Saw some people talking about it on the bird app and actually its a little funny how good Ralsei is at saying the least comforting things when darkners are in distress.
If i was spamton and i had the crashout that hes just had and I heard this I would be on the news. Like. “It “???😭 bro
Saw some people talking about it on the bird app and actually its a little funny how good Ralsei is at saying the least comforting things when darkners are in distress.
If i was spamton and i had the crashout that hes just had and I heard this I would be on the news. Like. “It “???😭 bro
Saw some people talking about it on the bird app and actually its a little funny how good Ralsei is at saying the least comforting things when darkners are in distress.
If i was spamton and i had the crashout that hes just had and I heard this I would be on the news. Like. “It “???😭 bro
Ok I also have been reading Death of a Salesman bc I'm In Too Deep RN but on your topic of Spamtenna reflecting a Greek tragedy, I really want to shour out this video by YaBoiAleric on youtube (a creator who has some FABULOUS well produced Deltarune analysis with a woefully small viewerbase for the quality he puts out imo)
He basically compares Spamtenna's story structure to the first mass published shonen ai "In the Sunroom" and now the two parallel each other and follow that literary tragedy structure in the same way and why they matter to Deltarune's overall story and messages.
The first half of the video is about Tenna and Spamton's color schemes and design in game, and the history of yaoi in Japanese literature and how it connects to Spamtenna so it's not just about their story being a tragedy but if you have the time and are interested I highly recommend it!
https://youtu.be/9arGfmDuGEY?si=GZxnNT4WdZFSh94v
Hi!! I’m really glad you liked my post about spamtenna being a greek tragedy. I know this is an old ask, but I did recently watch the video you recommended and it was really interesting! I love to see people who aren’t necessarily “shippers” recognizing spamtenna’s importance to Deltarune (I also just love “Deltarune IS Yaoi” — I mean, it’s kind of true seeing as they’re a microcosm of the whole game), and just how fascinating their story is in general. Spamtenna narratively mirroring the first-ever official published yaoi is also really cool. I doubt that was intentional, but I do wonder if Toby knows of or has read that…
Also, I’m curious, since you read Death of a Salesman, did you notice any possible parallels between it and Spamton’s story? I’ve read summaries, but not the actual book/play. I noticed some similarities but wondered if anything jumped out at you!
@foucunt wrote a really great in-depth response that I think deserves to be added here, so I put it below!
“I didn't expect to like Death of a Salesman as much as I did (for deltarune reasons and just in general), it's a fairly short read if you're ever interested.
I may do a more detailed post at some point but there were actually some really interesting themes that lent themselves as much to Tenna as a character as they did to Spamton (or maybe you wouldn't be surprised. Intentionally similar etc. etc.) The main character Willy Loman very much resembled Tenna in a lot of ways with how he interacted with his family and like Spamton in how he tried to do his job as a salesman. With the relation to Tenna, he very much is stuck in the past and gets full on episodic flashbacks in a way that concern his family- to the point he mixes up things in his timeline and repeatedly gets reminded of a key moment in his life that riddles him with guilt that he both suppresses but can't help but think about and assume everything that went wrong with his son's life having to do with that moment. He's very much obsessed with what was, and why the past didn't turn into the present that he wants. He also can't really handle being told the truth directly and gets very distressed and evasive in a way that really reminds me of the convo Tenna had with BattatMike in the winter 2025 newsletter. (That scene is a whole other can of worms though oh boy. Lot to unpack there.). The relationship he has with his son Biff also reminds me a bit of how he sees and interacts with Kris in Ch.3-putting their past self on a pedestal for him to look at and think of "better times". Both Tenna and Willy have this idea of what The American Dream means for a family and what they should look like.
(more under the cut)
Willy's resemblance to Spamton shows up more in how he is a salesman, unsurprisingly, but also how he views himself. Willy has this constant tug between wanting to move from Brooklyn to experience the sun and countryside and thinking that sales is the only thing that he can do despite it destroying his health over time and just generally not being that good at it.
He latches onto the way he thinks he needs to be based on the few people he had to influence him as a child- his dad who left when he was 6, and how much more successful and traditionally masculine older brother, Ben who doesn't really care about him. (I know that Spamton distances himself from the Addisons so there's a difference there, but he did genuinely like them and need their help). Willy asks Ben for help and is constantly brushed off as being unserious. Willy's failure as a salesman also shows up in just the sheer desperation he brings to his work despite it destroying his body and mind over time and it turns people off.
The main difference between Willy and Spamton though is that Willy is too prideful to accept certain kinds of help and Spamton is asking for help from anywhere as far as I can observe. But he is always looking towards the next thing in order to keep himself moving. Like he comforts himself with the idea that he could farm and live off the land and yet can only keep his sense of self by having something to look forward to or get bigger. It makes Spamton even the more tragic to me as a character bc although he was perfectly willing to sign the contract with Tenna, it seems like he was genuinely happy where he was in TV World with what little we get from canon-he thinks back to the stage in the NEO fight, he talks about having kids and a set that he loved in the 2024 Valentine's cards. It’s entirely possible he finally felt like he had a place he belonged and that he didn't need more, but that's my own interpretation.
The last couple of things I found interesting-While Willy looks up to his machismo brother, Willy's wife Linda (who deserves her own play toh, no deltarune equivalent as far as I could glean but fabulous character regardless) is afraid of Ben and doesn't like it when he wrestles their sons too hard or sweet talks her. She loves Willy for who he is, and yet Willy doesn't notice it because he's too wrapped up in trying to get Ben's attention and copy him. The reason I bring it up is it kind of invoked this cognitive dissonance I get with Spamton on the weird route and how he is seen as this misogynistic monster in fanon. And certainly he does awful things in this route specifically- but I just couldn't connect the two dots. I thought it was just because I was trying to defend a character I like (entirely possible tbh) from having interesting but less palatable flaws but then it occurred to me- the pink Addison and the KK crew are the ones that start saying weird and diminutive things to/about Noelle on BOTH routes (Pink calling her angel, Capn constantly talking about mademoiselles) but they're just..better at making it more palatable. In the weird route Spamton is simultaneously the most powerful and least in control/at risk and he knows it. He's parroting these things out of desperation and a misguided power trip but he's still spam. He's still off-putting in a way that he can't mask like others can. He's regurgitating these much more flowery things that he hears and perhaps unintentionally exposing them as toxically masculine (despite Addisons being they/them they are much more platonic ideal of more masculine traits with a dash of androgyny imo- tall, flat chested, trim, etc because ads don't reflect gender nonconformity, they reflect an template that projects a societally acceptable form). And it really seems like Tenna liked Spamton for who he was, not what he was failing to be. Those are just my own interpretations though
Ok sorry one more thing that's just a list of coincidences that I don't think are super relevant or intentional but I thought were kind of cool:
1. Willy's other son is named Happy. Makes me think of dialogue you can get from Papyrus in UT if you call him in Mettaton's house in waterfall where he speculates that the ghost that lived there might have been called Happstablook, the happy ghost. Given all the Mettaton connections with Spamton it's kinda neat.
2. Willy talks a lot about and then commits suicide in his car he talks fondly of that is bright red. Tbh the congadero has more ties with the Canyonero in the Simpsons but it's an interesting little coincidence.
3. Willy is called big shot ironically once as he's starting to have a mental breakdown in front of a more successful family friend. Big shot neuron activation I guess.”
Thank you so so much for this response!! I think these are really interesting parallels and have convinced me that Death of a Salesman was inspiration for aspects of Tenna’s character too, which makes sense; as you said, “intentionally similar characters who mutually enhance each other” and all.
I was reading some summaries, and wondered if these story beats could be parallels in some way, or if I’m just reaching here:
I read that Willy’s wife, Linda, convinces him to ask his boss for a different job for their family’s sake, and although Willy has been a loyal hard worker for years, his boss refuses. Willy starts begging his boss for help with increasing desperation until his boss just decides to suspend him, and this ultimately leads to the final tragedy. To me this seems like it could possibly correlate to Spamton being convinced by Tenna (though I definitely think it was still his own choice) to ask his benefactor to extend their deal to Tenna after he signed the contract, and then getting cut off and harshly punished for even attempting that, but like I said, that might be a reach.
Something else I considered is Willy’s final choice to end his own life — he sees it as his last way to “redeem” himself, and in his mind, he’s sacrificing himself for his family’s future. Spamton’s final choice in chapter 2 was to “redeem” himself by giving up his own autonomy to be an item to give Kris and their friends strength, so that they can “break their own strings.” Obviously it’s not the same thing, especially because I think Spamton will eventually have his own chance to heal and get better, but I still find that self-sacrificial “ending” to be an interesting parallel.
@maybe-a-gatto-or-a-catto @crysentia @ramglambitch I thought you guys might enjoy this discussion too!
fanart of @/exoticplatform’s Deltarune AU (I’m too shy to tag them here lol) (their au is really cool go check them out!!) Mad Mew Mew Spamton was too cute to not draw…
Aaaaand some more cat Spamton frenzy from me below
ShoutOut to My mutuals for being so Nice and Kind. i always struggle to know when and how to respond when it comes to reblogs and tags and comments on this site So it comes off like idgaf But i do. Also im shy. However my cool and awesome mutuals give me a reason to keep coming back to this site which i appreciate.
in the deltarune fandom you can't say "I don't like spamton and personally don't relate to him" you have to say "Spamton is an inherently rotten creature with no hope or sympathetic qualities. every last horrifying thing that happened to him is only his own fault and no environment can explain who he became or why. he is the only person in history who ever did a selfish thing and he deserves to die alone in the trash for being created as he was. he was created as harmful trash and he will always be nothing but harmful trash. he literally murders people and abuses tenna for fun i know this because when you're born as lowly trash you will never be more than lowly trash and you have to learn your place lest you ruin the good people around you". and the people saying this think this is the woke take, too.
@crysentia Very much agree. And it seems the main purpose of Ralsei’s, Spamton’s and Tenna’s storylines are to point out Darkner oppression. I don’t get how so many people still don’t see that Darkners belonging to Lightners and being controlled by them is inherently a problem, and continuing this would not be a happy ending with Deltarune’s themes.
I also think it’s interesting that Spamton gets singled out for this kind of treatment more than almost any other character in Deltarune or Undertale, despite the fact that several characters in Undertale have similarly fucked up endings on the neutral route, where they do objectively awful things as well. Undyne and Mettaton notably become dictators — Undyne militarizes the Underground and plans to destroy humanity, and Mettaton mind controls people into worshipping him, while making the dissenters “disappear” — and, newsflash, both of these things also involve either heavily manipulating or outright killing children. But no one ever acts like that’s the “true reflection” of those characters, and they’re allowed to improve, demonstrate their good sides, and are loved when they do. Of course when the character in question is unattractive, homeless, and disabled, on top of being trans-coded, things change. Suddenly only the Weird Route counts for Spamton; he’s just an evil, disgusting freak who isn’t capable of doing anything good, and wouldn’t even deserve the chance to get better anyway. Hm.
YEAH EXACTLY! The double standard is SO obvious. I've had it in my mind for a while that pointing out the multitude of other examples of characters doing exactly what Spamton gets so harshly, singularly criticized for would be the only real way to get people to see this double standard, but at the same time, it just feels kind of ridiculous to talk about any of the characters that way. And that's because it IS ridiculous. But for some reason, it would only be recognized as such with characters that aren't Spamton. Why is it so normal to act as if terrible actions done in an alternate route represent the entirety of a character even on the main route ONLY when it comes to Spamton?
None of the characters in UTDR are anywhere near as black & white as people want to believe. Everyone is capable of doing terrible things and there are Many examples of the characters doing just that. The alternate routes in these games show the paths these characters COULD go down, and ultimately the route you take is up to YOU. It makes no sense to forever condemn them on the main route for things they didn't even do. I'm especially baffled by the idea that Spamton shows no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The perception of Spamton at his worst being the true reflection of his character runs SO deep that it even warps how his past and his arc on the normal route are perceived. Any of the good things he does are considered self-serving, or if it is something that is literally impossible to twist into that, it's instead considered insincere. For... some reason. I've even seen the hope for him to turn on the Fun Gang later in the normal route, and it is just so suspicious to me that there are people who are SO eager and desperate to shove him into a box like this that the actual Text of the Game gets ignored, and what makes sense for the narrative the game presents to us gets shoved aside in favor of manufacturing a reason to single out Spamton as inherently dangerous. Never to be trusted, because behind your back he's always plotting against you. And thus, never to be helped. Clearly the only safe decision is to turn the other way and not let him take advantage of your naive kindness, because if he needed help, then he would help himself, like any Good Cyber City Citizen would do. It reeks of the excuses used in real life to paint homeless and otherwise disenfranchised people as The Real Evils Of Society, inherently different from the average (well-off) Human Being, so nobody turns their attention to the system that allows for people to slip between the cracks in the first place.
And, well, I guess it's no surprise then that so many people don't want to question the current system in Deltarune. Dehumanizing Spamton predictably leads to the same conclusion about this story that dehumanizing disadvantaged people in real life leads to about our societies. Spamton is ultimately just a fictional character in a fictional story but it's interesting to see how ignoring the critique his character is meant to convey mirrors very real & pervasive thought patterns I've been seeing since forever.
