#the voice of the skeptic

[a-lilac-lyric]

Slay the Princess in a Nutshell

[boonsandwhatever]

kill the monarch

[aspiringsophrosyne]

It’s interesting how both the Smitten and the Skeptic kill you.

If you kill the Princess, they both visit the same fate upon you, overriding your input. However, their respective motivations are very different.

The Smitten does it out of distraught, furious bereavement; he kills us as much out of rage and revenge as he does grief. The Skeptic, meanwhile, kills us when the Narrator traps us (the way he does in the good ending). However, the Skeptic is not like the Hero; he does not let us decide when he recognizes the circumstances we have found ourselves in.

Both represent so overwhelming a force that they can make choices without your input, but from completely opposite angles. The Smitten out of passion, anger, and in-the-moment emotion. The Skeptic out of cold, practical logic that's focused on the long game. They are superficially different, but they end up pulling the same stunt; down at their cores, they're not as different as they might seem.

As for the pairs, one of the most generous ways to read the Smitten/Damsel relationship is that it represents the honeymoon phase. Smitten and Damsel have just met, think the world of each other, will do anything for each other, want to make each other happy, and dismiss each other's flaws when the Hero or the Narrator voices them. They are driven not by what they know but by their initial impressions and emotions.

This perspective leaves them both oblivious or apathetic to the Narrator’s machinations; they can ignore or overpower him. The shackle slips right off the Damsel's wrist. The locked door swings open. Even murdering the Damsel is not enough to dampen her love for you; all that does is turn it murderous again via the Burned Grey.

On the other hand, information drives the Skeptic and the Prisoner. They do not know each other. You took the blade when you went to meet her, and she killed you. These two can’t trust each other. Not completely. Because neither trusts without verifying first. And because, besides all that, there’s another factor in play: the Narrator.

Both the Skeptic and the Prisoner are aware of the Narrator. Both know that no matter what they want or do, something outside of them has the power to interfere. And their weapon of choice against him is information. The Prisoner plays dumb unless you “-give away the game,” and even then, she doesn’t reveal her plan. Not even to you. Instead, she hopes you take the hint and figure out what she wants you to do. Likewise, when you try to give her the knife to enact the plan, the Narrator tries to stop you as he did before, and the Skeptic thwarts him by pointing out how well that went the last time.

In contrast to the Damsel/Smitten pair, these two have one of the least emotionally charged dynamics of any Shifty/Quiet duo but have mutual respect and an understated sense of partnership that few other pairs start out with. Though the Drowned Grey’s motivation is not the explicit love of her counterpart, she’s still dressed like a widow to parallel the Burned Grey’s wedding dress.

And speaking of the Greys, they bring home the contrasting yet parallel dynamics between these Princesses and their Voices: one is fire, one is water. One has a passionate affect, the other a flat affect. One leaves behind only bones, the other a fleshy corpse. One is a bride, the other is a widow. Killing the Princess you defied the Narrator to save results in a Grey, a ghost dressed for marriage (future or past), that leads you to the basement of a dilapidated cabin that serves as your gruesome tomb.

The Damsel/Prisoner/Greys have many superficial differences that highlight how similar they are once you look beyond them. If played straight, the Damsel/Prisoner is a route where you continue to defy the narrator. The Damsel wants to leave? Pull off her chain and escort her out. The Prisoner wants to escape her chains? Give her the knife and take her head with you. Both are routes where you've established the best report with the Princess you could; you've literally died to protect her. Following this, you can take advantage of that goodwill and use it against the Narrator.

And in the case of the Greys, while the details are different (rain/desert, widow/bride, bones/corpse, drowning/burning) in both cases you're led to your doom by a betrayed ghost of a Princess in a neglected cabin.

Various Voices and Princesses serve as foils and mirrors to each other (Rivalry and Submission, Terror and Longing, etc.), but none more closely than the Damsel/Prisoner Smitten/Skeptic. It makes them especially interesting and I'm excited to see what their future third chapters have in store.

[randomchaotix]

Uhh stp art!! Been making some voice designs recently!!

Those are all the ones I finished!! But I might change cold and broken a little bit

Also— concepts :]

[the question marks are because I already made the contrarian and hero designs before I made those headshots LOL]

|| Edit: im honestly very surprised that this post is actually getting likes LMFAO— Glad you all like my designs!! ||

[incorrect-slaytheprincess]

the narrator: you're weirdly obsessed wuth finding meaning.

the skeptic: what did you mean by this.

[theriverpointace]

recurrent pattern of my favorite voices so far: the ones who keep asking questions and who are really suspicious of the narrator. the ones who aren't satisfied with the way things are (or the way the narrator wants them to be).

this is true of:

the voice of the hero ("this isn't right, we don't slay princesses, i don't like this," etc)

the voice of the cheated (the general fuck-the-narrator-i'm-the-main-character-now energy that i got from him)

the voice of the paranoid (literally "no yeah fuck that guy we can't trust him")

the voice of the skeptic ("are you really sure she's dead? why are you so insistent on things being the way you want them to be?")

[cammythedummy]

My brain wouldn't shut up until I put Skeptic in purple

[tai-janai]

transcription of my handwriting:

skeptic and stubborn: *arguing*

Opportunist: What are they arguing over this time?

Broken: who can say ...

...

Contrarian: ... Oh, did they just kiss?

Paranoid: why are they taking off their clothes-

[vaunteir]

yum

[bugsmitten]

slay the princess voices!

Headshot designs for all of them! did my best to capture their vibes ^^ hope you like it anyway

[phantasmatoucan]

INVERTED PARALLELS

[orcatnip]

I like to think the two of them lived their lives before witnessing the end of Narrator's world. Then they'd go back to their god selves and tell them about mortals.

Narrator was a misguided soul, but I believe his purpose had good intentions. It'd be nice if he still made a difference. Maybe the two gods decided to give mortals a bit of mercy after experiencing the true terror of death as actual mortals for the first time.

also, assorted sketches:

anyways, i oughta take a break. ive become addicted to slaying the princess...

[marcellachannn]

3 couple :v

[sunflowers-and-scales]

all these little pieces of shattered glass on the floor… are they also you?

@itsonlypolite hiiiii :)

[dobodleaday]

07.28.24 Good Choices, Only ⛓️

[sorry-not-feeling-it-right-now]

The Heart and The Head

Had to pair them up together simply because of how similar yet different they are as characters

I’m not even sure if it’s possible to have a route with them together

(Small ramble underneath)

They’re both quite single-minded voices who would continue on with their pursuit of what they wanted—Smitten, a happy ending with the Princess, and Skeptic with his pursuit of the truth. They would probably be unstoppable considering both of their desires requires the Princess in some way, and would quite literally lose their minds if they weren’t able to get it

With whatever crumbs we’ve gotten of them during routes where all voices are there there, it feels like these two might be able to get along with each other quite well, considering Skeptic was one of the Voices that had comforted Smitten about losing the Princess during A New Dawn ending variation alongside Cheated.

Which makes me kind of surprised that I don’t see many art pieces of them interacting

Maybe it’s because they never interacted in canon? Hmmm