#the deconstructed damsel

[dr-awkkward]

Slay the Princess text posts, part 18

[part 17]

[vickozone]

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

[fuck-john-calvin]

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]

[misswitchpleasemarryme]

when

w.,en the girl is bossing

Some STP art✨

[honeyfizzly]

A pliant heart

[demonkinguwu]

Stp doodles :p

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

trick or treat!!!! 👻🎃

"Okay! If that's what you want to do!"

[birdmitosis]

#see i saw the good end of the damsel route first. where you just listen to her want #because believe it or not. it IS possible to have one very simple want #where she’s happy until the shifting mass takes her #so when i saw the deconstructed version of her the second time i was. horrified #bc hm. HM. <- thoughts about how women are treated in media(and honestly just in general)

thinking of the damsel route where the princess turns into an anime girl. thinking about how the mere act of questioning her autonomy made her lose it. because viewing her as brainless made her so. because our perceptions shape who she is, and by not believing her simple want we are not believing her existence as an original person. thinking about how she's a person until we decide she's not being "person enough"

[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.

[itsonlypolite]

What is your favorite vessel/princess?

It's so hard to choose, I love them all!! But when I first read this, two vessels popped in my head right away because they feel like they're straight out of my nightmares: The (Deconstructed) Damsel and the Drowned Grey

The metaphors! The visuals!! The horrifying tragedy of it all!!! <333

[misersdream]

Slay the Prince - Happily Ever After

[birdmitosis]

Agreed, agreed, agreed about ALL of this!

Someone -- and I can't re-find it, it was super early in my awareness of STP so please let me know who if you have any idea of the post I'm talking about -- pointed out that you get the Deconstructed Damsel by refusing to believe the Damsel could actually just... legitimately be exactly what she seems to be and want what she says she wants. By doing that you strip away what agency and personhood she did have.

And that got me so bad. I love that and I can't at all unsee it now. The Deconstructed Damsel isn't "the truth" of the Damsel, it's your perception fucking with her more. She's the version of the Damsel where you brutally deny the Damsel her personhood by looking at the desires she does have, which are very simple but hers, and going "no, you can't be a real person." She breaks down further because you "suspect" (and make true) that she has nothing else to her.

You can't accept her even as much as you accept Voice of the Smitten, despite Smitten pointing out that it makes sense that all she wants is to make you happy because that's all he wants for her; he understands her and is willing and happy to let her be the simple person that she is, but you don't and you aren't and you can't. So you break her down into a dehumanized shadow of herself because that's all you can believe she was in the first place.

It is brutal. And I love it. It made me appreciate the Damsel so, so much more.

k so slay the princess is rotting my brain but currently one big thought is chilling in my brain, and like- hear me out (sorry if my wording doesn't convey my thoughts well skskfjdjg)

but I don't think the damsel is entirely as shallow as some may see her as. HEAR ME OUT- compared to the other princesses, yes, she definitely more shallow. and she is also (at least when looking at deconstructed) poking fun at those trying to have an easy and work free romance route where the princess does whatever you like and loves you so, so much. i'm not saying she's supremely deep and that no one understands her but me, but I also don't think she exists solely to mock players with absolutely nothing to say about the nature of human permanence either.

does that make sense? more thoughts below- they're a bit disjointed though so warning ^^;

I personally think the damsel can also represent a very real form love, so to speak.

gimme a min to explain. I think what initially led me to this is a line from the narrator equating the smitten and the damsel to acting like teenagers in love. and that line sorta shifted my perspective a bit on her a little? seeing that kinda made me go "ohhhhhhh makes sense" like it really did remind me of two kids who don't entirely get what dating entails but still want to be together, and given the endgame sequence the damsel's section just kinda cemented this mindset for me.

for clarification the damsel has two(?) bits of dialog depending on whether she's deconstructed or not. If she isn't she says something along the lines of (iirc) "you had a desire and you set that desire free/not caring about what it took or costed you in the process" annnd?? like that's kinda wholesome to me?

like the damsel's love with the player isn't nearly as in depth, complicated, or complete as say the thorn, but it's a passionate love. it's also a naive love. the sort of love you'd find with, well, teenagers having a crush. of course when people get older they see those old crushes as frivolous and flat, but to the people experiencing them in the moment, it's real! it's serious! they were still willing to risk a lot just to be together. and at least at the start, you're willing to be killed by the princess if it means she's safe after having a battle of control against the narrator. it just reads as very human to me. they truly felt that their love could conquer anything.

I feel the thorn is a more 'adult' version of the damsel. it's that passionate love taking on a more mature form. it has more hardships to go through and way more pitfalls and mistakes that one can make compared to the more childish love like the damsel's. there's less theatrics and fanfare, and to me it feels more somber and quiet. it's a contrast between the high stakes emotion filled damsel, and the more intimate, tense, and self-aware thorn. ultimately in the end for both of them, they come to a realization that love is a powerful tool almost in a way that mirror each other.

some of the same occurrences leading up to the route are also shared between the two. like having the princess stab you in the prior route. I also think it's worth noting that in the thorn, the thistles can be seen as/can be referred to a prison of her own making. something she can leave if she was willing to make the effort to do so. it's similar to the damsel's shackles being easily slipped off her wrist. she could free herself.

also by extension, say what you will about the smitten but he loves the princess no matter what form she takes. even when she kills him he still adores her. he is content with being cooked alive by the princess if that's what she wants. i think he's a lot like the damsel in that sense. whatever she wants, she will have. if the damsel is molded to love the player, the smitten is absolutely molded to love the princess in the same way.