The Stanley Parable Story Explained

0:00 Intro
0:08 Who is Stanley?
1:23 Who is the Narrator?
2:34 What is "The Stanley Parable"?
4:12 Why did Stanley make "The Stanley Parable"?
6:01 Conclusion

[haticehhhh]

I thought Stanley was a character in narrators head. He's so lonely that he makes up characters. He writes stories and endings with Stanley, and he slowly forgets. Stanley gets buried in his mind, and so the "epilogue" is just Stanley wandering through narrators memories.

[DoodleNoodle-YT]

I’ve always theorized The Narrator was an extension of Stanley, I’ve just never been able to have it make sense. Well done, good sir!

[drawingdragon]

Awesome video. Though I'm really surprised you didn't mention the Ultra Deluxe endings basically clarifying the "Stanley is the Narrator" theory. You can find plenty of evidence that Stanley is daydreaming/fantasizing and the Narrator is part of his psyche in the original full release - but the Ultra Deluxe release basically punches you in the gut with the Figurines Ending. Instead of "the Narrator was all in Stanley's head", we get "Stanley was all in the Narrator's head", which seems like a paradox... until you realize it's easily solved with "They are the same person, each 'half' is a projection of the real man".
But the part about the game having no canon ending because "life doesn't have a canon ending"? Brilliant. Really taps into the existential dread Stanley Parable always gives me.

[wileygrafton]

This game has just enough small details to make things make sense. Im just surprised that Joe (426)Jim(possibly 437) timekeeper (432) Stanley's wife(434) bitterman(428)or the broom closet were not even mentioned.

[Decen]

something i noticed playing the game is how when Stanley leaves free's himself from the mind control facility you no longer control his movements. Stanley just walks and looks around by himself, as if the mind control facility was meant for you to control Stanley this whole time.

[SinkholeCR]

The thing I like about this game is that even the theorizers don't know what is going on

[fizzydogg]

This video is SUPER good! I'm surprised you have so little views on it. This is one of my favorite videogames ever and I'm glad this was recommended to me :D

[lunatus]

You literally just made sense of the entire "frame story" of the game, the reason WHY it exists and this has ONLY 4 k views... This is actually the best video I've seen this week

[TheTSense]

The Stanley Parable is about the relationship between storyteller and story. You can enforce your characters to end up exactly where you want them to, logic be damned, or you can create a character with personality and then a world with rules and events with reason, and just ask yourself "what would the character do?". I think the most famous writer with this Style is George RR Martin. You can be surprised by your own story if you let it grow naturally.

[AlastairTheAnalyist]

I theorized mostly based on their dialogue and not the philisophical meaning I had a whole different outcome to that question. (keep reading to hear explanation)




Basically, I thought the mind control thing and the story were written by the narrator and Stanley was just randomly chosen by the narrator to be the one to lead the story and wrote most of the story. I took this from him breaking the fourth wall several times. The overhead and skip button endings make more sense taking into account that the narrator definitely isn't human, (even if there is proof that Stanley isn't human either) with the narrator being able to survive for several years and slowly losing his mind. The narrator also relies on Stanley for support and as someone to move the story along, he quotes in the skip buttin ending that he can't interact with anything in the room, impyling that he usually can interact with the rooms, as well as his projects for bits or the "new game" the narrator also shows an attatchment to Stanley as if he didn't mean to have one. The clock is also a big part of the story in determining this as the narrator brings it up multiple times as well as talking about resetting the story. The narrator has a lot of content attributed directly to him as well as a few pretty sad endings featuring the two characters. including the Stanley button and the overhead ending. the skip button ending is both kinda sad and extremely creepy as you can hear the narrator repeating the words the end is never the end like being seen in the loading screen, which would also imply that the two are stuck in an infinite time loop where if anything happens to either of them (the skip button ending) the they will reset the entire story. (in the skip button ending the narrator is the one who loses his mind and dissapears while stanley is finally the one being left alone before it resets.) meaning both of them are crucial to the story. I completely forgot what I was making a point about now so im gonna end it here.

[barenjager]

We are the alchemists of our own lives... we are our own narrators just in the same way we are our own main character. Life will happen as it happens, it just depends what path you chose...

[chara]

This was a very well put together video, you honestly deserve more views, hope the algorithm blesses this video so more people can see it.

[tristantabasco]

Thank you for this video, I’ve been trying wrap my head around it. This video deserves way more views. Man keep it up this is really good stuff.

[Menagerie_OS]

I personally believe the narrator to be stanleys subconscious trying to guide him to his sense of "rightness" after becoming self aware and realizing how stanley is living his life without personal choice.

[prockstudios]

The player isn’t employee 427. Within the mind control complex you can find a headcam of employee 427, who is at the time staring at some boxes. Idk what to do with that. There’s also some pretty sus notes found under the stairs by the panic ending, and in the lounge.

[sadpenguisapengu]

Stanley feels like a dad who wants his son to make a good life introducing things like in a goody way

[Hellooo-qjwb]

I think the narrator is the real person because he say at the end "i must go to reality, i cant anymore run away" or something like that, i think thats mean the naarator has created his own world to escaps from reality and we are just hes imagination and without hes imagination he can live anymore in the unreality and must back to reality.

[markwolfe]

As from what I understand from Schopenhauer and his philosophy is that one has free will and freedom. In so that one is pushed forward by their past and pulled forward by one’s desires informed by their past or wishes. Such as say one becomes aspiring basket ball player. That choice was based on one’s wish and will, and in so locks the person in the path to potentially become a basketball player. But good breakdown of the game.

[catcube]

This is an incredibly interesting take of TSP! This feels like how you describe it…maladaptive daydreaming?

[JiroTheFro]

Amazing explanation! I’ve always been curious of what the story was about but all the other video I’ve found have been way too long to sit through