Hello! Absolutely enjoying The Long Game and it even inspired me to do my own Spamtenna takes! <3
Question for you: you are SUPER good at writing Tenna's powers as this crazy Looney Toons GOD, any tips or tricks on how you handle that?
I’m so happy to hear that!! 💖💖💖 It never fails to blow my mind that folks have been inspired by my work! Spill the beans! What’s your take on spamtenna?
As for the question, THANK YOU! That TV man is truly a Looney Tunes character through and through, and you can just go wild with his powers! Though, hm…honestly I suppose I take a lot of inspo from other similar characters! Tenna’s cartoonish reality warping comic relief is my FAVORITE type of character! Mix it with a showman’s persona (and a dash of insecurity), and it’s a done deal! I’m hooked 100%!
For Tenna, I leaned heavily on Looney Tunes, but also Roger Rabbit, the Genie from Aladdin, and SpongeBob! Those were the biggest ones, but some honorable mentions include: the Animaniacs, Deadpool, and Bill Cipher (oddly enough) lol. Also, Freakazoid, but I’ll admit that I never watched the show. I’ve only seen YT clips.
These characters thrive on the “Rule of Funny” and tend to treat their abilities as totally normal, much to the stress of whoever plays the Straight Man.
I recommend watching those cartoons and studying how they’re portrayed!
Going off that, I regularly look back at Tenna’s scenes in-game to see what he does and says canonically, take bits and pieces of those previous characters, and run everything through a Tenna filter.
I often make up the jokes or think up scenarios first and then figure out when and how Tenna would execute it. Tenna’s big, loud, and a performer! Be showy about it! Be weird about it! Have fun and make yourself laugh!
Though I will say that what I always like to keep in mind when writing for Tenna (and to a lesser degree, Spamton) is to ground his wackiness in some way. This is more of a personal preference, but I like it when all/most actions have a point/serve a purpose. I like to ground my silly characters that way, in hopes that they don’t come off as random or annoying.
For example, (like in-game) when Tenna suddenly puts on the pathetic act in Cyber City, it was to trick Spamton into giving him a tour. Or, like in chapter eight, Tenna’s shenanigans were used to purposely piss Spamton off to get him to cut the act. Even when Tenna is honestly just being silly, it still acts as a narrative push, if that makes sense?
Like, when Tenna brings out “The Council,” it’s to speed up the scene. Otherwise, in order for Tenna to catch what the A.D.D.I.S.O.N leads were doing, he would have had to spend a handful of minutes reading through that long contract. The addition of “The Council” gave me a reason to speed through the reading, make it funnier and more entertaining to read, and make a nod to some of Tenna’s games in Deltarune!
It often needs to serve a purpose, no matter how big or small! It’s best used when it still pushes the plot forward. Though random goofiness for the sake of humor and good fun can be used, too! Like, the moment with Tenna making a smiley face in condensation or Tenna getting distracted by Spamton’s ass, lol
Although I would recommend doing that sparingly. That way, the plot (hopefully) never feels like it’s dragging just to allow the comedy to have center stage.
A bit of a ramble, but I hope that was helpful!
