#idk i just...

Q seems to sympathise and empathise more with tommy despite being aware of what he's doing is...extremely dodgy and potentially threatening to his country. Vs with Tubbo he is a lot more harsh right off the bat a lot more affirmative. But why is that? (Aside from knowing tubbo wants war before that was exposed the conversation was hostile)

i think quackity's edginess when it comes to tubbo has less to do with tubbo himself but the fact that tubbo is building an intimidating tower like right next to his nation. he would've reacted the same way if anyone else, even tommy or maybe even karl or sapnap, had started doing the same thing. actually, he might have reacted worse. he said so himself that he wanted to work things out with tubbo using words, and i believe it, if there's anyone had quackity has (or at least had) a good relationship with - it's with tommy and tubbo.

the white house that he cared so much about, the one that schlatt tore down? the One Attachment that quackity had on the server prior to his horse? that build was special to him because he'd built it with wilbur and tommy, and he tells schlatt himself that it was his last good memory with his friends, aka wilbur and tommy.

and tubbo had been on the same cabinet as him under schlatt. they fought in the pogtopia war, started new l'manberg, fought in the doomsday war together. they've had hearts to hearts about the fate of l'manberg, what it meant to be loyal, what it meant to love and defend a country that was doomed to fail. that's what quackity means by "shared past experiences."

so even though quackity's decisions (and occasional lying) may seem not rational to an outsider, i don't think a lot of people realize that quackity is scared. his nation has zero security, the nation currently isn't even bringing in money (so they have no power), quackity had to literally bet on his life multiple times to get the loyalty of the current members, and they're slowly getting boxed in on their borders, and so he sees a tower that looks vaguely militaristic, and understandably gets antsy.

he's willing to work things out with tubbo, and he definitely doesn't want to fight tubbo (well, he didn't until he got the threat, and even then, he's taking a defensive position, sacrificing tourism for the sake of building walls.)

as far tommy, he's just less... threatening at the moment? quackity definitely empathizes with tommy, immediately backing off when tommy mentions the trauma he'd been through, and telling the las nevadas recruits to be nice to him (though i think it's notable that when trousers had mentioned "the protagonist's trauma," quackity had said "he's not the only one who's gone through things").

to quackity, the only real threat is wilbur. he doesn't fear tommy, has no ill will towards him at all (and tommy doesn't either). however, quackity does feel at least a little threatened by tubbo because of the stance that tubbo is taking, and i think that's why he's acting so defensively (aka taking a harder stance).