#the deconstructed damsel

[vickozone]

drew two of my favorite princesses. <3 love these guys.

[starry-teacup]

saw something about the damsel being fake and her love for you is entirely scripted and for some inexplicable reason this made me mad even though I am the firmest advocator of what said person said with a sea of friends who say she does love you. so.

Yes, the damsel was molded to love you. Yes, it was scripted. It wasn't actually real. And the Deconstructed Damsel is there to prove that. It's a commentary on the creator's part- they're pointing out the one dimensionality of your classic fairy tale princess, how she isn't a real person and we're romanticizing poorly sketched out plot devices.

However.

While the Deconstructed Damsel is an illustration of how our actions shaping the princess can invalidate her traits and identity when viewed from the right angle, that doesn't only apply to the damsel. Sure, it was given to her to make a point about the kinds of stories they're drawing themes from, for contrast and stuff, but our actions mold every single princess, not just her.

We molded the Witch to hate us. We molded the Adversary to fight us. We molded the Prisoner to distrust us. And we molded the Damsel to love us. It's part of what makes chapter three so interesting- we let our creation out in the wild, and then the environment and the choices she makes helps us to fill in the finer details, as well. It's why I personally believe the Thorn is the only one capable of loving you- we didn't make her to love us. We just made her to experience complexity, like all the other chapter threes, except this one involved compassion.

Yeah. The Damsel is a computer program we encrypted with affection. But if we're gonna be real about that sort of thing, we also have to look into our beloved Tower's domination, our Stranger's mystery, our Spectre's grief.

None of it was ever real. Just a choice we made and a role she played.

[tangled-wires-and-a-dead-heart]

Haven't really had the energy to draw any full pieces but I still want to draw stuff so enjoy these assorted sketches of various princesses (+ the shifting mound up in the corner)

[stpsideblog]

I've seen some people talk about The Damsel and The Deconstructed Damsel as if they're the same, with the claim being that the only difference is that in the normal Damsel ending you don't notice how hollow she is. But I don't think this is. True.

Yes, both The Damsel and The Deconstructed Damsel are smoothed over and formed into the ideal of a love interest who wants nothing more than to escape with you and make you happy.

But it's the act of doubting her personhood that takes it away.

The Deconstructed Damsel isn't a glitch showing what the Damsel really is beneath it all, she's a changed version of the Damsel shifted, as any other of The Shifting Mound's parts, by your perception of her.

When you start to ask about her agency, that is when she loses it. When you start to view her as inhuman and wrong, that is when she becomes those things. When you believe you are the only person here, then it becomes true.

When you deconstruct The Damsel, you aren't revealing truths about her, you're changing her through your own doubt in her identity.

[room-temperature-orange-juice]

STP spoilers but the damsel is so funny because she would rather unwind reality itself than make a choice about what she wants.

[violet-stormbringer]

[demonkinguwu]

Stp doodles :p

[shy-raccoon]

The damsel in distress slowly starts getting more and more unstable from the unaddressed trauma of being frequently kidnapped. One day they completely snap and the villains start being found mysteriously murdered with increasing brutality.

[justsalpals]

Thinking about the deconstructed damsel again

Do you think the Long Quiet remembers her? Every princess carried their own special violence, their canvas of scars and open bleeding wounds and snapping biting jaws when he got too close, but she was different. Less. He made her less. Empty.

How must the mound regard her? If their hurt and hurting brought texture to her soul, what of a vessel worn thin and smooth? Did it make her less as well, in their own way?

I wonder if he thinks of her sometimes. All the ways they've hurt and betrayed and slaughtered one another, I wonder if she's the one he regrets. Bloodshed and passion are second nature, but there's a different sort of violence to stripping back all her bumps and edges into a smooth finish.

There's a cruelty in grinding her away until there's only a hollow damsel. In coring her out so thoroughly that he's alone again.

Brush a claw along her cheek, it crumbles away into graphite.

[honeyfizzly]

I think the horror of deconstructed damsel comes from the realization you loved someone you never truly knew. The crash of the idolization when you realize you've just been projecting an ideal onto someone who could never be that and coming to terms with that. We turned the princess into a helpless damsel and robbed her off her personhood, then destroyed her by trying to find a person where there was none anymore.

[pyxehastoomanyinterests]

some more slay the princess!! or, for the 3rd drawing’s case, slay the prince(that one post about transmasc damsel got to me)

[sno-the-silly-guy]

Guys, who else noticed in the Pristine Cut Trailer that The Stairs That Go Up still aren't shaded!?

And this one as well!

I believe that Black Tabby Games have finished all the drawings, so surely they wouldn't use incomplete work for the trailer?? But, if you look closely, you can definitely tell that it's been shaded.

SO. My theory is that these are screenshots for Damsel chapter 3. And this is basically a confirmation that we're getting a continued deconstructed damsel!!!! Since she becomes one tone when she deconstructs, it's safe to assume that her backgrounds would follow the same pattern.

I mean, the more I look at it it reminds me of Spectre, but I think that a spectre chapter wouldn't have stairs that lead up. And the stained glass on the walls doesn't look particularly ghost-like. So, what i'm saying is:

I've been right all this time and we're TOTALLY getting a deconstructed continuation chapter with Smitten and Skeptic, based around the concept of forgetting who your partner is and ignoring her one true desire to be free from the cabin. Right guys? Ri- 💥💥💥

[chaotic-cheese-blog]

Princesses be upon ye!

Happy valentine's day to anyone who celebrates it, whether it be alone, with friends or even fucked up princesses 💕

[vickysaurus-art]

The Shifting Mound with every other princess as her minis! With the Apotheosis joining last, but the very opposite of least, it’s finally done! For now, because I plan to ink it, and those spots around Fury are reserved for the Pristine Cut princesses, so it won’t really be done until autumn at the earliest.

[generative-adversarial-nitwit]

i will NOT blorbo the protagonist/player character of slay the princess i wont. i wont do it. i wont stoop to it. even if he IS babygirl

[wysteriaisapenguin]

An Afternoon Break with Skepty and Smitty

(Featuring Deconstructed Damsel!)