Atop The Fourth Wall / Tropes E to P

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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E

• Early-Bird Cameo: Bone Button makes his first appearance in Warrior #2 as an alternate universe Linkara, several years before he appeared on the main show. More likely just a case of reusing a character's appearance, especially since Lewis reveals in the episode commentary that he just had the jacket and thought it would be fun to wear it.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Commentaries made after 2010 have pointed instances out.
  • Before he got the theme song and opening sequence, episodes would start with Linkara digging through his closet, pulling out the comic du jour, and saying "Aha! Now we've got it!" (This gets a Call-Back in the Electric Tale of Pikachu review).
  • Despite not technically using the word by itself, in an early review, he mouthed the F-word.
  • On the Spider-Man #56 review (the first one filmed), there are a few shots of the comic from his POV. This never appeared in any other episode, as he instead settled on filming panels via The Ken Burns Effect.
  • The Adamantium Rage review is both a crossover and non-comic review, but is a numbered episode.
  • The Magic Gun was originally just a gun referred to as his Suicide Pistol.
  • New Guardians #2 was the comic that introduced Snowflame. Linkara's voice as he reads the character's lines is like a menacing drug lord, far different from the insane Randy Savage-inspired portrayal Will gave him when he became a character on the show.
  • Getting less meta, Secret Origins Month addresses the first appearances of well-known heroes and how they've changed over the years, such as Batman being outright murderous in his first appearance in contrast to his more consistent Thou Shalt Not Kill policies of virtually all other Batman media.
  • For the first several episodes the series was notable for being one of the few review shows that didn't use character skits or ongoing storylines.
  • While Linkara would wear various Starfleet outfits for his Star Trek reviews, the intros would remain the same until the review of Star Trek: The Motion Picture three-parter, which introduces Comicron-1
  • His first "Combine Harvester" Sanity Slippage gag was over readers suggesting fancasting for a potential Doom's IV movie. Later instances would be over more mind-numbingly baffling moments.
• Easter Egg: The New Guardians #2 review contains some text flashing onscreen for a split second during a clip of one of Hitler's speeches saying 'Yeah, I can see why Germany would want to follow this shouting, drug-crazed lunatic. Zomg Easter Egg! Hi, TV Tropes!'
• Electric Torture: Commented on in a review of the Teen Titans animated series episode "Aftershock" (which he makes fun of but still claims is "great"), where Beast Boy lays out how Terra's the one giving Slade control over her own life, at which Linkara adds, "You chose to be electrocuted when you resisted!"
• Ending Fatigue: Invoked by Linkara during the Marville #6–7 episode, before Sanity Slippage.
  Linkara: Ennnnnnnnnd! ENNNNNNNNNNNNNND! EEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!
• Enraged by Idiocy: Occurs many times, particularly with Marville (which, by its fourth issue, can't even warrant a closing line).
  "THIS COMIC… AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! JUST… AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!?!?!?!?!?"
• Ensemble Dark Horse: He frequently says in-universe that Bulk and Skull are "the real stars" of Power Rangers in his comic reviews.
  • He declared Joe, who showed up in all of one panel, to be his favorite character of the Silent Hill comics. Of course he wasn't facing much competition from the rest of the cast.
  • Also, the dog from the Dead/Alive review, referring to him as more likable, with more interesting scenes (And calling him the real star of the comic, Ala bulk and Skull).
  • Danny Chase of the Teen Titans, probably the all-time most despised member of the group by fans, is his favorite character in the comics.
  • The unnamed commander of the Argentinian camp in The Thing From Another World comic. He displayed common sense, and didn't take crap from one of the Jerkass characters in the comic. Linkara even named him Señor Sunglasses.
  • Linkara disliked all of the characters in the New Guardians #2 comic except for the cocaine powered one-shot villain Snowflame, which he found absolutely awesome. Since then Snowflame has become a popular recurring character on the show as well as starring in his own webcomic that retcons him as having survived his fight with the new guardians.
  • The Incan in the Mr. T comics. Linkara loved the sheer awesomeness of his motif, not to mention his interesting Anti-Villain role that even led to a Heel–Face Turn.
  • He jokes about a nameless movie theater usher being his favorite character in Marville while doing the review of the first issue (given that no one else in that series is likeable at all, being either a mouthpiece for Jemas or a complete idiot, or even both).
• Epic Fail:
  • When Linkara notices that in the comic adaptation of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the iconic moment in the film, where Kirk screams Khan's name in anguish, Kirk's scream is reduced to a single, tiny panel, where he doesn't scream, but merely shouts, Linkara is, to say the least, none too pleased.
    Linkara: (raging) The most memorable scene in the movie! The thing that everybody thinks of when it comes to this movie! The EPIC YELL of rage and frustration so POWERFUL and so FORCEFUL and so LOUD that we see and hear it ECHO across Regula I... AND IT'S ONE TINY PANEL?!?!?! FAIL! YOU... FAIL!!! HOW DO YOU SCREW THIS UP?!?
  • Marville is likely this, given that he keeps stating the book just gets worse with each passing issue.
  • The Southland Tales prologue comic was so bad he couldn't even read it due to its impossibly convoluted story. He decided a Massive Multiplayer Crossover review of the movie with several other TGWTG reviewers would be easier than reviewing the comic himself.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: invoked
  • He epically calls out Marvel Team-Up #127 for it, as an innocent woman died so a sleazy drug dealer could be reunited with her grandfather.
  • Linkara has this opinion on the ending to One More Day. Aunt May is alive, but is back to living in her old house and is no longer in a relationship with Jarvis. Peter and MJ have split up, and Mephisto got exactly what he wanted.
• Everybody Knew Already: It was in defiance of this trope that Linkara specifically excluded Holy Terror from his "15 Worst Comics I've Ever Reviewed" — anyone who saw his 300th episode would see its place at the top of the list coming from a mile away and he wanted to have some surprise in his selection of comics.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Even 90's Kid was disgusted by Superboy Prime vaporizing a pregnant woman in Countdown to Final Crisis.
  • Linksano may have no problems with driving Linkara insane, but it is revealed in the The Spirit review that melting kittens is "a line we dare not cross".
  • Linkara also says that not even Frank Miller, an infamous Dirty Old Man, would stoop so low as to sexualize underage girls.
  • Apparently, Rob Liefeld looks like a better artist when compared to Pat Lee's work.
  • Lewis has refused to shown certain panels because of their content, including the death of Lian Harper or Chapel's suicide due to finding them tasteless.
  • Played for Laughs, Todd in the Shadows wanted to help celebrate Linkara's 500th episode, but was late to the party in what he was doing. That said, even Todd refused to help parody Holy Terror (episode 300).
  • Played for Laughs again, Linkara found himself on the other end on this in the 600th episode as while they'd been willing to parody the plot of the stories he reviewed in other hundredth episodes before, his fellow reviewers thought even parodying the plot of the story he was reviewing, the The Amazing Spider-Man (J. Michael Straczynski) arc "Sins Past", was asinine with SF Debris realizing what he going on in a letter planned to parody Gwen Stacy's letter (about her affair and resultant pregnancy) and spent the rest of it telling Linkara off and Allison Pregler told Linkara that, while Welshy was willing, they weren't going to do it.
• Evil Stole My Faith: One episode that involved mention of religion in a comic had Linkara joke that the comic's existence is a pretty good argument against the existence of God.
• Executive Meddling:invoked Linkara points out multiple times that editors should stick to editing and leave the writing to writers.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Responding to a question about how close he is to finishing The Clone Saga, Linkara responds by showing off literal armfuls of collected editions, along with 'other' clone saga books and spin-off's.
  Linkara: Basically, I'm never going to be done with The Clone Saga...Beat...Damnit!
• Eyes Always Shut: Termed as "Youngblood's Disease".

F

• F--: Linkara has been known to hand out F triple and quadruple minuses.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: His gun, an 18th-century flintlock (or a replica of such. One episode mentions parts of it are made of aluminum) pistol (dubbed "Suicide Gun" and later "Magic Gun") that shoots magic lasers.
• Fan Nickname: invoked
  • Linkara has a slew of these for Super-Boy Prime in Countdown; including "Superboy-Primadonna", "Stupidbitch-Pansy", and "Spasticboy-Prime".
  • He also takes to calling Robin "Dick Grayson, Age 12" during his All-Star Batman and Robin review in reference to the detail being repeated more than is strictly necessary; by the end of the review, he is also calling the ASBAR version of Batman 'Crazy Steve.'
  • He refers to the gun-using old Superman of Superman: At Earth's End as "Bearded Idiot". Similarly, he coins "Captain Cuckoo" for Captain Marvel in Superman: Distant Fires.
  • He gives Hippolyta multiple nicknames during the Amazons Attack! review: Hippopotamus Brain, Hibonkersla, Smokingalottapolyta, etc. In his Maximum Clonage review he calls her "Queen Hippolobotomy".
  • He refers to the bodyguard character from Zero Patrol as "Blandy the Bodyguard".
  • Similar to the Batman and Superman examples, he refers to Wonder Woman as seen in All-Star Batman and Robin as "Bonkers Betty".
• Fanfic Fuel:invoked
  • Referenced in the Warrior #2 review during a trip to the Tommy Wiseauniverse. "You are trying to steal my hat! You are giving the slash-ficcers material! YOU ARE TEARING ME APART, INSANO!!!"
  • At the end of the crossover video with Sofie Liv reviewing "The New Adventures of Wonder Woman", Sofie comments how she wants to be loved and to make love, while holding up a Wonder Woman costume.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Invoked: One of the biggest reasons he won't review One More Day—he would first have to acknowledge its existence. He has since gone back on that. But admits that it enraged him so much he stopped buying Spider-Man comics set after the story. He notes, however, that he doesn't want Marvel to turn One More Day into Canon Discontinuity, as that would just be the lazy way out, but to make a solution and build on it.
• Fauxlosophic Narration: Warrior's concept of Destrucity, a portmanteau meant to symbolize the truce between one's future destiny and current reality.
• Fiction Identity Postulate: The main reason why Linkara prefers that writers on serialized fiction tries to fix and build upon previous instances of bad writing rather than resorting to just flat out removing it by the way of retconning. He believes that previous bad decisions in a story's development can be turned into something interesting and good when placed in the hands of skilled writers, and that just pretending something in a story never happened, even if it was stupid and offensive, comes across as even more jarring than trying to own up to those mistakes later.
• Flat "What":
  • His reaction to the use of the McCarran Act in "Amazons Attack #3".
  • Used in his and Liz's first Yu-Gi-Oh! duel, when she Monster Reborns a card that she had to discard.
    Liz: I'll bring out my Red Eyes Black Dragon…
    Lewis: What.
    Liz: That you made me get rid of.
    Lewis: What.
  • Used again in the second round.
    Liz: Well, we can't have you continuing this any longer, so I'm gonna sacrifice these two cards…
    Linkara: What.
    Liz: …whip out one Blue Eyes White Dragon…
    Linkara: What.
    Liz: And you, sir, are going to be killed.
    Linkara: What.
  • His reaction to the Giant Flea-Market-Eating Flea.
• Flipping the Bird: During the Marville #5 review, the issue takes a potshot at scientists. Cut to Dr. Linksano doing this trope to the screen (and, presumably, the comic). Later, when the issue outright calls anthropologists people without jobs, Linkara invites the audience to do the same to the comic.
• Floating Head Syndrome: He has commented on/lampooned this many times.
• Foe Romance Subtext:
  • Discussed with regards to the Linkara/Dr. Insano relationship, which the actors are very well aware is extrapolated by the fandom.
    "What are you doing?! You are giving the slash-ficcers material!"
  • Linkara points out the Super Ninja in Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos #1 is unleashing his hatred of Chuck Norris... by punching a huge portrait of him.
• Foreshadowing: The 600th episode has a blink-and-you'll miss it correction that functions as this (Linkara having taken great pains to ensure viewers unfamiliar with the original story don't have the twist moments ruined for them): Linkara gets to the moment where Peter sees the results of a dna test and comments that the DNA test revealed Gabriel and Sarah are his kids. As he says this, the word "HER" pops up to correct the line for a fraction of a second, since the test was only with Gwen's DNA. And indeed, though we're led to believe otherwise during this part of the story, they are ONLY Gwen's kids, not his.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Notes how even towels do this in 22 Brides issue #1.
• Formula-Breaking Episode A few of the Patreon-requested reviews are not for comic books at all. The Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines review is for a video game, the My Cage review is for a comic strip, Dengeki Stryker is a visual novel, and he's also looked at a few episodes from Super Sentai, notably the Burai arc from Zyuranger and the first episodes of Gokaiger.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: Calls Countdown to Final Crisis out on this. He's actually able to summarize the huge number of issues in two videos because so little actually happens and what does happen is stretched out.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The blinking "Extreme" logo in the Newmen review flashes "Buy Revolution of the Mask" and, even more briefly, "If you can read this, you paused the video." It returns in the Youngblood #6 review.
  • In his review of New Guardians #2, during one of Linkara's invocations of Godwin's Law, Linkara leaves a freeze-frame message during one of his invocations of Godwin's Law:
    Yeah, I can see why Germany would want to follow this shouting, drug-crazed lunatic. ZOMG Easter egg! Hi TVTropes!
• Fridge Logic:invoked
  • After Linkara finishes his New Guardians review, he pops out and says: "Wait a second - if their mission is to proliferate their DNA through procreation, why is there a gay guy in the group?"
  • He points out the character in Silent Hill 4: The Room could just break the wall to remove the chains.
  • He points out that this can ruin some of the few seemingly good parts of Countdown to Final Crisis. Most notably, he admits that when the Monitor Bob made his Face–Heel Turn, he originally found it an exciting and interesting twist, but thinking more on it (and rereading the earlier issues) made him realise that Bob's betrayal made no sense when matched up to everything he had been doing before, and pretty much came out of nowhere.
  • A recurring criticism of stories where heroes lose their powers is that it also applies to people like Martian Manhunter, who doesn't actually have any beyond natural abilities of his species.
  • Jokingly points out how Earth-Prime being our universe doesn't make sense when its destroyed by a wave of anti-matter in "Top 15 Heroes Becoming Villains."
• Fridge Horror:invoked To quote a comment from the third part of his JLA: Act of God review:
  Joe England: And isn't it just so in-character how Wonder Woman was contemplating suicide WHILE WITH CHILD?? Dear lord.
  Linkara: (in response) Good God, I didn't even think of that.
  • While reading the fifth issue of Marville, Linkara realizes that Bill Jemas may be entirely serious when he calls Wolverine the first human, and that he may not actually be able to distinguish between fantasy and reality.
• Friend to All Children: Linkara enjoys positive depictions of children and families in comics. Killing or endangering child characters for shock value is a REALLY good way to piss him off.
• Funny Background Event: If you look closely at the background, in his US-1 #5 review, you may notice that during the review, a semi-truck toy on the shelf transforms into Optimus Prime and back again.
  • The shelves behind Linkara have a tendency to reflect the current review/story.
  • Ever since Lewis & Viga got cats, they can now be seen crawling about the Futon and the Shelves, as Linkara narrates to the Camera.
• Future Slang: Given Linkara's reaction to Spider-Man 2099 slang, (20)90s Kid gives some examples of his own. "This is Kleenex!"
  2090s Kid: The future totally masks, man!
  Linkara: Is that good? Is that bad?
  2090s Kid: Oh, you know, the future is kleenex man, totally kleenex!
  Linkara: I'm going to begin ignoring you now.
  2090s Kid: Sewing machine!
  • Sci-Spy earns a similar treatment.

G

• Gambit Roulette: Prometheus from Justice League: Cry for Justice seems to depend on nothing but these and Ass Pulls.
  • Dr Doom's plan from Ultimates 3, as revealed in Ultimatum. Linkara goes on a long rant with it.
  • Harvest's plan from The Culling is seemingly dependant on his victims deciding to join him. "My pwan is gweat!"
• Gatling Good: He uses it to take out Pyramid Head.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Seems to think this of Batman from Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham. He considers this trope the worst kind of villain.
• Global Ignorance: Linkara is infamous for making several errors in location for his reviews. For example, the "Kamandi: At Earth's End #2" review had him wrongly criticize the writer for stating Hackensack, New Jersey was west of New York City, only for Doctor Linksano to pop up and correct him on that mistake. Unlike most examples of the trope, Linkara's well-aware of his poor geographical skills and has made said ignorance a Self-Deprecating Running Gag.
• A God Am I: Linkara parodies the trope in his New Guardians review, which depicts Snowflame as a god and includes the statement "He will rise in three days amongst the marijuana leaves!".
• Godwin's Law: Invokes this in his New Guardians #2 review when he points out that the concept of a group of people being chosen to reproduce due to their genetic superiority sounds strangely familiar...
• Golden Super Mode: Discussed in his review of The Technis Imperative. He notes how Teen Titans characters seem to be reincarnated into more powerful golden forms and joked that had Gandalf been a member of the team, he would have resurrected as Gandalf the Gold.
• Good Is Old-Fashioned: Linkara chews out Superman at Earth's End for apparently taking this viewpoint.
• Gosh Dangit To Heck: Linkara is not afraid to use lighter swears like ass, Hell, damn, etc., but generally refrains from using stronger ones. He has even said "Funk and Wagnall" in the place of the F-bomb at least three times; ironically (or intentionally), it makes that sentence funnier. In his Top 15 Screw-Ups, he admits he uses such words in real life all the time, even pointing out some examples listed below where they do bleed into his reviews, but he chooses to not use them in his reviews because he feels they are better off without them.
  "Does cursing really make the review better? Really?"
  • He doesn't, however, have a problem with playing "America, Fuck Yeah" uncensored whenever Captain America shows how much of a badass he is.
  • He also has no issues with writing gratuitous profanity for other people, as evidenced by the number of F-bombs Spoony drops in Linkara-written crossovers.
    • Or in the Robocop vs. the Terminator review, where the Stinger uses a clip of the T-800 saying "Fuck you, asshole."
  • In The Cinema Snob parody, any attempt at "What the fuck" is interrupted by Linkara doing another of Brad's characters.
  • He also has no issues with it in bloopers, as evidenced by the cross-over Wonder Woman 2011 pilot review.
    • Not quite true, since in an "odds and ends" post, he remarks that he didn't know Nash was going to include it uncensored and would have asked him to bleep it.
    • Whether or not he feels this way about his blooper for the Les Misérables (2012) crossover review done by The Nostalgia Critic is unconfirmed.
  • In his The Fantastic Four crossover review with Bennett the Sage, he gets Bennett to swear for him, to the point that Bennett actually gets bored with doing it.
  • Averted... Maybe when he made a cameo in Obscurus Lupa's Evil Dead 2 review as himself possessed by a Deadite along with other possessed reviewers making fun of Lupa, he said shit.
  • He's bleeped out the harder swears when reading porn titles for The Spoony Experiment's review of Lethal Games.
• Guest Strip: Normally, his title cards are done by MTC-Studios but there have been a few guest artists as well, such as Fred Perry of Gold Digger fame when Linkara did a review of his comic, Steam Wars.
• Guilty Pleasures: Several in-universe examples for Linkara.
  • He still collects Power Rangers toys and after stating all the flaws in Marvel's MMPR #1 he still can't say it sucks because it's Power Rangers.
    "It's cheesy, it's over the top, and I love every second of it!"
  • He sees Transformers as goofy, but also awesome.
  • He admits that Brute Force is this because it is gloriously bad.
  • He admits to liking Maximum Carnage in "Top 15 Comics I Won't Review", stating although it's long and some particular points such as the way the villains are defeated are pretty silly, he still finds it pretty fun.

H

• HA HA HA—No: His opinion of the title of Marville #5: Originville.
  Linkara: The comic still thinks it's a parody, because under Marville, it says Originville. Get it? Just like that comic Wolverine Origins? And this comic features Wolverine prominently? And it's Originville instead of Origins? Do you get it? DO YOU GET IT? IT'S FUNNY! LAUGH! LAUGH, DAMN YOU!!! And then stop laughing because it isn't funny.
• Halloween Episode: The Silent Hill comic reviews in 2009, 2010, and 2011.
  • And The Thing Comics for the following three years; 2012, 2013 and 2014
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street comics were reviewed for 2015, 2016 and 2017.
  • As part of his 10th anniversary celebration, for 2018 he looked at comics for all three ending with a review to kick off the next three years starting 2019, Hellraiser.
• Hammerspace: Every time Linkara does his "I AM A MAN! *PUNCH* routine, he pulls something different back on screen each time, including his stuffed bear and Iron Liz, among others. When he asked Liz how she got there, she had no idea.
  • There is also the time he couldn't pull his hand back.
    Linkara "Help! I-I'm stuck!"
    • Then there was time he pulled the camera out of... wherever.
• Hand Wave: Linkara took a very long time to explain why his gun shoots lasers and in the Star Trek review he simply says "It's magic! I don't have to explain it!" which is a blatant Shout-Out to his much-hated One More Day. He later gave the full story, but, at the time, the character didn't actually know how it worked.
• Harmless Villain: Linksano, at least while unaccompanied.
• Harsher in Hindsight: He calls Cable #1 out on this In-Universe. It starts off the comic with the World Trade Center being blown up for no particular reason - a Ripped from the Headlines reference to the 1993 WTC bombing. Linkara's response was Stunned Silence, and then saying "...OKAY! MOVING ON THEN."
  • And later on, in Game Boy #1....
  "We cut to New York and the... the World Trade Center. Towers. Well I mean this was made in 1990. There shouldn't be anything wrong. (later) "Later An Ominous Black, Cloud, Hovers... Above... The... Renowned... Twin... Towers..." (puts hand on face and sighs) oh sweet merciful crap.

  • And the second comic in the line doesn't do much better...
    "A dark cloud over the world trade towers in the first issue, now hijacking an airplane in this one? This comic is seriously trolling me."
  • Captain Electron #1 has a subplot with a plane crashing into the Chrysler Building. Linkara's reaction, understandably, is much the same.
  • Show-related: the joke about MissingNo from The Dark Knight Strikes Again Part 2 review is much less funny when you find out who the Entity is...
• Have a Gay Old Time: In his "Top 15 Comics he will NEVER review", he mentions that "Batman #66" is not heavily requested, but is still denied because he figures that the only reason why people want him to review it is because they want him to say the word "Boner", which meant something much different back during the Silver Age. Just to humor them, he gives them what they want.
  "If that's the case, then I shall give you what you want. Boner. Boner Boner. Boner Boning of Boner. Boner Boner. Erect Penis."
  • And in his review of All-American Comics #16:
    Alan Scott: What a queer light!
    Linkara: (beat) What, it was the 1940s!
• Head-Tiltingly Kinky: Lewis's profile picture for Blogspot and Twitter.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Linkara points out in a review of a Captain Planet comic book that because the power of "Heart" gives you Mind Control (in a sense), it should technically be the most powerful ring/power within the series, while Wheeler's fire powers are the weakest. All Wheeler can do, basically, is shoot a stream of fire from his ring.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Episode 13 of his Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force Let's Play starts with him still reeling from Biessman's death in the previous episode.
  • In his Brain Drain review, Linkara sees The Thing actually considering his grotesque transformation to be a good thing, but he nearly lets this slide, despite his fury that the author had obviously never read a Fantastic Four comic, because the comic is pretty much an advertisement for Office Max. Then the (literal) BSOD comes on when he sees the writer was Tom Defalco, former EDITOR-IN-CHIEF at Marvel.
• Hidden Depths: Aside from his being a good singer, who'd have guessed Linkara's a fan of Camelot?
  Linkara: Into the woods and down the dell; the path is straight, I know it well. [Beat] Second-favorite musical.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: NSD's ninja-style dancing, particularly when it is done to Caramelldansen.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: As he points out in-universe, The Clone Saga was originally set to be revealed as the handiwork of Mephisto, but the editors decided that Mephisto getting involved with Spider-Man was ridiculous. *ahem*
• Hiss Before Fleeing: Or rather, Skronk before fleeing. The Ultimate Spoony does this when Linkara finally shoos him away.
• Ho Yay: invoked Lampshaded. "You are giving the slash ficc-ers material!"
  • He also pokes fun at all the Ho Yay in Superman: At Earth's End: "For the love of Heidegger, why didn't you marry Bruce instead of Lois?", "Finally Bruce! We can get married like we always wanted to!" "The first priority is Bruce Wayne's desiccated, decaying corpse!"
  • Also in the Batman/Spawn crossover: "For God's sake, just kiss him already!"
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Played for laughs in Linking Up with Linkara when The Nostalgia Chick and MarzGurl declare they are going lesbian and he asks if he can watch. NChick tells him "No, that's exploitation, you're a feminist, that's bad."
• Homage: In his commentary on Adamantium Rage, Linkara explicitly states that the whole thing was a homage to Spoony, pointing out all of the intentional parallels with Spoony's review style of the time, and noting that the format of the review was devised so that Linkara could work with him without piling on more work for the exhausted Spoony (who was burnt out from working on several other projects shortly beforehand).
• Hookers and Blow: What Linkara claims he's using the "Revolution Of The Mask" money on before realizing what he said.
  • He comments on never actually expecting to see this when the corrupt ref comes out of a room carrying cocaine with his arm around an obvious hooker in "Sir Charles Barkley and the Referee Murders",
• Hypocrite: Linkara briefly called this trope out in Psychoman #1, as the author states that superhero origins aren't grounded in reality and they don't do anything important to help the world... When the story implies God gave the protagonist those powers and the protagonist hardly even doing anything heroic at all in the story.
• Hypocrisy Nod:
  • Linkara often decries the All There in the Manual nature of some series, since required information cannot be found within the series itself.
    Linkara: I can't begin to imagine how anyone followed all this stuff at the time. It'd be like if I introduced plot elements in my show that somehow ended up on Spoony's show and... Uh... Nevermind.
  • After blasting Silent Hill: Dying Inside for missing the point of the Silent Hill series, he has a badass finale where he takes out Pyramid Head with a Gatling gun and a big explosion. The credits have him copping to the hypocrisy.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • In response to the narration at the end of Amazons Attack #1, Linkara expresses his distaste.
    Linkara: Who the Hell enjoys having their comics narrated to? Wait...
  • 90's Kid mocking the stupid, Totally Radical attempt at slang in Nightcat #1 with his own stupid, Totally Radical slang.
  • In "New Guardians #2", he mocks a CIA agent's brown jacket over a plaid shirt saying he looks like a used car salesman.
  • Linkara compares the lazy writing of Sonic Live to that of him suddenly having access to the technology of Power Rangers and Star Trek without any kind of explanation for how he did. To add to the awkwardness, he was actually holding a Power morpher and a phaser while arguing that.
  • He complains about the "Greatest Responsibility" storyline branching through three Spider-Man titles which made it hard for fans to follow, then remembers his own shared storylines with The Spoony Experiment.
  • He mentions in Battle for Bludhaven #5-6 that you can't have a character show up with no foreshadowing... Then Boffo shows up.
  • Upon seeing that Dave Willis of Shortpacked! donated some Dreamwave Transformers, he quips "I thought you were made of sterner stuff. Why throw away these comics so recklessly?" Cut to ten minutes later, when he does just that.
  • In his review of the Lady Gaga comic Fame, he complains about the protagonist.
    Linkara: Why would anyone find this entertaining? Just watching some overweight jerk with a hat sitting on a green sofa, making rude comments about other people's work and I think I'll shut up now.
  • How about Mighty & Morphing Power Rangers?
    Irate!Linkara: There's too many words here! I don't need to read all these words.
  • Upon completing his review of Mr.T and the T-Force #2, Linkara reminds us that he doesn't condone drug use.
    Linkara: Let's remember that Mr.T believes in a drug-free world.
    Snowflame: SNOWFLAME MADE COCAINE POPSICLES!
    Linkara: Err, if you'll excuse me, I have to deal with a situation before I get arrested.
    Snowflame: SNOWFLAME IS THE ICE CREAM MAN!

I

• I'm Not Doing That Again: Linkara after attempting to sing Holding Out For A Hero.
• I Have Many Names: Lewis Lovhaug has at least three known internet handles:
  • Linkara. Also the name of his avatar character. Used on Channel Awesome, his personal blog and such forums as Toonzone and Rangerboard.
  • Reuisu. The nickname he used before Linkara. His YouTube account is under this name, and so is his membership on the forum for The Agony Booth, where he once submitted a guest article.
    • Reuisu is an incorrect Japanese transliteration of "Lewis" . More correctly it's Ruisu.
  • PsyWeedle. His oldest known nickname, which he used as a Fan Fiction writer on FanFiction.Net. Revealed in an episode of Masterpiece Fanfic Theatre, though the particular story that Bennett the Sage reviewed has been removed from his account.
• I Call Her "Vera": Inverted, the Magic Gun's name is Mark, but that was the name of the child sacrificed to make it, not a nickname Linkara gave it. Linkara doesn't even discover it until the Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham #1 review.
• I Have Nothing to Say to That: A line from Superman Meets the Quik Bunnny prompts Linkara to comment: "That is such an idiotic thing to say that I really have no joke sufficient enough to counter it."
• I Meant to Do That: Linkara operates a panel in Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force and blows up one of the crewmen. Linkara responds thus.
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • By the end of JLA: Act of God.
  "Oh, alcohol, I still drink to your health!"
  • By the end of The Dark Knight Strikes Again:
    "Back to the bottle!"
  • Used again, though a bit more subdued, in his review of a Spawn/Batman team up comic.
  • Marville earns this with every issue.
  Linkara: Let's see what's next...Marville #4. Pollo, get the booze.
  Pollo: I can't. My arms don't work.

  • And on issue 5, "I used a three years' worth budget of alcohol with this series... And I feel like it wasn't enough."
• Inferred Holocaust: In-Universe: Linkara points out that Nightcat blowing up a garbage barge would pollute Hudson River even more.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: On the video review for Ultimates 3 #1, an irate commenter told Lewis something along the lines of, "I'm sick of these videos. You're obnoxious, pretentious, and your editing is atrocious." Linkara's response?

  "What's wrong with my editing?"

• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine:
  • Lewis' father plays his older self in the review of Superman vs. The Terminator. Later, his whole family shows up as the ghosts from A Christmas Carol.
  • In the Star Trek/X-Men review, we see his mom as a Starfleet Admiral.
  • Lovhaug Sr. comes back at the end of Linkara's Halloween Silent Hill special as Whately.
• Ice-Cream Koan: Linkara has FUUUN making these up in the second live review.
• Idiot Ball: Pointed out and named by Linkara in his crossover with Film Brain:
  Film Brain: Finally, they get back to the idea of killing The Spirit, which of course they plan to do by having Plaster cut him up to tiny little pieces that they will post all over the country. Or, you know, they could just blow him up.
  Linkara: Shh! The Octopus is holding his idiot ball!
• Imagine Spot: He fails to recognise the Neutro destruction sequences in Neutro #1 as one — of course, this was probably deliberate for the sake of humor.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: The cover art of Chain Gang War #1.
• Improbable Age: Breaks Linkara's Willing Suspension of Disbelief in Superman Meets the Quik Bunny.
• In Name Only: Several in-universe namings of the trope (though this applies to single characters more than franchises).
  • By two-thirds of the way through his Superman: At Earth's End review, Linkara can only bring himself to refer to the title character as "Bearded Idiot."
  • In an early text review, he dubs the title character of All-Star Batman and Robin "BINO" (Batman In Name Only). In the video version, he decides that "Batman" must actually be an insane hobo who found a Batman costume and dubs him "Crazy Steve."
  • During a review of a later issue of All-Star Batman and Robin, he deduces that the version of Wonder Woman as seen in the comic is an escaped mental patient who wears Wonder Woman's costume, and dubs her "Bonkers Betty".
  • The plot of Godyssey is so in contrast to Jesus' actual life and teachings that Linkara suggests the Greek gods found the wrong crucifixion victim, naming him Jesús ^note pronounced closer to 'Hay-sus', the Christian martial artist. He was All Just a Dream anyway.
  • The Previously on… segments are all very much this—it is mercilessly Played for Laughs.
• Incendiary Exponent: He manages to light The Dark Knight Strikes Again on fire by punching it while wearing the Battlizer.
  • He also burns Superman: At Earth's End after giving a rant on why Superman is awesome. (when reviewing predecessor Kamandi at Earth's End later revealed that the comic burned wasn't really that, but makes sure to really burn Bearded Idiot's comic)
  • And at the end of the Next Top 15 AT4W Screw-Ups, what comic gets this treatment? One More Day.
  • In his Marville #5 review, he says he'd burn it except he's afraid he'd inhale the fumes and get dumber as a result.
  • And in his 300th episode, the Frank Miller horror show called "Holy Terror" gets burned for its sins.
• Incoming Ham: 90's Kid: "DUUUUUUUUUUUUDE!"
• Informed Ability: While the characters in Batman: Fortunate Son say Izaak Krowe is a good musician, Linkara does not see it. The reason is that comic books (unlike music) are a purely visual medium, and unless a CD was actually included with the comic, we have no way of knowing if this guy is as good a musician as the characters say he is.
  • He raises the same criticism with regards to Batman: Jazz.
• Informed Wrongness: Invoked by Linkara in-universe. Big Barda's Internal Monologue in Action Comics #592 describes the back alley she stumbles into as being worse than Apokolips, but Linkara comments that this is a patently false statement, since this alley, though unpleasant, is a Sugar Bowl compared to Apokolips, which is a close approximation to Hell.
• Inherently Funny Words: In the episode "Top 15 Comics I Won't Review", Linkara refuses to review a highly-requested issue of Batman because it's the "Joker's Boner" issue and he knows everyone just wants to make him say "boner" repeatedly throughout a review. So, to get it out of everyone's system, he says "boner" repeatedly for the next two minutes.
• Insult to Rocks: In his crossover review of Spider-Man: One Moment in Time with The Last Angry Geek, he once again loudly declares that Joe Quesada is a hack, and that calling him that is doing a favor to the other hacks out there by making them look better in comparison.
• The Internet Is for Cats: In the episode on Spider-Man: Virtual Mortality this gets referenced. After the comic (which is from the 1990s) comments about how 'cyberspace' has no boundries and has infinite potential and possibility, Linkara says "The capacity for pornography, cat videos, and harassment is infinite!"
• In the Name of the Moon: Makes a reference to the trope name while talking about The Question in his The Dark Knight Strikes Again review.
• It's a Wonderful Plot: Obscurus Lupa pulls this on Linkara in the 200th episode and fails miserably.

J

• Jerkass Has a Point: In Star Trek vs. Transformers, Starscream attempts to seize rulership of the Klingons by threatening the current leadership. When they refuse to back down, saying that any Klingon would choose to die with honor over submission to an enemy, not only does Starscream start shooting at them, he points out that if they really cared about honor, they'd be on a battlefield instead of cowering away in their Council chamber. Linkara opens his mouth to object but after thinking it through, admits "That's fair."

K

• Karma Houdini: Dr. Grouch and Mr. Meaney from the Superman's Christmas Adventure review. As Linkara points out, they get away with committing multiple felonies including arson, kidnapping, and attempted murder, all because they suddenly have a change of heart at the end of the story. They even get rewarded for their behavior when Santa leaves them presents!
• Keet: Lewis in real life, according to Spoony; he insisted on filming their crossover right after doing Kickassia for eight hours straight.
• The Ken Burns Effect: Panels from comics are usually filmed this way, usually while Linkara is reading dialogue or summarizing a scene.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Comments on it at least three times in the review of "The Invincible Four of Kung Fu & Ninja #1".
• Kill It with Fire: This is what Linkara does to his reviled copy of Superman: At Earth's End at the end of his review and to his copy of The Dark Knight Strikes Again at the end of Part 3.
  • He later admitted in the Kamandi at Earth's End review that he didn't really burn the Superman comic; he didn't have a print copy when filming, burned another comic with a copy of the cover and later just tore up the Superman comic upon receiving it. He did finally burn a copy of the Superman comic in the Kamandi review (though not without difficulty due to the paper quality).
  • He tries to burn JLA: Act of God, but both his gun and his lighter vanish.
  • He admits in "The Next 15 Screw-Ups" that he didn't burn One More Day because time was running short. He sets fire to it shortly afterwards.
  • He says that Ultimatum could be burned, but "fire is too good for it", so it get thrown "where it belongs": the trash bin.
  • Frank Miller's Holy Terror gets this treatment in his 300th episode, with the explanation that, while he believes you can do with your comics what you wish, he believes his copy deserves to burn.

L

• Lampshade Hanging: During his review of Battle for Bludhaven #5-6, he asks in frustration why most of the bad comics he reads have some connection to Kamandi.
• Lampshaded the Obscure Reference: Has done this a few times.
  "My thanks to the three people who get that joke."
• Large Ham: Linkara gets really passionate whenever he's too angry.
  • LINKARA'S BELLOWING OF THE DOOM COMIC'S DIALOGUE IS ESSENTIALLY THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR TURNED UP TO 11, HOAK HOGAN!!!
    • Also, I AM A MAN!!! (punch!)
  • Dr Linksano.
  • 90s Kid.
• Larynx Dissonance
  • Linkara himself does not try for a convincing female voice since he is just reading dialog out loud, at least in cases with decently developed characters. Characters that don't contribute anything to the plot are likely to get a high-pitched falsetto voice.
  • Due to her larynx condition, Iron Liz does fine male voices... and then does a Linkara-esque falsetto for female voices anyway.
• Last-Second Word Swap: In the crossover with The Cinema Snob for Bimbos BC, Linkara says, "It was shot on shhhhhhhurely what was at the time high-quality video tape," averting the Snob's "shot on shitteo" catch phrase.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: A few:
  • Around 2018, the intro would be modified, adding in a CGI version of the show's logo and dropping the odd "Linkara" logo from the end. This would coincide with Linkara leaving Channel Awesome.
  • 2021 would have a lot of changes. The first review of that year would introduce a brand new intro, using a new theme song that removed the insulting references. Halfway through the year, Dr. Crafty would step down as title card artist and Viga would replace him.
• Laughing Gas: Conversed in his review of Strange Adventures #36.
  Linkara: [They] learn that an alien spaceship has landed and is converting the oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere into nitrous oxide, or laughing gas. Admittedly, I'm not a scientist, but that just seems impossible. Especially the fact that it's making them all laugh uncontrollably. It's just supposed to make you more euphoric and maybe give you the giggles before it knocks you out. Oh, here's a funny thing, I don't know if it's true or not, but Wikipedia says that nitrous oxide is actually a worse greenhouse gas and air pollutant than carbon dioxide. So the aliens are kinda screwing over the planet they're trying to conquer. Polluters from Space!
• Left the Background Music On: In the intro to the S.C.I.-Spy #1 review, the theme to James Bond plays as Linkara does spy-stuff while attempting to open a violin case with the comic. Suddenly, the music changes to that of Charlie's Angels and Linkara imitates the intro to that show, before turning his MP3 player off.
• LEGO Genetics: Linkara points out that Superman does not have "superpowers"; his abilities are perfectly natural for a Kryptonian and no more "super" than any normal human ability. To remove his powers in JLA: Act of God, he would have to be completely altered genetically, more likely killing him than removing his powers. Linkara even says genetics are not Lego bricks.
• Leitmotif:
  • 90's Kid's rants are always backed up by Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", though he sometimes uses "Smells Like Nirvana" by "Weird Al" Yankovic in its place. "Finger of Fear" for Dr. Insano (and Dr. Linksano). "Graveyard" for Mechakara.
  • If you hear "Combine Harvester" by the Wurzels playing, that means Linkara has just lost it.
  • If Captain America does something awesome, "America, Fuck Yeah!" is sure to follow.
• Let's See YOU Do Better!: Linkara got some criticism of this nature from Frank Miller fans after he criticised some of Miller's most recent works, with numerous comments of this nature about his own comic efforts. Linkara pointed out that he has only been doing it for a few years while Miller has been continuously working for three decades, and it is not unreasonable to suggest that his work could be better than it is.
• Lethal Joke Character:
  • Ma-Ti in Captain Planet #3.
  • Dr. Insano. Make him cut his hair, and he turns into a destroyer of evil robots from an Alternate Universe.
• Lightning Can Do Anything: Lampshaded in the 100th episode.
• Limited Wardrobe: He usually wears the same combination of jacket, plaid/black shirt and hat. (although he's shown off his Star Trek uniform collection... and the Power Rangers Zeo version of his reviewer wardrobe!)
  • Since the finale of the Ghost in the Machine arc, Linkara has changed out his standard outfit for a white shirt, a brown vest,a brown tie, and a brown duster for storyline segments.
• Literal-Minded: In Amazing Spider-Man: Skating on Thin Ice #1, Linkara has a literal interpretation of the phrase "alcohol abuse" in which he verbally and emotionally abuses a bottle of alcohol.
• Lock-and-Load Montage: We got one first during the Amazons Attack! introduction (after a failed Training Montage). His opening notably features one as well.
• Logic Bomb: Frequently pointed out, with something along the lines of, "Yeah, [insert logical inconsistency here]! ...Wait, what?"
• LOL, 69:
  • The video about the second half of the original The Transformers (Marvel) run plays with this issues 69 saw the debut of the infamous Body Horror-laden fusion of Megatron and Ratchet — with one of Linkara's comments being "this is not nice!"
  • During his review of Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!, when one of the captions says "69 hours ago", he subverts his "What time is it?" gag by saying "Now we know what time it is; nice time."
  • His review of Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith's comic adaptation has a joke where a clone trooper mishears "order 66" thanks to static and says "Noice."
  • When cover issue 69 of the series for his retrospective of The Sandman (1989) he says the issue is "nice —depending on your point of view," relating to it being the issue where Morpheus dies.
• Long List: In Linkara’s review of Marville #5, when the question, "What could be more impressive?" is asked, he gives this response:
  Linkara: Ooooh… Watchmen, pizza deliveries in 30 minutes or less, disposable cameras, fast food drive-thrus, cellular telephones, Godzilla movies, Beanie Babies, digital watches, my DVD, on sale now, Mr. T, parkour enthusiasts, cancer researchers, Stephen Sondheim, the miracle that is everyday existence, and the second, third, forth, sixth, and eighth Star Trek movies. (Beat) There’s more, but I think that covers a WIDE range of things in particular that are more impressive.
• Long Runner: Atop the Fourth Wall is currently celebrating its tenth anniversary and its 500th episode.
• Losing Horns: Used when talking about Cheshire's relationship in Rise of Arsenal 3-4.
• Lost Aesop: One of Linkara's primary criticisms of JLA: Act of God was its inability to hold on to a single message. At some points, the comic seemed to be anti-vigilante, critiquing superheroes for their "arrogance," but at other points in the stories, it seems to imply that it is the responsibility of any socially conscious individual to take matters into their own hands. Sometimes it explains the importance of working within the system and at other times people who do so are only too scared to break out of it. At no point does it give a consistent, clear message to its readers.

M

• Mad Libs Catch Phrase:
  • "So let's dig into [comic name]."
  • He occasionally starts a review with "I LOVE [subject of comic]!" Examples include Silent Hill, Christmas, and Blake's 7.
  • Another occasional one is "X is/was WEEEEEEIIIRD." Recurring examples including "comic books", "the Silver Age / The '60s" and "the beta version / first draft of (media)".
  • "Because poor literacy is kewl!" went from being played straight to one of these, where "kewl" is replaced with another word or phrase.
• Madness Mantra: "ANTI-LIFE JUSTIFIES MY HATE!"
• Malevolent Architecture: Noted numerous times throughout his Let's Play of Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force
  Whoa, apparently, the Borg don't have OSHA, because this thing just tried to kill me!
• Man of a Thousand Voices: Has a surprisingly broad vocal range when voicing all the different characters in the comics he reads out, especially the falsetto ones for the women. Also has a few distinctive ones pulled out for humor value (for example, a Sean Connery impression for anyone connected with espionage, and his Superboy-Prime voice for any similarly whiny character).
  • In his Doctor Who Classics #7 review, you can hear his broad vocal range between Linkara, the lounge singer, the Totally Radical surfer, the gruff Starfleet Lieutenant and the mad scientist.
  • Whenever he does a review of a Power Rangers related comic, he is able to do almost spot-on impressions of many of the Rangers and supporting characters, including a very good Bulk and Skull.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: The hundredth episode features dozens of the other contributors to Channel Awesome singing/saying lines from the theme song.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Harvey Finevoice has a fine voice.
  • Linkara pointed out in the Warrior #2 and #3 review that his own name, Lewis, means "warrior" in several languages and that he has more of a basis to call himself a warrior than the Ultimate Warrior.
• Meanwhile, Back at the…: "Meanwhile, at an undisclosed location just down the hall..."
• Medium Awareness: In the Ewoks #9 review,
  Linkara: How did you make that text appear like that?
  Iron Liz: How did you do it with the "E-Walks" joke?
  Linkara: Ahh, touché.
• Memetic Badass: In-universe, Captain America
  • AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Also, in his Action Comics #592-593 reviews, Big Barda.
• Mind Screw: In his review of Detective Comics #27, Linkara notes that he does not have to do his Origins Month introduction every time because he could simply edit in a previous instance and we would never know. He then grins and remarks "how's that for a mind screw?".
• Misplaced Accent: When reviewing the James Bond Jr. comics, he naturally does a Sean Connery impression when voicing the title character - who sounds nothing like Connery and instead speaks in an upper-class English accent.
• Missing the Good Stuff: In "Linking Up with Linkara", he wakes up to find he has just had an incredible threesome with The Nostalgia Chick and MarzGurl, but cannot remember anything about it. They also declare that they will not do it again as nothing could possibly measure up to the first time, plus he cannot just watch the two of them because of his own loud and proud feminist views. It is all a prank, but he is left to stew about it for a week.
• Mistaken for Gay: In his "Athena #1" review, Linkara officially announces that he is straight, to counter accusations that he dislikes women being objectified in comic books because he is gay (rather than feminist disagreement with the concept of boob windows and constant ass shots).
• Modeling Poses: In the final crossover video for the comic by the Ultimate Warrior, one of the alternate universe opened up was where Spoony and Linkara were models, and they ended their skit on a bunch of fashion poses as the cameraman took their pictures.
• Mood Whiplash
  • In part two of the Countdown review, he goes into a harrowing account of the unfolding of the Great Disaster, which is followed by a motontage of scenes of destruction set to emotional music... only to abruptly stop it once he realizes that the Great Disaster isn't even happening in the main DC universe, and then goes into a mini-rant on the plotholes raised by this fact.
  • Near the end of Ultimatum #1-2, he's ultra-excited about seeing Captain America and Thor fight off all kinds of dead creatures, until it cuts to The Blob eating The Wasp. Linkara enters rage mode, declaring that the comic sucks before he even finishes it.
  • In his Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger review of that series' Green Ranger arc, he considers the mood whiplash between serious storyline with silly credits to be moreso than Blake's 7.
  • At the beginning of his Psychoman #1 review, Linkara mentions writer and creator Todd Loren was murdered shortly after it was written and his killer was never found. Linkara admits he feels bad for making fun of the final work of someone whose life was cut short so tragically, but after a Beat, he reiterates that the comic sucks.
  • Recently, his videos start with him excitedly and quickly promoting funding for his movie, only to immediately cut to the actual review starting with him slumping and groaning about how bad the comic he is reviewing will be. "Santa The Barbarian" is a prime example of this.
• Motor Mouth:
  • Seems a bit thrown off by Snowflame in New Guardians talking faster and faster like he's the Flash or something.
  • A character in the Dragnet newspaper strip:
    "Guy asked me if I wanted to make a fast buck told him yes and he sprang the deal I went along with him but I want no part of it now."
    Linkara: "Punctuation marks only make things more difficult in our fast-paced world don't you agree? that's a great tie you're wearing let's do lunch."
• Moral Event Horizon: In-universe, even 90's Kid could not get behind Countdown after Superboy-Prime killed the pregnant Lana Lang from an alternate Earth.
• Mr. Exposition: Todd in the Shadows and The Rap Critic are brought in for context on KISS and Eminem, respectively.
  • The Rap Critic also does context for Vanilla Ice.
• MST3K Mantra: invoked In the Marville #4 review, telling the viewers not to take his hologram being the one who reviewed the third issue too seriously amounts to this.
• Multiple-Choice Past: Linkara has come up with multiple explanations for why a character's forehead was emitting pink bubbles in one comic.
• My Future Self and Me: Linkara and his future self (played by Lewis's father).

N

• Name McAdjective: In his review of Uncanny X-Men #424, he said that Chuck Austen "could not fail any more if [his] name was Faily McFailing Fail!"
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: There is a lovely little Lampshade Hanging of this practice in his Daredevil #306 review regarding the Surgeon General, whose last name is actually Cutter:
  "Remember, kids, if your name sounds like anything, you will become a supervillain."
• Narm: Invoked at the beginning of the Rise of Arsenal review. He just breaks down in laughter after reading the comic. invoked
• Narm Charm: invoked
  • Linkara's opinion on the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and Power Rangers Zeo comics is that they're pretty silly and cheesy and that he loves them.
  • Linkara seems to enjoy The Silver Age of Comic Books, or at least elements of its style, when awesome content or (on the flip side) pointless gore pop up.
• Never Bareheaded: In his reviews, he always wears his hat.
• Never Heard That One Before: In "Captain America Goes To War Against Drugs", Captain America reels off various things he's heard by people underestimating him. Linkara adds how the story of "Surely, he couldn't have eaten all the donuts" may not be what they want to hear.
• The New Rock & Roll: Linkara and Paw discuss this in Batman: Fortunate Son.
• The Nicknamer: For instance, Linkara refers to Batman in All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder as "Crazy Steve" and Wonder Woman as "Bonkers Betty".
• Nightmare Fuel: invoked
  • The Blob eating the Wasp in Ultimatum, which promptly halts his review and causes him to quickly call out the comic for putting in something like that with no warning for mature readers, as well as killing the Wasp for no good reason.
  • In the Rise of Arsenal review, he states this trope as we see a panel of Roy Harper getting his arm ripped off by his daughter. invoked
• '90s Anti-Hero: 90's Kid suggests a heavily armed hero named Bloodgun. Who is entirely made out of guns, including one for a head.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction:
  • Among the 15 comics he would not review was the infamous Sonichu. He stated that he wished he had never heard of it and refused to give it any publicity (through he quicly did a mini-review on it for two minutes straight).
  • His reaction to New 52 Jaime Reyes pretending to fall under the Scarab's control by hitting his best friend who has had an abusive father results in him going into this... And then taking it one step further.
• Noodle Implements: When Superman was forced to do porn under mind control, the story brushes it off with Superman saying his memory was fuzzy. Linkara jokes about him remembering a goat, salad dressing, and a traffic cone.
  "And after that, it just gets weeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiird."
• No Peripheral Vision: As pointed out in his Let's Play of Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force when Ensign Munro effectively runs straight past a guard,
  Peripheral vision? What's that?
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity:
  • In-Universe: Lewis believes that this it the reason Sci-Spy has gotten a reprint and US-1 has made Self Deprecating cameos.
  • Also invoked as one of the reasons why he listed Sonichu in his "Top 15 Comics I'll Never Review" list since he does not want to give it any kind of attention whatsoever.
• Nostalgia Filter: This is arguably the issue at the very heart of Infinite Crisis, the running theme that the story is trying to say. The idea that the Gold and Silver age of comics were much better, more optimistic, more light-hearted against the supposed darkness that came in the Bronze and Dark ages of comics. By being blinded by that nostalgia, Alex, Superboy-Prime and Kal-L want to do everything possible to bring back the worlds that they lost, because said worlds were "better". The problem is, by forcing what they see as better on everyone else, it ultimately creates a scenario much worse than what they claim the problem is. They become the brutal and darkness they claim to be fighting against.
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer:
  • The review of All-Star Batman and Robin #1-2 includes parts of the script for the first issue and the disclaimer is used just to assure us that what the viewer is seeing actually is what Frank Miller wrote - particularly that Miller admits in writing to being shameless in wanting a close-up panel of Vicki Vale's panty-clad ass.
  • The Ultimates #3 review notes that his voicing the Tony Stark robot as a drunk is not just his own joke, but the robot actually asks for vodka at one point.
    • Further supporting this is Ultimatum where Iron Man openly wishes for a Martini bath.
  • In the Youmacon live review of Marvel Mangaverse: Spider-Man #1, Linkara brings up Spider-Man: Reign^note both comics were by the same author and mentions the fact that in that story, Mary Jane died from exposure to Peter's radioactive sperm. He then follows up with one of these.
  • In his 9 minutes quick review of the film Future Shock, he cites that he did not add incredibly melodramatic music to a plane that crashed into a yard. The music was already there in the film.
  • In his review of Avengers #1, Linkara has Loki consider a plan to battle Thor that has him giving Birth to a Eight Leg Horse.
  ''Look it up, kids! Mythology is messed up!
  • In the 200th Episode, where he reviewed the Spider-Man "One More Time", Linkara joked that, in one alternate universe, Peter Parker is a pig, and then adds that he didn't make it up and told the viewers to Google "Spider-Ham".
• Not So Above It All: Linkara is usually pretty condemning towards fanservice art in comics but at the end of his review of The Marriage of Hercules and Xena he comes to the conclusion that the book was made to show Xena in dominatrix gear and notes that it's not the worst reason to make a comic.
• Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: The Monitors in Countdown to Final Crisis, as portrayed by Linkara:
  Monitor #1: We should do something!
  Monitor #2: Should we do something?
  Monitor #1: We should do something!
  Monitor #2: Should we do something?
  Monitor #3: I'm changing!
  Monitor #1: We should do something!
  Monitor #4: *Bang!*
  Monitor #1: We should do something!
  Monitor #2: Should we do something?
  Monitor #5: We should do something!
  Monitor #6: Should we do something?
  Linkara: YES, YOU SHOULD DO SOMETHING, YOU BORING IDIOTS!
• Number of the Beast: Linkara reviewed Marvel Super Special #1 for his 666th episode, specifically choosing it due to a scene where the members of KISS fight off against Mephisto and his army of demons.

O

• Obviously Evil: Linkara tends to mock it, especially if the villain's outfit includes skulls.
  "They've got skulls on them"
• Offscreen Teleportation: BEAR!
• Oh, Crap!: Happens to him a few times while interviewing Kristanna Loken after she catches on that he does not think too highly of the movies they are discussing. The video is narrated/commented on by Spoony, who explains that you can actually see the moment when Linkara realizes the situation.
• Oh, Wait!: Not only used, but pretty much a staple of his humor.
• Old Shame:invoked In his preamble for Black Web #1, Linkara actually makes references to his past works like Lightbringer, his self-published novel series, and a message-board based Pokémon RPG.
  • He says the latter of these may or may not have been converted to a site for porn in his absence.
  • His vlog about the Watchmen film, where he comes off exactly like a stereotypical whiny fanboy ranting about how They Changed It, Now It Sucks!. He's mellowed on the movie considerably after having time to think about how much worse it could have been.
  • After seeing fans attacking creators for minor things, he regrets his early attacks on creators themselves. This is the main reason why, with his first review in 2021, he changed the theme song to the one featured in episode 600^note The lyrics in question was "Brodski, you're not the smartest/Liefeld, you're not an artist". He did clarify that he'll critique the artwork and other works, but never the person.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: He declares that he'll forever be subjected to "This comic is Re-Todded!" comments for the rest of his life thanks to Countdown.
• The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: While Linkara has nothing nice to say about "The Culling" as a whole, he gives it props for passing The Bechdel Test.
• Only Sane Man: Views Joe, a minor character from Silent Hill: Paint It Black who kicked Ike Isaacs out of his apartment, as being the only sensible character in all of Scott Ciencin's Silent Hill comics.
• Only Six Faces: Points out that the only distinguishing traits of the Sultry Teenage Super Foxes are the hairstyles.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping:
  • In his review of Anita Blake: The Laughing Corpse #1 & #2, which he conducts entirely as Harvey Finevoice. His adopted accent noticeably slips at times; trying to keep that accent while simultaneously doing completely different accents for the characters in the comic breaks it more than anything. Points for trying though.
  • Linkara points out that Goldfinger's accent in James Bond Jr. keeps slipping, but into what, we could not say.
  • In the Behind the Scenes video, there are several bits of Will Wolfgram trying to hang onto the Gunslinger's southern accent.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Typically, whenever Linkara takes off his glasses is when he is speaking out of character. This usually only happens when something bad has happened and/or something is completely against his morals.
• Orphaned Series: Linkara has expressed reluctance at the prospect of reviewing the fourth and final issue of Gameboy, as the review of issue 3 (which now carries a disclaimer and has its comments disabled) begins with a tribute to Jew Wario.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Linkara is very quick to point out when this is the case, and will often argue about what the characters would actually do, such as in his review of One More Day, where he says that Doctor Doom would totally offer to help Peter heal Aunt May (at a horrible price, or perhaps just for the thrill of watching him grovel and getting a favor out of him) because that's "the kind of bullcrap he lives for".

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• Pandering to the Base: Invoked in-universe twice. Two of the 15 Comics I'll Never Review kept getting requests because of certain lines and words the fans wanted to hear him say. In response, he recites these bits out of context during their respective comics' segments.
• Pass the Popcorn: During Silent Hill: Dead/Alive, it looks like Christabella is finally going to get her comeuppance. Linkara's reaction? "Ooh, hang on a second! Let me get some popcorn!" The comic does not give him a proper chance.
• Pet-Peeve Trope:
  • Hotter and Sexier: One of his main complaints with DC Comics' business model is how almost every female character is drawn in an anatomically incorrect way in a failed attempt to be arousing. Averted in his Plan 9 review, where he says the trope works in the context of the comic as it's trying to emulate campy 50s B Movies.
  • He's mentioned a distaste for stories where superheroes and the government are at odds—concepts that can be seen in the Superhuman Registration Act and Beware the Superman tropes.
    On the Marvel Ultimate Universe in Ultimates #1-2: Furthermore, I dislike the Ultimate Universe as a whole. This idea that, somehow, superheroes in the real world are going to be assholes, or that the governments of Earth will try to have the perfect superbeings as weapons, or etc. etc. just doesn't appeal to me.
    On Earth Two in The Culling: Teen Titans Annual #1: Enjoying it, but I'm very sick of "government doesn't trust superheroes" crap.
• Plot Hole: Will of course jump on them.
  • Linkara sees that the villains in the James Bond Jr.. #3 comic are Goldfinger and Oddjob, despite the fact that they are both dead.
• Pluto Is Expendable: In the second part of the Countdown review, Chester A. Bum makes good on his threat to destroy it. The Nostalgia Critic was unimpressed. After all, it had stopped all the Classic Disney Shorts jokes. He had more of a reaction from seeing Hollywood, Rome, and France destroyed instead.
• Pop-Culture Isolation:invoked Linkara falls victim to this in the Eminem/The Punisher comic, when he has no idea what a "coney dog" is. (It's a type of hot dog served with bean-less chili, mustard, and onions; despite its name, it's primarily found around southeastern Michigan, particularly Detroit, where the comic is set.) Acknowledged in a screw-ups video, where he later points out that, after the review, someone bought him a coney dog at a con, and he didn't like it, because he doesn't like chili.
• Portal Cut: Discussed in his review of an early Image comic, Newmen. One of the characters is "Exit", a teleporter who can open portals, a splash page shows him halfway through the portal leaning out. Linkara actually prays for the portal to close and cut him in half.
• Power of Love - Points out in Care Bears #13 that they are literally attacking people with the power of love...
• Power-Up Letdown: His Maximum Clonage review is upgraded to wide screen! Now you can see... More of the futon and the shadow on one side...
• Precision F-Strike: Linkara goes out of way his to avoid using stronger profanity in his videos, especially the F-Word. Sometimes he plays around with this "rule", by including a Curse Cut Short, but at a couple of rare, selected times he has been known to drop a full-on F-bomb or two.
  • When The Thing From Another World: Eternal Vows depicts a human skeleton when the Thing is torched, he punctuates it with a movie clip featuring a straight, uncensored f-strike.
  • In the 600th Episode, when he realizes to his dismay that his review subject is Spider-Man: Sins Past, he responds with an emphatic "Goddamn it!"
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: When Kylo Ren makes his move late in The Last Jedi, Linkara adds:
  Kylo Ren: Hey, Supreme Leader? Remember how you said the deed split me?
  Snoke: Yes? Why?
  Kylo Ren: I know you are, but what am I?
• Previously on…: A Running Gag is his frequent recaps that include no content from the prior episode, including Uncanny X-Men #424 and Daredevil #306 (Which included a reference to this very site)
  "Oh my God! TV Tropes used one of my quotes!"
  • This tendency is subverted in the review for Secret Defenders #10. Linkara cannot do one as he could only get Phelous as a guest star; everyone else was too busy making crossover videos following the Brawl.
  • The one for Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham #2 is quite extremely meta deconstruction, with the guests mentioning how these segments go on (and how loud is the music...).
• Product Placement:
  • He subtly inserts references to his independent comic, Revolution of the Mask, into his reviews fairly consistently. Later, after cloning Spoony back to life, he brainwashes the clone to keep inserting subliminal references into his reviews as well - resulting in a Brick Joke in Spoony's Clones of Bruce Lee review where nudity is censored with a Revolution of the Mask ad banner.
  • In his Power Rangers comic review, he starts talking about the prop maker he bought his Dragon Dagger from, ending with the web address onscreen and Mechakara calling him out on it.
    Mechakara: You are honestly doing a COMMERCIAL in the middle of your review?!
    Linkara: "Screw you, hippie—he gave me a discount!"
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Linkara has a big problem with this in "Tandy Computer Whiz Kids: Community Action Program". Specifically, the whole issue derides graffiti as terrible, which is a debatable subject in itself, but ends on the Whiz Kids making a mural... Which is just another kind of graffiti. As Linkara points out, the message becomes less "graffiti is bad" and more "graffiti that we don't like is bad".
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
  • "Joe Quesada, YOU! ARE! A! HAAAAACK!"
  • "This comic sucks!" becomes this at the end of Amazons Attack.
  • In response to the Kool-Aid Man bursting through a funhouse wall:
    "THAT! MAKES! NO! SENSE!"
  • "It's supposed! To be! AMBIGUOUS!"
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: In times that you need to look like a real reviewer, put two pairs of glasses in your face.
• Put on a Bus: Justified. As Linkara explained in Another 15 Missed Opportunities, Neutro didn't appear on the show for eight years because he and Mr. T had gone out for drinks. They weren't done yet.

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