#damsel is happy as long as lq is

[darthpastry]

LQ wearing a shirt that says “I would let my wife stab me”. Smitten is fronting. Thorn isn’t sure whether to laugh or be mortified.

[just-a-itty-bitty-kitty]

Voice of the Smitten is a coping mechanism. (and so are the other voices)

The same thing applies to the rest of the voices, yes. But for my sanity, today, let's just talk about Smitten[I am ill about him].

Smitten is fixated on the Princess and on appeasing Her because he's born out of a belief that She's their only way to happiness and safety.

In Damsel's chapter 1, LQ establishes for themself that the Narrator is not a safe nor trustworthy person, but unlike Prisoner's ch1, instead of learning to be generally cautious and adopting an idea that there's no one they can fully trust, Quiet puts all of their trust into the Princess.

I strongly believe that, in order to shield themself from a dangerous, unclear, and scary reality, LQ dives into a sort of... 'fairytale' scenario. And that scenario, by extension, becomes the backbone of Smitten's whole worldview. He, just like the rest of the voices, is born out of a need for safety and control, and he knows of it as his purpose and his yearning. His mindset works as a mechanism that protects Quiet from a state of intense stress and discomfort.

So then, what is this mindset, exactly?

Well, for Smitten, expectations of certain roles appear. Roles that everyone has and needs to uphold: The Shining Knight, the Helpless Damsel, the Villain that's keeping them apart.

"Then you should know that we and the Princess are in love and the four of us will be foiling any and all assassination attempts you've got in the works."

These roles bring a sense of comfort. He has this vision of what the world is supposed to be, of what he's supposed to be. Fairytales always have happy endings, so with this vision, there comes a promise of everything working out.

"If he just makes everything go the way it's supposed to, then they'll be safe."

It gives Smitten the role of a protector, someone who controls the situation and wants the best for Quiet, as opposed to the Narrator who has an ulterior motive and clearly just wants to hurt them.

It gives him a sense of control.

So when something goes wrong, it feels like that control is yanked away, and that threatens his and LQ's safety. It takes away his happy ending that he tries so hard to keep.

"We'll get our happy ending, even if it damns each and every person who's ever lived!"

Another thing worth remembering is that the voices and LQ are at least under the impression that they haven't been living for very long. The only experiences they have to go off of, to learn from, are the ones we see in Chapter 1 and then on. To Smitten, the last time things went awry, they died horribly.

So it's no wonder he freaks out and feels like he has to push back for control. And that is also why he sees no problem with killing Quiet's body or even detaching himself from them entirely.

"Don't mind my sacrifice. It's a fair price to pay to give her everything she doesn't know she wants."

He places the responsibility for taking care of everyone on himself. Smitten is firmly under the impression that he "knows better". And he's even proven right a fair amount of times, which only solidifies the idea in his head.

"I told you! There's no life more worth living than that of a true believer!"

"I told you our love was insurmountable!"

But that also means Smitten unintentionally traps himself(and everyone around him) into a box, limiting his potential to just that, a shallow role. And that creates the feeling of inferiority.

His role is all there is to him, so if he can't uphold it, then it means there's something fundamentally wrong with him. It means he's failed.

In fact, Smitten seems to be laser-focused on his own shortcomings, at least when it comes to the Princess.

If She's somehow unhappy with anything Smitten has to offer, then it's not because She did something wrong, or because of some outside factor out of their control(he doesn't want to accept anything being out of his control, even if it would seemingly benefit him). No, it's because Smitten wasn't enough.

He idolizes Her while putting himself down.

"That's because she's perfect!"

It's a bit more complicated with The Long Quiet. On one hand, they are technically one person, but on the other, the voices like to distinguish themselves and seem to have a sense of their own identity.

If we take a look at one of Damsel's third chapters: The Burned Grey, Smitten is very distraught and angry at Quiet, and yet also berates himself at the same time.

"Ah, yes. The mirror. So we can see the monster we've become."

"No, my love! You did nothing wrong! I'm sorry! I'M SORRY, NOT YOU!"

So I think we can assume that it's a mix of both. He may feel angry at LQ but will ultimately blame himself.

Because it's his job to make sure everything went smoothly. It's his job to make sure that She was happy, because if She's happy – they're happy and they just threw all of his work away, but he was supposed to stop them. He was supposed to keep them happy.

He was supposed to keep them happy.

[mmikmmik]

I kind of don't feel like getting the endings of Slay the Princess that don't involve Shifty and the Long Quiet having their final argument, followed by LQ agreeing to leave with her and their departure in their fully godly forms. I definitely don't want to kill her or starve her. And I guess I can see the appeal in the ending with the Princess and the Hero, but it doesn't feel like the right ending for me.

I think a big part of why I think of the Shfiting Mound as the "real" "love interest" is because I judged the Damsel a bit unfairly - she falls apart if pressed, but I don't think that means she's not real, you know? All of the Princesses are only one aspect of the Shifting Mound, but they have their own complete hearts nevertheless. But I didn't really get that when I was first playing the game and got her as my first princess, so I definitely thought of the Shifting Mound as "more real". But I think my near-immediate "oh I see! this is my beautiful wife who I love very much" would have occurred anyway. I just really like her! She's beautiful and patient and contemplative, and really successful imo as a truly divine character - an embodiment of a powerful idea/force of nature, who can express a form of kindness but can't really be "good" or "bad" in a human sense.

I also, throughout my first playthrough, felt strongly that the interactions I was having, and the resulting princesses, were like gifts to Shifty. I really liked having a little chat with her and hearing her evaluation of their hearts, and I chose dialogue options for the Long Quiet as though he wanted to bring her vessels and would, if he remembered her at the start of each Chapter 1, have actively chosen to help her complete herself. So leaving together as the Shifting Mound and the Long Quiet, not as the Princess and the Hero, felt like what they were both working towards all along. And they only sort of argued about it because that back-and-forth, rough as it can get, is a natural part of how they relate to each other as gods who embody "opposite" concepts but love each other and want to be together (thesis, antithesis, synthesis...?). I wasn't even really arguing with Shifty, she just went into that spiel because I spent a really long time asking questions before we left. It was more of a passionate explanation than an attack. (And I let her keep going because it was awesome, not because I disagreed with it.)

Putting it like that, "bringing her vessels", it is rather cold, isn't it? I can see the case that the Princess and the Hero deserve more respect than that, that by leaving them behind Shifty and LQ are abandoning something worth having, something they could have explored together at that scale.

Anyway, what I want to say with this post is that like... Slay the Princess has, more than any other game I've ever played, given me the sense that the "true"/"best" ending is really up to the player. I feel like the story + central relationship changes really really dramatically if you don't perceive the Long Quiet as enchanted by the Shifting Mound and happy to be with her and learn more about her, and the dialogue options definitely give you a ton of room to play it either way. I feel that you can play the game so that the Shifty and LQ ending is the true ending, and you can play the game so that the Princess and Hero ending is the true ending.

It does make me more curious about the ending where... I haven't even looked into it enough to really know what happens, but you can kill the Shifting Mound, can't you? Or you can "starve" her by withholding vessels? My gut reaction to the Narrator is "lmao dumbass" - I don't think he understands what he's talking about, and I don't trust his evaluation that a world without the Shifting Mound would be worth living. Just the way his scenario immediately got fucked up makes it seem to me like he doesn't have a strong grasp on the metaphysics. You can't just pick out all the parts of a major universal concept like "change" that you like and throw out all the bits that you don't! But I also don't think this game, with its writing philosophy, would really have a "bad ending" in that kind of sense, you know? I seriously doubt there's an ending that would just be like "you fucked up". But I also feel like... the way the game is written, I kind of feel like I have the freedom as the person engaging with it to say... "this ending is bad, For The Game As I Played It". Does that make sense? I'm definitely touching on complicated questions of narrative theory that smarter people than me have definitely engaged with more substantively haha.

[mpsideadump]

Pristine Cut new routes!

I've currently played through all of the new routes (as in the new branches of Specter, Damsel, and Prisoner) and I just wanted to get all of my initial thoughts down and share them with you guys!

So

I TALK SPOILERS, DONT CLICK THE READ MORE BUTTON IF YOU HAVENT SEEN THE NEW ROUTES OR ARE NEW TO THE GAME

The Princess and the Dragon was the first one I did and FINALLY SEEING THE LONG QUIET IN FULL because we're inside the Princess's body is AMAZING!

Like?????

And the fact it confirms that LQ just stares when he's talking with the other voices, and the voices can share control of the body and they actually have distinct mannerisms! For sure now one of my favorite chapters!

The Cage's design is SO COOL! I'm not disappointed in how the Cage turned out cuz the way the Woods look and the Cabin being on a floating island makes it one of the more distinct Ch.3s. I will say that I am disappointed in how my run of the Chapter went cuz Skeptic turned into one of the worst voices for me when he's paired with Paranoid (my favorite voice and unfortunately).

I've heard that there's actually a bunch of variations for this chapter that end up with a happier ending, but the one I got where LQ gets decapitated and he just watches his body fight the Princess's felt a bit too jaded for my tastes. I'm gonna be experimenting to see what else I can do!

And finally...

OH MY GOD HAPPILY EVER AFTER IS OFFCIALLY THE BEST CHAPTER IN THE GAME!!! (in my opinion!)

I'll be honest, Damsel wasn't really my favorite because going through it as it was was just kind of...boring. Deconstructed Damsel was far more interesting because it pointed out the problems with her as she is (and the doodle is hilarious to boot). The Burned Grey, while a cool design, also wasn't really all that impressive to me because that chapter always ends with you and her burning together (but I do get what that route was trying to get at, which is how destructive a person blinded by love can be).

Happily Ever After takes that same idea and applies it to the fricking Smitten! SMITTEN!!

We finally have a chapter where Smitten is taken to the extreme and I'm all for it. The way he kills us to get to it is fricking terrifying, and the form he ends up taking to control the Princess is also heartbreaking (pun partially intended).

BUT HAVING THE FRICKING NARRATOR FINALLY REALIZE HOW BAD HIS IDEA IS AS WELL?????

Him witnessing first hand the torture of having someone else tell you what to do and how you should be happy as well as what stagnant, never-changing life actually looks like....

And him getting a mini-redemption arc out of it🥲

And gaaaaaahhhhhhh that final dance under the stars with her was perfect😭😭😭

I actually didn't want this Princess to go and was so sad when she got picked up by Shifty (its what I felt towards Thorn but like 10x worse).

Overall, I honestly believe that "Princess and the Dragon" & "Happily Ever After" can make great final princesses before Shifty is fully reconstructed. HEA even more so because of Narrator's redemption and I have the sneaking suspicion that getting this as the last Princess might actually change his opinions when you meet him.

The Cage was pretty good, but like I said I need to see a more uplifting variation of it to be more satisfied with the chapter itself.

[hello-universe-lovers]

"Well, hello there! Fancy seein' y'all here!"

"..."

My Cold debuts with a new Princess: the Belle, an Offshoot of the Damsel. The color ref is not height accurate so refer to my rough height estimate.

You know where the Spoiler rants are (this is a long one since I am introducing a new Princess)

The Belle:

- Spawned from a last ditch effort from the Narrator to keep the Damsel jailed. He locks the cabin door as the Player and Damsel were leaving, only letting out the Player, but not the Damsel. To bypass this, they decided to swap clothes, leaving the Princess in her current clothes and the Player in the Princess Dress. But she won't leave the Player trapped for very long. She decided to stay around the cabin, creating a farm around it, and waiting until the Player decides to leave.

- I went through many ideas for the name (Cowgirl, Rancher, Southerner(j), and so forth) before settling on the Belle from "Southern Belle"

- The Axe is from a melted down Pristine Blade. (Don't ask how that worked)

- the Crown on her hat is floppy. It's not real metal.

- She still has the traits of the Damsel (wanting to make you happy, speaking sweetly, etc...) but it has been tempered by hard work and a southern accent.

- I may or may not have based her color palette on a certain frequent stp reblogger...

- no one knows how or why she has a piece of her dress, when she gave it to the Player before leaving.

- No one knows how she was able to make a farm either.

- there are only poultry on her fields. But bountiful fruits and vegetables.

- doesn't necessarily like Cold (his mood is a Debby downer), but she likes having someone to talk to, even if they don't talk back.

Voice of the COLD:

- obviously he is my most simple design so far.

- I interpret his "clothes" are a result of being tired of daily routine. If he had his way, he'd wear nothing at all. But Hero would throw a hissy fit if he just walked around naked.

- His hands and feet are just like LQ's

- He has 2 eyes. There is nothing on the other side. Just the 2 eyes on 1 side.

- The Mug is from the Belle (he stole it)

- His hair is surprisingly silky for someone who's never seen taking a shower

- whatever liquid is in that mug, he is addicted to it.

- Yes, he has interrupted the Narrator with obnoxiously loud sipping.

- Doesn't like the Belle all that much (the mundane farm life bored him), but he still keeps stopping by, under the excuse of needing a refill. (He stays there for 3 hours, at least).

BONUS SLEEPING MOUND THOUGHTS:

(Explore) "What do you think of this vessel?"

"This one is loyal. She refused to leave you alone, but discovered joy and contentment, in waiting for you. She will make for an honest heart.

Do not mourn her, she has earned her rest."

((Cold you are so me coded it hurts me. Good thing Belle can balance you out!

[birdmitosis]

My Slay the Princess Ships

OKAY it felt like it was time to update my ship list! Since I've been in the fandom for longer and been playing around with more ideas and seeing what I'm really into, more mildly into, just not feeling as much as I thought, and feeling way more than I thought!

My Princess/Protagonist forms shipping is now:

The Adversary/The Protagonist

The Long Quiet/The Shifting Mound

The Protagonist/The Razor

The Protagonist/The Spectre

The Protagonist/The Thorn

The Protagonist/The Wild

The Protagonist (LQ)/The Princess (SM) in that "leave the cabin together" version of the ending, especially with the Stranger variant but really with any!

In all of these, these are… basically what I ship with each other without voices really being involved. They can be there but they aren't part of the draw for these ones.

As for Princess/voice ships, to varying degrees:

The Adversary/Voice of the Stubborn

The Burned Grey/Voice of the Smitten

The Damsel/Voice of the Smitten*

The Nightmare/Voice of the Opportunist*

The Nightmare/Voice of the Paranoid*

The Nightmare/Voice of the Cold/Voice of the Paranoid*

The Prisoner/Voice of the Skeptic*

The Razor/Voice of the Smitten

The Razor/Voice of the Stubborn

The Spectre/Voice of the Hero

The Stranger/Voice of the Broken

The Stranger/Voice of the Contrarian*** (cough)

The Stranger/Voice of the Smitten

The Stranger/Voice of the Broken/Voice of the Smitten

The Thorn/Voice of the Cheated*

The Thorn/Voice of the Opportunist*

The Thorn/Voice of the Cheated/Voice of the Opportunist

Voice of the Broken/The Wild

Voice of the Contrarian/The Wild*

Voice of the Hunted/The Wild

The Protagonist/Voice of the Hero/Voice of the Opportunist/Voice of the Paranoid/The Wraith

(TBH, I am happy to toss Hero into many of those as well… Though not necessarily all of them. I marked the ones I'm happy to add Voice of the Hero to with an asterisk! And honestly, I don't really care about the Protagonist being involved in any of these, that isn't part of the draw for me at all except for the very last one...)

And for Princess/Princess ships, again to varying degrees:

The Adversary/The Beast

The Adversary/The Damsel

The Adversary/The Prisoner

The Adversary/The Razor

The Beast/The Damsel

The Beast/The Nightmare

The Beast/The Wild

The Beast/The Witch

The Burned Grey/The Drowned Grey

The Damsel/The Prisoner

The Damsel/The Spectre

The Damsel/The Thorn

The Damsel/The Witch

The Drowned Grey/The Nightmare

The Drowned Grey/The Spectre

The Drowned Grey/The Wraith

The Nightmare/The Razor

The Nightmare/The Spectre

The Nightmare/The Witch

The Nightmare/The Wraith

The Prisoner/The Spectre

The Prisoner/The Thorn

The Prisoner/The Wild

The Prisoner/The Witch

The Prisoner/The Wraith

The Razor/The Witch

The Spectre/The Stranger

The Spectre/The Thorn

The Spectre/The Wild

The Spectre/The Witch

The Stranger/The Wild

The Thorn/The Wild

The Tower/The Witch

The Wild/The Witch

The Witch/The Wraith

And for most of these ships, I'm happy to ship combos as well when any have overlap, especially if all three do. So, like, it can go without saying that I'd also totally be into Beast/Wild/Witch or Damsel/Prisoner/Spectre.

Aaaand finally, what I am most fannishly active with: VOICES SHIPPING. The voices that I ship to varying degrees are here (and I am including Narrator ships at the bottom for Reasons):

Broken/Hunted

Broken/Smitten

Broken/Stubborn

Broken/Contrarian/Hero

Broken/Hero/Paranoid

Broken/Hunted/Stubborn

Cheated/Hero

Cheated/Opportunist

Cheated/Skeptic

Cheated/Smitten

Cheated/Contrarian/Opportunist

Cheated/Hunted/Opportunist

Cheated/Hunted/Stubborn

Cheated/Hunted/Opportunist/Stubborn

Cold/Contrarian

Cold/Hunted

Cold/Opportunist

Cold/Paranoid (OTP)

Cold/Skeptic

Cold/Smitten

Cold/Contrarian/Hero

Cold/Contrarian/Hero/Opportunist/Paranoid

Cold/Contrarian/Hero/Paranoid

Cold/Contrarian/Opportunist/Paranoid

Cold/Hunted/Paranoid

Cold/Opportunist/Paranoid

Cold/Paranoid/Skeptic

Contrarian/Hero (second OTP tbh)

Contrarian/Opportunist

Contrarian/Skeptic

Contrarian/Hero/Skeptic

Contrarian/Opportunist/Paranoid

Contrarian/Opportunist/Skeptic

Hero/Hunted

Hero/Paranoid

Hunted/Opportunist

Hunted/Paranoid

Hunted/Stubborn

Hunted/Opportunist/Stubborn

Opportunist/Paranoid

Opportunist/Smitten

Opportunist/Skeptic

Opportunist/Skeptic/Smitten

Skeptic/Smitten

Contrarian/Narrator

Hero/Narrator

Hunted/Narrator

Narrator/Opportunist

Narrator/Skeptic

Contrarian/Hero/Narrator

Hunted/Narrator/Opportunist

Narrator/Opportunist/Skeptic

As a note, unlike with my Princess shipping, I listed out all the OT3s+ that appeal to me, except that I also could get behind a whole big complicated polycule situation. I'm totally here for that!

(I do also ship The Long Quiet/The Narrator a little, but not nearly as much as LQ/SM or any of the above.)

[sapphicslaylist]

Ever since Pristine Cut folks have just decided Smitten is a manipulative possessive asshole and it’s just SO horrific of a mischaracterization of both Smitten AND actual survivors of codependency I’m. Gonna bite my hand like Proto Damsel istg.

Folks have been like “he’s rlly uncomfy in Thorn’s route” and I’m like buddy Smitten understands the unworthiness of love like nobody else ok. He’s happy to die for this woman in all her forms because he treats himself as LQ’s disposable piece. Cheated!Thorn is also iconic bc both of them know what victimhood feels like/he points this out but the difference is he still operates on the drive to survive. Smitten does not (at least not to the same degree/so long as she’s ok it’s fine in his book).

What really drives me up the wall is the underlying insinuation the kiss wasn’t consensual which is SO INCORRECT. She was eating this bird’s ENTIRE BEAK like it was the last thing she’d ever do. Girl is so goddamn touch starved and Smitten sees her as an equal but yknow the only thing that matters to folks who like it is that you can kiss a woman. And *gestures to username* look I get that. But also. It’s the analysis that makes it so good.

Hey you know how Smitten does that thing where he can see how Thorn is hurting at a glance and then proceeds to lift her up by reminding her how wonderful she is but he can never do it to himself because he doesn’t realise his own self-destructive tendencies and his whole thing is about serving other people in order to see worth in himself? Hahahaha funny right