Tankman

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For the week, see Tankman (Week). For the background characters, see Tankmen.

“Well played, you little shit! But this is WAR! And in war... people DIE!”
― Tankman, Stress

Sergeant John Captain, known simply as Captain or more commonly as Tankman, is the opponent of Week 7. His tracks include Ugh, Guns and Stress. He's been confirmed to also be selectable as a playable character in Freeplay in the future.[3] He is a military sergeant working in restricted military space who leads the Tankmen. When Boyfriend and Girlfriend end up on the battlefield, he decides out of boredom to rap battle against Boyfriend.

He is the third guest character introduced to Friday Night Funkin', the first being Skid and Pump, the second being Pico, the fourth being Darnell and Nene, and the fifth being Otis.

Appearance

Tankman is a soldier with a monochromatic color scheme; his helmet, uniform, gloves, pants and boots are black, while his skin, goggles and vest are white. On both of his arms are white corporal insignias, which distinguish him from the rest of the Tankmen soldiers. He holds a bluish-gray microphone in one hand while keeping the other clenched.

Origin

Tankman from his original series, TANKMEN.

Sergeant John Captain, referred to simply as Captain or Cap, is the main protagonist of the TANKMEN series, an animated web series started on the 30th of June, 2006,[4] by JohnnyUtah. The series is about the many misadventures of Captain with his best friend Steve on the battlefield. Captain comes from a post-apocalyptic desert-like hellscape where only militias of Tankmen and other enemy factions survive.

Tankman as seen on the Newgrounds logo.

Captain is the driver of the tank seen on the iconic Newgrounds logo. The site's logo was originally designed by Andrew J. Brozyna in 2000. However, the driver of the tank had yet to be established as a character until 2006, when JohnnyUtah redesigned the logo and created the TANKMEN series. While the name "Tankman" is used broadly to refer to any of the Tankmen soldiers from the series, Captain being the driver of the tank in the logo makes him the original Tankman.

Personality

Tankman is a rude and cruel individual, as he constantly insults anyone he encounters vulgarly with no sign of remorse, including his own comrades. He can also be short-tempered at times. He has been shown to have a vulgar sense of humor as well, often cracking up phallic puns at any occasion.

He is shown to be murderous, which is mostly due to his status as a soldier, as he usually kills or orders his soldiers to kill anyone who trespasses in his war zone, regardless of whether it was intentional or not. He also appears to enjoy doing things simply out of amusement, given that he did not attempt to kill Boyfriend or Girlfriend immediately, since their arrival gave him the opportunity to alleviate his boredom.

History

Tankman meets Boyfriend and Girlfriend, who have both landed in Tankman’s war zone after falling from a plane, as an attempt of the parents to kill Boyfriend once again. With two Tankmen holding Girlfriend at gunpoint, he tells Boyfriend that he would normally just have them both killed for trespassing, but as his day has been boring, he decides to challenge him to a sing-off. After their first battle, Tankman mockingly praises Boyfriend for his performance against him while also making fun of him for overvaluing an "ugly, boring little teenager that wears her mom's clothes."

After their second battle, Tankman becomes annoyed due to his constant defeats and signals the two Tankmen to shoot Girlfriend before telling Boyfriend that there would be no prom for him this year with Girlfriend gone. As the two Tankmen are about to pull the trigger, Girlfriend is about to unleash her demon powers as her eye glows red and her skin turns slightly purple, until she is interrupted by Pico, who pushes her off the speakers and shoots the Tankmen holding her at gunpoint. Originally, Pico was re-hired by the parents along with Darnell and Nene to confirm that Boyfriend died after landing in the military space. When the trio saw that Boyfriend was still alive, Darnell and Nene were ready to take the opportunity and kill him themselves, but Pico instead botched their job again, like last time, and decided to stop them and save his ex-boyfriend. When he sees Pico, Tankman mocks him to try to make him feel bad and get him to go away,[5] calling him "[Boyfriend's] sexually ambiguous, angry little friend" (referencing Pico's relationship history) and asking him whether he has a school to shoot up (referencing the events of Pico's School). After insulting the couple, he challenges Boyfriend to one last sing-off while Pico slays several dozen of his soldiers.

Relationships

Boyfriend

Tankman is very rude to Boyfriend and only decided not to kill him on sight because he had a boring day. Though he compliments his performance the first time, he is just as quick to insult Boyfriend about his girlfriend. Tankman does not take losing to Boyfriend twice lightly, as he ultimately decides to order his men to kill the couple in retaliation. After the soldiers are stopped by Pico, Tankman decides to settle the situation by challenging Boyfriend to one final rap battle. Despite his vulgar attitude, he was impressed enough by Boyfriend to share another compliment halfway through Stress, saying "Heh. Pretty good!"

Girlfriend

When Girlfriend and Boyfriend end up in the restricted military zone, Tankman's soldiers hold Girlfriend at gunpoint. However, Tankman and his men are bored, so they do not immediately kill her. Tankman is very rude to Girlfriend, insulting her on her appearance and being vulgar toward her and Boyfriend. When he orders his men to kill the couple after he loses twice, Girlfriend happily reveals her demon powers, showing her preparedness to fight back if necessary and that she isn't afraid of the Tankmen.

Pico

Although Tankman's relationship with Pico is not too explored in the main story, it is clear that the two do not get along. This was shown by the fact that Tankman mocks Pico regarding the events of Pico's School, while the latter is actually unbothered and happily murders his soldiers, something Tankman is not happy with.[6] Additionally, their beef is shown when playing Ugh as Pico,[7] as he constantly mocks Tankman by interrupting his verses, frustrating him in the process.

Tankman ridicules Pico about various things: his hair, his clothes, his supposed taste in women and even his loose continuity of the original series. Pico appears to enjoy seeing Tankman hurt, laughing at him after Tankman expresses his pain from getting stabbed at the end of Stress when playing as Pico. The relationship remains one of mutual disliking.

Nene

Tankman is disliking and dismissive of Nene in a similar fashion as Pico. In the what-if scenario of Stress (Pico Mix) he attempts to get his men to gun down Nene first and refers to her as a crazy psychopath. Nene doesn't like Tankman either; she gets sick of his mocking comments and attempts to kill him with a knife aimed at his helmet. She happily laughs at his wounded state leading to Tankman calling both her and Pico assholes.

Tankmen

The Tankmen are Captain's soldiers who follow his orders. He doesn't seem to care much about them dying, as he lets Pico slay many of them without stepping in directly, instead settling the situation by rapping with Boyfriend.

Trivia

General

  • Tankman's voice is reprised by JohnnyUtah, the creator of the TANKMEN series and Tankman's current design.
  • Tankman is the third character to have a level named after him, the first being Daddy Dearest and the second being Pico.
  • With a total of 54 quotes, Tankman has the second largest speaking role out of any character in Friday Night Funkin' after Monster.
  • Tankman is one of the few characters in Friday Night Funkin' to have a known surname, the other four being Daddy Dearest, Mommy Mearest, Ritz The Rat and Hank J. Wimbleton.
  • Tankman is the first character in the game to change health icons in the middle of a song, as seen in Stress (Pico Mix) when Nene throws a knife into his cranium.
  • During a live stream, PhantomArcade accidentally leaked a concept image of how the art for Week 7 would look in-game.[8] Some time later, he responded in a Retweet on the 15th of March, 2021, confirming that Tankman would be the week's opponent (though the Tweet he Retweeted had a fake gameplay screenshot attached depicting a fanmade recreation of the level).[9]
    • Some days before the response, PhantomArcade accidentally affirmed that Tankman is the opponent of Week 7 during one of ninjamuffin99's live streams.[10] Prior to the live stream, Ritz was previously believed to be the opponent of Week 7, as a result of ninjamuffin99 posting a GIF of Ritz holding cheese on Twitter.
  • Tankman appears in the profile picture of the official Newgrounds YouTube channel and Twitter account. He also appears in the default profile picture for registered Newgrounds users.
  • Tankman has several voice clips that went unused and were later compiled as outtakes, as shown in a Tweet[11] and a Newgrounds submission[12] made by PhantomArcade.
  • If Tankman manages to defeat Boyfriend (and subsequently the player), he will make a comment mocking his performance. He's currently the only character to have unique game-over lines.
    • One of his quotes is "I guess your shitty blue hair dye got in your eyes. It's okay, it happens to all of us." This line pokes fun at the nature of Boyfriend's hair. However, Boyfriend's hair has been confirmed multiple times to be naturally cyan and not dyed, and Tankman only claims otherwise to be condescending and cruel.[13][14][15]
    • Some of his quotes depict him breaking the fourth wall, such as one where he tells the player that they should go play Week 1 again.
  • Tankman's first track, Ugh, is based on JohnnyUtah's involuntary groans, often considered his catchphrase and meme. The "ugh" noise in the song was sampled from his 3rd attempt out of 4 to say it in-game.[16] Although not originally intended to be in a song, Kawai Sprite was inspired by the sound clip to turn it into one of Tankman's tracks.
  • On the 3rd of May, 2022, PhantomArcade released the Flash files for Week 7 via a Tweet with links to Newgrounds dumps.[17] The files also included Tankman's miss animations, as he will become a playable character in the future. The animations aren't in the current build of the game but will be implemented in the future.
    • Additionally, a Flash file named "tankman-spooky-dance.fla" was released alongside the Week 7 assets. As the name suggests, this file contains an animation of Tankman doing the Spooky Dance, the dance Skid and Pump do in their idle animation and in the Spooky Month series. The file was most likely released with the other Flash files as a joke.
  • Unlike in his home series, Tankman's goggles contort to fit his facial expressions, such as denting at the top when he frowns.
  • Tankman's up note singing animation is based on that of a reskin mod replacing Skid and Pump with Tankman made by StaggerNight and released in November 2020.[18]
  • In the intro cutscene for WeekEnd 1, Pico is seen thinking about when he shot a Tankman in the head, killing him as the target groaned "ugh". On the 4th of May, 2024, PhantomArcade went over the storyboard for the cutscene and seemingly confirmed that Captain was dead,[19] causing a brief stir in the community. Shortly after, a fan messaged PhantomArcade about the incident and it was revealed that he had misspoke. In actuality, while many Tankmen were killed, Captain survived, and is still planned to show up in more levels, even if just briefly.

Lore

  • Screenshot of a Tweet by JohnnyUtah that reads "they're all a-sexual weirdos"
    Tankman, as well as the rest of the Tankmen, were confirmed to be asexual by JohnnyUtah in a Tweet.[20]
    • In another Tweet, JohnnyUtah described the Tankmen as "gay icons," indicating that they are also homoromantic or otherwise gay.[21]
  • Tankman is completely aware of Pico's efforts to save his school from the goth kids' attack, which is why he slanders him on purpose to make him feel bad.[5]

Gallery

View Tankman's full gallery here.

  • Tankman's static idle pose.
    Tankman's static idle pose.
  • Tankman as he appears in-game.
    Tankman as he appears in-game.
  • Tankman's singing animations.
    Tankman's singing animations.
  • Left pose.
    Left pose.
  • Down pose.
    Down pose.
  • Up pose.
    Up pose.
  • Right pose.
    Right pose.
  • "Ugh!"
    "Ugh!"
  • "Heh. Pretty good!" Used in Stress.
    "Heh. Pretty good!" Used in Stress.

  • "Argh!" Used in Ugh (Pico Mix).
    "Argh!" Used in Ugh (Pico Mix).
  • "Beat it." Used in Ugh (Pico Mix).
    "Beat it." Used in Ugh (Pico Mix).
  • Laugh animation. Used in Ugh (Pico Mix).
    Laugh animation. Used in Ugh (Pico Mix).
  • "Ugh, redheads." Used mid-Stress (Pico Mix).
    "Ugh, redheads." Used mid-Stress (Pico Mix).
  • Stabbed bloody left pose during the second half of Stress (Pico Mix).
    Stabbed bloody left pose during the second half of Stress (Pico Mix).
  • Stabbed bloody down pose during the second half of Stress (Pico Mix).
    Stabbed bloody down pose during the second half of Stress (Pico Mix).
  • Stabbed bloody up pose during the second half of Stress (Pico Mix).
    Stabbed bloody up pose during the second half of Stress (Pico Mix).
  • Stabbed bloody right pose during the second half of Stress (Pico Mix).
    Stabbed bloody right pose during the second half of Stress (Pico Mix).
  • "Heh. Pretty good!" Used at the end of Stress (Pico Mix).
    "Heh. Pretty good!" Used at the end of Stress (Pico Mix).

  • "Well, well, well! Whadda we got here?" Used in the cutscene for Ugh.
    "Well, well, well! Whadda we got here?" Used in the cutscene for Ugh.
  • "We should just KILL YOU, but what the hell, it's been a boring day. Let's see what you got!" Used in the cutscene for Ugh.
    "We should just KILL YOU, but what the hell, it's been a boring day. Let's see what you got!" Used in the cutscene for Ugh.
  • "Ha, pretty tight bars for a little dude who's simping over an... ugly, boring little teenager that wears her mom's clothes, ha! Hehehehe..." Used in the cutscene for Guns.
    "Ha, pretty tight bars for a little dude who's simping over an... ugly, boring little teenager that wears her mom's clothes, ha! Hehehehe..." Used in the cutscene for Guns.
  • "God effing dammit! Well played, you little shit! But this is WAR! And in war... people DIE! Men, get ready to fire! Sorry, no prom for you this year, ha ha ha!" Used in the cutscene for Stress.
    "God effing dammit! Well played, you little shit! But this is WAR! And in war... people DIE! Men, get ready to fire! Sorry, no prom for you this year, ha ha ha!" Used in the cutscene for Stress.
  • "Ah, look who it is! Your sexually ambiguous, angry little friend! Don't you have a school to shoot up? There's one way to settle this. Let's rock, ya little cunt! [laughs] Ya little cunts!" Used in the cutscene for Stress.
    "Ah, look who it is! Your sexually ambiguous, angry little friend! Don't you have a school to shoot up? There's one way to settle this. Let's rock, ya little cunt! [laughs] Ya little cunts!" Used in the cutscene for Stress.

  • "Back for some tasty revenge, huh? Oh, that's cute. Boys, [finger snap] light 'em up." Used in the cutscene before Stress (Pico Mix).
    "Back for some tasty revenge, huh? Oh, that's cute. Boys, [finger snap] light 'em up." Used in the cutscene before Stress (Pico Mix).
  • "[tsk] Oh, come on, who the fuck is this knockoff?" Used in the cutscene before Stress (Pico Mix).
    "[tsk] Oh, come on, who the fuck is this knockoff?" Used in the cutscene before Stress (Pico Mix).
  • Tankman flinching after Otis shoots at him. "[sigh] Alright, alright..." Used in the cutscene before Stress (Pico Mix).
    Tankman flinching after Otis shoots at him. "[sigh] Alright, alright..." Used in the cutscene before Stress (Pico Mix).

  • Tankman in the Newgrounds logo seen on the Friday Night Funkin' title screen. (still version)
    Tankman in the Newgrounds logo seen on the Friday Night Funkin' title screen. (still version)
  • Ditto, but animated and without the "Newgrounds" text.
    Ditto, but animated and without the "Newgrounds" text.

  • Left miss pose.
    Left miss pose.
  • Down miss pose.
    Down miss pose.
  • Up miss pose.
    Up miss pose.
  • Right miss pose.
    Right miss pose.

  • Gameplay featuring Tankman in Week 7 during Ugh.
    Gameplay featuring Tankman in Week 7 during Ugh.
  • Gameplay featuring Tankman in Week 7 during Guns.
    Gameplay featuring Tankman in Week 7 during Guns.
  • Gameplay featuring Tankman in Week 7 during Stress.
    Gameplay featuring Tankman in Week 7 during Stress.

References

  1. ↑ JohnnyUtah (March 12, 2021). "Somewhere around 30 give or take five years". From Twitter. Archived from the original on March 13, 2021.
  2. ↑ File:Hes still alive by the way.png
  3. ↑ PhantomArcade (December 9, 2020). "Just now realizing I never posted this here. These are the upcoming playable characters for Friday Night Funkin, this Newgrounds pack is aiming for Christmas. And a lil something something coming early this Friday.". From Twitter.
  4. ↑ JohnnyUtah (June 30, 2006). "TANKMEN". From Newgrounds. Archived from the original on June 17, 2012.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 PhantomArcade. ""a school shooting joke..? really...? sigh"". From Twitch.
  6. ↑ Lendon (September 19, 2024). "PA Stream | FNF Playable Pico Asset Review – Psychos Welcome" (2:12:45). From YouTube.
  7. ↑ Saruky (September 15, 2024). "each character has a specific gimmick with Pico, in this case Tankman and Pico have beef and that's why he's constantly messing with him by not letting finish his verses hahaha". From Twitter.
  8. ↑ Lendon (July 12, 2023). "That time Phantom Arcade leaked week 7 by accident". From Twitter.
  9. ↑ PhantomArcade (March 15, 2021). "alright listen it's REAL. IT'S FUCKING REAL OKAY, I ACCIDENTALLY LEAKED IT FUUUUUUCCCKKK AAAAAAAHHHHH". From Twitter. Archived from the original on March 15, 2021.
  10. ↑ ninjamuffin99. "fonkin stream". From Twitch.
  11. ↑ PhantomArcade (April 21, 2021). "the @JohnnyUtahNG tankmen outtakes still make me lol, sitting on like, a halfhours worth of this shit lmao". From Twitter.
  12. ↑ PhantomArcade (April 30, 2021). "Jeff Week 7 Tankman Outtakes". From Newgrounds.
  13. ↑ ninjamuffin99 (February 14, 2021). "natural". From "wake up babe new ninjamuffin99 ama" on Reddit.
  14. ↑ PhantomArcade (October 23, 2021). "alright this'll be the last answered question for now. It's natural, and I wanted to point that out since the Tankman's lines confuse some people. Tankman claims his hair is dyed to be a condescending asshole, in reality it's naturally blue.". From "PhantomArcade AMA" on Reddit.
  15. ↑ "Is Boyfriend's hair naturally blue?". From "Friday Night Funkin': The Full Ass Game" on Kickstarter.
  16. ↑ JohnnyUtah (April 14, 2021). "the origins of the diabolical song". From Twitter.
  17. ↑ PhantomArcade (May 3, 2022). "as promised on stream - WEEK 7 ASSETS [...]". From Twitter.
  18. ↑ PhantomArcade (December 1, 2020). "btw, credit where credit is due, the upward pose (non miss) is based off @StaggerNight's upward pose from their tankman mod! The outward palm for an all dark character is genius silhouette work". From Twitter.
  19. ↑ Lendon (May 7, 2024). "Weekend 1 Asset Review (Darnell Nene Pico Bf) + Doodle Requests" (4:10:15). From YouTube.
  20. ↑ JohnnyUtah (March 18, 2021). "they're all a-sexual weirdos but they'd watch gay porn since there's no other dvds left". From Twitter.
  21. ↑ JohnnyUtah (March 18, 2021). "me saying ugh - chris mocking me for it - me mocking myself - ugh the song - tankmen are gay icons - profit". From Twitter.
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