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spamsandsuch · 9 months

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On Spamton’s Caller and the Garbage Noise

Spamton’s caller—regardless of who it was—is what I believe their own character separate from the benefactor, and potentially a lightner or gaster/gaster related entity. Regarding either scenarios of the caller’s identity, we’d need to take in account of what happens when you try using the cell phone in the darkworlds—specifically the “garbage noise.”

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When kris uses their cellphone in either darkworlds, it emits a loud, jarring noise as we all know. This noise file is called mus_smile.ogg and is implemented at different points in deltarune (such as the secret bunker location, where the file is slowed down by 666%). More infamously, though, the file is used in “Entry Number 17”, a scene that can be accessed in UNDERTALE and is implied to be written/said from W.D. Gaster (you can read more about it here as well as W.D. Gaster’s wiki page).

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(WingDings translation can be found here and also Gaster’s wiki page). The same noise file is used regardless of what location the cellphone is being called from in the darkworld, however what’s important to note is that their descriptions in each chapter is different. In chapter one, the description for calling the cellphone simply states that its not working. This makes sense, because besides the spooky, potentially gaster related easter egg you can’t really utilize the phone for much else in the darkworld.

However, in Chapter TWO, the description for the cellphone call changes. Instead of the previous description, it’s now changed to “It’s nothing but gargbage noise.”

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Given that this curiously plays only in chapter 2 (including in Castle Town, not just the Cyber World) the player is at first given little context for this change. However, after the NEO fight if the player chooses to head back to the Trash Zone, kris and the gang will encounter the addisons who were associated with Spamton. While this interaction does shine light to spamton’s tragic backstory, what the final Blue addison says is quite notable.

They describe how when going back to check on Spamton before his eviction, Spamton wasnt there and instead the addison was greeted by an abandoned phone hanging off the wall. Thinking there was still another person on the line, the blue addison put the receiver to their ear. Instead of being greeted by a voice, however, the addison heard they only describe as “nothing but garbage noise.” At this point, I’m most certain that this is supposed to frame that the phonecall noise from kris and spamton’s phones are, in fact, the same noise. Why else would Toby deliberately implement this description change? If they were supposed to be two different “garbage” noises, then there would be no need to change the phonecall’s description in such a specific way that DIRECTLY references the sound of what’s most likely Spamton’s phone.

Now, this can mean either two things, so let’s start with the first. Given the context that these are both the same noise, the phone call noise can only occur when attempting to contact the lightner world, or perhaps the item being used is from the light world. Remember, this occurrence only happens as you play as Kris, a lightner. Their phone is an item from the lightworld, and what I find interesting is that their cellphone doesn’t seem to have a darkworld counterpart like other items in deltarune (such as Kris’s pencil or even the Shadow Crystals, which are just glass shards in the lightworld). Under this context, the cellphone makes this noise because the player attempts to call/contact a number from the lightworld (because throughout Deltarune so far, nobody in the darkworld actually gives you their number, so the phone likely only has lightner contacts). This means either that the cellphone plays the mus_smile.ogg file when it’s generally in use in the darkworld, or that it’s solely because it’s attempting to contact the lightnerworld. Either makes sense, though if we incorporate the latter explanation, that means that Spamton had to have some sort of number that could have contact to light world, or that the item itself is from the lightworld similar to kris’s phone (because Kris’s phone, interestingly enough, is seemingly unaffected by the darkworld besides being unable to call). Now, this explanation in fine and dandy, but it does leave ONE problem: HOW was anybody able to call spamton, if nobody seems to answer kris’s to begin with? How could a lightner POSSIBLE contact a darkner from the lightworld, if they seemingly cannot contact from there to being with? While I do have my own headcanons for that, from a comeplete canon standpoint I cannot completely answer that. We only have two chapters to work with, after all, and there’s a lot of information had yet to be given to us to complete the pieces. Yet, hopefully as I provide my second explanation, it could potentially fill a few holea and maybe provide a better frame of context for spamton’s situation.

Now, the second explanation as to who called Spamton—which is more popular in fandom I’ve noticed—is that it was Gaster or a gaster-related being who contacted Spamton.

I’m sure most of you are well aware if this—the association generally comes from the comparison of Spamton’s phone noise to the noise file that plays behind “Entry Number 17” in UNDERTALE, which as I’ve said before is related to Gaster. In regards to Gaster’s character, he was a scientist described to have been “shattered across time and space.” I wont go too in depth as many other people have dissected his existent both in Undertale and Deltarune (far better than I can), but the most popular theories I noticed is that part of gaster’s soul is stuck in deltarune, that Gaster created the Darkworlds and potentially Deltarune, etc. Regardless, in this context Gaster holds a poweful role in Deltarune, given that there’s many easter eggs associated w/ him in throughout the game (e.g. Naming the vessel or yourself “Gaster”). Under this context, explaining how Spamton was called becomes a lil easier, as the popular explanation goes along as follows: mus_smile.ogg, given that it occurs in “Entry Number 17” is also a Gaster motif. Thus, any point in Deltarune that utilizes or references this file is related to Gaster. In Spamton’s case, the person who called him must have been Gaster calling from the void of Deltarune. In addition, given the context that the darkworlds’ sheer existence are also in relation to Gaster, Kris phonecall plays because Gaster is interfering, because there’s no signal and can only contact the void, etc.

This explanation is the more popular theory in Deltarune, and it makes sense given Gaster’s motifs and its easier to explain Spamton’s situation. In regards to the latter, though, I’ve noticed many assume that gaster (or just the caller, in general) is also the SAME person who was the benefactor/helped Spamton become a “Big Shot”. I also thought this for a long time too, but when you think about it for a long time it becomes sort of… confusing. For starter’s, let’s think about Spamton’s relation to the TV World. As revealed in the Spamton SweepStakes (which you can read about here or watch this video here, though cw for unreality in the video as it DOES cover the livesstream in addition to the website) , the character Tenna was revealed, and Spamton’s and Mike’s relationship was clarified to lack malic (yes i know i said differently last year but i got character development since then i swear). Tenna is implied to be a resident from the TV World (possibly even the main boss) given that instead of by name spamton often references them with many variations of names: “That Cathode”/Crts, “Boob Tube” (heh), or just referencing them as a tv in general.

What’s important to note is that Spamton seems to despise Tenna, to the point where he calls them a “criminal” and that they should be in the trash instead—but why? Well, we dont really know yet given that we’re still missing more key information, but what I find most interesting is… Spamton seems to imply here that he DID rely on Tenna, at some point.

Now, this is the instance where Ive noticed the more recent theory—that TENNA was Spamton’s caller/benefactor, due to this context. And for the benefactor part, that makes sense in terms of how Spamton become more popular, but that also leaves a certain problem… if Tenna was the CALLER, why was there garbage noise from Spamton’s phone in the first place? It doesn’t make entirely sense to me, given that theyre both darkners and how some darkners from different worlds seem to visit each other/each others worlds with ease (e.g. Spade King and Queen, Jevil and Spamton, etc… I also know this instant contradicts that darkners can turn to stone in different worlds, though I have my own headcanons abt that and I feel Toby has yet to reveal more information on that). However, this is not to say Tenna and Spamton dont have relations. Though im not well versed in Chess, I do believe in the Deltarune Chess Theory where Tenna (or whoever the next main boss is) will be the Rook who utilized Spamton for their own purposes. So that makes the fact that Spamton possibly depended on Tenna for fame apparent, but that still leaves the question: Where DOES the garbage noise come?

That is also hard to answer from a canon standpoint, given the information we have thus far. However, it does make me think: perhaps, instead of every instance being either or, maybes it’s all… connected somehow. Maybe Gaster contacted Spamton first and promised Spamton fame, but couldn’t do much action besides contacting people. Perhaps then, Gaster contacted Tenna, and promised them a Pawn (spamton) Tenna could take advantage of. Or, instead of Gaster, perhaps it was a lightner Spamton was contacted by chance, which in this case they would replace Gaster’s role in this scenario (though the reason being, a lightner cannot help a darkner much in light world, thus theyd need another darkner to help out). Maybe its a whole different scenario entirely. Who’s knows.

One thing I think is for certain, though, is that to me given these circumstances Spamton’s caller and benefactor are separate people.

#spamton #spamtom #deltarune theory #deltarune analysis #sorry this is so long and maybe doesnt make sense #this was initially about the garbage noise in deltarune because i feel like #lately ppl have beeb forgetting its relations to spamton/gaster #this post has probablt been done before but i wanted to share my thoughts cuz #i like sharibg my theories but rarely do it due to executive dysfunction + afraid of sounding to mean #scopophobia tw #loud noise tw #unsettling cw #ask to tag #my thoughts #my writing

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