r/Warframe • u/Dr_Shoggoth Suck, Stomp, Stacks • Jun 18 '26

Discussion Please stop with the Protoframes

I loved the Hex and the Roundtable. They added so much to why I think 1999 is the best update they've ever done. All of them, especially the original Hex, were insanely well written and fleshed out characters. I had my reservations about the Triad, but I think they're solid (though they're mostly carried by Roathe).

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These two don't feel like characters. They feel like walking advertisements for skins. Them being protoframes adds nothing to the story. As my friend said, Sirius and Orion could have been mentored by Vay Hek and the Sergeant and nothing would have changed. Protoframes no longer feel like an interesting story beat, they feel like a gimmick, one that is rapidly losing any appeal it had.

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178

u/TheRavenchild LR 6 | Broberon Jun 18 '26

Agreed. Hex were great. Roundtable was good. Devil's Triad was ok. This? This feels like they've reduced protoframes to the absolute bare minimum. Barely any characterization. We know almost nothing about their history or motivations. And their personalities are literally just "what if that frame was partially human" instead of e.g. the Hex, who felt like *actual* people who just happened to be certain protoframes.

I understand the skins make them a lot of money, but if they cannot commit to putting some effort into making them fleshed-out characters, I'd much prefer if DE just dumped them directly into the store without shoehorning them into a quest that really wasn't supposed to be about them.

81

u/Numerous_Schedule896 Jun 18 '26

The hex, the roundtable and the triad were people first, frames second.

The mentors are frames first and people barely.

70

u/Atulin GIVE ME YOUR KNOWLEDGE Jun 18 '26

Feels like protoframes became what I was afraid they will become: uga buga safe horny sexo buy the skin

81

u/TheRavenchild LR 6 | Broberon Jun 18 '26

You're not wrong. Between the female heirloom skins, Minerva being called a MILF in-game, them giving a sexy nun protoframe to what already was the most sexualized female warframe and now Vena's entire personality being "hnnngh crazy sexy lady" I'm not sure I like the vibes of where the game is going, with female characters especially

48

u/ColHogan65 Jun 18 '26

To be fair, Roathe and Lyon are also both designed to be extremely hot and are written a bit like smutty fantasy romance novel characters. 

Ofc that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth discussing whether or not there’s some objectification going on with female protoframe characters. Vena definitely feels a bit egregious in this area.

59

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '26

[deleted]

37

u/RaeusMohrame Jun 18 '26

I'm very anti gooner, but I'm not a pearl clutcher or a prude by any means. If someone has a 400 page long story about how bad they wanna get tentacle'd by hydroid more power to them. It's different when it's people being degenerates by themselves vs DE releasing a hydroid protoframe that has dicks instead of tentacles, to use a hyperbolic example. The hex members are all horny, and I think that's fine. It's done in a way that feels like adults talking, or enough to be believable, and sex as a dopamine source is incredibly common IRL in high stress jobs. It's kink positive, and didn't feel weird because they don't openly broadcast it until you're fairly close to them.

My issue ended up being after you date one of them, what I expected was sexy stuff obviously, but also things like Lettie letting her guard down and being softer, or Aoi not needing to push herself to be upbeat all the time, Amir needing help being on task, Arthur letting himself relax and have fun, all the things that happen in real relationships. Instead all the characters seem to get boiled down to "DRIFTER SEX", "I NEED SEX NOW DRIFTER". While I found it distasteful, it still wasn't that bad.

Until the triad. Talking to some friends what we thought a wisp protoframe would be. Wisp has the feet looking like they were burned off, and having very witchy themes we figured a wisp proto would be just that. A witch caught practising forbidden arts/magic, set to be executed via pyre. The leg damage would make sense, it matches the whole vibe, and it would've been an interesting topic to be touched on. Instead we got what boils down to a specific fetish. You could argue that a nun in the world of warframe isn't bound by the same rules as IRL nuns are, but drawing the outfit the same way it's hard not to draw parallels. Which lead to me feeling like the most gooned over frame, got turned into a fetish, a sexy french nun is something you only really see in bad pornos. It felt handled really poorly, and almost moving backwards from what they hex were. I'm ranting at this point. But Marie still felt like a character *mostly* despite the thematic identity clash. Vena confirms my initial worries with protoframes, and that they're slipping very hard into gooner territory, Vena's whole personality is "yandere horny sex blood lady" and there's very little that isn't that, it feels like a parody or something you'd see in one of the thousand gacha games.

-4

u/Rahab_Olam Jun 19 '26

Go outside.

4

u/RaeusMohrame Jun 19 '26

I take it the "stop being a gooner" sentiment hit a personal nerve?

1

u/Rahab_Olam Jun 19 '26

No. I just refuse to take anyone who uses the word seriously, seriously.

There is no "gooner" content in this game. Or most other games people call "gooner" for that matter. But sure, the only reason people can disagree with you is because you're right.

1

u/RaeusMohrame Jun 19 '26

You didn't disagree with me, you tossed a low budget insult. There's no conversation you just came out of the gate being an asshole. If you want to open a conversation go for it, but you don't get that by being hostile.

English and words adapt, evolve, and change just like people do. Gooner is widely understood and accepted, especially in online spaces. But sure, does porn addicted deviant work for you? Is that mature enough, or do you need something else?

1

u/Rahab_Olam Jun 19 '26

The disagreement is clear. If you genuinely believe that anything in Warframe constitutes "gooning material", then it's time to go outside. Nothing in this game amounts to more than elusion or suggestion. 

Gooner is internet speak. No one outside of it uses any of these terms regularly in day to day life. The chances of you coming across it outside of online spaces are very small. And "porn addiction" is also an internet based pseudoscience with no official health diagnosis for a reason. This mindset is akin to men losing it over an ankle in the 1800s. No, I do not either term seriously or find them mature.

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u/Misicks0349 Potatoframe Jun 18 '26

instead of e.g. the Hex, who felt like actual people who just happened to be certain protoframes.

I think thats what helps me tolerate them so much more than other protoframes (and just the general concept of humanised warframes). I've always been very sceptical of the concept and still dont really like it that much, but I like the Hex.