RAYTUBE (JUNKYARD TENNA CHARACTER NOTES)
(this is a long post- its a bunch of text explaining his character, so click read more if youd want to read that!)
---
At the end of chapter 3, the Fun Gang aren’t quick enough to pick up Tenna before he gets thrown away. He gets tossed into a junkyard, his darkner self ending up in a sprawling, toxic wasteland. In a day, his life of privilege and luxury turned to pure survival.
This is Tenna’s worst fear- one that he made a shady deal with the knight and fought for his life to avoid.
He always thought that his life would be over once he gets thrown out, but he’s still… Alive. He never wanted to think of a life where he has to live in the garbage, and yet here he is.
He is TV. He is meant to be watched. That’s all he is. So who is he if he has no audience? Who is he without his purpose?
Living his worst fear, being abandoned by those he called family, and not knowing who he is anymore breaks him. He doesn’t know how to continue, or if it’s even worth the effort.
---
If he was still on air, he'd use this place for the setting of a grim survival film. This world looks like it's been ripped straight from an apocalypse movie- one where the protagonist must adapt and learn to survive in the wasteland.
...Hold on.
That’s exactly what he’s going through right now! And it comes with all of the action, tension, suspense and dread- to make a THRILLING movie!
His tune changes. Who needs to be TV when you can be ON TV! He’s the star now! The protagonist everyone roots for! Someone you remember the name of and not see as a piece of disposable furniture!!!
So, he makes his character: RAYTUBE. Based off of the gruff, adaptable, stone-cold apocalypse movie protagonists, inspired from the style of Mad Max (along with his own bright flair, of course!). Instead of a broken, on the fritz piece of junk, he’s a dangerous machine that no one wants to mess with.
---
He sees Raytube as a character that he plays, while he still sees himself as Tenna. However, because he is living the movie, he is almost always in character. There are days where he doesn’t consider that he's Tenna at all- or where the lines are blurred and he feels like Raytube. But at the end of the day, it is a complete act. He is still the same whimsical, bubbly show host, he’s just doing what he does best: acting and putting on a show.
He knows that he isn’t actually in a movie. But in order to avoid the horrible reality that he is in, he deliberately pretends that he’s in one. With his own suspension of disbelief, it makes everything more… Bearable.
But this has its drawbacks. This makes him disconnected from the reality of his situation and from how everyone else views the world around them. Playing a badass character who people are meant to be afraid of means that he gets himself into a lot of conflict. Conflict that would make for a good show, but it’s real to everyone else. This gets him into very real danger and makes him enemies when he truly doesn’t want any. But this is what Raytube would do, and this is the thrilling life of a protagonist, right? So… He keeps on acting and pushing through.
There are times where the illusion breaks, and things become much, much more real for him. Usually in intense, dire situations. Once the illusion breaks- all of the fear he’s been pushing away crashes into him at once. He is thrown into a panic, losing all sight of his character and what to do.
Tenna doesn’t truly want to fight. Instead, he tries his best to weasel his way out of situations with his acting skills. The results are… Mixed. Due to winding up in danger often, he is forced into resorting to violence or other things he normally wouldn’t do. He eventually picks up these skills (along with the help of Hatemail (Spamton)), but he hates using them.
What Tenna wants most of all is normalcy. To be the center of attention as he always has, to have a loving family in a stable, welcoming home. To have that all taken away from him leaves him with nothing. So, clinging onto seeing this new life as a movie where he has to keep performing is a way of him trying to hold onto that normalcy and continue doing what he always has.
Doing this allows him to avoid things that he doesn’t want to address, such as: Who is he if he isn’t tv? Is he dying now? How much longer does he have until he falls apart and becomes scrap metal in the sea of garbage? Was he ever part of the family to begin with? Was what happened to Spamton his fault? What good is he if he doesn’t have a purpose anymore?… Etc. He can ignore all of that now, because Raytube doesn’t have these problems to deal with.
---
The character Raytube is a gritty, aloof, resourceful and tough guy. He has lived in the wasteland for a while now, which molded him into this stone-cold badass. He is the leader of a gang (the TV gang) which is composed of a cast of rough-and-tumble survivalists. (Tenna had given the others characters and roles for them to fill so they can go along with his act.) Raytube is intimidating and someone to not mess around with. He will threaten violence and not be afraid to use it.
How well Tenna portrays this character is… Well…
He is still a phenomenal actor, however he is basing this character solely off of tropes and an archetype. Serious badass types are also out of Tenna’s wheelhouse. Raytube is played as a stereotypical gritty protagonist, with overused oneliners and a way of talking along the lines of “You really don’t wanna mess with a guy like me”, which can end up too corny and over the top a lot of the time. So whether or not he is taken seriously depends on the person.
Tenna is more broken than he was at the end of chapter 3, as he wasn’t handled with care being put in the junkyard. Being a broken CRT, he glitches often, is an electrical hazard, is at risk of exploding, and MIGHT be radioactive. This, of course, is devastating to Tenna and yet another thing he is in denial over. He also uses Raytube as a means to cope with this. Raytube isn’t broken, he is dangerous on purpose. Tenna incorporated the hazard stickers on his body into Raytube’s costume as a way of Raytube owning being a danger. Tenna can’t take the hazard stickers off of himself, as they are on his light world form, so he does this to make them look intentional.
At times of intense emotion, whether it’s anger or joy, he often breaks out of character completely, not realizing that he dropped the act. He struggles to hold back such emotions when acting. Also, playing someone aloof like Raytube means that he has to bottle up MANY of his emotions… Which is not good, especially for someone like Tenna.
