#technoblade negative

i will write a better character relationship and morals analysis when im not rushing to get ready for a party, however in light of the techno tommy betrayal argument getting resparked by today i’m gonna put out a hot (and based) take:

tommy saying he betrayed techno isn’t character growth, nor is it him ‘finally realizing what he did wrong’. it’s showing that his character is regressing to doubting himself and what he stands for. and it’s showing that wilbur and quackity are both bad options for his safety. 

while i do agree that, on a fundamental standpoint, that tommy betrayed techno i think he was in the right for doing so. if he were to stay with techno he would’ve sided with everything he was against, he would’ve destroyed his home and his connection to wilbur (something he still cares deeply about), he would’ve ruined his relationship with tubbo (another person he cares deeply about) permanently, and on a writing standpoint it would’ve been bad. it would’ve sucked to see tommy spend all of the pogtopia arc fighting against destroying l’manberg only to have him be hurt by that same country and decide “nope time to destroy it now wilbur was right!”. while this then gets kind of ruined by doomsday happening and l’manberg dying, that’s a separate anlaysis. 

what i’m getting at here is rather than admitting that he betrayed techno because it was for his own safety, aka something he needs to start prioritizing, he says simply that he betrayed techno and he’s guilty for it. tommy was VERY focused on the idea of where he would safest when deciding between wilbur and quackity. so to have tommy say he was in the wrong for prioritizing his safety and then try to pick where he will be safest it’s showing that tommy has a very skewed sense of safety and that neither wilbur nor quackity are safe options for him right now. whether that will change in the future for either of them is up in the air, but at this moment, wilbur and quackity are both using tommy as a one-up over the other because they know he means a lot to both of them. 

tubbo and ranboo’s always feel a bit clunky to me but i still like them. ranboo has a bad habit of just monologuing but some people think it works, just not me personally. ranboo is REALLY good about staying in character too! tubbo you can tell isn’t a big fan of the roleplaying aspect but he still plays into it and doesn’t ruin it for others which is nice.

which gets me to why i just...really hate how techno does lore streams. there’s so many jokes about viewership and money and the amount of times he points out how its lore. like techno, as a character, will point to the story and tell the audience its there. and its very awkward to watch. its always “hey this is a stream. this is a story and im doing lore right now. im streaming lore on the dream smp on youtube right now” and it just makes me feel like im watching a middle school play. ironically i think the early pogtopia era streams where people were like “hah techno doesnt roleplay” was where he had the best roleplay.