In a hypotetical mettatena-blellow double date, if they leave tenna and yellow in the sand pit, who is betting who to eat the sand?
Hehehe ooo… Tbh when it comes to betting I don’t know if either of them would bet- Tenna at least on the outside doesn’t like gambling(he does have a gacha machine… though tbh thats just toys) and probably wouldn’t do stuff like that unless it was with Spamton. Yellow probably thinks gamblings illegal for everyone not just children. And peer pressures illegal too!!!
Because of this I don’t think they bet each other. I think Yellow just starts eating sand and Tenna wants to fit in so he also starts eating sand. It’s a mutual activity. My beautiful dumb as rocks animals
I really love how successful Tenna's acting/playing a facade is. Despite being under so much duress and being forced to think fast on his feet to keep stalling for time, Tenna keeps Susie, Ralsei, and even the player oblivious to what exactly he's doing, even when he’s actively breaking down like in Doom Board. As a bonus, Susie and Ralsei forget about their worries in the beginning too (and in my case, completely forget that Toriel would also be in the dark world somewhere.) Plus, I personally find it compelling about how dramatic and emotional Tenna can be, but, in the end, those are the very traits he utilizes to make his persona convincing, even if it costs his exaggerations to be mistaken as his true self.
I just think that Tenna’s a lot more clever than some people give him credit for, and I just love TV(x1000).
waaaaaait.....! the loverposting...!!!!
NO YEAH IT'S IMPRESSIVE TO ME. it's both hatery and not but i joke a lot that tenna is so good at acting that he even tricks the player audience into thinking he's doing fine. like he's genuinely good at it!! it took me multiple replays to realize the 2nd board wasn't planned just because he rolled with it so well that i assumed it was part of the plan from the beginning . he's genuinely a really good actor
even during his world-ending breakdown it takes until you finally beat him in his boss fight before he finally gives up pretending it's fine. or that he's doing good. or that he deserves to be kept around for his purpose. it makes me (thumbs up with blood gushing out of my mouth) nooormal mode
DUDE. the fact he got fucking Ralsei of all people to forget about his problems for a little while deserves a fucking commendation. like that's genuinely insane to me. the most heartbreaking thing about tenna to me is that he's genuinely really good at his job and loves making these kids smile and laugh, but the circumstances force him to keep extending it over and over until he's watching them get bored of it in real time. he finally made someone smile for the first time in years and now it's all falling apart and he doesn't know what to do to fix it
ohhhh tenna my tenna my shweetiepie. genuinely i think ppl dont give him enough credit not only for how long he keeps himself together given his circumstances but also how genuinely Good he is at what he does. he's good at this!! and it's not enough
a fascinating aspect about tenna that i think about quite often + that i feel doesn't get explored very much is tenna's own relationship to power, or specifically his lack of actual power. he is a character in various roles of power as the boss of his world, whose actual power over others gets subverted or flipped from what might be expected in a couple different ways.
full analysis under the cut! Any image text transcriptions will be in alt text as usual :)
tenna is a character that carries some rather incredible literal power to him, no doubt. likely one of the most physically powerful darkners we see outside of the shadow bosses. he has literal reality bending powers (including being able to split the screen in two), the ability to teleport himself + others, is implied to be able to see into the lightworld more directly, is physically VERY large, and seemingly has lightning powers. he's kind of overpowered if you think about it too hard! but this isn't necessarily where he lacks in power.
Tenna is the "boss" of TV world - he made it, he 'rules' it, but we have never actually see him use these powers against his workers specifically, and even against the lightners he only uses them during moments of extreme duress (doomboard where he is having an active psychological break, and his battle - his very last resort, in which he is still for the most part making you play minigames instead of actively fighting with bullets and whatnot). Rarely does he ever seem to actually use these powers much outside of just making things "fun" unless he is forced to, like we see in chapter 3 when contextualized by Sword Route.
Despite being the boss of this world + the literal manager-type boss in charge of his darkners, he lacks any sort of real bite beyond his passive aggression and his need to micromanage. His employees don't really cower in fear to him - they don't hold much respect for him.
Any authority he may have had gets undermined rather notably when we see his employees perfectly comfortable goofing off on the clock, stealing from his bonus zone Right in front of him, and or beating him up even under threat of being fired / not being paid. AND they're unionized (mostly putting here because this is incredibly funny to me. sorry. tv world being unionized is genuinely unbelievably funny to me). They're not actively scared of him because they know he's not really going to go through with any actual punishment.
i see him get compared to a CEO pretty regularly and sure: yes, technically, he is the one running his studio. But, at least in my opinion, he's much more comparable to a middle manager type, all things considered. he may be the director and the one running his show, but he still answers to the powers that be. He's at the whims of whoever is above him much like any other darkner, but being TV in the living room - the ones who can change the channel, the ones in charge of his ratings, are the ones who truly call all the shots: His lightners most notably. or the censors. or whathaveyou.
He's like a hardass theatre director, and he's a hardass for a reason - if his performers slip up, its lights out for HIM! He doesn't even force his workers to stay even with his possible ability to trap people in gacha balls. he Lets them leave. The only thing he does when his workers start actually leaving is get on his knees and beg for help.
and if you wanna talk about what literal television is emboldened to follow behind as well, things like ads and sponsorships also have a hand in controlling television. As im sure everybody is aware we all know quite well that spamton and tenna had, at the *very* least, a business partnership (if not more). Rather frequently i see depictions of their relationship with a power imbalance in Tenna's favor - he's the big boss, so of course, he must be the one to hold more persuasion in that relationship! but i would like to propose that the power pendulum might actually have been more in Spamton's favor, realistically.
While we don't have a completely solid timeline about their relationship (and likely never really will), based on the way tenna talks about spamton, it can be assumed that he met him during or after spamton's rise to fame. This is something that can be deduced due to much of their relationship seemed to involve Tenna's desire to know Spamton's secret to success - to becoming a Big Shot - more specifically. At the point of their meeting, it was very likely that Tenna was already beginning his downswing and desperation to become relevant to his family again.
He needed someone new, somebody who knew money: an ad guy. A sponsor. And Spamton was a business owner, a car dealer, in the big shiny Cyber City - a person with political power (lobbyist), with a room in the Queen's mansion. Someone with powerful allies. Somebody who could leave at any time if he wanted; he was part of that laptop after all. He was a guy with much to offer, while what Tenna could offer was to... put him on TV. he could only ever offer himself.
Tenna was seeking Spamton's own Wizard of Oz, and Spamton could never ever actually tell Tenna the truth - that everything was always built on a lie, that much of his success was borrowed from elsewhere. It's one of many close-kept secrets that Spamton kept; including his own very nature as a spam email, lest he reveal his hand. Pushing off actually telling Tenna about newer technologies like he'd promised.
Whether he intentionally did it or not, Spamton held this information above Tenna's head long enough that he grew desperate to ensure he would stick around, and drafted up that contract in an attempt to finally catch hold of that secret. This isn't to say the two never cared for one another: i do personally absolutely think they did. And I don't think Spamton would have ever agreed to sign the contract if he didn't genuinely care. He broke his deal, ran out after that phone call somewhere Tenna could never follow (big box tethered to a wall and all), and left his business partner completely in the dark and even seemingly taking Mike along with him.
... and mike. We still don't really know any conclusion on the real Mike, not yet anyways. We know Mike was maybe spamtons friend, maybe tenna's friend. Was he ever even real? Is he made up? Who's mike? Who knows! But what we do know is that a fake (later joined by two more) stepped into his place in the wake of Spamton's absence. and who took up the mantle of whatever role they thought mike took, and even some roles seemingly... outside of old mike's wheelhouse.
i've spoken more in depth about this here before but, regardless of whether Mike did so before, the fake Mikes end up in a position where they are, in effect, taking care of Tenna (see above quote). Regardless of whatever relationship Mike had before, he has become something of a caretaker for him and by his own admission, Mike is acting as a therapist to him. And as such has been subjected to some of Tenna's darkest and most vulnerable thoughts, with Tenna not truly knowing who Mike is under that suit. And is enabling the shock therapy. Can't forget the shock therapy.
At best, this is 3 strangers posing as somebody who is meant to be his friend, and at worst - he's facing caregiver mistreatment / abuse by 3 strangers posing as someone meant to be his therapist. I do think the Mikes genuinely do care for Tenna but the neglect + carelessness still has a massive effect on him regardless.
The reason why I personally don't think Tenna knows the Mike truth is that I don't think he would have any reason to say anything about the spamton contract + deal during the chapter 5 mike room cutscene if he DID know. if he DID know they were posers, I don't think he'd be referring so directly to the event considering the mikes (or at least small mike) don't know who spamton is. tenna is also a character struggling to see reality as is (something he actively says during the mike cutscene as seen above! but is also evident within his behavior during ch3 where he loses grip on reality around him during his breakdown) and as such i personally do not believe he actually knows the mikes are faking.
The fake Mikes, as much as they act as employees for Tenna in their normal role / under their assumption that Mike was also an employee, still hold power over him as characters literally in charge of his therapy - "Mike" is his caregiver. And regardless of whether Tenna knows they are fake or not, the Mikes are continuing to keep up this lie to Tenna; again, holding information over his head to "appease" him or keep him easy to work with.
The chapter 5 mike room scene isn't the first time we see 'mike' threaten to leave either, considering he does it in chapter 3 when everyone else leaves (and well. real mike has already been gone!) - something i am sure the mikes are aware of being a vulnerability for tenna, but is still used as a threat against him. even if its not on purpose, it is a way in which they hold power over him. This is again, a theme I've talked about before here but: he's treated like an obstacle, like a danger to people around him (regardless of whether he is or not!) instead of like a person.
It's also not the last time we see Tenna taken advantage of or otherwise lied to. It's actually a rather consistent pattern for him! We see it with Spamton, we see it with the Mikes, and we also see this with his deal with Kris (and the Knight by extension), even if Kris also did not want to be in this position either. And we see this later in castle town, where he gets put into a situation where spades is taking advantage of his desperation.
One last thing as part of this equation that i find gets missed a lot in some takes regarding Tenna is the reveal during sword route that he is essentially being held at gunpoint (or well… sword point). It re-contextualizes Tenna's choices and behavior within the chapter. most people pick up that theres something amiss with how tenna is acting but may not end up seeing the pay off if they don't end up playing or watching sword route play out when we find out that he has some sort of deal with kris and later we find out more of the exact terms of this deal during the cutscene leading up to his fight.
That it was very likely, with how Tenna within the game speaks, that he was threatened with being unplugged or turned off again (something he is characterized to be afraid of). He's not really extending his boards and games for attention (he actively gets annoyed / more strained at having to keep adding them on). He's stalling for time and waiting for the knight to show up. And waiting. and waiting. If he doesnt distract the gang, if he doesn't keep toriel locked away, he will be Turned off. Unplugged. Thrown away.
He's an immensely physically powerful darkner, possibly one of the most powerful beyond the shadow bosses, and is the head of his darkworld. But he is completely at the whims of what the people around him do; his lightners, his workers, his partners, his friends, his caretakers. his kid, kris. The power dynamics one may expect out of him as this powerful boss are flipped. His lightners don't know he's there, his workers don't respect him and treat him like an obstacle, his friends still leave him despite seeing his vulnerability, he still gets lied to, manipulated, and kept in the dark.
And of course:
He's perhaps most powerless against the fate that lays before him.
They should call tenna mirror man the way he mirrors half of the deltarune cast.
Really long ramble down:
Susie: Starting with de obvious, since the game spells it for us at the end of his battle. They both share the fact that they feel unwanted and because of that end up making decisions that drives people further away from them.
At their core they are both very sweet and caring, but due to their insecurities and fears end up in the role of bad guy/girl, and only when they are shown kindness by others, shown that they are worthy of love as much of anyone else, that there is hope for them, they let their defenses down and show just how much they care for others.
Kris: This is difficult to say cos we don´t really know much about them, but both Kris and Tenna find themselfs in a similar situation.
Kris has a deal with the knight, a deal that in ch4 looks like they regret/ are having second guesses and are being coerce to continue by someone they care about (probably Carol).
Tenna had a deal with the knight, they show regret about their actions during ch3 and based on the "you aren´t going to unplug me again" seem that was coerce by someone he cares about (in this case kris)
Also, they are physically different to people around them, with Kris being the only human in town and tenna being in a different artstyle and taller than averague.
Also also, this is just my interpretation but I think that a lot of tenna´s feeling around the divorce may be proyections of kris´s feelings, since darkworlds reflects the will of their creators.
Ralsei: In short they both share the feeling that they are only valuable as long as they are useful and can fullfily their purpose, that on their own they don´t have value.
They have a little difference in that tenna is willing to fight to prove he is useful and beg to be allowed to live, while ralsei is clearly afraid, but has accepted it as reality and doesn´t try to fight it, we see this clearly in realsei´s encoraging words to tenna post boss fight, where he basically calls tenna selfish for begging to live (0 hate for the poor boy, he was trying his best to comfort tenna).
Noelle: Surprisingly they got a lot of stuff in common:
The biggest one to me is their connection to spamton, since both were given a pipis by him in the past, showing a level of care towards them, but in the present spamton seems to not care much about them getting hurt, ie the whole weirdroute and cathode screens into cathode screams/ the businnesman that died at the now of the story.
They both have a connection to the holidays, noelle surname is literally holiday and her house is chrismas themed and tenna whole talk about how he misses the family is centered around the holidays and he dies next to a chrismas tree. (also this is probably a coincidence but TV in windings is a snowflake and a cross).
they both have been hurt by kris, but still cherish their bond, as mention before, there is a big chance that tenna was threaten by kris but he nevers tells this to anyone and still shows that he cares about kris (even if he is a little afraid of them) and for noelle is very obvious kris pushing her away hurt her, but she still is really kind and willing to help them and in WR she is constantly justifing "them"
If you belive tenna did the boards, them both seem to be into moding stuff.
They are both really nostalgic and constatly mention things that happen when kris was younger.
Both of their arcs start with the help of susie.
And finally they are one of the few characters that notice something is wrong with kris.
Dremmur family: oh boy oh boy the dremmurs
Starting with toriel, they both share a similar nostalgia about kris and asriel childhood, toriel literally has a "kris remember when..." next to the tv in ch1, that is very similar on how tenna speaks throught ch3, both show a bit of aprehension about the kids growing up and both noticed that something is wrong with kris and try their best to help even if they are missing the whole picture.
In asgore case based on his UT counterpart, cos we haven´t seen a lot about him in DR, both deal with the guilt of taking a impulsive decision in the heat of the moment and regretting it a lot later, in tenna´s case the contract with spamton and going after the phone and in Asgore´s case the whole war against humans.
Asriel is a mistery to us at the moment, but tenna has some similitudes to omega flowey:
-Both angry tenna and his star attacks have the same smile as OF.
-The realistic depiction of tenna at the begining of board 2 is the same used for OF.
-In concept art OF had the antennas in the middle and the tv was purple.
-Tenna´s rimshot attack is really similar to an OF attack.
Spamton: Tbh to me they are more opposites than mirrors (and I may do a post about it) but they still have similarities in that they both spend their time after parting ways really isolated, spamton for obvious reasons and tenna shows this in "I been all alone" and both are really persevering.
Hello this is the post in which I explain why tenna and spamton are more oposites than parallels.
Starting with the most simple the physical characteristic, one is tall the other is short, one main color palette is black and white with some pops of color, the other dress up in very eye-catching colors, and one goes a lot easier on the eye than the other (To me both are cute, but spamton defenetly falls in a cute-ugly category but this depends on your personal opinion)
In their role in the story, tenna has the main focus of the chapter cos he is the chapter boss while spamton being the secrest boss get a lot less atention and a lot of his character can go complety ignored if you don´t play attention, tenna also is writen to be funny while spamton is writen to make you a little unconfortable.
Their relationship with kris is also complety opposite, spamton in both routes is using kris to get something he wants and once he gets it he turns against kris, either cos the power he got isn´t enough or because he sees kris as a thread to his power, tenna in the other hand, as shown in the sword route, does what he does in the chapter cos kris ask him to do it, depending on how you interpret it, he may have been threaten into cooperation but he nevers turns against kris.
Relating to that in how they see lightnerts, spamton doesn´t really seen to think too much about them, in the past seems to have a bit of a preference for noelle, but in the present he doesn´t really cares about her ending up hurt as a result of his actions even joking about it, in great oposition tenna´s character revolts around his lightnerts, which he holds in very high regard even after years of neglect, even to the point of thinking that the bad things that happen to the family and they ignoring him is because he isn´t good enough.
Their objectives also are polar oposite, spamton depending how you see it either wants to "be real like a lightnert" or "be real in the real world" regardless of how you see it, both include running away from his reality, wanting more that what is posible and in his quest to do so he ends up behaving more like a spam mail, lying and trying to use others, tenna in the other hands wants nothing more than to be a tv,being the only darkner at the moment that regects being in castletown, his dream is to things to go back to how they were in the past and stay like that forever, even if his desire is to serve his porpuse as a tv he shows a bit of desires that probably a tv wouldn´t want, like going go the beach or being much closer to his familly.
In the emotional category, spamton is really open talking about his problems 5 dialogue boxes into meating him (either as a manipulation tactic or because he got 0 filter up to you to decide) he also showns a bit of violent tendencies in both hitting the garbage can and pushing kris around pre neo fight, tenna does has exagerated moments of sadnes to keep the fun gang from leaving but he doesn´t really open up to them until his fight when he is directly asked why is he doing all that, also only becomes agresive in the middle of a mental breakdown or after being attacked by susie.
In their destiny, my friend likes to call them icaro and damocles, spamton dug his own grave, acepting the benefactor help, pushing people away, revealing the secrect, running away, etc, he flew too close to the sun and fell, tenna´s grave was dug the moment he came to existance, it didn´t matter how well he did, how bad he did he was going to end up there, another diference is their level of awarness about it, spamton seemingly being more aware than tenna.
and that´s all for the moment, as always fell free to add more stuff if you want
This guy had a mental breakdown because hes been lonely w gotta punish him because i want yaoi i mean because he had a mental breakdown about being lonely and useless so lets keep him in a closet where hes lonely and useless and asking you to keep your promise to find someone who will care about him lets keep him isolated because i want yaoi with the character that isnt in castle town hes in my pocket and instead a guy is watching him fall over and get hurt and laughing at him and hes doing it because no one else will watch him guys its just that i think he should stgay in castle town because i want to have yaoi i mean to punish him for being BAD and reacting ti a traumatizing situation.
also in case people think im bullying them for keeping tenna in castle town: IM NOT!! I HAVE MY OWN SAVE! I JUST THINK PRETENDING ITS BETTER FOR HIM IS WEIRD AND TONE DEAF. YOU DONT GOTTA JUSTIFY YOURSELF JUST SAY YOU WANNA SEE HIM
guys. toby fox wouldnt write susie saying "i got hope from making friends, you just have to find the right people. someone out there wants you." if the lesson with tenna was "learn to be a BETTER PERSON and dont rely on other people for attention you little attention seeker!". He would not write Tenna having to learn to move on from nostalgia if the best outcome for him is being fully retired and living with his ex with no other outside support or things to do(AGAIN DISCLAIMER I LIKE SPAMTENNA PLEASE GOD MY FIC HAS SPAMTENNA IN IT IM NOT EVEN SAYING HE CANT GET BACK TOGETHER WITH SPAMTON BUT BE SO REAL WITH ME SPAMTON WOULD 100% ENABLE HIS ISSUES IF LEFT WITHOUT ANY OTHER SUPPORT SYSTEM). please. guys please.
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