Tankman
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“Well played, you little shit! But this is WAR! And in war... people DIE!”
― Tankman, Friday Night Funkin'
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.[2] 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 and the fourth being Darnell and Nene.
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 microphone in one hand while keeping the other clenched.
Origin
Sergeant John Captain, referred to simply as Captain or Cap, is the main protagonist of the TANKMEN series, an animated web series created by JohnnyUtah in 2006 about the 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.
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 Boyfriend and Girlfriend vulgarly and mocks Pico about the events of Pico's School straight to his face. He is also 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 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 shoots the Tankmen holding her at gunpoint. Pico, however, was actually sent to the military space by the parents to confirm Boyfriend's death and retrieve his corpse, but instead botched his job again like last time and decided to save his ex-boyfriend. When he sees Pico, Tankman mocks him to try to make him feel bad and get him to go away,[3] 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
Tankman is very rude to Pico, as he mocks him about the tragic incident in Pico's School. Pico, on the other hand, is excited to kill many of his soldiers, but he doesn't attempt to kill Tankman himself, even after the latter slanders him.
Tankmen
The Tankmen are Tankman'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.
- JohnnyUtah also redesigned both the Friday Night Funkin' logo and the current Newgrounds logo.
- Tankman is the 4th character not voiced by Kawai Sprite, with the other four being Skid and Pump, Monster, Mommy Mearest and Darnell.
- JohnnyUtah also redesigned both the Friday Night Funkin' logo and the current Newgrounds logo.
- Tankman is the first character in the game whose week includes fully animated and voice-acted cutscenes rather than dialogue boxes.
- With a total of 35 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 was accidentally revealed to be the opponent of Week 7 by PhantomArcade during a live stream.[4] 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.
- During another live stream, PhantomArcade accidentally leaked a concept image of how the art for Week 7 would look in-game.[5] In response, he later made a Retweet 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).[6]
- 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[7] and a Newgrounds submission[8] 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.[9][10][11]
- 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.[12] 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.[13] 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.
- Additionally, a Flash file named "
- 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.[14]
Lore
- Tankman, as well as the rest of the Tankmen, were confirmed to be asexual by JohnnyUtah in a Tweet.[15]
- In another Tweet, JohnnyUtah described the Tankmen as "gay icons," indicating that they are also homoromantic or otherwise gay.[16]
- 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.[3]
Gallery
View Tankman's full gallery here.
"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.
"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.
!["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.](/images/thumb/0/0c/Dont_you_have_a_school_to_shoot_up.gif/107px-Dont_you_have_a_school_to_shoot_up.gif)
"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.](/wiki/File:Dont_you_have_a_school_to_shoot_up.gif)
Left miss pose.
Down miss pose.
Up miss pose.
Right miss pose.
Gameplay featuring Tankman in Week 7 during Ugh.
Gameplay featuring Tankman in Week 7 during Guns.
Gameplay featuring Tankman in Week 7 during Stress.
Tankman as he appears in the Newgrounds logo from the Friday Night Funkin' teaser trailer.
Tankman in the old Newgrounds logo.
The Ugh LP released by Needlejuice Records.
References
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|---|---|
| Main Characters | |
| Opponents | |
| Upcoming | |
| Scrapped or Unused | |
| Background Characters | |