sometimes i feel like toby fox made spamton and the addisons especially for people to hyperfixate on. everything about them seems so perfect for people to go rabid about its insane to me
for one, spamton himself pretty much counts for 4 people, those being addispam, big shot spamton, in game spamton, and spamton neo. now sure you mostly see people going rabid about in game spamton but ive seen plenty of people who are obsessed with a version we dont get to see on screen
secondly, even the main in game spamton himself is kinda up to interpretation. loads of people characterise him differently. if i compared two aus to eachother theyd often be very different and depending on the ones i chose could be almost like 2 different people, and then if i compared those to in-game spamton, theyd still be very different. also since you dont see addispam and big shot spamton on screen you dont even know what they acted like so again basically you can make your own guy to fixate on with a few prompts as to what he was like
dont even get me started on the addisons. now im biased as fuck here seeing that ive been fixated on the addisons for like 6 months now (send help) but toby fox basically gave us 4 templates for us to have fun with. sure based off of in game dialogue you have a bit to go off of when it comes to their personality (pink being an asshole and blue being caring for example) but even then every addison in every different au is slightly different and i have never seen two addisons turn out exactly the same. ALSO you dont even know the relationship these characters have to spamton meaning you can have them be siblings, you can have them be friends, or you can ship them based off of what you enjoy. OR you could just ignore them altogether (which a lot of people do lmao)
also another thing is the fact that you dont necessarily need to have your addisons' personalities just reflect off of spamtons. I mean the main 4 addisons give you enough to go off of to make your own, and you are given cyber city, an entire fantasy world for you to put them in. cyber city again is up to interpretation, some people have it be like a normal city, some people make it a utopia, some people make it a hellscape. the choice is yours!!
and even then in game spamton is so versatile. he is perfect for angsty stuff, fluffy stuff, or jsut silly stuff, and none of it is out of character. you couldnt really make an angsty spongebob edit could you, itd be weird and out of characer and no one would take it seriously. but also you couldnt make a silly walten files video, sure people do but its out of character and wouldnt actually happen canonically. but spamton on the other hand. hes the kinda guy who you can draw holding a wallet in his mouth like a cat and generally being silly but also you could draw him sobbing at the bottom of dumpster and neither would be out of character!! AAAA
also extra thing i thought id add but his backstory is also very up to interpretation, like i dont think ive ever seen two people who think spamtons rise and downfall went exactly the same. sure everyone has the same general idea of how it went but some people believe in acid theory, some people believe in puppetification theory, some people have a mix of both, some people have their own idea of how it went down, and with that you can project different parts of your own trauma onto whatever happened to him.
ok sorry that was so long thank you for reading my very biased ramble about why spamton is perfect byeeee
All of this! I also love @marketableplushieenthusiast 's additions in the Replies section:
These both so well explain why Spamton is so popular, & why so many of us (myself included) are so passionately attached to him.
(And I have more of my own to add! Long post ahoy!)
Also, he & his setting can fit so many aesthetics: 80s-90s nostalgia/vaporwave, early Internet, the Matrix, cyberpunk, romanticized celebrity glamor, sharp businessman, creepypasta, trippy existential horror, analog horror, hacker/cyber thriller, even giant monster/Kaiju!
Plus there's unknown but potential personality traits he might've had at points in his life, which are so fun to fill in the blanks with: maybe as a regular Addison/the email guy, he was a shy dork with a stutter, or always was sleazy & spoke how he does now.
As a big shot, maybe he was an insufferably smug asshole, or maybe insecure & constantly stressed out because he already KNEW he could lose everything at any moment, or he was smoothly confident with a powerful aura (in a way that many find sexy).
Then there's all the "what-if" scenarios his many experiences & life phases inspire. What if he reconciled with the Addisons? What if he joined the party instead of becoming an item? What if in the NEO body he became way more giant, escaped the mansion, & ran rampant? What would he be like if his corruption could be cured? What if he COULD become real?
Between all the many already compelling things Spamton embodies in canon, are so many spaces we long to fill in. And his many aesthetics are a great takeoff point to apply him to so many visuals & concepts we find comforting or interesting.
And he's a character full of so much wistfulness & longing, nearly all his life. And as we got to know him, we also long on his behalf, for him to succeed in his goals, for his life to get better, for him to finally be happy... This creates deep emotional investment in his character, & compels us to both internalize & externalize his struggles & triumphs.
And all that means: Spamton inspires our imagination & creativity. He's the perfect subject for such a wide variety of media depictions; fanart, fanfiction, comics, animations, songs, & memes.
And because he's that unique blend of tragic, creepy, emotionally unstable, powerful, powerless, & cartoonishly silly, as well as varying in appearance/size/proportions throughout the game... Pretty much ANYONE of ANY talent level can comfortably draw him! (Though that is the case with ANY character of course, with Spamton it's easier to realize that, & feel less afraid of judgment about using the "wrong" style or supposedly not doing the character justice). A quick silly little meme scribble or image edit from a non-artist, a neutral piece by a mid-level artist who's still (in general) inconsistent with detail levels & doesn't get proportions right yet, & an epic hyper-detailed masterpiece... all featuring Spamton... can all stand together & be just as thoroughly enjoyed in different ways but to similar degrees. Because Spamton naturally fits ALL those styles & everything in-between!
He's just... one of the most approachable art subjects I've ever seen, & many other artists have expressed the same. So he INSPIRES & ENCOURAGES us to just get in there & DRAW HIM, so we get more practice. And by doing so with less (perceived) pressure, we feel more free to experiment with various styles, expanding our abilities. Thus, we become better artists in general! And that quality of his has even gotten people to finally try drawing/painting for the first time, & I've witnessed several of them improve to SERIOUSLY GOOD at a WILD rate! (🥹 I'm so proud of you peeps out there!)
And in terms of storytelling, getting to realize that a single fictional character can have SO much depth & variety has also inspired people to write deeper stories with more complex characters, rather than assuming they should each be constrained to single archetypes.
Bittersweetly, over time, many creators have taken off the Spamton fandom training wheels, & are now riding their bikes on exciting new trails (making art for different fandoms), & even off-roading in their own directions (focusing on original art & characters). But I'm sure they'll never forget the [insert adjective here] character who gave them the confidence & skill increase that's helping them more fully embrace their passions. 🥹
Spamton is a gift that keeps on giving. He not only entertains us passively, but also begs to be actively brought to life by our creativity. And in return, he enriches our lives in so many ways, & has expanded people's abilities & horizons. Spamton has changed many lives for the better!
((Gah! I was only gonna add a couple little lines, but I couldn't stop thinking of reasons Spamton is so compelling! X333))
I have maybe reached a new level of insanity by noticing this but I cannot get over the garbage piles (or, ya know.... trash heaps) in undertale... And I'm surprised no one has directly pointed this out yet, but like.
There is a broken crt, and a mailbox right next to one another.
(EDIT: I should also point out, there IS a game console right above them too. I really don't think this is just coincidence.)
(Edit 2 electric boogaloo: if you look carefully enough it looks as if there’s a massive crack down the center of the tv screen. Almost as if it were cleaved.)
Update THREE… turns out one of the many things these garbage piles ARE IN FACT CALLED, In game, is a trash heap.
celebration art for gifted!! it hit 100k views on yt!!
all the fanart and appreciation for the song makes me really happy!! im glad people are enjoying it!!
Whatever or not some of Spamton’s mannerisms and catchphrases are an intentional attempt to mimic Tenna, or if it’s the other way around... I think you could at least say Tenna is closer to what Spamton is constantly trying to be.
I mean, it’s not like Tenna is actually happy and content with his life and isn’t at least kinda deranged… but he is at least capable of being genuinely charismatic and dazzling people with his fun personality, charm and bombastic charisma. Literally anything Spamton does just oozes Bad Vibes, but Tenna, as long as he’s not actively in Meltdown Mode is capable of being entertaining and fun enough to get our heroes to play along and enjoy themselves.
And even when Tenna is actively spiraling, he’s not even a quarter of the creepiness of just Spamton’s baseline.
And Spamton clearly wants power and prestige and status, to be a [[BIG SHOT]]. But even at the heights of his [[Bigness]] he was still under the authority of Cyber World’s supreme authority, Queen.
But in TV World, it’s Tenna who is that supreme authority. The one who’s calling the shots. The one whose face is plastered everywhere.
Spamton’s takeover of Cyber World was officially about getting his [[Hyperlink Blocked]] unto the NEO Body… but he sure seemed to revel in his newfound position of power as well.
Even Tenna’s method of controlling the people of TV World plays into this. While his passion is in entertainment and showmanship, he basically got everyone in TV World under some extremely unfair contracts to make sure they all take part in his show and generally do as he says.
So he’s more effective at scamming people than Spamton is, even though that's basically Spamton's one 'purpose' in life according to the general metaphysical rules of how Darkners work.
But also on the other hand, from Tenna’s perspective, Spamton is the very symbol of the technological progress that has overtaken and overshadowed the Television. Sure, Tenna has all the prestige you could possibly imagine in TV World, but that’s a world whose own prestige is diminishing more and more with each passing day.
For Tenna, Spamton represented the shiny modernity that he just couldn’t grasp. He has an inherent understanding of all this newfangled technology that scares and confuses Tenna.
Spamton might be weird and disquieting, but as the incarnation of Spam Mail, he has reached and affected the lives of far more Lightners than Tenna could even dream of in the last ten years. And that’s even after Spamton downfall, last time Tenna saw him, he was a genuinely successful Internet adbot!
…I think it’s likely that their occasionally shared phrases are a result of a mutual attempt to mimic what the other had.
Although I guess what at least put Tenna at a better position than poor ol’ Spamton is that improving Tenna’s situation is a lot easier. All Tenna needs to be happy is to find someone new to watch him. He’s still a perfectly usable television who can bring happiness and be happy as long as he can broadcast.
Spamton’s whole existence as Spam Mail is an existential horror where he is both obsessed with success and unable to achieve it permanently because… he’s Spam. The very metaphysics that define the universe deemed him destined to fail eventually.
But also, Tenna is probably totally unaware of this, if not like... literally incapable of grasping the idea. Again, he knew Spamton for the brief period he was actually successful. And he lacks the understanding needed of either modern internet culture or the metaphysical mechanics of Dark and Light that drove Spamton mad.
I know they furiously masturbate in anger about each other as they cry themselves to sleep like they used to furiously masturbate together before crying themselves to sleep [while cuddling].
Something about sawyer being kept alive inhumanely just for his intellectual talent... (ppl on tumblr is so amazing for figuring this out) and poppy flower hahaha and the rat-poppy gel experiment hahaha ha and him not wearing a surgical gloves because he's now unable to perform any surgeries without his 'flesh' body hahaha
And yes I did gave him a gray eye because that's his favorite color
Lemme know if you guys wanna see the normal-colored version lol💔
Will I got torn to pieces by Poppy Playtime fandom for saying that the Doctor feels more dehumanized even than the orphans?
I'm talking about how these characters are presented narratively. Orphans are humanized time and time again throughout the story. While the Doctor is continuously dehumanized throughout the story.
And while simple answer is because story portrays orphans as victims and the Doctor as perpetrator it becomes more nuanced once you see the parallels between the Doctor and orphans. When you realize that devs are trying to tell us that the Doctor is also a victim.
And tbh with you orphans aren't innocent either because most of them killed in the Hour of Joy innocent people that didn't have anything to do with their suffering.
There were a few of the toys that still stayed innocent like Riley but most of them aren't innocent. Ofc we also have those toys whose cognitive functions were gone or very reduced so they act more on instincts.
But it doesn't matter to the point I'm trying to make.
The Doctor is a victim that became the perpetrator. But the orphans didn't broke the cycle of violence and hurt - they returned the hurt. It's exactly how Cole wrote in the note.
People like to brush off bad things because victims are allowed to defend themselves. But the truth is once you go beyond self-defense it should be viewed as something bad.
And what I'm trying to say here is that not everything is black and white. People are complex and we should treat their situations with this in mind.
And getting back to the point of this post.
The most important part of the way the Doctor is dehumanized in the story is the fact that he also dehumanize himself. This is what stands out to me. Because we could read his dehumanization when he was turned into experiment himself as justice. But it's hard to do so when you see that the first person who dehumanizes the Doctor is Harley Sawyer himself!
And when you see all these parallels between him and the orphans you realize that Harley is deeply traumatised. Dehumanization of oneself doesn't come from nowhere. And one can imagine why the Doctor is dehumanizing himself considering that he's obsessed with the goal of golden path to the point that he considers the aspects that makes him humane a distraction to the goal!
To conclude this post.
I feel like the Doctor is supposed to be viewed as the evil that was born from tragedy and not like most people think that the Doctor is just pure evil or even worse that he was born evil.
The Doctor is what becomes of the victim that had been broken too many times. The victim that no one reached out to. The victim that was denied help. The victim that never received love and care. The victim that became so twisted that they project their trauma and hurt onto everyone around them.
Is it okay of the Doctor to do so? No absolutely not. It's bad just like I said about the orphans killing even those who never wronged them.
Something about sawyer being kept alive inhumanely just for his intellectual talent... (ppl on tumblr is so amazing for figuring this out) and poppy flower hahaha and the rat-poppy gel experiment hahaha ha and him not wearing a surgical gloves because he's now unable to perform any surgeries without his 'flesh' body hahaha
And yes I did gave him a gray eye because that's his favorite color
Lemme know if you guys wanna see the normal-colored version lol💔
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