One of the most plainly wrong takes about Spamton and Tenna (yet which I have seen several times) is the idea that these are guys who either haven't considered or even outright refuse to consider that they might be the problem and choose to blame everyone else instead.
One of the first lines in Spamton's introductory monologue, in which he's projecting onto Kris, is "All your friends, abandoned you for the slime you are?". He insults himself and frames the abandonment as the result of something just being wrong with him that made him unworthy of care. Yes, he's (rightfully!) angry at those he considered his friends for abandoning him (the Addisons and Swatch are assholes for doing that, and it hurt him both emotionally and materially); he's also angry at Tenna, who he thought understood and adored him, but seemingly ended up throwing him away just like everyone else. But he ultimately believes that it was his own fault, somehow. That he wasn't good enough. That he's unlovable. That no matter how much he loves other people and how much he gives them, he will never be good enough and will always end up being thrown away. And that this is more because of his own innate unworthiness than because of a flaw in those other people.
On the Weird Route, in his battle monologue, he's angry at Kris for trying to seal the Dark Fountain, which he perceives as a betrayal after he had given them the Thorn Ring to enable them to do what they wanted. But he's ultimately angry at himself. He was "too honest, too trusting" and "should have known [they] would have used [his] ring for evil... oh, right. that's why [he] sold it to [them]". He's angry at himself for naively believing that Kris would let him keep his current position, which is already less than what he had hoped NEO would give him (he's more powerful now, but still stuck in the Dark World). Why would they care about him? They just went around freezing everyone in the city, and all those people are seen as having more worth than him, so why would they be any kinder to him? Of course they wouldn't, and he thinks he's stupid and naive for ever believing otherwise.
Through projecting onto Kris, he also reveals that he's angry at himself for choosing to trust Tenna and sign the contract ("you lost it when you tried to see too far..."), thus blaming himself for his current situation, and he's resentful of himself for ever hoping anyone would help him out of it ("you make me sick! muttering your lost friends' names at the bottom of a dumpster! no one's gonna help you!!!").
Now, as for Tenna, anytime he says something is not his fault, it's a weak attempt at denial - he does actually believe it to be his fault. He blames himself for the Dreemurrs no longer watching TV and thus planning to throw him away; their loss of interest in the TV is outside of his control, in the Light World the TV is just an object with no autonomy that is completely at its owners' mercy, but he blames himself and believes he wasn't good enough, and this is why they're throwing him away. He was trying to become useful again, believing that to be the only way to justify his continued survival, because he doesn't believe he has worth outside of his usefulness; he never brought up his dream of co-hosting and starting a family with Spamton. In response to Ralsei telling him to accept being thrown away, he didn't challenge the idea that his worth is tied to his purpose, just tepidly tried to push back on the idea of accepting death. He even tried to lean on his usefulness to Lightners to justify why his Darkner employees should stick around, and when this didn't work, he had nothing else to say for himself other than beg them to come back and help him.
While he's angry at Spamton for running away and supposedly "ripping him off", he takes full responsibility for the contract, which was what caused Spamton's disappearance. He blames himself for something terrible happening to Spamton, believing he "made" Spamton sign the contract (and then failed to help him afterwards); in truth, Spamton signed willingly (he wanted to sign it), but Tenna just can't bring himself to blame Spamton for his own doom. He believes he ruined Spamton's life, if not ending it entirely, and killed his own dream of lifelong partnership with Spamton in the process. Look at the shattered mirror, but untouched posters in the Z-Rank room; he couldn't stand to look at his own reflection. His anger at Spamton is an expression of grief, irrational anger towards a missing or dead loved one for "leaving" him, and his claims about Spamton "ripping him off" are denial that Spamton went missing, because believing he was tricked and left behind is slightly less painful than believing he doomed someone who loved him. As of the Chapter 5 cutscene, he has even dropped the "ripping off" claim; the one thing he's truly upset about is Spamton being gone.
Both Spamton and Tenna fundamentally blame themselves for their situations, even if they may be angry at other people as well.
titsay
prguitarman
gracieabrams
baratheonpilled
turnnoffyourmind
theartofmadeline
