The Narrator and Stanley!

When Stanley came to a set of two open doors, he entered the door on his left. The Narrator

The Narrator is the voice heard constantly in The Stanley Parable, who serves a general purpose of guiding Stanley. Depending on Stanley's actions, The Narrator can serve as the main antagonist, the deuteragonist, a neutral/misunderstood character, or even Stanley's friend.

The Narrator is a transcendental entity that exists independently from the game-world and manifests himself as a voice in Stanley's head. His powers, alignment, and motives vary per ending.

The Narrator's personality depends entirely on the choices Stanley makes and may develop into several different personalities, such as sad, angry, obnoxious, happy, and confused.

In several endings such as the Freedom Ending or the Confusion Ending, The Narrator serves his role in the game as the player's guide and even friend (the "Freedom" ending is also ironic though, as it only happens if you never question the narrative and always follow all instructions to the letter). However, The Narrator can also display a cold, ruthless demeanor. This is showcased in the Explosion Ending and the Museum Ending, where he willingly lets Stanley slowly die. (However, in the Museum ending, he tried to warn Stanley about entering the escape route, which seems to suggest that in this route, his ruthlessness is caused by annoyance or some other exterior emotion.)

Testchmb a 000007 The Narrator's possible identity seen above Test Chamber 00 Blockbase0005 The Narrator's possible identity seen above the Minecraft World The Narrator also displays a great deal of sarcasm; in the Serious Room, he exclaims that most rational people would say that the Narrator spends an absurd amount of time doing nothing but looking at tables. Also, in the Games Ending, the Narrator sarcastically remarks that he "doesn't need the validation of a man whose job is to push buttons". The Narrator is also impatient; if Stanley stays in the Broom Closet, the Narrator will get bored and angry quite quickly. He does the opposite of this in the Demo, where he says he'll wait for the player if they wait in the waiting room, and play the Eight game.

In some endings, the Narrator will also make fun of Stanley. For example, in the Games Ending in the original Half-Life 2 mod, he will call Stanley "fat, ugly, and really, really stupid". The same line is used to mock Stanley if he stays inside the Broom Closet long enough.

The Narrator shows an antagonistic personality in the following endings:

Explosion Ending - He reveals his plot about erasing Stanley's co-workers and expecting to see Stanley die in many ways. He also taunts Stanley while the countdown goes down. Cold Feet Ending - He pressures Stanley into jumping off the platform, and then makes a sarcastic remark about making a miscalculation. Apartment Ending - He tricks Stanley about the existence of his wife. (However, the Narrator was trying to prove a point.) In the Zending and the Games Ending, the Narrator instead falls victim to Stanley's villainous role, as Stanley ignores and tortures the Narrator and prevents him from being happy.

The Narrator is also 'the platonic concept of divorce'.[1][1][2]

The Settings Person has some degree of power over him as well, shown by their fixing the machine to give Stanley the test achievement. (The Narrator clearly doesn't like the knowledge that there's someone else in the Parable. His reaction to Stanley being given the achievement is a sort of panic.) Temper: The Narrator has been shown to get overly upset from things like petty criticism of his game design as seen in the Games Ending and the Skip Button Ending, or from Stanley's (or the Player's) inability to follow his directions like in the Not Stanley Ending. Sensitivity: In the Bucket variant of the Not Stanley Ending, he seems sensitive and under confident about his comedic ability. He also doesn't like the idea of leaving the Starry Dome in the Zending, to the point of audible sadness. He's also incredibly sensitive to criticism- in the Skip Button Ending, negative reviews by three nobodies he doesn't know caused him to doubt if his game was ever good, and then make the Skip Button in an attempt to, in his own words, "do anything for the customer." He points out himself that he overreacted to the reviews on the fourth skip. The Bucket: It seems even the Narrator, like most characters, cannot resist the implied allure of The Bucket, as seen in the Bucket variant of the Apartment Ending. He goes from confusion over Stanley's obsession with it, to screaming at him to give it to him. Doors of the Boss's Office: If Stanley enters the door of the Boss' Office but exits before the doors close, the Narrator will cease to speak to Stanley, as seen in the Escape Pod Ending. The Narrator at this point might be trapped inside the Boss's Office or erased entirely (at least until the next session). This is arguably the closest Stanley can get to defeating or killing the Narrator. Grabbing the Bucket after trapping the Narrator in the Boss' Office triggers him to speak. If this is not an oversight, this may mean that the Narrator is actually present throughout the Escape Pod Ending and has not, in fact, been trapped or erased (removed in an unknown patch).

Trivia Some have theorized the Narrator to be Stanley addressing himself in third person and with everything being Stanley's imagination. This, however, seems unlikely to be true since numerous factors suggest otherwise, such as the Mariella Ending. The Narrator has claimed to rely on Stanley to exist. The most detail he goes into regarding this is during the Skip Button Ending, where the lack of Stanley's presence (combined with the negative reviews from players of The Stanley Parable) causes him to seemingly go crazy. He describes needing Stanley so that he knows someone is listening to him and taking in his words. This contradicts his decisions in some endings, in which he seems happy to let Stanley die, and even went as far as abandoning Stanley in the Games Ending. It is possible he simply requires a protagonist for the story he's trying to tell, but it can be argued that The Narrator himself is the subject of the story on some occasions, such as the Confusion Ending. Depending on the ending played, the Narrator can be considered a supporting character, a deuteragonist, or a sadistic antagonist. In the original Half-Life 2 mod, the Narrator is more rude and impolite in the endings. The Narrator is at his most evil in the Countdown Ending, exclaiming various sadistic quotes (which differ between the mod and full game) and forcing Stanley through a literal countdown to his death. In a stream-turned-video with Stanley Parable writer David Wreden and his brother Douglas, Davey mentions, upon being asked if the Narrator is divorced, that the Narrator “is the platonic ideal of divorce.” [3](around the 00:24:10 mark in the video). Despite claiming that what he was about to say was canon information, it's possible that this was just a joke, as Douglas’ live chat has a running gag where they claim to be mid- or post-divorce, and had reacted very poorly earlier in the stream when Davey confirmed Stanley to be in an intact marriage. The Narrator is said by Crows Crows Crows on X (formerly Twitter) to have a canon appearance. This canon appearance is a picture of a cosplay, the person wearing a white button down shirt, beige pants, a black tie with yellow stripes, and a computer (which looks like Stanley’s) for a head. There is also a presumably canon appearance for him in the files, where he had a computer for a head, this time with an eye in the middle, wearing an open coat and a shirt that reads “NARRATOR - WE DO - PRECISION GUESS WORK BASED ON UNREliABLE DATA PROCEDURES BY THOSE OF QUESTiONABlE KNOWLEDGE”. This picture is found on one of the desks in Ultra Deluxe for the Switch, but this time with him and Stanley in the drawing, though this could have just been a shoutout to fanart. The Narrator makes a guest appearance in Please Don’t Touch Anything 3D and VR, mistaking the player for Stanley in one of the endings. However, he does not appear in the original Please Don’t Touch Anything. However, it is also safe to assume that you are Stanley in PDTA, which would explain both characters' fascination for buttons (you could use this to guess that PDTA is a prequel, but that might be a stretch). The Narrator makes mention of "God" at least 3 times during the narration in an identical context as humans would. Whether he believes in such a "God" or is just aping human speech and expressions is unknown.

Narrators' appearance: he has grey hair, white skin and yellow eyes. He's wearing a black suit with yellow tie and a rectangular glasses that the lens are yellow.

Stanley is one of several hundred employees that the Boss controls with the Mind Control Facility. In the Broom Closet Ending, the Narrator speculates that Stanley got this job either via a family connection or with "drug money". As Employee 427, his task is to sit in Room 427, pushing buttons on a keyboard. Orders come to him via a monitor on his desk, telling him what buttons to push, how long to push them, and in what order. This task is performed daily throughout the entire year. The Narrator notes that "although others may have considered it soul-rending, Stanley relished every moment that these orders came in." Stanley held this job for "years" prior to the events of the game.[1]

During the events of The Stanley Parable, Stanley's routine is interrupted when orders cease to arrive at his desk. At this point, he realizes that all of his co-workers have disappeared. During the Countdown Ending, the Narrator states that he intentionally erased the co-workers from existence in order to set Stanley free. From this point onward, Stanley's fate depends on player action. This fate can range from breaking free from the Mind Control Facility to refusing to leave his room forever, among others.

Against popular belief, Stanley is not actually the main character in The Stanley Parable. And his character name is not Stanley. It is actually Richard. The first game he was in was not The Stanley Parable either. It was Half-Life 2. Advertisement

Personality Stanley personality is dynamic with respect to the player. If he wishes to follow The Narrator's instructions, then he may. If Stanley wishes to disregard the Narrator, he may do so as well.

The Narrator repeatedly says that Stanley loves to push buttons, which explains why Stanley enjoys his job so much. Supporting this is the Heaven Ending, where Stanley is teleported to a room full of colorful buttons for him to push. While most of the Narrator's comments about Stanley cannot be taken seriously, Stanley's love of pressing buttons is occasionally mentioned.

In the Apartment Ending, the Narrator suggests that Stanley has a wife. Additionally, it is possible to randomly receive a call from her in the first office. He also appears to have multiple children with said wife, as one of the prompts in the Apartment Ending is to read a story to his kids.

In the intro, the Narrator mentions that no one had shown up to even said hi to Stanley after an hour of no instructions. This suggests that Stanley gets along with his co-workers. The Narrator mentions that Stanley never functioned well by himself, and constantly needed support from others and that he is afraid of solitude.

Stanley's appearance: He has short brown hair and light skin. He's wearing a white button shirt with black pants(with belt) and shoes. He can't talk because he's muted, but he can do hands sign.

When The Narrator and Stanley at home, they wear causal clothing.

Fun fact: The Narrator and Stanley always stick together no matter where they go. The Narrators' short nickname is "Narry"

The Narrator is a tired and serious person, he do looked angry at the same time, he's just pretty much on having stress and trouble on Stanley that sometimes not listen to him, but he can clam himself tho and he's the "hard to smile" cause he don't smile often.

Stanley is a cheerful person, always being happy (not energetic) he likes to annoy Narrator when he can (but not often)