Instant Karma

I went for a walk and I found some little houses!

That is not my dog, but he was very polite and friendly :D

my blog’s theme is me. a compilation of every single thing i love. every interest. every musing. and everything in between.

Misconceptions About Tommyinnit’s Character That Genuinely INFURIATE Me

Since the recent events following the second L’Manburg Festival and subsequent war, I’ve seen many, many hot takes surrounding the nature of Tommyinnit’s character on the SMP. Some of which annoyed me to the point where I felt compelled to sit down and actually write this. I’m going to only be highlighting the most common complaints or questions I’ve seen, one by one, in hopes of providing a better understanding of Tommy’s character for anyone interested. (I also briefly discuss Techno and Tubbo’s characters as well.)

If you’ve said similar things to what I’m going to be discussing below, please know that it’s perfectly understandable how you’d come to these conclusions. Some of these aspects of Tommy’s character are not always obvious; especially if being watched from another streamer’s POV. This may become quite lengthy, so bear with me for now.

“Tommy’s motives are all over the place. He can’t decide whether he wants the discs back or not.”

Tommy is actually one of the most motivationally consistent characters on the entire Dream SMP. Even Techno, someone completely confident in their ideals, does more motivational flipping than Tommy. From the very start of the story, Tommy has always cared for three things; L’Manburg, Tubbo, and his music discs. However, him caring for something is not itself a motivation. 

Surprisingly enough, his motivation isn’t even just, ‘Get my discs back,’ like many assume it is. Tommy’s one true motivation, since the end of the Independence War, has always been, ‘Keep things the way they are now.’ 

Tommy’s one fatal flaw is that he is resistant to change and refuses to let go of the past. This is seen through all of his actions and words; in all conflicts involving him. This flaw is the drive to all of Tommy’s mistakes. Burning down George’s house, an action which resulted in him getting exiled, was done out of a desire to pull pranks the way he used to before the first war. His friendship with Ranboo started because Tommy said he reminded him of Tubbo, back before he was President. 

Tommy still talks highly of Wilbur because he chooses to remember him as the wise, kind mentor who cared for him. This motive is the reason he defends L’Manburg so fiercely; it’s his memory of a better past. This is why he holds grudges more often than any other character; especially refusing to forgive Techno after he killed Tubbo during the Manburg Massacre.

It’s why Tommy falls under extreme distress whenever Tubbo or Quackity tell him that something will never be the same again. This motivation is entirely formed from an underlying desire for peace and comfort, something Tommy has been denied since being forced into a life wrought with war and death. To accept change, to Tommy, is painful and terrifying. But he will only ever truly be happy when he finally learns to let go.

“Why do the discs matter so much to Tommy? They’re not actually worth anything.”

Tommy’s discs are much more than just any ordinary pair of music discs. They were never important for their material worth, but for what Tommy was willing to sacrifice in order to keep them. Tommy is entirely what gives the discs their value. 

Tommy also commonly operates under the Sunk-Cost Fallacy, wherein he’s invested too much of himself into something to just abandon it, even if it’s causing him problems. This mentality is a huge piece of what keeps him tied to both L’Manburg and to his discs. He’s sacrificed too much at this point to simply let them go. If he admits the discs are worthless, then he’s admitting that he wasted all this time and effort, just to keep them.

The discs also act as a constant source of hope for Tommy because they are directly tied with his motivations as a character. They’re something he’s had since the very beginning. They’re something he used to listen to with Tubbo on their shared bench. 

To Tommy, they symbolize a life before war, filled with comfort and peace. They are a love letter to his country and his late mentor Wilbur. They are a physical representation of Tubbo’s companionship. They are the only thing, besides L’Manburg and his best friend, that gives him the hope that he can one day return things to the way they used to be. 

This ideal, paired with Tommy’s refusal to let go, has left him ruthlessly pursuing the things he’s lost. Not his music discs, but his peace and comfort, his friendship, his country, his mentor Wilbur, and his life before war.

In his desperation to hold onto his prized possession, it has only hurt and pushed away the people that love him. If Tommy continues to ignore this reality, while still refusing to resolve his major flaw entwined with it, he will lose all that the discs had once stood for. He will lose his country, then his friend Tubbo, and then he will lose himself.

“Tommy never grows or learns from his mistakes. This makes him a badly written character.”

Characters do not have to constantly learn from their actions to be well-written. Tommy is one of the best examples of this. The fact that his growth is infrequent is the entire point of his character; it’s completely stemmed from his fatal flaw. 

By addressing himself, he would be accepting change, something that terrifies him; something he stubbornly resists until he is absolutely forced to confront it. Contrary to popular belief, Tommy knows when he makes mistakes, but he pretends to be ignorant as to avoid facing reality. He digs his head in the sand despite knowing better, puppeteering the person he used to be during happier times, now gone.

In spite of his infrequent growth, the idea that Tommy still hasn’t learned anything isn’t quite correct either. Tommy, as of the last three plot streams, has shown incredible character development. By giving up his discs again, he had finally demonstrated that Tubbo is more important to him than his possessions. Speaking as a makeshift leader, he put aside his issues with others to rally them together against a common threat, something which Tommy had never been able to do before. He owned up to all of his mistakes openly, apologizing to everyone he’s ever hurt in one place. 

He apologized to Tubbo after they were reunited and came to terms with the fact that Tubbo was forced to exile him without choice, finally forgiving him. He was kind to Sapnap and learned how to be his friend after months of bitter rivalry. And these are only a few examples. This isn’t to say Tommy has overcome/fixed everything because he clearly hasn’t. There are still major things Tommy needs to work through that remain unaddressed, the biggest being his complicated relationship with Technoblade.

“Tommy only cares about himself. He does everything in his power to be the hero, always putting himself in the center of attention, especially during Doomsday.”

Tommy, since the start of the L’Manburg War for Independence, has never set out to be a hero. Not once. He may fall into the role of the protagonist, but his identity as a hero was pushed onto him by others. Giving up the discs was his only option during the Independence War. 

So when Wilbur called him a hero for it, Tommy said he didn’t feel like he was. During the November 16th War, Tommy again said he didn’t feel like a hero because he had lost what he thought was everything at the time. During exile, Tommy certainly knew he was no hero. And upon reuniting with Tubbo, he admitted to feeling like the farthest thing from it. That he’d hurt everyone and all he wanted to do now was fix it. 

The day before Doomsday, Tommy only took a leadership position because no one else was willing to, filling the role for Tubbo, who was crumbling under pressure. He had no choice but to try to bring everyone together, or fight alone. Most viewers never saw this during Doomsday, but before the battle, almost everyone who had vowed to fight alongside L’Manburg had abandoned them the very next day. They were convinced it was going to be destroyed either way, no matter what they did, so they chose not to see it through to the end; ultimately leaving Tommy and those who remained to fight a losing battle, alone. 

After about a third of the way through the battle, it became clear to everyone that they could do nothing to win. One by one, everyone stopped fighting and stood by to watch their country go up in smoke. Tommy was the only person on the battlefield who refused to stand down and give up. And so he took over the role as leader again, trying his best to keep them alive, to keep Tubbo hopeful; to keep fighting, no matter what. 

However, what most people don’t realize, is that this isn’t Tommy trying to be a hero or force himself into the spotlight. This is Tommy trying to convince himself to keep going. Because whenever things start to look hopeless, Tommy simply chooses to ignore them. He puts on a happy face and soldiers through it because that’s all he knows how to do. Tommy, at his core, is someone who wants peace through stagnation. He doesn’t want to fight, although causing the occasional friendly conflict is how he finds fun. He doesn’t set out to purposely hurt others. 

Tommy may come across as self-centered, but this is because he is an extremely extroverted character. He finds energy and joy in the attention of others, both good and bad. It’s why he’s always seeking the approval of others and, oftentimes, will destructively insert himself into another person’s life in order to find it. 

Out of every character in the story, Tommy is the most drawn to praise and positive reinforcement. He is constantly seeking out mentors and friends because Tommy needs someone else to help him feel confident in his own identity and abilities. It’s why Wilbur was such a positive influence on him. His boisterous confidence has always been a front because if anyone were to actually hurt him, he knows it will make his self-esteem crumble instantly. 

This is part of why Dream’s manipulation was so effective against him. By isolating him, he’s left without energy and looking to another person’s guidance. Tommy outwardly may seem independent and rude, but just under the skin, he’s unconfident and lost when he’s by himself. Tommy will only grow from this flaw when he finds his own identity and inner confidence; when he finally learns to be okay with being alone.

“Tommy goes to the festival solely to get his disc back and then tells Tubbo to give it away immediately after. That doesn’t make any sense.”

Before the screaming match between the two friends during the second L’Manburg Festival, Tommy had been in exile, manipulated by Dream for long enough to lose his will to carry on. It is because of him that Tommy’s reality becomes distorted, long after fleeing from his abuser. This mangling of ideals leads Tommy to subconsciously believe that L’Manburg and Tubbo are unsalvageable. 

Therefore, the only thing he has hopes of retrieving are his discs, which are easier to manage than the latter two things. And so Tommy does reprehensible things at the behest of Techno in a vain hope of getting them back, going so far as to kidnap and torture for them. This ultimately culminates in a confrontation between the ex-friends, quickly turning violent. It is in this violence that we see Tommy has sunk to his absolute lowest point in his journey. 

Swinging his axe, he nearly kills his friend as he delivers a string of words that cause the room to silence instantly. He says the discs were always worth more than his friend. Within the quiet of the room, Tommy is forced to reflect on everything he’s done. How he kidnapped and tortured Connor. How he accidentally drowned Fundy. How he traumatized Ranboo. 

And now he’s hurt Tubbo, the one person he has always sought to protect; someone he vowed to never hurt. This realization causes Tommy to break. He’s so ashamed of himself that he can’t look at anyone. Tommy knows now that he is worse than anyone he’s ever hated. 

With pain in his voice, he tries and fails to apologize to Tubbo in the moment. The only way he knows to redeem himself now is to prove to Tubbo, after everything, that he can still put the discs aside. And so he does.

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Given all the context provided to us by various flashbacks throughout the series, I think Cole's true potential scene has a lot more complexity to it than at first glance.

The first time you watch it, it's pretty standard. He had a difficult relationship with his dad, but after making amends he was able to let go of the thing holding him back and move forward. It's a simple but sweet story, and it's a wholesome lil episode overall.

But THEN we watch all his flashbacks in seasons 8, 13, and the Core shorts, providing us SO much more information about his family history. And when we consider the fact that Lily's death played a major role in his and his father's strained relationship, his true potential starts to take on a new dimension. Let me explain.

First, the flashback from Core. For those of you who haven't seen Core, there's a scene where Cole is feeling overwhelmed so he tries to, as he puts it, "find balance", and ends up conjuring a fond memory of his mom in order to calm down.

This is such a short sequence, barely even 30 seconds long, but also tells us a LOT.

Given his age and appearance, we can assume that Cole is pretty young here. Considering how his mom is up and about and seemingly pretty healthy in this memory, this also likely takes place sometime before she got sick

We can also conclude that dancing was a significant part of not just Lou and Lily's relationship, but their household overall. And given Cole's little smile as he watches them dance, he seems to have genuinely enjoyed it as well. This evidence is corroborated by other instances throughout the series where Cole is more than happy to dance or whistle, maybe even sing if he feels comfortable enough to do so. So he does genuinely enjoy this sort of thing

This would suggest that Cole didn't always have the belligerent attitude towards performing arts like he did in "The Royal Blacksmiths", nor does he carry such an attitude after that episode. As early as season 2 we see him dancing as he fights bad guys and whistling as he helps repair the Bounty. He's had instances of stagefright, yes (the Snake Jaguar incident is the first one that comes to mind), but after making amends with his father he's never shown a dislike for that sorta thing. It's not the dancing he hates, it's the fear of judgment

(On a related note, Cole's insecurity about other people's approval seems to be reflected in his arc during the Ice Chapter, where he became paranoid that everyone hated him for losing the Traveler's Tea and went to extreme lengths to fix his mistake. Or how, in the Character Encyclopedia, it mentions that Cole gets easily distracted by tiny mistakes, and how he tends to fatalize over all his screwups until they end up distracting him. Needless to say, Cole is afraid of letting people down. Residual anxiety from the Triple Tiger Sashay Incident, perhaps? Which, if you really want to be punched in the gut, could also come from Cole being insecure about his inability to save his mother.)

Now let's look at the next flashback in the chronological order: the bedroom scene from season 13.

This scene doesn't tell us quite as much, but we do get clued into a few details regarding Cole's relationship with his mother

In the beginning of the scene, Lou is leading Cole down a hallway and into Lily's room. And when Cole finally sees her, he is wary at first, even turning to his father for confirmation and reassurance. Then, at Lou's encouragement, he approaches her with excitement and relief. Given his reaction, he probably hasn't seen her in a while. Either because he wasn't able to enter her room since she's been so sick, or because she's spent all of her time in either a hospital, hospice center, or some other kind of care facility

Let's go back to that thing about Lou, actually. This quick and quiet interaction between him and Cole suggests that on some level, they do have a functioning and loving relationship at this point. Lou is at this point attentive to his son's emotional needs. Keep this in mind going forward

"I want you to promise me, Cole, that you will always stand up to those who are cruel and unjust." This right here is where we see Cole's motivation for becoming a ninja. He'd gotten into a fight at school in an attempt to stop a bully, and instead of berating her son for fighting, she told him that she was proud of him for doing the right thing even if he got in trouble

This does seem to fall in line with what other few details we have about her character - she's a strong, powerful warrior who was capable of defeating Grief Bringer on her own, and seems to be a somewhat pragmatic, no-nonsense individual who says it like it is - a trait Cole seems to have inherited from her. (Example - when Cole said he didn't want her to be sick anymore, she replied with, "I know. But we don't always get what we want.")

Note that he's still pretty young in this scene. While it's hard to tell specific age, he's probably anywhere between 7 and 10. I'd hazard to guess that this memory occurred relatively early on in his mother's illness

Next up: the flashback in season 8, wherein we see the extended version of Cole's first encounter with Wu

One important thing to note here is that he said he 'just' lost someone, meaning that Lily's death must have happened fairly recently, even though we first see her illness back when Cole was much younger

This means that Lily's illness wasn't a quick thing. It likely lasted for a significant chunk of his childhood, watching his mom slowly spiral into a sickness he can't protect or save her from, with him and his father growing increasingly estranged as it happens

Lou is never home, always out performing. Cole interprets this as his father not caring, but we can easily interpret this as Lou's own attempts to cope. Remember that Lou was once quite supportive and very in-tune with his son's emotional needs? By now, Lou has become a far more distant, estranged, borderline neglectful person in Cole's life due to his inability to grieve in a healthy way

Let's bring back that point in the previous flashback about Lily being a pragmatic, no-nonsense person. "With her gone, I guess it's up to me to be the responsible one." In the wake of his mother's death and father's increasing absence, Cole had to step up and take responsibility. He was trying to take up the space in their family she had once filled.

By the time Cole's true potential episode comes up, I would argue his mother's death is still relatively recent. And all of the interactions between Lou and Cole really have an extra lil flavor when you take that into consideration

So what does all this add up to? Well...

What's the main conflict between Lou and Cole in "The Royal Blacksmiths"? Lou wants Cole to become a performer, a dancer like him. When discovering Cole's a ninja he says, "...I'm not going to wait around to watch you make a mockery of our family's legacy."

We already know that dancing was a major part of their family dynamic, and in particular Lou and Lily's dynamic. To Lou, performance is a family matter.

While we don't have any hard evidence of this, the Triple Tiger Sashay Incident doesn't strike me as something Lily was present for. If that's true, then she'd probably already fallen ill by that point (meaning Lily's illness began at least by the time Cole was 7). And if THAT's true, then we can conclude the following:

Lou, confronted with the impending reality of his wife's death, began clinging to dance and performance as a coping mechanism and likely projected this onto his son. He clung to it as a way to hold onto her, and started to go a bit overboard with it. Hence why he began pushing Cole too far.

Remember, Cole did and still does enjoy dancing. But Lou's actions, all the pressure and judgment, pushed Cole away from something he loved doing. Something that, as we know from the Core shorts, he canonically associates with his mother.

In a way, being a dancer was Lou's coping mechanism, and being a ninja was Cole's. Both of them consumed with something that reminded them of Lily. When Cole and Lou make amends, there's so much more weight behind it than just Lou apologizing for pushing Cole too hard. It's about Lou recognizing how unhealthy his own coping mechanisms have been, and how his own grief has hurt his son. And it's about Cole remembering that when he's not facing pressure and judgment, he actually DOES love dancing.

Over time, as the series progresses, he sheds his serious and responsible persona and begins to loosen up a bit - he's healing. Now that he and his father have made amends and laid to rest all the contention between them, they're both able to heal and move forward.

It's like Jay said - "I think I know why Cole is so closed-off. It's because twinkle-toes here couldn't deliver the goods. Is that why you ran away?"

He may not be in denial like his father, but he can be a bit closed-off sometimes, and is quick to running from his grief instead of facing it. That's why he never vocalized his frustrations with Jay over the love triangle until season 4, just committing to the pettiness of the rivalry instead of being open about his feelings. And it's exactly what he did when Zane died, too - he left the team and ran off to be a lumberjack.

With this in mind, I'd be willing to bet that his distaste for dancing not only came from his father's pressure, but also an attempt to run away from his problems again. This time, by shutting out something that reminds him of his family.

His relationship with his father was holding him back, yes - just as much as his grief for his mother.

Now, let's fast-forward a few seasons to the Day of the Departed special. Cole's ghostly curse has caused him to begin fading from existence, and while he sets out on a quest to remedy the situation, his father waits back home, worried about his absence.

"Cole? Cole? Where are you? My son was going to meet me before the show to light a lantern."

And since Day of the Departed lanterns are lit to commemorate the dead, I am 200% sure that lantern Lou'd been holding was going to be for Lily. He and his son were going to meet up and remember her together. That detail may have been pretty insignificant to the plot, but it feels kinda huge to Cole as a character. I really doubt this is something he and his dad would've done back in season 1, showing that both of them are finally able to confront the truth of Lily's death in a healthy and supportive way. Not only that, but it suggests a closeness between them that simply hadn't been there pre-reconciliation. Not only have Cole and Lou healed in their own rights, but their relationship has healed as well.

Anyway, this was all a very long-winded way of saying that I love Cole Ninjago, and the more I learn about his past the more I want to CRY.