#i'm getting to this ask late bc i'm the worst at checking my inbox im srry :')

[manofthepipis]

sorry I keep bothering you!!!! but I need your thoughts on Tenna he's so um um so uh and mail guy and and um divorce and and uhhhhhhhhhh I love hearing you break it down theoretical-style because your brain has wonderful ideas. (i havent actually gotten to watching any playthroughs of chapter 4 yet because I needed an emotional break and from what I've heard its .... yeah...)

aaa hi!! ur not bothering me :D man i rlly do love this tv man and i have so many thoughts

man what a character to introduce, like all we had for context to him was spamton's absolutely enraged ramblings on how much he sucks, which ended up being like the worst and messiest miscommunication that could have happened to the both of them. Like in retrospect, it's so funny how tenna was introduced versus how he actually turned out. We have the most unreliable guy (a literal scam artist) giving us our only background, calling Tenna a criminal (even if said scam artist is 3x the criminal that tenna is when we actually compare the crime list), and then telling us to not trust him (this is coming from someone who doesn't tell us his actual motivations and betrays us to get Neo and eventually the soul). Like Tenna's buildup was so hilarious yet masterfully done, that when he appeared on screen in chapter 3, i was expecting the worst when in actuality, he's a sweetie with a masters degree in showmanship and abandonment issues.

I also like how similar spamton and tenna really are, how each are driven by their own motivations and aren't entirely exempt from being self-serving in their own regards. Like Tenna, despite being definitely being more grounded and more trustworthy than Spamton, still is so focused on keeping himself relevant, he resorts to extreme measures like trapping the lightners. He so desperately wants to be appreciated and cared for, and selfishly acts on this ambition by whatever means before Susie is (once again) the mvp of deltarune by empathizing with his situation. He's also held onto his influence and position for a rather long time, only losing it all at the end of ch3, as compared to spamton who's had time to deteriorate and spiral, to put it kindly. Like Tenna's story is so very close to Spamton's (from the way they lived to the way they "died"), but Tenna's case is like if Spamton had a better run with his luck and didn't crash and burn so harshly and so rapidly.

Speaking of which, like I love how messy and complicated their falling out was because it's neither of their fault, but you could see it playing out like it did a mile away when you understand both of their self-serving natures. Like Spamton gambled with the fact that spilling the beans about his secret, to get more success out of Tenna, wouldn't get it all pulled as a result. He lost that gamble, and fled the room in a panic (probably running to try and last-minute fix what was inevitably about to happen). That's not normal, but instead of trying to understand why it happened, or comfort Spamton, Tenna took the chance while he was away to get that secret for himself by picking up the phone, to find no one there, and misinterpreted it as Spamton scamming and ditching him. i absolutely love that even if it makes me so ill thinking about it :') They're so alike, and that was their biggest shared downfall.

even after, though, Tenna maintains his (albeit dwindling) influence, like he still had employees and TV world, but Spamton had it all drop to 0 immediately, his sales, his business, his friends, and more after he lost his "help". It's such a powerful contrast. It's even made worse that Spamton was made into a shell of his former self, undergoing something that made him completely unrecognizable, like if I was him, and having made that losing gamble, I wouldn't be able to live comfortably with that guilt, so pinning it all on Tenna as to divert all that hate and vitriol and blame makes sense so he can instead focus on a plan B (becomming [[Big]] or something real, now that he knows he's not real) by any means necessary. Meanwhile, Tenna is left with the obliviousness of what Spamton truly lost and, like, got the majority of the hangups in their separation. Like dude pls pls pls get overrrr him you'll be so much happier. Overall, Tenna's character is amazing at both giving us so much context to not only Tenna, but our favorite puppet man. Deltarune Chapter 3 how i love you.

This ended up with me just waxing poetic about these two lol. Their divorce was also incredibly funny and the fact that Tenna took the [pipis] in the divorce will forever send me.