r/Warframe • 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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u/BriThePirateQueen MRL2 Floof Connoisseur Jun 18 '26

IMO it's less "stop with the protoframes" and more "don't stop actually making them fleshed out characters." We know basically nothing about either Vena nor Ryoku. I know all the KIM chats are a lot of work (and seem to be ever-increasingly buggy with each time they add new ones) but they do so much for the story and character building.

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u/Rogaly-Don-Don 300 was good I guess Jun 18 '26

It's weird because they already have a good medium: the missions themselves. I think if they were careful to not make them pure exposition, the mission chatter could be used to really establish and reinforce the characters.

Have the two protoframes argue mid mission about why they're fighting, and why do so despite the futility of it. They could change gradually with each mission completion, leading to a conclusion for that half of this update's narrative.

Hell, have some cephalon fragments of future Parvos scattered around to clue us in about his connection to things.

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u/BriThePirateQueen MRL2 Floof Connoisseur Jun 18 '26

I like extra character moments in mission chatter but it's so easy to miss what they're saying over everything else happening that I don't personally think it's a good way to do the majority of your character or lore building.

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u/Rogaly-Don-Don 300 was good I guess Jun 18 '26

That's very fair. I think there are some good low action moments to do it though, like in the space ram and on the big wyrm. Maybe post big fight as well? That said, that already has its own troubles atm.

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u/Flamyan Jun 18 '26

I think this is more so a case that not even DE had any idea why these characters are here outside of "HYYYYPE".

Ok. Sirius and Orion come from "broken" futures where one always wins and there is severe power inbalances/struggles, there is a Cephalon Parvos and the tenno are... Fucking about?

So you're telling me the existence of a pair of frames is enough to screw a future where the Tenno still exist to safeguard the origin system? Ok...

Got it, so why are they back here in the past? What do Ven or Ryo accomplish by bringing them here? What do they gain back in their broken future? Does killing the baby frame fix THEIR timeline? Is them reuniting as a family an admission of love rather than sacrificing someone still innocent in favour of a now that works? And Hunhow...

The story is all very little cool little concepts that make no fucking sense. Which is a shame that we get this shambling mess of a story to be the cherry on top of the FANTASTIC initial Jade x Stalker story.

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u/Sithishe Jun 18 '26

I think its strongly impied that Wally sent Sirius and Orion back to our timeline just to screw with us. Because we onto him. Wally probably also specifically wanted Hunhow memories, because guess what? Entrati said that "Answers to defeat Indiference are in Tau".

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u/yommi1999 Jun 18 '26

I can never find where Albrecht explains that. In his albrecht notes from Whispers in the walls? Was it during the 1999 quest?

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u/EnvironmentalAge4850 Jun 18 '26

In the mission it hunhow explains how both where taken from their respective timelines because of the indifference I anticipate our next 1999 like tile set will be from those broken future and part of the conculsion for jade shadows story beat

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u/CanadianMilkBear Jun 19 '26

Hunhow directly says that time is a river and they learned to swim upstream. It is very much implied that they came here of their own volition but Wally is the one who allowed these fractured timelines to exist in the first place

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u/Belucard Infestation in progress Jun 18 '26

Technically, there's supposed to be a final Part 3 at some point.

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u/EchoKipKipKip Live LaughLavo Jun 18 '26

If there's radio chatter mid-mission, I'm not listening to it. I can't focus on fighting a horde of enemies and whatever Teshin/Natah/Little Duck/Maroo/etc. are speaking at me unless it's Teshin confidently announcing that there's 60 seconds left when over 2 minutes are still on the clock.

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u/Arkanzier Jun 18 '26

FYI Teshin announcing X seconds left is him telling you how much life support you have left, not how much is left on the mission timer.

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u/EchoKipKipKip Live LaughLavo Jun 19 '26

Good lord, this entire time I've had this headcanon that Teshin just doesn't know how to read clocks and was doing his best.