it’s time we start oppressing ppl that use the word “hubby”
The many faces of Thunder, for all your icon and pfp needs
This is Toby Fox’s website and we’re just living on it. For more than seven years, his games have cast a spell on Tumblr, stealing the hearts of fans with their winning combination of storytelling, innovative gameplay, and characters filled with heart and determination. Our first look at Toby’s world of monsters and humans came in 2015 when Undertale was released. We learned the meaning of mercy and that while talking through conflict might not be the easiest path, it’s always the right one. When the first chapter of Deltarune came out in 2018, absolute chaos ensued. We met Kris, Susie, and Ralsei and set off on a brand new adventure where you fell in love with the Undertale universe all over again.
The second chapter came as a complete surprise and was one of the best gifts Tumblr received in the past year. You immediately latched onto the continuation of some of the best lore in gaming and memed the living heck out of it. You also spammed our dashes with a tiny little man in pink and yellow sunglasses—so much so that he ended up becoming the #1 video game character on all of Tumblr this year. Spamton had a chance to become a [[big shot!]] and, boy, did he take it.
And he wasn’t the only new character Deltarune threw into the mix. As a game with a combat system based almost entirely (if you’re playing correctly) on social interactions, its characters are key. They’re relatable and make you want to root for them. Even, and often especially, for the bad guys. We can almost hear you yelling, “I can fix him!” into the void, and we believe you! Remember that one time you talked about the Deltarune villain, Queen, so much you skewed the tag data for one of the biggest bands of all time and the actual Queen of England? We sure do. And when Noelle Holiday joined the party, your team was finally complete.
This year marked the first anniversary of Deltarune’s second chapter, and you celebrated with every post type Tumblr has to offer. You survived the Tumblr Sexyman poll and the Spamton Sweepstakes, and for that, you all deserve the shiniest gold ribbon.
All of this to say that Toby Fox wins Tumblr. Undertale, for Tumblr, was a total cultural reset, and its impact is still felt even seven years later. It first appeared on our weekly video games list way back on September 21, 2015, just days after the game’s release—and it has been on every single list but one since then. So we’ve always known that Deltarune would find a loving home on Tumblr, and it truly has been so loved.
Super Giant Robot Brothers Season 2 opening idea: Thunder has been invited into the group chat. He's so confused. Doesn't know what a meme is and having a hard time understand text as well. Opening line is him confused going "Based? Based on what?"
spamton NEO is viscerally horrifying to me, and i mean that in the best way possible.
i think it's the way he moves. it's hard to explain. he twitches and thrashes on his strings; he's animated, but his movements are jagged, articulated. in a way, spamton NEO portrays a dichotomy of organic and artificial matter—not by contrast, but through their fusion. he's not quite real, but not quite fake. he's alive—but can you really call that living? he's something artificial trying to be organic, and failing.
i think the best way to describe spamton NEO would be uncanny.
the cyber world is a virtual, computerized realm; naturally, it's free of plant life (aside from maybe a few binary trees). there seems to be only one exception to this, however. while the rest of the cyber world is an inorganic utopia, the mansion's basement stands in stark contrast. this basement was built atop wooden rails and what looks like dirt. at some point it was seized by nature, now a home to corrupt data, and overrun with overgrown vines.
most importantly, however, this basement was where a lightner's dying dream was left to decay. it was an empty, metal shell, rotting with rust—before it became the subject of spamton's worship, and before it became a vessel for spamton's own dying dreams, as he inhabited the machine in a futile attempt to fulfill them.
in a way, this machine is is a 'false idol'—and when spamton embodies NEO, he embodies this idea. from the practically plagiarized leitmotifs in his theme down to his own name, spamton invokes himself as a bizarre facsimile of mettaton.
in undertale, mettaton was "the idol everyone craves". he believed that he would be saving humankind from destruction by taking frisk's soul. he would breach the surface, and become humanity's star—its savior. mettaton NEO, described as "Dr. Alphys's greatest invention", was designed after the delta rune symbol. with giant, rainbow wings and a triangular body, mettaton NEO was the last line of defense for monsters and humans alike: a shining, winged angel taking on the symbol of monsterkind's prophesied savior.
by becoming spamton NEO, spamton is directly appropriating both mettaton's body and ideals in service of his own desires. he embodies this divine, angelic vessel, yet the form he takes is anything but holy. it's a grotesque being of tangled wires and metal flesh, carried aloft not by its stolen wings, but by the strings holding it in stasis. his description states, "He is his own worst invention."
though mettaton doesn't appear as we knew him in undertale, his presence in deltarune's world is undeniable. his dreams took form in a world of fantasy, which happened to be the same world as spamton's life. as a lightner, mettaton occupies a higher space in reality; he is inherently more 'real' than spamton—a darkner.
spamton is a lesser, artificial being pretending to be something bigger than he is. by inhabiting this 'heaven-piercing' body, spamton is attempting to break through the barrier of reality, and rise above his creators. he fails, of course. no matter how hard he tries, spamton cannot become real. he cannot become holy, or whole. he's an artificial, inorganic being, created by hands that have long since abandoned him.
after defeating spamton NEO, ralsei says this:
* I... don't think it meant anything, Susie. * It seems like it was just a corrupted program. * He turned into our ally, so let's just accept it.
of course, this wrong. ralsei seems to know this, too—facing abjection, it's not hard to see why ralsei would try to distance himself from spamton. but the way he describes spamton, as "just a corrupted program"... i think that means something.
glitches and technological malfunctions occupy a strange spot of existence. they weren't intended to exist, but they always do. every program has the capacity to malfunction. whether it's a nuisance, an irregularity, or something genuinely catastrophic, error means something, even if it shouldn't.
imperfection defines that which is organic, and glitches are organic manifestations within inorganic creations. they're born of error, grown between faults in lines of code, like dandelions in a sidewalk. these imperfections ironically make them all the more inorganic, however.
by introducing nature to an artificial construct, glitches represent the artificial perfection of machines and technology. think about how corruption or glitches affect a video game, for example. they shatter the veil of immersion and reveal the game’s true nature. it isn't magic, it isn't a miracle—it's all lines of codes strung together, weaving the fabric of a false reality. it's not real.
a glitch is a program lashing out at its creators from the strings of code that bind it—not because it has any reason to, not because it wants to, but because it has to, because it was born from its programming, not beyond it. in the end, a glitch is only able to act as far as its code allows it to.
spamton really was "just a corrupted program". but that doesn't make him any less real—or any more fake.
did some character introduction sheet thing for class. I did spamton and his character sheet looks more like a vacation pet care guide than an actual description.
"requires attention and needs to be watered every 2 days” what is he my pet gerbil
The Ultrakill effect