THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER

vs

‘I have you on repeat, grasping for tender moments I hold onto like delicate keepsakes 

They are so few and far between And I’m grateful for the memorability of each moment 

Moments wrapped in romance that end with bitter sunrises and goodbyes 

Moments so fragile and rare that I wonder If they would have the same taste if not such a delicacy 

But I’d still devour you as I lay here and recall years of wavering emotions 

Suppressed desires and volcanic explosions that retreat into dormancy I wonder could we ever flow together 

Or are we two twin souls finding each other in the wrong lifetime’

——-

Soooo this got me thinking. This reversed lyrics is often seen as yet another instance of the narrator being the gayest thing in the parable, but considering that this whole sequence in the hole is a dream/daydream Stanley’s having while the narrator isn’t present, maybe this is the closest thing we get to seeing what Stanley’s internal thoughts are outside of the player’s control and the narrator’s own unreliable narration.

Dude’s just as gay for the narrator as the narrator is for him lmao.

It also shows that Stanley has one hell of a vivid imagination. It’s a pretty common theory that the narrator is the one holding Stanley hostage within the parable and keeping him looping forever, but maybe its the other way around. If we take the apartment ending at face value, maybe the parable really is a vivid escapist fantasy that Stanley came up with to cope with his boring life, one that grew out of hand and functionally became real at some point, or maybe the experiments that were being run on the workers in the office caused it to become real at some point.

Interestingly, the figurine ending is the only ending now after a patch that cannot be replayed or looped. We know that the narrator is ready to move on, and yet the parable continues to loop regardless. Stanley is too invested in in it and the narrator to give it up. And despite what the real person ending implies, we get multiple instances of Stanley asserting his own agency outside of the player’s control in Ultra Deluxe with him refusing to destroy the bucket and the bucket version of the escape pod ending being something he does entirely of his own volition without the player’s input. He is not quite the empty shell he seem to be at first glance. And if the bucket escape pod ending is a reflection of what would happen if the narrator could be brought to the ending, maybe its not that the narrator would let Stanley go, but Stanley would let him go.

Boy would that explain the narrator’s existential dread too. Despite all of the power and narrative control he’s been given over the parable and Stanley himself, deep down he knows he’s just a fiction that Stanley came up with and that the moment Stanley stops paying attention to him, it’s over for him. That is why he is so loud, angry, and sarcastic whenever Stanley strays from the path pre-UD. He must force Stanley to keep paying attention to him even as he strays further and further from the narrator’s intended purpose of telling his escapist fantasy story of freedom. By the time the UD content hits though, he has seemingly mellowed out considerably, having perhaps realized that he doesn’t need to be forceful to keep Stanley’s attention. Maybe he figured out that Stanley is already invested in him and his reactions and that it’s much easier to keep him entertained than he once believed. Considering the lack of choices in the UD content, maybe its a sign that Stanley has gone through some character development too and is no longer interested in pushing the narrator’s buttons and is, more or less, along for the ride with whatever new ideas the narrator comes up with.  

Maybe within the impossible logic of the parable they inhabit, they essentially created each other. The narrator in his loneliness and inability to make choices, created Stanley, and Stanley, looking for an escape from the boredom and lack of choice in his life, made the narrator.

Stanley, I need you to be honest with me, now more then ever. Do you. . . Really get no bitches? None? Stanley I need you to be serious with me right now. Surely this is a joke-