oh hi there

Willy's resemblance to Spamton shows up more in how he is a salesman, unsurprisingly, but also how he views himself. Willy has this constant tug between wanting to move from Brooklyn to experience the sun and countryside and thinking that sales is the only thing that he can do despite it destroying his health over time and just generally not being that good at it.

He latches onto the way he thinks he needs to be based on the few people he had to influence him as a child- his dad who left when he was 6, and how much more successful and traditionally masculine older brother, Ben who doesn't really care about him. (I know that Spamton distances himself from the Addisons so there's a difference there, but he did genuinely like them and need their help). Willy asks Ben for help and is constantly brushed off as being unserious. Willy's failure as a salesman also shows up in just the sheer desperation he brings to his work despite it destroying his body and mind over time and it turns people off.

The main difference between Willy and Spamton though is that Willy is too prideful to accept certain kinds of help and Spamton is asking for help from anywhere as far as I can observe. But he is always looking towards the next thing in order to keep himself moving. Like he comforts himself with the idea that he could farm and live off the land and yet can only keep his sense of self by having something to look forward to or get bigger. It makes Spamton even the more tragic to me as a character bc although he was perfectly willing to sign the contract with Tenna, it seems like he was genuinely happy where he was in TV World with what little we get from canon-he thinks back to the stage in the NEO fight, he talks about having kids and a set that he loved in the 2024 Valentine's cards. It’s entirely possible he finally felt like he had a place he belonged and that he didn't need more, but that's my own interpretation.

The last couple of things I found interesting-While Willy looks up to his machismo brother, Willy's wife Linda (who deserves her own play toh, no deltarune equivalent as far as I could glean but fabulous character regardless) is afraid of Ben and doesn't like it when he wrestles their sons too hard or sweet talks her. She loves Willy for who he is, and yet Willy doesn't notice it because he's too wrapped up in trying to get Ben's attention and copy him. The reason I bring it up is it kind of invoked this cognitive dissonance I get with Spamton on the weird route and how he is seen as this misogynistic monster in fanon. And certainly he does awful things in this route specifically- but I just couldn't connect the two dots. I thought it was just because I was trying to defend a character I like (entirely possible tbh) from having interesting but less palatable flaws but then it occurred to me- the pink Addison and the KK crew are the ones that start saying weird and diminutive things to/about Noelle on BOTH routes (Pink calling her angel, Capn constantly talking about mademoiselles) but they're just..better at making it more palatable. In the weird route Spamton is simultaneously the most powerful and least in control/at risk and he knows it. He's parroting these things out of desperation and a misguided power trip but he's still spam. He's still off-putting in a way that he can't mask like others can. He's regurgitating these much more flowery things that he hears and perhaps unintentionally exposing them as toxically masculine (despite Addisons being they/them they are much more platonic ideal of more masculine traits with a dash of androgyny imo- tall, flat chested, trim, etc because ads don't reflect gender nonconformity, they reflect an template that projects a societally acceptable form). And it really seems like Tenna liked Spamton for who he was, not what he was failing to be. Those are just my own interpretations though

Ok sorry one more thing that's just a list of coincidences that I don't think are super relevant or intentional but I thought were kind of cool:

1. Willy's other son is named Happy. Makes me think of dialogue you can get from Papyrus in UT if you call him in Mettaton's house in waterfall where he speculates that the ghost that lived there might have been called Happstablook, the happy ghost. Given all the Mettaton connections with Spamton it's kinda neat.

2. Willy talks a lot about and then commits suicide in his car he talks fondly of that is bright red. Tbh the congadero has more ties with the Canyonero in the Simpsons but it's an interesting little coincidence.

3. Willy is called big shot ironically once as he's starting to have a mental breakdown in front of a more successful family friend. Big shot neuron activation I guess.”

Thank you so so much for this response!! I think these are really interesting parallels and have convinced me that Death of a Salesman was inspiration for aspects of Tenna’s character too, which makes sense; as you said, “intentionally similar characters who mutually enhance each other” and all.

I was reading some summaries, and wondered if these story beats could be parallels in some way, or if I’m just reaching here:

I read that Willy’s wife, Linda, convinces him to ask his boss for a different job for their family’s sake, and although Willy has been a loyal hard worker for years, his boss refuses. Willy starts begging his boss for help with increasing desperation until his boss just decides to suspend him, and this ultimately leads to the final tragedy. To me this seems like it could possibly correlate to Spamton being convinced by Tenna (though I definitely think it was still his own choice) to ask his benefactor to extend their deal to Tenna after he signed the contract, and then getting cut off and harshly punished for even attempting that, but like I said, that might be a reach.

Something else I considered is Willy’s final choice to end his own life — he sees it as his last way to “redeem” himself, and in his mind, he’s sacrificing himself for his family’s future. Spamton’s final choice in chapter 2 was to “redeem” himself by giving up his own autonomy to be an item to give Kris and their friends strength, so that they can “break their own strings.” Obviously it’s not the same thing, especially because I think Spamton will eventually have his own chance to heal and get better, but I still find that self-sacrificial “ending” to be an interesting parallel.

First Post -> My Father Needs Surgery

Update Post -> Video Of Me Explaining More Concerns