new blog for the TV man

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What's Tenna got to say about the glasses case?

...sorry I asked.

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Oh no he's self-aware. Mike, cut! That's a wrap!

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What's Tenna got to say about the glasses case?

...sorry I asked.

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A prediction, if you will.

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Interact again, and...hm. Guess not much happens. Ah well.

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A prediction, if you will.

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Wow, guys - I really love how subtle a lot of the writing is in Deltarune. I mean, Tenna's death really comes out of nowhere and -

Foreshadowing is a literary device...

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Benefactor Theory Time

Alright, it's after midnight and I've had this on my mind for a few days. So! Here we go!

Consider: what if Spamton's Benefactor was a Lightner?

It would explain a lot. How they would know the prophecy (considering at least part of it is literally part of a religion in the Light World). How they could drastically change things for and about Spamton (presuming they could alter his code given he is a digital darkner - admittedly a stretch, but it seems possible)? And, if they were a specific Lightner, how they may have been able to manipulate Tenna as well.

There's a lot of information we don't know, so I'm just going to line up my guesses and see what sticks here, okay? Okay.

So: Tenna is under the impression that everything is going just fine in the Dreemurr house. Sure, he hasn't seen Dess in a while, and the Dreemurrs seem a little tense, but everything else? Fine.

Then one day someone floats the idea of getting a new TV. This one is old anyways, and the screen gets fuzzy sometimes. Maybe the Dreemurrs could even spend a holiday with the Holidays for once, crowd around their TV instead? They deserve something nicer.

And obviously Tenna hears this. He's not old or broken! They can't be serious!

...can they?

And well, it's a longshot, but if they want something new...why not work with the rising star of Cyber City?

So Tenna and Spamton start working together, the benefactor tells Spamton what Tenna should play on TV, and they stop making a fuss about replacing the TV in the Light World. Maybe even start suggesting movie nights to really sell the illusion that Spamton is a miracle worker.

With me so far? Okay great. A Lightner could probably pretty easily manipulate a Darkner with the right information and enough motivation to do so.

Just, someone had to make the choice to *print out* and then *physically throw away* some useless (spam) emails, yeah? And that someone was a Lightner.

And then there's this:

And this:

And, okay, sure, maybe both of these people are only using phones to communicate/manipulate here because it's convenient.

Or - maybe manipulating Spamton was the dry run all along. And now we're in the midst of the real show.

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I've been thinking about how the player can drain the oasis early if you drink from it eight times.

Doing so works as a cool little shortcut to start the Lanino & Elnina fight a bit early, which is great for speedrunning. Though it comes at the cost of ruining the atmosphere - the game even says "the environment deteriorates."

So, drying up an oasis in the middle of a desert is pretty symbolic. If an oasis signifies hope and sanctuary, one drying up entirely likely signifies despair and hopelessness.

As for the number eight - the number of times it takes to drain the oasis?

Eight Lightners that Tenna cared for. Each of them eventually leaving him one by one.

So...yeah. Abstract way to say that the Lightners leaving has left Tenna feeling hopeless about his future.

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"You often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it."

Tenna makes a deal with the Knight at least in part to avoid being thrown out and killed, pinning his hopes on their promise that he would be watched again if he cooperated. It was stupid, but I'm sure Tenna already knew that. He was beyond desperate, though, so on the slim chance this did work out? Yeah, he'd take the gamble.

We know how that turned out for him.

On another note: I find it interesting that, despite the opportunity at hand here, Tenna doesn't directly ask the Lightners not to throw him out. To my knowledge, at least. Seems to be the simplest solution here, but Tenna doesn't seem to consider it as a valid option. Instead, he throws all his energy into trying to prove that he is worth saving.

Is it a pride thing? Did Kris say something to him? Or did he just assume it would be a waste of time to try it?

Maybe he didn't even consider it, given that Darkners practically never get to interact with Lightners. Or he did, but just felt more comfortable going back to Plan A - win back the crowd.

Though maybe it's in some effort to maintain the illusion that he's not upset at how the Dreemurrs have treated him? Like, if he gets them to change their minds and want to help him by just being fun and friendly, he doesn't have to admit that they've hurt him. Bonus: he also doesn't have to face the terror that they might not care after all.

Tenna taking the most roundabout way to try to avoid dying and also preserve his pride and image and maybe spare some feelings and never have to change tactics...?

...does he take constructive criticism?

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Like, this is how I picture this. Tenna, honey, what are you doing?

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"You often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it."

Tenna makes a deal with the Knight at least in part to avoid being thrown out and killed, pinning his hopes on their promise that he would be watched again if he cooperated. It was stupid, but I'm sure Tenna already knew that. He was beyond desperate, though, so on the slim chance this did work out? Yeah, he'd take the gamble.

We know how that turned out for him.

On another note: I find it interesting that, despite the opportunity at hand here, Tenna doesn't directly ask the Lightners not to throw him out. To my knowledge, at least. Seems to be the simplest solution here, but Tenna doesn't seem to consider it as a valid option. Instead, he throws all his energy into trying to prove that he is worth saving.

Is it a pride thing? Did Kris say something to him? Or did he just assume it would be a waste of time to try it?

Maybe he didn't even consider it, given that Darkners practically never get to interact with Lightners. Or he did, but just felt more comfortable going back to Plan A - win back the crowd.

Though maybe it's in some effort to maintain the illusion that he's not upset at how the Dreemurrs have treated him? Like, if he gets them to change their minds and want to help him by just being fun and friendly, he doesn't have to admit that they've hurt him. Bonus: he also doesn't have to face the terror that they might not care after all.

Tenna taking the most roundabout way to try to avoid dying and also preserve his pride and image and maybe spare some feelings and never have to change tactics...?

...does he take constructive criticism?

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Tenna would have the hardest time of all of the Darkners we've met so far meaningfully adjusting to life in Castle Town and all that entails (i.e. the opportunity for Darkners to live for themselves/build a life outside of Lightners). He's built his entire existence based off of Being a Performer and a Good Darkner (tm). He considers the Dreemurrs to be his family. He's so enmeshed his identity with performing for Lightners that the idea of no longer needing to do so is probably terrifying. Doubly so considering that the idea of Lightners not liking/needing him has been tied to abandonment, loneliness and the prospect of death in his mind for months or even years at this point. Not to mention the very recent near-death experience: he's under a lot of stress, to put it bluntly.

So, much as I hate to say it - Tenna jumping at the idea of being a jester for the Spade King makes sense. Basically using the King as a substitute Lightner to reassure and validate himself, here, because the only value he thinks he has lies in what he can do as a performer.

Meaningful Change and Growth (which requires both self-reflection and a degree of security to successfully foster most of the time, to be fair) vs. Comfy Coping Mechanism/Easy Reassurance - guess which one wins out most of the time?

Is it healthy? Probably not. Is it realistic? Yeah, I'd say so. Silly circumstances but surprisingly in-depth character beats going on with Tenna here.

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I think a lot about how Tenna swears in his boss fight almost immediately after we disable the parental controls. And how it doesn't seem to just be a stress relief/one-off thing either - he's clearly comfortable talking about Roulx's ass in Castle Town and playing suggestive music videos for Mettaton. Joyful, even.

Fair to say he probably can't swear with them on, then. And he seems mildly frustrated about that in some of his dialogue (if comedically proclaiming that the censors would kill him can be read as jealousy/frustration, anyways).

There's a lot going on with Tenna in regards to how restrictive a Darkner's life can be, and how their obligations to Lightners directly impacts and sometimes worsens their lives, even if they are otherwise well-off. I imagine he couldn't turn them off on his own, so who knows how long they were on (unnecessarily, too, if he wasn't even being watched and Kris and Asriel likely wouldn't have cared about the swearing past grade school).

Also a lot to be said regarding Tenna being/feeling frozen in time and the necessity of change and the desire to be free. How even if there's a lot of things Tenna wishes would go back to how they once were/would stay the same, he still wants some things to change.

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Tenna isn't quite Ralsei* level of "I am a Darkner not a Lightner the ONLY thing I should want is to please Lightners" but he's pretty damn close to that and seems to be a bit ashamed he can't be a "perfect Darkner."

I do think he subconsciously thought of Spamton as something of a temptress trying to lure him away from the "right" path, but at the same time was Finally getting some of his emotional needs and general desire for companionship met, so it wasn't like he was complaining about their relationship.

And Tenna could always tell himself that he was keeping Spamton around because his success made keeping the Lightners happy easier, too. See? He's a Good Darkner - always putting the Lightners first! (And maybe he can have something for himself? Buried under three layers of anxiety and obsfucation).

Tldr yeah Tenna is much more repressed than Spamton and sort of self-defeating. Despite it all he clearly loves Spamton, though he tries to hide it partly out of guilt over how it ended and partly out of shame it happened at all.

*honestly even Ralsei doesn't totally practice what he preaches re: being a Good Darkner, but he does fall back on that philosophy when under pressure. Nuance everywhere in this game.

[moskvishacreates]

With the real Mike seemingly being reclusive and preferring not to reveal himself to many people, I wonder if that's actually part of why he continues to stay invisible and doesn't talk to Tenna. Maybe he didn't originally intend to stop hanging out with Tenna forever; he was upset about the contract and Spamton's disappearance and wanted some time away from Tenna at first, but was intending to start talking to him again later, but before he could do that, the whole "fake Mikes" thing started.

Mike's room used to be a place where he could be alone, or sometimes hang out with Tenna and/or Spamton, but now the impostor trio is hanging out there all the time, which effectively pushed him out/made it so that he doesn't want to show himself. It's understandable that Tenna needed support (or just any company in general) after Spamton went missing, so he didn't really have the patience to wait and see if Mike showed up eventually, but the game of pretend ultimately ensured that he didn't.

And maybe Tenna suspects that this is at least part of the reason why Mike isn't there, but he isn't sure that Mike would come back and start talking to him again if he broke character and told the impostor trio to leave, so he chooses not to risk being all alone again. He doesn't like that the trio (or at least Battat) treats him like a child, and he wishes he could hang out with the real Mike instead, but isn't confident that it would happen, so he continues to play pretend, because that's the only company he really has. (To be fair, Pluey seems to be doing an okay job by just being a cat.)

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Tenna settling for less than what he really wants is kind of a running theme through his life.

Can't actually interact with the Lightners (outside of chapter 3), can at least entertain them (until even that isn't particularly wanted either anymore). Can't go to the beach (or anywhere beyond the studio, really), can create video game replicas of those experiences. Has trouble making friends and has no family, but has (mostly) loyal employees. No Spamton or Mike, but the fake Mikes keep him company. Seeks out attention when he can't get much companionship, and ultimately gets less and less of both.

Part of the issue is that he wants some impossible/highly improbable things, part of the issue is how he goes about trying to get more out of life through exerting control and authority, and part of it is probably just bad luck (and the fault of simply being a Darkner and all that entails).

Frankly it's shocking he didn't crack sooner.

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Wonder if Tenna really is mid-air splits level flexible or if he's about to pull something here.

On one hand - silly cartoon character (squash and stretch extra flexibility privileges) who may also be mostly robotic, thus unlikely to have many physical limitations, if any.

On the other - here's a guy who is unwilling to show any weakness out of fear of being considered broken and being disposed of. People pleaser with internalized ableism who's desperate to prove he's worth something. I'd believe he might hurt himself trying to prove he's "still got it."

Could go either way, really.

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Not usually one for character playlists, but I was thinking that Classic by MKTO fits Tenna pretty well.

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Something something "life imitates art, art imitates life" with Tenna copying the behavior of people he likes. Something about insecurity in being himself there too (especially when "punished" for making his own choices, such as when Spamton left after signing the contract which he was directly discouraged from pursuing).

The man kind of bleeds insecurity and doubt, but desperately wants to be wrong about everything ending poorly for himself (he can be...but most often he isn't wrong that things will go poorly and already have). Self-fulfilling prophecy, in a way - bracing for things to go wrong and acting out leads to things getting worse for him as well.

He's fairly heavily punished for making active choices rather than going with the flow (usually trying to increase his own security in some way - ensure Spamton will stick around, keep the Knight happy, etc.). No wonder he's got issues with guilt and trying to be more than a normal TV.