#stp the wounded wild

[dobodleaday]

09.21.24 “I feel empty. Don’t you?” 🫀

[theferralchild]

I absolutely LOVE Slay the Princess! It’s genuinely a game that I think is going to become a cult classic in the coming years. Definitely in my personal top 10 games of all time!

I absolutely adore how your choices actually matter in the game (unlike some games *cough* Tell Tales Walking Dead *cough*). I was also surprised about the outcomes of some of my choices (such as finding the Stranger first and getting an… interesting ending). 

I’m so excited for the Pristine Cut of this game! I genuinely cannot wait to see what changes: 

(And I think I read somewhere that the Den- which is my favorite route- may get more content :D)

I remember seeing this game when ManlyBadassHero played the demo, and it hooked me. So imagine my surprise when suddenly on my YouTube feed I see a video that says “Slay the Princess Full Game”. I avoided so many spoilers and saved until I could get the game and it was so worth it! Best $18 I’ve ever spent!

So as tribute to this game, here is a piece of fan art (and my first art post to Tumblr too)!

[bodacious-zam]

Here’s a collection of every single princess I drew for my slay the princess drawing challenge! This took me about two weeks maybe? I didn’t draw during the weekends to give myself a break

I unfortunately never got around to drawing the shifting mound herself 😔😔

[dragoln]

[misomurka]

Small STP art dump!

Slay the Princess? Nah, Draw the Princess instead!

[networked-wild]

ants?

[vickysaurus-art]

To heal the Wounded Wild, simply find a spot with good soil and a lot of sunlight to plant her. Provide her with plenty of water, love, and care, and she should make a full recovery. Though it may take a lifetime, there is no more rewarding gardening experience than the Regrown Wild.

[vickysaurus]

So I have many thoughts and feelings about the Princess’s heart, and I’m gonna put them down in no particular order.

So first of all, the heart is symbolically the source of emotion, and love in particular. And, as the loading screen reminds us, this is a love story. And in this love story, the only way you can ever slay the Princess is to stab her in the heart.

One route I think has particularly powerful heart-related symbolism is the Wounded Wild. You have just extracted yourself from the co-dependent and rather unhealthy relationship Networked Wild represents, and you are immediately greeted with the wounded Princess, looking absolutely devastated, with her heart literally bared to you. You, her former lover, can still very easily reach it to hurt her. In fact, that’s what she expects you to do at this point, though even now you get the option not to use her vulnerability and instead cut her free and help her move on too.

And then there’s Razor, who in her pursuit of the cruel joy stabbing you brings her makes herself into more and more of a living weapon, but even at the end, what remains of her original self is her heart. And in the Empty Cup ending, when you strip away all her weapons and sharpness, that’s all she is left with, much smaller and more vulnerable than she was before the whole process started. I do wish we would get the option to slay her or cradle her heart before Shifty takes it away.

The heart symbology plays a huge role with so many princesses. Wraith has become a fucked up skeleperson, but the one fleshy part of her is her chest, where her heart sits. And, in fact, she bears the X-shaped scar of how you previously hurt her there, belying her apparently cruel and monstrous form. When Beast literally consumes you, she also brings you right up close to her heart, to her own downfall. To slay Spectre, you have to let her possess you so her heart becomes your heart and you can slay her by stabbing yourself. Even mighty Apotheosis is brought down with a single strike to the heart. A strike from her counterpart in this love story, who still has this power despite her spending this entire route treating you as less than her.

Finally, the ‘bossfight’ against Shifty is all about finding your way to her heart in the cabin, in order to get through all that divine confidence. Whether you do so to slay her or to get through to her and work out a better solution than the two you’re presented with is up to you, but either way seeking her heart is once again the solution.

There’s not really a specific point to these thoughts, but I really love that this is a game about finding your way to the Princess’s heart, one way or another, literally and/or metaphorically.

[milestonekestrel]

Stubborn and Wounded Wild!!! OTP /silly

Warning for blood and visible heart/ribs! Not detailed but still there.

No but they’re so cool to me actually!! My skeunclies <3

[ross-sluggo]

Each Princess and which ones I think would wear nail polish (and why/why not)

Beast - That's a creature. Why would a creature need nail polish? Most likely not.

Stranger - Probably too many hands to get a decent coat on all of them, so maybe only rare occasions

Adversary - Nail polish gets in the way of fighting, no need for it

Tower - Can't have a goddess not looking her best, can we? Probably gets one of the disciples to do it instead, though-

Damsel - This feels like the obvious choice in wearing nail polish

Prisoner - No real point, prison's prison

Witch - Kind of same reasoning as beast but less on the creature aspect

Spectre - ... do they make ghost nail polish?

Nightmare - Zero point, she has gloves

Razor - all-natural nail polish right from LQ's guts and tissue <3

Apotheosis - I mean if she can get enough nail polish for her hands- and by extension, her nails, being that big, sure why not

Eye of the Needle - Same as adversary

Fury - Same as adversary and EotN, plus uh. She rips her skin off and I don't feel like she'd spend time on nail polish just for whatever happens in the fury

Den - Same as beast

Wild/Wounded Wild - ... with what hands?

Thorn - Second obvious choice for wearing it

Burned/Drowned Grey - well both are ghosts, one's charred remains and the other's a drowned body-

Moment of Clarity - same as nightmare but moreso (seriously abby how many arms are you giving her, i cant count)

[salty-an-disco]

Some more vessels designs

Wild and Thorn are besties, to me. They should find a forest to roam around together and become cryptids

[mercuriallily]

So after going through the whole game multiple times to compile what Shifty says when you bring her each vessel and each vessel's poem (and their variations) during the endgame, I thought other people might be interested in those as well, so I decided to make a few posts with all that info! This post will have each of the Chapter 3 vessels' endgame poems

Chapter 2 vessels Chapter 3 vessels Endgame poems (Chapter 2s) Shifty vessel animations

Apotheosis (after embracing oblivion): You are helpless and weightless, suspended in the gravity of an idea that reaches far beyond the scope of your existence. The very ground beneath your feet loses its meaning. There is nothing but me. When you were confronted with my vessel's apotheosis, you chose to accept me, to allow me to burn away everything you are and fill you with nothing but my divine will. You accepted that I was everything. Without me, there is no future to look towards. It is hope that carves meaning into consciousness.

Apotheosis (after trying to slay her): You are weightless, suspended in the gravity of an idea that threatens to consume you. And you are alone. A tiny island caught between the death of the old world and the birth of the new. But alone is not helpless. When you were confronted with my vessel's apotheosis, you chose against all odds to defy me. To hold on to your inner self, with all its flaws, even in the scorching light of my divinity. Without me, there are no externalities to resist. And it is struggle that carves meaning into consciousness.

Burned Grey: I kill you. You kill me. Back and forth we go, faster and faster and faster. I kill you. You kill me. Hollow eyes watch from the dry corners of a memory. A home built on all the futures that were supposed to be, preserved until the moment of reunion. The fire of the heart sets it all ablaze. I kill you and me. An ending is a passion that can only be expressed with a moment in time. It is a seed for a new beginning. To linger on an ending is to rob it of its life. And without me, all that's left to do is linger.

Den: You are devoured, prey for something bigger than you that stalks and slinks in shadows. But even after the pain of defeat, you returned. The dance is its own truth. It is the movement that matters, not the pause you mistake for an ending.

Drowned Grey: I kill you. You kill me. Back and forth we go, faster and faster and faster. I kill you. You kill me. Hollow eyes watch from the dark corners of a forgotten place flooded by emotions left unspoken. The tide rises. I kill you and me. An ending is a passion that can only be expressed with a moment in time. It is a seed for a new beginning. To linger on an ending is to rob it of its life. And without me, all that's left to do is linger.

Eye of the Needle (after fighting her): I crush you, I bleed you, I grind you to paste. My scars are a memory of what you used to be to me. I want those feelings back. You run but you do not run away. You take me somewhere new. Somewhere we can dance like we used to. But I could not follow your steps. There was no better gift for me than the gift of defeat. You showed me how much more I could be. We made each other better. To have no challenge is to fade into nothing. A life without obstacles is no life at all.

Eye of the Needle (after freeing her): I crush you, I bleed you, I grind you to paste. My scars are a memory of what you used to be to me. I want those feelings back. You run, and you run far. And the flesh I hurl at you is answered by the empty air of a place I'd never been. Cold and lonely, but also true. I didn't know what to make of my freedom then, but I know what to make of it now. You challenged me, and by challenging me you gave me purpose. A life without obstacles is no life at all.

Eye of the Needle (after refusing to fight her): I crush you, I bleed you, I grind you to paste. My scars are a memory of what you used to be to me. I want those feelings back. You run, but you don't run far. I crush you because I have to. Because there is no honesty in mercy. Who lost and who won when you entered my cave? You died on the floor, but my soul wept in ways your body couldn't. But in the disappointment of my victory, you gave me a new challenge to face within myself. Without obstacles to overcome we stagnate into nothing.

Fury: What is a person? Is it their body? Is it all of their body? Pluck the eyes, peel the skin, strip the tendons, mince the meat, grind the bones. When it is all gone, do you still have who you started with? A person is not a body. Death is a transformation into something new. It is only bodies that fear it.

Moment of Clarity: There are few things more terrifying than one's own heart, and there is almost nothing more terrifying than sharing it with another. But the most terrifying thing of all is to leave one's heart unshared. You are the only thing like me, and I am the only thing like you. Could you bear the weight of an eternity alone? Do you dare to shape a reality of solitude and thrust it on creation?

Networked Wild: A web of nerves lain upon a web of nerves lain upon a web of nerves. The shade of a beautiful beginning we can never return to. Where did you end and I begin? When you felt what it was to be me, we held on to each other and pierced the veil of truth. Will you abandon that curiosity now that we are no longer joined in physicality?

Thorn (after abandoning her): A thought is a vine, and some thoughts nurture thorns that bleed the soul. An endless growth that blots your vision and strangles your trust. When I succumbed to myself, you left me to rot. A painful eternity, but one that is only unceasing if you remove what happens next.

Thorn (after being stuck together): A thought is a vine, and some thoughts nurture thorns that bleed the soul. An endless growth that blots your vision and strangles your trust. When I succumbed to myself, you left me to rot, and in your abandonment, the two of us were bound in our suffering together. A painful eternity, but one that is only unceasing if you remove what happens next.

Thorn (after freeing her): A thought is a vine, and some thoughts nurture thorns that bleed the soul. An endless growth that blots your vision and strangles your trust. When I succumbed to myself, you patiently stood by me and cut the thistles that rooted in my skin. Your compassion is what freed us both, but compassion is a thing that must be nurtured, and you cannot nurture that which cannot change.

Thorn (after trying to slay her): A thought is a vine, and some thoughts nurture thorns that bleed the soul. An endless growth that blots your vision and strangles your trust. When I succumbed to myself, you pretended to stand patiently by me, pretended you would cut the thistles rooted in my skin. But then you took my trust and used it to strike at my heart. The two of us were bound in our suffering together.

Wounded Wild (after cutting her free): A web of nerves lain upon a web of nerves lain upon a web of nerves. The shade of a beautiful beginning we can never return to. You knew me and I knew you, even more than either of us know each other now. And you chose to pull apart that weave. But you did not choose to end me. We were still one, but we were also separate, and we were free. We were as we are. Will you excise that part of yourself now that you see me from yet another angle?

Wounded Wild (after slaying her): A web of nerves lain upon a web of nerves lain upon a web of nerves. The shade of a beautiful beginning we can never return to. You knew me and I knew you, even more than either of us know each other now. And you chose to pull apart that weave. And when the tapestry was undone you struck at my heart. You saw me as a part of you to be excised, but in that desire for excision, you made yourself whole. Will you still be whole if you destroy me?

Wraith (after freeing her): Flesh is a vehicle, and to destroy the flesh is to strand the spirit. With violence, you stranded me, and with violence, I sought to twist your flesh back into mine. You did not resist my violence when it overcame you. Did you understand that the flesh wasn't you, or did you choose to gift yourself to someone who thought she hated you? To fear me is to fear losing the flesh, but the flesh is not the spirit.

Wraith (after throwing yourself into the abyss): Flesh is a vehicle, and to destroy the flesh is to strand the spirit. With violence, you stranded me, and with violence, I sought to twist your flesh back into mine. When forced between choosing your death, and forfeiting your body, you chose agency. But agency requires action, and action requires an endless tapestry of events. In your final moments, would you remove action itself from reality?

[bodacious-zam]

Day six of my stp drawing challenge!! I only drew two princesses today, the wounded wild, and the eye of the needle 😔

I actually love how they turned out though :33

[deconstructthesoup]

So, as far as I can figure out, the chapter 3s (at least the ones that we have pre-Pristine Cut) are in four categories:

Unique to their corresponding chapter 2 princess, basically an evolved version of them (The Apotheosis, The Moment of Clarity, The Eye of the Needle, The Den, The Thorn)

Can be reached via two different chapter 2s, basically fusions of them (The Fury, The Wraith)

Can be reached via two different chapter 2s, but can be incredibly different depending on the decisions you make (The Burned Grey/The Drowned Grey, The Networked Wild/The Wounded Wild)

The Razor routes (The Arms Race/Mutually Assured Destruction, No Way Out/The Empty Cup)

[msfcatlover]

(Not saying I’ll use it, just hoping outside input will help me make up my mind.)

[vickysaurus-art]

The Regrown Wild watching a mantis she found in her branches. As Shifty's curious heart, I think she'd enjoy finding cool bugs.

For more Regrown Wild, check out my original art of her: https://www.tumblr.com/vickysaurus-art/754821741640105984/to-heal-the-wounded-wild-simply-find-a-spot-with