#if i missed a tag lmk but id rather not tag cc crit over... me not liking a dsmp plotline lol. i mean i WILL but. id rather not categorize

[doodlebloo]

(if this is too discoursy for you please delete this ask, i don't mind)

I think the biggest problem with c!Tubbo killing c!Aimsey is that it felt very forced. Like, tubbo definitely has people he considers safe to be angry at. It was Tommy during new l'manburg, and it's Wilbur now, but that list stretching to someone he barely knows seems very far-fetched, since the only reason he feels safe enough to be angry at those people is that he knew that their retaliation. if there even is one, won't end up hurting him. The fight with aimsy felt very sporadic and not very well thought out from c!tubbo's end, which is pretty unlike him

^ This is an amazing point as to why it feels strange, and there are several other reasons I don't love it as well.

So the first thing that jumps out to me is that right out the gate, this is so far from logic-brain it's insane to me. c!Tubbo has always thought very objectively and logically about conflict, even and especially when his own life was on the line.

The one exception to this is conflict where c!Ranboo is involved, because he has a tendency to excuse c!Ranboo's actions even if he has evidence that c!Ranboo is probably at fault (such as his investigation of c!Tommy's prison death, he refused believe c!Ranboo was responsible even though evidence pointed to him.)

^ But the keyword about that is probably. If you remember, he didn't let c!Ranboo off the hook for betraying him during New L'Manberg, and that's because he had Hard Evidence that c!Ranboo was a traitor. The Prison Death was mostly his own speculation as far as he could tell, but with the NLM betrayal, he had it in writing.

This c!Aimsey conflict is one where he has Hard Evidence that c!Ranboo (or really Ghostboo) is at fault. c!Tubbo knows this new person has no reason to lie, and believes c!Aimsey that Ghostboo gave up the mansion. So... If he is aware that this conflict is essentially just "Ghostboo gave this new person our mansion without asking me", how do we get to a canon death from that ??? Where is his logic-brain?

Because (and this is my second point) for a long time now, c!Tubbo's character has hinged on not wanting conflict. Him exiling c!Tommy, Doomsday happening, him barely fighting his own death in the disc finale, him saving the horse in ho16... The only reason he went after c!Sam when c!Ranboo died was to get his son back, and he did lock c!Sam in the prison but he didn't kill him, something c!Tubbo had every right to do.

C!Tubbo doesn't handle conflict through violence. He never, ever has, even when things got hard. And I know that characters are supposed to evolve and change, but watching him not (technically) raise a hand against the man who killed his husband and kidnapped his son, only to kill a random person he just met right afterwards just seems so anticlimactic.

And the argument I guess could be made that it's supposed to be anticlimactic, but either way there is just no buildup to it at all imo. Maybe if he had been more cruel to c!Sam in the revengers stream, it would be showing us that he is gradually losing his kindness and humanity, but as it stands him killing c!Aimsey is completely out of nowhere for his character, because yes it's easy to assume this is a side effect of him grieving a dead loved one Yet Again but we haven't actually been given much reason to think that.

Even if the death was an accident, as in he meant to duel not to kill, I still have a hard time believing it's in character. You're telling me the person who watched his best friend in the world get a life taken in a duel over a sentimental item right after he joined... Would do that to another person? c!Tubbo, who is always comparing himself to the bad people in his life, somehow wouldn't see that he was doing something that directly parallels what c!Dream did to c!Tommy once? Or he would see and he'd be okay with it?

I'm not saying that c!Tubbo wouldn't kill someone, and to be clear, that isn't the reason I dislike this plotline. I'm not confused that he'd be violent or kill someone, I'm confused because he's been in dozens of situations where he has more than every right to be violent, and hasn't taken the violent route. So it's weird and jarring for him to suddenly act to violent to an innocent, especially right after ho16 drove home the point that c!Tubbo wants to protect innocents.

This of course is all compounded by the fact that as far as I've heard, that death was canonized by Aimsey after the fact, and that Tubbo didn't know it was a canon death. This is not Aimsey neg, and I may make another post about this, but as of late c!Tubbo's character has been dictated a lot by metagaming/questionable rp etiquette. And if cc!Tubbo is fine with that then it's fine, I'm not saying that any ccs are Bad or Ruining the character or anything like that. I just think the fact that he never intended for it to be a canon death in the first place speaks a lot to how in-character it seems.

Also, before I wrap up, I promise I have seen many many many explanations for why this makes sense in-character. Personally I like the explanation that he was trying to toughen c!Aimsey up so they'd keep up their guard. c!Tubbo has every reason to dislike newcomer's at first, because historically speaking they don't really bother to learn their history and often jump to defend the man that wants c!Tubbo dead. So the explanation that he'd duel c!Aimsey as a way of saying "Look, here's what happens on this server when you take something of someone's. They won't all be as nice as me, this is your test round," does make sense.

The only thing for me is that all of those explanations feel a lot like the fan explanations of why c!Tubbo didn't know his own son was missing - it's the fans trying to explain away a plot hole/mischaracterization caused by people canonizing things without putting in thought to how every character is affected by it.

This is just my opinion on all of this, if you like this plotline and think it makes perfect sense that is completely fine. I am not trying to say this plotline isn't canon, that it shouldn't be canon, or anything like that. The only thing I'm trying to express is that I'm personally not a huge fan of it, and thought it felt off for his character, but everyone is entitled to feel however they like about it 👍

(Also, this is not crit of any ccs. Just because I don't like a writing decision that does not mean the ccs aren't well within their rights to make that decision, these are their characters not mine. However I will be tagging character crit and the word "negativity" just so people can filter things like this out.)