some thoughts about my beautiful beautiful spacewaffles torment nexus:
#| think part of it comes down how Planet treats Bacon like something constant and 'safe' and his need to maintain that idea of Bacon #the crux of Planet's conflict with Lifesteal is consequences.
â> about planetâs cruel behavior during the spacewaffles duel #also want to add that I think frustration has a part here. I too would kill baconwaffles if him and Princezam treated me like glass #after we spent a season together on three hearts then the next season I beat his ass constantly. #The way Planet is treated by the two of them post-revival is almost infantilizing.)
â> elaboration on planetâs view of lifesteal #invested in it in and of itself outside of that. content is important but by the end of S4 it was absolutely secondary to fun with friends #their behavior in season five inhibited that and they ended up excluded from projects that their closest friends were working on bc they #were playing enemies.
this is such a difficult conversation to have because a significant portion of my understandings of planet come from a lot of thoughts I havenât found a way to coherently articulate without sounding. a little parasocial but considering this has been a topic discussed before in the fandom regarding zam I decided Iâll give it a go here. since I canât really give you a good running dialogue without mentioning the ableism in lifesteal.
I want to clarify that I Donât think that any of this is done maliciously or that anyone really needs to be called out for this, theyâre all friends so im sure anything that needs to be worked out will done privately (then again, a lot of the more vocal lifestealers have called out the way that the friendship between members is often conflated and idealized to resolve upset in the fandom spaceâi.e any bad manners or misogyny is often brushed off with the, âweâre all friendsâ. line Sođ). a big part of this observation hinges on the uncomfortable language and offhand comment of planet saying heâs neurodivergent. which could be bullshitting but that would be a really weird thing to joke about so Iâll take him at his word.
youâve made an incredible point about bacon being planets safe space. it is often that they are excluded from server conflictâdespite mentioning that some of the bigger projects, like the wormhole and cleansing, were his favorite parts of lifestealâbut I see that to be less a result of his inactivity and more of the reason for it. I do think youâve put my thoughts together about mapicc and planet spectacularly in this post, there is a point where planet is infantilized within fandom and creator space (partly because of internalized queer biases) but i really want to note that planets outward blatant expression of neurodivergence also plays a big role in the ways heâs treated.
to name some specific examples, we have princezamâs Introduce a Little Anarchy VOD (2:46:33) -> roshambo laughs (albeit he does sound like he feels a little bad) about weaponizing planets sentimental attachments to the foundation (and general care for the players as his friends) in order to temporarily disarm planetâs anger at his betrayal. upon hearing roâs recount of the situation, wherein planet expresses that he feels that there is no reason to log on anymore seeing the lack of loyalty his current teammates exhibit, zam audibly awâs and mapicc dismisses planet entirelyâannoyedly remarking that planets just being a bitch and will continue to log on anyway. and another moment in stream to which I do not have the link or VOD for (sorry) but to summarize, planet mapicc and zam were in call laughing about a joke when planet dejectedly interrupts asking the two to elaborate because he doesnât understand what theyâre laughing about to which mapicc and zam refuse to explain. the conversation eventually ends with planet mumbling, âI donât like that Iâm not getting things.â (Iâve posted a similar clip before where planet immediately becomes distressed when bacon dismisses their request to explain mapiccâs joke, whether this is a marker of this being a repetitive behaviorâpeople keeping him out of the joke on purposeâor them being a âbratâ I canât be sure). but things like this happen frequently in call where planet is unable to understand what is going on because no one is willing to explain it to him, even when he goes out of his way to ask what the joke/topic is about.
to name a few more -> abyss trio + planet stream where the three jump them (while all four are in call) planet dies and discretely leaves, commenting in mc chat about having to fill out their fasfa (lol) and mapicc comments on how he finds it endearing when planet tries to play off moments where heâs clearly upset. (2:27:47)
same stream -> bacon and mapicc make fun of planets âfriendless behaviorâ and decide to let him know he needs more friends, bacon reads out a chat message saying âplanets friends with aliens no?â to which he responds, âplanet is an alien.â (no timestamp, sorry)
SAME stream -> planet starts with a joke about him being in the void ponies group chat, and is immediately cut off by mapicc who tells him to shut the fuck up, planet apologies, and zam coos (47:32) -> mapicc even calls this out, where planet will repeat the same joke twice under the impression that no one heard him when reality they were just ignoring him (the duel stream with the sharing pots joke: gayyy for anyone wondering)
the point im trying to make is that there is a profound societal alienation that planet is subject to on the server, even from friends or close confidants such as but not limited to zam, mapicc and bacon. i find what you said about planets unique relationship to consequences being the decisive factor in spacewafflesâ complicated relationship perfectly verbalized what I couldnât exactly piece together before. but I feel like it would be better encapsulated to say that itâs planets dehumanizationâviewed almost similarly to a pet or a child, a living being incapable of further complex thoughtâthat has robbed him of his ability to form healthy relationships because nothing he says or does seem to matter in any serious capacity. people will be angry at him for the general antagonizing things that he does but he is similarly reprimanded like a child, even when the things he is doing is killing a multitude of other server members. his incredibly clear manipulation of social situations (akin to that of spoke) always comes as a surprise even to members that have experienced and acknowledged it time and time againâzam: âthis is stupid. this is stupid that heâs able to do this to me, how the fuck did he do this to me? how the fuck? . . . HOW THE FUCK DOES THIS HAPPEN TO ME? are you kidding me? one talk with planetlord . . . well. I donâtâhow do I suddenly not like my own idea? . . . likeâI donât get it.â (2:09:39)âis incredibly discouraging to the point that im not surprised planet often feels left out when conflict on the server occurs. I think itâs less about them being enemies, and more that when youâre not the Serverâs Little Guy anymore you get significantly less opportunity for social interactionâespecially when that interaction hinges on you being the person theyâve invented you to be to make you easier to be around.
to bring this back to spacewaffles, I feel what is now, in s6, meant to be seen as a fond gentle regard for planet is instead viewed as an attack on the very little personhood theyâve managed to acquire through bacon. see, weâve already established that the things planet does rarely mattersâand while I do think the consequence-adverse part of him does employ and even exploit this fact for survival purposes or general hijinks, overtime for someone like planet, where general fun with friends is high on the priority list, this sort of disregard makes the server not fun and not worth it to play on. unlike in s4, where bacon did (to an extent) have that sort of server wide perception of planet he was still very willing (like mapicc) to push back and bitch at him for the things that they do in ways that he doesnât in s6. to us, as the viewer, this could very easily be contextualized by the fact that planet literally killed himself in s5 and bacon is feeling so wholly out of his depth when it comes to navigating the world of lifesteal with a teammate like planet who barely logs on; scared of forcing planet into another situation where they feel as if they need to death ban themselves again for some huge server lore conflict. but planet rightfully so, especially when considering the precedent set earlier, canât help but feel that bacon is giving up on him like everyone else. bacon is treating them softly because he thinks they canât handle it, bacon is making all these assumptions on what planet will and wonât want to do â> early void arc planet struggling so much against the abyss because he wonât ask his teammatesâroâto log on, which abyss trio calls him out onâ> ro feels like he isnât wanted by the foundation and betrays without giving planet the opportunity to communicate what is actually going on.
#This is a part of why I think they were so insistent to fight during the Spawn Repair. Bacon has historically made a Point of cutting #Planet out of his life outside their relationship post-revival. He never brings him into any of the cali girls plans. #He expresses his anxiety over Planet's wellbeing to Zam rather than Planet themself. He tells Zam about the Wemmbu #situation rather than Planet. Bacon really doesn't let Planet see how he's changed or what he cares about.
what an incredibly crushing way to put it. I find it so interesting that in trying to protect planet, bacon just ends up hurting them in the same horrible way theyâve been hurt so many times before. but itâs so much worse because itâs bacon isnât it? bacon who makes it a point to check in with planet when they go slient in call, bacon who prides himself on predicting planets next thought. bacon who has been planetâs avenue to personhoodâsomeone to hurt and profoundly affect, to prove that theyâre real and do matter because bacon cares doesnât he? and the duel just serves to be a saddening show of how exactly Not On The Same Page these two seem to be. bacon comes to realize how much heâs let planet effect his personal feelings and perception of himself and sub-sequentially detaches from planet to unburden them of his oh-so complicated human emotions, planet is experiencing the not so fun side of being regarded as a human beingâwhich is that the things you do to the people you love will sometimes hurt them and you wont understand any bit of it.
#This derailed a little. basically i think Planet is an annoying little asshole who loves conflict and hates consequences #And because Bacon refuses to make them face actual consequences Bacon becomes a safe place for Planet to #Be cruel and unfiltered since Bacon will never meaningfully show Planet that he's hurt by what Planet does to him #until he does and Planet kills themself about it (again) (metaphorically this time)
truthfully, I canât even blame planet for acting this way. heâs shown a remarkable capability for Not being able to read the room, but also is entirely inexperienced in navigating relationships (on lifesteal) where he is important enough to actually hurt someoneâs feelings. and then bacon comes in, and heâs a significantly nicer alternative to mapiccâsomeone who will bitch him around but never be so dismissively cruelâbut safe in that way that he can be petty and mean without it being made out as a spectacle.
then the s5 void arc happens and planet kills themselves. leaving bacon to now confront the very new reality where the idea of planetlord being permanently gone from the serverâand it being all his faultâgives him a nauseating stomach-churning dread, a physical ailment testament to how exactly much planet means to him. but obviously any of this absolutely cannot make its way back to planet. so they team in s6, and he tries to be just interesting enough that planet wonât quit lifesteal (for real this time) and drive planet away all the same because heâs just treating them like a kid.
#In my head l've always characterized that moment of death as being the point where Bacon realizes that the thing he wants #The thing he's tried to preserve the thing he has in some ways defined himself around protecting doesnt need him and maybe wasnt worth it
I think that the duel was a much needed wake up call (that bacon did not respond properly to at all) that treating planet like this wasnât going to get them anywhere. planet isnât someone to be lied to to keep face, or kept in the dark to be protectedâheâs strong and capable enough to stand by bacons side, even in immense weakness. but obviously these two can never communicate properly so all bacon feels is humiliated. and heâs responds in a way that severs the two apart so violent it almost feels permeant.
@oneformercy -> og post, reblog
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