Webcomic / The Everyday Antics of the Tenno

Those crewmen were only three days away from retirement.

"Essentially, this comic intends to answer the question "What would it be like if the Tenno would talk?", after reading this comic... you'll wish it didn't."

— JoeyTwoShoes

The Everyday Antics of the Tenno (or Tenno Antics) is a comedic Warframe-themed webcomic made by JoeyTwoShoes. This comic aims to realistically portray the Tenno in their everyday lives as they undertake missions for the Lotus, and relax within their dojo.

Made in Garry's Mod, the series contains references to characters and aspects from the game proper, and features the Warframes from the game as unique characters, each with their own personalities and quirks. Notable in that the usually silent Tenno not only talk, but are also one of the comic's main sources of dialog.

Each issue captures an event in the lives of the Tenno, which range from minor disputes over who gets to keep a potato, to dealing with issues like an overly talkative Dethcube, but regardless, hilarious antics ensue.

The series has reached four comics (each referred to as issues by the comic's creator) and two spin-off shorts, they are as follows:

Main Issues

• Issue #1: Meet the Tenno. Excalibur, Vauban, Valkyr and Ember blaze through a sabotage mission and are rewarded with a single orokin reactor, and subsequently try to decide who gets to keep it.
• Issue #2: Scumcube. Vauban starts to feel distanced from his friends, and so builds a talking dethcube to keep him company, much to the dismay of his fellow space-ninjas.
• Issue #3: Kickass Dojo Party. The Tenno decide to throw a party, and resort to "borrowing" some party supplies from a Corpus ship. Features a certain legendary crewman.
• Issue #4: What Stalker?. A few of the Tenno bring some of their new gear to complete an alert at Uranus and obtain an orokin catalyst, but are set upon by the Stalker.

Shorts

• Valkyr's Very Unfortunate Valentine◊. A one-page short featuring Valkyr and her choice for Valentine's day, the Stalker.
• How Excalibur Became a Prime◊. A "100% completely and indisputably accurate" explanation of the origins of Excalibur Prime.

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Provides examples of:

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Subverted, the Dethcube in Issue #2: Scumcube might be snarky and mean-spirited, but it never actually tries to harm the Tenno like a truly evil A.I would; doesn't stop the Tenno from shooting at it like it is one though.
• Axe-Crazy: Valkyr's behavior in the comics makes it blatantly obvious that being tortured didn't do her any favors mentally, and that she really enjoys killing crewmen. Proof of her murderous tendencies include:
  • The ways in which she has killed crewmen, some of which shouldn't even be possible. If she is to be believed she has choked a crewman with his intestines, beaten a crewman with his own spine, and most egregiously, ripped off a crewman's head and beaten him to death with it.
  • In Issue #4: What Stalker?, she actually saves a crewman from falling to his death... so she can give him a slower and more painful one.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: When Rhino encounters the Stalker:
  Rhino: You're going down you sick son of a b- *His Iron Skin is dispelled* -eautiful woman who must be so proud to have raised such an upstanding young gentleman.
• Black Comedy: A considerable amount of the comic's humor comes from the treatment of Corpus crewmen, most of which apparently have unusually large families to take care of and/or are near retirement.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: At the end of Issue #1: Meet the Tenno, Loki can be seen playing Warframe.
• Brick Joke: Issue #3: Kickass Dojo Party, in which Saryn's *ahem* assets... get some attention:
  Saryn: Hey Hydroid.
  Hydroid: Well hello Saryn.
  Saryn: *Sigh* My eyes are up here.
  • And later in the same issue:
  *Saryn is spotted by the enemy*
  Crewman: IT'S A BETRAYER!!!
  Beat
  Saryn: My eyes are up here.
  Crewman: Not according to Alad V.
• Butt-Monkey: Corpus as a whole is this. Crewmen are often shown to be incompetent, unskilled, and so prone to dying that after four issues, not a single crewman has survived appearing in the comics, except for the legendary John Prodman.
• Call-Back: Valkyr's Groin Attack on the Stalker in Issue #4: What Stalker? mirrors the one she gave to Excalibur in Issue #1: Meet the Tenno in an attempt to hinder his chances at earning a orokin reactor. They both use the same sound effect, have the person on the receiving end scream "AAARGH!!!" and both recipients wear the same Warframe.
  • The first issue began with a crewman being killed by a falling grate, Issue #3: Kickass Dojo Party has four crewmen simultaneously killed in the same manner.
• Deconstructive Parody: The series as a whole makes fun of many aspects of the game itself, examples include:
  • The Tenno themselves. In the game itself they are presented as silent, disciplined, stoic warriors who fight to protect the balance. TEAOTT however portrays them as sociopathic heroes at most, who mostly ignore the purpose their missions, often incorrectly citing their job as protecting the "peace" or "galactic balance". Outside of missions they behave and act almost like regular people, who they could be mistaken for were it not for the fact they are super-powered beings wearing exo-suits.
  • The Tenno constantly rush through missions while looking forward to getting paid, share witty quips between bouts of bloodshed, and value loot more than the actual purpose of their missions. In many ways they mirror the behavior of the players of the game itself.
  • The stupidity of Corpus crewmen. The comics present them as incompetent guards who fail to notice explosions happening a few meters away from them, blindly walk into traps such as Hydroid's puddle, and who will gladly lock themselves in with the Tenno. These are all qualities that crewmen actually have in the game itself.
  • The Retirony trope is played to hell and back. Every issue featuring crewmen will usually have one loudly exclaiming about their many years of service and/or how they are glad to be retiring soon and returning to their kids, said crewmen usually have the average lifespan of a couple of panels.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Valkyr is the patron saint of this trope. To date, she has:
  • Thrown a kunai at Loki's head for hitting her with it.
  • Impaled Loki with a crossbow.
  • Impaled Loki again with a lead pipe (for hitting her with said pipe).
  • Broken six of Excalibur's ribs when he (unwittingly and while drunk) insulted her performance in a mission.
  • Beat up Rhino and thrown him out of an Air-Vent Passageway for staring at her rear.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Not any major examples, but there are a few notable ones:
  • Both the first and second issues are nine pages in length, much shorter than that of Issue #3: Kickass Dojo Party (18 pages, twice as long) and Issue #4: What Stalker? (23 pages).
  • The creator's skill at using Garry's Mod has noticeably improved since the first comic. It can be slightly jarring to read the fourth issue and then go back to the first one which had a fair amount of sideways feet in addition to other abnormalities.
• Establishing Character Moment: Quite a few for some of the Tenno:
  • The first thing Excalibur does is suggest to his teammates that they aim to complete their mission stealthily, which seems like what you would expect of a Tenno at first... until he reveals his stealthy weapon of choice, a rocket launcher. His behavior throughout the mission makes it clear he enjoys his job, and finds a particular joy in explosions.
  • Valkyr's first action in Issue #1: Meet the Tenno is to kill a crewman begging not to be hurt while exclaiming that "Hurting you sounds like fun", the fact that she is shortly after shown to be busy killing crewmen while her teammates move onto the objective cements her status as an Axe-Crazy killer who enjoys slicing up crewmen more than completing missions.
  • Vauban takes it upon himself to think of a way to decide who should get the orokin reactor in the first issue, making him out to be to quite resourceful. His creation of the Dethcube in response to needing a friend the second issue highlights this trait.
  • Ember's first line is a Pre-Mortem One-Liner delivered to crewmen moments before she incinerates them, and her later lines throughout the first comic paint her as a Dead Pan Snarker with a sassy attitude.
  • When we first see Loki, he hands his friends a single orokin reactor, claiming that the "potato farm" had a shortage, the farm itself is real, he just kept the other three "potatoes" for himself. His status as the trickster becomes readily apparent.
• Freudian Slip: In Issue #4: What Stalker?:
  *Rhino and Valkyr are crawling through a vent, while Rhino is staring at Valkyr's behind*
  Valkyr: Dammit, this is the third time we've ended up in the same place. Do you even know where we're going?
  Rhino: Oh please, do you really have to ass?... ask!.
• In-Series Nickname: Corpus crewmen are almost always referred to as "boxheads" in these comics, due to the appearance of their helmets.
  • The Tenno themselves also have a few nicknames:
    • Excalibur is often called "Cal".
    • Valkyr is sometimes simply referred to as "Val". Yes, her nickname is a shortened version of a shortened version of a word.
    • Vauban's nickname is simply "Ban".
    • Nekros is sometimes called "Nekky", which he is not a fan of.
  • Orokin reactors and catalysts are referred to as "potatoes" due to their appearance, though this was made popular by the Warframe fan-base itself.
• Retirony: This trope is played up to eleven. You'd be hard pressed to find a crewman in these comics who is a) near retirement, and b) alive by the end of the issue.
  • Play to an extreme in Issue #3: Kickass Dojo Party, where the Tenno raid a corpus ship currently holding a party for all it's soon-to-be retirees. Needless to say, none of them survive.
• Running Gag: So far, the series has had quite a few:
  • Poor Zephyr and her arrow attracting arm. To elaborate, the first issue she appears in, Issue #2: Scumcube, has her hit in the arm by a stray arrow from Loki's Attica. In Issue #3: Kickass Dojo Party, she is again shot in the arm by Loki (again, by accident). In Issue #4: What Stalker?, she is spared a third arrow from Loki, and is instead hit in the arm by one of the Stalker's arrows.
  • Issue #2: Scumcube saw Loki harmed by Valkyr on three separate occasions.
    • Firstly, when he hit her with a stray kunai (and she decided to return the favor).
    • Secondly, when the Dethcube make a joke at her expense and disappeared before she could see who the source of the joke was, leading her to blame the only other person in the room at the time, Loki (which saw him impaled with his Attica).
    • Finally, when he accidentally clothes-lined her with a lead pipe thinking she was the Dethcube, and although it's hard to notice, a later panel shows him with said pipe embedded in his shoulder in the background.
• Shout-Out: A number of them are present throughout the series:
  • The Real Housewives of Xini.
  • Upon rip-lining Excalibur:
  Valkyr: Get over here!
  • Loki can be seen playing Warframe at the end of Issue #1: Meet the Tenno.
  • The "Most popular site in the Origin system" is apparently Framebook, an obvious expy of Facebook.
  • In Issue #4: What Stalker?, Loki has a crewman cornered at the end of a cliff according to his story, the following confrontation ensues:
  Loki: You insult the Lotus, you threaten my friends with capture and dissection, I've chosen my words carefully, boxhead...
  Crewman: This is madness!
  Loki: Madness? This... is... KAPPA!!! *Kicks crewman off cliff*
• The Stinger: A few:
  • Issue #1: Meet the Tenno. There was no potato farm shortage, as Frost finds out, Loki gives him a "potato" to stay quiet.
  • Issue #2: Scumcube, on a mission a few days after exterminating the titular cube that Vauban had built:
    Frost: Kinda makes you wish you had something that just sucks up all the loot for you.
    Vauban: Heh, yeah. Wait, that gives me a idea.
  • Issue #3: Kickass Dojo Party. Not only is the incredibly skilled crewman revealed to be alive, but it turns out he's the legendary John Prodman, and he has sworn revenge on the Tenno.
• Valentine's Day Episodes: In response to an art-related Valentine's day contest on Reddit, Joey created Valkyr's Very Unfortunate Valentine◊, a one page short about Valkyr and her choice for Valentine's day, the Stalker.

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