#it’s more of her just being confused and mad with herself and not really knowing how to deal with it

[letoilepourpre]

I don't know when you'll get back to this. I know that Den is your favorite route in StP, but what about Den has you have her as your favorite? I'm just really curious.

first of all I love the themes about dehumanization and seeing through someone's humanity beyond appearances. the princess is molded by our perception but it doesn't mean that she is our perception alone, and it's shown numerous times that she is not merely a mindless monster (yes even during instinct/ouroboros) even when you follow through narrator's (very very stubbornly put) opinions of her. he is extra of an asshole during it bc its easier to dehumanize her further when she cant even talk and its smth i resonate with a lot as a neurodivergent person

secondly I've always been drawn to nonhuman characters in general, especially monsters, and her design captivated me instantly. again due to being autistic its always been easier for me to connect with animals than people, and that mixed with how far youve pushed the princess to be overcome by instinct is such a great way to put together a "dont judge a book by its cover" telling

thirdly I adore how through skeptic you get to actually see her in another light. she doesnt have a way to reach you when stuck so she has a moment to communicate with you in some way. narrator mentioning how her bone structure cant even let her properly get out of the basement is one of the things i think about the most, youve pushed her into that feral role so deep that now she cant even exit that mold (at least not without help) without bringing herself and you to your doom. helping her is letting her humanity take over instinct, as you take each other towards freedom. she had to destroy that barrier but she could only do it properly if you helped her with it. what pushes her forward is the retribution for that help. even if you dont help her she still lets out a desperate roar as she destroys the tunnel in an attempt to escape, but you didnt break that barrier alongside her for you to reach freedom. den is my fav hunted route bc of hunted's sympathy, putting herself (i use she/it for hunted just so u dont get confused) in den's place as she's the only one who could truly understand the position the princess was in, and following her line of thought (pack is stronger together) is what saves you from being buried to death

and lastly the body horror might be my favorite thing in her chapter. I love the horror genre in general, but I'm very nitpicky with body horror and senseless gore bc it'll be used for shock value alone, besides many examples of 'body horror' being like... a heavy wound or straight up ableism. which sucks ass bc you can get really creative with it, which is what ouroboros does: you both indulging each other to become instinct, hunted going mad with the power you discover when you finally have a chance to feel bigger, the twisted healing that comes from the mutual consumption being taking each other's strength until at some point you've been eating and eating and eating until you cant tell where one begins and the other ends, trapping you both in the realization of what you've done to each other for that need to survive without thinking about the consequences, and especially the way you both become more monstrous by taking parts of each other, that one glimpse of den's humanity being shown through shame, an emotion so agonizingly human that you can't help but feel it as well once you get to think about what you've become, how far youve pushed her the moment you decided to embrace instinct

it's fascinating how people continue to see her as something other than the other vessels even with all of that being shown, as if you also don't embrace instinct at some point, and even hero mentions how dehumanizing your actions are. youre simply putting your humanity to the side and embracing your most primal feelings, but it doesnt mean that your reasoning ceases to exist entirely

I could go on, but this post is long enough and it's almost 2 am for me right now LOL

I really love her :]