So with the release of the newsletter, I’ve seen a lot of people villainising Tenna and making him out to be this greedy guy who cared more about getting big than Spamton’s well-being, and honestly it just really annoys me and feels like a very shallow interpretation of this scene. Not to mention some people talking about how Tenna ‘forced’ Spamton to sign the contract despite being warned by Mike, even though nowhere is it ever confirmed that Tenna forced Spamton to sign it, and that interpretation just takes away Spamton’s agency and diminishes the emotional weight that comes with him deciding to risk everything for Tenna. It feels like when people would villainise Spamton instead of looking into the context behind his actions, but now it’s happening to Tenna. And I feel like some people will use this misinterpretation of the newsletter video to feed into that ‘toxic yaoi/divorce’ interpretation of Spamtenna, which just further annoys me, ngl. But what are your thoughts on this?
(Got two similar asks, so I'm answering them together.)
Yeah, media literacy stays losing, unfortunately, and no one has learned anything. I'm not surprised that people are misinterpreting Spamtenna again; it's been months of the "toxic yaoi" and "divorce" narrative being common in the fandom, and a lot of people have zero media literacy and take every bit of dialogue at face value like it's a Wikipedia entry.
Let me dissect the claim that Tenna "forced" Spamton to sign the deal.
In this situation, Spamton is the one that got screwed over. He's also a guy that greatly values his autonomy, and who is very bitter about people who have wronged him, so he doesn't shut up about what they've done. He spent a decade believing Tenna betrayed him, and he tried to convince himself to hate Tenna. But he never claims Tenna "forced" him to sign the deal, that claim comes from Tenna.
Do you know what Spamton actually complained about all the time when he brought up or referenced Tenna?
(The blue "it hurts" text links to the "damn you Tenna" page.)
He was heartbroken over Tenna not answering his calls. That was what he referenced over and over again. Not the deal. He didn't even bring up the deal. And that's huge. That means he signed it willingly. He made a choice. Tenna claiming he "forced" Spamton to sign the deal is his own guilt talking in hindsight, now that he knows what happened as a result.
Another reason the idea of Tenna forcing Spamton to sign the deal doesn't make a lot of sense is that this kind of behavior would not have been a one-off, it would have been a pattern. And if they had been a toxic relationship, in which Tenna was consistently coercing things out of Spamton for his own benefit, we would be told about at least one other example. But after a decade apart, Spamton has come up with nothing to complain about except Tenna not answering his calls. Not even the supposed instance of coercion that people believe the deal signing to be; again, this claim comes from Tenna, not him.
Spamton made a choice. He was willing to sacrifice the material benefits his benefactor provided him, because Tenna was providing him with a kind of fulfillment that no amount of money could ever buy or replace. With Tenna, Spamton was finally understood, wanted and loved, and he was truly happy. Do not forget about the pipis; Spamton doesn't just give those to anyone, and the one he gave to Tenna is also meant to be their kid.
I think people also forget what being "big" means here. We're not talking about celebrities in the Light World wanting to be even more famous; we're talking about Darkners, beings who are chained to whatever item they represent and have limited autonomy over their lives.
Both Spamton and Tenna are doomed by design; Spamton embodies spam emails, a thing that has always been unwanted and unloved, while Tenna is an outdated CRT TV at risk of being thrown away. Spamton got to live a better life than he's "supposed" to with the help of his benefactor; Tenna wanted that freedom too, and Spamton wanted to share resources with him. And in the Sword Route, Tenna mentioned giving Spamton advice; my theory is that it was probably meant to help him succeed on his own, without being completely dependent on outside help. Both of them wanted to escape their doom, and they wanted to help each other escape too.
The deal signing was an easy choice for Spamton. If it went well, then he helped Tenna, and they can be big shots together. And if it went poorly, well, then at least he tried to help Tenna. In either case, he believed they would still be together. So did Tenna. Neither of them knew it could lead to them losing each other.
Speaking of that, there's an interesting discrepancy in their telling of how their relationship ended.
The way Tenna tells it, he seems to believe that the deal signing was what destroyed their relationship. From his perspective, Spamton panicking because of the phone call and running away was the end. He doesn't seem to have any idea that Spamton was trying to call him. Spamton, on the other hand, was repeatedly trying to call Tenna, but wasn't able to, and it's the belief that Tenna abandoned him that ended the relationship from his perspective. He thought he was used up and then thrown away once he had given all that he had.
Considering how desperately Tenna wants Spamton back, it makes no sense for him to have changed his number like that. That's the kind of thing you do when you don't want to talk to someone ever again. So it had to have been outside interference. Spamton wanted to come back, and Tenna wanted him to come back, but someone else wanted them separated.
These two are victims of circumstance, not each other. In terms of how they treated each other, they did everything right. They are deeply committed and caring.
Was it maybe reckless of Tenna to ask for the deal despite knowing the risk and to be so confident that he could help Spamton in case it went wrong? Sure. But it wasn't toxic. Again, if it wasn't for someone else cutting the pair's phone connection, they would've been back together. Tenna would've still wanted Spamton and would've taken care of him. But he wasn't given the chance to. (It was reckless of Spamton to agree to the deal, too, but I'm not gonna judge a man for loving his partner and wanting to help him.)
Also, didn't know where else to fit this in, but I don't even really believe it when Tenna acts like he's mad at Spamton for running away. He's mad at himself more than anything else.
No mention of damage to the phone or the posters, but the mirror is shattered? Deliberately so, judging by the audio? Of all the items in that room, the thing Tenna couldn't stand to look at to the point that he felt compelled to destroy it wasn't pictures of Spamton's face or even the phone that caused Spamton's disappearance, it was the thing that would've shown Tenna his own reflection.
(Bonus: I'm so tired of the "divorce" fanon. At this point, whenever I hear someone calling them a divorce, even as a joke, I want to boil them. In a divorce, at least one party wanted the separation. Neither Spamton nor Tenna wanted to separate.)
