Duck Queen

My god, The Narrator the most autistic thing on the planet. It’s like, I get that the manual is written the way that it is to be humorous and slightly unsettling, but boy if it does not feel like the Autism Experience playing out in miniature. 

The over explanation and difficulty with trimming it down. This is a whole ass mood right here. Overexplaining everything because you’re so used to being misunderstood and taken out of context. 

This could also be seen as info-dumping about a special interest since the dude is unquestionably obsessed with his game and story.

The all or nothing, black and white, ridged thinking.

Extremely blunt and literal instructions. The lack of understanding that if a person bought this, they probably know what a video game is and has the means to play it.

And on the opposite end is explanations and instructions that come off as bizarre and nonsensical but make sense and are logical to him. Another whole ass mood when it comes to the Autism Experience where you explain things in such a way that makes sense to you only to find out you’re making no sense to the person you’re trying to explain the thing to.

And last but not least, once you get past The Narrator’s usual over-exaggerated ego and overconfidence that of course spirals into crippling, destructive self-doubt by the end of the manual, you find that there is genuine earnestness beneath it all. The Narrator feels like this character who is super eager to show off this thing he made and that he is beyond passionate about, but there is a fundamental communication barrier between himself and his audience, which is funny since he quite literally is just a voice and all he does is communicate. He struggles to understand humans and we struggle to understand him. If that isn’t The Autism Experience, I don’t know what is lmao.

In conclusion, I judge The Stanley Parable Manual to have committed an Autism. We should all make our own instruction manuals in honor of this dork and we should all come together to give him a bigger page count because the world need The Stanley Parable Instruction Manual: Director’s Cut with all 400 pages restored. Let the man instruct us on how to play The Stanley Parable unfiltered and uncensored.

Also, this is the most underrated TSP character.

…it might help explain why this scene was a complete miscommunication.

Noelle is confused about why Kris doesn’t tell on Susie or switch seats or do, literally, anything to react to Susie’s apparent bullying.

Noelle thinks they might be “oblivious”. And Susie’s usual approach…

…could be taken as Susie just messing around by someone who’s neurodivergent or just has that kind of sense of humor.

And, indeed, Kris laughs at it.

It seems like Kris probably does appreciate that kind of humor when meant sincerely…

…as it’s the only thing that really gets them to calm down after the Spamton fight.

But consider it from Susie’s perspective.

If Susie is actually mad about Kris leaving her behind all those years ago and not saying a word to her in the present day (no matter how she goads them)…

…then Kris laughing at her and then taking a bite out of the apple she threw might have come off as cruel, flippant and dismissive.

(even Noelle thinks Susie thought she was getting made fun of)

Like they really do hate her and don’t think about their past friendship or care about their abandonment of her at all.

 I think that’s what set her off, and why she got so serious so suddenly.

I’d hazard Susie’s bullying probably didn’t, up until this point, usually go past hammy comments like pretending Kris was an apple she’d bite in half.

Meanwhile, Kris may have thought they were just joking around together, and didn’t realize how upset Susie was getting.

It’s at this point Kris actually does something:

…although we don’t know what, it made Susie’s demeanor change instantly.

A similar miscommunication happens during the hallway scene. Susie gets angry Kris won’t talk to her…

And she interprets their silence as hatred of her.

Kris is shocked to hear she actually thinks they want her expelled …

But from her perspective, Susie’s probably thinking this old friend of hers hates her so much they won’t talk to her at all, and now they’re going to be the one that pulls the trigger on her.

I think both these scenes were miscommunications on Kris and Susie’s part that resulted in a lot of hurt feelings to them both.

That’s a good point. Sometimes respecting others’ privacy is how Kris shows affection.

Peeking into Asriel’s room with their eyes closed, like you said…

Or avoiding looking into Berdly’s room.

Or not reading further about Asgore getting fired.

And, in Snowgrave, refusing point-blank to intrude on Noelle and Susie.