SPAMTON & GASTER, PUPPETS & PUPPETEERS, AND THE LINES BETWEEN FANTASY & REALITY
SO CHAPTER 2 WAS PRETTY AMAZING HUH. as a certified gaster enjoyer i feel i have the duty to over-analyze some nonsense, as is tradition. so here we are! on the surface, it may seem like this chapter didn't offer much in the realm of lore related to gaster, but there's actually QUITE a bit of information we can extrapolate from all that we've seen... and a lot of it comes from our favorite [[Number 1 Rated Salesman1997]]!
of course, please note that this post is obviously only my own interpretation, so your ideas may largely differ from mine. regardless, i hope you'll find the information presented in this post interesting, and i hope you'll enjoy reading my scattered little thoughts!
PART 1: SPAMTON G. SPAMTON
we've known for a while now that jevil and gaster came into contact at some point—a meeting which ultimately ended with jevil losing his mind and being locked away. here's a refresher on jevil's backstory from seam, if you need it. it seems that spamton met with a similar strange someone, and met with a similar fate. you can get extra dialogue from some npcs in the trash zone after defeating spamton neo, as seen here:
both spamton and jevil are ridiculously overpowered secret bosses who suffered a decline after they came into contact with a mysterious stranger—or in spamton's case, after he lost contact. spamton is even implied to have known jevil directly, tying them together even further. if jevil met with gaster, it's safe to assume that spamton did as well... but the connections don't end there!
gaster has a strange association with phones. when in the room with the gaster followers, frisk's phone won't turn on when used. there's also the wrong number song fun event, the memoryheads (amalgamations that communicate via frisk's phone and may be connected to gaster), and, of course, there's kris's phone in deltarune. while in the dark world, the phone cannot be used. if you try to use it, you'll be met with a certain piece of audio: smile.ogg. this audio is also what plays in the background of entry number seventeen in undertale. in fact, in chapter 2, the text that appears when you attempt to use the phone has curiously been altered. it used to just say "it doesn't seem to be working". in this chapter, however, it was changed to say...
... which is exactly how the trash zone npcs describe the noise coming from spamton's receiver.
finally: the gaster followers, the door to mystery man's room, goner characters, and the vessel—all directly associated with gaster—are all grayscale versions of other characters/sprites, and whaddya know, after spamton transfers himself into the emptydisk the screen goes gray.
the connection between spamton and gaster is pretty clear to me. somehow, gaster found spamton at his lowest and decided to help him become a [big shot]. but what exactly is gaster trying to achieve here? and why did he seek out spamton in particular?
i think gaster is looking for vessels.
PART 2: I'M NOT A FAN OF PUPPETEERS, BUT
jevil is a joker card: when played, a joker can be used to represent any other card. spamton is a puppet, something literally designed to be controlled—to carry out the will of its puppeteer. the very first thing we saw in deltarune was the gonermaker sequence, where gaster instructs the player to create a vessel. it seems to me that gaster requires 'vessels' like jevil and spamton for a currently unknown reason.
the concept of people being 'vessels' is ever-present throughout deltarune, as is the the idea of 'control', or lack thereof. the red soul inhabiting kris's body controls them, and we experience first-hand the impact this has on both kris and the people around them. the snowgrave route is all about the loss of self agency. noelle acts as a vector to carry out the player's actions, and is unable to deny their control as she's compelled to carry out their malicious whims. the player commands her just as they command kris—however, through noelle, they are able to cause actual harm to the world around them. your own choices may not matter in deltarune, but the choices you make for the people in its world do matter. there's a LOT more to be said on this topic, but since i'm trying to keep this post at least vaguely on topic, let's just go over how this theme applies to spamton.
spamton's story is about trying to regain control, and trying to attain freedom. after being abandoned by his 'puppeteer', he was forced to try and get by on his own.
* IF YOU'VE [[Lost Control Of Your Life]]
* THEN YOU JUST GOTTA GRAB IT BY THE [[Silly Strings]]
spamton directly parallels kris's own lack of control. after fighting him, kris appears to be visibly shaken based on susie and ralsei's reactions. everything spamton talks about—being a puppet, fighting for self-agency—strongly resonates with kris.
DO YOU WANNA BE A [Heart] ON A [Chain] YOUR WHOLE LIFE!?
spamton's dialogue in the snowgrave route drives this connection even further, where he explicitly connects his own story to kris's. spamton has a tendency to project his own thoughts onto others. he does it a lot to kris specifically (and the irony is not lost on me here).
GO AHEAD, [Kid]... CALL ALL YOU WANT! NO ONE WILL EVER PICK UP
THE [Voice] RUNS OUT EVENTUALLY
YOUR [Voice]
THEIR [Voice]
UNTIL YOU REALIZE YOU ARE ALL ALONE
MUTTERING YOUR [Lost Friends] NAMES AT THE BOTTOM OF A [Dumpster]!
NO ONE'S GONNA HELP YOU!!!
speaking of spamton's tendency to project, i feel like i should point out these lines:
WELL, YOU'RE [$!$!] RIGHT!
BUT DON'T BLAME ME WHEN YOU'RE [Crying] IN A [Broken Home]
WISHING YOU LET YOUR OLD PAL SPAMTON
[Kill You]
still assuming he's using kris as a vector to vent his own thoughts... these lines are kind of harrowing. whatever happened to spamton made him wish he was dead. it's worth wondering... what exactly happened to spamton? and is it the same thing that happened to kris?
whenever he offers kris a deal, spamton's wording is very intense, and very deliberate. he won't force them—he can't force them, because he knows he's not in control. it's like he knows that not even kris is in control of themself.
another oddity: spamton is seemingly puppeteered by multiple mysterious forces. when talking to him in his shop, spamton occasionally slips out of character, and in one instance, says this:
you may recognize that first piece of dialogue as being nearly a direct quote from the "UNUSED" portion of deltarune's files. (i don't have confirmation on hand, but i've heard that the japanese translation of this dialogue matches up as well.)
spamton's speech itself may be being actively censored, too. if you talk to him about the knight, spamton will attempt to tell kris something about them, before...
... that happens. spamton's dialogue in general is littered with cuts between random nonsense and it's anyone's guess as to why, but it's possible that some of these 'cuts' are deliberate.
spamton mentions that his entire reason for wanting to become a [big shot] was attaining freedom. however, his concept of freedom appears to have changed somewhere along the way.
I WAS ONLY EVER IN IT FOR THE [Freedom].
TO MAKE YOUR OWN [Deals]
TO CALL YOUR OWN [Shots]
at first, he seemed to be satisfied with his life of luxury. he was a [big shot], with big cars, big commercials... and freedom. though his actions were guided by the hands above him, spamton felt free. he relied on his puppeteer for everything, but in a way, he may have found freedom in accepting that control. somewhere along the way, spamton's idea of freedom shifted, however. whether or not if it was when things started to go downhill is unclear. either way, at some point spamton grew to recognize that he could become even bigger—and when he lost everything, the idea of attaining freedom was his only hope. he just needed to take control of himself—and he found just the thing he needed in the castle basement.
mettaton is heavily implied to be the source of the body spamton eventually inhabits. when talking to swatch after defeating spamton neo, they mention that the body he took was once the dream of a lightner. (seam says the same thing when you bring spamton's shadow crystal to them, too!)
* That robot was the embodiment of a Lightner's dream. A dream I helped create... once.
* Splashing color from the motion of their hand. The Lightner filled it with their own hope, giving it an incredible power... but, in the end, nothing ever came of it.
* And it was left in the basement with the rest of the corrupted data. ... But that crooked salesman! Somehow, he learned about the robot, and thought he could use its power to fulfill his own twisted dreams.
the hopes and dreams of lightners have power, enough to manifest as powerful artifacts within dark worlds.
* Spamton? This used to be his room... Though it's not like he used it, after a while.
* Eventually, he just spent all his time in the basement... praying.
* When things went downhill, he became obsessed with that artifact. Maybe he thought it would give him another big break?
spamton seemed to think that by taking a vessel formed by a lighter, he would be able to achieve regain control of his life. but was he really just looking for another 'big break'...?
(p.s. this isn't relevant to the point i'm trying to make at all but since swatch is the representation of an art program, it's possible that the body spamton took is literally an ms paint doodle by mettaton. i just need everyone to know that.)
PART 3: [[H E A V E N]]
spamton is the only darkner who recognizes kris's soul as a source of power, separate from that of the power of other lightners. in fact, he's the only character that seems to desire our protagonist's soul in particular. it's almost nostalgic, because it's something we haven't seen since undertale. notably, whenever spamton talks to kris, he tries to talk to them alone. there's something about kris that spamton recognizes as being key to his 'freedom', and he wants it for himself.
it's worth pointing out that kris, a human, has been the only character seen to both create and seal fountains. ralsei's prophecy states that only the heroes of light can seal fountains, though the wording is ambiguous as to how these fountains are sealed. taken literally, this statement doesn't seem to add up (not unlike many other things ralsei says), since, in the snowgrave route, kris is seen to seal the fountain entirely by themself. a human soul must possess certain properties that other lightner souls do not. the exact nature of the power lightners hold is currently unknown; even the queen, who seeks to open another fountain, doesn't seem to know exactly how fountains are created. she assumes that lightners are able to open fountains through a power exclusive to only them: sheer will—in other words, determination.
* The Roaring Knight... Today, It Deigned To Create This World
* Reaching Its Long Hand To The Sky
* It Coursed Its Will Into Its Blade
* And Made
* Thrusting The Fountain From The Earth
* Unfortunately The World They Created Is Trapped Within The Confines Of The Library
* If Only We Had A Way To Make More Darkness
* We Might Be Able To Cover The Whole World
* That Is When I Realized
* This Power... This Power Of The Will
* This Power Of Determination...
* Is This Not Something That All Lightners Possess...?
* If One Was Simply Determined Enough
* Could Not Anyone Make A Dark Fountain?
but... monsters don't have determination in either undertale or deltarune, as far as we know. so how is spamton of all people aware of determination and human souls? it could have something to do with his connection to gaster. we know that gaster was the one who created the blueprints for the DT extraction machine, and his ability to persist while being shattered across time and space may have something to do with the power of determination. not only that, but determination seems to have a secondary ability—an ability that's a bit hard to describe. it's something like an power to exist out of the bounds of reality; to persist removed from time and space.
every character that has been seen to possess determination (with the possible exception of undyne?) has, in some way, gone 'out of bounds'. flowey is aware of saving and loading and many other game mechanics, and his knowledge of different timelines is shown to persist through resets. frisk is directly controlled by the player, who certainly doesn't exist in the bounds of the game. even the amalgamates seem to break the world around them with their glitchy effects. gaster is effectively an 'out of bounds' character too. information about him is almost exclusive to datamining and hacking, and in deltarune, gaster is intrinsically tied to the game's code. here's a post i made regarding that, go check it out!
so does spamton have this same power? well, no... but he seems to know of it, and tries to attain it through a few different means. spamton's 'out of bounds' areas are different than that of others, however. as a darkner, the light world is 'out of bounds' for spamton. it should be impossible for him to exist there. searching for a a way to go beyond the dark world, he turns to the body created by mettaton first, but after kris helps him enter the body, he finds out inhabiting a vessel created by a lightner isn't enough.
* HA HA HA ... THIS POWER IS FREEDOM.
* I WON'T HAVE TO BE JUST A PUPPET ANY MORE!!!!
* OR... so... I... thought.
* WHAT ARE THESE STRINGS!?
* WHY AM I NOT [BIG] ENOUGH!?
* It's still DARK... SO DARK!
he needs more than just a body. spamton needs a soul. without one, he's unable to see past the 'dark'. he is unable to enter the light world—to enter reality. interestingly, spamton seems to refer to the light world as 'heaven', which appears to be in direct reference to "the angel's heaven" referred to in ralsei's prophecy... but i won't even get into that, seriously, this post is long enough.
* KRIS.
* THAT'S RIGHT.
* YOU. I NEED YOU. TO BE BIG. WITH ME.
* VERY VERY BIG
* SO BIG WE'LL STAND UP TALL AND SEE PAST THE DARK
* STAND UP WITH OUR HEADS IN THE CLOUDS AND LOOK INTO
* H E A V E N
spamton realized that the world around him isn't real—spamton realized that he isn't real. like jevil, spamton recognizes that this is all just a 'game'. he's trapped in the dark, and he wants to be free.
KRIS!!! MY DAYS AS A [Long-Nosed Doll] ARE OVER!!! CUT THAT [Wire] AND MAKE ME A [Real Boy]!!
ARE YOU WATCHING, [Heaven]!?
IT'S TIME FOR SPAMTON'S [Comeback Special]!
AND THIS TIME... I LIVE FOR MYSELF!!!
NO... MYSELF AND MY [Friend(s)]!!!
spamton even references pinocchio multiple times, regarding his desire to become a 'real boy'. you can try to help him by having kris's party snap his wires, but as soon as the last wire snaps...
he breaks.
spamton can't live for himself, because he wasn't designed to. he's a puppet who tried to grab its own strings, to gain control, and to become something more than he was; spamton tried to see past the dark and into reality, and he broke.
after defeating him, his tone becomes much more somber. no one can choose who they are in his world, and spamton recognizes this; he resigns himself as nothing but a simple puppet. he still has hope for the heroes of light, however, because spamton offers his power to kris's party. spamton is once again allowing himself to be controlled, but this time, he wants to be used for good—he wants the heroes of light to truly break their own strings, and to succeed where he failed. though kris is particularly shaken up by this encounter, susie and ralsei are also a bit uneasy.
* Hey so... are we seriously...
* NOT gonna talk about any of that?
* That was god damn weird.
* Puppets... strings... hands...
* What the hell does any of that mean?
* And the way he just... broke.
(i think susie specifically singling out 'hands' here is interesting)
* I... don't think it meant anything, Susie.
* It seems like it was just a corrupted program.
* He turned into our ally, so let's just accept it.
spamton is perceived to be fundamentally broken; he's "just a corrupted program". though ralsei denies any significance to the battle, he's clearly unsure—something much deeper is happening here, and it's something ralsei doesn't want to dwell on.
PART 4: AND THE PLACES THAT YOU KNOW...
let's shift gears for a moment. despite the distinct separation between light and dark, it's clear that the dark worlds are more than just fantasy. the line between fantasy and reality is a concept that deltarune plays with a lot. how real are the characters within the dark worlds? how real are the things that happen within them? the dark worlds are real to their inhabitants, and they're real to the lightners who explore them. this is exemplified in the snowgrave route, where berdly like, literally dies. while these worlds may just be creations of the knight, they aren't meaningless. they have power, and so do the darkners within them.
but who is 'the knight', anyway? and why are they creating these worlds at all? it's obviously way too soon to make any concrete guesses as to their identity, so i'll posit my own theory: the knight is not just one individual, and "the knight" is not an immutable identity. "the knight" is a concept, simply used to describe anyone who creates dark worlds. we know that kris is able to form their own fountain, but it's unlikely that they're the only one with this ability. while i won't outright reject any theory that states kris alone is the knight, it seems improbable to me. the queen states that her dark world was formed "today", meaning kris would've needed to sneak into the computer lab at some point to create it. this isn't technically impossible... but i think there's more to it than that.
i'm not entirely convinced that gaster is the knight, either—though i certainly don't deny it. it's mostly because i believe gaster is creating much more than dark worlds. remember when deltarune was first released? it was a 'SURVEY_PROGRAM', and it was brought to us by a certain mysterious someone, who also guided us in the creation of a vessel. based on the introduction to the game, it's assumed that deltarune's world was created in some sort of partnership between gaster and chara, as both are present during the gonermaker sequence (and a few other areas).
deltarune is not an alternate timeline, nor is it completely removed from the universe of undertale—it's an alternate world based on undertale's world, created by characters who existed in it. just like the dark worlds, the light world itself was a work of creation, as is the very program we're using to interact with it. these are all old theories, however; i thought i'd bring it up as a quick refresher for anyone who doesn't remember. let's move on to some new stuff!
there's some new dialogue which indirectly implies gaster's involvement in the creation of the light world, and it comes from an unexpected source: alvin boom, the son of gerson boom. first and most notably, when talking about the death of his father, alvin directly parallels the dialogue of the gaster followers.
in deltarune, alphys is once again hired as a successor after the death of a well-respected figure in her field. it seems sort of strange for this to be paralleled here... until you read the rest of what alvin has to say about gerson.
* Originally a smith by trade, he began writing history...
* And made a turn into telling stories, as a means to entertain his children.
* That such a story, created for a such a simple purpose, could blossom into such a large, wonderful, world-changing thing...
* That is the majesty of words, Kris.
gerson was a famous author, and from his hand, wondrous worlds of fantasy were born. sounds familiar! i definitely don't think this is a coincidence—i think this is further proof of gaster's involvement in creating deltarune's world.
but all of this comes back to our biggest question: what is gaster trying to achieve? if he did indeed create the light world and the survey program, why? and why is he interacting with darkners in the way he is? gaster certainly seems villainous in the context of his vessels' stories... but i DEFINITELY don't think it's that simple. with what we have, i can't think of any reason besides pointless villainy for gaster to leave spamton and jevil as they are, and since that's the most boring explanation available, i believe there's far more to this story that we're not yet aware of. there is still a lot of information we're missing. five whole chapters of it, in fact. it's WAY too soon to decide what gaster's motivations are here. i have my own ideas, but they're all pure conjecture at this stage. still, i want to bring up one of these ideas, because at the very least, i think it's an interesting concept...
what if what happened to gaster was the same thing that happened to the card kingdom?
gaster was forgotten. it’s never stated directly, but it’s heavily implied. between goner kid’s weird spiel about non-existence and the fact that gaster barely seems to exist at all to anyone but his followers, it’s safe to assume that gaster being shattered across time and space effectively erased him from reality, thus causing him to be 'forgotten’. gaster is a representation of unused content in video games. he represents abandoned ideas, cut concepts; creations that never saw the light of day. similarly, the denizens of the card kingdom were left abandoned—in reality, they were toys left in an unused classroom... they were forgotten about.
it's important to remember what the relationship between lightners and darkners entails. seam explains it here:
* Long ago, the Darkners lived in harmony with the Lightners.
* They were like Gods to us.
* Our protectors. Our creators.
* Those who gave us purpose...
* Then, one day we were all locked away in this prison...
* And the Lightners never returned.
and ralsei has this to say:
* Our purpose - Darkners' purpose - is to assist [Lightners].
* It's the only way we can feel truly fulfilled.
to have meaning, darkners must be 'used'. but what happens when darkners reject their purpose? what happens if they refuse to serve lightners—when they live for themselves? this is exactly what spade king hoped to accomplish.
How dare you come here, Lightners...?
You, that left us in the shadows, stripped of meaning... You DARE return to torment us once again?
Begone! We have found fresh purpose.
For the KNIGHT has appeared. The KNIGHT that pulls the Fountains from the Earth.
Holy Fountains, whose shadows are creating a new world...
OUR world.
guided by the knight, the spade king wants to create a new world for darkners: a world where they rule. it all sounds familiar, right? trying to create a new purpose for yourself, trying to find meaning rather than accept it... trying to rise above the ones who control you.
basically, i think gaster, kris, and spamton are thematically tied for a very important reason that we'll be learning more about soon. but for the rest of this, i'll let you make of it what you will, because i know i can't conclude anything definitively. the parallels between all of these characters are hard to ignore, however, and i'm certain this is leading up to something big. there are still many, many questions left unanswered. particularly, i really want to know what exactly gaster wants from these vessels... but since we're missing so much of the story, i feel satisfied with the conclusions i've drawn so far, because i think they tell an interesting story—and i REALLY can't wait to see where that story goes.
that being said. there's only one question that i truly, desperately need an answer to.
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