DAMSEL HEA X NARRATOR RAMBLE
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LISTEN YOU DON'T UNDERSTANDDDDD
This is the only princess route in which the Narrator realize how miserable static life could be (even if it wouldn't exactly be the same, because even in that moment everything around them is still minutely changing due to the fact she's there and she herself is change, however this is the closest and most grounded example of the kind of future the Narrator envisioned). It's not a grand reveal, it's not an epic battle, or an explosive argument. It's this, the same never ending song and dance and a gradual decline of quality of life. Forced to sit back as another takes full control, stripping them of autonomy.
The Narrator is forced to experience a truth of his deluded dream, living in what would essentially be a time capsule. Life simply continues on.
It's during the game in which he realizes what's happened. RIGHT HERE, IN THIS EXCHANGE, HE COMES TO A REALIZATION.
This is arguably the most human Princess we have too, trapped right alongside them, meek and small at the other end of the table without much control over what's happening, and it's the only time Narrator actually considers her, TLQ, the fate of the world. She is now someone the Narrator can actually find it himself to relate to and sympathize with. It's not just experiencing this for himself within TLQ, but also seeing another individual struggle to mask her true feelings and encourage the repetitions because it's what TLQ wanted, and in a roundabout way, what the Narrator wanted for his own world.
You can hear him continuously grow exhausted and defeated as the time passes... And in this moment, his voice practically trembles as he recites this line....!!!
He is broken, he is defeated by the weight of what he's been doing, trying to destroy transformation herself when it was only after she admitted to wanting change that their misery ended. What is life without change, and death? It becomes meaningless and dull, it loses purpose. Moments simply are as they always have been. How can they be cherished as memories if they don't have means to end and move on?
What won me over completely was the way he describes the princess here. His voice is so gentle and soft, I can only imagine the way he must be looking at her here; he's learned to care about TLQ, about her . The most real thing you have ever felt.
The most real thing he has ever felt? Perhaps...
This line right here... I can never get through this route without crying.
Again, what must he be thinking? Seeing her in all her glory under the stars? Seeing the strength she has to smile despite what she endured under the other voice? The blade on her chest a reminder of what he's tried so desperately to do only to realize his plans were flawed from the start and impossible?
What meaning would this moment have had they not lived through a moment captured in time, suffering cycle after cycle of the same exact things, avoiding the truth of what needs to be done and accepting that it needs to end, in order to find happiness and fulfillment elsewhere. In order to create a new memory to cherish...
'I hope this, was worth it. Genuinely, I do."
Honestly I rambled for so long I think I lost track of what I was going for... I'm literally in tears writing this they mean so much to me.
