#and someone being unable to comprehend the meta would go insane. Someone like... a certain mailman ;)

[corrie-zodori]

Hi /comes in swinging with a baseball bat This is a long post but bare with me, if you like spamtenna and deltarune theories strap in for this one. My running theory is this: I think that Mike sabotaged Tenna and Spamton's relationship.

I got thinking, where does the animosity between Spamton and Tenna come from? In the snowgrave route of chapter 2, Spamton implies with the line "Are you gonna f*ck me over at the good part, what are you a game show host?" He thinks Tenna was going to screw him over. And we know that because Spamton ran off after that phone call, Tenna thinks that Spamton ripped him off and abandoned him. And because Spamton ran off, they never got to talk or clear the air. Ever. (That's ALSO Why Spamton only comes out of your pocket because he thinks Tenna CARES suddenly.)

Why would he think that specifically? In Spamton's shop, when you bring up friends... Why does Spamton go from "Mike..." to talking about Tenna? "Don't trust anything you see on TV, that man's a criminal". He was thinking about Mike specifically, there, so why would he suddenly switch aggressively to warning Kris about Tenna? Because, by remembering Mike, He's flashing back to that last phonecall he took right before he ran out of the room. The one that Tenna referred to in the sword route. AKA, Likely, the last time he talked to Tenna, and POSSIBLY the last time he talked to Mike. And what did Tenna wanna do? He wanted Spamton to sign a contract. Spamton would have been so easy to manipulate here, for Mike, ESPECIALLY since Mike had already had his trust (assuming Mike was the person he was in contact with all along. Someone we've seen him get defensive of, in the spamtons sweepstakes. Mike was the one who helped him gain all of his fame, after all!) And Spamton was already used to people using him /gestures to his old 'friends'. It would NOT have been hard to convince him.

All Mike would have to have said was something like: "He'll make you sign that contract and you'll lose everything. He'll own you. He'll screw you over and use you. You'd just be his puppet." Anything along these lines. AND/OR, also, bringing up the prophecy. Telling spamton that Tenna is doomed, and its not worth sticking around. Because CLEARLY Spamton knows Tenna was meant to die (as, if youre wearing the dealmakers in tenna's fight and check him, it says "the tragic businessman who dies at the now of the story". There's no way Spamton should have known that unless spamton knew the prophecy, or some parts of it.) So why would Mike do that? To avoid being found or exposed, of course. He didn't want Spamton to run his mouth and reveal him. He knew spamton knew too much. He was afraid that Spamton would out him to Tenna. Tenna clearly doesnt know who the real Mike is, but Spamton supposedly does. To quote this from the sweepstakes: "You leave him out of this, you dont know who or WHAT Mike is." (And he's right. We don't.) WHY Mike wants to remain hidden, it's uncertain at this point. Possibly because he's the one pulling the strings. We already knew that he found Spamton, not the other way around, via phonecall. He only wants to be found by specific people, under specific conditions; to manipulate them, for what goal, is still possibly unknown. My conclusion: Mike is shady and manipulative and I do not trust whatever strings he's pulling. And I believe that the misunderstanding between spamton and tenna came from Mike intentionally manipulating Spamton to drive them further apart. And it breaks my heart. If Mike IS a stand-in for gaster, or if it's JUST him, I don't know for sure. We're still missing pieces.

I'm curious to hear y'alls thoughts because I am very not normal about them or the implications of literally any of this. It's possible I could be missing some key information here.