I think that the "Tenna is manipulative" falls in the problem of a lot of tenna's analysis, in that it ends up being really superficial.
Yeah, in my opinion tenna in ch3 was manipulative and his reaction after board 2 was probably greatly exagerated after he saw it worked in cliff (I do belive he was sad just that his reaction was over exagerated to try to get them to keep playing).
But most analysis end there and just say he is manipulative asshole and complety ignore that he has a deal with kris and that he most likely die if he doesn't do his part, he literally dies the second he is honest and does the right thing.
It is literally a life or death situation, he is going to try everything not to die, even if he doesn't like it, he has scenes showing that he doesn't like it, he is not manipulative at his core, he is being forced to act like this for survival.
It's kinda fascinating how at face value people take tenna.
SUPERFICIAL IS A REALLY GOOD WORD FOR IT YEAH
that's how i interpreted it too, his board 2 reaction is very obviously exaggerated but i always thought the one at the very beginning was mostly genuine. like imagine having to put this whole scary plan into motion after probably years of disuse and neglect, deciding you want to try and entertain them and at least make a few kids smile while you're stuck doing what you're doing, only for the one who powered you on for a marathon in the first place telling you to fuck off. i definitely think he played it up a little (though moreso in a way that made him the butt of the "joke"), but for the most part he really Was that sad
and that's the thing yeah is like. the context means Everything. tenna is a hardass control freak but WHY is he that way. we see from his employees' general demeanors and reactions to him that he probably usually Isn't super strict and loud - they're pretty lax and play video games and go behind his back pretty easily and aren't that worried when/if he catches them.
they openly disobey him and then look actually shocked when he actually puts his foot down, and it's very very telling to me of what kind of manager tenna Usually is: he doesn't garner that much respect from the people that work for him, and it's probably because they're used to getting away with things they aren't supposed to. what's tenna gonna do, yell at us and then forget about it again? pshhh, whatever.
to me the most telling is comparing it to the denizens of card kingdom in ch 1, who constantly talk about how scary spade king is or how underpaid they are or how they're being forced into fighting the kids, etc etc. like if you want an Actual scary abusive boss then spade's right there
SORRY THAT'S SORT OF OFF TRACK, BUT YEAH LIKE. the context is so so important for considering how tenna might normally be and how unusual his current behavior looks to the people around him, and it's a shame that a large chunk of ppl do just take it at face value
especially when it just colors every single way they interpret him afterwards you know. like now he's not allowed to be visibly sad about something without people calling him a guilt-tripper. now he's not allowed to talk about something bad that happened in the past with a friend who was present for it without getting 1 million jokes made about "trauma-dumping". it just kind of sucks
that last one is especially funny because like. tenna actually tries So Hard to keep himself together all through chapter 3. like even when he has his huge scary nervous breakdown, he's still trying to make jokes and puns and sing songs and stuff, it's just scary and bad because he's completely lost control of the situation and himself. like the closest he gets to "trauma-dumping" is when susie directly asks him why the hell he's doing this. and that's called answering a direct question
