Tspud 432 - Tumblr Posts

some first-draft concept art for my timekeeper design! they are riddled with lore :))

Misconceptions in TSPUD

Stanley and The Player are separate people. Stanley does not control what he does, only briefly managing to seize control in certain instances (Bucket Escape Pod Ending, Bucket Destroyer Ending, Freedom Ending)

The Narrator isn’t the one in control, you are. The man can’t fix everything with a snap of his fingers, it’s up to you to stop the cycle.

The Narrator doesn’t know Stanley’s not in control. He only finds out in the Not Stanley Ending. As for the Broom Closet Ending? See next point.

Stanley is playing the game. When you click any key, you hear keyboard clicks. On the title screen on the original 2013 game and before the TSP 2 Expo, you see Stanley’s computer with the game’s menu displayed. That’s why there’s miscommunication - you are controlling a man playing a video game where he himself is the protagonist.

Settings Person doesn’t care about Stanley, he cares about you. They talk with you before even starting the game, when you’re not in control of Stanley, they never refer to you as such, and if he cared about Stanley - why did he leave him in the Skip Button Room? Stanley would’ve been completely awake and aware but unable to move the entire time, same thing happened in the Not Stanley Ending.

The Narrator is a prick, a real prick, but he’s not an absolute asshole. You paid for the game, play it, and break it apart, and you’re shocked that he’s upset? Imagine some person breaks into your house, starts tearing everything up, you get mad, and then you’re framed as the asshole.

Adding onto the last point - this shit’s a video game. The Narrator knows he’s not actually leaving you forever in the Hole, or sentencing you to a painful death in the Countdown Ending - it’s a video game. He knows you’ll just reset. He literally says this in the Half-Life 2 mod version of the Games Ending - when he abandons you, he says he expects you to reset the game.

Istg almost all of these come down to the fandom forgetting that it’s a fucking self aware video game

Good news, I’m off my antibiotics now, so I should be a whole lot more patient with the discourse lately.