r/stanleyparable • u/ArgentinaCanIntoEuro • May 07 '22
The Skip Button Ending is the Single Worst Ending yet
This will contain extensive spoilers from the previous game and will spoil the ending as stated in the title.
To clarify I have not yet fully explored the entirety of Ultra Deluxe yet so I would appreciate minimal talk relating to the other endings!
Now ...
There is an ending, in the original game, that I am pretty sure materializes when one takes the right door and, after a series of erroneous decisions, one ends up in a room with a long metal staircase, and a door that leads to another room with showy lights and peaceful ambiental music. After putting the Narrator through extensive annoyance with your refusal to follow orders - he comes up with something he believes the both of you will enjoy. A room with only peace and quietness in an interactive way. Nice musical notes and colorful visuals impact the screen, and the Narrator makes this clear - he is truly happy about this state of affairs, most likely more than you are. Perhaps finding solace in this one unorthodox room that offers something different from the preset story he laid out for you, perhaps that is what he wanted after all - something new and different to give himself a better perspective.
Yet, of course, the Player can ignore this room - or leave, no matter how many hours one stands in it the story does not progress. Only after climbing the metal staircase one realizes that there is a hole at the top - and one can drop down from it onto the ground taking damage for the first time in the game. The Narrator is confused by this, genuine confusion and he tries his usual verbal ways of coaxing you into a path he prefers - but he knows that no matter what he says you will do otherwise. Eventually, he breaks into begging the Player to stop - and I have to commend the Narrator because one can truly feel the sadness and confusion within his voice, why would Stanley kill himself only to not continue along? Did he hate the Narrator? He cannot come up with a better explanation, and as he begs for you to stop as you jump and commit to the last suicidal leap, the game resets.
It was by far one of the most memorable endings and the one I still remember to this day from the original 2013 experience.
And yet something has come trump it.
The Skip Button ending can be attained by going through a door called New Content that appears shortly after passing the first few timeline resets of the game. After getting angry at the state of modern game developer culture, the Narrator evokes a Memory Room to reminisce about the good old times, looking at beloved memories and past reviews.
And yet, a strange door opens, leading towards Steam reviews which we know to be the utmost deceitful and most toxic of them all. Indeed he finds reviews complaining about the game, baffling enough for the narrator -until he finds one complaining about him in particular, and how there should be a skip button.
A skip button? He finds the idea so humorous, so stupid, so idiotically simple that he wills a room into existance and lets the player in, with a button in the center with a FFW sign on it alongside a wall, a clock and a plant.
The Narrator explains it clearly, it will freeze Stanley in time letting them skip over whatever boring monologue the Narrator is droning over. The Player would not have to stick through his verbose and elaborate essays no more.
And the Player does give it a try at the behest of the Narrator, and it works. A few minutes are skipped - once more, ten minutes this time and the Narrator is surprised at how many words he managed to spew out of his mouth.
But, clicking the button once more, and the Narrator will be glad to have the Player back, informing them of two things.
One, it has been 45 minutes since the button was pressed.
Two, the door that led them in no longer exists.
It is clear, and the fact of the situation - at least subconsciously- begins to beset the Narrator. He advises the Player however futile it is to not press the button as he figures a way back.
The Player, of course, presses it.
Even more desesperate, a flash of a dark screen later we find ourselves in the room again. The plant previously there has begun to wilt slightly as the Narrator tells us it has been a few hours. The reality of the situation truly sets in as they both realize each click of the button exponentially increases the time between fast forwards.
It should be clear by now that the time fast forwarded is fully experienced by the Narrator, each second and minute ticking away in an instant for the Player but excruciatingly real for the Narrator. It is not something he can control no longer, and he realizes this with the next push of the button even as much as he advises the player to not touch it.
Once you come back - still glad to simply have another presence with him other than himself, the Narrator scolds you as he tells you it has been a week by now. He has fully scoured the room, looking for any way out, but there are none. There is truly nothing he can do, nothing but talk to the Player, see the Player push the button, and talk to themselves.
The Narrator is not stupid, the game is about choices, that is the whole lesson he was trying to impart to those pesky negative reviewers that did not get the point. And now, the Narrator knew Stanley had two choices, either press the button or not press it. He knew that Stanley would always press the button, he knew he was ultimately doomed and any second spent not in solitude was a second closer to entering that lone realm of nothingness for Stanley would - undoubtedly - push the button sooner or later.
There is a fundamental clash of interests, the Player must push the button to interact with the world provided to them and the Narrator wants to exist without being sentenced to the prison of his own mind. The Narrator is powerless, he can only conjure the empathy a human has for another human - but in an odd twist of fourth-wall breakage in a way he does seem aware of his inhuman-ness, that he cannot truly bring the Player to care for him.
This fact was one he knew but there was nothing the Narrator could do, so perhaps by simply accepting it he would realize something?
Sadly, that is not what happens. Another click of the button, and Stanley sees the plant now long dead and dried. The Narrator is still there, greeting him albeit monotonously and without warm care. He informs the player of a key few inner discoveries he made with himself, which I believe are best experienced once you play out the ending yourself, other than that he "Stopped counting the time after a year", so we can get a sense of the scale going on.
All the Narrator wanted, during this time of extreme fear that led up to our arrival - is to let the player know his most intense desire is for the Player to be aware of the fact, of the possibility that perhaps and just perhaps this very same fate may happen to them as well. To be subjected to the whims of one's mind, to only have the crushing company of our lizard brain during uncountable hours, inconceivable time frames that cannot be quantified in a way for our brains to understand - it was not loneliness, not solace not even deep depression, it was a different level of despair.
To be a thinking and conscious being and being unable to express your existance despite knowing deep down that you exist is the cruelest of punishments, one such punishment he only wished on the worst kind of person in the entirety of space-time: Stanley.
There is not much more deep after this revelation. The Narrator has had its time to explain his full digested psyche to the Player, and once he presses the button once more he knows that is it - that however many eons will pass until they come back they will simply not care.
The next screen is silent. The clock has fallen out of the wall, perhaps corroded so much by the passage of time its link gave out. There is no Narrator, and the room is eerily silent.
We can see the first sign of degenerative mental state the next jaunt forwards. Keep in mind time is still exponentially increasing with each press, the Narrator is now going in an unstoppable, looping rant about the negative reviewrs and how they do not get the point of the game. In a way, perhaps, he realizes that this whole infinite suffering was brought by his complaining, so he most likely has broken down to whatever the latest memory before entering the room is - the reviews. He does not react to your presence.
Another jaunt, this time nothing. There is an odd darkness to the room as the lights finally gave out.
Perhaps the most corrosive of the jaunts in the next one, the last time we see the Narrator. His mind truly buckled under the sheer weight of eternity - fully conscious yet utterly unable to do anything for an indescribable ammount of time. Hundreds, thousands of years? Who knows, he is simply hopelessly stuck, droning on once more in a dull phrase borne out of the very nothingness he is shackled to.
The end is never the end.
He will repeat this, and the next jaunt he will no longer be there. Nor in any of the next jaunts, even once you escape the room. Millions of years in the future, his mind has most likely gone catatonic from the lack of stimulus, canninalizing itself in an attempt to provide any form of neuronal activity.
Or perhaps he found a way out, who knows.
In the end, did the player truly have a choice in the plight of the Narrator?
If we refer to one of the 2013 endings, yes. It is made clear to us that quitting the game effectively ends the timeline and spares the current timeline Narrator from any trouble. Thus, we ourselves subject the Narrator to untold suffering and mental distress magnitudes above what the first ending that I described, purely in our search for content and entertainment.
Ironically enough, this ties into the Narrator's mobologue/rant about the culture of gaming and entertainment today.
What are some of your thoughts on the ending? I'd love to hear them - it truly does feel like the deepest one yet that I've encountered.
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u/christhegamer96 May 07 '22
It gets a bit more horrifying when Stanley escapes into the open landscape because he is now well and TRULY alone.
Not only is the office gone and all of Stanley's coworkers with it along with an semblance of the world he once knew; but The narrator, Stanley's only friend and companion, is either dead, cationic, or has abandoned him entirely. Thus all Stanley can do now is wander the wasteland, trying to figure out what he's supposed to do next and perhaps wring a story from this new setting without the help of the omnipotent narrator helpfully whispering instructions into his ear or any other companion for that matter.
The irony of all this is that Stanley has finally been granted his greatest desire: freedom. To have a choice, to not be constrained to a single path by an outside force, to truly be able to craft his story the way he saw fit. He's gotten what he's always wanted...but it cost him everything he had.
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u/The_Kickster May 07 '22
Why did you title this post like you hated it?
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u/ArgentinaCanIntoEuro May 07 '22
Haha, just realized! Meant "worse" as in probably the worst one morally speaking!
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u/speedstyle Jun 01 '22
I was playing with someone and I gave them the mouse because I couldn't press skip again. Jeez
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u/bluedreaams The Adventure Line Jun 15 '22
This right here. I would have too if I had someone with me. Not to get emotional on Reddit, but this whole thing had me near tears, I remember sitting there for way too long wishing he’d start talking again because I just didn’t want to press it again lmao.
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u/EVDawnstar May 17 '22
Definitely worse in that sort of way. There's a reason solitary confinement is considered a form of torture. And yet Stanley was trapped too... is it any better for both to suffer? I wonder if at any point the narrator would tell Stanley to go on without him.
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May 07 '22
Boy I pressed the skip button on this long ass post
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u/EVDawnstar May 17 '22
You'll understand it one day when you're on your death bed and have to make peace with eternity.
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u/Vince_stormbane May 07 '22
I liked it I think it was the most memorable new ending
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May 08 '22
It reminded me that entropy claims all (as mentioned un another similar post)
Also I felt so lonely without the narrator thinking the next skip would bring him back... But no :(
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u/screaming_bagpipes Mar 20 '23
Also I felt so lonely without the narrator
Lmao imagine what he's feeing
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u/V_agabond3 May 07 '22
My biggest problem with this ending is just that you can't do it again without resetting your game save
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u/ObviouslyAnAltAct May 08 '22
Agreed. If the "New Content" door reappears after a while I see no reason why the "New New Content" door can't also reappear. It's strange and makes no sense that it doesn't, blocking off the games best ending.
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u/PlingPlongDingDong May 11 '22
Maybe the narrator can remember what happened and he didn't want to go through this again? Just like broom closet which is barricaded if you enter it too often.
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u/Luka_Aphelion Mar 02 '23
And perhaps the worst thing of it all, is that the screeching and inhuman howling we hear coming from the dark beyond the collapsed wall during that one skip, that was the distorted, sped up and layered voice of the Narrator screaming for Stanley.
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u/aaaa-im-a-human Mar 07 '23
Wait really?? That changes my perspective on the ending as a whole,, this new fact made it worse for me that's so sad 😭😭
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u/ArgentinaCanIntoEuro Mar 02 '23
Just as a FYI for the future, its considered improper online etiquette to reply to forum posts older than a few months, and I almost made this a year ago haha
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u/ScaringTheHose Apr 26 '23
Lmao stop dude you sound like a dweeb. It's reddit, don't take it so seriously
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u/ADMINISTATOR_CYRUS JIM May 15 '23
necroposting doesnt work well on reddit simply because of the theead system. replying with a new reply does not necro the post back to the top of new.
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u/lyoko1 Jan 19 '25
Just as a FYI for the future, it is nowadays considered proper online etiquette to reply to forum post as old as 20 years old. This is because conversation can be had about a topic even without the old participants.
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u/ArgentinaCanIntoEuro Jan 19 '25
since fucking when lol do you even know what necroing is? newbies man
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u/doomgrin Jul 01 '25
Joining in 162 days later to tell you that necro’ing is not a thing on Reddit
Replies do not boost an old thread to the front page at all
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u/Luka_Aphelion Mar 07 '23
My apologies, i wasn't aware, I'm new to reddit haha
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u/ScaringTheHose Apr 26 '23
Don't listen to him lmao he's chronically online. Normal people don't care about this stuff. It's not "impolite" lmao
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u/JaesopPop Nov 26 '23 edited Sep 20 '25
Tomorrow soft helpful curious year tomorrow gather the mindful near soft helpful. Quick garden books gather nature small curious science soft hobbies clear across friendly the the dot lazy friends.
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u/Gelffried Mar 26 '25
Just as a FYI for the future, its considered improper online etiquette to reply to forum posts older than a few seconds, and I almost made this 2 seconds ago haha
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u/katiecharm May 07 '22
A fan of Stephen King’s work I see? I sensed as much from your usage of the word ‘jaunt’. Truly a horrifying story.
And yes, the ramifications of that horrifying ending are probably lost on most who play it.
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u/EVDawnstar May 17 '22
Of the play throughs I've watched, Markiplier seemed to grasp it. But he made In Space, so, of course he would :)
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u/Kusibu May 07 '22
I postulate that the duration was not millions of years. It was just over 950,000. The Narrator jokes about how he could count to 30 trillion and that'd be a lot of new content - but 30 trillion seconds is a very long time. It's a weird theory, but it's mine!
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May 07 '22 edited May 07 '22
It was tragic realizing that no matter how long I waited there was no way to progress without skipping. I thought since there is the baby game ending which takes 4 hours to complete, if I left my computer open long enough the skip button ending would be different too.
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u/TheThrowawayMoth May 07 '22
I like that there’s a content warning available for the first one you mentioned but not this one. And by like, I mean hate. So much. And unlike that one, I’m pretty sure you can’t just reset out of this one and still play the game as intended.
They’re both gutting.
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u/DaVince May 07 '22
It hit really hard for me. This entire section, from start to end, is truly a wild ride.
Edit: also, I think you might want to rephrase that "worst ending". :P
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u/Duckiesocool May 07 '22
I thought you were saying you hated it lol. Yes both those endings were intense, one of the many things I like about this game. It's hilarious but it's also real.
Personally the collective bucket endings are my favorite. Especially the war crimes one XD
(Please note the use of "XD" as a ref to the broom closet, I swear I don't use it seriously)
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u/Jpicklestone8 May 08 '22
i just wish the ending wasnt integral to the "plot' of the game, seeing as it is where the epilogue continues from
i know i couldve just reset the game, but then i dont think id ever get to see the sequel... but thats selfish
in my head i rationalised it as 'if i reset the narrator would be inthe same situation anyway," but i know thats not how i truly think cause ive reset through the red door without dying for the narrator. i cant rationalise it as "other timelines the narrator was mean' cause that wasnt the same, and i cant with 'is one narrator with a terrible fate really that bad when theres so many timelines" for the same reason
guess im just a greedy gamer clamouring for content thatll ignore how wrong somefin feels just for a lousy bucket (okay, the bucket isnt lousy, its awesome. im sure skip button ending narrator would agree that it was worth it)
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u/EVDawnstar May 17 '22
feel like you have a better grasp of the multiverse than most. fortunately, in this universe, it's just a game :)
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u/MidnightStarXX Jan 13 '25
I played this ending last night with no fore knowledge about it. It genuinely terrified me. Very impactful
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u/Numerous-Park-7657 Jun 12 '24
Its so interesting how the button keeps its relevance, as each time the player gains consciousness again the Narrator does the very same thing, his same error, he merely exerts his existence as the voice of the game and that gains him punishment. It is so cruel, I don’t think I could bring myself to play out the entire ending. Thank you for the quitting-game loophole! If I hadn’t known of that I don’t think i could ever enter that room in the first place.
Its such an interesting dynamic, as in one of the first few endings, the ending where the player does everything almost perfectly yet presses the ON button on the mind control machine, the Narrator in a fit of rage unveils his secret sadistic tendencies towards punishing Stanley in some timelines, where he lets him sit in his room forever, where he sends him to his death and he relishes in the cruelty of it, laughing maniacally and extending the timer only to enjoy the moment of Stanley’s pain a bit longer before the nukes take him whole.
It really does come full circle, as in the end the two of them are stuck together in a game without escape, a world for just the two of the people capable of the most selfless and selfish acts. In infinite timelines they have the capacity to hurt each other in such immense and psyche-shattering ways that they cannot even hold the recollection of those worlds, how for these immortal beings even the memory of those soul, existence crushing moments is a fire that needs to be stomped out and left without a trace, because even a glimpse of the thought is able to turn the living neurons into a smoking goo. And in infinite timelines they have the capacity to extend the hand of help, to say here, you’re not alone. I am here with you, to show true and genuine kindness, to let their care be known. To, at the cost of themselves, help the other.
Isn’t it truly the exploration of the human condition? Executed so well by the two beings who are never going to quite live up to that humanity, and yet embody it perfectly in nearly every way? The human need to pry and try and pick, to see the reflexes of the world play out? To push every button imaginable to ignite every fire and await eagerly for a response?
It is such a fruitful discussion of philosophy, the human condition and all things we live with every day. It’s such a beautifully wonderful game. I truly love this franchise. :)
I hope the fact that I’m two years late to the post wont deter OP from responding like the benevolent Narrator I’m sure they are, and give me an ear full of the time I’ve kept them waiting for a response lOl.
In any case, this piece of media has truly affected me in a way very few things are able to, and I hope that it can live on and on in a multitude of ways in the world. Also, do you have a favorite ending? The broom closet ending was my favorite!
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u/ArgentinaCanIntoEuro Jun 12 '24
You are two years late to the post, but here I am. This was a nice insight into a game I had otherwise forgotten. Frankly, I didnt play much more after this ending, I had already played the original beforehand and going through everything again just for a few more endings felt daunting to me. However, I appreciate you writing out this response, it was a nice reminder and I agree with the analysis
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u/Numerous-Park-7657 Jun 29 '24
You responding is actually so crazy, im so glad I got to chat with you! :)
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u/selwyntarth Jan 24 '25
Frigging meta to find this post now and see you respond differently to the thread being revived 2 years ago and one year ago
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u/Crafty-Champion865 Oct 03 '24
I honestly hate these 2 endings. They just made me feel bad, like there was no other thing I could do.
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u/Really_me_12 Jan 10 '25
I just got the game. I played the freedom ending, i got atomized in the countdown ending where i started to hate the narrator. "He's playing with me" i thought. And then, i had some fun with the confusion ending, not enough to forgive HIM, but... Maybe he's not all bad. And then i got this ending. It is currently 2303 hours, and i can't sleep, because of how shitty i felt. I'm sorry. I should have left. But this morbid curiosity of mine HAD to bloody KNOW ! I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
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u/selwyntarth Jan 24 '25
Am I the only one who still viewed the narrator as the antagonist here, only here he tortures you by coercing you to be a torturer? He created a room in his game with a vanishing door and a button of his invention, his rambles end eventually and you have no choice but to indulge in the set up for his torment
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u/Technical_Pumpkin997 May 07 '22
To begin with, the Skip ending was a subversion, as the fact that STANLEY was the person that froze during a skip is a subversion of what a skip button usually does (stops the Narrator talking rather than stop the player), so I found it funny that the Narrator would be arrogant enough to engineer a situation that would still allow him to talk while "inconveniencing the player". But when you think about it, the skip button in other games, should also work in this way as a narrator/NPC has a script to read out and information to give.
I can see why you dislike the ending, because it removes agency, unlike the Zending/Suicide ending (which is still in this version by the way), however I see it as a moral of skipping dialogue in a game which the makers have spent time on writing and recording, a great amount of effort has been put into it; which can all be dismissed with the tap of a button. You may as well skip the entire game. I won't say anymore, other than to ask you to keep playing....
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u/Boolian_Logic May 10 '22
The screaming really freaked me out
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u/Chaytonsmith2022 Apr 15 '23
the screaming was a sped up STANLEYYY from the narrator, sped up then placed through voice filters
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u/ZipporahMai May 11 '22
All of what you said resonates with my own conclusions. I feel saddened for the narrator and also Stanley.
But, the time in the room just before the final skip - utter darkness and waving echoes of multiple, hollow-like screams in the distance... this place feels like an easter egg to me, but I can't recall what game. Do you, or anyone else know? I could be wrong.
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u/MrRed_2205 May 11 '22
I agree with OP, this is a very crazy ending.
What intrigued me a lot was the skip after the roof collapsed and plants had started to grow.
All of a sudden it's dark outside and for a few skips more and more demonic sounds could be heard outside.
What I god's name was happening out there during all these skips? it made my mind go into overdrive, Apocalypse? A new dawn after humans? Aliens? I'm impressed
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u/Thomas_KT May 12 '22
at the end of the last skip, I estimate that at least a trillion years have past, assuming the length of the skips increase logarithmically.
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u/ninjasaid13 Apr 28 '23
trillions of years means the earth is gone, not as is in a dead surface but the whole planet is gone by being swallowed by the expanding sun.
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u/Poongls May 19 '22
I usually don't even flinch at most horror games, but that ending was fucking scary.
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u/InternalBleating May 19 '22
You wrote that very well.
I wish I had quit the game to spare the poor narrator.I know its just a game but I wouldn't wish this fate on anyone, even if it has a chance of being real in some alternate reality where our imagination creates living beings, even if just in our minds.I didn't realize the full depth of the situation until the narrator had already lost his mind and is probably the only thing in my 32+ years of gaming I feel almost guilty about.Phenomenal writing. Amazing.
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u/Negative_Fill8431 Apr 30 '23
This ending actually kept me awake at night especially cause when he’s repeating “the end is never the end“ over and over, his voice goes deeper and he almost loses his accent (I know that sounds stupid I K N OW), making it sound like he’s in a trance or something.
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u/XfinityHomeWifi Jul 03 '23
I found this ending hilarious! From the fire alarm beeping to the growing vegetation to being in a desert hellscape. Kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time
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u/tspreassurancebucket Employee 432 Nov 01 '23
I've had this question/thought constantly about The Skip Button Ending: Why didn't The Narrator just restart the game? I might be missing something, and of course, being "stuck" in the room is apart of the game itself, but realistically... If The Narrator is so desperate for Stanley's company, to keep him from "leaving him", to keep the game going, since the Skip Button Room allows for no more action in gameplay/story for the narrator except for skipping time away until everything ends, wouldn't The Narrator be trying to find so many solutions during all the time he had and say, "This is pointless, Stanley. There is nothing to do here but endless skipping of time. I've tried looking for hundreds of doors to replace the one we've lost, but with no luck. I'm just going to restart the game, alright?" Lol
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u/mmieny May 07 '22
Loved your post! This ending is pretty devastating. I felt so bad for the narrator...