It’s been several years since I last read through the manual of the Indiebox physical release of The Stanley Parable, and....
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.
And I’m going to Stanley Parable Supermax Prison.
