Wilbur Soot: A Late Night Character Study

Wilbur Soot: A Late Night Character Study

My thoughts are in no way organized, it’s 4 in the morning where I live but I have some thoughts I’d like to share. I’ve been watching the most recent streams and the amazing animatics the people in the community have made. I was watching tamato jam’s video in particular and it made me realize something.

Wilbur Soot as a character is a tragedy from start to finish.

He’s a man who has strived to be the leader, father, and brother, everyone wanted him to be. But in his attempts to be the man others wanted he pushed others away, unknowningly hurting them.

In the SMP Sleepy Bois Inc backstory we’ve been given, it’s heavily implied that Wilbur is the oldest of Philza’s kids. He’s held to much higher standards then his siblings, he’s gotta be the responsible adult, he’s gotta take care of his siblings, he’s had to grow up much faster than he should have.

Post-L’Manberg Revolutionary War, Wilbur feels like every is looking to him to fix L’Manberg, he feels like they are looking to restore L’Manberg to how it was before, but that’s impossible. But it reality they just want to rebuild L’Manberg and try again.

During the Manberg/Schlatt Arc, it gets worse, more betrayals. To Wilbur, everyone is building upon the corrupted foundation that Wilbur’s tried so hard to fix, to him no-one but Tommy was trustworthy. But Tommy is steadily chased away by Wilbur’s downward spiral.

Wilbur was completely blindsided by the betrayals of the people he loved and would’ve done anything to protect. His friend, the man he fought to the bitter end along side, betraying him for empty promises. The son he loved, the son he would have given the world to, betraying him for empty promises. His family betrayed him.

Wilbur now fully believes that L’Manberg as an ideal is gone, all that’s left is its broken remains. What do you do with a foundation that can’t be saved? You destroy it. At the end of it all he truly believes blowing up L’Manberg will bring him peace but because he left his story unfinished he’s stuck as a ghost. He’s terrified of who he was before, he’s remembering and it hurts.

Also can we address the fact that Ghostbur/Wilbur says he only remembers happy things but then he immediately says he remembers Philza, HIS DAD, killing him.

In conclusion Wilbur was a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders and he eventually shattered like a glass thrown at the wall. As a ghost he tries to be happy but the past is never going to let him go till he faces it.

Wilbur Soot as an actor and writer is phenomenal and it’s absolutely gut-wrenching.