It’s only just now really hitting me that not only is Spamton not allowed to say the word “love,” it seems like he also can’t say the word “sun.”
The piece of the Light World he so desperately wants to see that Spamton painted it in a place he would look at every day, like it was his own reminder of why he had to keep going.
And how Tenna is the only other Darkner who expresses that exact same desire, to soak in the sun.
How they probably shared this with each other.
And now it’s just another thing Spamton isn’t even allowed to say, and Tenna has no one to share with.
first of all, the thing that inspired this rant in the first place is this video on youtube, please go check it out first!!!!
i dont know if anyone else noticed this, but both spamton and tenna's music uses similar instruments if you watch fl studio deconstructions of them. the main places i noticed this were in NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO BE A, It's TV Time!, and Hall Of Fame
in spamton's songs, one of his signature instruments is the orchestra hit (i dont want to have to link a bunch of videos in this one post so if you dont know what the orchestra hit it just look it up on youtube). specifically, in both NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO BE A and BIG SHOT, the MMX orchestra hit is used. in TheWinterer's video on youtube, the parts where spamton is singing uses Moonside Cafe and Venus, but most specifically the MMX orchestra hit in the background as well.
in It's TV Time!, (this one took some digging), the specific instrument used in the very beginning is called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4 Soundfont 2 (TMNT4SF2), or the Konami Orchestra Hit. this specific sample is used in many old SNES game soundtrack's from the late 80's and early 90's; and i think that is important to mention because these were the types of games you would play on an old CRT TV similar to Tenna.
im sure many people have made this connection already but i feel it's definitely worth mentioning that in Hall Of Fame, you can clearly hear the Real Boy motif used in (you guessed it) "A Real Boy!", which is a spamton song.
my final point is that both spamton and tenna's boss music uses the orchestra hit as a main instrument associated with the characters, hence the usage in TheWinterer's song remake.
as far as im aware of, these are the only two bosses in undertale and deltarune that have the orchestra hit as a main character association. if there were any more then i probably wouldn't have thought it was important that spamton and tenna use it in their boss fight music.
thank you for listening to my spamtenna rant. please feel free to ask any questions or expand on this in the comments.
this post about how we might be making Tenna unhappy by keeping him in Castle Town in order to get more interactions and lore, as well as the tags on it below, got me thinking. I wanted to make my own post about my thoughts on Tenna’s character arc post-chapter 3, especially after the winter newsletter cutscene, and my perspective on the choice of giving him away vs keeping him in Castle Town. (this is not me saying there’s one right option, it’s just my personal view on the subject!)
wonderful tags by @night-creeps and @narrativecontradictions!
I feel very similarly to the above about Tenna’s future, and I have since very shortly after chapter 3 first came out.
Tenna clearly is still very much struggling in Castle Town; he’s leaning on his old habits of treating his employees poorly, taking his anger and pain out on others, and staying in denial of his own faults. he just wants to be adopted by a new lightner and leave everything behind. he also clearly wants to be a better person! he feels guilty for what he’s done, but is finding change very difficult, and still isn’t taking responsibility for his actions and how they affect others.
he feels like he’s just playing pretend because he is — Tenna’s in denial of almost every aspect of his life, and he has been for years. he’s been in denial that the whole Dreemurr family is changing and moving on from who they used to be, he’s in denial that he can’t fix everyone’s problems using distraction, fun & optimism, he’s in denial that he’s aging, he’s in denial that he treats people like trash, he’s in denial that Mike has been gone for a long time, he’s in denial that he never stopped caring about Spamton, and he’s in denial that Spamton didn’t choose to abandon him, that something terrible happened to him because of Tenna. he plays pretend in his mind because he can’t bear himself, or his life, the way they really are — which is why he needs to face his reality and all the things he’s done, not keep running from them. he can’t keep going through life not thinking about the things he finds too painful. and he can’t truly move on, he can’t fully heal, without coming to terms with himself and his past.
change doesn’t happen overnight. this is a terrifying adjustment for Tenna; he’s been the same thing for so long — a once-beloved object whose purpose was to desperately try to keep a family who could never really know him happy, at the cost of everything and everyone else. he had no choice if he wanted to survive. now he’s on the cusp of becoming something completely different to what he’s always had to be, an unfamiliar concept — a person in his own right, someone who lives for himself and his friends, no longer scrambling to find a way, at any cost, to be an entertaining object, to fight for survival just a little bit longer. someone who can just… be. just because this adjustment is going to be hard doesn’t mean he’s not going to get there in the end. he can still change, he can get better if he truly tries. but first…
Tenna needs to understand that he can find his own happiness, that he’ll still have worth even if he’s not entertaining lightners; he doesn’t need to be someone’s object to have purpose. most of the darkners in Castle Town already seem to be realizing that, but Tenna hasn’t. these darkners have been freed from the obligation of playing their assigned roles and just being a plaything for a “higher” being — they can be whatever they want to be. they’re enjoying being their own people and are content to be in Castle Town, at least for now. they're figuring out who they are and who they can be outside of their "purpose,” finding their own meaning in their relationships with other darkners, ones they never even could've met if not for Castle Town, instead of simply being at the mercy of a lightner's whims.
Tenna should get to have that too, even with his baggage. he should get to find his own sense of purpose, explore who he is as more than just an entertainer for lightners who can choose to discard him at any time, and who can never know Tenna as he really is. being around these darkners in Castle Town who are finding joy in themselves and each other could be so good for him, once he’s able to open his mind to it.
he also very much needs to heal from his past, and being cut off from everyone he's ever known without any true closure or atoning for his past mistakes is not going to do that. he needs to face himself and his actions fully, and stop repressing every bad thing he doesn't want to acknowledge. he needs to stop "playing pretend." his relationships with his employees and Kris will likely be a key part of that, but a vital, inextricable piece of Tenna and his past is also Spamton.
Tenna clearly is not the least bit over him and everything that happened between them. it's been ten years and he still brings Spamton up at every opportunity, yet can't even bring himself to say his name. he clearly cared about Spamton so much — he slipped up and admitted it himself in that cutscene — and he knows in his heart that he wronged him. but he can't reconcile in his mind that he's responsible for something horrible happening to someone he loved so deeply, all because he was selfish. so he tries to push that huge weight of anger and guilt and blame he really feels at himself onto Spamton, rationalizing that Spamton must have stayed away of his own volition, that he just ripped Tenna off and then abandoned him and never truly cared about him, because he can't bear thinking of the alternative; that something awful really did happen to Spamton, that he couldn’t come back, and, in Tenna’s mind, that he’s the one who did that to him. because at least if Spamton abandoned him, Tenna doesn’t have to blame himself — and live with that pain forever. (and at least Spamton is safe.)
if it’s still weighing this heavily on Tenna's heart after ten years, these deep feelings of regret and anguish are not just going to go away, not until he can accept the truth of what really happened. until he faces Spamton again and understands the whole story, that their care really was mutual, and explains himself, Tenna is never going to be able to let the shame go and fully let himself heal.
i'm fairly confident at this point that this is where Tenna’s Castle Town storyline is leading, and i fully believe that this is the best — and most narratively satisfying — path for Tenna from where he’s at now.
My lovely mutual (and spamtenna & darkner oppression scholar) Cat @maybe-a-gatto-or-a-catto said this in response to a post I reblogged the other day, about how “it’s not that deep” doesn’t really apply to Deltarune the way it applies to most things, because Toby Fox is genuinely unhinged — and genius — about the way he uses secrets and subtext to tell stories:
I completely agree with Cat, and their response actually made me want to do a rundown & analysis of most of the supplemental material we’ve gotten regarding spamtenna, and how it’s not really subtle in the slightest compared to the in-game content we have so far. So this is that analysis!
First, of course, there’s the Spamton Sweepstakes, which were such a goldmine for Deltarune lore in general, and in retrospect, is where a lot of spamtenna evidence and lore came from, almost 3 years before ch3's release. Some people were able to figure out that Tenna was Spamton's ex pretty much immediately from the "Damn You Tenna" page (although the majority of the wider Deltarune fandom still thought the TV character was going to be Mike until closer to ch3's release, from what I could tell).
Highlights from the Sweepstakes include the iconic MLM "business-loving-businessman" tweet clearly referring to Tenna, Spamton being confirmed as bi/pan, the South of the Border!! connection to the Tropic of Love, Spamton crossing out Tenna with a red marker as described on the throuple cutting board page, the Spamton engraved wedding ring being the page that links to "Damn You Tenna," divorce references, and a bunch of other little things that ended up being connected to spamtenna. I really wish there could be another event like this with a ton of hidden lore, it was a genius move to make something like that and have it benefit charity at the same time.
(sorry for the low quality mess that is this image, hopefully tumblr doesn’t make it impossible to read)
And, of course, there are the spamtenna plushes... The Tenna plush was first released for preorder at the end of July, and a new batch of the Spamton plush was made available to preorder as a bundle with him. Personally, I can't get over the fact that Tenna's proportions were specifically made to match with Spamton's proportions!! They are the only 2 plushes to have this unique body type. They also both include a pipis hidden in their heads, and of course, were posed very cuddly, and advertised as a pair on the front page of Fangamer.
You could argue that they were advertised like this solely to draw in spamtenna shippers for more sales, but Toby is extremely specific about the merch Fangamer makes (such as no lightner plushes being a big rule) and making sure all merch "improves the game." He's helped to design certain items himself before, such as him ensuring that Big Shot Spamton's suit on the air freshener from the Specil Fun Pak matched with Tenna's suit, several years before Tenna's design was officially revealed in ch3.
I think Toby had to have been consulted on the plushes being designed and advertised like this, if he didn't request it himself - and I have to say that if spamtenna weren't actually meant to be a couple, and weren't going to end up together again in at least one route of Deltarune, I honestly think it would be a cruel and unprofessional decision to tease fans like this for the sole purpose of making more money, which seems extremely unlike Toby to do. Clearly, explicitly advertising Spamton and Tenna as a set and a romantic pairing is something that improves Deltarune in his eyes. Add onto this that Toby actually brought more attention to it via tweet, and it's clear that spamtenna is intentionally being used as one of the draws to Deltarune.
(Note that this being the fastest selling Fangamer product of all time, over any other game franchise's merch, including any of their Undertale merch, is pretty damn impressive.)
Edit May 2026 to add another merch-related update:
On the Mr. Tenna Figurine product page on Fangamer, there’s a 3D render; if you look closely, there’s a very obvious indent on Tenna’s ring finger. As far as I’m aware, this is not a rendering error, because it wouldn’t be on both sides of the finger, or just be on one specific finger. The artist quite likely intentionally added a wedding ring indent, and it’s possible that this is an actual Easter egg/hint about something that may be relevant in the game at some point in the future. We’ll have to wait and see on this one.
Regarding the Nintendo Dream interview question Toby answered about spamtenna (l recommend checking out this full translation, btw; there's more Tenna-related questions and tons of interesting little tidbits from the translator) it's especially significant because it sounds like Toby answered fan-submitted questions to the magazine, and he chose to answer this one about spamtenna, even if it was in a very coy manner. Most people at the time thought this answer meant Toby was trying to leave their relationship ambiguous and up to players' interpretation (the thread of the Deltarune Unofficial Message Boards I found the linked translation on seemed to view it this way, for sure), but even when it happened, I thought it was possibly meant to tease that we would find out more eventually (and we already have with the winter newsletter scene!) — otherwise I don't think Toby would have even answered this one in the first place, or playfully made it clear that he was "so, so happy we want to know."
(the rest is under the cut so I don’t completely destroy people’s dash)
If Toby genuinely wanted Tenna and Spamton's relationship to be left up to interpretation, he wouldn't have done everything included in this post, wouldn't have written their backstories to be intertwined, made their current personalities so heavily influenced by each other and their perceived abandonment by the other, put so much time and effort into hinting at what kind of relationship they actually had, or included a scene expanding on them even more in Castle Town next chapter (never mind sending it out with the newsletter, meaning most of the more dedicated fandom would see it, even if they already gave Tenna away).
While spamtenna is currently, by design, largely implied through subtext, that does not mean it's ambiguous what their relationship was meant to be if you're paying any sort of attention, or even that it's necessarily going to remain as subtextual as it is now. (I wrote an analysis last August — which I’ve since updated with new info & evidence — on why I fully believe spamtenna will get another chance together on at least one route of Deltarune; you can read it here if you’re interested.)
Everything Toby's doing with these two is very intentional, and I would imagine has a purpose, the way all of his more detailed hidden or "secret" lore does. Toby doesn't often even acknowledge ships outside the game itself, as far as I'm aware, and if he does, it's usually the main romance, Suselle, not (quote-unquote) "unconfirmed" or implied relationships; he's said he likes to let the game and story speak for itself, so again, l think it's really interesting that he's done all this for spamtenna, including even being willing to answer this question, let alone being excited about it.
Then there were the spamtenna references in, of all places, the goddamn Undertale 10th anniversary stream — an incredibly significant milestone for Toby and the UTDR fandom. And of course, Toby just had to add an entire Spamton cameo scene, because he's obsessed with that little freak like so many of us are. Right before Spamton shows up at Grillby’s, Spamton A. Spamton inserts the LoadedDisk into the CRT Undertale is being played on… and it becomes Tenna-colored when Spamton is put in. Hm. Okay. Sure. Why not.
During Spamton's cameo, he performs ridiculous acts to get paid, recounts the days after his eviction while attempting to make it entertaining for the audience, begs for more money, and complains about losing everything because of Tenna, before realizing he's being shown on a TV, freaking out, and disappearing; I'd say all of this is pretty par for the course with what we know of Spamton. This scene stays light and silly, and doesn't get into any deeper characterization or story, because it's all just meant for fun, and isn't at all canon.
The final spamtenna reference from the Undertale anniversary stream is one that comes a bit out of left field — it differs from the other two, because it's much more serious and somber in tone, and is brought up in an important context while new lore is revealed about Undertale.
This is considered a spamtenna reference because it's definitely an odd and intentional writing choice to include "business partners" here, and Spamton and Tenna are the only "business partners" in either Undertale or Deltarune. While Gerson isn't literally referring to them, on a metatextual level, this is meant to reference their relationship and imply certain things to us as the audience; the subtext is that Spamton and Tenna genuinely don't want to hate each other, and that even if it appears they do, their feelings aren't actually clear cut at all. It's framed as a tragedy that these two were turned against each other by outside forces, because it is meant to be tragic.
One last supplemental piece of spamtenna lore I have to talk about is the valentine from Spamton to Tenna from the winter 2024 deltarune newsletter. This was one of 44 total valentines sent out, and this was Spamton's only rare valentine, with his other two being normal - meaning this one was less likely to be sent to people.
I still think this is the single biggest piece of evidence of a romantic relationship between Spamton and Tenna, and it also includes very important lore implications for them. It starts off with an extremely obscure reference to an old tumblr meme, "the puppet master (TV) that cursed my dick," because this is the kind of shit Toby includes as lore for Deltarune (he is not normal!!). Toby used to be an avid tumblr user and got a lot of his humor from here, which ended up being a big influence on Undertale and Deltarune. He used an extremely similar meme from the same tumblr account to imply Jevil may also be an ex of Spamton's. This is kinda a fitting meme for spamtenna, I have to admit, with Spamton at this point thinking Tenna was much more manipulative than he really was — a "puppet master" — but it also implies Spamton loved Tenna with all his heart, and was willing to tell people.
Spamton directly quotes/foreshadows a Tenna line from ch3, also implying that both of them see the pipis as their child, and says that he thought they had something, but Tenna threw it away. There is literally no argument to be made that this isn't intended as romantic, unless you think Toby is using the idea of them being in a queer relationship as a punchline (unfortunately, there are somehow many people in this fandom who genuinely do believe that).
And then there's the line about Tenna changing his [credit card numbers] - in brackets, meaning it's an interruption. I mean, Tenna probably changed his credit card numbers, sure, but there's also the obvious underlying implication here of "phone number." When paired with Spamton NEO's Snowgrave dialogue about screaming into a receiver to beg lost friends for help until his voice runs out, it becomes obvious why Spamton is so incredibly heartbroken and angry over Tenna; he thinks Tenna intentionally cut him off when he needed him most, after his downfall and transformation (but of course, Tenna never actually received those calls, because their dark worlds had been separated).
Most of this could have been inferred from the NEO dialogue on its own by people who were perceptive enough to pick up on that connection, but this valentine was seemingly made with several intentions in mind: 1. To imply that Spamton and Tenna had been in a fairly serious romantic relationship that Spamton was genuinely invested in, and had believed Tenna was, too; 2. To further hint in conjunction with the NEO dialogue that Spamton had tried to call Tenna for help after his downfall, and when he never answered, Spamton believed Tenna had cut him off after he ran away, and had never really cared about him; 3. To suggest that Tenna's betrayal hurt Spamton more than anyone else's had, and that Tenna's perceived abandonment of him and everything he'd thought they had together is the main reason Spamton is so deeply bitter over Tenna.
All of this from a few lines of text in an uncommon Valentine's card most people wouldn't see, in a newsletter from before many people were truly aware Tenna existed. In the game itself, I think the biggest direct implication they were romantically involved (besides Tenna treating Spamton’s egg as his child, obviously) is Tenna referring to Spamton as his "partner" in ch3 - he notably does not say "business partner" - and using the phrase "he ran out on me" in ch5, which is almost exclusively used to refer to one's romantic partner leaving them.
The care, complexity, depth and intricacy with which Toby Fox has built Spamton and Tenna's relationship, while still keeping so much of it to subtext and hidden implications is truly remarkable to me. He uses similar storytelling techniques for many things throughout Undertale and Deltarune, and it's one of the things that made me such a huge fan in the first place, over ten years ago; but using queer subtext and a repressed CRT TV character as commentary on the Hays Code, and its effects on homophobia and queercoding in television to this day, as well as using this subtext to reflect the larger themes of Deltarune - the oppression Spamton, Tenna, Darkners as a whole, and the protagonists are under, all of whom are being influenced and controlled by higher powers and the Prophecy - it's really genius. Like I’ve said before, Toby Fox needs to have his brain studied
What do you think about the possibility that Spamtenna is being portrayed more as an example of a doomed couple, perhaps to make some other aspect of the story feel more genuine or emotionally grounded, rather than as a relationship that is meant to end in a reunion?
I apologize if I'm misunderstanding something or missing an important detail here, but that thought suddenly popped into my head and now my curiosity refuses to let it go.
If that interpretation is completely off base, I'd genuinely love to hear why. And if you don't mind, I'd be fascinated to read the full chain of reasoning behind your analysis. I am, unfortunately, the kind of person who will happily consume twenty paragraphs of lore discussion without complaint.
Hi, thank you so much for the ask!!
I think it’s very unlikely that Spamton & Tenna won’t reunite on at least one route of the game, and I’ll go into why at length below, since you requested that. This is sort of a combination of several points I’ve talked about before, but I’m always happy to talk more about spamtenna! lol
The thing is, Spamton & Tenna already are being portrayed as a doomed relationship in the game…. on the Weird Route. That’s part of the purpose of the Weird Route — to show an alternate timeline of how this story can go if we do “weird,” fucked up things, putting the characters in bad situations they should never have been put in, and prioritizing power and LOVE (Level Of Violence) over compassion and actual love. This gets reflected in Spamton’s storyline; he sees us hurting people in order to get stronger, and this reinforces his worldview that had already come to be pretty twisted by the things he’s been through — it just proves to him that the only way not to get hurt in this world is by being bigger and more powerful, and hurting other people before they can hurt you.
Basically, after being deeply emotionally damaged — to the point Spamton’s literal heart is cracked and broken — by everyone he cared about abandoning him, being physically hurt by not only his benefactor, but also the Swatchlings and seemingly strangers as well throughout the years he was homeless, and being completely left behind by the world at large, he’s come to believe something similar to Flowey in Undertale (who we know is able to realize how wrong he was through being shown mercy, like Spamton): Either you hurt others first, or they’ll take the opportunity to hurt you. Spamton internalizes that even more after seeing our violence on the Weird Route, seizes his own chance to gain back the power that was forcefully taken from him (and even more), and continues the cycle of abuse that he experienced with his benefactor by selling the Thorn Ring, which is then used by us to abuse Noelle in a similar fashion. Spamton thought “helping” us was going to keep him safe from the same fate as everyone else, but instead, his hubris backfires on him, and when he gets in our way, we use Noelle & the ring he sold us to kill him.
This also, of course, makes spamtenna inherently doomed on the Weird Route because Spamton’s death is a direct consequence of it… and, obviously, the direct consequences of the Weird Route tend to be represented as negative.
This is contrasted by the Normal/Pacifist Route, where we’re supposed to save Spamton and give him the chance to heal, by showing him kindness and mercy really do exist. Literally all he needed in order to choose to completely dedicate himself to helping the heroes do good was seeing that there are people who do want to help, who could actually care about him, even a little. And he’s so moved by even the possibility of that, that he wants to be the Fun Gang’s friend and protector; even if he can’t be free, he wants to help these kids be free. Spamton still has a lot of care in his heart for those willing to find it, as well as the desire to be cared for. He just never thought that would be possible until the Fun Gang comes along to prove him wrong.
So, the Weird Route represents hate, cycles of violence and abuse, being controlled by higher powers (Noelle by the player, Spamton by his benefactor — and the WR also represents oppressive queerphobia, funnily enough), and achieving power through violence, while the Normal/Pacifist Route represents love, freedom, autonomy, compassion, mercy, and healing instead. Spamtenna being inherently doomed on the Weird Route would then make the contrast of them finding each other and reconciling on the Normal Route make a lot of sense, right? Thematically, a spamtenna reunion would also represent defying the Prophecy, fate, & control by higher powers, as well as writing new endings — things the game very clearly wants us to strive for, as is basically outright stated, especially throughout chapter 4 — because Tenna was supposed to die according to the Prophecy, and the Benefactor, who is seemingly a pretty powerful entity, obviously wanted these two separated, as well.
We’re also clearly supposed to be picking up on all the clues that neither Spamton or Tenna ever wanted to be separated from each other, and that they still deeply care about & miss each other, even now, 10 years later. When you pay attention to how they actually feel about each other underneath their facade of “hate,” it’s very obvious. Before ch3 even came out, we got this Valentine from the Deltarune newsletter:
This clearly reads like Spamton is heartbroken after a breakup that he never wanted to happen. In the Japanese version of this Valentine, Spamton says “What’s going to happen to the things we built together?” and as @maybe-a-gatto-or-a-catto noted in this post, “The Japanese word for "build" here is kizuku. It’s a word that can refer to building concepts like building a relationship or a family. Putting it in context it would likely refer to their relationship and the things surrounding it like the "set" and pipis.”
This was a clue about the reason Spamton is actually angry at Tenna — not because Tenna “made” him sign the contract (because it’s implied Spamton did actually want to do that & he wasn’t really forced into it), but because he falsely believes Tenna changed his number and abandoned him and everything they’d built together when Spamton needed him most, after he lost everything and was transformed into a puppet. This is further implied with the Weird Route SNEO dialogue about calling people for help, but no one ever picking up.
Spamton also immediately comes out of the inventory when he sees Tenna kept his pipis and says he wishes Spamton could be there for him, and Spamton is literally shaking with excitement that Tenna really does care about him.
However, this is unfortunately extremely bad timing for Tenna to be faced with one of his absolute worst fears being confirmed: that something terrible really did happen to Spamton because he signed Tenna’s contract. Tenna had just said he was at his limit, and that confirmation pushed him over into a full-on panic, and he reacted in an unfortunate way. This overwhelmed & panicked response in the heat of an insanely stressful moment does not mean Tenna actually meant the things he said, and in fact, the very next day, he breaks down and admits how guilty he feels about ignoring Mike’s warning, admits that he cares about Spamton, that he wanted to help him & to be big together, that nothing has even felt real since Spamton left, and that he could never forget him.
Spamton most likely heard all of this from the inventory, even if he’s very understandably not ready to try again yet. Was Tenna’s response in the moment during the scene in chapter 3 okay? Of course not— but Tenna was absolutely not in his right mind at the moment in general, let alone to be confronted with his worst fear & the reason he deeply hates himself being true all along; he made a panicked choice in the moment to try to stay in denial, as has been his main coping mechanism to avoid the full weight of his grief and shame for the last decade. But Tenna is starting to accept what truly happened and his responsibility in it, as was shown in ch5, and this storyline is clearly not resolved yet.
It's emphasized in the Spamton NEO Weird Route dialogue above that the core issue — the reason Spamton is so bitter and his heart is literally broken — is that no one would help him when he was suffering through unimaginable pain and horror, even though he begged for help. He lost faith in everything and everyone after that. And what is the line Tenna says the most passionately in the ch5 cutscene?
This is what Spamtenna really is to me. Two "intentionally similar characters who mutually enhance each other," as Toby put it last June, who deeply loved and wanted to help the other, who wanted to be more than what thev were made for, who tried to "choose who they are in this world" - and they were punished harshly for that by powerful, oppressive forces that neither of them stood a chance against. The story is asking you to pick up on all these things and how they tie into the main themes of Deltarune; it's asking you to root for them to defy fate and reunite. These are not people who are ready to or even want to move on at all. If their relationship is doomed even on the Pacifist Route, it would be one of the tragedies that fate & the Prophecy intended, and it would go against what we are being told to hope for by the narrative & its themes.
And it’s not even just in-game content pointing towards the fact that this story will lead to a reunion, but a lot of bonus material as well. If you look at everything from the Spamton Sweepstakes as well as the game itself, Toby has put an incredible amount of effort into this relationship for years now — again, way more effort than an ultimately doomed ship would ever need.
We also have merch, and the way merch is represented is actually very important to Toby — he has said he wants all his merch to “improve the game.” Why, then, have the Tenna plush designed to specifically have matching proportions with Spamton when none of the other plushes do? Why approve of and draw attention to them being sold as a pair and pictured in cuddly poses together? Why bring Spamton up in the ad for the Tenna figurine (that Toby likely voice acted), and imply yet again that Tenna still misses Spamton under his denial?
Why approve of Fangamer using Spamtenna at all for marketing if this is truly a doomed relationship? Toby doesn’t make merch solely for money, otherwise he would actually be making that highly demanded merch of Lightner characters. Again, he’s adamant that all merch should “improve the game,” meaning Spamton and Tenna being a pair/couple improves Deltarune to Toby. I think Toby also absolutely knows how cruel it would be to use spamtenna to make money without planning on them ever actually being together in-game; as someone deeply involved in fandom culture, he is very much aware of what queerbaiting is, and would not do that to his audience. That alone convinces me of a reunion, personally, if I’m honest.
I also am still certain that this dialogue added to the 10th anniversary version of Undertale — which is clearly supposed to make us think of spamtenna with the term “business partners” (Spamton & Tenna are the only ones in Undertale or Deltarune) — is a nod towards how they truly feel about each other, as well. There would be no reason to even reference “business partners” in such weighty dialogue if not to imply something about those two. Humans and Monsters who loved each other were separated from each other by outside influences who didn’t think they should be together, and this is a parallel to spamtenna being forcefully separated from each other by the Benefactor. They didn’t want to be separated, and they wouldn’t be “enemies” if they hadn’t been manipulated into it.
There’s no reason for spamtenna to be doomed in order to “ground” Deltarune, especially because they’re already doomed on the Weird Route. Everything, including the game’s themes, lines up with a reunion and reconciliation happening at some point.
Toby Fox is choosing to repeatedly emphasize how much Spamton & Tenna still care about each other, extending this storyline way beyond what it needed to be for a simple past doomed relationship. It would not be good writing to create more scenes to continue to give us hope for them to get back together, only to say, “Actually, you shouldn’t have hope, they’re doomed,” when there is absolutely no reason that they need to be when they’re both alive and clearly miss each other. Deltarune is literally about hope and writing new endings, after all.
(Here’s the original post I wrote back in August about why im certain spamtenna is going to get back together — it’s been updated a lot since then, obviously!)
The interpretation that Tenna just pretended not to recognize Spamton makes me so sad for the little guy. Being called a rat and an unidentifiable weird thing when Spamton already looks completely different than before is just too cruel. I know Tenna was in a lot of stress during chapter 3 but that doesn’t take Spamton’s pain away, though it feels way meaner than if Tenna was deep in denial or didn’t fully recognize him if it makes sense???
I am a fervent believer in Spamtenna reconciliation too, so I think it’s on Tenna to seek him out and ask for forgiveness not the other way around.
(This is not meant as an attack btw. Tenna is my main guy but I love and care a lot about Spamton too ❤️)
I enjoy reading your deltarune analysis! I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Hi!! I know this ask is from a few months ago, but I’m just now actually going back through my askbox for the first time and seeing this, so I hope you don’t mind if I answer! (Sorry for the delay!)
Honestly, the whole pipis scene in chapter 3, despite seeming funny at first, is actually really sad when you know more of Spamton & Tenna’s backstory, as well as the fact that this can be their last ever interaction before Tenna’s death. Before that chapter 5 cutscene from the winter newsletter and finding out about the Japanese translation of the pipis scene, I was actually mostly convinced that Tenna didn’t realize that was Spamton, because what he said to him was pretty upsetting if he did know; but finding out that Tenna already suspected something terrible had happened to Spamton, on top of Tenna saying “How, it can’t be?” in Japanese (instead of basically just gibberish in the English version) — I’m now 99% convinced Tenna realized it was him.
I’m also very willing to bet that the version of the ch5 cutscene we saw only happens in the version where the pipis scene did as well. Tenna is seemingly extra upset and trying to find a way to calm down when he goes looking for Pluey for an antenna massage, and when “Mike” wants to quit and says Tenna treats people he works with like “trash,” Tenna just has a complete breakdown about Spamton, who was not actually mentioned at all; but if Tenna already had that guilt at the forefront of his mind, it makes sense that that could trigger it. And this isn’t Tenna’s typical “that little spammy mailman ripped me off!” breakdown from ch3, either — this time, Tenna is actually almost completely honest about how he feels, or at least a lot more honest than he had been. He opens up way more about his own guilt for what happened, his anguish, admits he wishes he could’ve helped Spamton so they could’ve been “big TOGETHER,” and even talks about how, ever since Spamton left, everything has felt fake, & like he’s just playing pretend.
This is all huge progress for someone who’s as in denial & repressed as Tenna! But it’s not just that — Tenna also (again, in the Japanese version; @maybe-a-gatto-or-a-catto pointed this out) suddenly switches from using a derogatory pronoun for Spamton in ch3, to a neutral one in this cutscene. We have to wonder what changed since ch3, then? And I think the answer is that Tenna is finally actually coming to terms with the fact that Spamton really didn’t scam him, and probably didn’t mean to abandon him for good when he ran away, because he saw Spamton in the pipis scene and realized something terrible really did happen — but Tenna completely panicked and forced himself into denial again in that moment, and coped by calling Spamton names (and spraying him with foam).
(the rest is under a read more because this was a bit longer than I thought it’d be lol)
I don’t like what Tenna said, but I understand his inability to handle this revelation in that moment. He’s already having one of the very worst, most stressful days of his life, when his worst nightmare gets confirmed right in front of him — his old partner appears out of nowhere, and looks like a puppet. Tenna has no idea what happened to Spamton, but it must have been horrible, and now he’s completely sure: this really is all his fault. Tenna did this to the person he loved most (in his own mind, at least). And Tenna just can’t face that right now with everything else already happening, so he panics and runs (exactly like Spamton did, once), most likely trying to completely push it from his mind, because he doesn’t know what else to do in that moment.
I should also point out that Tenna is clearly not mentally well in general, let alone at this moment, and is very heavily implied to be neurodivergent. When neurodivergent people get overstimulated and overwhelmed, we do things that aren’t necessarily “rational” that we often may highly regret later, while not always even fully understanding why we did it; often we may try to make the source of our distress go away however we can, and we certainly don’t always mean the things we say in those moments. That’s definitely something to take into account while looking at Tenna’s behavior in the pipis scene, as well as the whole chapter. Do not mistake him for a neurotypical character, because he’s not.
But, now that Tenna’s actually had a chance to think about it & process this a bit in Castle Town, it has pushed his guilt to the breaking point — enough for him to go look for a way to calm down, only to end up having an emotional breakdown about his guilt over Spamton in front of Mike, without him even being mentioned. It seems like Tenna might finally start investigating what’s really going on with Mike, after his complete nonreaction to Tenna’s mentions of Spamton and the contract. He may also try to find Spamton in Castle Town, even if it’s offscreen (if he didn’t search already). I unfortunately think it’s pretty likely that Tenna thinks Spamton got left behind in TV World when the fountain closed (like Ramb seemingly did). He may try to force himself further into denial to save himself from more breakdowns, too. We’ll just have to see where he goes from here…
I agree that it needs to be on Tenna to apologize to Spamton eventually — even though Spamton likely chose to sign the contract on his own without Tenna “making” him do anything, Tenna at least needs to apologize for that pipis scene. Though I understand where Tenna was coming from, it still doesn’t really excuse what he did and said; especially since it seems Spamton is apprehensive to come out of the inventory again after that. I feel like there either needs to be some life-or-death stakes for him to come back out, or maybe someone just needs to give him some hope again.
I’m personally hoping at some point that Susie will give Spamton hope the way she’s been able to for Kris, Ralsei, Noelle & Tenna (and others, too. @maybe-a-gatto-or-a-catto was also the one to give me this idea!) After the SNEO fight, Susie was obviously concerned for Kris, but it seems like she had sympathy for Spamton too: “And the way he just… broke.” She was curious about the whole situation, but she never got to find out more or to talk to Spamton, the way she’s been able to in other boss fights. I feel like if anyone could give Spamton some hope again, it’s her — she was able to do it for Tenna, and they’re extremely similar, enough that her speech to Tenna applies almost perfectly to Spamton too.
But I think for it to work, Susie needs to speak to him directly. She has hope crossed on her heart….
Either way, however it happens, I’m confident that Tenna and Spamton will be able to reconcile by the end of the game, if we make the right choices. All of Deltarune’s themes are lining up to point in that direction :]
