A Place for my Art (MDNI)

Spamton was so certain that Tenna would help him when he needed him. That means that Tenna, at some point, or maybe at several points, proved to Spamton that he would do that. So when Tenna appeared to have cut him off when he needed him most, that felt like a deep betrayal.

And for Tenna, it was that Spamton left and never came back. Spamton had proven to him that he would reliably be there for Tenna too. So when Spamton left without a word and never returned, that also felt like a deep betrayal.

The strongest romantic love is built on a foundation of liking the other person first. That’s what they had. They really liked each other even before any romantic feelings came up for either of them. They enjoyed each other’s company and got along really well. They understood each other in a way most other people didn’t. That friendship was precious to both of them. And I think a strong romance built up from that. I think they had an overwhelmingly positive relationship before everything went so horribly wrong.

Yes, Spamton almost killed Kris and their friends. Just like Pink. Pink almost killed them too, one of them is her neighbor's child.

Both are trans and dislike themselves and their bodies. Both stole.

One of the biggest differences between the two is that: Spamton is homeless and disabled, and Pink is not. Pink has a home, family, and friends who support her, and Spamton does not.

But only one is getting a happy ending so far in the game. And instead of the fandom understanding that the point is precisely the injustice and privileges, more half of the fandom decides to try to do mental gymnastics about how the situation is different and her stealing and almost killing 3 kids is justified because she was having an anxiety attack during the fight or something, but Spamton was hallucinating an audience and praying and begging. Or try to justify her wrongdoings because she doesn't know much about the Dark World, but even so, wouldn't that justify that she was attacking and trying to kill them? Attempted murders happen outside the Dark World too.

I even saw people saying "well, but Pink is a lightner and Spamton is a darkner!" And first of all, wow, are we really going to agree with the oppression of the Darkners? Are we really going to think that this fictional racism/classism is correct? This is the opposite of Deltarune's message. And the opposite of Pink's message too. She's learning to respect Pink Darkner and how her needs are just as important as Pink Lightner's.

Then surely... Tenna too... I mean less heavy handed and central but there MUST be something with how contrasting their current positions are. One has nothing to his name while the other still has shelter after the contract. Tenna is still the boss of his TV Studio with iron gripping contracts and where he jokes about money laundering once and how he gives his employees no healthcare

kitch you put my two thousand unfinished thoughts in a beautifully compact form lmao. Honestly it fits perfectly because Tenna in general is just always born in that good position but then loses it. He was really well used as a television when the family was still together but when that stopped everyone suddenly left and that's when things got dangerous for him. He essentially would have lost his privilege and ended up in the trash just like Spamton.

Definitely worth it to mention that he tries is darned hardest to regain his viewership. Practically trying really hard to keep himself in that privileged position of an object that is used and loved. And it's definitely interesting it aligns with how he calls regaining his viewership from the Dreemurrs as "getting big" and how he talks about losing viewership is just something eventual in showbiz. Its all in the language of industry and material success. despite it simply just being about wanting to be loved and not die, just like how Spamton talking about being a big shot was about freedom and wanting love. BUT. In the end, both Tenna and Spamton's actions don't truly lead to what they want because their actions are informed by the systems they were born in.. that actually work against them

Over 90% of parents of visibly intersex children opt for cosmetic surgery on their infants.

The ones that don't experience medical violence then, likely experience it as a teenager.

I didn't.

I am very rare in that I did not experience medical violence.

Why? Because I learned what intersexuality was as a young age, and I actively fought against what doctors wanted to do to me. All the way down to legal research on what medical care minors can be forced into. I remember walking into that doctor's appointment with the state law written down that proved that if I did not consent they could not do surgery.

My thoughts are that anyone who thinks Spamtenna is like the Dreemurrs has no media literacy. I hate how many people genuinely believe this to be a good comparison.

Spamtenna was a healthy, compatible relationship. They're very alike as people (despite some inaccurate fanon presenting them as opposites) and understand each other well, and they were aligned in what they wanted in life. They wanted to be big together; they wanted to be co-hosts and lifelong partners and have a kid together (their shared dream). The relationship itself was fine, they're implied to have been happy together; it was an outside force that tore them apart (allegorically, punishing a gay couple for trying to marry/stay together permanently). If anything, the thing that doomed them was that they thought their love was stronger than whatever bad thing could happen to Spamton if he signed the contract; Tenna thought he could protect Spamton, and Spamton trusted that Tenna would still be there for him even if something bad happened (they didn't account for potential outside interference).

Note that it was Mike, not Spamton, that suspected something terrible would happen if Spamton signed the contract, and that it was just a vague suspicion; neither he nor Tenna knew what exactly would happen. If Spamton was saying something bad would happen, it would've been more significant to Tenna and would've come up, so him citing Mike as the source of doubt implies it was only Mike saying this, and this is likely why Tenna ignored the warning (Spamton is the one with the secret, so he would know better). Despite Tenna claiming he "made" Spamton sign, Spamton never claims he was forced to sign (something he would've absolutely complained about if it was true, like he complains about being abandoned and many other things that happened to him), and in fact, a couple of his lines imply that he wanted to sign.

There's "TO [$!$!] ME OVER RIGHT AT THE [Good part]!? WHAT ARE YOU, A [Gameshow Host]!?", where the contract is the "good part", and the "[$!$!] over" is Tenna seemingly abandoning Spamton - he didn't answer Spamton's call(s), and Spamton believed this to be because Tenna changed his number (which wouldn't have made sense for Tenna to do, meaning the reason for him not getting the call(s) was outside of his control). There's also his line "YOU LOST IT WHEN YOU TRIED TO SEE TOO FAR...", which, considering all the projection he's doing throughout the battle, like with the lines about screaming into the receiver and how no one will ever pick up, is also about himself (he thought he could be something outside of his purpose - a TV host).

Also, the contract is commonly misunderstood as being one-sided, but it wasn't. Spamton sharing his secret was just half of it; the other half was Tenna making Spamton his co-host and giving him a permanent place in TV World. It's important to note that Spamton is disabled (both literally and allegorically) and has needed outside help to stay afloat throughout his life; he used to depend on the Addisons, then on his benefactor, and then was going to depend on Tenna (willingly trusting Tenna not to misuse the power this would give him), but he was separated from Tenna, which left him homeless, since no one in Cyber World was willing to help him.

The fact that something terrible happened and Tenna wasn't able to help eats him up inside, and his guilt has distorted his view of the past, causing him to blame himself for Spamton's disappearance (because blaming Spamton, the guy that got hurt, would feel wrong). Look at the completely destroyed mirror, but untouched posters and phone, in the Z-Rank room. It wasn't Spamton that Tenna was angry at, it was his own reflection that he couldn't stand to look at. Yes, he expresses anger towards Spamton, but this anger is an expression of grief; it's common for people who lost a loved one to feel irrational anger at the loved one for "leaving" them. He's also in denial about Spamton going missing, instead telling himself Spamton "abandoned" him, because thinking Spamton is an asshole who tricked him and willingly left is the only way to assure himself Spamton is okay.

Spamton, on the other hand, was angry at Tenna for seemingly actually abandoning him, and his anger about losing his career ultimately stems from that. Once he saw that Tenna kept the pipis, their child, he realized that he must've been wrong and Tenna did really love him and never abandoned him, and he was overjoyed to learn that. Notably, even without activating the cutscene, having the Dealmaker equipped during Tenna's battle will change his Check description to "THE [Tragic businesmen] THAT [Died] AT THE [Now] OF THE [Story]". When Spamton wants to be mean about other people, he's direct about it, so this isn't sarcasm or mockery; he's sincerely calling Tenna tragic, because he still loves Tenna after all this time, whether he knows his love is (or at least was at some point) reciprocated or not, and he's sad that Tenna is seemingly doomed.

If the cutscene was activated, then Tenna reacted poorly to seeing Spamton, because he was already going through a crisis and wasn't ready to learn and process what must've led to Spamton looking different and only now showing back up after being gone for years, and his freakout led Spamton to believe he has been rejected in his current form, so he probably won't try to talk to Tenna again unless Tenna says that he does actually want to reunite and explains that he doesn't mind the way Spamton looks now.

Actually talking to each other and being together again would help both of them heal. Facing Spamton will be difficult for Tenna at first, given his deeply rooted feelings of guilt (which aren't helped by how he reacted to seeing Spamton in Chapter 3), but he needs to be brave and initiate a conversation for both of their sake.

Also, this relationship has thematic importance. They're a couple who is strongly implied to have been happy together and was then forcefully separated, which traumatized both. Reuniting them, which the narrative is heading towards if the player has taken the right steps, serves to support the theme of hope and defying fate, letting them be together even if spam mail and a CRT TV aren't "supposed" to interact at all. People who mischaracterize them as a toxic relationship are massively missing this.

Anyways, more ranting under read more, because the way these two get mischaracterized makes me want to (metaphorically) commit violence.

And Tenna is coded as disabled by how he is a "box stuck to a wall", which gives the idea of a house bound person. And how he feels worthless and has bad self-esteem because he isn't serving his purpose. How he thinks it's his fault that he can't keep up with the times or that the family broke apart even though it isn't. How he insists he doesn't have burn in and that he isn't broken. all this being coding for him having internalized ableism...

That being said, I didn't fall in love with Spamtenna because of shipping, I fell in love with it because it was CANON. I fell in love with it because it made me appreciate the characters, the story, the themes, all of it. Spamtenna was what truly made me appreciate Deltarune as a whole and I did like Deltarune even before Chapter 3. Just, when I realised that the twos’ stories are about a world that punished them because they were in love, when I realised that the voice in the beginning actually means something and isn't a simple subversion, I got it. All the characters, it made me appreciate them more. Spamtenna is what made me love Deltarune because Spamtenna forces you to look into the subtext of Deltarune, not just the text. You can't love Spamtenna if you can't love the subtext of Deltarune. But this is also the problem with Spamtenna, if people can't get into the subtext than they won't understand Spamtenna. Maybe that's why it is so hard for people to view them as nothing more than a joke, afterthought or people obsessing with men again. It's why the Fandom doesn't consider Spamtenna canon, because the story they enjoy is the text and not the subtext. And like, that's not a wrong way of enjoying a media but it can be frustrating when people who do enjoy the subtext are treated as just "making shit up".

Having dysphoria is not "toxic masculinity."

A man (cis or trans) wanting to be more masculine is not "toxic masculinity."

Masculinity is not always toxic.

And please, not everything is about passing! Trans people transition and want to be more masculine or feminine *for themselves*