this game.
my clueless aromantic ass like "yeah the fact it's a love story is just to evoke the ancient idea of two halves, and they're different genders because it's like the ying yang and stuff it's to emphasize their opposition in contrast with the convergence of their relationship, nothing heteroromantic about this princess and knight story it's totally about existential gods and the perspectives are all parts of a single entity and it's just the egg theory mh mh" (well to be fair it's still that but I see how interpreting it as an actual love story is more practical for real world application) also, heart. lungs. liver. nerves. 🗣
It is technically a love story...but the most abstract, twisty, weird, EXISTENTIAL one I've ever seen. Which of course makes it ten times cooler. :) (also, fello aromantic here. Hi. :))
Hey fellow aromantics :D Funny thing is, I am often unaware of aspects of romantic relationships simply because I've only been in a few and it never clicked. But boy, do I love romance. Only as long as I'm not involved, though. So Slay The Princess was a weird experience for me- I could tell there was a theme I was missing, but because I just don't feel romantic love IRL it flew right over my head. Listening to someone talk about it at length had me sitting here, going "Mhm. Yup. Makes sense. Totally didn't miss that during my hours of gameplay..."
@@robinchesterfield42 Yes. Something about the existential aspect of this love story is just... the dish wouldn't be complete without the seasoning, just like Slay The Princess wouldn't be complete without the existential weirdness.
Regarding the connection between Pain and Unfamiliarity, I feel this has less to do about the idea of self-knowledge and more about doubt and the concept of the relationship itself. Fittingly, they're both routes that operate unconventionally from the others by not having the Princess change into a new one later, and both are accessed by challenging the status quo The Stranger is reached by not engaging with it on the first place, and thus not abiding by the rules in the search of more possibilities to engage with. To explore and see all the paths this could take. However, the consequences of this passive approach is that you never take action. Waiting and seeing will always seem more favorable than taking action, because you might miss a better opportunity if you move now. By trying to see all paths that could be taken, you became too passive. By focusing on the idea of a relationship too much and the ways it could go, you neglected your partner themselves. The Razor, on the other hand, is attained by engaging with the status quo but questioning the outcome in favor of your own judgement. This can't really be it. And your doubts prove to be true. You feel a fool for trusting that things were as they were. And you settle into your own image of the person you're with, rather than with thst person. Every action taken from then on only serves to reinforce this image, everything you do from then on is based on what you think of this image. Even as doubts of your view pile in, you reassure yourself that you were right once. No matter which path you choose to take now, you always arrive at the same conclusion. You were right. Nothing else matters but that you were right. And, at the end of the day, you two are all the worse for it. By focusing on the idea of your partner too much and analyzing every action they take, you neglected your relationship. It's a tale akin to the tale of the oak and the reed. Where the reed is bent over by even the slightest of gales, and the oak is torn apart when overwhelmed by winds it couldn't best. One can be too flexible, and one can be too single-minded. One can be too cautious, and one can be too stubborn. One can be too passive, and one can be too active. If the relationship you have with your partner is to thrive and enrich you both, you have to be both openminded enough to acknowledge possibilities, and rigid enough to know when to stay the course. Otherwise, it'll all end in bitter regret before it can even develop into something better.
Actually yeah, i like your point of view, the pain blinded us to what she is, as much as not engaging it seriously in the stranger, in the razor she changes slightly in apperance but not in nature, never seeing the nuances she has and with no useful feedback betraying her own nature, wich is really sad, a funny thing about the stranger i like is if you first meet her as the stranger, she looks like that at the final encounter, wich tells me maybe she is meant to look like that from the begining(a little nod to her true form)
What an absolutely beautiful essay. This game was so profoundly deep and compelling to me. I have been in abusive relationships and now I am in a long term relationship. They love me so unconditionally even when i struggled with my Mental health and said some hurtful things. I felt like an unlovable monster who couldn't stop hurting my friends but she never left me. I wanted to try again. I wanted to be better. The game is a masterpiece
So so many of us have stories just like this one and it can be hard to talk about, but talking about it can be so powerful. Thank you so much for sharing❤️
I felt like a monster too, like I was broken, after I fell too deeply into limerence and jumped ahead of myself just to end up hurting the other person once I was confronted with the consequences of that (hard to explain and keep vague). Once I viewed myself as a monster and lesser, I put them on a pedestal high above myself, and I was convinced every little thing I did after hurting them once must have been hurting them again. It became really rotten at that point and the relationship withered. Entering a new relationship was terrifying. I wanted the feelings to go away and thought I was just desperate and immature. I doubted myself and my choices constantly and externalized that to the point I started making that same mistake again, but I also wanted to be better, and she held out for me. Funnily enough, after I started getting a grip on myself, she started doing the same thing by hurting me when struggling with her mental health and it was absolutely rough but out of the need to repay a debt and just out of sheer determination and faith I stuck by her and we got to the other side. You have to know when something is inherently broken and when to move on, but you also have to know when it's your perspective that's broken. If someone else were in my (or her earlier) position I wouldn't have blamed them for giving up, but I am so glad I didn't. Something that's been hard for me to grapple with that I've been forced to confront as I mature is that searching for someone who is the exact same as me is not what I should be looking for in a relationship, and that a real long term relationship takes effort, sometimes a whole lot of effort to maintain. Sorry for this super long post, I just love to yap
I'm in a relationship with someone like that sounds like what you describe. He was in an abusive relationship, and ended up becoming toxic himself before he had the support he needed to safely leave. He regrets it. He got help. He wants to be better. He changed; all before I met him, but the scars were still there in little things. Just one example: the first year or so of our relationship, if I ever sighed too loud he'd get angry and defensive. Why? Because his abusive ex would intentionally sigh loudly in a passive aggressive manner to try and guilt him and start fights. He'd hear me sigh and expect that he was about to be blamed and attacked for something he didn't do. I was patient; I sigh a lot, it's an automatic response to stress and a form of stress relief, he didn't do anything wrong it's just the body doing what it can. After time, I gained trust and he lost the association. Now if I sigh he doesn't tense up, he asks if I'm OK and if I need anything. He's compassionate, and he trusts that I wont take advantage of that like others have. Little things really are the most rewarding. Little ways that scars remain, but can heal with time and support. I'm so proud of how he's grown and admire his commitment to always growing. It makes me love him even more. I'm so happy that you found someone that is able and willing to help you on your journey. I hope you let them know every once in awhile what they mean to you, because I'm sure it'd mean a lot to them. I hope you know that you're worthy of love and support. That even if you make mistakes or have been hurt before, you can always reach for something better. This game really is a beautiful example of that
I have been searching and longing for someone to finally quench my thirst for this type of deep metaphorical analysis of this game. Many people really cling to the actual aspects of the game without looking into the deep meaning it has abou relationships. What youv'e said are things i desprately wanted to connect in my mind, but, like the shifting mound said, they were unfinished, unpolished. I usually look for essays like this to clear my view of the specific thing that i'm interested in, and i'm so thankful to see that you were able to do that for me. I was finally able to clearly know what i think through your analysis and my reflection of it. I also really appriciate how well you've established that this is just your analysis, and because of that i was able to fully look at your opinion as just an opinion and through that understand what i truly think. I struggle with relationships, romantic and platonic, so this game is such a comfort to me. Thank you.
Thank you so much, this made me so happy to read! I'm so glad I could catalyze your own ideas. You are definitely not alone struggling with all kinds of relationships 💓
I'm so glad that someone else also looks at video essays. I don't always have the energy or mental space to put a lot of thought into these things, or might just not understand it all that much. So, watching essays and reviews really helps me to piece together my own thoughts because someone else was able to put it into words.
This is definitely the best video essay about this game i have seen so far. I grew up with divorced parents and all the relationships ive had didnt last past the “honeymoon” phase. So i never knew what it meant and what it takes for people to stay together for several years or even their whole lifetimes. This game made me hope that i one day get to experience that as well.
38:43 i took a very literal meaning from the mirrior and the shiffting mound saying each time she sends you back you will forget, the mirrior is your memories, not the memories of any individual hero of a chapter but the acumulated memories of the long quiet, the mirrior is obscured while in the construct becuase its blocking the individual piece of the hero's and the princess's from theyre respective wholes, the long quest and the shifting mound, reaching for those cut off memories is impossible in the prison, and the narriorator never even knows of your growth only the threat of the princess, since he;s inside the construct with you he cant see things outside it anymore than you or the princess.
49:43 I know the context is largely focused on romantic long-term relationships, but your thoughts about love being a promise reminded me of something I told a very close friend of mine: of love being a promise replenished by promise. At that moment I felt I wasn't alone in this understanding. A great and emotional video essay. So happy to have stumbled across your video. 😊
Horror as Love and Love as Horror is what fuels my appreciation for this game. I wonder if which princess people find the most frightening says something about the barriers they have in love. For example, I find the nightmare the scariest. I felt shaky and out of control in the nightmare chapters. Meanwhile, there was another Slay the Princess essay I watched where the guy went "The beast tapped into my primal monkey brain and made me shit myself."
Honestly, Tower creeped me out the most. Mind control is freaky. Beast or NIghtmare are the worst for real life but within the game I was safely detached.
That's a very good video. Though, I don't get why everyone says that Damsel is "shallow". I do get where people are coming from, she only expresses one desire of her own - to be free, but she isn't really unique in that. Prisoner, Spectre and Witch for example. Each of them wants to get out and that's about it. She is not "objectified" per se, just very very dependant. She still holds her own desire, but wants you to fulfill it - to see the world, but through your lense. Blind devotion is not submission, after all
I personally interpreted the scene where she repeats 'I just want to make you happy' as hammering home the fact that she's paper-thin (I mean everything is drawn on paper but this is where she looks most like a drawing to me), like, she physically cannot express a thought beyond the simple idea of loving, and that's the thing, getting out isn't her goal the same way it is for all the other princesses, she just wants to make you happy
I obviously dont know if it was intended but she feels also like an apology in some way, i mean the last we see of the princess before the damsel chapter is she crying distressed over the protagonist body ridden with guilt, so to me it seemed like she was trying to overcompensate being extra nice? But she doesnt really know the protagonist or what he might want so she tries to put up a front? I dont know, just all the other princess remember the chapters before and i cant imagine the damsel doesnt
She's shallow in a character writing department. She wants you to be happy. A better term is simple. The game obviously make the "paper-thin" reference with her design turning into a simple paper drawing. I like the idea that she's overcompensating due to guilt over stabbing you (and yes, I forgot exactly what she say but she does indeed know the events of chapter 1) but I don't think that's what the authors were going for. That said there is more to unpack if you want, whether it is the author's intention or not.
People saying that she's "paper-thin" when she becomes another Princess through doing that and that only happens when *you* question her over and over meaning you *made* her paper thing not that she already *was*.
It's gotta take some balls to write a romantic comedy that doubles as a cosmic, psychological meta-horror. And it's gotta take even more talent to actually pull it off.
Wow, I never noticed how much the routes mirrored each other! Now I just can't help but wonder how the Narrator fits into your interpretation. Especially considering some theories where we as the Long Quiet are only inhabiting the Narrators Corpse or that the Voices are just aspects of the Narrator that fractured from the echo due to the construct being imperfect.
I interpret the narrator as the voice in my head that tells me that I am better off alone, i are either not worthy of connection or connection is too dangerous for me. I think this because he takes every opportunity to encourage you to kill the princess as quickly and thoughtlessly as possible, to avoid engaging with her or understanding her, etc. so in that way he is constantly steering you away from exploring a connection. And then this is where I once again emphasize that this is only one interpretation, and all interpretations have validity because they encourage us to process the story as it is relevant to own lived experience, and that's one of the core reasons to engage critically in a piece of literature imo!
This is a very good video! I was honestly very surprised how few proper, thorough analysis on this game are actually around, considering how dense it actually is. Honestly, if you wanted to make another video going in depth on the chapter 3 & 4 princesses I'd love to watch it.
This is why I love this game. It's an entire allegory to the complexity of romantic relationships but it also takes many steps further with the many different routes, the many different perspectives of the Princess, the many different voices in your head, and the many different decisions you make that brings the many causes and effects behind them, each and all of them symbolizing the many different aspects and characteristics between two individuals of what makes them WHO and WHAT they are as they come together with what strengths and weaknesses they have in order to make their romantic relationships healthy (or toxic). Heck, even when taken this game to cosmic horror levels, between the two eldritch gods that are the Long Quiet (that represents life, stasis, stagnation, and order) and the Shifting Mound (that represent death, change, transformation, and chaos), both creatures that fundamentally embody the laws of the universe, it's still basically a love story between them, no matter how out of this world it is nor how incomprehensible and unfathomable they both are. Once a single cosmic being that embodied the laws of the universe than split from one another and trapped in an infinite prison by the mortal that became the Echo/Narrator, as they are constantly forced by him to confront each other with his desire of the Long Quiet to erase the Shifting Mound so he can rid the universe of of Death forever so it's a rather heartbreaking story between two lovers forced into eternal conflict that's forced by another being that is doing everything he can to get what he wants at the expense of both the Hero's and Princess' constant suffering as they hurt one another. And what I also noticed is that I do find some parallels that the LQ and SM have is with the Yin and Yang Toaism (which you kinda showed a bit of that parallel at the start of your video). Two opposite, yet necessary, principles of Chinese philosophy that both exist to maintain balance to existence. This is where it comes with the Long Quiet and Shifting Mound, both being complete opposites and contradictions from one another yet are still necessary to both have each other to function and carve meaning into existence just like the concepts life and death, stasis and change, and order and chaos, all need to co-exist together. And yet, neither are completely absolute since the Yin and Yang each holds a piece of their respective opposite (Yin having a black dot and Yang having a white dot), this fits with the game here as the Narrator stated that the split wasn't perfect and mentions that both the Long Quiet and Shifting Mound hold a small piece of each other within themselves which is an intention that the Narrator did this that even without the Shifting Mound, the Long Quiet's nature is not complexly stagnant as he still holds a bit of the Shifting Mound's nature to at least keep existence from being completely frozen but not completely be able change like it normally does either. Perhaps this symbolizes with relationships that both lovers are still themselves but also gradually changing certain parts of themselves over time since their love and interactions have carved new perspectives and self reflections with one another and to themselves. In Layman's terms with all of this, ogres are like onions and both have layers.
as someone who has struggled with sexuality, love, romance, and all of that mess, new perspectives through videos like theese are (and I can NOT understate this.) VERY helpful when coming to terms with, and discovering, and changing, and becoming a new person. also yeah its 100% an analogy for baseball.
49:32 I know you uploaded this a few months ago, but I have to say that your words here hit me personally. I’m not old enough to be in a romantic relationship, nor do I feel ready for it, but what you said really resonated with me. I’ve recently been learning about and even meeting all kinds of people, mostly online. I’ve also had a ton of moments where I either simply didn’t agree with or even hated their beliefs, whether they be shallow or personal. Other people’s genders is especially a topic I keep wrestling with in my head as a Christian, slowly changing from “their beliefs go against mine and I should stand my ground when I feel challenged,” to “people are different and I should at least do research to sympathize with them,” and to right now, which is “I’ll never truly understand them, but the least I can do is respect and support them while not having to give up my own beliefs.” I don’t often say something like this wholeheartedly online, but thank you for saying something that resonated so deeply with me. I literally laughed out loud and felt so happy when you said that because it felt comforting to hear that I’m not alone in my thoughts.
Thanks so much for your comment. I really respect the journey you have been on, and I'm so glad I could say something to make that long journey feel a tiny bit less lonely ❤️
I'm so glad that last video blew up so I could find this channel and marvel at wonderful stuff like this, that did not feel like 52min but it was and it was worth every second of watch time
Just wait until I tell you that I’ve lost control of my autonomic nervous system. It’s actually moderately common, though I can’t remember the general term. Just that I have orthostatic intolerance.
I disagree with you on the mirror. Not on its narrative function, but in the idea that what it actually is doesnt matter. To me, it is clear that the mirror is the narrator himself. When the mirror breaks, the narrator dies, because he is it and it is him. This is also why he can't see it. He refuses all self-reflection. The Long Quiet sees the opportunity and tries and fails to take it. But the narrator refuses to even see himself. That's all, great video, definitely gonna check out your other stuff once im done here
The two opposing concepts feels like Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean- you act morally when you meet the perfect middle ground (the virtue) between two vices. This is looking at those two vices on the opposite sides of the spectrum
The Smitten gives off BIG Laszlo Cravensworth from What We Do in the Shadows vibes. I literally couldn't get his image out of my head every time I heard a line from The Smitten.
I just wanted to say that this video made me cry... all the things you said about love hit so deep, it's incredible. I feel very introspective now. I've never played the game, only heard of it here and there, but this is a masterpiece
Well I've been LONGING for a video essay that explores this theme of love and well damn, I got it. I always saw myself as a bunch of qualities and flaws that I would need to preserve or smooth over, but I realise now that I should be more fascinated by seeing the changes in myself and others.
I think the theme around the Stranger and the Razor are actually one in the same, but just from different standpoints, and that's the infinite POSSIBLITIES of a relationship. The Stranger is the result when we refuse to make a choice at all because of the infinite possibilities, and so that's all we can make of the Princess. The possibilities, not a person. In a real life relationship, that would be like stewing over every single possible outcome to a relationship to the point where you don't pursue a relationship with a person at all. You focused so much on all the possible outcomes that that's all you can see in your partner; what they COULD be, so you never look and settle on who they ARE. That's why she's the Stranger, you don't know her at all, you never even TRIED to get to know her. For the Razor, it's the exact same thing but flipped. The PRINCESS is the one who wants to see everything you can do, everything you could be. Rather than stewing and fearing, she has an OBSESSION with the possibilities. In the context of your situation in the game, she concluded that the only way to get you to do something new would be to kill you and reset everything over and over again. There's no fear of death. In the context of a real life relationship, it would be 'painful' because your partner would be unpredictable. Think something like Hamlet and Ophelia. All your partner does is toy with your emotions, poke at you with a stick: "Come on, do something new!" Trying to get new reactions out of you and doing whatever it takes to do so, including hurting you. The Razor treats you like a toy of possibilities to play with, while the Stranger tried to fit all the possibilities you had of her into one body, which became a disaster.
Fantastic video!! That last bit about love and long-term relationships is a beautiful exploration of what commitment means. I've never played this game personally, only seen other Vtubers play it, but it seems like choose-your-own-adventure taken to another level and I dig that
I love this! The theory of long term relationship being lovely, messy, confusing. ever changing and more is BEAUTIFUL!! ALSO thank u sm for putting such a long time for analyzing every princess!
This was brilliant, thank you so much. I’m shocked that there aren’t more deep-dive style analysis videos on this game. I don’t have much else to say aside from the fact that I never even considered the pieces of that pin-wheel being from routes in the game haha. There is still so much to glean from this game, and I love that.
Katie, what you had to say in the last 10 minutes of this video brought me to tears. I can't explain it except to say that I've been married almost 12 years now, and I felt so... seen while hearing you talk about being in a relationship. Thank you. I'm not much into visual novels, but I think I'm going to have to get Slay the Princess even after watching all of that.
This was so great! I haven’t seen many video essays for STP but I adore this game and hearing some of your thoughts really makes me love the game even more. I’m aro but I’m super obsessed with the love story portion of this game, the push and pull and the nebulous nature of their relationship it’s quite literally about about seeing different sides of different facets of the same thing, the fact that most of the game doesn’t focus explicitly on the type of actions most would agree are strictly associated with romance (except for a few specific instances in different routes) but more about how two “individuals” are so wholly intertwined to the point they perfect reflections of each other. They are beings who are inversions of each other but also a view of the same thing from different angles. (And then they actually have the mirror imagery in game too!!!) And there is so much passion in their relationship and I mean passion in the way they take one trait and push it to an extreme which I feel is something that ties to the concept of love. Too me love is all about that passion and that also leads me to the idea that love isn’t inherently something purely like positive and which is a emotion that is so much more complex than people often give it credit for. I love seeing the different interpretations of love others have since I’m clearly missing some perspectives. This is rambly and probably makes no sense outside of my own head no idea where I was going with this.
Great job here! I love this game to bits. As someone who is deeply aro, to me long-term romantic relationships are like, I dunno... skydiving. Really fascinating, wouldn't try them in a million years. But I still love thinking about them, writing about them and exploring their facets.
I noticed that almost all the branches connect together into different chapter 3 vessels. For example: Consumption and betrayal is the beast and the witch, but together they can lead to the same route: the wild, after you keep stubbornly fighting against each other until it kills you both. Skepticism and blind devotion lead to the gray if you kill the prisoner and the damsel coldly. Rivalry and submission lead to the fury if you disregard the Adversary's and Tower's wants and goals until they start falling apart. Terror and longing lead to the wraith when you keep the nightmare and spectre trapped, and have to make them force you to let them go and release them. The stranger and the razor are the only chapters that are separate and without a connective vessel. Maybe the pristine cut will provide that, but what I do know is that the stranger and razor are the only ones where you get to see the their heart (literally and figuratively, since shifty's real form looks similar to stranger and the razor shows her heart.) While watching this essay, this is what I observed. I think that's really cool.
@@KatieAndCatburger I'm hoping for an ending where Knifebird creates an afterlife. Uses his power to give just the soul permanence while everything else is still affected by Shifty. Can make some relationship allusion about how even if you're together 100% there are still things you keep to yourself, thoughts you don't voice, time you don't share... and that's okay, good even. Shifty and Bird can carve out a little bit of reality for each of them while the rest is shared.
This was great!! I really like your take on this. I hadn't put much thought into the love story part of this... I really really should have. This is facinating! I'd love to see your analysis of the different Chapter 3 paths at some point, too.
i adore this video!! as someone whose perspective of love is honestly a mess, slay the princess is incredibly profound to me and this essay encapsulates all of the things i adore about it
Ooh you just, wow. Loving someone is such a scary thing and I just love how you explained it in the end. Knowing someone is so different and ever changing and just accepting them in any case is just love.
Honestly, usually, when I watch a video here on RU-vid, I am not expecting to think. I have fun, I analyse what I watch sure, but typically, I'm never reflecting on myself, and my brain, when I watch a RU-vidr. But this video made me reflect on my life in a way I've never done before. I cried- I won't lie- pretty hard, at your description of love, and relationships at the end. I'm an emotional, social person, I love connecting with others and knowing we're alive. But at the same time, it confuses me. I think about it for hours, how we all just exist and think and we don't even realise how weird it is that we do that, and about love and loss and what it all means and how it doesn't mean anything but it does?? We're all just strange and facinating and horribly beautiful and relationships are a perfect example of how weird we are(all living beings, not just humans, mind you). Idk, I could never put it into the right(ig "smart-sounding") words, and never found anyone else who could either, until now. And of course, this video made me want to play this game, a game I was by all accounts pretty disinterested in and thought to be just another heteronormative weird "woman does sexy stuff for male player to ogle at" game(esp when the game itself emphasised the "love" aspect). I fell back on thinking it would be like other heterosexual dating games with a male lead, based on the kind of letsplayers I saw playing it, and being gay I just figured myself not to be the target audience, and left it alone. I'm proud to say you made me realise I couldn't have been more wrong, and thank you for that. This game is so intricate in ways I couldn't have ever thought possible from the surface. I'd now love to order this game for myself. Amazing, well-thought out, emotionally resonant and inteligent analysis. 10/10, keep it up, and thank you again.
This game is perfect, but seriously, this video was also INCREDIBLE. Your explanations were perfect, and it's extremely impressive how you manage to condense the general extremely abstract core story of the game in the literal first minutes of the video, then procede to explain perfectly the meaning of the love story presented in the game. You shared light in the parts of this narrative that I didn't really manage to process, so thanks for that! 10/10, will procede to subscribe and watch every single second of content you made!
That was a great review of the game and its themes. I didn't expect to just sit there and listen to the whole thing in one go without doing anything on the side, but there you go. Your last speech as well on what does it mean to be in a long term relationship/what kind of love this is, it was brilliant and soulful. I'd use it at a marriage if one of the attendants asked me to give a speech. Very well learned and wise, still full of hope and love.
I love this analysis! The spiral of paths appeared so quickly I was like "HOLD UP" and then completely forgot about it xD Thank goodness someone else didn't! Not gonna lie, when I saw the "This is a love story" line, I assumed it was just another cliche trope to be subverted. The fact that it was actually explored as a central theme (among many others!!) goes in there with the bucketloads of everything that blows my mind about this game. I haven't seen a video essay this solid in a while! Let alone about a piece as spiralling as Slay the Princess. Thanks for putting all these thoughts straight, I feel like I understand it a lot better now!
This was so helpful for understanding the game and the meaning behind each version of the princess!! thank you so much for the excellent wording and breakdown of all the dichotomies. also the terror & longing timestamp is incorrect if you didn't know. I would love it if you made a video about all the different endings because you have such excellent analysis of this game!!
Wow, just... Wow. I've been trying to figure out what the meaning of this game was for a while. I was trying to figure out why everybody liked it so much. At first I came to the conclusion that it was probably about the meaning of life... And after watching this video, I still believe that's true, but on top of that I see it as so much more. The best way I could describe it is like poetry, but a video game (Which I know is probably a given but still, it just feels so mind-blowing!) Also, I'm just so happy this was the last thing I watched before I went to bed... I had a lot of issues with learning to love myself, self confidence, and figuring out what it means to well, *be* myself. After watching this, I feel like I can do just about anything. Very inspiring video!
This is incredibly thought provoking. My dumb ass would have never pieced this together. The video is so well made and captured the game perfectly, well done >.>
My favorite part is, and this's just my experience, that its not JUST a romantic love story! To me it really encapsulates how I personally feel about long-term platonic relationships as well, how intricate and messy they are. It really shows how well writen the game (and this essay!) is 💛 (Sorry if I've already commented this btw, it somehow ended up on a short lol)
if you haven’t listened to the magnus archives you need to, jonny sims (the voice actor for slay the princess) is the writer and voices the main character and it’s so fucking good it changed my brain. anyway i just say this because i’ve been binging a lot of videos about slay the princess, and a lot of this seems like direct shout outs to things about the podcast, specially the pairing of terror and longing (since the magnus archives is a horror podcast)
not saying they are in any way references, the story of slay the princess makes sense on it’s own, but it makes it enjoyable having that perspective (that there are connections), at least for my autistic brain lmao
theres also a newer rusty quill series called "the magnus protocol" that just came out recently that has the exact same horror-mystery formula that TMA had and it's rlly good so far : )
this is a very good video, the bit at the end talking about how slay the princess represents how it feels to be in a long term relationship is honestly fantastic
49:13 its too real!! After 3 years me and my boyfriend still find new things about each other, and never had a boring convo. New convos everytime. And he always says: you’re a new person everyday, as a joke, but its real.
I started the video, saw the prolog, stopped, bought and finish the game several times just to finish watching this. I loved the game and your perspective. It made me think about my own relationships, both romantic and platonic, through the point of view of experience instead of romantization and it was refreshing. Thank you!
Thank you for the beautiful analysis! With this video, I was able to really understand the themes of the game I liked so much. Unlike other video essays where they just recap things, breaking down the details snd metaphors made it digestible. Thank you
The thing i love most about the game is the rorshack-esque nature of the game, just asking about the game always give a different answer, an intresting answer, always helps me to know more about the person explaining it than the game itself, kinda like a mirror showing who you are, without you knowing I could simply ask who you got first before knowing how the game works, and can get a good idea of who you are, wich choices you regret? Of course not completely accurate, but much more engaging than astrology If you ask me what the game and the paths are, well as the game says, perspectives or angles to see her from, it is all her, as different as she looks in her final form, she isn't unrecognizable from all the paths, her sadism, her cunning, her hubris, her love, all pretty present on her final form, she still feels familiar, it's a kind of care you get after a lot of struggles together, even if you don't ever meet the smitten in the game (if you know what i mean) Now, who else searched the thorns route for best ending?
This game could be one of those internet test things. Did you take the knife? Yes? Did you stab her? No? Well that means you're pragmatic, took the knife in case you needed it but then didn't.
I would like to posit what seems to be an unpopular opinion. I think the princess will lie, cheat, and do everything in her power to stop you from slaying her. What if The whole love story angle is just that. She is an uncaring, unfathomable and intelligent entity that represent most aspects of change, including death. The whole relationship between the long quiet and the princess could be a lie that she is telling to convince you to let her free at the end of the game. Another angle I think supports this further would be that we are told that the long quiet represents all aspects of change that the princess does not, we see him self reflect, change and grow as a person, as represented by the voices. This would imply that everything that the long quiet grows to be the princess cannot grow to be, which includes the voice of the smitten. If she is incapable of feeling love then she is either A) a brilliant deceiver, or B) an exact reflection of what the long quiet perceives of her, which still would leave her as something incapable of actual love, as we see in the damsel ending. Something like the rose princess ending is just the long quiet crafting a more convincing love story than the damsel ending.
I'm LOVING your essay style and dynamic with Catburger lol. I just found your channel but it somehow already feels so iconic, thanks for making this video! ✨️
Thank you so much for this video essay. It finally put my feelings into words and it was a perfectly balanced story recap, personal interpretation and possible methaphors!!💜
Thank you for discussing the contrasting stairs of the stranger route. That was the second route I took on my playthrough, and the intricacies of the contrasting pairs of stairs completely escaped me at the time. I heartily enjoyed your viewpoint on the tension of love.
The way this experience resonated with me, was through the metaphor of going through a break-up and start dating again. The Long Quiet. Focused on static permanence, stagnation a small price to pay for the eternal bliss of nothing. For if nothing happens, nothing can hurt me. But no matter how long I enjoy the Long Quiet, the time comes for me to break the silence and find one that will complement my existence. The Yang to my Yin. Enter The Shifting Mound. The memory of who I once loved. The pain that I inflicted as well as endured a validation of why the Long Quiet is the safer option. But also the manifestation of change. Of emotions. Of action and consequence, risk and reward. The beginning of a new relationship. The manifestation of hope. Every iteration of the Princess, an attempt of the Long Quiet to find love again. To enjoy life again. To grow with every conflict that I experience. To let go of the survival instincts which mask my vulnerabilities. Trust in someone to complement my flaws rather than judge me for them. To whomever has taken the time to read through all of this ; You're doing good. Maybe you are in a Long Quiet of your own, working to find either yourself or your Shifting Mound. Perhaps you are feeling more like the Shifting Mound, waiting to be found by your Long Quiet and gaining more perspectives on who you are. But so long as you find yourself on any path in the woods, you will end up where you need to be and with whomever is the right fit for that path.. The meaning of life is the opportunity to find your own meaning of life.
Loved your analysis! It's such a neat game, and I've been waiting to watch longer essays like this until I got more time with the game. Saved this to a playlist for future writing reference, so I'm just leaving a note for myself. Opportunist V Hunted - Proactive Cunning and Reactive Desperation Skeptic V Smitten - Logical Realism and Emotional Idealism Broken V Stubborn - Resigned Depreciation and Resiliient Pride Cold V Paranoid - Bored Proximity and Fearful Avoidance Contrarian V Cheated - Immature Apathy and Entitled Suspicion Hero V Narrator - Well-wishing Complements and Distant Observation/Criticisms Some good ideas for love dynamics, but also good inspo for potential Shards for Hunter? Paranoid and Hunted feel like the ingredients to Failsafe, and Contrarian and Stubborn feel like two halves of the [SmileyOne].
This is one of the best video essays on this game I’ve ever watched. I 100% the game recently, driven by curiosity to explore every option- but this has helped me understand it on a way deeper level than I could’ve anticipated
