by the way. by the way.
ghostbur was the first one to suggest an alivebur/ghostbur divide. not tommy. not tubbo. not phil, or any of the lmanbergians—ghostbur.
remember just after the sixteenth, when ghostbur first showed up? everyone, everyone called him wilbur at first. to them, there was no difference—this entity was wilbur. a little muted, perhaps, a little dead, but still undeniably their general. ghostbur was the one who got mad, hated it, and insisted that everyone call him ghostbur until they caved in. more than anything, he suggested and emphasised the divide—"alivebur was not a good person," "i think people need him more than they need me." alivebur was the one who hurt everyone. alivebur was the one people should hate. and no one else saw it that way—they'd look at ghostbur and see every memory of wilbur they had—but that ghost insisted and insisted and insisted, and now the smp characters fandom as a whole got used to it and accept a divide.
revivebur carried this tradition on when he came back. it's one of the very few traits they have in common. they need to be seperated. "i know what i'm like," revivebur once said. i know what i'm like, nevermind the ghost. in revivebur's own eyes, he is doomed. he is at his peak, he has offered the best he can, and he is not getting better. not for a lack of trying or for an obstacle, but because revivebur completely, unequivocally believes that there is a wrongness inside him and it cannot get better. he has suffered and suffered without mercy or redemption. everyone is scared of him. people are constantly bringing up how much they miss ghostbur. hell, ghostbur got a grave marker from tommy! not even revivebur got that! revivebur knows himself and knows all he is, and he knows that he is not ghostbur.
he is not kind. he is not loved and missed. his suffering is deserved, his pain justly levied. ghostbur is always happy and revivebur doesn't know how to stop being sad. revivebur is intrisincally evil—he is Bad regardless of what he does, whereas ghostbur is Good no matter how he fucks up.
but no one else sees it that way. quote from revivebur himself: i know you guys think he's like, a part of me. you know what revivebur'll have to do if he admits that ghostbur is, in fact, a part of him, and not a seperate being?
he'll have to take some fucking responsibility.
revivebur's flaws will stop being innate. his struggle with goodness and forgiveness will no longer be the result of some inherent fault. revivebur, if he admits he's ghostbur, will have to admit that he has always been capable of that kindness, that he has always been that missed and always been that loved, that he is able to be that happy. revivebur will have to look at the one rule he's constructed for himself—i know what i'm like—and sever that shit 'til it's no longer salvageable. his faults were not just something he was doomed to do—he did them. he chose to do them. he could have not blown up lmanberg. it was never his fate. consigning yourself to goodness means that you have always been capable of showing and receiving it, and that sort of realisation would tear right through revivebur's world.
