Opinions: Do you hate Tei or love him?

[Bwandls]

So, there seems to be a huge divide amongst me and my friends. Either people hate Tei (most seem to), or they love him regardless of his psychotic, tea-drugging, yandare-obssessed tendencies.

Out of curiosity, what's the general opinion here? Do we have any Tei lovers or haters in the audience?

[DizzyAsparagus]

Originally posted by Firespirit22:

As someone who generally dislikes Yanderes (including the ones in other otome games like Dandelion, Amnesia, even the very mild one in Sweet Fuse), I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Tei's route. Probably the most engrossing route of them all.

He's obviously terrible boyfriend material, but as a fictional character, he's fascinating. The writers seem well aware of this. His actions are portrayed as genuinely terrible, and parts on his route take on a tone of psychological horror. Compared to some other games, which brush off the abuse or even go "Look how romantic this possessive guy is!" D:

And Tei, for all his flaws, at least 1) has a powerful backstory that makes you understand why he turned out the way he did, instead of really flimsy/don't-make-sense excuses 2) is aware of his own insanity and does his best to control it, up to and including sacrificing his own happiness (when the crazy side doesn't take over).

Hmm, maybe I don't dislike Yandere's after all. They're just hard to write, and it's rare to come across well-written ones like in Nameless.

I completely agree here. I've played Amnesia and every second of Toma's route was absolutely horrible for me. At the beginning, I thought I'd like him the most, but he terrified me.
For Tei, however, it was a completely different story. As I played the games other routes, I keot getting more and more curious what his route would be like, especially with a few of the other bad endings. Tei's route was extremely realistic. Now, you way think I'm weird for saying that, but it's true. So many people out there are loved for their super happy, kind outside personalities, but on the inside struggle with every moment of every day. Yes, Tei was extreme, and his bad endings especially the ending where he tears up the diary and forces her to work at Banjul with him for eternity, and the other where he creates an identical scar on her knee as on his were pretty awful, but the way he cares for Eri is awe-inspiring. Lke Firespirit was saying, Tei seemed like he was always trying to do his best for his owner, and did just that when he wasn't crazy-Tei.
All in all, Tei's story is one I won't forget because of how real his character could be, on different levels of course. People show love in different ways, and when Tei loved Eri, it was one of the most romantic things I've ever seen/read. Tei is the best. I guess I can relate to Tei on some levels because of his split personality, and I find it really respectable. Not everyone wants to let down their walls for just anybody, and Tei took awhile to even tell Eri about it. Anyways, I think Cheritz did an amazing job with creating a yandere (which I typically hate) that is believeable and lovable. I just want to hug him irl honestly haha.

(Side note: I think Yeonho route was more scary than Tei's as well, tbh.)

[Mello]

Originally posted by house-special curry:

Oh man, I think you might be the first person I've seen say they was more terrfied of Yeonho than Tei. xD

Re: drugging, I interpreted it as Tei both a) helping Eri sleep, and b) keeping her from wandering around at night where he can't watch out for her when he's sleeping. At any rate, the drugging was prompted from the moment she began to show signs of confusion and forgetfulness in his route. It's when he began to worry about her own judgement and capability in taking care of herself. For example, he doesn't drug her in any other routes, not even in Red's route(with I THINK the exception of a bad end), despite the same symptoms since Red's the hero type and there to look after her.

So uh, yeah. The drugging is not so much to control HER like it often is for these yandere types but to control the SITUATION. If she's drugged at night she'll be asleep until morning.

The reason why I'm more scared of Yeonho is because he is actually determined to kill you and almost succeeded until Tei interrupted. LOL I wonder if that's fair enough. XD ahaha At least with Tei there's a chance of getting away.... =3=;

Note : Wait.. does Tei kill you in another route (bad ending)? I didn't do the bad endings so I'm not totally sure what happens. I read somewhere on the discussion forum that he kills you in Yuri's bad ending route... If that's true then I take back what I said about Yeonho, hahaha. XD;;

It's been a while since I last posted that comment and I can't remember why I felt there was no significant purpose to the tea drugging. I do remember that he was concerned about her memory loss and when she kept going out etc. I can't remember the timeline but if he did only start when she started forgetting things, I guess to me she keeps passing out anyway and kept sleeping so I thought it was a bit strange. Though I guess it would make it 100% and have some sort of schedule if she does drink it rather than give her a chance of wandering around again...

[house-special curry]

Originally posted by Nurie:

Note : Wait.. does Tei kill you in another route (bad ending)? I didn't do the bad endings so I'm not totally sure what happens. I read somewhere on the discussion forum that he kills you in Yuri's bad ending route... If that's true then I take back what I said about Yeonho, hahaha. XD;;

Oh, you haven't played the bad endings?! But they're so good! Really make you think. In my opinion, they expand on Tei's character, what drives him to do both good and bad things, and how he struggles with it. You get a little of that in his main route but not the extremes. With a character like Tei, I believe the extremes are important. And in Red's route, Tei's Bad End is actually relevant to the overarching plot.

Nah, murdering the protagonist is the last thing on his mind. He's not the "if I can't have you no one can", sort. Goes against his character - putting Eri on a pedestal and keeping her safe. There's, uh, a line where he comes real close to that but it comes from this weird/strange doll logic where "death" isn't death if it's just a different kind of existence.

Honestly, that ominous Tei End in Yuri's route is just that - ominous. It's only meant to hint at Tei's true nature. You can assume he's going to wreck her only if you don't know anything about him. Same with that one Yeonho Bad End, where I've read assumptions he rapes MC. 'Dirty' and 'ruined' does not mean the same thing to Tei as it would most dudes.

[Huwusa]

Well I don't think Tei is that bad overall - I mean this in a romantic way, since he's a very good character to me. I think this is because I got to know other characters who were "worse" and more terrifying than him. A good example is to be found in "Amnesia: Memories". Compared to that, in my opinion Tei is a sweet cutiepie.

[Deathcharge218]

I loved all the routes in Nameless! I didn't got to choose with ones were the best. I think all of there routes had a special feeling to the player.

Tei was a route I could understand very well. If you play his route you'll understand... Being but in a box all the time and someone finally takes you out for one second just to let you fall and hurt your knee, is not so funny and specially when your owner doesn't want you anymore. That was a little too harsh. So I can understand where he was coming from! He didn't felt loved at all, so he just maybe thought all owners were like that, untill he was brought by Eri. But he didn't knew how to express it, so you get a kinda crazy guy who would to anything to make the mc happy, just by destroying what was left of him instead. It was kinda a weird and sad route for me.

So this is what I thought about him and his route. You can't really hate yandere people though. I kinda feel mixed about them. But to put the word hate in there, no, I just don't like to use that word unless I am really hating someone that had hurt me really bad. Hate is kinda a big word people use to easy in mine oppinion.

[May]

I really like Tei. He shows his affections not only in his own route but in the routes of others. You can't help but to love him back. Though, Lance happened to be my favorite, Tei holds a special place in my heart. Sometimes I felt even sorry that I wasn't able to be with him when I was on another character's route. I think I also liked Tei because he had that yandere feel about him. I'm a huge fan of yanderes, and he's a more subtle one from the others I've seen. I like the balance of calm and hidden insanity he has, though I'm not sure if I would call it insanity. Overall, it just seemed like he cared about you. The one thing that really unsettles me is the ZZZ tea. I don't remember what the purpose was to that, as it has been a while since I've seen or played his route. But to me, it seemed unnecessary to include that into the storyline.

[house-special curry]

Originally posted by Marinoh101:

I don't remember what the purpose was to that, as it has been a while since I've seen or played his route. But to me, it seemed unnecessary to include that into the storyline.

Discussed my interpretstions re: ZZZ earlier in the thread, quoted below. :3

Originally posted by house-special curry:

Originally posted by Nurie:

I think the tea drugging wasn`t so bad as it actually wasn`t used to keep her locked up somewhere (*coughAmnesiacough*). In fact, I am actually not too sure what significant purpose Tei was drugging her for... lol. She seemed to have gotten a lot of sleep out of it instead. I mean yes, I understand he feels it is his own way of protecting her but I don`t think it was anywhere near as severe as what happened in Yeonho`s bad ending.

...
Re: drugging, I interpreted it as Tei both a) helping Eri sleep, and b) keeping her from wandering around at night where he can't watch out for her when he's sleeping. At any rate, the drugging was prompted from the moment she began to show signs of confusion and forgetfulness in his route. It's when he began to worry about her own judgement and capability in taking care of herself. For example, he doesn't drug her in any other routes, not even in Red's route(with I THINK the exception of a bad end), despite the same symptoms since Red's the hero type and there to look after her.

So uh, yeah. The drugging is not so much to control HER like it often is for these yandere types but to control the SITUATION. If she's drugged at night she'll be asleep until morning.

[AppleMomo]

Certainly did not like him... But wouldn't go as far as to say I hate him.

[daexken]

i personally can't stand tei and think he should leave my boy yeonho alone

[tschei93]

I know this is an old thread, but I hope you guys don't mind if I add to it. Just started his route yesterday afterall, so I might as well.

Also, for the record, I've already seen others play through this game before buying it, (I know that sounds werid, but it's true). I don't really mind it, though.

Personally, I really like Tei because he is a well-written character, (easily the best written one in the game, imo). As a writer myself, I can really respect that. Not to mention that there are also some things in his character that I can relate to myself. Plus, he reminds me of an older looking version of Damien from Seduce Me! XD Of course, unlike Damien, Tei isn't exactly very innocent.

And, then you have him as a love interest, and well...I can't exactly say I like him in that area. :P

TL;DR? I like Tei as a well-written character and can kind of relate to him, but as far as being a love interest goes, I just find him pretty terrible.

[Tsene]

I don't self-insert in VNs so Tei was one of my absolutely favorite characters in this novel.

[LilBiChaotic]

Aw man, I hate him lol. Can't stand him -_- I'll take a tsundere character over a yandere ANY day.

[LilBiChaotic]

Originally posted by aRoseWithAllHerThorns:

I was fine with Yeonho, but I can't bring myself to trust Tei. At all. Which is a huge deterrent to any potential romance blossoming. I wish him to be far, far away from me.

Oooooh man, me too. I can't stand to play the bad endings, so I watch play-throughs of them (I love GirlGotGame!) and Yeonho's bad ending #2 actually scared the living ♥♥♥♥ out of me. Like...chilling, goosebumps, I was horrified kind of scared. He is fascinating, but god, get him away lol. Frankly, after watching two of Yeonho's bad endings, I don't like him at all either. I just want Yuri to hug me and protect me forever lol.

[ArseneJoker]

Tei is hard for me to like him BUT I love how caring he is to our main character. YET, he is so creepy about and he enjoys pain when our MC got hurted. soooooooo I'm like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, TEI why your stupid owner HAS TO brainwashed you, you would been a perfect husband who loves to cooked. So I am hate and love Tei at the same time, lmao without him, Idk how our MC is gonna live with handling the other dolls. LOL.

[KitTay1423]

Originally posted by Chaos Kid Jules:

Originally posted by aRoseWithAllHerThorns:

I was fine with Yeonho, but I can't bring myself to trust Tei. At all. Which is a huge deterrent to any potential romance blossoming. I wish him to be far, far away from me.

Oooooh man, me too. I can't stand to play the bad endings, so I watch play-throughs of them (I love GirlGotGame!) and Yeonho's bad ending #2 actually scared the living ♥♥♥♥ out of me. Like...chilling, goosebumps, I was horrified kind of scared. He is fascinating, but god, get him away lol. Frankly, after watching two of Yeonho's bad endings, I don't like him at all either. I just want Yuri to hug me and protect me forever lol.

I am with you guys 1000%!! I was kinda neutral to Tei when I first started playing Nameless, and though he seemed fine and friendly and helpful and gentle on the outside, I always sensed a sort of creepy darkness to him on the inside, even during Lance's route (my first route). But as the series progressed and the more I got into the game and into the other boys' routes, my neutrality towards Tei turned more and more into a creepy dislike, especially after I started on the bad endings runthrough, and especially especially after Yeonho's Bad Ending #2!! I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate his character, but he's definitely the least favorite of the 5 boys...

I'm with you, too, Chaos Kid, regarding Yuri, haha xDD. I thought for sure that I would hate Yuri's character when I first started, but he and Lance are actually my favorites, lol, and I kept wishing for the two of them to be there to save Eri from Tei's psychotic trips... Other than Red and his character concept of justice warrior and "saving the heroine", I think Yuri has the best chance of stopping crazy-mode Tei from hurting Eri (given that he's canonically considered the strongest physically-wise of the 5 dolls, plus he's more of an authority/adult figure than the others, so he has more options available to him as far as how to best protect Eri from Tei, PLUS he seems to know something more and deeper about Tei that no-one else seems to know to the point that he's warned Eri multiple times to stay away from Tei out of concern for her safety??). Have Yuri and cool-and-calm logic-based Lance work together to keep an eye on Eri? She'd be the most protected girl in school, lol.

Which brings me to another point. Tei is seen in some way or another in the bad endings having a hand in the "offing" of the boys. In Lance's bad ending #1, he was the last person to be with Lance the night before they all found him turned back into a doll, and it's always been a headcanon of mine that he somehow was responsible for "de-souling" Lance after he sent Eri back to her room. In Yeonho's bad ending #2, that ♥♥♥♥ was creepy as hell and I don't wish to revisit it again for as long as I live... And in Yuri's bad ending #1, Yuri moved out and Tei seemed super glad for the fact that there's one less person physically there around Eri, and he even went so far as to discourage the others to go visit Yuri!! >:( It just seemed like he was trying to pick the boys off one by one so that in the end, he's the only one left for Eri, that's how obsessed with her the crazy part of him is.

I don't know... everybody and their grandmas seem to absolutely love Tei, but I just found him super creepy and blah as a character, and I honestly and genuinely don't see at ALL what's so great about him, to the point of him taking the top spot out of all 5 boys with the majority of the fandom/fan base?? I played through his route, and I don't remember a damn thing about it other than the ferris wheel scene, it was that unmemorable for me.

This is just my honest opinions regarding Tei, and it looks as though I'm in a VERY SMALL minority within the fanbase, lol... If you love Tei and think he's super interesting and just the best character ever, good for you, and more power to ya! But he's just not my cup of tea, at ALL.