#deltayaps

spamtenna brainrot level 2: okaaay so the hidden pipis scene. Spamton wanted to see Tenna but he doesn't recognise him? Didn't they hate eachother or whatever ? Tenna kept Spamton's... Egg??? And acts like it's his kid or something????

spamtenna brainrot level 3: Oh. OH. So all that time Spamton mentioned CRTs and game show hosts and all that other stuff in his fight that was about Tenna? And every time Tenna mentioned his business partner or mail-man that was about Spamton? Oh and they had matching suits. That's cute.

spamtenna brainrot level 4: Okay so you're telling me Spamton was brought to the TV world with Queen and became Tenna's partner to save his show but was steered by a mysterious entity who had a deal with him. Spamton convinced Tenna he could make him successful, and they cooperated on the show in some capacity, I guess Spamton did ads for him? Tenna really wanted to know Spamton's secret so he "sweet talked" him into signing the contract (breaking his deal with the benefactor) which is the entire reason Spam was turned into a puppet and lived in the dumpster for 10 years. Tenna took it as him walking out on their deal. No wonder they hate eachother huh #toxic divorce

level 6: SO WHEN SPAMTON MAKES ALL THESE DIVORCE REFERENCES IN SWEEPSTAKES THATS ABOUT TENNA? THE "I THOUGHT WE HAD A SET AND KIDS AND YOU TEAR THEM ALL DOWN" VALENTINE FROM SPAMTON WAS ALSO DIRECTED AT TENNA? [SOUTH OF BORDER] IS A REFERENCE TO THE ISLAND OF LOVE? THAT HAS THE SAME SOUNDTRACK AS KEYGEN??? SPAMTON KNEW THE PROPHECY AND KNEW TENNA WAS ABOUT TO DIE WHICH IS WHY HE PAINTED ALL THESE CROSSED THROUGH BOXES NEXT TO HIS SHOP?????

level 10: Oh no so Spamton thought Tenna tricked him into signing the contract, and Tenna genuinely wanted them both to be Big together. That's why he showed up when he saw the pipis he was hiding cause he realised Tenna talked about him and missed him and cherished their relationship all this time. And Tenna thought Spamton bolted on him to be successful on his own while he was experiencing some cosmic horror level shit because a god-like entity was trying to break them up??? Oh no. That's so sad now I kinda wish they get back together.

level 50: *in a trance like state* the soundtrack "and now's the time for our sponsors" is named "bacci perugina" in the files, which is a reference to a brand of Italian chocolate which contains love letters in the package. It's theorised that the origin of the addition of these love letters was inspired by an illicit affair of the founder of the company. The track is 19 seconds long with 97 BPM (1997 being Spamton's favourite year) and is written in G minor. It's likely that Spamton's role in Tenna's show was being a sponsor (sponsor segments curiously missing in ch3) and is associated with letters (Tenna calling him mail-man and implying he ran the mail room which he hadn't accessed since Spamton left). I'm normal about this.

level 99: Spamton and Tenna's relationship being hidden in the game files, scenes out of the main plot, and easter eggs, and not apparent to a casual player is meta-textually a reflection of their relationship in-fiction. They're Darkners from vastly different dark worlds that weren't meant to be a set, but purposely made themselves look and act alike - they shaped themselves to be a couple, contrary to their assigned function. Darkners' autonomy (or lack thereof) is an important theme of the game, and they challenged that notion by trying to defy fate, something they were separated and punished for.

Their connection is not accidental. All the clues were placed there meticulously, meant to be obfuscated and then uncovered, because while homophobia doesn't exist in the DR universe directly, the discrimination, shame, and repression these two characters experience, especially in reference to their relationship does an amazing job at subtly invoking real life bigotry queer people go through.

Spamton has one of the strongest trans man-coding I've seen in fiction since Mettaton, and his entire arc revolves around the idea of self-determination and transformation. The Dealmaker-free version of the pipis scene in ch3 has Tenna feeling embarrassed for keeping the egg (which in many ways, can be treated as a symbolic representation of their relationship), and literally gets shamed and berated for it by the audience. While Tenna talks about Spamton almost constantly, a lot of these references are implicit and he never addresses him by name. Spamton still cares deeply enough about Tenna to show himself to him even though he has every right to feel abandoned, but whenever he mentioned it before or after, he dresses it in anger and resentment. He also plays up this heteronormative 90s businessman persona that, especially in the context of their relationship, could be read as an older queer man dealing with some internalised homophobia.

Tenna's whole deal with censorship and the fact that he seems like he wants to express himself more explicitly and sexually (his ass obsession, for once) invokes a queer TV personality during the Hays Code era. It's easy to imagine that would also come with an undisclosed relationship with a business partner only close associates knew about (i.e. Mike).

You may like this ship or not, but saying it's barely there or it's not relevant to the game, when it's been placed there very purposefully and reflects some of its' main themes in very interesting ways, means you just haven't been paying attention.

- Doomed by the narrative (this is like. his whole character concept)

- Filled with confidence that's frankly unwarranted, while it hides the deepest insecurity

- Mentally unstable

- short

- Transmasc. Like guys? He's canonically strongly hinted to be transmasc. Btw

- He's the very obvious foil to the main character in a way that also UNVEILS a lot of information about the main character that we didn't know

- He feels like a looney tunes character and his dialogue is genuinely funny

- he's rejected by his peers/family

- he's divorced

- Later we find out that not only is he divorced to a boss of a whole dark world but also it wasn't a divorce as much as two people who loved each other separated by the higher powers?????? Which is tragic? And Tumblr bitches love tragedy???

- he sucks in a really funny way

On a surface level they hate eachother, they both kinda keep shit talking one another to a bunch of kids (very divorced behaviour), Tenna fucking... sprays Spamton with insulating foam and calls him a rat, Spamton still uses his credit card presumably? Spamton is vicious in his mentions of Tenna, he insults him, calls him trash, credits his whole downfall to him, talks about how Tenna "screwed him over" in the snowgrave route and while he seems obsessed with him, it's all anger and resentment. BUT.

But then when you dig into it, they're both so very not over eachother. For example, Tenna can't stop making references to Spamton every five goddamn minutes.

He keeps asking the kids about Spamton-related things kinda nervously like he wants to know their opinion on things that specifically were implied they have worked on together: fresh from the juice (referenced in Spamton neo fight), tropic of love (referenced in sweepstakes and through keygen) AND the mail room. IN WHICH he particularly sulks if Kris doesn't want to see it (why does he want Kris' opinion on Spamton-y things so much?), but sulks even more if you go there and he says they don't need a mail guy, all while he calls Spamton "that little mail-man" later on, making it unambiguous who's he referring to.

He makes us fight his paper mache face, makes a possibly phallic joke about his nose, and then his whole breakdown has the spectre of Spamton things all over him: Big Shot playing in the guitar hero segment with Tenna noting, horrified, about how he can't stop it. As if he's telling us he can't stop from the Spamton word vomit he's been engaging in the whole chapter. Like the whole time he's trying SO hard not to mention Spamton and what we're seeing is him being restrained.

And then we can kinda see that whoops they actually care about eachother a LOT. In that additional context that the funny pipis scene suddenly becomes a little heartbreaking, cause Spamton was SO mad at him, so convinced he was the cause of his downfall and he folds instantly because he thinks Tenna has an ounce of feelings left in him because he kept the pipis he gave him? Spamton is an unreliable narrator of his own demise though, and even he seems to be aware of it in his post-neo clarity.

And then we're hit with a bullet to the back of the head with facts like "oh Spamton gave Tenna something that was clearly important and a big gesture to him" not only because of his reaction to Tenna keeping it but also him recounting giving it to Noelle cause he was so thankful someone listened to him for once.

And even more significantly: Spamton caved in to Tenna asking him to do one thing he wasn't supposed to do. Something that was going to end it all for him but he did it anyway cause he cared about him and what they had. "A little sweet talk", Tenna said, and it could mean many things, from manipulation to straight up begging. But if Tenna truly manipulated him, would Spamton, more aware than he's been in possibly a decade, jump out with open arms ready to reconcile?

From what Tenna says in the shadow mantle game and his recounting of their separation we can easily deduce that Spamton blames Tenna NOT for something Tenna did. He blames Tenna for FEELINGS he inspired in him and for what he made him compelled to do.

That being said whaaaats the deal with people initialising Tenna so much. Like he's this innocent baby mentally permanently stuck in a kids' show. I'm just kinda puzzled by that cause I feel like we played different games sometimes

He makes a bdsm joke. If it wasn't for the censors I'm sure he'd swear all the time, since when he gets pissed off he doesn't even care about the censors being there at all.

If you struggle to kill Spamton in the Sueziella game he says "what the f@$#! are you doing". He jokes about killing himself (or people wanting to kill him? It's generally self-depricating regardless).

He talks about asses Constantly. The minute his child locks are off he starts showing Mettaton sexy music videos. He's a bad boss that treats his employees poorly, he can be controlling and borderline despotic.

I'm not saying these are his only traits, nor that he has no positive ones. He clearly cares about his family, he's silly and goofy. He's a romantic. He's sensitive, witty and charismatic. I'm not trying to perform a moral judgement on him and I do get it that he's under very specific circumstances most of the time we see him. At the same time, it's clear which traits get exacerbated under pressure and which are just... a general part of his personality.

His personality has layers (which is what makes him interesting in the first place). But I feel like he's disproportionately represented through one or the other lense, while I usually see complaints about people boiling him down to the more "domineering" parts of him, "when he's a vulnerable little sweetie who can do no wrong". But he's both vulnerable and a massive bitch. And that's the fun part?

I'm sorry I don't like this teenage Yuri ship, cause deltarune really triggers my mysoginy *scrambles to hide my live sized cutout of queen behind my back*

But dunmeshi? Fortunately it makes me more feminist. Probably should stick to that. Phew!