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Atop The Fourth Wall / Tropes A to D

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This page covers tropes found in Atop the Fourth Wall.

Tropes A To D | Tropes E to P | Tropes Q to Z | Storyline Tropes | YMMV | Running Gags | Shout Outs

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    A 
  • Aborted Arc:
    • In 2011, Linkara reviewed the first issue of Malibu's Street Fighter comic. He mentioned that he'd review the other two issues at a later date. Unlike other comics he reviews, however, the comics were not reviewed again on the show. As mentioned in his IDW My Little Pony comic review, some fans expressed disapointment in the review due to Linkara not being intimately familiar with the source material.
    • In 2012 during his review of Black Web #1, he promised he would be reviewing the infamous Spider-Man story "Changesnote " As of 2022, the story has yet to be looked at on the show.
  • Accentuate the Negative: Averted, surprisingly. While he makes it plain that he's only interested in reviewing bad comics on At4W, he's very evenhanded in his handling with them, making a point to note when comics do things right and well.
    • For example, a scene in Ultimatum involving Thor and a deceased Captain America fighting the Legions of Hel (No, This One) for Valkyrie's soul impressed Linkara enough to almost declare that Ultimatum wasn't really all that bad... only to be completely disgusted by how The Blob is found by Hank Pym in the next scene.
    • Played straight in Pokémon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu, where he opens the review saying the games are fun, then makes sure to ask about everything that's absurd on the franchise (10 year-olds being warranted the license to train monsters which can level towns; weird monsters which include rocks, ghosts, and plants being somehow genetically related; and how Pokémon evolution is more growing up than evolving). He then proceeds to pick apart the entire comic like one of his regular reviews... only to end the review proclaiming it doesn't suck at all and was a rather enjoyable read.
      • He also makes tons of snarky comments about the first few chapters of Pokémon Adventures, but outright begins the review saying it's quite good.
    • Similarly when he reviewed Spawn, he pointed out he did like the concept despite not being a regular Spawn reader, and did pointed out both positive (gorgeous arts, Spawn's good origin) and negative points (cliché situations, reference to Youngblood), only to end the review saying the comic didn't suck and was actually quite good.
    • When reviewing the 2099 franchise, he points out that the Spider-Man and Doom ones don't suck.
  • Accidental Innuendo:invoked He points out one in Sultry Teenage Super-Foxes #1:
    Narrator: July is spent gazing dreamily at the cream of American manhood.
    Linkara: Okay, don't say "cream" or "manhood" ever again, okay?
  • Accidental Misnaming:
    • He often gets other Internet celebrities' names wrong, like The Forky Experiment and Film Brian. In one video he mistakes Dr. Insano for both Bennett the Sage and That Chick With The Goggles.
    • In the Mr. T #2 (AP Comics) review's Previously on…, none of the title card artists seem to be aware of who Dr. Insano is and refer to him as various other famous fictional scientists, to his irritation. Eventually he gives up on correcting them and lets them believe he is Doktor Sleepless.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: Occasionally, he'll point out when even bad comics have a line that he finds funny.
    • His reaction to Nightcat's car being called the Cat-Illac
    • Heck, he liked her ninja-style-dancer idea enough to bring in one as a recurring character!
    • He laughs his head off at a middle-aged librarian-ish teacher telling Dr. Doom to "gaze upon my radiant beauty and despair," saying the whole comic was worth it for that (it was probably an intentional joke).
    • More a case of "Actually Pretty Good", he admits Spawn #1 is probably one of the better things to come out of early Image Comics. (And unlike most comics he reviews, he sets it down gently instead of throwing it onto the couch.)
      • Similarly, RoboCop Versus The Terminator #1 gets a stamp of "pretty good", though that's mostly because of Walt Simonson's art counteracting Frank Miller's writing for the better.
    • A couple of moments in Ultimatum #1 & #2 were actually pretty funny, but were not enough to save the comic, and in fact were inappropriate due to them happening during pretty dark moments.
    • In the Mightily Murdered Power Ringers review, he praises a couple of the jokes (like the Muggles discussing Hero Insurance) despite the fact that he really doesn't like the rest of the comic.
    • The line "If you're reading this—shame on you, a girl's diary is private!" in Silent Hill: Dead/Alive #1.
    • His reaction to the "Tanks!" "You're welcome!" joke in Red Hood and the Outlaws #1.
    • In the Youngblood #8 review, he brings out the "Because Poor Literacy is Kewl" joke for a character named Psilence, only to instead note that it's actually not a bad pun.
    • Despite overall heavily panning Nova Girls: Kissing Canvas, calling it in some ways worse than Bimbos in Time due to it actually having effort put into it, he points out there are a few genuinely funny moments, though only about one per ten pages.
    • In California Raisins 3-D #5, the inventor has a line of (labeled) electrical sockets where one is just a smiley face. "And that makes me happy."
    • The one joke in Youngblood Extreme Christmas Special that he found funny was the eight lords a leapin' being too fat to fit in Troll's plane.
    • Although he thinks issue three of Superman: Year One is the worst of the three, he admits the Bait-and-Switch of Superman kissing Wonder Woman on the forehead in an innocent manner instead of her lips as she insisted a legit funny moment.
  • Added Alliterative Appeal:
    "Circe the sorceress sells circular seashells by the seashore for sixty cents."
    • In the Countdown review.
    "So, where were we? Ah, yes the chimera of crappy comics that is Countdown... I love alliteration."
    "Over to the cluster-crap of clone combat... I love alliteration."
  • The Alcoholic: Linkara's impression of Ultimate Tony Stark/Iron Man. He is *ALWAYS* drunk. That's because he asked for a drink. Even when he is a robot.
  • All Just a Dream: The beginning of the Sultry Teenage Super-Foxes #2 review. Linkara happily assumes that the existence of the comic in question was also just a dream...until he notices the copy in his hand.
  • All There in the Manual: Linkara complains about this tendency in big crossover events and non-crossover events. He feels that, though there is nothing wrong with a big event having extra features in other comics, if they are a requirement for a full understanding of the event then they are not "extra" at all and, as such, should be included in the main title. It reaches its nadir in Silent Hill Dead/Alive, where the author neglected to put several important plot points and character motivations into the story itself, forcing readers to comb through the opening descriptions of what happened in each previous issue to have any hope of following the story...and then these sections were removed from the trade edition.
  • Alternative Character Interpretationinvoked: Because many of the comics he reviews are adaptations or reinterpretations of already-established characters, Linkara often does his best to reconcile their poor actions in the current story with their predominant characterization:
    • According to Linkara, the Goddamn Batman from All Star Batman & Robin is not actually Batman, but a hobo named Crazy Steve who somehow got his hands on Batman's costume, and also stumbled across a lottery ticket that made him rich.
      • And in the same comic, Wonder Woman is, as in Crazy Steve's case, not actually Wonder Woman, but a crazy man-hater named Bonkers Betty who got a Wonder Woman costume at a convention, and has been walking around as Wonder Woman ever since.
    • He also thinks the Superman in Superman: At Earth's End is some random hobo who found Superman's outfit and names him Bearded Idiot.
    • The mainstream Superman has a bad habit of not help people "over there", stating that "over there" needs to take care of their own problems.
    • Batman fears and hates Rock & Roll with a passion, especially if it belongs to the punk genre. He also hates VHS Tapes with a passion
    • He interpreted the Kool-Aid Man as a homicidal maniac who has cameras watching people over the entire world.
    • He decided that the Tandy Computer Whiz Kids were police plants, and supports this in that the police actually listen to them when they kids call to tell them that they saw some criminals, which any real world cops would dismiss as prank call.
    • A broader version occurs in the 22 Brides review; he regards One More Day as Joe Quesada's attempt to undo 22 Brides.
    • Linkara assumes that not only did the Olympian gods show up on the wrong day, but the character who rips himself free of his crucifixion in The Godyssey is not Jesus, but rather Jesúsnote , the Christian Martial Artist.
    • In the Nestle/Superman crossover he suggests that the Quik Bunny might actually be a villain from the number of suggestions he makes that send the children into dangerous situations.
    "Why is Child Endangerment your first plan. Or maybe it's because he's evil. Seriously, look at that expression, he's probably going to go outside and laugh his rabbit ass off about this
    • He also believes that Mr. T. Comics, are a response to "Rise of Arsenal."
    • Spider-Man, to him, is a largely irresponsible kid in a man's body whose mistakes he refuses to take responsibility for cause more damage to him and his supporting cast in the long run.
    • Linkara believes that Bill Jemas is unable to tell fiction from reality, since he was completely serious about Marville.
    • Hal Jordan has a fetish for grave-robbing, and his lack of fear makes him a potential psychopath.
  • Anachronism Stew: While he points out that the Game Boy comics were made before Mario was given an official voice, he reads Mario's lines in an impression of Charles Martinet's portrayal, "for simplicity's sake".
  • Ancient Egypt: A freakin' Death Trap, according to him.
  • And You Thought It Was a Game: In-universe, what Linkara goes through are not scripted skits. They are actually happening to him. He's had to clear this up a few times with other reviewers who thought they could get in on the bit by telling them that, no he's not 'pretending' that his home is being attacked by aliens, demons and interdimensional horrors on a regular basis that he has to fight with magic, a huge spaceship and a team of guys who inexplicably look exactly like him. That's his actual life.
  • Angrish:
    Lindsay: That's right...I'm The Nostalgia Chick!
    Linkara: Huh? Buh? Whu-with the bowtie-and-buh...What?
    • Also his opinion of Marville #4.
    • Like 50% of his Pokémon Let's Play is this.
  • Angry Fist-Shake: Done during Holy Terror, but not for the book itself. One of the terrorists mentions how Empire City had a lot of tall buildings. Linkara responds with a Shout-Out to a children's book series.
    Linkara: How dare we take advantage of vertical space? Wayside School is the devil!
  • Anti-Climax Boss: In the Dragnet #4 review, he comments that at the end of the second comic, ending with the sudden arrest of the boss of the car-fencing operation without the guy uttering a single word was so exciting he "almost mumbled in [his] sleep". At the end, he adds that while the show could have anticlimactic endings, the episode at large could hold your attention in ways he didn't see in this series of strips. invoked
  • Answer Cut:
    • From the Kamandi at Earth's End review:
    Linkara: It's a post-apocalyptic story about a future caveman! What moron said "Let's give him a leather jacket and guns"?
    90's Kid: Duuuuuuuuude!''
    Linkara:...Of course.
    • And later:
      Linkara: Was there anybody out there sending in letters demanding a story where Kamandi fights in a cyberpunk apocalypse with huge, ridiculous guns?
      90's Kid: Dude!
      Linkara: Besides him, I mean.
    • In Comic Book Quickies #2, Linkara asks who would create a giant flea for the sole purpose of destroying flea markets. Cut to Doctor Linksano laughing maniacally.
  • April Fools' Day: Linkara became "Lester B. Bum" and reviewed Watchmen in an imitation of the "Bum Reviews" style.
    • And for 2011, he did a Triple Feature; Bear "reviewed" One More Day, he gave a 'very' brief review of Titans #23, and introduced a radical new direction in Mighty and Morphing Power Rangers.
    • And in 2013, he initially starts off by reviewing a $20 lamp from Target but then suddenly cuts to him reviewing Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster in the style of The Cinema Snob, complete with the theme song and all.
    • For April Fool's Day 2017, he presented a retrospective on the failings and demise of DC Comic's New 52 in the style of Jimquisition.
  • Arc Fatigue: His in-universe words (not ours) on the Clone Saga.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Among the criminals Linkara suggests Athena could be attempting to bust (which the comic never says), he includes drug dealers, gun smugglers and Arby's Sauce bootleggers.
    • During Electric Tale of Pikachu #1, Linkara exclaims that ghosts exist, have special attacks, and smile.
  • The Artifact: The series iconic intro song was done by a fan, and this tends to show as the song references gags that faded from the series quite early (such as Gary Brodsky, an early target on the show who was almost never brought up again) or elements of the show that Lewis stopped using (most notably the continuity alarm). Eventually a new version of the song was made, partly to update these references but also because Lewis had come to dislike the idea of personally attacking the creators of bad comics. However, the Christmas version of the song stayed the same after the normal theme changed, as Linkara doesn't want to spend the money to redo a song that only gets used a few times a year.
  • Artistic License – Biology: Linkara points out several in the New Guardians review:
    • You cannot spread AIDS simply from biting someone else unless the biter was bleeding from the mouth at the time and that blood made contact with the blood exposed from the bite wound. Saliva itself cannot transmit HIV.
    • Apparently, Photosynthesis works by absorbing elements around it, which resulted in Floronic Man getting a contact high by absorbing cocaine from the bodies of the druggies they were trying to fend off...
      Linkara: Not only does cocaine not work that way, plants don't work that way, and PHOTOSYNTHESIS SURE AS HELL DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!
    • Brute Force #1 has the implication that animals could talk if they were just more intelligent despite inherently lacking the physical capability to talk.
    • When reviewing Amazing Fantasy #15, he interjected with "spiders aren't insects" when reading one of the captions that described the radioactive spider.
    • Also done very, very frequently in the reviews of Marville #3 and #4.
  • Artistic License – Chemistry: Isodesium. Former trope name (Elements Don't Work That Way) almost stated word-for-word.
    • In Justice League: Cry for Justice, when Clayface's bomb was designed to change its composition every few fractions of a millisecond during the blast. "Nope. Uh-uh. I don't buy it for one minute. Explosions do not work that way."
  • Artistic License – Economics:
    • Linkara points out that Argos Bleak is low-balling himself when he asks for only one million dollars as a ransom upon stealing a nuke and how two of the antagonists in Neutro would devalue the world's currencies by "stealing all the world's wealth in a day." The second instance provides the page quote.
    • In Batman: Fortunate Son, he points out that Izaak's "Selling Out" goes against basic capitalism. He also suggested that he just donate the money to charity if he felt so bad about being paid for his work.
    • In Air Raiders, he points out that Aerozar picked the worst resource to control the population with. While he could have cut off their food or water supply, he picks air. Note that everybody in the comic can still breathe unless the plot requires them not to.
    • In Sultry Teenage Super Foxes #1 Linkara points out a machine that turns things to gold (and teenage idiots into super"heroes") would easily pay for itself given enough time. While noting that making gold would be an example of this trope, he points out that any other number of uses for the machine (such as making nuclear waste into something useful, or at least something less deadly) would work.
    • In James Bond Jr.. #3, he states that Goldfinger's plan to melt Eldorado would simply devalue the gold market. Ironically, that was a huge chunk of the point in the film Goldfinger: Goldfinger planned to irradiate Fort Knox rather than rob it, so that the gold he already had would become more valuable. However, in the comic, Goldfinger merely wanted to steal the gold, not destroy it; as such, with as much gold as El Dorado has, stealing it would devalue gold all over, including what Goldfinger had, already.
    • In the crossover with The Cinema Snob for Bimbos BC, they both point out that many of the villain's decisions make no sense (such as building new cities to make more income for himself), since it's the Apocalypse and no one has anything anyway.
    • He also likes to make fun of so-called "collector's edition" issues of comic books, pointing out the most popular fallacy about comic books being more valuable in the future if it is a "collector's edition". And in his "Top 15 Missed Moments" video, he has Lee from Still Gaming cameo for a joke about a similar fallacy regarding collectible cards (which Lee himself did a video about).
  • Artistic License – Geography: That non-existent little Peruvian village in James Bond Jr.. #3 is named Puerto, which means "Port", but is not near any sufficiently large body of water to warrant the name.
    • This is not entirely true, however, as the word can also mean a mountain pass, which could apply to the geographic location of the village.
    • He also points out the myriad of reasons why a submarine could not surface in the middle of Antartica in the The Thing From Another World #2.
  • Artistic License – History:
    • Nineties Kid thinks that Doom was an accurate account of WWII.
    "...They could rock a gun like NO OTHEEER!!!"
    • This becomes a Genius Bonus when you realize that Doom II: Hell on Earth has secret levels based on the World War II FPS Wolfenstein 3-D, making his assumption not so far-fetched.
    • According to the Tandy Computer Whiz Kids: Fit to Win comic, the first all-electronic computers were made in America, not England as Linkara pointed out in his "Top 15 Screw-Ups". When the piece of trivia pops up again in the crossover with Superman and Wonder Woman, Linkara deduces that the statement was a bald-faced lie.
  • Artistic License – Law: In Batman Fortunate Son, Robin — a fan of the musician he and Batman are pursuing — at one particular moment of tension questions whether the musician has actually done anything wrong or illegal. Linkara points out that yes, there actually are quite a few things wrong and illegal about blowing up a music studio.
    • In the Teen Titans #13, he points out that the villain's plot isn't actually illegal, or even doing anything wrong, since they're basically just using technology to fix junk they bought cheap into valuable working models.
    • In Spiderman: The Trial of Peter Parker, Linkara notes that there is no way in hell that ANY normal trial would be finished in a single day. During the segments where the trial of Peter (it's actually Ben Reilly, a clone of Peter) goes on, Linkara will also point out the other various inconsistencies regarding Law, such as Mary-Jane being called up as a witness for the prosecution. Even under oath Mary-Jane would be in no way obligated to give the full truth or even the truth at all since she's married to Peter and, as such, has both an emotional investment in his well being as well as an investment from a legal standpoint; there are various laws that benefit married couples over un-married couples.
  • Artistic License – Physics: Lampshaded with the running gag of "Of course! Don't you know anything about science?"
    • A particularly egregious example is in Superman: Distant Fires, where nuclear war somehow causes the planet to rip itself apart. Just to illustrate how dumb the science is, he apparently asks members of Twitter approximately how many nuclear bombs are required to destroy the Earth. Their answer can be summed up as "A Lot", or to put it in broader terms, more than currently exist or can realistically be made given the current state of Earth's resources.
    • Linkara goes on at considerable length during the Ultimatum reviews about the series confusing the Earth's magnetic poles and its rotational axis.
    • On Flash Comics #1, he mentions that Jay Garrick attempting to catch a bullet as he does on the cover (by just putting his hand out of it) would shoot a hole through his hands. He does, however, commend the comic later for correctly demonstrating how you could catch a bullet with super speed.
    • Linkara brings this up repeatedly during his review of Frank Miller's "Holy Terror", as there are multiple instances of objects falling sideways out of people's hands or even out of their mouths on the cover. Cue the Mystery Science Theater 3000 clip to illustrate just how ridiculous this is.
  • Artistic License – Religion:
    • Linkara points out that despite what Chuck Austen says in Uncanny X-Men #424, Catholics do NOT believe in the pre-tribulation Rapture. Also, it is highly unlikely, if not impossible, for the Church of Humanity to have any influence in the papal elections.
      • The tribulation itself is said to be a time of sheer terror, the length varies depending on where you look, before Christ returns. Unless the Church of Humanity has the resources to cause this, which involves war famine, plagues, etc., people would eventually figure something was wrong.
      • This also happened to Linkara himself. While his argument against "the same God with different words" sounds legitimate in context of various religions (say Buddhism and Christianity), it is somewhat problematic in explanation of Baha'i (whose belief has elements of Interfaith Smoothie) and Abrahamic Religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam sharing the similar god but with different philosophies).
    • Linkara points out Brazil's dominant religion is Christianity, as opposed to what was seen in Zero Patrol #1.
  • Artistic License – Space: In his Secret Defenders review, talking about the backgrounds filled with alien planets and moons —
    "I remind you all that this is taking place on Phobos, a moon of Mars — you know, in the Solar system! That whole nine planets thing, bunch of malarkey. We have at least twenty planets, and some of them are pink, purple, green and magenta. Astronomy is a lie.
  • Ascended Extra: Pollo the Robot started out as a Brick Joke in his Amazons Attack review to illustrate that "not even robots can handle" the bad comic. However, since then, Pollo has become a very important character on Atop the Fourth Wall, more so even than Burton himself on the Experiment. He appears to have taken on the on-screen role of Linkara's producer. The prop itself was a puppet made for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan-vid he made in high school and was used as Lewis even said in his "Origins" VLOG that he was concerned that people would see it as derivative of Spoony's Burton (indeed, many assume Pollo was created to be an Expy of Burton).
    • In fact, pretty much all of his characters are this. Ninja Style Dancer started as a way to point out how ridiculous a concept "ninja style dancing" was, 90s Kid started as just another way to make fun of the 90s, and Harvey Finevoice started as an excuse for Linkara to sing, but all of them have had important roles in the story by now.
    • The title cards have a few characters who reappear multiple times even outside of context. Most prominent is Tucker Thing, originating from the Starstream review, who appears frequently in title cards since its debut in 2012.
  • Ascended Meme: Not only did Snowflame eventually become a character on the show, but a dedicated fan made a webcomic about him. He even has his own dedicated DeviantArt-page.
  • Asian Speekee Engrish: In his review of Tales of Suspense #39, he seems to give it a minute while the villainous warlord Wong-Chu brags and makes threats in You No Take Candle, but when one of his henchmen keeps it going in his internal monologue, joking about how they apparently can't speak their own language becomes a running part of the commentary. Not limited to, but including:
    "Apparently, we cannot speak our own language very well, but we are very skilled doctors... go figure."
  • Ass Pull: invoked Linkara's reaction to Bob's sudden Face–Heel Turn in Countdown to Final Crisis.
    Linkara: Was it shocking. Hell, yes. Did it make a lick of sense? Oh, HELL NO!
  • Atomic F-Bomb: Despite the fact that Linkara does not say the major swear words, this trope applies to JLA: Act of God part 2, when Linkara gets permission from the Continuity Alarm to go on a rant about the idea of Lois Lane dumping Clark Kent after the latter loses his powers:
  • Atrocious Alias:
    • Points out in his Doom's IV #2 review that "Grimm" wasn't a great choice, as it's kind of depressing and that there must have been other things they could have called him.
    • In his review of Holy Terror, he notes that the Batman Captain Ersatz protagonist "The Fixer"'s name sounds more like someone who spays and neuters cats than a superhero.
  • Author Appeal:
    • Linkara loves the Titans, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and taking pot shots at One More Day. He also likes Harley Quinn, but who doesn't? He also likes dramatic, arc-based plots, so he is doing his damnedest to give his show one.
    • Fabian Nicieza seems to get an exemption from being labeled as a bad author despite his frequent appearances on the show. According to Linkara, his overall quality as writer is quite good and the comics which are featured are the lower end of his portfolio and not an accurate overall representation.
      Linkara: "Dammit Fabian Nicieza, stop showing up in my reviews, you're not a bad writer."
    • Given his utter joy whenever he's reviewed a comic featuring Captain America in it, it's quite clear that Linkara's a fan of the Captain. Look no further than his Secret Origins Month review of Captain America Comics #1 for proof.
    • Linkara's biggest Author Appeal is "Cool Versus Awesome". Stuff like giant gorillas, guys in energy-proof armor who shoot laser beams, cool fight scenes, and more.
    • Superheroes fighting Nazis, to the point where he gave praise to a Rob Liefeld comic on the grounds that it prominently featured this.
  • Author Filibuster:
    • He likes to complain about One More Day. A lot. Especially when he actually reviewed it.
    • At one point in the Blood Pack review, he goes off topic to rant about nuclear power and Jimmy Carter. Lampshaded with an "OMG!!! POLITICS!!!" tag.
    • His review of "Athena #1" is strictly in response to people questioning his views on women, sexuality, revealing clothing and anatomy. He starts off the review itself with a rant properly explaining all of that, and goes from there.
    • Explicitly avoided in Action Comics #593, where he notes that this is not the time for a long rant on the use of rape as a plot device, so he instead directs us to someone else's website (the source of the page quote on Gratuitous Rape) who he thinks details the problem much better than he could.
    • At several points in his review of Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham #2, Linkara diverts from discussing the comic to whine about recent DC editorial dictates concerning Stephanie Brown.
    • On "The Next 15 Screw-Ups", he states that the X-Men are an anomaly - with the Fantastic Racism applying only to them instead of the other Marvel heroes - that always overcomplicate their plots and originate the worst crossovers (Onslaught, Civil War).
    • While reviewing the infamous Frank Miller book "Holy Terror", he takes a moment out of the review to discuss why Camelot is his favorite musical and how it ties in with his views on superheroes. He then contrasts that with the atrocities inflicted by the comic's protagonists.
  • Autobots, Rock Out!: Uses "The Touch" for a particularly badass Optimus moment in his review of Transformers #4-5.
  • Award Snub: invoked During his review of Star Trek: First Contact, Linkara discusses how unreceptive the Oscars have been to science fiction films by pointing out that the original film was nominated only in Best Makeup and lost to, of all films, The Nutty Professor. He also voices his opinion that cinematographer Matthew F. Leonetti should have won the Oscar for the shot of the Borg Cube approaching Earth.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • Linkara's description of the lock to Mr. Miracle and Big Barda's house in Action Comics #593
    • Linkara's Zeonizers. A whole lot stronger than his usual Power Morpher... but while that works whenever it's needed, the Zeonizers require incredibly long charging time after each use before they can be used again.

    B 
  • Badass Adorable: Linkara gives Little Pedi, one of his pokemon in his, Pokémon Zeta and Omicron Let's Play this persona, do to her nickname sounding gangsta, complete with a fan image of her as a biker welding a broken bottle. Surprisingly, this turns out to be true in the game itself, after an Alakazam manages one shot four out six of his team, but Little Pedi survives just long enough to turn the tables.
  • Badass Boast:
    • "I am a MAN!!"
    • In his review of The Great Darkness Saga he adds on to Supergirl's boast when she engages Darkseid by saying "When you get to Hell, tell the Anti-Monitor that I said hi!" referencing her iconic bout against the Big Bad of Crisis on Infinite Earths.
    • In his "Top 15 Worst Comics I've Ever Reviewed", he addresses concerns that he might eventually get tired of doing the show and quit:
    "I don't burn out. I set more things on fire.
  • Badass Bookworm: Linkara of course is a huge nerd, but he has still managed to overcome many threats to the entire world.
  • Badass Decay: Linkara dislikes in-universe how the trope was handled in JLA: Act of God, which revolved around all the heroes being Brought Down to Normal. He particularly disliked what they did with Aquaman.
    "You can summon krakens and all manner of deadly sea creatures and now you're "The Hand"!?!"
  • Bait-and-Switch: In the 200th episode, he goes "This comic... is better than I thought." (Beat) "OF COURSE IT ISN'T!! THIS! COMIC! SUCKS!"
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space: And so can the Kool-Aid Man (but we get it, he will not freeze, we are all aware that liquids evaporate first in a vacuum).
  • Bears Are Bad News: "The bears are everywhere, man... See?! BEAR!!!"
  • Beeping Computers: In his Let's Play of Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force Linkara points out the ridiculous extent the computers Chell and Biessman are working on are beeping while trying to eavesdrop in a conversation.
  • Benevolent Boss: When a Patreon funder made him take a look at Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, he was actually impressed at how well Bandora treated her minions.
  • Berserk Button: He especially hates it when iconic, established characters get changed. Bearded Idiot: At Earth's End was the first comic to ever actually be burnt on AT4W, followed by The Dark Knight Strikes Again. JLA: Act of God would have been burned had it not been for Linksano's interference. He also despises straw feminist because it does more to damage to feminism than the avowed chauvinists ever could. However, above it all is One More Day. In his "Top 15 Comics I'll Never Review" video he explained that he would not review that comic because he hated it so much that he wants to forget it ever existed. He concluded his summary with "Joe Quesada... YOU! ARE! A! HACK!" And during the 200th episode Milestone Celebration, he actually reviewed it with all the anger he could deliver.
    • He loses it VERY badly in his review of Justice League: Cry for Justice, with Lian Harper's death.
    • Comics that feature two page spreads that require the book to be rotated ninety degrees.
    • "Laser Bat" from NBComics #1.
    • His Let's Play of Star Trek: Voyager: Elite Force reveals that he really, really hates small, fast-moving crawling enemies in first-person shooters, to the point that he decides to not use his much weaker weapons (capable of killing the worms in one hit) in favor of using a Personal Photon Torpedo Launcher.
      • For those who don't know Star Trek, this is a weapon that is usually used in ship-to-ship combat. It's the equivalent of a very small nuclear bomb and relies on antimatter.
    • He hilariously snaps in the review of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan #2, when he sees the comic reducing the movie's infamous KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!!! scene to just one panel and a simple shout by Kirk.
    • Any time a comic shows misogyny, homophobia, racism, or ableism.
      • Though he does cut some slack here depending on when the comic came out. For example, when he reviewed Tales of Suspense #39, he reacted to the racist portrayal of Vietnamese with more annoyance and discomfort than outright anger.
      • Especially when the sexism is directed at established strong female characters, like Wonder Woman. He especially flips out at Frank Miller for this sort of thing. Such as in his review of All Star Batman and Robin #5:
      Linkara: "Wonder Woman should never be referred to as a fragile twig."
      • He makes special mention of bikini/swimsuit armor and how impractical and stupid-looking it is. Also in this list is gratuitous T&A shots and "Escher Girl" poses.
    • He's not fond of using Gratuitous Rape in comics.
    • He also hates important characters being killed off just for shock value. If a superhero is going to go out, let it be in a Dying Moment of Awesome. The worst instance is Lian Harper's death, where he gives a calm, reasoned rant about why her death was a poor story decision and the lowest point of the comic.
    • The propaganda comic Future Five, which implies that people who don't go to college and people who work in fast food or other such jobs are beneath college grads and that those who aren't college grads are idiots.
    • He also despises pompous Luddites that reject technology on the basis that Science Is Bad, as seen in his joint review of Star Trek: Insurrection with The Nostalgia Critic.
      • Most of that particular rant referenced above was because A) the anti-tech message completely went in the face of the message of Star Trek, and B) because of the blatant hypocrisy of the anti-tech statements.
    • Seeing as he's a Power Rangers fan, comics brutally mocking the series and also topping more of his berserk buttons (like racism and sexism), an example being ''Mightily Murdered Power Ringers''.
    • Finally, just be Frank Miller. You'll get yourself the only section named after someone on his website and regularly be the center of attention for videos that are 30 minutes to one hour and a half long, all about how Linkara hates you, your writing, your art, and all you stand for (or, at least, what you now stand for).
      • In his reviews of Holy Terror and All Star Batman and Robin #8, he voices the belief that his and Miller's philosophies are diametrically opposed: Miller through his writing seems to believe that Might Makes Right, while Linkara believes strongly in might for right.
      • At the end of 2014, he did a countdown of the Top 15 worst comics he's ever reviewed. He immediately noted that Holy Terror was the all-time winner hands down, and this is the Top 15 list sans it.
    • He also gets upset whenever he stumbles upon a DC comic that ties into Countdown to Final Crisis, mostly because he tried to review that tangled mess and it robbed him of a fair bit of his sanity.
    • Speaking of what happened in JLA: Act of God, characters acting poorly or out of character because the writer didn't do too much research or misunderstood the character is something that sets him off, especially if it's a character Linkara is fond of. Even writers he normally likes won't be spared by a calling out if they do this; case in point, Geoff Johns' handling of Wonder Woman in Infinite Crisis, where the book harps on her supposed inability to connect with humanity, was something that did not sit well with him, and he proceeded to give a rebuttal by listing moments of Character Development she had from her own series.
    • As revealed in Marshal Law vs Pinhead, he hates mean-spirited deconstructions of superheroes. He points out that there are perfectly good Genre Deconstruction series like Watchmen and Squadron Supreme, but series like Marshal Law and The Boys, who are written by authors who hate superheroes and thus make them either comically naive or monsters that prompts readers to cheer for their ultraviolent protagonists, are those he despises.
    • If a story requires tie-in material to get "the full story" or to fill in a plot hole, he will get upset as those things could be solved in the main story itself.
    • The Stuffed into the Fridge trope really cheeses him off as he hates the fact that the female character is affected and tossed aside in order to inspire the male character.
    • Outside of subjects in the media he reviews that enrages him, he dislikes it when people bring up when OneyPlays mocked him or aspects of his past he's not proud of (his webcomic Lightbringer, collaborations with Doug Walker, and the tribute he made to Justin "JewWario" Carmichal that he came to regret after Justin was posthumously exposed as a predatory groomer).
  • Better as Friends: Him and Iron Liz.
  • Beyond the Impossible: The Emergency Reviewing Hologram somehow manages to get falling-down drunk after reading Marville #3. Yeah, it's that bad.
    • Even lampshaded: "I'm a hologram. How do I get drunk?"
  • Bifauxnen: Iron Liz passes off as rather androgynous at first glance, and her voice does not help matters much, but upon closer examination, her gender makes itself known. Though Liz herself since later came out as transgender.
  • Big "NO!":
    • In his New Guardians #2 review, when Snowflame dies.
    • And in his crossover with Film Brain, when he realizes it's Miller Time.
    • In the Mr. T #2 review, he reacts to Mr. T being defeated by a villain by the name of Stare Roy by saying "no" repeatedly twice during the course of the review (once when seeing the cover of Roy punching out Mr. T, and then again upon reaching the comic's cliffhanger ending).
  • Big "WHAT?!": One of his reactions while reviewing Marville. Also his final reaction to Nova Girls: Kissing Canvas.
    • In "Comic Book Quickies #2" Linkara reviewed the Johnny Turbo "Sleepwalker" ad, with all its bizarre imagery and homoerotic subtext. And yet, none of that caused him to even blink; no, what made him cry "WHAT?" was a Giant Flea-Market Eating Flea from a Captain Marvel Twinkies ad!
  • Big "WHY?!": His reaction to Marville #4.
  • Biting-the-Hand Humor: In the Welcome To Night Vale parody, he makes some cracks about CA being a magnet for drama, and that the Head Office (Mike and Rob) wants you to know Blatant Lies like that the Nostalgia Critic was never dead, there never was a Demo Reel (aside from Brad's parody), and there's never been a Blistered Thumbs or a Nostalgia Chick.
  • "Blind Idiot" Translation: When searching for a copy of The Thing From Another World, Linkara initially found a portuguese copy but the only online translation he could find fell right into this trope. It turned into a running gag as he reviewed more issues of the series.
    Linkara: I still have problems calling this The Thing From Another World though, so why don't we go with the badly translated title we got last year instead: for now, let's just dig into The Error From Another World: Eternal Vows number three and number four and see if J.P. Junkie can stop Wallace Harbor from becoming Error 404.
  • Bold Inflation: "You know, Frankie, emphasizing random words does not a talented writer make!" To drive home how inane this practice is, Linkara will sometimes have the character shout the bold words and put small beats before and after them.
  • Book Burning: He does this to the absolute worst comics he reviews.
  • Bound and Gagged: Linkara was tied to a chair and gagged by Bennett so that he could torture him with his old fanfiction. He was also tied up by Mechakara.
  • Bragging Theme Tune: "LINKARA! He is a man, *PUNCH*, wears a purdy hat..."
  • Brain Bleach: Pointed out in-universe.
    • Necessary after Linkara's "Batman: Agent of NAMBLA" joke takes a whole new meaning.
    • "When I do drugs, I see Bea Arthur! You should probably forget I said that." (Which is obviously a Deadpool reference. ...We hope...)
    • The Lady Gaga comic Fame. When we get a look into the man's dreams, it results in Linkara screaming for 10 seconds, a 'Technical difficulties' screen, a shaking, shivering Linkara, 5 more seconds of screaming, another 'Technical difficulties' screen and an angry rant. Oh, it's so justified.
    • Seeing Troll naked in Youngblood #7 in the shower sends Linkara into a screaming Sanity Slippage. He even holds up an invisible copy of the comic and groans, "I still see it!"
      Linkara: ... Why, Rob Liefeld? You didn't have to hurt so many people to get to me!
  • Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: He calls Nightcat "an embarrassment to singers, superheroes and singing superheroes."
  • Breakout Character: Snowflame, as performed by Lewis' real-life friend Will Wolfram.
  • Brick Joke:
    • Linkara mispronouncing Film Brain's name.
    • Linkara's bear.
    • "Show of hands, who wants Silent Hill vs. Army of Darkness?"
    • In Freak Force #1, the review ended with '90s Kid playing Justice League Task Force. One month later, in Hardcore Station #1, he finally finished it, just in time for his segment to end.
    • In the JLA: Act of God Part 2 video, he says, "Dear Lord, I feel like I should be saying everybody's dialogue in the Superboy Prime voice." In Part 3, he reads a line of dialogue from Wonder Woman, says, "No, let me say that again", then re-reads it in the Superboy Prime voice.
    • A Running Gag with the other contributors is that people think Linkara reviews lamps. When reviewing Future Shock #1, he actually reviews the lamp from the comic. Also, the joke opening of April Fool's 2013 starts with him reviewing a lamp.
  • Brief Accent Imitation: At one point in the Doom comic's review, Linkara puts on a monocle and fakes a British accent in response to the protagonist's overly formal line about how he would behead a group of zombies with a chainsaw and steal their guns.
  • Broad Strokes: The live shows to the rest of the show. The live shows do happen, but any mention of the show and events being made up are obviously non-canon.
    • Any time Lewis drops his Linkara persona on the show can be taken like this. Looking at his second screw up list, there are a few times when Lewis addresses it as himself and not as Linkara.
  • Broken Aesop: Linkara provides the page quote, which originated in his Bearded Idiot: At Earth's End review.
  • Bros Before Hoes: Refers to Spock defecting from Kirk in favor of his half-brother Sybok (despite what happened in the second and third movies) as Bros before CO's.
  • Brought Down to Normal: Linkara was very critical of JLA: Act of God, which revolved around all of Earth's superheroes losing their powers. He explained that the lack of a common origin for any of the heroes made any kind of mass de-powering hard to swallow and also ridiculed the hit-and-miss nature of the event, which was stated to have left advanced technology alone, but still disabled the Green Lantern rings, and was also said to have removed all magical beings from the world, but somehow left Wonder Woman around. He recommended instead 52, a series he has previously advanced as a very good comic, as an example of how to properly deal with a character that has lost his or her powers. A secondary storyline in 52 revolves around Superman coping with the loss of his powers during the Infinite Crisis and Linkara points out that this portrayal is consistent with previous Superman characterization that intelligently deals with the implications for his life and personality.
  • Buffy Speak: "I think I broke something in my thinking thingy..."
    • In the Silent Hill: The Grinning Man review:
      Grinning Man: I'm just happier 'n a pig in sh**, I am!
      Linkara: (bored) And I'm as bored as... a person that's bored.
    • In the Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home review:
      Linkara: Huh! I can't help but feel that we forgot something...
      Sulu: Sir, I have no control! We've lost all power!
      Linkara: Oooh, right, the, uh, big power-draining probe thingy... (Beat) Whoops.
  • But Now I Must Go: A perfunctory variation. Most episodes end with Linkara simply rising from the couch and walking away, without anything resembling a sign-off line.

    C 
  • C-List Fodder: He notes this happens to Congorilla's tribe, as well as the obscure minor characters The Three Dimwits from the DCU in Justice League: Cry for Justice. Offscreen, no less. He's not a fan of this trope and feels characters provide more potential to stories when alive.
  • Call-Back:
    • Linkara's first appearance on Channel Awesome was after he won a fan contest and got to fill in for Ask That Guy with the Glasses for an episode. He adopted the name "That Guy with the Hat" for the occasion. At the end of the 200th episode, That Guy with the Hat actually reappears as a separate character.
    • In his review of Future Shock #1, he reviews a lamp that a character has on his desk, just like Sad Panda thought he does.
    • At the start of the video for Crisis on Infinite Earths, Linkara used part of the Epic Instrumental Opener of the song "Sacred Worlds" by Blind Guardian during the title card. For "Event Comics Month II", the song is frequently used throughout the title cards and during the end of the video for Final Crisis, culminating in a joke about it being the song Superman sang to finally kill Darkseid.
  • The Cameo:
    • LittleKuriboh:
      • In the Bimbos in Time review:
        Pharaoh: Why is everyone in this comic a *bleep*ing bimbo!?
      • This joke gets recycled in Ninjitsu #1 and #2 where the pharaoh says the same line but with "ninja" instead of "bimbo".
      • As Dan Green in Cable #2, as a Dan Green apparently worked as an inker for Marvel Comics.
      • As an off-screen natural voice that Linkara shot with his magic gun as part of a bizarre greeting he was parodying.
      • During the Marville #1 review, as The Ghost of Christmas Past From the Future and Kaiba. He also voices Pharaoh and Kaiba talking about an oddity (cavemen looking like normal Caucasian people) in Marville #5.
        Kaiba: Why are they all white?
    • Mystery Science Theater 3000's Tom Servo:
      • During the Action Comics #593 video.
      • He appears - in a case - at the start of the Transformers #4-5 review.
    • Linkara has a brief run-in with The Angry Video Game Nerd in his review of Wolverine: Adamantium Rage.
    • The 200th episode brought in many reviewers from the site, but probably the greatest was the pictureless cameo of Chuck Sonnenburg.
    • Zolastraya and the Bard #1 featured Team Four Star members KaiserNeko, Lanipator, Antfish, and Megami 33, who all wanted him to join them on an adventure. Turns out the "adventure" was getting dinner at the food court.
    • The "Sonic Super Special" #7 review featured Evan Stanley, one of the artists from Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics). She even references the cameo she put in of him in issue #257.
  • Can-Crushing Cranium: Tried and failed.
  • Canon Immigrant: Ensign Munro, from the game Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, has shown up several times (played by Linkara).
  • Catchphrase Interruptus:
    • During part 3 of his review of The Dark Knight Strikes Again he starts announcing "Miller Time" before running off screen... and unceremoniously being thrown back.
    • He refuses to use his "I AM A MAN" Running Gag with Superboy Prime in the Countdown to Final Crisis review.
      • He does this again in his review of chapters 1 & 4 of Franken Fran in response to a boyfriend and girlfriend undergoing Easy Sex Change operations.
  • Cerebus Retcon: Discussed Trope. He tells a fake backstory about how his Miller Time watch was stolen off a thief who broke into his house that he killed. He then points out how awkward it would make all his previous Miller Time segments to watch for viewers while not really being a needed backstory.
  • Character Development: Invoked by Linkara as one of the key factors on what makes a comic story good or not. For instance, in Countdown to Final Crisis, when Jason Todd meets a gun-toting Batman in an alternate universe, Linkara says, shocked, "Could this be ... CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT?!", then snarks, "After 24 issues, there better be!"
  • Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Says it is time to stop making fun of the French for this, when the villains in the Kool-Aid Man comic showed even less backbone than the worst caricatures of the French.
  • Cheshire Cat Grin: In his review of the '90s Justice League movie with Nash, he stares at Nash with one of these until Nash breaks down and agrees to watch the movie.
  • The Chessmaster:
    • One of the alternative endings to the Silent Hill review reveals Bear to be one in style of the dog from Silent Hill 2.
    • In the recap at the start of the Daredevil #306 review (The recap, as usual, bears no connection to the review itself):
      Linkara: I should have known, it was you who was the secret manipulator behind it all *puts hand over the edge and pulls out a teddy* BEEEEAAAAR!
  • Chewbacca Defense: (To justify bad storytelling) "Why? Because the Kool-Aid Man is red!"
  • Chewing the Scenery: In his Crossover review of The Fantastic Four movie (which was so bad Marvel would not let it be released) with Bennett the Sage, Linkara tells one of the actors that he still has some of the scenery between his teeth.
  • Christmas Episode: In 2009, he did one on the Youngblood Extreme Super Christmas Special, complete with the ghosts from A Christmas Carol showing up and trying to teach him the meaning of Christmas, only to be thrown out because he already loves Christmas. In 2010, he started expanding the Christmas theme to multiple episodes in December.
  • Cleavage Window: Or, as he calls it, "Boob window".
  • Clip Show: The Marville #6-7 review. Justified in that the #6 issue is a Clip Show in its own right and Linkara spoofs the concept throughout.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Snowflame, a Iron Age Supervillain fueled by cocaine, who somehow managed to find his way into our universe... And Linkara's living room.
  • Clueless Mystery: Identity Crisis (2004). And it enrages him.
  • Collateral Angst: Identity Crisis (2004) again - specifically, how the rape of Sue Dibny seems to affect everyone but Sue Dibny.
  • Collectible Card Game: Linkara has appeared in the MSF High Collectible Card game, available here:
  • Compensating for Something: Iron Liz notes the extremely long silencer in Chain Gang War #1.
  • Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch: In-universe, TNA Impact when he's doing a Professional Wrestling comic book review or a Crossover review with Spoony.
  • Complaining About Things You Haven't Paid For: The stated reason why Linkara refuses to review Webcomics, since most of them are just things people do in their spare time. Sonichu is in the exception, which he says is every bit as bad everyone says it is, and he won't review it because he doesn't want to draw attention to it (or, at least, more attention to it than what it already got by then).
  • Concepts Are Cheap: Particularly in Justice League: Cry for Justice when what justice actually is never gets explored or debated.
  • Contemplate Our Navels: In-universe, he calls Justice League: Cry for Justice out on a phenomenally stupid and incoherent one. There are even times when Linkara can't find anything snarky to say.
    • JLA: Act of God was absolutely rife with this, and Linkara continually calls out the writers on the hamfisted monologuing during his review.
  • Content Warning: Some episodes have opened with one due to either the nature of the comic he's reviewing (Youngblood #10, due to Chapel committing suicide) or because of stuff he's since become ashamed of (compilation videos of series of reviews due to expressing views he no longer has; a desire to move away from attacking creators; or appearances of people he no longer talks to Brad Jones and Doug Walker, both of whom Lovhaug has disowned since #ChangeTheChannel, as well as Noah Antwiler, who Lovhaug said he no longer talks to).
  • Continuity Cavalcade: Early on in the 200th Episode, One More Day, there's a montage of clips from previous episodes featuring every single time he's taken a shot at the infamous storyline prior.
  • Continuity Nod:
  • Cool, but Stupid: Linkara expresses this about Brute Force.
  • Cool Versus Awesome: An unexpected highlight in Justice League: Cry for Justice:
    Linkara: An intelligent, talking ape and an alien are about to fight robots on jetpacks! Why is this comic not about them?
    Congorilla: TALLY-HO! ["Ride of the Valkyries" plays over the pages of the fight.]
    • One of his biggest complaints about some of the comics he reviews (including invoked Bearded Idiot: At Earths End, ) authors fail to take advantage of this. In the aforementioned Bearded Idiot comic, he replies:
      Linkara: Wait a second. It's Superman... fighting twin clones of Hitler... in the future... This comic is starting to get awesome! (seconds later, after Bearded Idiot runs away) SCREW YOU, SUPER-SANTA!
    • In his Doom 2099 #1 review, he decides that Doctor Doom vs. Mr. T would be this.
      Linkara: I would pay so much money to see that.
  • Costume Copycat:
    • Linkara impersonates the Critic to review Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. The Critic is not impressed.
    • Doug has occasionally gone to events dressed as Linkara, who will shortly after appear as the Green Ranger and confront him on this.
  • Covers Always Lie: At the end of his Superman: Distant Fires review.
    Also, that outfit he's sporting on the cover? He never wears it, nor does he jump off of a flaming cliff on catback. I call false advertising.
  • Creator's Pet: Linkara clearly perceives Christabella from the Silent Hill comics as this in-universe.
  • Criminal Convention: Discussed in the Spawn/Batman review when Linkara mocks the plot point that random low-level drug dealers are somehow doing business with agents of a foreign dictatorship:
    Linkara: Oh yeah, I'm sure impoverished drug dealers do trades like this all the time with former dictators. They meet at the Evil People Conventions and exchange business cards.
  • Critical Backlash: invoked Linkara experienced this with the Spider-Man comic Maximum Carnage and explained why he didn't plan on giving it a review. While the story is often criticized by fans for its dark tone and sheer length, Linkara thought it was an engaging story about how far Peter was willing to go to stop villains as depraved as Carnage.
  • Crossover: Linkara is notorious at Channel Awesome for showing up in everyone else's videos.
    • His most frequent and fruitful collaborations are with Spoony: They have made four (six if you count their two reviews with The Nostalgia Critic) full appearances together, physically in the same room and everything, and have even advanced storylines in each other's videos. Dr. Insano was introduced in an Atop the Fourth Wall video as part of a parody sequence, and the whole Mechakara saga began as the result of their first crossover, largely written by Spoony. Fandom tends to depict the two creators as Heterosexual Life-Partners.
    • Linkara also appeared in a joint review with MarzGurl, and was the subject of an episode of Masterpiece Fanfic Theatre, where he was tied up and forced to listen to Bennett read some of his juvenilia. Later, he and Bennett did a proper review of Roger Corman's The Fantastic Four. He has also reviewed two movies with The Nostalgia Critic, twice with Spoony and once without.
    • Throughout "Star Trek Month", The Nostalgia Critic kept being terrified that Fan Boy Linkara pop in for a cameo, only to be pleasantly surprised when he didn't. Finally, he announces his thanks that with only one movie left to review, Linkara definitely won't show up to overanalyse things and be annoying, no way, no how- only for the video to end with;
    NEXT WEEK: CROSSOVER WITH LINKARA
    • He crossed over with Ninja the Mission Force for his review of The Invincible Four of Kung Fu and Ninja.
    • He did a review of the pilot for the 1970s Wonder Woman series with Sofie Liv of Movie Dorkness, including Deerstalkers, surprise (Non-existent) dog kidnappings and failed seduction with a WW costume.
  • Crowd Song: During the live show at MAGfest, Linkara openly encourages the audience to sing along with the opening theme. Which, of course, they do.
    Linkara: Let's sing along, people!
    • This has become a staple at his "Atop the Fourth Wall Live!" appearances, where he'll record the live review, then play a preview of next week's episode, where he'll record the crowd singing the theme song. When he eventually posts the live review online, the credits with the sing-along play before the live review.
  • Curse Cut Short: At the end of his Future 5 review:
    "Oh hey, it's my student loan bill! Did— Wait... MY STUDENT LOAN BILL?!!? Ah, fu— " (end credits)
    • Also cut short during his review of Countdown to Final Crisis when he goes off on a cursing rant about the editor wanting to make a love triangle between Donna Troy, Kyle Rayner, and Jason Todd, cut off by a "Inaudible Profanity, please stand by" screen set to the Route 1 BGM from Pokémon.
      —and roll over their fetid carcasses for that idiotic idea! [beat] So, back to our story.
    • From the crossover with Bennett the Sage's "Masterpiece Fanfic Theater"
      Linkara: Son of a bitch!
      Sage: Ah! You can swear.
      Linkara: Yes, I can! I can also say fu— (Sage gags him with a sock)
    • When Linkara did an April Fools Day episode in the style of The Cinema Snob, he twice nearly lets loose a Precision F-Strike, only to get cut off by one of Brad's other characters - as played by Lewis - inexplicably showing up.
    • In the Linkara Riffs episode on Scrooge (1935), he and the other riffers (Will Wolfgram, who plays Snowflame, and Amethyst, his prop creator) start singing along to "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" with new lyrics. Near the end, Linkara nearly sings the word "shit" when the other two cut him off.
    • He pokes fun at one in "Captain Tax Time" in which Captain Tax Time punches a thug who says "Oh shii..."
      Captain Tax Time: You mean sugar.
      Linkara: This comic is a piece of sugar.
  • Cursed with Awesome: Linkara impersonating Izaak Crowe in Batman: Fortunate Son: "Oh no, it's so terrible that I grew up in an economically stable environment instead of impoverished or hungry and on drugs!" Complete with his Superboy Prime voice.
  • Cute Kitten: He plays a clip of a really adorable kitten as a way of making up for the sheer badness of The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Part 3. The credits gag at the end said he ran out of the usual clips he was using to mock it.
  • Cuteness Overload: The cybermats have been known to induce this.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Linkara points out the Surgeon General could have made far more money working legitimately and that Amanda Gideon in Nightcat is so rich she does not have any reason to sell drugs.
    • Gideon takes it to the next level: she discovers that the person who was caught inside her drug lab is the hot new singer that has been making her oodles of cash and she's been knocked out before even knowing Gideon was involved. What does she do? Quietly let her go with no one the wiser? Of course not! Instead she turns her into a test subject for her designer drug experiments that killed every subject to date.
    • In his Care Bears review, he points out the clown is really wasting a gravity manipulation device on shaking kids.
    • Linkara points this out in Superman and Wonder Woman: Tandy Whiz Kids when a World's Fair refuses to give Lex Luthor any place to show off his scientific inventions just because he's a mad scientist. This prompts Linkara to act out that Luthor will now have to hold the World's Fair for ransom and kill off everyone inside it instead of merely patenting his inventions and making billions. Afterward, he explains that he thinks this might be the reason why the writers decided to turn Luthor into a businessman instead of keeping him as a mad scientist, because having a supervillain with that much intelligence was just dumb.
    • During the "Cassandra Caintrospective", he speculates that a gas that turns people into oil, serving as weapon and profitable followup both, could probably just work on dead animals or plant matter and create oil that way as its own end, but "why do that when you can be an insane supervillain and use it as a chemical weapon"?

    D 
  • Damned By a Fool's Praise: 90's Kid serves this purpose with regard to many of the worst qualities of The Dark Age of Comic Books.
  • Dawson Casting:invoked In the "Leaves of Grass" review, he ends up commenting on how it's a comic book, yet the teenage villain in the B-plot still looks like he's still been cast with a 30-year-old actor.
  • Deadpan Snarker: The snark really kicks in on his Twitter and tumblr.
  • Death Is Cheap: Despite not liking characters getting killed in stories, he admits that, for mainstream heroes, death is no big deal when he brings up the death of the Human Torch in his Brain Drain review, and comments that he'll be dead for a year at most before coming back, and each member of the Fantastic Four has died at least once. However, he also points out how this trope does not always come into play, especially for non-superhero supporting characters, when discussing his rage over the death of Lian Harper in Cry For Justice.
  • Death Is Dramatic: One of Linkara's less universally accepted Berserk Buttons is his hatred for any hero (or named character) dying without it being a Heroic Sacrifice of some kind. He hates hero deaths that don't mean anything to the furtherance or resolution of the story's conflict.
  • Defied Trope: When one of the Bimbos in Time explains the "time door" as "an implosion in matter-antimatter existence", Linkara interrupts the "Of course! Don't you know anything about SCIENCE?" gag.
    Linkara: NO! THAT WAS NOT REMOTELY SCIENTIFIC!
  • Delayed Reaction: A running gag. Linkara will say something stupid (either as a character or in support of a character's plan) with great enthusiasm, then realize it's stupid.
    Villain dialogue from comic: With Neutro on our side, we can capture all the world's wealth in a day...
    Linkara as said villain: ...thus making all the money worthless because of simple economics. (Beat) Wait...
  • Department of Redundancy Department:
    • "Let's dig into Batman: Act of God #3 Starring Batman." This was done intentionally to deliver his point that JLA: Act of God was "one big love letter to Batman" by the writer.
    • The review of All-Star Batman & Robin #1 and #2 revealed that, among its other flaws, characters tended to repeat themselves. A lot. A lot, a lot.
    • In Strange Adventures #136, there are two blatant examples pointed out in its goofy Silver Age writing style.
      Narrator: When the alien commander from another world...
      Linkara: "Thanks for the clarification, or I might've thought it was the alien commander from Circle Pines."
      Alien: "We come from a planet of the star-sun Altair."
      Linkara: "Thanks for the redundancy, there. Otherwise, I may have thought you'd come from the planet-sun Altair!"
    • In the comic adaptation of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians:
      Caption: Obediently, Torg obeys.
      Linkara: Redundantly, the caption is redundant.
    • Cry For Justice gives us the "Justice League of Justice".
    • Addressed in the Superman Meets the Quik Bunny review.
      Quik Bunny: "Worrying won't help Superman! Helping him will help Superman!"
      Linkara: "Redundant statements won't be redundant! They'll be repetitive! ...Wait."
    • Linkara himself has a tendency to say "and et cetera", even though the "et" means "and".
  • Description Cut: The opening of the first in the "Culling" series:
    Announcer: Warning: The following review contains a lot of ranting from Linkara concerning the 2011 DC reboot. If you enjoy said reboot, Linkara respects your opinion. However, he dislikes the reboot and wishes to express his displeasure. If that upsets you, you may want to skip the next few weeks' worth of episodes. Still, I would not worry. I'm sure Linkara will be fair and balanced about it.
    (Cut to an enraged Linkara)
    Linkara: (yelling) "THE NEW 52" SUCKS ASS AND I FRICKIN' HATE IT!! ROLL THE THEME SONG!
  • Designated Hero: The phrase "Our hero(es), ladies and gentlemen!" means he is pointing out instances of this and/or Hero Ball. Linkara points out that Rob Liefeld's characters in general have almost nothing heroic about them, which he finds particularly frustrating, since Liefeld specifically described Youngblood as heroic characters that can be related to and believed in as heroes. invoked
    • His review of Neutro constantly references this trope.
      Comic Description: Neutro does not know the difference between right and wrong!
      Linkara: ...Oooookay, that's not very good if he's a superhero.
    • He also brings this up with his reviews in his Secret Origins month, where in Golden and Silver Age comics, superheroes didn't always seem very heroic.
    • A major complaint that he, Nash and Film Brain have of the Wonder Woman 2011 pilot.
    • What he sees the Kool-Aid Man as. To quote him:
      Linkara: The Kool-Aid Man is NOT cool! He's a public menace, DESTROYING walls and buildings so he can pour his sugary juice out for people!
  • Developing Doomed Characters: Notes in Trouble #1 that the character's interactions map perfectly to characters being introduced to be killed off by a masked killer, with the unfortunate twist that no such killer ever appears.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Linkara notes how easily Hitler (who happened to be the Devil in disguise) goes down to the Blue Beetle, falling unconscious after one punch.
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Ever since getting his own theme song, he is prone to humming or singing a few lines behind the scenes.
  • Discredited Meme: He considers "I'm the goddamn Batman" to be this, after Frank Miller included several allusions to it in ASBAR to the point of being a Over Used Running Gag. invoked
  • Dissimile:
    It's become something of a problem at my old place, kinda like if I had roaches, except if the roaches wanted to take over the universe, or were attached to strings.
  • Distinction Without a Difference: While recapping Ultimatum:
    - and Magneto killed Dr. Xavier for comparing him to a mass murderer, when all he did was kill a bunch of people.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Mary Marvel's Orgasmo Pole.
  • "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: At the end of the 100th episode, Linkara and most of his recurring characters (as well as a bunch of other TGWTG contributors) sing his entire theme song.
  • Don't Explain the Joke: One of his many gripes with Marville (to the point he uses the Batman: The Animated Series clip on the trope image). But somehow when Linkara does it in the credits, it doesn't hurt the joke ("It's funny because I'm using the theme from Smallville when it has nothing to do with Smallville! LAUGH!").
  • Don't Try This at Home: He sees an improbable backwards kick and tries it himself. He just hurts his spine.
    • Happens again in the Daredevil vs. Vapora review:
    Linkara: Oh sure, leaping twenty feet to the ground is perfectly safe. Here, let me demonstrate! [THUD] OHGODMYLEGS!
  • Dramatic Ellipsis: After a number of comics abusing the use of this particular punctuation mark, he has finally diagnosed their overuse as a disease seen in comics similar to Youngblood's Disease. He dubbed it "Ultimate Warrior's Ailment" in his review of Zero Patrol.
  • Drinking Game: Episode 200, when Linkara says "pointless".
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: Frequently calls out Countdown to Final Crisis, Cry For Justice, and Ultimatum for this. He especially accuses the first of representing an attitude that killing characters is the best form of plot point.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: There's a running gag that reviews of Marville drive him to drink; when issue #3 comes around, even Holo-kara manages it.
    • He stops at the review of the fifth issue, claiming that he used all his funds in alcohol for the next three years while reviewing the entire series.
  • Dual Wielding:
    • Iron Liz dual-wields scimitars.
    • Enforced aversion. It is revealed in a podcast Linkara could not find another fake flintlock pistol at a reasonable price, thus he cannot dual wield magic guns.
  • Dull Surprise: Pointed out and referenced by name several times (via the Trope Namer) throughout the Transformers #4 and #5 review re: Pat Lee's artwork.

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