been thinking abt sandduo. specifically within the context of phil’s perspective of wilbur’s death. and his resulting actions because of it.
like. phil hasn’t seen his son in a while. and suddenly his letters stop. so he hauls ass to this new place he’s never been and is met with his son being at the rock bottom of the mental spiral.
he watches his son destroy the thing he’d been talking about so passionately for months. and he saves him from going down with it. and what does his son do after his life is saved? beg to be killed.
[[ everyone talks about “phil didn’t know he was on his last life” but personally. i think it’s worse if phil didn’t know he ever had more than one. bc both he n techno only ever had one ]]
and then. they rebuild. his son’s citizens heal the thing he both gave his life for and also destroyed. then they imprison him. they execute techno. they prove the exact thing that he had feared - that this was indeed a place of corruption.
so he decides to finish his son’s work and destroy the thing that ruined him. and he doesn’t care if he’s labeled a villain for it because they already made up their minds on him. and the least he can do is make this right.
this isn’t even to mention everything w ghostbur, of how he couldn’t ever really see him as his son, how he always maintained emotional distance. how ghostbur was distraught at the destruction of his life’s work because he couldn’t remember how horrible it’d made him.
he tries to revive wil, too. he tries everything he can to bring his son back. now that he’d gotten rid of l’manberg, he didn’t have that to make him spiral again. he could get a new start without that weight on his shoulders. he could still save his son.
except he can’t. he doesn’t get his son back, not on his own. not until his life is used as a threat against the kid that was basically his brother. not until his son is, once again, a weapon of pain.
he saw his son walk away to start a new life, and then watched it turn into an instrument of torture.
and he still tries to help him, still tries to get him accustomed to life, still tries to refocus his efforts to less horrible things. to keep him in a place he can move on and be a person rather than a weapon in someone else’s fight.
but the record is carved, and he plays the tune once more.