Some observations about the Feature Presentation
I gave in to the urge to watch this cut scene on repeat, trying to understand. I didn't even intent to talk about every little scene here but now I'm way too deep into it. HELP.
Disclaimer: This is just me rambling.
It's now time for our feature presentation Feacher Coming straight from your house Coming straight from YOUR house (Coming) He's the One (Coming) The king of only He's GROOVY and NEVER glooby! You can't get this from an EGG! The sensation of your screen The show that makes you scream Say it with him, folks! Mr. (Ant) Tenna's TV Time!!!
Transcript taken from the deltarune wiki
So where do I begin, other than it is just such an odd character introduction. Of course fitting for the game Deltarune, but there have been deliberate choices made to fill these 40 seconds that make it so strange.
As Tenna's line from before the cut scene plays suggests, it's suppose to be a recording played from a VHS which explains the video glitches/ chromatic abbreviation. But it does not explain why the production value is so low.
It's very confusing too, with repeating phrases and words that don't seem to belong? For example the excessive use of Coming and straight from your house. The kIng of only. Only... what?
I'm jumping ahead here as I need this as basis why I believe the recording comes from the time when Spamton collaborated with Tenna: This little scene here:
Say it with him, folks!
The small, bouncy, blue Tenna next to the talking, bigger, red Tenna. I'm not the first one to point this out but it looks like a cheap edit, where the blue Tenna is just a png moved around, covering something up. I believe that something is Spamton. The hand position here? So odd, and convenient at the height where Spam's nose would be. Together with the line, say it with him, folks - Tenna point's at his smaller version for this. But he is the only one talking here, as the following line is just Tenna's voice again. So why not say "say it with me, folks" instead?
There is technically a second voice, which is higher in pitch and only used in Coming straight from YOUR house and Coming [x2]. I actually went into this post thinking it's just Tenna's voice again slightly modified, but I just remembered, this high pitched voice is in spamton's theme??
(For any general similarities, I believe both voices are just Toby's vocal cords, I can't verify this though)
SO if there are two voices why is the end still only Tenna's voice? When he invites us to say it with some unidentified him.
Moving on: My thoughts about Feacher at the beginning were; huh that's funny, someone can't spell right, but half a day later I thought to myself?? Wait since when can't Tenna spell right? Or Spamton? There are characters, like Susie or Jackenstein where we repeatedly get to see their spelling is off. It's an endearing character trait, but for Tenna I can't recall even one instance where this happens. Or even with Spamton's normal, non-bracketed text. He does make typing mistakes and may exchange a letter for a number. But his spelling is accurate.
So what's up with Feacher?? Well before this line feature is already used: It's now time for our feature presentation. This repetition is odd on it's own. So then I thought what if it didn't use to be there on it's own? What if it used to say was: It's now time for our feature presentation. Featuring .... [a special guest?] Maybe: featuring Spamton G. Spamton?
Moving on to the next line: Coming straight from your house[x2]. The first line is said with the high pitched voice, followed by Tenna's voice repeating the same line along with this strange imagery of some Tenna leaving a brick "house". Followd by two houses facing each other with two tenna's trying to meet in the middle.
The mirrored composition feels so off! But the imagery of two meeting in the middle is what sticks with me the most here. And I feel like originally there was only one Tenna meeting someone else.
After that comes the line He's the one (Coming!), coming in the high pitched voice again. Sorry I have nothing to say about that other than I'm hearing a sexual joke here ever since my first play through. Make with this whatever you want.
But strangely when Coming is said in the upper right corner this house video excerpt comes up. It's just oddly unfitting, the coming phrase isn't doesn't even match with the time when the house animation played previously, so why is it shown for the coming part?? I can only assume something else was displayed in that corner and this clip is just there to cover it up.
(To have 1 2 3 4 5 as a visual for the one is so dull and stupid I love it)
The king of only, starts with The only.
The only is barely stressed and there should be something following it with that weak emphasis but that something never comes. I'd really like to know what this line originally used to say.
This is the same weird hand pose from the say it with him, folks -part btw. Complete with the same stiff movement from the cutout! The one that I like to imagine is a cover up for Spamton.
Next scene shows us groovy Tenna with sunglasses on, I can't remember if he wears any kind of glasses anywhere else so that's pretty cool. Of course it's silly to wear them in the first place if you don't have any eyes to wear them for.
Then he is covered up with blue slime falling from the ceiling, he melts into a blue puddle and a Pipis bounces out of it, absorbing the remaining puddle. (typing this out feels iffy - how the fuck are Pipis made? What are Pipis?!).
Of course he's NEVER glooby! I'm not going much into the potential meaning of glooby but Tenna admits he is glooby sometimes during his final fight after taking more than 23 turns. It's all in the wiki if you'd like to read it.
Anyway the Pipis is undoubtedly an item that stands for Tenna's connection to Spamton. And the clam being shot by 4, than 4 additional Tenna arms is symbolically demonstrating a strong resentment towards his relation with Spam. As you should know Tenna actually values his Pipis dearly, even though it's hidden in a closet.
ACTUALLY the last 4 are unique guns?? One is some kind of taser or something? WHAT? How often did they record Tenna to get this edit done?
This is also the very first sight of his red suit. Everything before was some mono-colored fill. Implying to me these recorded arms are more recent than all other Tenna depictions in this video. That's because I like to believe Tenna used to look different back in the day. He started wearing the red suit during the big shot era together with Spamton. Just like how it's suggested Tenna didn't have a nose originally; the fake Mikes mention they keep sorting his nose drawer, how the Tenna sphinx loses its nose and this post from @kammizstuff also gives plenty hints that he stole Spamton's look and his nose isn't naturally part of his face.
This is the only render that I believe shows us his original appearance, hence why all other Tenna appearances are covered mono-colored.
In the next scene there is a Asriel suddenly freaking out in front of a screen. I can't recall but it feels like that was mentioned somewhere? Asriel being shocked from seeing something online or so? Idk why it's in the Feature Presentation other than to have these lines rhyme:
The sensation of your screen The show that makes you scream
For the last part there are several nice details in here. Most obvious is Tenna's full body and name reveal. All the unique text animations are also very lovely. But I'd like to give special attention to the little TV Screen in the corner:
"TV" is transforming into his Mouth and Nose. Which is just really cute.
But I actually noticed something else about it around my fourth play through: The diagonal reflection line? A reflection like that doesn't even make sense on neither a flat nor curved surface and I think that's intentional.
I fear Tenna's prophecy was teased here.
Conclusion
Overall no matter how you look at this video clip it's not farfetched to say for an in-universe presentation it's trashy and fails to communicate who Tenna is and what makes him special. OF course Toby did an excellent job creating this trashy vibe and giving us weird imagery to gnaw on.
Much of the video reminds me of when I created my first video edits as a child, putting clips and ideas together while having very little experience with the craft and little vision for what works well. But I barely cared that it's shitty! I just created something where there was nothing prior, and that's exciting! However this excitement hinders you to redo stuff because who knows if you can ever create something so cool again? (You definitely can, it's called learning from your mistakes)
So this is my head cannon; I believe the original version was mostly directed by Spamton, made with some video editing software, green screens and 3D technology. Technology that Tenna has very little knowledge of.
Making this video was part of a deal with Tenna to make him big - but the scammer that Spamton is he didn't really know how to create such an clip in the first place and rolled with whatever half finished stuff came out of it.
After Spamton left TV World, he was edited out of the video, making the whole sequence even weirder, broken and nonsensical.
Why edit him out instead of recreating it? Because despite the lacking quality of Spamton's original intro, Tenna has sentimental value towards it or genuinely thinks it was a great feature presentation and he won't be able to make something greater.
He wanted to cut all ties with his former partner and this is how it came to be this mess.
TL;DR: Explaining why I believe Spamton used to be in Tenna's introduction clip but he was edited out in post + pointing out other details
I'd love to hear what you think. Or just tell me I'm an insane person. Kisses and hugs.
