#tommyinnit analysis

And the way that dark academia kinda can romanticise a certain kind of self destruction with like caffeine addictions and all-nighters and things like that. The way dark academics sort of dedicate their entire being to studying and the way that c!wilbur dedicated his entire being to L’Manberg. Literature in dark academia and c!Wilbur’s Chekhov’s Gun - the way it all comes back to self-destruction.

And then there’s cottagecore. A simple way of life which values self-sustainability with things like sewing and baking and farming. Away from all the drama. Tommy wants nothing more than safety with his pets in a little house and he whole-heartedly believed that was achievable because he had lived it, hadn’t he? In L’Manberg?

but tommy has nothing to offer. nothing to give. not to the man with everything. not after being beaten and broken and stripped bare by a god with nothing better to do. not after already giving everything time and time again to a country that chewed him up and spat him out. "i would have fought all of them for you, tommy" is an echo of "if the roles were reversed i wouldn't even consider exiling you" because tommy would have fought anything for tubbo and that still wasn't enough. so tommy picks what he believes is the best choice here as his best friend did so long ago. because neither boy should have had to pick and yet they did. love isn't a guilt trip.

(Only after finishing this i realized i wrote 1.7k words LOL OOPS)

If u dont know what in talking about its this stream (apologies for linking a clips channel the actual vod on foolish's channel is deleted by now)

Also heads up /rp /dsmp every time i refer to someone here by name is their character unless stated otherwise bc writing c! Before every name Is tiring LOL

Also // suicidal idealization , death mentions

The conversation starts off with foolish and tommy mining for Wilbur, and foolish questions how simply mining will solve the problem to which Tommy reponds with "they dont get solved, do they? It just ends uo with some madman screaming 'Hes solved it!' And now look at him." And how he wants to "prevent the problem before it goes outta hand" something that clearly references Wilbur and his destruction of lmanburg, which paired with him collecting stone for Wilbur as the way to stop said problems he believes if he does anything he can for Wilbur and support him by his side enough this time around, that he wont do anything like thay again, which as im writing this makes be realize by doing that we learn hes blaming himself for what happened to Wilbur in November 16th and pogtopia and a whole, by not being enough for Wilbur in his mind.

The conversation continues, foolish off hand asks why would tommy want to stop Wilbur? Weren't they friends at some point? To which tommy leads foolish to lmanburg and tells him the story of the nation (how it was him and Wilbur's nation, how they made it to espace dream's iron fist and how they held an election "which puts your life on the line, which is good- if you're confident but- perhaps we were too confident", how they lost)

Tommy: "You know the phrase: 'treat other how you wanna be treated', foolish? People dont ever listen to it. Wilbur- he decided he wanted to be treated poorly so he treated everyone around him poorly "

This Tommy quote, to me at least, so so amazingly strong in conveying how understanding he is? To the world around him. Like-

I have not seen one person bring this quote up, and yet its (at least to me) shows such growth and understanding in Tommy i saw little to nothing like it in other streams. It shows he understands, he knew Wilbur didnt change just because, he knows he was struggling, that he thought everyone around him were againt him, were going to abandon him the first chance theyll get- and he thought he deserved it. So he, as a last way to defend himself against that, hurt them first, abandoned them first, so theyll see how much of a 'bad' person he was and take him out- and tommy saw right through that, possibly understanding it more after exile.

This next qoute was talked about much more but i still wanna bring it up

Foolish: "Do you believe in second chances?"

Tommy: "Oh, no I don't really believe that its not really a thing for me foolish its just that-" *sigh* "- i believe everyone has a little bit of good in then and this is not about giving him a second chance or a third chance- its not about *chances* foolish. Its about not giving up on the poeple you care about. "

Which. I mean. I dont know how healthy that mindset is, but comign from Tommy it makes so much sense.

Techno, tubbo, eret, sapnap. These are all people Tommy used to be extremely close to, had either a war or had been betrayed by them, and yet still found it in his heart that he still cares for them, with all of these, they did horrendous things, that hurt tommy physically and mentally, while also not being once or twice, but a contentious thing, but while tommy is to this day still effected by their actions he still found it in himself to forgive, because he knows he fucked up too, a lot, and he knoes they learned from their mistakes just as he had (except c!techno FUCKKK c!techno mf doesnt learn SHITTT) and he knows, when the time comes he knows hed want the people he hurt to forgive him too. (And he wants Wilbur to do the same)

Next qoute i will cut to a couple parts because its really so good and full of character i had to bro

Foolish: "Do you consider yourself to be the good guy or the bad guy?"

Tommy: "It really depends who you ask, isn't it? Yknow? If you asked dream he'd say im *his little toy that he plays with* you know? It doesnt.."

This part really stunned me when i first heard it because, and correct me If im wrong, but i dont think tommy ever acknowledged how dream sees him, and  how right he has his viewpoint too. Just the fact tommy is so *painfully* aware of how dream doesnt even see him as a person anymore but just a toy to mess around with for a while than just throw it away when it get too boring really hurt me. Someone give this kid a hug

(Continued) Tommy: "...foolish, honestly? I used to consider myself 'the good guy', you know? The fuckin'- second in command! But these past- these past like six months or so, foolish, everything got so much harder than it was before. Because before it was just us vs bad guys, it was all so clear! But- its not been 'clear' for so long, right? It wasn't; 'these are the bad guys! These are the good guys!' Now it's : 'he's doing this and it makes him a bit worse-' i mean, it all got so complicated, so- i don't know. Depends who you ask."

He says this, in response to foolish asking if hes a good guy- but its awfully similar to if Wilbur asked him if they were the bad guys. Because foolish just asked about him, and yet in his answer tommy made sure to keep using the words "us, he's, guys" as if hes not really talking about himself, as if hes explaining how Wilbur was wrong. Which he was. Also something interesting ive noticed, he says "the last 6 months or so", which indicated that with Wilbur he knew better to follow his word and leadership- with Wilbur he was always on the right side but when he lost him he felt much more lost alone, and couldn't trust himself enough to be on the "right side" .

Foolish: "I dont know, it all seems strange because just from, you know- hearing from others and, you know, learing a little bit, its seems like you've been the hero, you've been the villain, the conqueror, the savior, and, even now, i have no idea what you exactly are."

Tommy: "that's up to you to decide, isn't it? Im just- *uh*  i dont know. These days, foolish, I'm a little weaker than i used to be"

Foolish couldn't be more right with what he said, another example of this we see where a character acknowledges tommy never sticks to one thing us Charlie when calling him "tommy fron nowhere" which shows more how he cant stick to one thing, during the course of him on the server he had been friends and enemy with nearly everyone, been on pretty much all sides, and while never really intentionally, being in the center of conflict. When foolish says he doesnt know who tommy is anymroe at this point and all Tommy says in return is that "hes a little weaker than he used to be" does to show he misses who he used to be, with lmanburg, with Wilbur, when he knew who he was, now he doesn't know who he is anymore, but still so desperately want to be more demonstrated by the lines coming rigth after that one:

(Continued) Tommy: "..I'm not- I'm now who i want to be, but-"

Foolish: "Being honest with you, Tommy, that's the same case for me as well."

Tommy: "...heres the thing, foolish, unlike you i dont really have a choice. I have to try and be who i want to be, because if i dont, very bad things are gonna happen in this server. And now that Wilbur's back i can't- quite frankly *no one* can risk that. So i dont really have a choice."

YES!!! THANK YOU ANON! I HAVE NO CLUE IF U WERE THE ANON BEFORE BUT WHICH EVER ANON U ARE THANK YOU!!!

thats my main issue is that a lot of the fandom brushes it off more whenever c!tommy is lashing out! and whenever c!tommy wreaks havoc they brush it off!!  and like idek if i really even have a problem with that, it’s the hypocrisy and like deifying of his moral actions or whatever that i have a problem with!

like... how are you going to ignore every bad deed he has done yet condemn every other character for every bad deed they have done? and if it’s not ignoring then it’s like excusing or rationalizing it, which is fair you can rationalize these things but its not fair when you arrive to different conclusions of 

“well c!tommy was a child (child argument my abhorred) and also traumatized, which is why he did this”

ok and? everyone on this fucking SMP is traumatized and yet you hold them to the highest degrees of responsibility! 

first of all, it just disestablishes you as an analyst and the meta you write. i’m going to take everything you write with a grain of salt because it shows to me your skills as an analyst are poor.

second of all, keep up the energy! like, i think a lot of people put too much value on the fact that tommy is a minor which is ridiculous because of the way age functions on the SMP which is just literally that it doesnt function at all. why are you pulling the age argument when there are no canonical ages. fundy’s wilbur’s child but he’s irl older than tommy so if ur going by irl ages you’re wrong like. i think the key to age on the smp is just keeping in mind that literally everyone is AROUND the same age give or take a few years, with phil being the exception. so like... i just don’t really see the point of the age argument??

These are the words spoken by technoblade during the first destruction of Lmanburg. Now, as we all know, Tommy Innit is dead. Slain by dream within the walls of the Pandora’s Vault prison.

Tommy didn’t die like a hero. He was killed in the middle of an argument with dream, who was wielding a potato. This was not the death of an important figure, it felt so sudden and unexpected.

Was Tommy even a hero in life? Sure he was the protagonist, the main character, but he was the route of so many problems, constantly picking fights. He on a way led to the SMP being what it is now, with all of its issues. He’s not a villain by any stretch but he’s not a hero either. He’s betrayed, instigated and more.

To sum up, OP questioned if there was any narrative reason for the Exile Arc at all? And claimed that Tommy’s character was “poorly written.” Well, I could not leave OP without a response.