Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-28224025-20161226165516/@comment-11860859-20170728051139

You know, originally I didn't like Tenma. He started off kinda childish and selfish, mixing things up in a soccer world where ordinarily would usually result in a team losing their right to play. A large part of why Raimon didn't get canned by Fifth Sector was because it was Raimon.

However, Tenma grew on me pretty fast. Even his catchphrase "things will work out somehow" felt inspirational. As a midfielder, he seemed to be easier to understand for most players than the GK Endou. He basically could play all parts of the field. His wide range of roles made him a great choice for a main character.

However, as a Captain, I have other thoughts. For the final against Seidouzan & Dragonlink, I completely agree with Shindou's choice to make him the new Captain. He was practically the embodiment of the Revolution. However, after that match, for most of Chrono Stone, it's debatable for me. While in the beginning, other than Fei, he was the one with the most knowledge of the situation, so I guess it was okay, but as a player, he's not really a Captain. I feel a Captain should be able to lead either emotionally or through their plays. For example, Shindou was basically the center of his team. Another player like this, though not a Captain, was Ichinose, who argueably was Unicorn's main player.

While Tenma relates to Endou as a more emotional Captain, Endou always instilled more confidence. Due to this, he could help rise his team's spirits much easier. His soccer idiot attitude made it more acceptable for him to get fired up against strong opponents and get others fired up as well. For Chrono Stone, I didn't feel the same for Tenma. While his doubts about being Captain made for better character development, the reasoning never completely sold me.

Moving onto Galaxy, Tenma finally developed into a Captain, but his choice was kinda only made because Shindou and Tsurugi wouldn't have the patience to deal with the amateurs they were given. Over the course of Galaxy though, I felt from Tenma the same confidence I felt from Endou, so that was good. However, after that epic moment from episode 42 of Galaxy, I feel that in a normal case, he's more of an amazing player, but isn't Captain. Basically, what I'm saying is that if Tenma went pro, he wouldn't be Captain of his team. His transformation to Captain in the series felt more like the situation needed someone like him, and that's not the case in normal tournaments and the like.

My only gripe with Tenma that lasted the whole series is this (please excuse my language): the boy is a &%$#ing SAINT. He can do no wrong. Endou had moments where his anger could blind him or depression made him unable to even play. Tenma, somehow, is uncapable of anger, and any hint of sorrow gets fazed away pretty quick. Galaxy only made this worse. Tenma's Azul was basically a shining paragon of godlike kindness amoungst everyone else. It made his speech to Matatagi of people's good and bad together being what makes them human almost meaningless to me. Also, let's not forget how against Ixal Fleet his shining aura that made him immune to Ozrock's hate while everyone else got paralyzed from it. Part of this is his inability to get injured. During the Ixal Fleet match I thought when he passed out it would actually have some effect on the team, but nope. Out for a second. Oh well.

I don't want to end on a sour note, because despite my complaining earlier, Tenma still makes his way onto some of my favorite characters. I know I don't need to reiterate anything any of you have said considering his character development, because he actually gets some. His personality, while annoying at times, is enjoyable more often than not. He's not only a sack of emotion either, being probably one of the best players in the series, being all rounded in several possible poisitions.The only reason I ranted earlier is that I had serious opinions on certain aspects of his character. Sorry for this extremely long comment on this, just that it was a character discussion on Tenma and I felt that I could contribute here. Remember all this is my opinion, so if you disagree, don't try to rip me a new one, and try to be more civil. I love Tenma, flaws and all, definitely a great main character for  GO as a whole.