Fear — Quackity And Schlatt's Abusive Relationship And...

okay fuckers y’all have been waiting for this one and so i will deliver my ~2k word rant that starts out as analysis and progressively gets closer and closer to fanfiction.

here’s

Quackity and Schlatt’s abusive relationship and how they managed to make it realistic: an essay

by someone that just watched their best friend go through a 4 year emotionally abusive relationship and saw all the signs reflected on the smp

• Preface

It goes without saying of course that this is about character Schlatt and character Quackity and says nothing about their actual friendship or personality or morals, but I thought I should say it anyways. Also, I take all of their irl jokes as in-character serious things.

• Sweet Beginnings

The start to their relationship was the same as most people’s. They met, they got along, they fell in love. It was sweet and it was believable that they’d have a nice, happy relationship. There were some red flags that I will address later, but they were mostly stable and it was possible for them to thrive. Much like most real life abusive relationships, Schlatt didn’t show his true colours until after Quackity had an emotional connection to him.

The start of their relationship

Schlatt charmed Quackity and honestly, who wouldn’t be charmed? Quackity was sick of Wilbur and his tyranny, his authority. He wanted someone that believed in democracy. That believed in helping the people and Schlatt promised him exactly that. He promised that he could help Quackity build a better, more fair (then) L’manburg. He promised to listen to Quackity’s suggestions and take him seriously as a politician (something Wilbur never did). He promised him the agency that he had never had but had always wanted. And at first Schlatt was only that, a political ally. Someone that could give Quackity the power and importance he so obviously desired. However, things quickly turned a bit more “flirty” and inappropriate, because it’s Quackity and Schlatt so what else can you expect.

The election

They won. Quackity and Schlatt won.

Post-Election

Now it’s when their relationship really began to develop.

Quackity was very clearly enamoured by Schlatt by then. He called Schlatt the “love of his life”. Often. They went on dates, and ruled over Manburg together and got engaged. They joked and flirted and had fun. They got what they wanted. They got the election and they got the love and they were, for a little while, a power couple. They could’ve been legendary. Quackity surely felt it. Him and the love of his life, ruling the world, as equals.

There was a reason for all this excitement, too. Schlatt gave him reason. He showered him with compliments, talking about how he “had the fattest ass in the cabinet” and how they were gonna get married soon. Quackity’s love, seemingly, loved him back, just as much.

(I’m also 99% sure they got married but couldn’t find evidence anywhere)

The red flags

- Weird Age Gap: we don’t know Schlatts actual age on the smp, but considering the amount of jokes people make about him being an “old man” and “senile”, we can pretty much conclude that he is at least 60+ years old. Quackity is, I’m pretty sure, cononicaly his irl age in the smp. That’s 19. It’s not illegal, sure, but it is weird to see a grandpa dating someone that hasn’t even finished developing their brain yet. Borderline grooming.

- Sort of Sexual Harrassment, But Not Quite: Technically, Schlatt is in a position of power over Quackity, considering that he’s Quackity’s boss, so all the advancements and inappropriate comments that Schlatt did (e.g “fatest ass in the cabinet”) could’ve been considered harrassment if Quackity wasn’t as into it as he was. Still shows the willingness that Schlatt had of using his power to have more power over Quackity.

- Mild Guilt Tripping: Schlatt was kind of a dick even in the beginning, constantly making Quackity ask for forgiveness for very minor issues and just generally blowing things out of proportion (e.g Schlatt being angry at Quackity during their date because he didn’t like the pentagon, a place Quackity built specifically for him).

• Bitter Middle

This is when things started to go downhill. When Schlatt’s general shiterry became more prominent than his charm. When Quackity experienced more pain than love. That period in emotionally abusive relationships where every interaction with your partner hurts but you just can’t make yourself leave because you love them too much and think that things will inevitably go back to “normal”, or that they are hurting you because they love you.

Flatty Patty

In their infamous first argument, Schlatt uses something that used to be precious to Quackity- his position of fatest ass in the cabinet, something that Quackity could always rely on in their relationship, a compliment that was basically the foundation of Schlatt/Quackity- and used it against him. To hurt him. To make him vulnerable. He decided to turn something that was important to Quackity into a tool to diminish him.

Schlatt used “flatty patty” as a tool to keep Quackity complacent (also gaslight him).

That is something that will be brought up rather constantly from now on, because it is a tool that Schlatt uses quite frequently. From then on, everytime Schlatt needs to diminish Quackity, he calls him “flatty patty”, because he knows it’ll hurt.

Because the thing about abusive relationships is that they are about power. It’s a power dynamic. It’s about the aggressor always staying on top and the victim always being the victim. It’s a way to make Schlatt feel more important, a self-esteem boost. It’s not about love. It’s never about love. Love isn’t supposed to hurt. Love doesn’t harm on purpose.

On their first argument, Schlatt uses it to continue his guilt tripping (which gets more prominent from now on). He says everything to make it seem like he is the victim, instead of Quackity, a common tactic for abusers. He says “You haven’t been going to the gym as much. How do you expect me to still like your ass? Do you not love me enough to put an effort in the way you look?” (paraphrasing). And Quackity falls for it. Because he does love Schlatt, and he does want him to be happy, so he apologises once again for something that isn’t his fault at all and says “Yes, baby, I’ll work harder, I promise. I’ll build a gym, baby, and I’ll get better, for you.”. And the real issue is forgotten (that issue being that Schlatt hasn’t been paying attention to Quackity, that Quackity feels forgotten), and instead Quackity ends up body-shamed and upset. Schlatt leaves.

And he decides to work on it. He builds the gym and he builds the “power rack” Schlatt wanted him too, and when Schlatt comes back, all his work goes uncredited. Again. He dismisses everything with two simple words: Flatty Patty.

Quackity is upset, comprehensively. He is angry. He does everything Schlatt asks of him and it’s never enough. It’s never enough. So he wants to fight back. He wants to turn Schlatt’s joke back on him. He’s Flatty Patty? Fine. Schlatt is JFlatt then.

But Schlatt won’t talk to him. Won’t let him fight back. Refuses to even listen to what he has to say. Because with abusers like Schlatt there’s no winning. They won’t let you. They always have to win. This is a direct quote, to show how frustrated Quackity is: “He is always one step ahead of me and I hate it!”.

Schlatt won’t talk to him so he does the next best thing. He tweets the insult. Schlatt comes back, talks to him. He seems upset. This is it. Quackity is winning.

So Schlatt pulls his hidden card (he can’t lose). He knows spanish. He can speak Quackity’s language. There is nowhere for him to go hide. There are no safe spaces.

Schlatt wins.

The Festival

This is, in my humble opinion, when Quackity realises who Schlatt really is. When the rose coloured glasses come off.

He publicly executed Tubbo for nothing except shock value. And Quackity sees it, for the first time. His husband, his president, the love of is life is just as bad as the dictator he fought so hard to get rid of. He’s a monster, and there’s nothing Quackity can do to change it.

This is the beginning of the end.

• The Bittersweet, But Mostly Freeing End

The White House

Something Quackity built with his own hands. A home for him. A home for them.

Schlatt is tearing it down.

He refuses to stop. There is nothing Quackity can say that will change his mind. No crying, no pet names, no pleading- nothing that will make Schlatt put down that damn pickaxe. Trust me, Quackity tried.

And he keeps trying. Keeps trying to reason with Schlatt. Keeps trying to make him notice how he’s changed. Keeps trying to get acknowledgment. Schlatt won’t listen. He never listens.

It doesn’t matter that Quackity is the reason Schlatt’s in power in the first place. It doesn’t matter that Quackity is the vice-president, that this is a democracy, that he should get a say, that his opinion matters, that Schlatt can’t tear down a government building without his approval.

After all this time all Quackity gets is Flatty Patty. That’s all he’ll ever be to Schlatt. Nothing more, nothing less. He makes it clear, over and over and over again: Flatty Patty.

Quackity is tried of letting a name hurt him this much.

Schlatt breaks down the walls of the white house and Quackity’s heart falls apart with it.

Schlatt calls him a coward, he shoots him. Who cares if he’s senile?

(No longer a victim. Never again a victim.)

Quackity runs into the woods. He just lost the man he loved, he just lost the place that he gave up everything for, yet he still feels freer than he has in a long, long time.

The End.

Kind of. Quackity might still have to deal with Schlatt, because politics, and Schlatt may be fathering Quackity’s child (maybe? i haven’t seen the new streams yet so i might be wrong on that one) but the relationship they once had is over.

Time to get Manburg back.

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for all the people who asked :)

@pineannana @wrath-is-a-deadly-sin @minshinxx @sketchy-crafts-4130 @target-block @classyzombie @a-person-called-mof @illmamnim @into-the-spirals-of-my-eyes @echodarkly @iskall-ium @cookie-eat-me @wisepuma23