tennas really is just a character who makes me sit there like this
all the time because hes so genuinely well written. hes so well layered of a character it still genuinely baffles me. ive thought this since june and i think it Even more now that theres been time for everything to settle. i think part of why he sticks out so so so much, why people ended up so attached to him theres genuinely a lot to delve into and unpack (and a lot that can be missed) about him because everything about him is reflected directly in deltarune's themes and he, himself, is a narrative device.
He is the tone shift character. He's one of the darkners in the game Most Effected by his place in the world as an object and despite this he's one of the most... humanly? written characters we end up encountering in the story thus far. He's the counterargument to Ralsei's claim that darkners like himself don't matter. He's the example of what could happen if Kris goes back on their promise. He's the hope that something thats been broken and unwanted can still be loved.
hes crafted in such a specific way as this character built up around nostalgia and whimsy and silliness and it just makes the Various Knife twists that make him up even more painful. Like i always think im reaching a bit whenever i make things happen to him (because well. We torment our favs around here of course) and then i look back at the text and go Ohhh nope he literally has just been getting basically tortured this whole time in specifically the ways that really Would just make it worse for him. like he's living his own personal worst hell most of the time genuinely
His primary character motivation when you boil it down is that he wants to be loved.
I think a lot of people take his "I just wanted to be watched" at face value a lot as some specific want for fame or attention but, don't tend to read deeper into it. He needs to be loved. If he isn't loved, he isn't watched. If he isn't watched, he is ignored and neglected and at risk of being thrown away (read: dying. This is practically a death sentence for darkners). He wants to be loved.
And it's something he can't ever seem to have (a recurring theme with him...). Practically every person in his life that he's cared about has disappeared on him, and he doesn't know why. And it keeps happening.
He doesn't know whats wrong because nobody will tell him in a way that makes sense to him. Nobody wants to tell him things. People keep information from him, for a variety of reasons, but most of the time it is almost always to his detriment. He's kept in the dark.
He can never be on equal footing with pretty much anybody in his life. The lightners are far, far above him. They don't know he exists. And other darkners can't reach his level either, as he is the one in charge of TV World (even though he doesn't even seem to really want to be in charge, re: "A BOSS!? ME!? I'm offended!!!"). He is not treated as an equal, he is not treated much like a person at all by anyone in his world. He is exempt from being treated like a person because he is both far above and far below anyone else in his life. He's left out of things, excluded by both sides. He's either ignored or treated as an obstacle, a force to be tamed. He's the other. He's an object, not just literally but narratively, personally, too. And I think probably the one person who ever met him on his level was Spamton (I do not think Spamton was ever employed by Tenna. They were business *partners* - Spamton I think is more comparable to a sponsor). And he lost him too, because nobody would give him direct answers.
And this all, too, is once again part of #HisDisability. I feel a little annoying about bringing it up so often but genuinely, genuinely, i feel like once you see it you do not Stop unseeing it (here's my other main post on this for a bit more of an explanation if this is your first time hearing this). i genuinely consider it a really important lens to analyze tenna through and it makes a lot of things about him make Much more sense.
Tenna is purposefully written as a character severely disabled by trauma and by the way people around him treat him.
Everything about Tenna's appearance, about his narrative, is trying to scream at you to not forget about him. To not leave him behind. His face is plastered all over TV world. He's advertising himself, the product, the object, to you. You can't forget TV. You can't forget it. Even the unique rendering style he's got makes him stick out. You remember him because he sticks out, because he doesn't want to be forgotten and left behind
And notably all of the ways in which he *can* die? Is because he was forgotten. Didn't remember to get all of the recruits, specifically shadowguys + pippins? He remains busted and broken and they cant find him. Forget to take him back to Castletown, he's left in the rain as a final reminder - and if you forget to check back even then, he's gone. He's gone.
He's already been unplugged for years, disconnected from the lightworld. Sitting. Waiting. Rotting. We don't know exactly what him being unplugged entails, but it is clearly something he is SCARED to happen again (Y-YOU AREN'T GONNA TURN ME OFF AGAIN, ARE YOU...?). He's deeply deeply scared that he is going to die (and is! correct to think this! He literally can die!). He's already almost forgotten. Almost without a purpose, until he's given one again.
The entirety of chapter 3 he is experiencing like quite literally what is probably one of the worst days of his life. He is brought awake for the first time in who knows how long, told by his family member that he loves that he needs to do what they say and the knight will help him - and if he doesn't they'll unplug him again (and that family member doesn't want to do this either. But he doesn't know that). And so he does. He feels bad about having to trap Toriel but he has to try to keep the end of his deal.
And then the knight is late, and keeps being late. and he has to keep pulling out all the stops trying to improvise and come up with something to stall until they arrive. He's reaching his already strained mental limit. And when he's finally told that what he's doing hasn't been good enough, even after trying so hard. That he's getting old, that the shows over. He snaps. He breaks down and he begins his spiral and lashes out. And all of his fears come true in an instant. He's always been afraid of everybody else leaving him and he is *right* to be afraid, because when he *does* finally break, they do leave him. everyone leaves him because either everyone doesn't want to fight the kids anymore and sees him trapping the kids as a final straw (which he didn't want to do either. it was part of the stalling!), or is too afraid to fight them, depending on route.
His entire narrative, which involves him begging for his life and to be loved again, for somebody to help him but having nobody willing to help, and his neglect and abandonment and him being so defensive about NOT being broken, not being too old and outdated, SCREAMS that he is disabled. He is the character most effected by being a darkner thus far, to a point that it is Difficult if not Impossible to separate him from the fact that he is *specifically* a neglected TV. Like to a point it makes him an entirely different character without it as an element to him. He is a neglected TV begging and pleading for love and care and comfort and he is *not receiving it in the ways he needs* and it is actively disabling him further. He is a disabled character being failed by the systems in place in his world and he is falling apart at the seams because of it.
I think its a big part of what makes him an immensely, immensely tragic character. He is so severely impacted by neglect and abandonment and it just keeps happening over, and over, and over and over again to him. He's not been allowed time or space to heal. He's a bleeding wound. and well... what is it that a bleeding wound need in order to mend?
tenna is a beautiful sweet whimsical cartoon character that gets tortured and tortured and tortured forever and it HAUNTS ME!!!!!
