AliveBurBitch

Like obviously theres more to it than that, Tubbo and Ranboo are dealing with their own shit, and they aren't obligated to help Tommy, but again, etc. But again we've had this set up with them as friends who care for and look out for each other. So of course its gonne be a bit disheartening to see that Tubbo and Ranboo are sorta distancing themselves from Tommy.

Yeah exactly!

There is a sort of expectation that’s been built up for them, but the problem is that we never really saw them choose to help Tommy when it mattered. The only time I can think of is Tubbo going with him to the disc finale thing, but it could be argued that he didn’t really choose that since Dream asked for both of them.

Now, this is quite reductive. Because of course both Tubbo and Ranboo have shown that they cared time and time again. But this is the problem with showing only the opposite during big moments:

Tommy gets exiled -> Tubbo never visits. Ranboo visits but does nothing, not even tell Tubbo about Tommy’s conditions

Tommy gets locked in prison with his abuser and gets killed -> Tubbo and Ranboo get married and adopt a child

Tommy is now stuck in a new unhealthy relationship that they know he was scared of -> Tubbo and Ranboo build the outpost and distance themselves

These are not the only occasions to showcase their friendship of course, and we saw them help in numerous occasions. But these are the most relevant and most memorable instances of Tommy needing help and his friends time and time again just didn’t. They didn’t even try. Which becomes a problem after a while because it gets you in the mindset that them helping ever is just not what you should expect of them, even if it’s what they announced time and time again.

This wouldn’t be a problem if it didn’t make their relationship feel so utterly imbalanced. Especially because it doesn’t work the other way around.

Tubbo gets executed -> Tommy throws himself on stage looking for him and fights almost all of Manburg to get to him

Tubbo’s country get’s exploded the first time -> Tommy fights by his side keeping the people’s morale high and then makes sure to reaffirm Tubbo as president

Tubbo’s country is exploded again -> Tommy is there fighting by his side

Ranboo is being accused of burning down George’s house as well -> Tommy takes the full fall for it

Comment from @pinkpeaach​​

[Another thing to not about the prison, after Tommy was killed Ranboo himself lamented about absolutely no one doing anything to help, himself included. And that entire speech he was Very hypocritical and the points he makes there about the same things happening again with no one bothering to help is exactly what’s happening now. And he’s still not helping.]

That’s actually a good point! 

Ranboo, post Tommy’s death, seemed to recognize the problem at least to some extent. He seemed to recognize that, despite people knowing that there was a problem no one lifted a finger to help, just like with exile. And with him calling out that behaviour so fervently you’d expect him to, you know, try to not do the exact same thing he was complaining about again…? 

Like, this time they can’t even use the poor excuse of “they didn’t know” (which was already a poor excuse for the prison because they never even tried to ask, but I digress) because Tommy has told both him and Tubbo to their faces that he was afraid of Wilbur coming back because he “molds him like clay”. And, after that, he actually explained how Wilbur’s manipulation felt to Ranboo with the whole caterpillar analogy together with looking very obviously on edge that whole encounter. 

“Tommy Is Actually Depressed in Exile” at 56:24

Ranboo: “Doesn’t Dream like- take your armor? Is that what you said?”

Tommy: “I don’t know he- I just- hey man, I just follow the boss.”

Ranboo: “Oh.”

“Tommy Is On The Brink Of War” (latest DSMP stream) at 29:06

Tommy (speaking to Ranboo): “I ca- I’m not fully with Wilbur’s plan and I just know I follow him right now.”

Another thing is that he’s very clearly becoming more and more dependent on Wilbur now just like how he was conditioned to be dependent on Dream in exile. He has a very “whatever he says goes” attitude towards Wilbur which is very clear. He’s constantly thinking about what will please Wilbur without questioning it which should be concerning even if Ranboo DIDN’T already see him act this way with Dream.

This shows itself in, again, Tommy’s latest DSMP stream at 33:04 when Ranboo is telling him about the “cookie outpost” and Tommy says “How is that gonna follow what Wilbur wants?” and instead of questioning why he said that Ranboo just says “I don’t care about what Wilbur wants.”

These are clear red flags and it bothers me that Ranboo hasn’t been picking up on them. You’d think he’d be concerned or confused at least to see Tommy—who was terrified of Wilbur ever coming back, who was clearly panicking on his way out of the prison when he told him and Tubbo that Wilbur got revived, who kept telling him to be careful around Wilbur and that Wilbur would get into people’s heads, who (despite being afraid of getting hurt) continuously stood in front of Ranboo to protect him when they talked with Wilbur, etc—suddenly start mindlessly following Wilbur and doing what he wants.

Tommy: “I’m gonna be one of the sleepy bois and sleep forever.”

Phil: “PFFT— gonna hibernate?”

Tommy: “I’m gonna die.”

You promised me it’ll be okay…

i am in a constant state of cry

my sweet boy, i’ll miss you

vilbur is back but at what cost

-

About the Final Control Room: the wound is a lot fresher for Tommy after what happened to him with Dream in prison. You have to realize that, unlike Tommy, Tubbo’s been able to move on for the most part. He has a husband, son, a whole nation(?) that he’s a part of, etc. He doesn’t need to work through what happened in the Final Control Room because he’s been able to move forward in life since then.

Mister “I was dehumanized and only seen as a weapon” actually was the one who kinda dehumanized Tommy and only saw him as a weapon.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, but hold that 200k words essay on why I’m wrong and hear me out!

Techno, in the stream before the Green Festival was the one who admitted to only find value in Tommy when in relation to his level of violence. He only started “sort of respecting him” after he’d shown he could be used as some kind of asset to violently obtain what Techno wanted from his enemies…, you know… almost like some kind of weapon you may say…

The two things I dislike most about c!techno:

1: He’s a hypocrite. He’s fine with using Tommy, but is upset at Tommy for “using” him (when Tommy never actually did).

Agreed! While it is undoubtedly true that he helped him, I feel that people don’t talk about the other side of things almost at all. A lot of the time in fact Techno “helping” Tommy is one of the excuses a lot of people use to bash on Tommy for leaving him. I’ve even seen a few takes officially stating that Tommy was “healed” already when he left Techno, that Techno specifically had “healed” him, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

The main issue here is that, while Techno did do a few things to help (helping him with the panic attack, generally trying to keep him away from Dream, giving him armour) the damage he’s done (isolating him further, lying about his goals, being manipulative and undermining Tommy’s worth, offering Tommy to Dream in exchange for the favour, holding the items he supposedly gave him freely over his head) is much more often sweeped under a rug as you pointed out yourself, and honestly he did more damage then he helped. 

Also I want to point out that, while people say that Tommy was “useless” to Techno and, therefore, Techno never used him, that couldn’t be further from the truth. From the very start Techno only thought of Tommy as a tool to use (he admits to this himself), any respect for him comes much later on. Tommy was also the only one helping the other with their goals. Techno never even tried to help him get the disks, all the while Tommy helped getting Techno’s weapons back, helped him with the hound army, helped build a post underneath L’Manburg, helped getting info on the festival togwther with the info they gathered the day of the festival and helped him learning to navigate the sewer system. And YET there is this pervasive idea that Tommy was somehow the one using Techno...