DELTARUNE / Spamton Character Analysis / A Nuanced Tragedy

Today Jaru analyzes the story and themes surrounding Spamton G. Spamton!

00:00 Intro
02:11 Spamton's Story
25:49 The Many Flavors of Freedom
38:30 The Cruelty of Neglect
51:48 The Heartbreak of Loneliness
1:11:33 Summary
1:14:28 Outro
1:16:00 Fan Art

[Dan]

another thing that makes this even more tragic is that, if spamton were to succeed at achieving his goal and were to steal kris's soul. he would still have someone pulling his strings. that person being us. there was no possible way for spamton to succeed...

[aetherinfuse]

He couldn't become a big shot again in game, but he truly has become a big shot in the community

[ArcaneOblivion]

I'm literally a pointy-nosed salesman with slicked-back hair. I constantly struggle with the idea that my best days may be behind me.
So, you can imagine how uncanny it was for me to see a pointy-nosed salesman with slicked-back hair struggling with their fall from grace.
This great analysis helped be appreciate Spamton even more, in a way that I never expected. I never expected such a relatable character.

[erikm]

Personally, I have always thought the reason Kris is so upset after the Spamton fight isn't simply that he worries about not being able to cut his own strings, but rather, because he saw what happened when Spamton _did_ cut his strings: he collapsed, dead. I feel like that moment made Kris think "what if that happens to me? what if this soul controlling me is also what's keeping me alive?"

[StanleyG]

Even if Toby confirmed that the merchandise is not canon, the "SPAMTON'S SPECIL FUN PAK!!!" shows past (non-corrupted) Spamton in a red suit inside a "cungadero".
P.S. My favorite line from Spamton comes from the SnowGrave route and it feels like it's a direct parallel to Spamton's life (think about the YOU/YOUR referring to Spamton):
"GO AHEAD, [Kid]...
CALL ALL YOU WANT!

NO ONE WILL
EVER PICK UP
GO AHEAD AND
[Scream] INTO THE
[Receiver].

THE [Voice] RUNS
OUT EVENTUALLY

YOUR [Voice]
THEIR [Voice]

UNTIL YOU REALIZE
YOU ARE ALL ALONE
THERE WILL BE NO
MORE [Miracles]
NO MORE [Magic].

YOU LOST IT WHEN
YOU TRIED TO SEE
TOO FAR....

... YOU LOST IT...
YOU MAKE ME [Sick]!"

[habukichan]

I'd like to point out that spamton ain't dead
It's like how Jevil morphs himself on the Jevilsknife, Spamton still has his mind attached to the glasses (dealmarker) or is a part of it in some way, and can most likely perform acts with the spirit of spamton as a glasses, like how the Jevilsknife smiles at Noelle.
This is further proven by the fact that when you fill your [[INVENTORIUM]] with 48 [[Half Price Salami]], Spamton fucking yells at you for destroying that one moment where he regain sanity and is on a fucking character arc

[Heavenly]

The original version of the Pinocchio story ends with Pinocchio being hung from a tree by a noose ... which is kind of like a string. Also the person that makes him into real boy is a BLUE fairy while another blue person prevents Spamton from becoming one.

[anexistingperson]

I'm happy to see this video call to attention that Spamton actually cares about Kris, I haven't seen anyone else mention it.

[ralsei]

Spamton is certainly gonna be one of the many five other wacky side characters in Deltarune, time will tell if he'll be usurped, but I still feel he's special when it comes to just the eerieness of him alone.

[nightwatch]

Just yesterday I was in deep thought over the character of Spamton. For the first time I truly grasped the disturbing eeriness of his character and backstory. In one moment, all my views of his ridiculous, broken humor-filled dialogue shifted from absurd comedy to the ramblings of a character with a broken mind, driven to insanity by hidden knowledge that still torments him. It took time, but on that day I believe I truly grasped Spamton, at last.

The next day, this comes out. I couldn't be more excited to dive even deeper into the intrigue of Spamton.

[BastetMusic]

Having been homeless for years now, and having tried to fix that through trying to "make it big" myself, Spamton hit extremely close to home once I learned about the entirety of his story. It's sobering, having been on both sides of the fence now...

[jaredcramsie]

One thing that has stood out to me is that the phone in the back of Spamton's shop is always ringing.
We know that Spamton left mid-conversation the last time he spoke to the person on the phone. So it's likely that they didn't abandon him after he left the mansion, they wanted to stay in contact but he declined answering.
Knowing Spamton's themes it is probably because he didn't want to act as their puppet anymore.

[personexisting]

Also, I think something interesting you can interpret about spamtons character is the puppetscarf description says “For those that abandon healing”

[solarpunch]

This is, by far, the best analysis of Spamton I have ever seen. I'm glad you talked about his perseverance/determination, and how he will always be destined to fail; really interesting points that people rarely bring up when talking about Spamton. I'm also happy you talked about how real his story is. As you said, he isn't an evil leader, or a demon from an alternate universe, he's just a guy. What happened to Spamton is something that happens to a lot of people. Whilst I was expecting you to touch on this a bit, I did not expect you to go into such great detail. I'm really glad you did, as I think it's one of the most important aspects of Spamton's character, and really is the peak of Toby Fox's writing

When I heard you were making a video on Spamton, I was expecting some sort of complex, far fetched theory. I was expecting that you'd come up with insane theories that nobody has ever seen before, and again, I'm glad you didn't. Spamton's story is actually very simple: He was just an Addison who got famous, and later got that fame stripped away from him. Sure, it's complex in the sense that there are a lot of missing details, and that the story given to us is very vague, but overall it's a simple, realistic story. It's so realistic it's scary

And of course, this incredibly unfortunate and tragic story comes from a character who's full name is 'Spamton G Spamton' and has the most poorly drawn shop art in the game. I can't wait to see what Toby Fox has in store for us next

[pineappleudh]

This was incredible.
I'm shocked that this has managed to make me appreciate Spamton as a character even more (and he was already probably in my top 3 favourite Deltarune characters)
You hit everything I would want an analysis of Spamton to hit and more.
Really exited to see what you have in store for the other parts.

[sebastianwatches]

i think its important to note that Spamton's depressed/sane dialogue is always in normal case and uncorrupted

all-caps dialogue is shared between Spamton and Jevil, enforcing their connection, but Spamton's loss of caps at the end may show a change in heart, a change in mind

[julesnar]

Something to further solidify the bond between Kris and Spamton - After Kris brought the disc, he completely believed that Kris is geniuenly trying to help him - he "uploaded" himself into the disc, ultimately getting rid of his previous body and becoming defensless. If Kris wanted, they could just stomp on the disc to break it, killing Spamton.

Spamton must have truly trusted them to just straight up giving him the control over his body - especially given how important freedom is to him. There is so much in deltarune you can read into and I love it. Great video!

[MaddieS]

I will now exclusively concieve of the genocide route as a manifestation of the idea "what if the power of friendship were used for evil?"

[PrivateLZG]

Dang... That went scarily real, really fast. That part about real life society hit hard, man. Well, I live in Germany's countryside and don't really khow what it's like in the biggest cities here but everytime I go to some bigger cities for college or whatever I always struggle to think about the people "living" on the side of the streets. I'm not exactly the richest guy as some young adult trying to learn a job but I still try to do something by dropping a couple bucks but is that really helping those people? Idk...
By the way hyped for the rest of this "Series" of yours, just don't crush, aight? <3

[thezestfallst]

My junior year of high school, I made very fast friends with a person who’s become one of my best friends. They were a senior at the time, and practically as soon as they legally could their parents kicked them out, with from what I know basically no support no planning, parents just wanted them gone. Luckily they have a very supportive friend group and partner, and were able to settle with them. Human compassion isn’t always given as it should, and we should always strive to compensate for what others don’t give.