Tubbo & Tommy Apologist

pfp & header by @sunaway_ on twt

[txbbo]

probably will delete later, but I've been getting a lot of followers from people who haven't interacted with one of my posts before and im curious: where did you guys come from?

[tobi-smp]

it’s still the tommy-apologist holiday here in the states, so let me say something controversial:

doomsday wasn’t a mutual betrayal between technoblade and tommy, technoblade’s feelings were hurt and he has the right to feel that way but he was the one that had been overstepping tommy’s boundaries from the beginning and got hurt when tommy tried to pull himself back.

tommy only agreed to an alliance on the condition that they’d be causing “minor” terrorism in l’manberg, that l’manberg Wouldn’t get destroyed and that tubbo wouldn’t be hurt, which tommy reinforced multiple times. technoblade intentionally let him believe in that lie when he had no intention of upholding those terms because he Specifically wanted to change tommy’s morals to the point that he’d eventually agree with it. techno may have done this because he genuinely thought that it’d be a good thing for tommy, but it wasn’t his right or his Place to decide that he could do that, especially as time went on and he realized how unstable tommy currently was (“Oh my god, you just have no freewill whatsoever.” - technoblade to tommy during dream’s first surprise visit to techno’s house).

technoblade revealed that he’d been lying to tommy about this this entire time, which tommy would’ve had the right to get angry with him about. again, I cannot stress enough that this is technoblade revealing that he’d lied to tommy and had been using tommy to help him get ready to destroy his home, whether technoblade actually needed tommy’s help or not is irrelevant because this makes tommy complicit and changes the entire circumstances around their partnership. This was an actual act of betrayal, the betrayal of tommy’s trust.

it didn’t go that way however, because techno Did successfully manipulate tommy here (and it is manipulation, whether we want to think of it that way or not). techno presented l’manberg in a purely negative light (insisting that tubbo specifically was a bad person who’d never been tommy’s friend), he encouraged tommy’s more violent coping mechanisms, and then when he thought tommy was far enough along he revealed what he’d wanted to do while insisting that he Trusted tommy now and holding the idea of genuine friendship over his head. (”You could actually be useful. You could actually be, dare I say it, a friend.” “That’s all I ever wanted.”)

none of this means that techno didn’t genuinely like tommy or that he wasn’t genuinely trying to look out for him, but tommy was blatantly coerced into joining techno’s cause here when it’d been explicitly against his boundaries. tommy Never wanted to destroy l’manberg, he wanted a relationship that he felt safe and wanted in, he wanted to be happy. techno presented himself as someone who cared about tommy, and then he presented tommy helping him destroy l’manberg as the key to his friendship when he was literally the only person that tommy had (and had made sure to emphasize that). of course tommy agreed.

tommy had tried to convince himself that he was okay with techno’s plans, but as soon as he’d genuinely hurt tubbo that illusion was shattered. he realized then and there that on a moral And emotional level he could not stand to see tubbo hurt without seeing himself as a monster. tommy’s reaction here was inward when it so easily could’ve been outward, could’ve been outward anger at the man who railroaded him into this situation despite his wishes, and it just wasn’t.

at this moment tommy Still trusted techno, he was honest with techno immediately and was Clearly having a breakdown. techno’s reaction was immediately the offensive (asking tommy if he “really wants to do this” doesn’t count as giving tommy a fair chance, especially when techno has Seen and talked tommy down from his panic attacks before), tommy was immediately Dead to him while Tommy was still willing to make a compromise (tommy thought that techno would be receptive to a compromise because he’d been tricked into thinking he was getting one before, but he wasn’t and techno would never settle for that).

techno presented himself as someone that tommy could trust and rely on (and particularly as someone who’d be patient with him during his breakdowns, which the confrontation at the community house definitely was), that’s Why tommy was honest with him and Why he’d felt comfortable enough with him to say how he felt in plain words as best as he could (compare “I’m worse than everyone I never wanted to be” to “Wilbur wasn’t so poggers” and it’s immediately obvious what I mean). On Top Of techno (falsely) presenting tommy’s participation as a choice, he’d already made tommy participate by getting tommy to help with the preparations before telling tommy the truth about what they’d been preparing for, tommy had already been complicit before he could make an informed choice. it also goes without saying that techno immediately partnered with dream with no remorse. that’s strike two and three of betraying tommy’s trust.

tommy had been trying to reach techno all throughout doomsday, it wasn’t until it was over that tommy had been completely disillusioned with techno. his conclusion was that techno had Never been his friend because he could not imagine someone who cared about him ever reacting to that situation the way that techno did or hurting someone who He cared about in the way that techno did.

and even then, even despite all of that, tommy Still cares about him even if he Does genuinely still believe that technoblade never cared about him.

when you actually look at the situation it’s technoblade tricking a traumatized teen into helping him destroy something that techno knew was important to him while further straining tommy’s relationships with people that techno knew he still cared about (by intentionally withholding information) and then getting so explosively angry when tommy tried to pull back that he made him the main focus of doomsday despite the people who tried to literally murder him also being there.

tommy hurt techno by deciding that he couldn’t let him hurt his best friend or destroy his country without severely damaging his own mental health and self worth After he’d made it clear that this was a moral boundary for him.

that’s not mutual at all, there is literally nothing even about their actions towards each other or the power between their dynamic. they were Mutually upset, they were not Mutually betrayed.

[tobi-smp]

@nicetwin1​ said: So, why didnt Tommy just leave when Technoblade made it clear what he was going to do. Hell, it was pretty clear that Tommy was uncomfortable with what was going on, but he still stayed?? Like, he could have been upfront with technoblade and not pretended to be cool with it. Sure he was traumatized by dream and all that, but what did he really gain from staying in the long run? He really should have left as soon as Technoblade told him his true intentions. 

Hell, technoblade even gave him an out when he told him about destroying La'manburg. And tommy was no angel on all this either. In a sense, tommy was really only staying with technoblade to use him as a sheild from dream. He broke into the guys house, stole his things, threatened him a couple of times, (but lets be honest, they were pretty empty threats), and was kind of a pest. Technoblade had absolutely no obligation to take the racoon in. (End transcription.)

this seems to be based on either a misremembering of certain scenes or just misinformation which leans into some pretty Unfortunate implications as a result.

so lets take this by bullet point:

1: technoblade was not as honest about his intentions as people remember him being. like I mentioned, technoblade initially Lied to tommy about his goals, making their alliance on the grounds that techno would be helping tommy get his discs back and tommy would be helping techno create Minor Terrorism Only. that was the only way that techno could get tommy to agree to join him. technoblade had tried to acclimate tommy to the Idea of destroying l’manberg in several ways, but he was not honest about tommy about that being his main goal. he outright erased “Destroy l’manberg” from his to-do list before he handed it to tommy, and he’d quickly change the subject whenever tommy was verbally uncomfortable with what technoblade was suggesting.

2: technoblade had to come clean about having lied to him and he chose to do so the day before the confrontation at the community house (Which is clipped here: Link). technoblade lied to tommy, spent that time trying to convince tommy of his ideals Behind his goal, and Then came clean.

Tommy had been 100% honest about not wanting to destroy l’manberg from the beginning and had never stopped, him saying that Again in plain words is literally the catalyst for techno’s confession. tommy’s crime here is being too trusting to pick up on the hints that techno was less noble in his intentions than he presented himself, but we Are meant to think that tommy was still completely under the impression that technoblade was keeping his word up until this point. technoblade didn’t give tommy the information to make an informed decision about whether he wanted to align himself with techno’s actual goals days of real world time (it’s hard to say what the in lore time was, exile was months for tommy and pogtopia was around for 2 years in lore, so who knows). framing it as if it’s somehow Tommy’s fault for being convinced by technoblade, when technoblade had literally spent days trying to convince him, is blatant misinformation, especially when tommy didn’t and couldn’t know for the Majority of their alliance. “why didn’t tommy just leave?” why didn’t technoblade tell the truth?

3: “Sure he was traumatized by dream and all that” is awfully dismissive considering the situation. it wasn’t just that dream had hurt him, it was the specific conditioning that dream had pulled. dream isolated tommy, deliberately lied (to him and to other people) to specifically make him think that no one in l’manberg had ever cared about him, that they were all happier without him. he did this specifically to make tommy dependent on him and to try to break him down. he’d made tommy Actively suicidal this way, and tommy ran into technoblade literally the day after an aborted suicide attempt. it wasn’t just that tommy had nothing, it was that tommy was made to believe that no one cared about him so he’d bend to the will of an authority figure that’d tricked him into thinking that he was his friend.

this is Highly relevant to the situation with technoblade here because technoblade inadvertently tapped directly into that. he’d been trying to convince tommy that l’manberg and specifically tubbo was bad and bad for him for a While, that tubbo specifically hadn’t cared about him, After he’d presented himself as an authority figure to tommy. and again, this features heavily in this moment.

- First techno opens with the idea that tommy was useless when he’d met techno, really going whole ham with that, but that after they’d committed all that Terrorism together he’s worth something now. he’s worth the truth. this both frames technoblade as the direct linchpin to tommy’s self worth And frames the reveal of the lie almost as a favor on technoblade’s part. he doesn’t explicitly say that tommy Wasn’t worth the truth before but the implication is, of course, there.

- then after the reveal of his plan he Explicitly uses his friends against him to sell him on his ideals. to use the full quote directly here: “But I think you’re worth being honest with tommy because L'manberg they’ve screwed you over as well Tommy. They exiled you, they abandoned you. L'manberg is the source of all of your problems, and that’s why we need to get rid of it Tommy.” (some middle bits where rambles a bit how everyone in l’manberg aren’t All inherently bad people.) “But the problem is Tommy is that government power corrupts. You see what Tubbo’s done ever since he became president? He’s cast you aside, he’s abandoned his friends just to protect his own power. And maybe he thinks he’s doing it for good Tommy, but do you think exiling you was a good idea? Do you think that was worth it?”

whether technoblade really believes this or not doesn’t matter, whether you think he’s right or not doesn’t matter, this is him actively trying to convince tommy to blow his home up, something that would (obviously) isolate him from his friends even further. 

- tommy still refuses, he tries to convince technoblade not to but techno says it’s going to happen whether tommy is involved or not but that this is his chance to join techno for real. tommy asks why techno only gained respect for him now, techno lists standing up to dream and causing terrorism but quickly diverts. he once again emphasizes that tommy was useless before but that causing terrorism with techno made him useful. which is where the line “And dare I say it, a friend.” along with tommy’s response “You know that’s all I ever wanted from you.” it is Only after technoblade mentioned being tommy’s friend in those words that tommy’s demeanor changed.

- technoblade emphasizes again how Truthful he’s being right now, how understanding he’s being right now, but that techno is going to do it himself no matter what tommy chooses. that no matter what choice tommy makes he cannot help his friends or his country, and again that it was the country that caused all of tommy’s problems.

- it’s here that tommy agrees to join technoblade, Kind of. he tries to lay out a condition starting Here: “It’s Tubbo’s home, it’s my home, it’s not finished it’s not ready to go.“ “This sounds like the opposite of destroying-” “Well you said ‘do you wanna join me,’ I’ll join you but I can’t- you-you know I need my discs.” “Well yeah we can get you your discs but that country’s blown up, that’s kind of a separate considion here.” “Well the discs first alright. Promise me that” techno refuses, tommy begs, techno refuses Harder and says that he’ll help tommy get the discs but the country is going up at the first opportunity. Techno starts listing off who has the discs, dream and tubbo, And Then: “Just Dream now, just Dream.” “Doesn’t Tubbo have one of the discs?” tommy remembers in Real Time that tubbo does and then “As soon as we get the one off Dream then the one off of Tubbo is fine, I’ll just take away Dream’s power.” which technoblade explicitly talks over.

this is Extremely reminiscent of tommy’s earlier reactions to dream, where he couldn’t decide how he was supposed to feel about him (whether he wanted to see him, whether he was his friend or not, etc). and moreover, it’s very clear that he still doesn’t want to hurt tubbo. technoblade very clearly understood that, he commented on it himself, but he didn’t address it and he was openly dismissive of it. he didn’t actually care as long as tommy verbally agreed.

- here’s what you get when you put it all together: technoblade tears down tommy’s self worth alone while framing tommy as Better while he’s with technoblade and doing what techno wants him to do, he actively tries to convince tommy in plain words that his friends don’t care about him and are bad for him enforcing his isolation from them, techno presents himself as a friend to tommy and holds that promise of friendship over his head, it’s specifically the Promise Of A Positive Relationship Where Someone Wants Him that gets tommy’s to verbally agree but even Then he’s clearly confused and hesitant. it wasn’t Enthusiastic consent to destroy his home and technoblade should be smart enough to see that.

all of this builds off of the abuse and conditioning that tommy received from dream for Months in exile, and while technoblade couldn’t have known that he Was specifically saying and doing all of this explicitly in the context of trying to convince tommy to join him. it was intentional manipulation even if it wasn’t intentionally tapping into tommy’s previous abuse. That’s why tommy agreed, he really didn’t. legitimately, he just wanted to keep all of the people that he cared about close to him and safe, this included Both tubbo and technoblade at this point. he Wanted to be technoblade’s friend and he Wanted to keep tubbo safe, but there was no avenue where he could have both and technoblade presented the option where tommy didn’t join him as the option where he would get neither because tubbo hurting was inevitable.

4: the idea that tommy was just using technoblade as a meat shield is just, false. tommy’s goal was to get back the disc from dream Specifically because dream said that he wanted it to have power over tommy so tommy taking it back would help protect him And his friends from dream. this turned out to be completely true as tubbo giving dream the other disc was Specifically the catalyst for dream destroying l’manberg and dream Specifically Stated in no uncertain terms that he’d only been holding off from destroying them because he didn’t have the other disc yet. (Link 1, Link 2)

that said, tommy wasn’t the one who started the alliance in the first place. tommy had explicitly intended to try to get them back on his own, had stated that all the way back during technoblade’s interaction with him on the first day of tommy’s exile (Link, Link 2). Tommy went to technoblade because he was in walking distance and tommy had been told by dream that he’d be killed if he went into l’manberg or the greater smp. technoblade had supplies and tommy literally had nothing on account of it all being blown up.

tommy’s plan was to steal from technoblade undetected, run away, and then defeat dream Somehow. it wasn’t a very well thought out plan but he literally almost committed suicide so I think we can excuse if it’s a little slapdash. Technoblade is the one that stopped him and convinced him to form an alliance. technoblade used tommy’s desire for the discs as bait because he’d specifically fished for that information at the start of his exile, he’d even implied he’d been thinking about recruiting tommy all the way back then Before the butcher army situation (“I’m just saying Tommy, if you wanted those discs back well- perhaps you’ve been working with the wrong people.”)

technoblade didn’t understand the significance of the discs to tommy Or their association with dream, he only understood them as a physical object that tommy cared about, so dream was not a factor in him recruiting tommy. tommy still refused, it wasn’t until technoblade promised that they wouldn’t destroy l’manberg or hurt tubbo that tommy finally agreed, and the discs themselves Had Been A Means To Try To Protect His Friends. dream had already been threatening l’manberg before tommy’s trial happened, and in dream’s speech where he brought up the discs he’d Actively threatened the lives of everyone in l’manberg. he only agreed to help technoblade under the condition that l’manberg wouldn’t be destroyed because his entire goal was tied into protecting the people in l’manberg.

tommy thought that if he could get rid of the leverage dream had over l’manberg then he could make up with his friends and go back, there is no meaning to the discs if there is no l’manberg or if his friends don’t Want him.

technoblade Did protect tommy from dream and that was very nice of him, but that wasn’t tommy Using him. at this point they were friends and technoblade made the choice to help him. not every interaction is transactional and every good deed you do for someone doesn’t translate to “using” once you’re no longer on good terms.

to wrap it up, tommy stayed with technoblade first because he’d been tricked into thinking that technoblade wouldn’t hurt his friends and second because he was desperate to have someone who cared for him, which techno only exacerbated by Intentionally trying to convince him that everyone in l’manberg (and tubbo specifically) were bad people which bled into dream trying to convince tommy that no one cared about him. that isn’t tommy’s Fault and he isn’t leading technoblade, technoblade intentionally manipulated him and overlooked is Very Obvious hesitance and confusion only to get Angry when tommy refused down the line. it is unreasonable to frame the situation as if tommy was the one being being dishonest when technoblade is the only one who openly lied.

[tobi-smp]

@shadowyfriendkidtrash​ said: good thing tommyinnit wasn’t only staying with technoblade for his items! and still stayed with him after he confessed wanting to destroy lmanberg! that would really shoot this post down huh!

people be like wow c!technoblade was a manipulator as if his presence wasn’t a net positive in tommys life. (End Transcription)

I really just need to gesture at what I’ve already written here, but I Do think that it’s worth highlighting/refuting this idea that’s floating around in parts of the fandom that technoblade is somehow immune to criticism because he helped tommy, that tommy Owed him somehow or was a user because techno showed him kindness.

dream helped tommy with the petwars during the pogtopia arc, he gave tommy chests full of things, he kept tommy company. he also enabled wilbur’s downward spiral, intentionally played on the paranoia in pogtopia with the lie about traitors, and ultimately aided both the destruction of l’manberg and wilbur’s death. does tommy Owe dream his friendship, his loyalty, his Respect for the kindness that dream had showed him? dream’s actions towards tommy specifically were a net positive, it was wilbur and l’manberg that were manipulated into burning after all. how about when dream brought tommy back to life and insisted that tommy owed him now?

helping someone in a time of need is not an act of kindness if you use it as leverage to try to bend them to your will, kindness is not transactional. moreover, the good you do for someone does not erase or justify the bad. “techno was a positive presence in tommy’s life” does not and will Never negate “techno manipulated tommy,” and this is important Because It’s Not Just Applicable To This Fictional Situation.

parents can be manipulative, parents can be neglectful, parents can be abusive, and those same people can have a net positive impact on your life through providing for your needs that you could not provide to yourself on your own. someone helping you in a time of crisis does not entitle them to treat you however they want Because they helped you, and it’s genuinely a dangerous mindset to act like someone in need now Owes their “savior.”

the Only thing that tommy promised technoblade was helping him commit minor terrorism, which tommy did and then some. tommy didn’t ask for techno’s gifts, he didn’t ask for techno’s protection, he didn’t ask techno to help him with his mental health. technoblade Gave those things freely Without the implication of payment being attached. technoblade gained tommy’s trust and affection through these things, but he was ultimately not owed them. and when techno did and said things that hurt tommy it was fully within tommy’s right to retract those things. because kind behavior is not a transaction.

reframing the acceptance of kindness freely offered as “using” after someone has fallen out with you reframes it not as kindness but as trying to buy someone’s loyalty. technoblade using the fact that he saved tommy and cared for him as leverage to try to get tommy to change his beliefs to match his is, kind of gross actually ! helping an abuse victim and then saying “you have to believe what I believe and do what I want you to do or you’ve betrayed me” Is Pretty Weirdchamp.

I Don’t think that technoblade did all of this consciously, and I Do think the he did genuinely care for tommy at least to an extent. but this framing of Tommy as some kind of user or selfish or like he Owes technoblade because he accepted help in the aftermath of severe abuse is genuinely fucked up. if you don’t think that technoblade was manipulative then just Say That, you really don’t have to be weird about victims of abuse to say that you like the pig man.

I also think it goes without saying that no, technoblade’s actions Weren’t a net positive for tommy. because destroying l’manberg and hurting tubbo crushed him. technoblade genuinely did help tommy with his mental health (at least when he wasn’t enabling extremely unhealthy mindsets and coping mechanisms) but that does not change the fact that technoblade’s goal Hurt Tommy and that is why tommy couldn’t stick with it. if technoblade’s goals hadn’t hurt tommy then there wouldn’t have Been a falling out.

[txbbo]

Just wanted to add on to your most recent post about Tommy

I saw a tweet that said “He has 2 mil Twitter follows he should know better than to reply to a tweet without reading it,” about the KSI reply

Yeah and he’s also a human who makes mistakes! Sometimes people just genuinely mess up, and forgot to read something before hand. Hell I’ve made that mistake. It’s unfair for people to place a 17 year old on a platform like that.

yeah 100%!

Having 2 million followers has no impact on it imo? It was a genuine mistake that could’ve happened to anyone. 

Not joking, when I first saw it I thought people were mad he replied to KSI in general, I didn't even see it at first.

[txbbo]

I've been debating making this because this is definitely not what my blog is known for and I was worried that people wouldn't want to see it, but with the amount of shit im seeing on twitter it's compelled me to make this because I'm so frustrated.

I feel like I could make 100 posts about 'Cancel Culture' and it wouldn't be enough, so I'm just going to focus on what caused me to write this tonight - the Tommy situation. *Warning for a VERY long post below*

To be clear, Tommy has been in 'hot water' on twitter for the past couple weeks, roughly starting with the KSI collaboration where he made a joke about dream stans.

Last week, when the SBI 'exposing account' got made and twitter hyped it up, someone made a Tommy account and made a thread of things he needed to be '''educated''' on: https://twitter.com/idktommyinnit/status/1379158964148002821?s=20

I'll let you read it for yourself (and come to your own conclusion) but to me.... half of this stuff does not require a twitter thread? Breaking it down accusation by accusation:

1) 'The Mexican accent' - the clips show he is clearly only doing it when copying big Q (who famously exaggerates his own accent) and there is zero malicious intent (Big Q is also IN the 3 clips mentioned in the thread, and obviously didn't tell Tommy it was offensive). There's debates in the comments from people who think it is offensive and people who don't, so I'm not trying to pick a side. To avoid accidentally offending anyone, maybe it is best for him to stop, but the way twitter acts as if he was purposefully doing this to offend people is just not true.

2- 'Making a slave joke' - Even saying that feels wrong, because it suggests Tommy is doing something awful. Instead, they are referring to the 'bit' that Tommy, Techno, Tubbo and Ant were involved in, when Tommy and Techno took Tubbo and Ant as their slave. People are taking this vod and using it to accuse Tommy of being insensitive to Black people, but I think people are just assuming the worst. Slavery existed long before the transatlantic slave trade and still exists today. This is a role-play server - Tommy 'forced' Ant to work for him and used the word slave, which to me is exactly what was happening? People 'murder' others on the SMP, people 'kidnap' on the SMP, people are 'terrorists' on the SMP, and all happen without issue. To add, Ant is a WHITE man. Tommy taking a WHITE man as a slave is not something uber problematic.

3- 'His reply to Techno's 'murder is bad' tweet'. - I get people saying that Techno's initial tweet was insensitive, but saying Tommy's agreement to this from almost over a year ago is something notable and worth addressing is just super nitpicky and is clearly only in there to pad out the thread. It also makes me wonder what other CC's interacted with it and if THEY should be cancelled too (according to twitter).

4 - 'The saying slurs' tweet / jokes about 'whats the worst word you know' - This one I can kinda see how people might not like it. However, it's clearly a 'poke' at his friends, making them seem like bad people. To me, its in the same vein as 'Tubbo is a Tory' or when Tubbo shoots back that 'Tommy is a Nigel Farage fan'. They're obviously not, but its making fun of your friends by saying they are, and mockingly making them out out to be bad people.

5- 'Covid jokes' - People are taking jokes he made about him 'having covid' and saying he shouldn't joke about this, even going as far to linking it to asian hate crimes. I don't even know how to explain that that this is just? not a 'cancellable offence'? I'm sorry but if I hear anyone in my family coughing I make a little joke that 'they better not have covid' and I know other people do. I have someone in my family who is extremely vulnerable to Covid and if they caught it, would quite literally die, but I can understand that jokes like these are harmless. The whole internet had a running joke that we were in a 'panoramic' or 'Panera' or 'insert any word that sounds like pandemic.

This thread got a lot of attention and anything he tweeted afterwards was spammed with the link and there were so many people upset that he hadn't addressed it. I saw so many people say how 'upset' and 'disappointed' they were in him.

Going on to today, this happened: https://twitter.com/khasiid/status/1380611890104139776?s=20

I get it, it looks bad. But for context (which the tweet doesn't give), the reply was only up for less than a minute. It was obvious to me, even BEFORE Tommy addressed it in his stream (clip here: https://twitter.com/cowrpse/status/1380640046202593283?s=20 ) that it was a mistake. In the clip, he clearly acknowledges his mistake and seems embarrassed. To me, this situation should just be laid to rest because a mistake does not need this much attention, but twitter disagrees.

In case it wasn't obvious by now, the tide is turning against Tommy and people are less willing to ignore genuine mistakes and assume the worst.

Today, during his birthday stream people were clearly already waiting for him to mess up. Around half way through, he started saying 'finna' out of context and Tubbo joined in. This led to tons of tweets telling him he was misusing AAVE, and while there were plenty of people willing to be patient and educate, there were also people seeing this as an example of him being a 'bad person' and someone who should be 'without a platform'. I think people forget that not everyone has the same internet upbringing as they do. In general, I think its noted that the misuse of AAVE is something that has just recently been brought to attention. I learned about it through tiktok and stan twitter, and I don't think it's unimaginable that a British 17 year old boy (who is not active on either) has never heard of 'African American Vernacular English'.

Just for a fuller picture, today has also brought about another 'criticism' that I just had to address.

1) 'Tommy made a KKK joke' - Like the 'slavery' point, saying this is extremely misleading. It makes people think the worst. Here's the clip: https://twitter.com/ghostburz/status/1380673589612011522?s=20

Here, Tommy and Tubbo are both joking about Tubbo's 'bit' of naming his alt streams 'aaaaaaaaaa', 'bbbbbbb', 'cccccc', etc and how it would've been bad if it was 'kkkkkkkk' (for obvious reasons). That is literally it. It is a less than 20 second clip. Acknowledging that people woulda thought about the 'KKK' is not him 'not understanding Black issues', its a throwaway joke about the obvious.

Lastly, someone on twitter has made a tommyinnit (address asap) doc - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tZEZtBzikS-EYYkssfFtwVOoFqOwCK0zhStLe6H1wCc/edit

I've basically already covered everything in this document, but I wanted to mention how extremely 'guilt trippy' the whole thing is. I struggled to come up with the perfect word for the situation, and I am open to hearing other peoples opinion, but as I have mentioned none of these things Tommy has been accused of were done with malicious intent, and some I believe don't even need addressed at all.

'slavery is a source of astronomical trauma for black people, and isn’t something to be taken lightly if you’re to look into the horrors of the slave trade."

and "Oftentimes they are the last words we hear before we die and it really is not Tommy’s place to joke about words that affect us so negatively."

Are extremely emotional words for a 17-year-old boy to hear on his birthday, for stuff that I believe has been taken out of context and blown out of proportion.

I really feel bad for him, because such a large proportion of twitter (which ofc is the loudest side of the fanbase) is angry at him and is demanding (as the document says) ''either a stream or twitter thread/twitlonger to addressing this' and 'a long and serious apology instead of a short statement pre-stream'.

We all know how twitter works, and unless his apology is perfect (which to me means apologising for stuff that he should't have to, as explained in the thread), twitter will continue with this weird hyper focus on everything he does, and it's not going to end well.

Twitter's mentality of 'putting everything this person has done that could ever be considered problematic' into one neat little thread is so unhelpful and counter intuitive. I got overwhelmed reading some of the stuff people were saying about him, I can't imagine how he feels.

I feel like I have more to say but at risk of writing an essay longer than my actual work I have to do, I'm going to end here.

[misotofu]

cancel culture is performative activism in and of itself.

putting this under a readmore w/ general tw: discourse, negativity, transphobia/racism/antisemitism mentions

what good does calling out your favorite streamer for insensitive older tweets do? it makes you feel better about "solving the problem" without actually addressing the root cause of systemic oppression. your streamer apologizes, you pat yourself on the back, and no one trends the actual issues.

we have lots of evidence that sbi (and many other mcyts) are in fact very accepting, both in the general attitude and the more specific "can you say ___ rights/black lives matter", etc. (although that is basically asking them to perform activism -- being paid to say so-and-so deserves rights doesn't necessarily reflect their actual beliefs, and several mcyts -- wilbur and quackity come to mind -- have addressed that.) the fact that these content creators are not as outwardly liberal as you might be does not mean they don't believe or contribute to these causes privately.

in this case i think techno might've just been a little tone deaf. while "don't murder people" feels like it's making light of the situation, he still linked a petition and gave it exposure. and digging up tweets from years ago to prove your streamer is racist is silly, both because everyone is stupid at 17 and because they've clearly changed since then. a lot of his older tweets 1) probably made more sense in context 2) are obviously sarcastic. like "when i grow up i want to be racist". that's satire.

phil regularly blocks people that break his boundaries without blocking all the sbi critical fans. he's not mass-blocking criticism, he blocked a couple, and twitter's blowing it out of proportion.

with tommy... that entire ksi situation was terrible for reasons a lot of other people have said better than me, so i'll link their posts here: 1 2 3 (there's obviously more but these cover it pretty well)

the general trend of calling out content creators that have ever had contact with genuinely problematic cc's is unhelpful. most of those cc's would rather stick around and help educate their friends, and it's likely that they do that behind the scenes. we are not privy to that knowledge.

even if you do end up "educating" your streamer in between the floods of hate and incoherent yelling, you've not addressed the root issue. it's treating the symptoms of societal prejudice, not the root causes. sure, it's easier to attack your streamer: they're far more likely to agree with you and apologize than a right-wing conservative who's trying to bar trans rights, but it's totally ineffective for actually changing the way the system's run. when you get your streamer to publicly apologize for a perceived slight, what you've done is

stressed them out to no end for several days

accomplished something that lets you pat yourself on the back, and

nothing for legitimate reform.

your streamer has influence over people that think similarly to you. chances are the majority of their audience already believes in queer rights and black lives matter! twitter's an echo chamber of liberals agreeing with each other and conservatives agreeing with each other and the two sides refusing to compromise. if you're on the side of twitter that tries to cancel streamers for outdated tweets and dug-up evidence, everyone that's gonna cancel with you already agrees with you -- if anything, your behavior will drive your streamer further from your perspective, because people don't learn from mobbing and screaming.

additionally: step back and check whether you're speaking over minorities. for example: i'm chinese! i'd rather you didn't weaponize asian minorities (or minorities in general) when claiming techno's racist against asians because of a couple jokes in poor taste. the majority of people that are cancelling are inflating an issue that really doesn't need it. please save your energy for trending trans rights bills and immigration laws, for example. or even legitimate blackface and h*tler jokes from today, not five years ago.

i know it's exhausting to fight against the legitimate sources of discrimination in society. but attacking content creators is not the way to fix that.

(note: i'm specifically talking about the trend i've seen of digging up old stuff that you think a streamer should apologize for today. i'm not talking about things like schlatt's recent blackface or ksi's transphobia. please keep that in mind if you wanna add on to this.)

[txbbo]

As a Tubbo apologist™ I want to make my thoughts clear after Sadist's animation (which by the way was phenomenal - you can really see the improvement in every animatic its insane).

Do I think the Butcher's army was the best idea? No. I don't. I think ultimately violence is not the answer in 99% of cases.

However... I can recognise why they went down that path. After facing yet another brutal loss, both with the loss of their city and friend (or friends if you count both Wilbur and Techno), I can completely understand how they wanted some form of revenge, or retribution. L'Manburg and those involved have been through a lot of suffering, over and over again, with no real 'wins'. It's obvious they wanted some form of control over their situation. I know Techno says that it was unfair for them to come after him cause he was "peacefully retiring", but IMO you don't get to commit an act of terrorism and then get to live peacefully without consequences. Plus, it's clear he was preparing for something. His vault is an example of that.

With the Phil situation I've always been confused. Is house arrest really that bad of a punishment? especially with the stuff we've seen on the SMP in the past.

I think ultimately, the butcher's army was an attempt to show people (albeit unsuccessfully) that L'manburg is not to be messed with. They were sick and tired of being walked over and decided it was time to step up and show people they were capable of fighting back.

[txbbo]

I wish the writers for the SMP worked on their communication more, because I feel like its starting to become detrimental to the plot.

I really loved Tommy's stream today and definitely was not expecting the ending, but as someone who was also watching Tubbo at the same time, the raid (and subsequent spam of messages) really seemed to come from no where and left Tubbo floundering.

It was such a weird transition going from a dramatic death scene to Tubbo, Ranboo and Jack who were chatting and building the hotel and who seemingly didn't know what was happening. Having 300k+ people expecting some dramatic continuation with (what seemed to be) no prior planning doesn't seem like the smartest move.

I don't want to blame it on Tubbo "not being a very good role-player" because we've seen some really good scenes from him! (his reaction to tommy's apparent suicide, his confrontation with big Q and essentially everything from the finale of last season with the disc wars come to mind straight away). I think anyone would struggle with suddenly having 300k people expecting you to role-play your best friends death with no preparation lol.

The lack of communication isn't anything new. We've seen it with Niki when she felt left out from the plot, and even just yesterday Eret essentially said the same thing.

Both Niki and Eret (and now Tubbo) are big characters and have been critical to the plot, so its kinda disappointing to see them not be included in the writing and not having a say in things that directly affect their characters. It sometimes seems too centric on a few characters while the rest are left to adapt to the plot on the fly as it changes around them.

I don't want to sound too negative, because I did enjoy the prison arc, but as someone who mainly watches Tommy AND Tubbo, his reaction (or lack thereof) really threw me off and left me feeling unsatisfied.

[txbbo]

As a resident Tubbo AND Tommy apologist, I wanna clarify that I think its so dumb to be mad at Tubbo for building his motel with Ranboo.

You need to realise that Tubbo hardly ever does lore intentionally lol - he just falls into it. He's allowed to do 'bits' and build whatever he wants without people going "but won't somebody please think of Tommy!!!"

[txbbo]

Oh man Tommy yelling for Phil :(( Even after all he's done he still calls for him for help.

[txbbo]

Am I the only one who doesn't like the idea of Tubbo ~canonically~ having horns?

I mean the idea became popular after the confrontation between Tubbo and Tommy where everyone was convinced Tubbo was going to become just like Schlatt, which just... didn't happen? in any way?

I think the idea is supposed to either be that he's like Schlatt in some way (which is just not true at all) or he is Schlatt's son which I'm just not a fan off. Did y'all forget he made Tubbo decorate his own execution?!?! lmaooo. If anyone should be Tubbo's dad, it should be the Captian. Let this boy have a healthy father figure in his life!!

[txbbo]

Do you know the name of the song that tubbo played at the end of his fnaf stream last week? https://www.twitch.tv/videos/907666480?t=1394s (link to the stream)

The link didn’t work so I went back to the vod. I’m assuming you’re referring to the end of the stream when he covered up his camera and did that whole dramatic ending? 

And honestly I had no idea ahaha, so I asked the Adult MCYT Discord server I’m in and luckily @cacticaltactus found it!!

They said it was ‘Dark World’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvi3VTLzSfM&feature=youtu.be

Hope this helps!!

**Edit: They’ve also informed me that the first song he plays is ‘Lost Woods’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyczNECej8A

[txbbo]

opinion on the eggpire?

oooo the eggpire. I think it has some really interesting potential and it feels like it's building up to something big. I’ve enjoyed seeing people be slowly corrupted and now that the main storyline is on a break its good that it has some time to shine. I know Bad and Ant’s plan is to let the egg spread to everywhere on the server to cause total chaos and I'm excited to see how that'll play out - and how certain characters will react to it (like Techno)

I have to be honest in saying that a lot of the stuff I know about the eggpire has been second hand, mainly because the timezones for watching the streams are weird and I was a bit overwhelmed trying to keep up with the main storyline and the eggpire.

If anyone has any other info about it feel free to info dump on me! I feel like I don’t know everything. 

[txbbo]

what would u say is a personal favorite "funny" or lighthearted part of the lore (jack and niki looneytoon villains, wilbur being a fish fucker, suck it green boy being part of the declaration of independence, etc??)

oh god there is so many. I truly don’t think I have a singular favourite (all the ones you mentioned are so good)

Thats what I love about the SMP - it offers such a unique medium of storytelling that allows for both serious moments but also lighthearted, fun “bits” and both can co-exist. 

I really am enjoying the Jack and Niki looney toon villains bit right now and I hope they keep playing it up with even more “wacky” ways of trying to kill Tommy lmao.

[shoezuki]

So in techncord there was heavy debating on like. Techno being manipulative of tommy (old news, overdone, most in the 'what no' department but yknow ppl are persistent) and it got In Depth. Im talkin full page essays.

But techno fucking popped in and dropped this

And we scattered

[txbbo]

Ultimately, Dream’s hamartia was the very thing that gave him his power in the first place. 

He gave up all his personal items, his connections to pets and his relationships with people on the server so that he wouldn't be vulnerable and there would be no way to control him. 

And it is exactly this that led to his downfall. He had no one one his side and when it came down to it, he was easily outmatched.

[txbbo]

HOLY SHITT!!!

That was my favourite lore stream by far. I’m still very much collecting my thoughts but omg it was just so *chefs kiss*.

I feel like it was way more planned out than previous streams, and the fact that most people were involved just made it all the better.

I had no idea what was going to come next and was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Tubbo came so close to losing his life and I think it was very well acted - the fear seemed genuine. Tubbo telling Tommy to keep his discs but Tommy giving them up anyway provided for some very good character development.

Hearing more about Dream’s backstory was so good! I think it was obvious that Dream purposely has no possessions, but it was nice to hear him explain it to the characters.

THE PRISON!! FINALLY! I had been anticipating this coming into the plot soon but I had no clue how it was going to happen. I actually thought Tommy was going to be the one in jail, but when Punz came through the portal followed by everyone I was so HAPPY!

I think what makes this stream even better is that this is the first, real, W for Tommy and Tubbo (and everyone else). Every other big lore stream has resulted in such devastating loss that this is really refreshing to see, both in the story but also in the writing.

It seems like a proper finale, and I’m existing to see what is going to come next.

[txbbo]

Uhh I really wish people would come and ask me before they upload my posts to other websites. I will literally always say yes, but its just very weird knowing that my thoughts are being analysed in a place that I cant see. I just found someone posted a 12 page response to one of my posts on reddit??