#slay the Princess cheated

[swanpyart]

I realize that the Stranger and the Razor routes are the weirdest routes that don’t follow the patterns that any of the others do. Stranger only has a Chapter 2, with the only expansion on her being if you get her first, which leads to seeing her in the end and Contrarian in the Cabin. Razor has 4 Chapters, the most out of all of them (except Nightmare, but she functionally has 3 chapters, we just skip a bunch). And the big similarity between the two route is that they both are completely incapable of crossover with any other route.

But thematically, it makes sense why they are kind of opposites; Contrarian and Cheated sprout from opposite mindsets. Contrarian wants to have fun and mess around for the sake of messing with the Narrator and testing the bounds of where you are. Cheated, on the other hand, almost takes things too seriously; he wants to beat the Razor at any cost, and gets more and more intense as things go on.

This is why Stranger presents only one chapter; there is barely a vessel to begin with. She is a coagulation of fragmented ideas and endless possibilities, and therefore has little framework to go off of. We never get any impression of who she is as a person, so she is unable to form from our ideas other than the unfamiliarity we get from her. Stranger is full of so much stuff that Shifty takes her earlier. Contrarian seems to treat her as superfluous to the Player as everything else (of course, he realizes his mistake in the same chapter) but she noticeably doesn’t give him the satisfaction of a real conversation, or a personality to work off of. This is why Contrarian hates the basement she creates; if everything’s happening, then nothing’s happening. He’s eternally bored with no person to work from.

Razor on the other hand, is basically set up as an unwinnable fight. Unlike Stranger, Razor’s personality is incredibly simple and straightforward, and she will remain that way the entire chapter (unless you get the Empty Cup, but it happens so close to the end and Shifty doesn’t really note any difference). In this vein, Cheated gets the opposite problem Contrarian gets; instead of being bored out of his mind, he’s given a game he cannot win or even hope to win, like Sisyphus pushing the rock. He’s given a challenge he’ll never feel the victory of, as he eventually just gives up.

[misterbrick42-slaytheprincess]

i was thinking about how the game would go if the voices each had full control but then i realized some of them, like Broken and Cheated, are entirely reactionary. What the FUCK would cheated do, or even be, if he wasn't cheated in the past?

i need answers what is an uncheated cheated. what is an unbroken broken?

[untitled-name-coming-soon]

Hello, I have my next voice design!

Voice of the Cheated! I gave him a huge cut scar across the face, and gave it stitches (That have come undone) and another cut on his chest, mostly covered by bandages. He has crutches, and a cast on one arm, and the other just has regular bandages. A little piece of his beak is broken off and missing, and his ear too.

In this drawing, the Hunted is undoing the bandages to replace them. The Cheated is so injured because of the Razor, you know "she skewers you" times 100.

And I added some green to the Hunted's camouflage wing. And gave his legs camouflage markings too.

[hug-kiss-marry-kill]

[a-lilac-lyric]

Slay the Princess in a Nutshell

[danidoesathing]

can't even walk across rooms anymore. because of the pit

[marcellachannn]

My hand hurt😭

[dr-awkkward]

Slay the Princess text posts, part 15 (in celebration of the Pristine Cut's release!)

[part 14] [part 16]

[phantasmatoucan]

MY VOICE DESIGNS!

I WANTED TO GIVE THE DIFFERENT VOICES SOME DESIGNS FOR WHENEVER I DRAW THEM, IT TOOK ME A WHILE TO GET THEM ALL DOWN but i really care them all

MORE INFO UNDER CUT

WHEN I MADE EACH VOICE I HAD A DIFFERENT CONCEPT/BIRD IN MIND

HERO - KNIGHT/SPARROW [Literally the closest to look like a human knight since i had in mind that TLQ views him as something he wishes he was]

SMITTEN - PIGEON/BARD [The way he talks just makes me think of a bard and as for the pigeon part he reminds me of a Luzon bleeding heart which definetly goes with his heart motif]

SKEPTIC - OWL/INVESTOGATOR [I always pictured him as a detective holmes like owl whenever he went on his theories, the fact that hes kind of an asshole is a bonus]

COLD - VULTURE/REAPER [I associate him with death a lot so that went into his design, I know crows are more commonly associated with death but i wanted a more bigger predatory bird for his design since he doesn't mind killing if he needs to]

OPPORTUNIST - JAY/CONMAN [Hes specifically a Steller jay, I think the birdy just has his similar vibe of being tricky to deal with, as for the conman part is kind of obvious considering his personality lol]

HUNTED - HARE [I didn't have a specific bird in mind when making him, rather i usually pictured him as some type of rabbit like bird, more hare in this case, a prey animal but he can show his fangs when he needs to]

CHEATED - CROW/GAMBLER [Disheveled man in his 40s spending all his money in a casino and not winning for 13 hours type of gambler, hes the smallest of all the voices, the crow part is because i can only picture him as that one pic of a crow with a knife on its mouth]

BROKEN - PENGUIN/FOLLOWER [More of a religious followe, the penguin part is because of how i pictured him with 𓉸 this shape in my mind , he black and white of them also fits him a lot]

PARANOID - FANTAIL/MAGE [The scrawniest fantail pigeon in existance, if he didn't over preen himself his tail would be much bigger, the mage part is for his chanting by keeping us alive, i think the way i view him is more a heal caster]

STUBBORN - MACAW/BRUTE [The biggest of the bunch if he standed up straight, i thought of a macaw because of their strong toes and how much he repeats himself (not a bad thing i think its cute), the brute part is self-explanatory)

CONTRARIAN - HUMMINGBIRD/JESTER [I'm not inmune to contrarian jester propaganda, he fits the bill of the common media jester, the hummingbird part was suggested by Mod Toucan and I think it fits him so well since he can be a little shit /lovingly]

[senei]

hehe.

[lady12maiden]

The fact that we didn't get the cheated for the happily ever after route is a crime. Like, imagine if he actually got to win something

[swanpyart]

Some designs for the Voices! Since the Long Quiet is a bird man, here's a bunch of bird men

[everestgale]

Oh, I will ruin you

Oh, I will ruin you—

------

Thoughts, notes, and textless versions are under the cut.

[Find my Slay the Princess art here]

[Princess art] [TLQ art] [Voices art]

[If you saw it earlier, yes, this is a reupload. My tired brain made a bunch of mistakes, both with the art and with the post </3]

So, when I said I'm in a heavy "draw Cheated" mood, I meant it. And when I said that I love to make my favorite characters suffer, I also meant it. I spent about 5-6 hours making these two illustrations, and I actually feel really bad for Cheated now—

Uh… well, maybe I'll be nicer to my poor guy now.

he certainly deserves a break </3

[Update: Cheated does actually get a break]

Also, if anyone correctly guesses what song these illustrations were inspired by, you get a cookie from me (aka Slay the Princess doodle. I mean it, by the way). I adore this song, and it fits the Razor route so well that I actually want to make an animatic out of it in 2025. But for now, I'm happy with these two illustrations instead :]

[Update: cookies have been claimed! The song is Tongues & Teeth by The Crane Wives <3]

Textless versions:

[vickozone]

🐦‍⬛🔪👑

very rough draft of all of The Voices. their designs will eventually change somewhat.

I’m allowed to draw them as humans, right?

[tapestryundone]

hands these to you

[lavb-b]

More silly slay the princess doodle dump