Abusive ParentsAs People: They broke him really bad, making him an easily scared, naive, weepy Psychopathic Manchild who thinks parents shouting at each other happens all the time and has children getting hurt as a Berserk Button, but they've done a couple of nice things for him that keep them out of "totally irredeemable" territory.
Critic: Yeah, I remember the last time I said "this is the nineties, old man" to my Dad... [shakily and looking traumatized] i-it really was the last time.
Adorkable: His awkwardness has a tendency to really come out during the "Old vs. New" segments and his intense, enduring love for Christmas is very sweet.
Aesop Amnesia: In a post-Plot Hole review of Twilight, he says it made him realize he can't keep obsessing over the past, needs to move on, and wants to go back to being the universe instead of having a physical body. Come “The Review Must Go On” and all that's forgotten about.
Mara Wilson is gonna be angry that you had to learn about child stars again, Critic...
In Scooby-Doo and To Boldly Flee, he actually talked to people and took the chance to make friends/strengthen the relationships he already had, not to mention helping everyone in the Plot Hole. With the reboot he's back to being alone (not even interacting with Chester), the Santa Christ call implying out of guilt.
Agent Scully: Despite all of the unexplained, magical things that have happened to him, he still demands logic in the movies he reviews.
The Alcoholic: Even though even Doc Brown would probably laugh at him for not being able to handle his drink, booze pops up a lot in his show.
Alcoholic Parent: His mother calls him up when she's been drinking and insults him horribly. It's happened so often that he doesn't mind.
All Boys Want Bad Girls: He has a Masochism Tango-like relationship with The Nostalgia Chick, he sees no problem with the attractive inmates from Chicago snuffing him out and his prom date ended up raping him.
Alter Ego Acting: The Critic's name is Doug, but he's still a fictional character whom Doug Walker plays.
A Man Is Not a Virgin: The Critic seems to have something against virgins. He said that the protagonist of Sidekicks needs to get laid, called out Rafe of Pearl Harbor for holding off sex to his girlfriend, and used the word "virgin" as an insult in his "Top 11 South Park Episodes" video.
Am I Just a Toy to You?: His screaming at the Chick about does she even care about him goes into this trope when Word Of God confirmed they had sex in the Ferngully review.
Animals Hate Him: In the mindfucks list, a toy puppy turns into a giant gorilla to kill him. Close to being justified, as whenever there's a movie with an animal in the lead, he usually wants them dead.
Annoying Younger Sibling: Played with. He's annoying, but The Other Guy keeps him in place through disproportionate means. (Like punching him back into a review)
That said the Critic gives at least as good as he gets considering that he repeatedly berated and beat up Rob without any real provocation in his review of X-Men.
Anti-Hero: He's arguably one of the few characters to be anywhere on the scale, depending on the episode in question:
He's Type I most of the time.
He eventually settles on Type II in To Boldly Flee since he has genuinely altruistic motives and no real Kick the Dog moments other than indulging Chick's hate of Lupa by giving her Lupa's number so they could prank call her. Earlier on...
He arguably leaned towards a Type III since Suburban Knights, as he genuinely cares for his team mates and shows both courage and surprisingly strong leadership in the final battle.
He ventures into Type's IV & V when he's angry.
The Anti-Nihilist: The world sucks and he's all too aware that he's useless, but he still wants to do good.
Critic: It's like trying to save a sinking ship with a bandaid. Anything I try to do would be completely pointless. Save me.
Anti Role Model: Doug tries to make it very clear that you shouldn't think of Critic as a badass or someone to look up to.
Attention Whore: The Nostalgia Chick gently bitches about his hogging all the limelight when he shows up dressed as Tim Curry in her review of The Worst Witch.
Authority In Name Only: In the TGWTG universe, he's the boss. He gets walked over a lot, however, so that it really doesn't mean much. Phelous doesn't even remember his Catch Phrase.
Aw Look He Really Loves Her: This was the lyric playing when he tried getting up the courage to hold the Chick's hand in "Thanks For The Feedback".
Oh, but he watches so sadly. How can he tell her he loves her? Yes, he would give his heart gladly...
Badass Unintentional: When he's trying to do anything, he's a Failure Hero. By accident however (or when he's pissed enough), he's exploded cities, come back to life after getting killed and can tell the death star to blow up a DVD.
Bad Boss: Deconstructed. Whenever someone's done something that's more his area or something's already done, he'll pop up and be a pain in the ass. However, he answers to puppet-master The Other Guy, he'll crumble and have a breakdown under any type of argument, he's revealed that he does this because he's so deeply insecure and when he thinks Lupa listened to what he had to say, he was the most optimistic about life that he's ever been.
Bait-and-Switch Tyrant: In the Transformers-Bratz arc, after he wakes up from getting chloroformed, he hides angrily in the bushes, shoots the Chick with a tranquilizer dart and sinisterly says it's his turn. It turns out that he just wanted to pretend he had power while trying to give her a self-esteem boost.
Basement Dweller: It's a lovely house, but he hasn't stopped living with his mom.
Beautiful All Along: We've seen him as a fairly gonky dork as a young teenager, and he complains about being bullied because he looked and acted too much like Doug, but he's grown up into a traditional Pretty Boy.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Parodied for silly laughs. With all the suicides, shots to the head and occasional getting the shit kicked out of him, you'd think he'd at least be a little scarred.
Belief Makes You Stupid: Inverted. Whenever religion gets brought up, the ditziness is downplayed and he'll have intelligent things to say.
The "Bat Credit Card" and Doug drive him to psychopathic rage.
He can't stand children getting abused or having a film treating them like idiots and women not having the power they should have.
He also hates it when a parent death is treated solely as a plot device with little emotional resonance.
Movies based on historical tragedies, like the animated Titanic films and Pearl Harbor, get a lot of hate for mis-portraying real disasters where thousands of people died for the sake of narrative or dramatic convenience.
Male Gaze is also gaining steam for something he loathes.
The B Grade: Inverted. An A- was such a rare occasion that he got a trip to Chuck E Cheese whenever that happened. The bullying and always moving to new places probably had something to do with it.
Big Bad: The closest thing to one in Kickassia and "The Review Must Go On".
Big Eater: If all the junk food in the first Commercials Special is any indication, especially as he'd been sitting in the same place and stuffing himself for a week.
Bizarre Taste In Food: He doesn't see the big deal about having a coffee, beer, pepto-bismal, Chinese food and pizza slurpie, or sugar-frosted burrito-stuffed hotpockets with lard on the side and butter taken from real liposuctions. No wonder Santa Christ had to cure him from diabetes.
Boisterous Weakling: Although the "getting ordered around" bit (and sometimes getting beaten too) doesn't bother him.
Borderline Personality Disorder: Easily suicidal, unstable mood swings, bad self image, doesn't have healthy relationships, binge eats when feeling bad, violent towards himself and others, doesn't like being abandoned and has a history of childhood trauma.
Brains and Bondage: He's a Genius Ditz masochist who loves toppy women. In the first Nerd Rant, he's proud of how he tortures himself.
Critic: So what's the point in seeing The Lost World? For you, none. For me, I'm a glutton for fucking punishment.
Break the Cutie: Finally driven home in the "Commercials Special" when he bemoans that he used to have such dreams and promise. And in a more simple use of the trope, any time he gets a seriously bad movie - The Neverending Story 3 springs immediately to mind.
It turns out that the fuck-up lists were breaking him. He stopped fighting it at the beginning of the third episode, and at the end his frustration over Battlefield Earth leads into a screaming tantrum about everyone being horrible. Even Douchey feels bad for him.
Break the Haughty: He thinks doing a Let's Play is going to be so easy, much easier than actually analyzing something. He really gets proven wrong.
After his psychotic creeper-dom in "The Review Must Go On", "Son Of The Mask" gets him lower than even the beginning of Scooby-Doo. He's looking through garbage cans for stuff to review, goes back to bitching at the audience for wanting to see him suffer, is constantly scared by the movie to the point of Exhausted Eyebags (which is a first), begs Santa Christ to help him but gets abused, is told he's meant to suffer, suffers a heart attack and doesn't look especially happy about surviving it, begs Satan and his daughter to kill him but gets refused, plus a reference to his To Boldly Flee death has him crawling on the floor and crying so hard he sounds like he's about to choke.
Brilliant, but Lazy: He knows how to take over the world but doesn't want to tell, and he can learn languages really fast when he's obsessing over something meaningless, but mostly he hasn't got the will or the self-esteem to change his life for the better.
Broken Hero: Give him credit, he manages to get his hopes up a lot for the amount of times he's been crushed.
Butt Monkey: While he tries to act like a successful Bad Boss during crossovers, either the others get the upper hand or his own patheticness does him in.
Came Back Wrong: Something has changed from the self-loathing atoner from 2011/2012/To Boldly Flee and the Messianic Archetype he was. Announcing his return, he had the same Psychotic Smirk he kept wearing in his torment of Doug, shouts more than he ever used to, the opening joke of Timothy Green is him killing a cat, insults people even more, his Stepford Smiler traits have been flanderized, slurs at women get shoehorned in, and he's back to Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today? after years of indulging.
Cannot Keep A Secret: He might have Undying Loyalty, but his promise to Chester that he'd keep the Search For The Necronomicon just between them lasted for about twenty seconds.
Cannot Spit It Out: The look on his face after he just can't get up the nerve to hold the Chick's hand in "Thanks For The Feedback" (and she doesn't notice) is almost depressing.
Can't Hold His Liquor: In the Snob/Phelous crossover, he was drunk and weepy by 6pm, not even knowing who Rob was, messier than usual, craving Ninja Turtles (even the third movie) and crying that he used to like The Garbage Pail Kids Movie. Snob called it "shockingly depressing" and Phelous wanted to hang himself.
Captain Obvious: Yes darling, you're white and male. You don't need to keep asking or stating that fact.
Cassandra Truth: When he tries to put Rocky's message of "people can change" to the real world, he gets punched and shot at.
The Cast Showoff: Doug has a singing voice made for musical theater which he puts on display fairly often.
He and his brother are also skilled at impressions and other voices, which they also put on display... in practically every Nostalgia Critic video.
Less often than the singing, but he also likes to show off that he's a very good dancer.
In Rover Dangerfield, he brought back bad memories for art students when he makes some very good drawings in under a minute, calls them crap assuming everyone would agree with him, and throws them away.
Cat Smile: When he's trying very hard to keep himself from laughing.
Caustic Critic: The fact that he's a Deconstructive Parody of one, focusing on how miserable the job is, has become more clear as time goes on.
Character Development: He's an Man Child with a Dark and Troubled Past and lots of issues. The past couple of years however, he's still of course a brat, but also a Papa Wolf who has basically declared himself a defender of kids well-being and intelligence.
There's been a nice shift in power dynamics with his relationship with The Nostalgia Chick. At first, he's condescending and just treats her like an extension of him, also being so awkward that he has to pretend to be Rasputin to hit on her. But as she grew into the sociopath we know and love, he trusts her (to almost dumbass degrees), wants her to be proud of herself and wants to spend time with her.
As probably part of Misery Builds Character, his attitude towards Harley Quinn and the Joker's relationship. In his Top Eleven Animated Women, he has the hots for her (naturally) and likes the couple because it "gives homicidal maniacs like him a chance". In his Top Eleven Batman Episodes, he feels sorry for her, talks about how the pairing sums up Domestic Abuse in a nutshell and his one complaint about the episode is the fanservice of doctors in mini-skirts.
He's become a lot more respectful towards women, dislikes stereotypical manliness (he's quite a Sissy Villain himself) and has undying love for badass girls. The "Top Eleven Hottest Animated Women" list had skeeviness reminiscent of Ask That Guy With The Glasses.
In his first top eleven, the Scariest Nostalgic Moments, he calls the Villain Song in Care Bears In Wonderland gay and mentions that if you watch Care Bears long enough you see the face of the devil. When he actually reviews the three movies, he of course still thinks they're sickeningly sweet but is a lot more mature about explaining his problems with them.
He started being calmer(ish) and giving a general review at the end of his episodes after The Garbage Pail Kids Movie became the utter pinnacle of badness in his eyes.
After the My Pet Monster debacle, he's learned not to be entitled and complain about having to watch something when it's a movie he actually bought or rented.
All of the above become a plot-point in To Boldly Flee, when Doug tells him that he's evolved over the years from an abrasive comedy character into a decent and three-dimensional person.
Character Filibuster: If his "child abuse" Berserk Button gets hit, the review will stop for a few minutes so he can get all his rant out.
Characterization Marches On: Going from a happy, fanboying proto-Chester to a manic-depressive cynic, to Atoner for the death of Ma-Ti, to eventual self sacrificial saviour of the Awesomeverse.
In the Super Mario Brothers movie, he's grossed out by the big bertha and makes no fuss about the Satellite Love Interest either being a Distressed Damsel or getting a flame thrower at the end. Watching it now, it's just... strange.
Also in the early days, he talked about kids' short attention spans and getting easily bored. With his hate for Lull Destruction, can you imagine him saying that now?
In his second Nerd rant, he doesn't even know what a compliment is. Fast forward to now and he's desperate for a movie to give him something good to say.
Something that applies to both Critic and Doug, but when they did a segment on how much they liked a film (think until about early 2010), their tone was more muted and Critic in the “Top Five Video Game Movies” practically sounds like he's on downers. After that, Doug let his absolute love for movies shine through everything, letting us get the keetish fanboy we know and enjoy.
Character Tics: Puckering his mouth when he's thinking, giving a Death Glare with his mouth slightly open when he's trying to be angry but failing, and rubbing his chest any time he feels particularly naughty. The last is a Doug thing, as Ask That Guy does it and he himself is prone to it too.
In the first Care Bears movie, his main theory about why the villain's voice is so cool is that she's getting oral while she does her lines. He then proceeds to act it out. (Her responses, not the eating out part.)
He actually gets on fairly well with the site ladies and doesn't treat them any differently, but he's stated that he finds them all nice-looking.
Chubby Chaser: Most of the women he's attracted to are on the voluptuous side.
Critic: [when slow-motioning Rogue's bust] I'm a dirty young man yes I am.
Class Clown: Subverted. He got pitied and bullied for not acting his age in eighth grade, although that hasn't stopped him from still not acting his age.
Clingy Jealous Boy: For Chick. He can't always stop it coming through the stronger I Want My Beloved to Be Happy feeling. He's wary over her obsession with Todd, gets all growly when she fawns over Jew Wario in Suburban Knights, and looks close to tears (to her credit, so is she) when he mentions she doesn't always return phone calls or emails.
He's a far less sympathetic version in “The Review Must Go On”, as he makes assumptions about Demo Reel that just aren't true, and refuses to leave until Doug caves in bringing him back.
Close To Home: Anything that has kids getting hurt by adults, whether it's abuse, neglect, too much pressure or just bad messages. He has a big rant about A Troll In Central Park giving the message that dreams can do anything, with his two examples being a dead dog coming back to life or divorced parents getting back together.
Cloud Cuckoolanders Minder: Usually serves this role for Chester, in that he'll look after him but sometimes take advantage of his need for drugs.
Conditioned To Accept Horror: The bad upbringing gives him a few moments, like thinking every family have regular giant arguments at dinner, rape not being considered a special type of evil or defending kinky fantasies at a very young age.
Conflicting Loyalty: Between his religious belief and wanting scientific proof that God exists. Mostly this is kept to the background not to offend anyone.
Constantly Curious: In the first two commercial specials, even though he figures that the two 1800 numbers are run by pedophiles, he calls them anyway. (And doesn't hang up even though he's disgusted, but that's a different problem.)
The Corrupter: He has this unintentional ability to turn otherwise basically decent people into sadists. (Like Lewis and Doug agreeing that Linkara put the idea to rape Critic into Spoony's head.)
Crazy Survivalist: He prepares with his gun, a police jacket, a S.W.A.T helmet, knuckle dusters and a baseball bat to watch Secret Of NIHM 2.
Creepy Good: When he wants to be disturbing, his mannerisms and voice are reminiscent of HIM from The Powerpuff Girls. Just listen to him at the start of this.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Remember that video with Bebe's Kids? Remember how he complained so much? Remember how he did not complete the game? Apparently he is a good enough gamer to slam Angry Joe into next week in Marvel vs Capcom 2.
Crusty Caretaker: The only other job he's had is Doug's factory cleaner gig (this was when Doug was still in school) and he got in trouble for hitting on "Amanda" too much.
Cute Bookworm: He may not have all that much Common Sense, but have you ever noticed the vast amounts of books he owns?
Cute, but Cacophonic: He sounds like a howler monkey when he really gets worked up with shouting, and there are people who don't even like his normal voice, stating they watch his episodes muted.
Cute But Psycho: Sometimes sweet and adorkable, sometimes blowing up an entire city by accident because of a tantrum.
Cute Glasses Boy: It's not that Doug isn't attractive anyway, but his glasses make him look very baby-faced.
Cute Mute: He's been traumatized into silence a few times, one of which was in Spooning With Spoony. Noah revealed in his commentary that the reason why Critic only had one line in that was because Doug wanted to play the victim as much as possible.
The Danza: He's the only one of Doug's characters to share his name.
Dark and Troubled Past: Adds another level of funny when you get that he has all these things he could justifiably complain about and he chooses to focus on shitty movies instead.
Dark Is Not Evil: Doug said once that he chose the black suit jacket to establish the Critic as the asshole to the Nerd's white-clad "hero", but also had the red tie and white shirt to offset any Black and White Morality that may have came from it.
Dark Secret: Accidentally strangling a hooker to death after Kickassia and while still in Reno. He admits this while thinking the camera's not on yet.
Dating Catwoman: According to Doug and Lindsay, he and the Chick have this sort of relationship. There's an interesting contrast between the Chick's crazed addiction to get Todd noticing her and her mutually bitchy but fun and warm dynamic with the Critic.
Deal with the Devil: He's so desperate to have to have Sequel Month erased from his memory that he'll do whatever Sage tells him to do.
Death By Despair: After fully breaking down about how his life has gone nowhere, he gets about an inch away from it in his first commercials special.
Death Seeker: You know, you could just leave the room or switch off the TV instead of trying to off yourself constantly.
After his brief period of happiness in the Plot Hole, it's got even worse. In Son Of The Mask he's begging Satan to see sense and just let him die again.
Deliberately Cute Man-Child: In "Return Of The Commercials" after "killing things smaller than gives you power!" and an Evil Laugh, he giggles like a puppy-eyed girl when she's just been caught painting the walls.
Deliberately Distressed Dude: Hams it up like a stereotypical maiden when he thinks Todd is a "masked intruder" there to rape him, and sulks big time when he founds it's just time for a crossover.
Demonic Possession: In the AVGN vs. NC Final Battle, he gets possessed by the devil when he's losing and can only be killed for a short period by Super Mecha Death Christ.
Depending on the Writer: In his own reviews, Doug writes Critic as an Extreme Doormat who'll always end up giving in to other contributors demands for a crossover. In others (like The Rap Critic's review of Shaq's album), he'll have the stones to ignore any request.
Designated Monkey: Word Of God says he was created to suffer. Deconstructed in Scooby-Doo onwards, where he breaks down over how hellish his life is and wants nothing more than to do something good for once.
Despair Event Horizon: He's already well past it when The Neverending Story III begins. He approaches it at the end of My Pet Monster and start of the following "Nostalgic Commercials" video, falling over the edge near the end.
The death of Ma-Ti in Suburban Knights slowly eroded away what was left of his sanity and it all came to a head at the beginning of the Scooby-Doo review
Determinator: He'll run all the way from Chicago to Philly to fight the Nerd (which apparently takes two weeks) and he won't even get tired.
Determined Defeatist: He knows he's pathetic, but carries on because at least he's resilient.
Defiled Forever: Other than Chick going into Don't You Dare Pity Me! mode and wanting revenge, he's the only left broken over getting raped by Spoony. Even if To Boldly Flee where he's trying to save him, the spooning is still on his mind.
Disappeared Dad: He's mentioned very rarely and Critic still lives with his mom. There's been a few hints that the parents got divorced. (This is in-character of course, Doug's dad - Barney Walker - has helped out a lot with music and such, therefore gets thanked in the credits.)
Distracted by My Own Sexy: When he's being all determined to face down the Nerd at Digital Press, he checks out his reflection in a shop window.
Distracted by the Sexy: Dulcia of the Power Rangers Movie defeats a mob of "giant black chickens" by swinging two stick-weapons "throwing them into some kind of hypnotic trance":
Critic: Yeah, how's that supposed to put you in a trance, taking two sticks and putting them up and down, up and down, up and down, [cut to Dulcia in her Battle Bikini] up and down...up and down... [picture slowly zooms in on her breasts]...up and down...up and down... [gets his hat knocked off] [Beat] You win this round, Dulcea.
Distressed Dude: He got kidnapped by the Game Heroes and was made to promote their stuff at gunpoint.
When he was chloroformed by The Nostalgia Chick, he got just as much into the victim role.
Spooning With Spoony II probably counts, seeing as how he was the only canon one who was roofied and judging by the details, Spoony really went to town on humiliating him.
Made fun of in the Sidekicks review where he acts like he's chained up.
Critic: Next I bet you wanna hook up my nipples to a car battery, don't you? Don't you?
Also played for laughs in Care Bears II when Christy's screaming wears him down even though he knows it's a trap.
Critic: Oh my God, a bag!
Teddy Ruxpin forces a gun in his mouth and makes him write a more positive review, killing him when he screams for help.
Before Ma-Ti comes in to take the brunt of the abuse in the brawl, he spends most of the beginning on the floor. Both Linkara and the Chick joined in specifically to save him.
Looks to be the case in Linkara's Previously On for Countdown, with Chester in control and shot with Hitler Cam, and Critic being shown in the opposite camera angle and surrounded by darkness. He recovers (with snark) better in this instance than he does the others.
The amount of I Have You Now, My Pretty moments he's been subjected to would make this list even longer.
By The Wiz, all that distress seems to have warped his brain a little, as he's actually disappointed when learning Todd isn't a rapist Loony Fan who wants him.
Does Not Like Shoes: He's nearly always barefoot when playing around in his house.
The Dog Bites Back: After getting beaten on by Casper for a whole episode, he puts on a Ghostbusters uniform and hunts him down.
Likewise, with "True Internet Story", where he kicks the shit out of the Last Angry Geek for making wild accusations about his personality and earlier life.
Don't Call Me Chicken: He could never resist a challenge from the Nerd, no matter how hard he'd got his ass beat the previous time.
Driven by Envy: Despite calling what he does analyzing (and being good at it), he'll always cut off the co-reviewer when they're "taking things too seriously". Chalk it up to his fear of Always Someone Better.
Dragged Into Drag: According to Spoony in his Captain America video, he forced Critic to dress up like a dirty ballerina during Spooning With Spoony 2 and took pictures for blackmail.
Dragon with an Agenda: The other contributors think that he's the (ineffectual) Bad Boss of the site. In reality, it's The Other Guy and Critic's just a puppet with woefully poor self-esteem.
Driven to Madness: Battlefield Earth does this to the Critic in his 100th episode. It does it out of the sheer stupidity of the movie. So much so they sped the camera up for most of his breakdown.
And Batman & Robin drives him 'batshit insane', until he takes some pills. "Tranquilizers. Always come prepared when Schumacher is involved."
Spoony: "That's the coward's way out, and you know it, Critic!"
After his "Superman Top 11" review, the Critic mentions how the movies always make him smile, before remembering the tragic fates of Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder and the World Trade Center.
"I'm the Nostalgia Critic, I'm going to go kill myself."
Not all Superman movies make him smile. From his Superman IV review. "How long is this movie again?" "Hour and a half." "BLAM!"
Bio Dome made him slash his wrists, although either he or someone else put plasters on them afterwards.
The songs in The Pebble And The Penguin make him feel so dirty that he takes a bath with a toaster.
Drunk with Power: Seeing as how he has so little of it usually, when he does get the faintest whiff of power he'll try and cling to it as hard as he can.
The Dutiful Son: He knew his family is abusive, but always defended them anyway. Whether it came off as heartwarming or a case of Stockholm Syndrome was up to you.
And a more subtle one at the beginning. Even though seeing the movie "brings back a pool of disappointing memories", he's smiling when he says he has to watch it again.
And another near the end. When the characters refuse to stop hammering the moral in, he starts to disagree when they say he should believe in himself and that they care about him.
Ethical Hedonist: He admits that the nexus - where you feel nothing but timeless joy and don't care about anything else - would be awesome, but he still gets irritated at Kirk for doing a 180 from "I need my pain" to "I don't want responsibility".
Ethical Slut: He thinks everyone, regardless of age or gender, should just have loads of sex and let the stigma of sluttiness as a bad thing die out.
Subverted in the Harry Potter book launch. After spending the majority of the video bitching about it, he has a Freak Outsquee larger than anyone when the books start coming out.
There's an affectionate potshot at erotic fanfic writers when George Lucas and Carrie Fisher are the couple in Hook.
Everything Is Racist: Most of the time he has a good point, but at other times he can get on his soapbox a little too much.
Evil Sounds Deep: For whatever reason, in “The Review Must Go On”, his voice was smoother, more in control, and almost squickily seductive. And whenever he thought Doug was wriggling out of his power, it only got lower and more threatening.
Extreme Doormat: While he's a brat who loves starting arguments, he falls apart with little provocation. He's aware of this.
Critic: I just do what everyone tells me to do in the hopes of feeling less insecure.
Failure Hero: It's very rare that he'll get what he wants or win.
Critic: I know it's just my opinion but I'm right.
Scooby-Doo finally has him try to grow out of this, asking Roger with genuine curiosity about why a film can do so well when everyone mocks it.
Fan Myopia: In-universe. While Doug makes an intentional effort to avert it, Critic assumes that everyone who watches him are also familiar with everything he reviews. He also always gets disappointed when his fans don't know classical actors, black-and-white movies and operas.
Fanservice Pack: He looks much more put together physically than he did at the start, going from lazy nerd to Hollywood Nerd. Although better lighting and his older clothes getting worn out have probably helped.
Critic: (being completely up himself) "It's hard to believe that such a handsome man could become even handso... hansomen... prettier."
Fetish: Plenty. As stated in a few reviews; strong, toppy women, charming black guys, masochism, being humiliated, dildos, roleplay, bondage, fingering, licking whipped cream off a hot body, crossdressing (for some reason this is the one he's ashamed of the most), fictional incest couples that are the right age and not parent-child note he says this is the only way He-Man and She-Ra could get his attention, the Chick's firey temper and six-breasted cats from outer space.
Flanderization: The Stepford Smiler and screaming anger (that Doug made an effort to use sparingly in later reviews) increased significantly after he came back.
Fluffy Tamer: He hates meant-to-be-liked animals in movies (and they usually hate him right back), but falls completely in love with the gross ones, like the targ from Star Trek III.
The Fool: Deconstructed. Baby Geniuses and "NC Fuck-Ups III" proved once and for all he doesn't care anymore if people find him stupid, but if they think he's not creative or funny, then life isn't worth living.
Fragile Flower: Luckily he mixes this with more Hot Blooded tropes, but he breaks down in tears often for no reason.
Freudian Excuse: Inverted. He had all kinds of bullying, shitty parents and retreated into obsessing over TV like the Chick, but he trashes this belief in The Cell by saying having a tragic past isn't a good excuse for doing things wrong as an adult.
Freudian Slip: From the A Kid in King Arthur's Court review.
Nostalgia Critic: Hey, they're actresses first and sisters second, and that's good enough in my porno—book.
Barb Wire: "I remember it so you don't boobies! I mean, boobies, in the boobies boobies..."
Friend To A Psycho: With Ask That Guy. He's not too bothered about being teased by him, is severely icked by the questions he gets asked but lets him violate Ma-Ti, is able to survive living in the same house with him (and share the same bed) and looked about to cry when Ask That Guy didn't save him in Kickassia.
Gag Penis: Thanks to Catherine Zeta-Jones, The Critic is unable to stand up from his chair and walk away at the end of his review of The Phantom. Even he's embarrassed by it. It's also big enough that it keeps thumping against the desk during his review of Blank Check.
Genius Ditz: He's silly, gullible and not all there, but he's eloquent when not swearing up a storm, is very fond of black-and-white movies, can apparently follow black hole theories, is disgusted by the lack of history awareness in The Magic Voyage and has a brain when it counts.
Girls Have Cooties: Before he hit puberty early, they were cootie-filled loudmouth annoyances.
Critic: I don't know, maybe it's my inner little boy, but I just hate this fucking character [Webby], with her pwecious little bow and her cutie-cute dress and those cootie-filled eyes... boys forever! No girls allowed! I'm never going to like girls until the day I die! [shows cleavage] Aww shit, boobs ruin everything.
Girly Run: Shows off an adorably flaily one in the beginning of Star Trek Insurrection.
Go-Go Enslavement: In the Game Heroes promo. He's surprised and scared that he's wearing a different shirt, so he must have been unconscious and at least shirtless at some point.
Going Commando: When he creams himself at the end of The Worst Witch, he sults that he's wearing a white suit so it's no problem.
"A cat and mouse are driving a ship trying to save the daughter of Indiana Jones while being chased by a purple people eater, a dog on a skateboard, a performing ship captain, his hand puppet Squawk, two Mexican wrestlers and a doctor riding an ice cream cart. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Mind Fuck."
He does this in his Jingle All The Way review. He has a "WE DON'T CARE" outburst when the chase scene pisses him off.
Green-Eyed Monster: Part of why he's a Bad Boss. This is the only thing he has so he's freaked out by people going into his territory and doing it better than him (or so he thinks).
Growing Up Sucks: A slight variation of the trope, in that every stage of his life has proved to be a disappointment:
Critic: "When you're a kid all you can think about is being in high school. When you're in high school all you can think about is being in college. When you're in college all you can think about is being an adult. And when you're an adult all you can think about is being a kid again. LIFE FUCKING SUCKS!"
The Grunting Orgasm: Subverted. As usual, he's stereotypically feminine about it and whenever he acts one out, it's about as high-pitched as you can get. And with the Chick also being established to be noisy in bed, one wonders how loud their sex was.
Guyliner: Most noticeable in the "Top Eleven Dumbest Superman Moments" and The Exorcist II. Both are celebrated by his fangirls.
Happy Place: Catherine Zeta Jones wearing a tie, glasses, a baseball cap and a long sweater is the best ever image he can conjure up. As a kid, it was a naked April O'Neil covered in whipped cream and chocolate sauce.
Less sexually, commercials. Let him explain:
Critic: It's like they exist in their own little world, a world that wants to scam you and be nice to you at the exact same time. Something about them strangely gives me comfort.
That suddenly explains why he has so many commercials in his reviews.
Hates Being Alone: In Judge Dredd, when given the choice of living in an abusive care home or walking alone until death, he chooses the former.
Hates Small Talk: The awkward, filled-with-this date with the Chick drove him to breaking point.
He does the same thing when he's porning over Hugh Jackman in the Chick's review of Kate and Leopold. As he's basically giving a handjob to a stick of butter, it's even less credible than the first time.
The "Critic Reloaded" reviews. He makes like ten Brain Bleach-needing jokes at Suburban Knights for himself showing his legs (bear in mind that both Critic and Doug have bragged about that fanservice), and mocks To Boldly Flee for being like "Up with more homo-eroticism".
After years of being veryveryvery queer-friendly, all the reboot's talk of putting dicks into women, making women pregnant and mocking femmy guys, comes off as trying way too hard.
Hearing Voices: Of the kids who bullied him over Doug, as well as genuinely creepy laughter.
Heartbreak and Ice Cream: When he's suffering from depression after being called pathetic, he eats his weight in junk food.
He Cleans Up Nicely: In the Chick's Worst Witch review, despite the ridiculous wig, he manages to pull off an all-white suit quite impressively. Chick gets a little annoyed by how Elisa and Nella suddenly fangirl over him when he arrives.
He Is All Grown Up: To be as kind as possible, thank all the Gods the greasy hair/acne/horrible teeth combo he had as a preteen didn't last long.
Her Code Name Was Mary Sue: Critic in the title cards is far more villainous, masculine and competent than our version.
The Critic opens the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog review like this, apparently still in shock from the insanity of the show.
Another one happens in his My Pet Monster review, where in the end he gets asked by the producers of the movie why he is reviewing kids movies and getting incredibly wound up by them at the age of 28. He decides he needs ask himself some hard questions, and spends the credits just sitting on a chair while sad music plays. The depression lasts until the next week where he's pigging out on junk food, his self-esteem is six feet under and he would have given up completely if it hadn't been for an epic He's Back number.
Baby Geniuses had him aimlessly wandering around Animarathon recalling that the movie was so horrible it left him unable to review it. He scares a random cosplayer, angsts a lot in his hotel room, punches a guy's lights out, screams at the convention audience in his Q&A panel and stares at the wall three times, each time forcing himself to look away. He snaps out of it when he realizes that his inner monologue counts as a review.
He's Back: He gets to have a kickass song and say he's proud of his patheticness at the end of his first commercial special. It might not have lasted, but it was still awesome.
Happens in Moulin Rouge!, again with an epic song and putting on his signature outfit.
He's Got Legs: Suburban Knights gives them a lot of attention. And Lupa said in a stream that he didn't even shave them. You may now start hating him, ladies.
Hidden Depths: He knows his Chinese, he plays the clarinet, his childhood idol was Mary Poppins and he's a Shakespeare and Greek Mythology buff.
Hollywood Nerd: How many "geeks" do you know that can pull off eyeliner as well as he did?
Hollywood Thin: Starting post-To Boldly Flee filming, Doug has periods where he just looks strange (like The King and I review where his head is tiny on his shoulders) yet nobody says a word and he's still meant to be seen as attractive.
Honor Before Reason: He couldn't stop himself from saving a little girl in Care Bears II even when he knew it was a trap (thus getting himself kidnapped), and he still tried to protect his team against Malachite even after his groin must have been smashed into jelly.
Hot Guys Are Bastards: Diamanda showed great restraint in not blowing up his head when he freaked at the site hiring scary-looking people like her.
Human Hummingbird: He moves fast whenever he flails, whether it's while running, excitement or having a Freak Out.
Humiliation Conga: Pretty much the entire reason for the existence of the James and the Giant Peach review is because the Critic was forced at gun-point to give a positive review of a movie everyone liked to rectify the public's shameful opinion of his first (and probably last) Let's Play, which was posted a week earlier.
Hypocrite: Demanding pure logic in the silliest of cartoons, but running totally on emotion himself.
Even though he has a ton of guilty pleasures, he never fully gets that people can like movies that he can't stand.
He's so unwilling to accept Ma-Ti's death that he'll try and find (or make Chester find) a supernatural book that would raise the dead, but even in the movie where the aforementioned dying happened, he never fought back when he thought he was about to be killed.
In "The Odd Life Of Timothy Green" and the Twilight editorial, he makes rants about learning from your mistakes and growing up. The irony that this comes after To Boldly Flee but he's back to screaming and having psychotic breaks like he did years ago has not been lost on people.
He also jokes that the mother in “The Odd Life Of Timothy Green” is “as unfruitful as her garden”. Remember when he called a similar joke in North “the worst thing uttered by humanity”?
Five minutes after a giant getting-up-on-his-high-horse rant about Bay showing the soldiers in a shitty light, he accuses Bay of "editing history" to make the soldiers look better. It's confusing.
When Real!Critic and the others give Ma-Ti a funeral in Suburban Knights, he calls them awful people for cremating him. Says the guy who screamed for Brain Bleach every single time one of the male reviewers had a fanservice moment.
I Am Not My Father: From what we've heard of Daddy Critic's... parenting attitudes, Critic is trying his best to go the opposite way and be like a designated defender of kids everywhere.
Iconic Item: His tie has become this, and his gun to a lesser extent. The former becomes somewhat important in Scooby-Doo, where it's only half-done when he's broken but tied properly when he's giving the poker game a shot.
Iconic Outfit: Baseball cap, white t-shirt, black suit jacket and a loose red tie. (And jeans of course.)
I Gave My Word: He might despise the movies he's forced to sit through, but if he's promised to do them then he'll try his best to get through the pain. Even for the ''Star Wars Holiday Christmas Special" he only put up a bit of fight before giving up and doing his job.
Ignored Epiphany: At the end of Surf Ninjas, after having a Dying Dream where he likes it, he says he'll never like anything ever again. The next episode after was the "Top 11 Nostalgic Animated Shows", so that really didn't last.
I Hate Past Me: A completely undeserved instance in Pearl Harbor, as Critic's version of Michael Bay is well-meaning, but pathetic, simpering and whiny, martyred and is a director who can only make shit. Basically a No Sympathy, strictly-hetero portrayal of Donnie.
I Just Want to Be You: He's bitchy to child actors who he thinks doesn't deserve the attention they get, not getting that they mostly lead really hard lives. One of the reasons he hates Satine from Moulin Rouge! (who is a bloody prostitute mind you) is because she's not satisfied with the attentive adulation she gets. He's genuinely confused as to why the Superman cartoon version of Lois Lane wants praise for her work instead of her tiny skirt. Notice apattern?
Immortality Hurts: In Son of the Mask, Evilina strongly implies that to punish him for his stupidity in coming down from the Plot Hole, he'll have to live forever. (Until her dad comes for his soul anyway.)
Immune to Drugs: He's taken ketamine, mixtures of nyquil and vicodin, tylenol and hell knows what else, and he hasn't been found dead yet.
I Need a Freaking Drink: Particularly bad reviews will have him reaching for stuff like Jack Daniels or Jagermeister. Titanic: The Legend Goes On had him reaching for progressively larger bottles, culminating in one larger than he was.
Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: His screaming rants have become little boy tantrums and Doug revealed he shouts at things because what's on the screen is scaring him, he can't hold onto being the "bad guy" for very long and he's easily prone to crying.
Inelegant Blubbering: His knowledge of a traditional breakdown is one where you're puffy-eyed, sniffing, snorting and can barely talk.
Inferiority Superiority Complex: He finally breaks down and says in the CR crossover that he doesn't want anyone going into his territory because they'd do it better than him, while the "Commercials Special" goes into his lack of self-esteem even more.
Doug talks about it and Critic's relationship with others in the To Boldly Flee commentary.
I usually find with a lot of insecure people, their closest friends, the people they depend on the most on for love, they can be the nicest to, and they can be the cruelest to.
Informed Attribute: His AVGN-style song brags that he's the world's biggest and greatest cynic. If you say so.
Informed Flaw: He's regularly making fun of himself for "screaming every other line", which is funny, but hasn't been relevant for the past few years. Justified in To Boldly Flee, where he uses it as an excuse of why he hates himself and nobody needs him.
In Love with Love: He got upset when his many one-night-stands left him after sex, he could never decide whether he wanted commitment or not, he picked people who'll either hurt him or could never give him what he needed and he just kept on going with it all.
Innocent Fanservice Boy: Deconstructed. He likes teasing his audience and bragging about how cute he is, but he has no idea what he's doing in the real world. As examples, the skirt in Suburban Knights, drinking with Spoony when he's a complete lightweight and getting a stalker partner when he was a teenager.
Innocently Insensitive: Much like Horrible Judge of Character; fine with movies but sucks in real life. He doesn't get that being nice to Luke in front of Film Brain, congratulating the Chick on being a female version of him or assuming Chester didn't need the residuals of the Big Lipped Alligator Moment meme, would most definitely piss them off.
The Insomniac: Nyquil and Vicodin together? Ain't so healthy.
Insult of Endearment: In Ferngully, the Chick called him a "stupid sack of shit" in the fondest tone she's ever had.
Internalized Categorism: He's Catholic and yet the religion is one of many on the list he's prejudiced against.
In-Universe Catharsis: Shooting things mainly. When he was a child, it was particularly goofy acting, the kind that he would want to bury from the public forever.
In Vino Veritas: Phelous and Snob get pretty shocked when they see him vulnerably hanging onto The Other Guy and totally wasted in their "Troll 4" review. We aren't, because we've seen it before.
Ironic Hell: His entrapment in the world of Demo Reel. Doug Walker/The Writer tells him that he hopes the experience will make him see the terrible movies he reviews a bit differently in the future.
Irrational Hatred: Even when there's not a Green Aesop around, he still has almost zero patience for hippies and preachy environmentalists.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Done in a more passive-aggressive style and God knows what the real situation, but even though he feels abandoned by the Chick's obsession with Todd, he tries to push the Clingy Jealous Boy feelings down and wants her to feel okay.
I Was Quite a Looker: He's a cutie and knows it, but if you want this particularly stupid strain of insecurity, just remind him that he's balding.
Critic: Look at you, you had such dreams ahead of you, such promise, you were perfect back then — okay you had stupid glasses, teeth like a chipmunk and a dumb and dumber haircut that only got dumb and dumber — but you had such hope.
Jerkass Façade: Not that he isn't a genuine dick, but coupled with Sympathetic P.O.V., there's no indication that the other characters know what we know about him. Or that he'd be willing to tell them.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He fiercely protects kids but has no patience for annoying dogs, he trashes other people's nostalgia but can't make it through Follow That Bird without squeeing, he's demanding of Chester but is the only to give him money and a place to stay, he's a bastard to people but is so very loyal to the ones he cares about, he has a temper but heartwarming moments come regularly... let's just say this guy can get complicated.
Kick the Dog: Played for Black Comedy, but how he treats animals - gleeing when dogs have a chance of dying, throwing rocks at pets to see if their owners laugh, chucking a spider through a window because he's scared of it - will remind you that he's a Psychopathic Manchild if you ever forget it.
Kick the Son of a Bitch: Usually done with The Last Angry Geek. Like when Geek put massively pricey, not needed shoulder pads on his bill, he said he was going to stop the Geek's show.
Kid Anova: After calling a kinky fantasy starring April every kid's dream, he defensively reminds people that he was an early bloomer.
Kiddie Kid: At first it sounds like he's being sarcastic about acting like a monkey in eighth grade, but then he turns out he actually did.
Kleptomaniac Hero: In "Holiday Clusterfuck", he steals a woman's money after the Christmas stress drives her to suicide.
The Klutz: Parodied when Phelous throws a sock at his head. He falls around his house so much that he ends up shooting himself with his gun.
The Knights Who Say Squee: He was as shocked as we were when he got to interview the crew of Animaniacs and they had actually liked his stuff. Same thing happened for Ebert enjoying his tribute and "Christopher Walken"/"Vincent Price" knowing who he is.
Kubrick Stare: He often makes this expression (the grimacing kind) while reviewing movies that are frustrating him, most notably in North.
Lack of Empathy: In his amnesia state for the anniversary reviews. He's confused as to why everyone is mourning Ma-Ti's death in Suburban Knights as a "small Indian boy is no big loss", and he only just barely stops himself from calling To Boldly Flee-Critic a girl for showing off emotion.
Laser-Guided Karma: Usually he wouldn't deserve getting beaten and tortured with a pitchfork by an Ax Crazy guy who was pretending to be blind, but after stating that he was about to bludgeon said guy to death just for a movie, he kinda does in this instance.
Laughing Mad: In The Neverending Story III review, after finishing the movie and getting mad, in Chairman Of The Board where he laughs manically when he gets the meaning of Edison's name, when Jingle All The Way ruins the one funny joke they had and when Zack shows his new haircut in Saved by the Bell. That last one gave him an orgasm.
Leaning on the Furniture: In a brief cool moment, he leans against the wall while the Grinch narrator is talking.
Licked by the Dog: Even though they have their arguments, Chester always calls him nice and will be the first to defend him.
Limited Wardrobe: According to the drawing in the Willy Wonka episode, he's worn the same clothes since kindergarten.
Loser Protagonist: He lives with his abusive mother, has a load of issues, his job is the only life he has and the other one was being a Crusty Caretaker, doesn't particularly have a lot of talent and has No Social Skills. The knowledge of all this hits him like a ton of bricks in Scooby-Doo and he spends To Boldly Flee trying to fix it.
Lovable Coward: He gets freaked out constantly and driven to tears by things he could just turn off, but he's fun to watch.
Love Before First Sight: It's lucky that Lindsay!Chick had so much chemistry with him, but from the way he acted in the "Search For The Nostalgia Chick", he was going to be in love with whatever woman won.
Love Martyr: From his knowledge of how abusive relationships work, it's safe to say he's had experiences with going back to a horrible partner.
Love Redeems: Disney can bring him back from being a psychopath and his enjoyment of Christmas can never be broken.
Lust Object: Spoony has lust for everyone, but he's really proud to have Critic as a conquest. And we're guessing he didn't blackmail others or break into their houses.
Madness Mantra: All he could write while watching Bio Dome was "why why why why why why...", and in Drop Dead Fred, after the friend praises the lead for her craziness: "No! No! No! No! No! No!..."
Magnetic Hero: In a stereotypically feminine way. No matter how much the others like hurting him, no matter how dickish he can get, if there are tears they'll get sucked right in and want him to be okay.
Manchild: Doug seems to put the Critic's mental age at about twelve. A few examples of this being he still believes in Santa, hiding under the desk when he's afraid and he also still eats at Chuck E. Cheese's.
Manipulative Bastard: In "The Review Must Go On", as he wears Doug down and doesn't care that he's hurting him, insult-threatens him when Doug actually does try leaving, brightens up when he gets what he wants, but goes low and threatening again when Doug has another condition.
Man of a Thousand Voices: Every episode he does will feature at least one impression or fake accent. He's usually very good at them, but his Morgan Freeman voice sounds nothing like the man.
Mean Character, Nice Actor: Doug Walker is nothing like his pathetic, crazed character in real life. Some of the commentaries get bizarre, as the Critic is yelling at the movie for being stupid and Doug is yelling at the Critic for being a dick.
Messianic Archetype: After he takes on the Plot Hole. He'll still snark, but protecting the universe has done his temper, self-worth issues, intelligence and maturity a world of good.
Mood Swinger: He's a bit like a Hollywood-style manic depressive.
Motor Mouth: One of the issues with his Let's Play is that he never stopped talking. Granted, Bart's Nightmare is not much to look at, but quiet moments in LPs are encouraged.
Mr. Fanservice: He's cute and knows it, suffers well, likes taking his shirt off, enjoys making orgasm noises, has given a blowjob to a joystick, looks very nice in a short tunic with no pants or tights and in the advertisement for Geek Fight, he says he won't get naked for the cards... yet.
Mr. Imagination: He manages to outdream Stanley in the A Troll In Central Park review. Only his dreams are slightly more... painful to the titular troll. And when he can't stop himself from imagining the babies between Goliath and Elisa, he bitches that his mind never does what he tells it to.
Must Have Caffeine: Who in the right mind has coffee before going to sleep?
My Beloved Smother: "Hey, she's my world!" But like Ask That Guy, he can't stop himself from having a fantasy about her dying every now and then.
My Biological Clock Is Ticking: In late 2011/early 2012, there's been a reference in a lot of episodes about wanting to be or acting like a father.
My God, What Have I Done?: He has a crying fit when his Nintendo disappears after he stops playing it.
In his third Nostalgic Commercials special, he orders an off-screen minion to inject five people with diabetes (however that's supposed to work...) then stops and says, "Dear God, I think I might be horrible."
Accidentally killing Mary Poppins, his first childhood icon, crushes him.
After making the obligatory gay joke about Bert And Ernie, he breaks down to all the cast of Sesame Street and apologizes for trying to review the first show he ever saw.
The lyrics Lindsay used at the end of "Thanks For The Feedback" implies this:
"Baby come back, you can blame it all on me. I was wrong..."
He breaks down immediately after shooting Floss for no reason other than getting a sad ending.
If he didn't regret forcing Doug to bring him back by the time Santa Christ decided to be vindictive to him, then there's no doubt he did when the devil's daughter decided it was crueler to leave him alive.
The Game Heroes also pull his tie while forcing him to promote their t-shirts. Slightly unnecessary as he's also tied up, at gunpoint and clearly not going anywhere, but nobody's complaining.
Even the fans join in the fun during the Ponyo credits, to punish him for his dislike of Howl's Moving Castle.
Nice Hat: His baseball cap. He's one of the few men over the age of twenty who can make it look cool.
Nightmare Fetishist: His perfect ending for the Santa Claus movie (an awkwardly sweet piece of camp) would be that it was all a Dying Dream caused by being out in a blizzard.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He hates his audience for being sadistic, ungrateful pricks note note that Doug loves his fans but will put himself through an ungodly shitty film because they requested it all the time. This usually doesn't end well for him.
Even though the Ghost Of Christmas Future has been an annoying, stalker-like bastard throughout Babes in Toyland, when the Critic sees that he's depressed, he acts very fatherly and comforting towards him. He then makes the mistake of letting the ghost choose what movie he should suffer through next, and the ghost immediately picks The Grinch.
No Sense of Personal Space: With the Chick. Seeing as how she's just as bad, she doesn't seem to mind too much.
In Star Trek Insurrection, he was close enough to That Sci-Fi Guy to look particularly molesty. Not to mention they were lying in bed together.
Not Distracted by the Sexy: Although he's shown a lot of attraction to the Chick before, he's more annoyed that even she enjoys Moulin Rouge! than anything else. He doesn't even seem to notice that she's wearing burlesque.
Not so Above It All: At the end of his Lost in Space review, he rants to the first appearance of Dr. Smith about nobody can trust him, but then he's easily manipulated and gets shot by his own gun.
He calls out the Care Bears for falling for Christie's and Darkheart's trap, but her screaming breaks him down and he goes to help, getting bagged in the process. He can't resist their The Power of Love moment either, and shouts out for Santa Christ.
Not So Different: There are an essay's worth of similarities between him and The Nostalgia Chick. Ask That Guy is also his Evil Counterpart.
In his review of Bio-Dome, the Critic screams "ASS!" to express rage - a trademark of his rival.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: Shown in Kickassia where he's willing to commit mass murder-suicide through dynamite if anyone threatened the power he'd finally managed to gain.
Not That There's Anything Wrong with That: In the HeMan review. Even Doug and Rob admitted soon after that the review was not one of their finest moments, and maybe it's not a coincidence that the Critic character started getting progressively girlier in later episodes.
Older Than They Look: Lampshaded when he's hitting on Catherine Zeta Jones. He tries to get with her by saying he's really eighty four. (He's really thirty but looks like a teenager with a beard.)
One Note Cook: He can only make cereal. Lampshaded in "Fuck Ups Part Three" where he notes he should probably spend more time in the kitchen and less time gobbling junk food.
OOC Is Serious Business: Even disregarding angry cluster f bombs, swearing is a fairly natural part of his vocabulary. So when he goes Goshdang It To Heck or doesn't swear at all, something's either gone very wrong or very right.
If he thinks a child getting hit is funny rather than horrible, you'll know the child character is incredibly annoying.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: When Doug did top elevens or tributes in the earlier days, he could never quite stop his real Chicago drawl coming through Critic's broad everyman accent. Luckily he eventually managed to hide it completely. (Except in bloopers obviously.)
Out-of-Character Moment: In the middle bit of Airborne, he comes across (unintentionally) as a bit of a Heteronormative Crusader who thinks the lead isn't a proper man because he wants to be a pacifist and not fight. He gets out of it near the end, but it was a weird period for a Sissy Villain who hates morals of "solve problems by fighting".
In the Tank Girl review, he freaks over a possibly horny woman director wanting a Shirtless Scene for a man. He never acted like that before, he's never acted like that again and he's even made much use of the Female Gaze himself.
Person of Mass Destruction: In his Quest for Camelot review, he got so angry with the movie for not explaining anything that he accidentally caused a massive explosion that destroyed an entire city. Twice.
Perverse Sexual Lust: For Catherine Zeta Jones, as we find out in his Top11Villain Songs video. It's an inverted example as the Critic is a fictional character while Catherine Zeta Jones is a real life actress.
Ping Pong Naïveté: His intelligence and competence will vary depending on who he's with and if it's funny for him to be stupid or not.
Pink Means Feminine: His bedroom has pink curtains. Amusingly, the first time we saw them was when he was writing in his diary like a teenage girl in the My Pet Monster review.
Please, I Will Do Anything!: Quite frequently. He did it when Tom And Jerry were going to sing another song, when he was made to review the Star Wars Holiday Special and even though it wasn't begging, he did say he would give Devil Sage everything if he took his memories of Sequel Month away.
Prematurely Balding: Lampshaded this, noting that he used to have a mop of hair back in high school. He promptly breaks down in tears.
Pretty Boy: He and others certainly think so: he calls himself pretty rather than handsome in his Battlefield Earth review, Spoony made him dress in drag and took pictures while raping him, the Chick went into bad touch land after chloroforming him, the Game Heroes had fun manhandling him while he was their Distressed Dude and both Linkara and Film Brain have fairly obvious crushes on him.
Properly Paranoid: He drives himself crazy trying to decipher the Nerd's "compliment", but when he's ready to give up and admit that the Nerd might be a nice guy, he finds the insult.
When he's ready to snap and cry because he thinks he and his world is all Alec Baldwin's delusion, he's only a couple steps away from the truth.
Psychotic Smirk: He spends most of “The Review Must Go On” with this.
Psychopathic Manchild: He's like a twelve year old kid with a gun. During his Disneycember review, Doug says he took a lot of the character's "pathetic whiny brat in a grown person's body" part from the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland.
Puppy-Dog Eyes: Usually a side-effect of when he's really suffering, and not just because of bad movies. Turns into Quivering Eyes occaisonally.
Critic: Now granted I didn't grow up as a girl... for long. *looks embarrassed and about to cry* I have a history.
Raised Catholic: Quite conservatively so, which provides a good excuse for his moments of uncertainty as to if being gay is a choice or not.
Rape as Backstory: On his prom night, even. Low blow. That trauma monkey plushie also raises a few questions.
Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: He's incredibly pale (he even disappears due to Cool as Ice being far too white), and is at least meant to be attractive. The downside of this is that it makes it very obvious when Doug demonstrates his lack of familiarity with sunscreen.
Reality Warper: Word Of God is that he's spending his time trying to learn how to transform himself into different things, not just being a muppet. By the Linkara cameo in December, he mostly seems to have got it to work.
Really Gets Around: Just not quite in the way he wants. This quality increased for insecurity reasons in 2012.
Real Women Never Wear Dresses: Believes in this pretty heavily. As an example, Princess Peach using a frying pan to knock out an enemy disgusts him. As another example, he calls the possessed person in Star Trek with "no emotions, no feelings and no needs" the perfect woman. Although like Chick and Lindsay, this is just meant to be the character being an idiot and not Doug's real feelings on the subject. In Doug's own reviews of Disney movies, he even argues why leads like Ariel, Cinderella and Snow White aren't the feminist nightmares they're made out to be.
His reason for hating the women in Pearl Harbor is that they giggle. Not what they're giggling about, not that they do it too much, not that they're flat characters, just hates them from the first laugh.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Does this to himself. The Nostalgia Critic's the red oni, to the real life Doug Walker's blue oni.
Nicely swapped round with Linkara in Star Trek Insurrection. To perhaps show Critic has grown up a bit, he shouts very little and tries to be optimistic while Linkara spends a lot of time angry and yelling.
Sad Clown: Under all the jokes and snark, he's really quite depressed. He even takes it one step further by feeling insecure about his abilities for comedy.
Secretly Wealthy: Sage is actually shocked when he sees it all come through. So much so that he offhandedly tells Critic to go jump off a cliff afterwards instead of using the More than Mind Control to his advantage.
Selective Obliviousness: In some ways he knows the Chick better than anyone, but he blinded himself to what she was doing in Kickassia because he thought she had his Undying Loyalty, he assumed she would feel the same pride that he did when he sat through a bad movie, and he views her as a lot tougher than she really is.
Not just with Chick. He's pretty good with denial as a whole, like when he was complaining about his job for years but only sank into major depression when a director inadvertently made him realize his life was meaningless.
Self-Serving Memory: He remembered Kickassia as becoming a God when he just sat on his ass all day, and the titular crossovers as teaching Linkara, Chick, Phelous and Lord Kat a lesson about going into his territory when in reality, he broke down in all of them and had to be comforted.
Sex Is Violence: He looks suspiciously post-coital after he causes a mass explosion. And the chaos of the "Pink Elephants On Parade" makes him exhaustedly ask "Was it good for you?".
Also, Star Trek Insurrection has him pawing That Sci-Fi Guy enough to raise some eyebrows. What makes it this trope is that three episodes before, Sci-Fi Guy killed him.
Sexy Coat Flashing: Done in his review of the Flinstones Movie, where he acts out Halle Berry trying to comfort the audience.
Sexy Stewardess: In the first DVD menu, he bizarrely (but not problematically) dresses up like a flight attendant who has a lot of skin showing.
Sinister Surveillance: He managed to get a camera into every site member's house, so he'll know when they're apparently trying to steal his spotlight.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: The only episode where he didn't swear was in Follow That Bird, which is very sweet.
Sissy Villain: Although not with the usual Unfortunate Implications. He's a pathetic jackass, but not because he's "sissy". That's just part of his personality.
Skewed Priorities: He thinks child abuse, even the more minor stuff, is worse than rape. Done intentionally, as while the Critic complains about the Starchaser sexbot abuse scene as creepy for the kids, Doug rants on the commentary about the disgustingness of her character being forcibly changed from unwilling to slut.
Slouch of Villainy: When Doug gives him the answer he wants in “The Review Must Go On”.
Slowly Slipping Into Evil: CR made a pointed comparison to Critic and Baby-Doll from Batman, trying to get him to see that he'll end up as a White Dwarf Starlet if he keeps on stressing about people taking his job.
Smart Ball: Invoked in The Chipmunk Adventure. When he gives a too-well-reasoned argument about the Chick growing out of the site-planned Girl Show Ghetto and doing her own thing, Chick meta-brags that what he's saying sounds like her writing.
Smarter Than You Look: He doesn't have a whole lot of faith in his intelligence, not helped by all the mistakes he makes, but he really is smarter than he seems.
Soapbox Sadie: Nobody can accuse of him of not genuinely caring about kids, racism or sexism (and if you have for the first one, what have you been watching?), but it's like he can only be OCD-like about one of those things an episode, while the rest get pushed to the side slightly.
Some of My Best Friends Are X: Parodied when people accuse him of being an anti-groundite. He goes on to say they're hard-working, have feelings and some of his good friends are floors. His own floor then tries to shoot him.
Sore Loser: When he loses the third match against Angry Joe, he's a whiny, angry brat who accuses Joe of cheating.
The Soulless: He lost it to Malcolm's devil in return for a good Zod impression.
Speech Impediment: He starts stammering when he's scared or nervous.
Speak of the Devil: He pops up in the Chick's review of Transformers when she says the word "manchildren". Also when Maven says the words "nostalgia nostalgia nostalgia" in her Count Chocula review.
Split Personality: Done in the more realistic fashion. Three times now something bad has happened to really trigger him off, he'll react with intense distaste (Hearing Voices with the Doug bullies, long angrish with how childish The Haunting remake was, exploding cities with Quest for Camelot) and then he'll come back with apologies or would have to be made aware of what he just did.
Stalker with a Crush: In his teenage years, he broke up with someone three times.
Nostalgia Critic: How many times can you break up with someone before they turn into a psycho and start stalking you? *looks around scared and whispers* Three.
He himself approaches stalker territory when he first pretends to be Rasputin to have a conversation with the Chick and secondly hides in the bushes to capture her and make her watch Bratz. She finds the former endearingly annoying and doesn't seem to mind the latter, however, probably because she chloroformed him first.
Steel Ear Drums: Played straight most of the time and subverted once. All that shooting in close spaces doesn't affect him, but a girl's annoying voice pierces right through.
Stepford Smiler: A mix of type C/type A. A good example of stepfordness is in the beginning of the Blues Brothers video game where he's waking up in the morning.
The Stoner: While he bears none of the character traits associated with the trope, he does make a few references. His plan for the 100th episode was to show a crummy clip show and smoke some pot. He's also on an ongoing search for "Pot Land" according to his review of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show.
Strange Boy: He'd still be pretty bizarre even if you took away all the self-confidence issues, the flightiness and the temper tantrums. People in crossovers didn't notice until pretty late on.
Strawman Emotional: In his worst moments. The fact that he doesn't seem to even realize he can be like this makes it easier to stomach.
The Strawstuffer: Invoked. Doug talks in The Simple Wish commentary how, even though he has fair days, Critic can never quite grasp how the films he moans about are often the subject of Executive Meddling and that the actor/director/producer is usually not the one he should be directing his complaints at.
Stubborn Mule: He calls himself a stubborn old curmudgeon in the "Willy Wonka" Old vs New.
Sympathetic P.O.V.: It's his show, so we get to see him break down, fanboy, be a victim, be a jackass, be smart, be dumb... the works. If we knew him from Film Brain's POV for example, he wouldn't nearly be as likable.
Take a Third Option: When Spoony gives him a choice of reviewing the Reb Brown Captain America movie or letting the forced crossdressing pictures of Spooning With Spoony 2 leak out, he chooses a noose instead.
Ted Baxter: No matter how many times it gets beaten out of him, he's an egotistical prick. What makes a little more interesting, though, is his self-esteem is pretty low and pathetically easy to break.
Testosterone Poisoning: Literally. He takes pills that he owns to make him sound like Kevin Conroy, and his voice drops much lower as well as his balls.He almost certainly was trying to invoke this at the beginning. Sexist, homophobic, a lower-pitched voice, still wasn't smart but had much more Common Sense, owned a Hair-Trigger Temper, slobby, easily bored and none of the femmy, childish behavior we know him for.
Thinking Tic: Has a tendency to pucker his mouth when he's thinking something over.
Throw the Dog a Bone: Santa Christ showing up to erase his memory of The Star Wars Holiday Special. And "Poor Critic" at the end of his Commercials Special has him getting his self-confidence back.
After being so deathly boring for the majority of time, Junior gets funny and stupid with Arnold in a dress and spouting one-liners.
Double Team more than satisfies him with the "BEST! DEATH! EVER!".
After going through hell with Sequel Month, he gets to enjoy himself with Dungeons & Dragons.
Considering how depressed he was that he couldn't muster up the courage to talk to the Chick during the failure date, their relationship becoming Dating Catwoman probably counts.
In To Boldly Flee, his creator telling him how good of a character he became. Plus saving the world.
Too Dumb to Live: Plenty of instances. Examples include taunting Disney villains, tempting an angel to kick his ass and God to strike him down, trusting people he shouldn't and following the orders of Sage when he believes he's the devil.
Took a Level in Dumbass: Not a bad thing, but he wasn't always lacking in a lot of common sense.
Took a Level in Kindness: As a result of Doug deciding to do more stuff he likes (at least in a Guilty Pleasure sense) and saying what the movie actually did right. The Hidden Depths and the Pet the Dog moments help too. Of course he's still a broken, immature asshole.
Took a Level in Jerkass: When he descended from the Plot Hole. Though when you've hit such peak good-guy that even your bitchy Distaff Counterpart assumes you're God, there's assumedly nowhere left to go but down.
Trademark Favourite Food: He has a rarely-mentioned obsession with breakfast cereal, which shows up in his cereal mascots review (obviously) and a crossover sketch with the Nostalgia Chick and The Maven of the Evantide.
Transparent Closet: The door will be opened and closed for Rule of Funny and Rule of Cute. Sometimes he'll valiantly attempt to be all about the boobs, other times he'll fangirl guys without the slightest bit of regret.
Trauma Conga Line: It is profoundly entertaining to see what horrible thing will happen to him next, either in the present or in his childhood.
Troubled Child: "I had issues." Understatement of the century, dollface.
Tsundere: Showcased in pretty much the entirety of the "Follow That Bird" review.
Nostalgic Critic: Big Bird! Oh my god! He is just as big as I remember him! Some things never change when you're a chi- IT'S A MAN IN A COSTUME! ...A big...loveable...heartwarming costume...
In Alaska he switches between horror at polar bears eating people to fawning over the movie's animal lightning fast.
Uke: Even Chester lampshades the implications of "Nerd-On-Critic action". Not to mention that if he spends any time with a woman, it'll end up in Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy.
Undying Loyalty: As lampshaded by Ma-Ti in Kickassia. If he does actually care for someone, he'll cling on tight and do anything for them.
Unfazed Everyman: Despite his cowardice, he's perfectly accepting of characters from the movies he's watching talking to him.
Unkempt Beauty: He looks much better with a rumpled suit and baseball cap than he does in 'proper' clothes.
Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Maybe it's a good thing that he never wins, because when he does (and that's rare), he acts like a prick.
For Quest for Camelot he gets so angry that the movie keeps making shit up with absolutely no explanation that his anger destroys a town with a nuclear explosion. Then it happens again mere moments later when one of the characters makes a horrible Dirty Harry pun.
The Neverending Story 3 certainly did piss off the NC to no end, but the last straw was, instead of the theme song to the series, they place Rockbiter singing "Born To Be Wild" during the motorcycle scene on the end credits. This sends the NC laughing all the way to Home Depot, buying a crowbar, coming home, and then mercilessly beating and raping the DVD to pieces.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Not in the "was nice but is now evil" way, but the "hoped for far more than this" version.
Vanity Is Feminine: He frantically paws at his face before running off to print out pictures of it in the photocopier. This is apparently his secret hobby.
Verbal Tic: The Critic has an extremely prevalent one that typically appears multiple times in the span of every single review. Once you notice it you'll hear it all the time. note It's "on top of that".
He will almost always provide a summation of his review along the lines of "The <noun> is <adjective>, the <noun> is <adjective>, the <noun> is <adjective>... In short, it's an <adjective> <noun>."
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Chester. Critic steals Chester's drugs and lets him search for the necronomicon by himself while Chester is somewhat of an Ungrateful Bastard who will blow up cities just to upset Critic. However, Critic gave Chester a job, a safe place to stay and is the only one on the site to give him money, while Chester will be one of the first to defend Critic against anyone else.
Vocal Evolution: The Nostalgia Critic's voice was much more drawling and manlier in his earlier episodes with Doug's real Chicago accent coming through, with almost none of the high-pitched screaming and animated excitement he'd become known for.
His Arnold Schwarzenegger impression is improving as well. Impressions in his Schwarzenegger month videos are deeper than his earlier reviews, and pretty close to the real thing.
His female voice is getting better too. In early reviews, it was just slightly more high-pitched than his child voice. Now it's almost sounding like a woman is talking.
Walking Disaster Area: Computers, stuffed animals and kitchen appliances have all blown him up or gone wrong in some way before he even managed to touch them.
Weakness Turns Them On: Even the other TGWTG contributors like him better when he's vulnerable. Spoony especially.
Weak Willed: In the Top 11 Cereal Mascots, he goes out (twice) immediately to buy something because advertising told him to. And Devil!Sage manages to control him easily even after he's said he's not the devil.
Weapon of Choice: A Cool Gun he uses with wild abandon. Word Of God says it was done for the funny, the menacing aspect and also because it's really quite pathetic.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: It's great that you want the Chick to be proud of herself, but forcing her to watch Bratz is kinda harsh.
When He Smiles: Look at the top picture of the three Critics on his blip page. The first is him being goofy, the second is him looking angry while pointing a gun, and what does the third involve? A cute smile with his dimple showing.
White Knighting: While obviously not as hardcore as The Nostalgia Chick's fanbase, his fangirls do have a tendency to believe that he's like a four year old boy who needs protective Mama Bears to save him from the trolls.
White Male Lead: He doesn't fit the description (you couldn't really view him as privileged other than having a fair amount of money and he's not overshadowing any minority), but he views himself as one.
Played straighter in the reboot, as he gets the most airtime, often explains the obvious to the bad guys, and the black guy and woman are relegated to one-note characters on the side.
Wholesome Crossdresser: On the TGWTG Vol. 1 DVD, he dresses up like an airline stewardess.
Douchey has a picture of him wearing Marilyn Monroe's dress, which Critic gets embarrassed by.
He once dressed up as a female irish janitor and recorded things in the girls locker room.
Critic: Why don't you just forget I said that?
And of course, there's Suburban Knights, where he wears a very skimpy costume. Critic didn't know what he was doing, but Doug evidently did.
When his early teenager self says "I like to wear women's clothing" and dresses up in a blonde wig, present!Critic's already high embarrassment goes through the roof.
Critic: Hel-lo I'm the Nostalgia Critic. I remember it so you don't have to. But that hasn't stopped people from trying!
The Wonka: His number of issues are a mile long, but people follow him willingly and he's genuinely great at his job. Just don't tell him that last part or he might cry.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is probably the only reoccurring person in his reviews that he can both make fun of and have affection for.
Would Hurt a Child: He makes Evilina cry twice in The Cat In The Hat, once by hitting her and yelling at her for crying, and in The King and I he dances happily at the thought of a teenage girl getting whipped.
Would Hit a Girl: Mostly The Nostalgia Chick. Naturally, she likes beating on him just as much.
Although it seems he only does this with women who can give as good as they get. He's disgusted with Good Burger for Carmen Electra getting beaten up and having it played for laughs.
When he starts to be sure that Jingle All The Way has ended on at-least-not-so-bad note, the movie proves him wrong. He doesn't take it well.
He was on the verge of solving world hunger and cure all unknown diseases when DuckTales popped into his head and broke all concentration.
After having an adorably fun time with the creators of Animaniacs, he fucks up at the end because of an immature request.
In Simon Sez, when Obscurus Lupa accepts him not wanting to do a crossover with her, he's almost heartbreakingly delighted that someone actually listened to him. Of course she's only messing around.
At the end of Exorcist II The Heretic review, the "great spirits" let him know that he doesn't have to do Nostalgia-Ween anymore. What he has to do instead? Dougs First Movie.
As soon as he says he doesn't want anything more to do with Doug after making it through without having to hear the dreaded theme song, guess what plays?
He spends most of Star Trek month paranoid that Linkara will show up and nitpick in his usual way. When he thinks it's over and he's free, guess who shows up?
The Critic is overjoyed that the next film he is going to review is The Avengers. He thought it would be the Joss Whedon project, not the film adaptation of the British spy series.
Youthful Freckles: Not on his face, but the rest of his body. Which is fitting for how many times he's taken his clothes off.
You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry: As pathetic as he is and as pathetic as even the gun is (according to Word Of God), you can't really say he doesn't leave an impact when he's genuinely pissed off.
Doug's Other Characters
All characters in this folder are played or voiced by Doug Walker.
Future Nostalgia Critic
He appears in the Nostalgia Critic's review of The Room, and takes NC to his future where seahorses rule. Then to the past in The Langoliers review to see if the titular creatures actually exist. They do. He returns in the review of Scooby-Doo.
Genre Savvy: In the Scooby-Doo review, he figures out all of the "plot twists": i.e. Velma hooking up with the random guy she was talking to earlier in the movie and figuring out that the antagonist is Scrappy-Doo.
Ironic Hell: By Scooby-Doo he can't remember anything about his childhood, which basically means he's suffering from early dementia.
Large Ham: Just like the character he was based on, though greatly downplayed in his last appearance.
The leader of the Autobots and savior of mankind; he died for your sins and brought Nostalgia Critic back to life in his Surf Ninjas review. After selling his soul to the devil, more commonly known as Michael Bay, Optimus Prime agrees to review the first three episodes that made him famous...
Nostalgia Filter:invoked The original Transformers cartoon turned out to be a lot goofier than he realized, but he's still proud of what it was for its time, especially compared to the film franchise.
Anachronism Stew: He's supposed to be a representation of Walker's teenage self as seen in his home movies, however, has access to the Scooby-Doo film, and has talked about seeing The Two Towers, both of which came out in 2002.
The Pollyanna: Despite everything we know that's already happened to him, he's an innocently sweet Conspiracy Theorist with tons of stuffed animals in his room and thinks those silly videos he makes are going to earn him millions.
Reality Subtext: Based off of what Doug was like as a teenager.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: Is truly looking forward to seeing the film based on the beloved Hanna-Barbera cartoon he knows all the characters in (he takes the description on the DVD cover to heart), but eventually shares his adult versions' opinion that it's crap. He keeps hoping for the best before his hopes are dashed though.
That Guy with the Robe
A character who only appears on the menus for the Best of TGWTG Vol. 3 DVD. The immortal guardian of the DVD menu pages, he has been stuck at his post for untold ages, and has cracked just a little under years of isolation. He's named all of his fingers and eaten five of his own toes (though not all on the same foot). He waits impatiently for viewers to make the choice that will grant them eternal life and constantly berates them for choosing poorly. He allegedly has a posse.
Go Mad from the Isolation: He's pretty high-strung. He crucified a cockroach with toothpicks once. And he killed a rat for no reason... and dressed it up like a lady of the night.
Innocent Bigot: He's sexist, racist and homophobic, but he's treated sympathetically.
A Father to His Men: Holds in high regard his roomates, Tina A. and Dog Johnson, vowing to depict them in movies the way they had an impact on his vision of women and black people.
First appearing in the Halloween Episode special, he is a doll that the Critic states is hideous, annoying, dull and scary. Let's just say the doll didn't like what he said and decides to pay him back. Let's say it becomes less of this and more For the Evulz as the special goes on. It makes a cameo in the 2nd commercial special.
Disproportionate Retribution: The doll's actions soon become far more sadistic than simple pettiness and soon becomes obvious that he is elated in killing the Critic.
Knight of Cerebus: Most of the Critic's sketches were pretty harmless, and then this Creepy Doll shows up and causes the entire special to be disturbing and horrifying.
Mood Whiplash: Much Darker and Edgier than much of his earlier and later sketches, and one of the first times prior the Suburban Knights that he's been actually been in life threatening danger.
Name's the Same: He shares the same name as a more humanoid Satan, but it is unknown if the two are one and the same or completely separate
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Both it's unnaturally human eyes and the glowing kind he reveals to be Satan
Satan: The only way to explain why he's so crazy and why he could move and survive without either batteries or a head
The Sociopath: Becomes increasingly obvious he's doing it out of the luz rather than pettiness
Catch Phrase: "Hold it right there!", "OOOOOH!", and "(insert INSULT here)"
Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Invoked. The Critic eventually offers him a position as his official fact checker, and he turns it down because then he wouldn't be able to complain about things.
Even the Guys Want Him: In his appearance in Linkara's "Comic Book Ads", he tells him he should look more like Benzaie. And he also insults Critic a few times by calling him a whore. For a straw fanboy like Douchey, that's slightly... odd.
Everyone Has Standards: He's able to pity the Critic for his breakdown in part three of the fuck-ups, and tells the rest of the audience to pray for him.
Fate Worse Than Death: He was chosen to replace the Critic in the Plot Hole, meaning he must spend the rest of eternity correcting mistakes in the universe. While this seems perfect for him, he proclaims that "this is the worst job ever!"
Felony Misdemeanor: Declaring any mistake Critic makes to be worthy of cruel and unusual punishments.
Heteronormative Crusader: He hates the Chick for not being his standard of beauty and one of the things he considers a fuck-up is the Critic wearing eyeliner. On the other hand, his standard of beauty turns out to be Benzaie.
Hollywood Nerd: The first kind; Nerd Glasses, a permanent scowl, an unflattering shirt and unwashed, stringy hair.
Insane Troll Logic: According to him, posting on the internet makes him right, using people you admire for cameos is stupid, and Frank Miller is God.
Internalized Homophobia: He's at the very least curious, but has deep loathing for anything not "normal".
Internet Tough Guy: As soon as he meets up with the Critic and Linkara in person, he's a lot more cowardly.
Jerkass: Douchey just loves to torment the Nostalgia Critic, even playing the Doug theme when he knows that would set him off. It's also telling that Douchey isn't the one to remind the Critic of the autism fuck-up.
My Beloved Smother: Douchey still lives with his mother, which he tries to conceal.
My God, What Have I Done?: At the end of “Fuck Ups Part Three”, he finally realizes that Critic really has had a number put on him by, well, everything and so tries to make up for his part by leaving in peace.
"Jokes on you! I'm still going to masturbate to your picture tonight!"
When he's not masturbating to the Green M&M.
Pet the Dog: He decides to leave the Critic alone after a particularly psychotic breakdown ensued in his third Fuck Ups video.
Psychopathic Manchild: He has a screeching temper tantrum whenever he doesn't get his way.
Shadow Archetype: To Chester. Both have No Indoor Voice, go off on random tangents and have the same wi- hair, but while Chester is generally a good guy who gets idealistic about every movie he sees and deals with a sucky life through drugs and alcohol, Douchey is an entitled whiner who disproportionately complains about everything.
Stalker with a Crush: He's just a touch too obsessive, what with waiting until three in the morning to watch the videos as soon as they come out.
Throw the Dog a Bone: Not like he really deserves it, but he's had two doses of satisfaction; in the "Old Vs. New: Willy Wonka" where he got to torture Critic with evil ear worms with no retribution and in the "You're A Dirty Rotten Bastard" special where without the Critic being alive, he would have been the best fan ever.
Too Dumb to Live: If he's the Critic's "biggest fan", then wouldn't he realize that pushing his patience beyond its limits (especially when Critic is trying his best to keep calm) is a really bad idea?
Unpleasable Fanbase: He declares a pox on the Critic, IMMEDIATELY after the Critic sarcastically says "Who am I to doubt the logic of internet commentators?"
Villainous Crossdresser: That's why Douchey knows the difference between a 18th century dress and a Victorian one.
Doug plays the villain from the film version of Lost in Space, always seen through a portal to the future. So far he has appeared in the review of that film, in the Quest for Camelot, IT, Kickassia and The Secret of NIMH 2.
Card-Carrying Villain: Like in the movie, he doesn't attempt to hide that he's evil, though in the Quest for Camelot review, he does point out that since he's now a spider hybrid, pretending to not be evil probably wouldn't work anyway.
Scenes of him from the review are part of the opening theme sequence introduced at the start of the second run.
Screwy Squirrel: He throws his red nose at a sick, annoyed Critic and runs off before he can get his ass kicked.
Rob's Characters
Rob Walker / The Other Guy
A fictionalized version of Doug's brother and Channel Awesome VP, Rob Walker. Older brother to the Critic and Ask That Guy. He is sometimes a dinosaur.
Affectionate Parody: Dark Rob is a parody of Dark Nella, he has the look but he's actually far more pathetic and weak than his usual Manipulative Bastard self.
Aloof Big Brother: Although when your little brothers are insane, you can't really blame him.
Alter Ego Acting: More mixed than most of the site, but The Other Guy is a controlling Bad Boss who will gladly abuse the Critic. Rob Walker is a friendly, calm guy who will go into Team Dad mode in need be.
Bad Boss: He'll always bring the Critic back when he tries to get away from a review, sometimes violently, and he gives Todd's feminist thesis to the "more intelligent" 90s Kid.
His boss, Mike "M" Michaud, is a shadowy, malevolent figure who kidnapped Rob to get him to work for him.
Cooldown Hug: When Critic works himself up into a state about Surf Ninjas, he pushes him gently back down on the bed.
Cosplay: Once dressed up as The Emperor in the review for the other animated Titanic movie. Rob has stated that the Emperor is one of his favourite characters in any movie ever. And guess which role he's spoofing in To Boldly Flee?
Evil Makeover: Dark Rob looks a lot like Edward Scissorhands. Funnily enough, Elisa (who plays the Makeover Fairy) said on a stream that she was impressed by how well the boys did his make-up.
Evil Overlord: When he dresses up like Palpatine, he says he's the dark, controlling overlord in real life too.
He's the calm brother who's fine with being a dinosaur randomly.
Heroic BSOD: When he sees the Critic dead and bloody in the shower at the end of IT.
Hidden Heart of Gold: He's only shown concern for the Critic twice when he was conscious. The other times he was dead, too drunk to recognize anyone or passed out.
Manipulative Bastard: In his own words, he's the dark, shadowy puppet-master who controls the Critic.
Pet the Dog: He looks after the Critic whenever he's really upset.
Scooby-Doo reveals that he's been trying "every night for five years" to get the Critic out of his shell and join in a poker game, but he never listened.
What you get when you fuse Santa Claus and Jesus Christ together into a divine mix of awesome. Santa Christ first appeared in The Nostalgia Critic's review of The Star Wars Holiday Special to erase his memories of ever having seen the Special and cure his undiagnosed diabetes. He has since made appearances in Kickassia, the You're A Rotten Dirty Bastard holiday special, and the review of the 1980's Santa Claus. Santa Christ is played by Doug's brother, Rob Walker.
Beware the Nice Ones: In a commentary, Rob calls him a tad messed up when he's been pushed too far. And while understandable, shoot him and he'll hold a hell of a grudge.
Big Damn Hero: When Critic is begging to be saved from the Star Wars Special, Santa Christ comes in to erase his memory, cure his diabetes and give him a hug.
Subverted in the Son of the Mask review; Critic calls Santa Christ for help, but Santa Christ himself isn't powerful enough to stop that movie. He does pull a Big Damn Heroes moment, but it fails.
Serendipity Writes the Plot: According to the commentary for The Star Wars Holiday Special review, the entire character only exists because the copy of the special Doug got abruptly ended in the middle of Leia's song, and he needed a gag to mask that. That, and Rob wanted a bigger on-screen presence in the reviews.
Sugary Malice: He tells Critic he was meant to suffer in the most comforting dad voice possible. It comes off especially cruel that way, even if Critic was immeasurably stupid in coming down from being God.
Team Dad: He takes care of the Critic (to a point) and firmly but kindly tells the TGWTG crew in Kickassia that they're being idiots.
Took a Level in Jerkass: In Son Of The Mask. Aside from burning Critic's hands just for giggles, we also find out that he's good friends with Satan.
We Used To Be Friends: They made up for the Kickassia shooting in To Boldly Flee, as Critic became god to Santa Christ's Jesus and asked him both to bring Spoony Back from the Dead and make sure everyone else was okay, but Critic fucked it all up again when he came down, so by Son Of The Mask Santa Christ is openly telling him he deserves to suffer.
Heel Face Turn: Somewhat implied during the Scooby-Doo review, considering how he gives some aid to the Nostalgia Critic and remarks that he'll "be watching, and always making sure you have something to critique.".
Killed Off for Real: Although this doesn't stop the critic from encountering his spirit in the Scooby-Doo review.
Light Is Not Good: Unless God Is Evil, killing the guy he's supposed to be looking after would have immediately made him "fall".
Took a Level in Badass: He explodes into a ninja costume and proceeds to whup the Critic's ass once he realizes that he would become God's number one man and buddy if the Critic did not exist.
A studio executive who purchased the film rights to Dr. Seuss' books, and highlighted Michael Bay's previous films in the 90's. Appears in the review of Pearl Harbour and The Cat In The Hat. Played by Orlando Belisle.
First Name Basis: In the Pearl Harbour review he was only known as "Peter". Averted later when the Nostalgia Critic informs his last name is "Souless".
Ignored Epiphany: The Critic has to explain he has his Well-Intentioned Extremist traits backwards — the Dr. Seuss books don't need modern slang because they're timeless, and throwing in adult jokes makes them seem childish. He seems to be getting through to Soulless for a minute, then Soulless throws it back in his face.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Though its hinted it may just be him trying to put on appearances, he seems to think that his changes to the books to make them into films improve them, like updating them with modern slang and throwing in adult jokes to make it more mature.
"Well, so long, Critic. I'm sure now the that the public have seen your brilliant choices as a child, they'll be just as accepting as you were of mine."
A certain nostalgic person, playing herself in a... rather different persona than the roles she's known for. Also currently The Nostalgia Chick's new neighbor.
Came Back Wrong: IMDB.com mistakenly claimed that she died a few years ago... or so we thought. In fact, she did die, only to come back to life with the power to make her eyes glow and an insatiable desire for revenge. Not against anything in particular, just revenge in general, though the Nostalgia Critic is her target of choice.
The Cameo: The site's first celebrity cameo, at that.
Mean Character, Nice Actor: Much like Wil Wheaton on Big Bang Theory, she's is a nice actor (and incredibly good sport) playing a mean character who who happens to also be a mean actor who used to play nice characters.
Our Zombies Are Different: Type R—Revenant. She's extremely well-preserved for one of the walking dead, though. You can't really tell she's undead just by looking.
Revenge: Her eternal quest, and the reason why she came back from the dead. Though she's a bit vague on who or why.
She Is All Grown Up: Her Critic appearance makes nothing of her adult looks, but the Nostalgia Chick and Nella notice her boobs rather happily.
Retired / Status Unknown
Zack the Psycho Maniac
A grown-up version of "Zack the Lego Maniac" from the old Lego commercials of the '90s. He still lives with his grandmother and has graduated from building Lego sculptures to building bombs, which he uses to take revenge on anyone who's slighted him. Played by Jay Chapman.
The TGWTG version of the Captain Planet character with the power of heart (or at least someone CLAIMING to be him), as played by Doug's friend Bhargav Dronamraju. Appears in the Nostalgia Critic's Captain Planet review, the anniversary brawl video, NC's Battlefield Earth review, Kickassia, and Suburban Knights. Might actually just be a delusional Indian guy with a mysterious grudge against Ted Turner and a completely unrelated magic ring, nobody's quite sure. Sadly, his actor has left the series.
After nearly getting raped by Ask That Guy, he gives a You Bastard to the audience before raping ATG himself. Because that's what we all want to see, right?
In the one-year anniversary video. Everyone tried to kick his ass.
Again in the third-year anniversary, Suburban Knights. He wants to join the team's quest, but the Critic continuously sends him away on increasingly ridiculous snipe hunts just to get rid of him.
All of this treatment REALLY turns out to bite the Critic and the rest of the site's reviewers collective asses in To Boldly Flee when, having had his conciousness merge with the Plot Hole giving him powers over the Awesomeverses' "Plot" means he resents the world so much he wants to destroy it.
Catch Phrase: "Heart!", to the point that it's basically a Verbal Tic for the character.
Dawson Casting: Ma-Ti is fourteen, Bhargav is in his twenties. Seeing as how he's raped Ask That Guy (after nearly getting raped himself) and had a threesome with the Chick and MarzGurl, this is probably for the best.
It helps that Captain Planet was written in the 90s so realistically, he should have aged by now, and the character may very well be a delusional Indian guy anyway.
The Dog Bites Back: Raping Ask That Guy in "Ask That Guy VIOLATES Ma-Ti".
Dynamic Character: Originally just a one-note joke, the three specials really fleshed him out.
Everything Is Racist: His theory as for why he got the short end of the stick is that Ted Turner is prejudiced against Indians. This immediately raises suspicion, since Ma-ti is Brazilian on the show...
Granola Boy: In "Ask That Guy VIOLATES Ma-Ti", he comes to the house with a leaflet on how to save the environment.
Hidden Depths: As of the Inspector Gadget review, it's apparent that he enjoys drinking tea while reading (and praising) Jane Austen while The Dance Of the Hours plays.
Innocently Insensitive: There's a joke in the Siskel And Ebert tribute about him going to the hospital to get his balls removed, which makes him a pussy. Critic tries to set him straight, but he firmly confirms it.
Jade-Colored Glasses: He's bitter about life by the time of the Captain Planet review. Getting subjected to the Critic and his friends doesn't help.
Killed Off for Real: As of Suburban Knights. Unless the Critic does get around to finding the Necronomicon... He doesn't, and Ma-Ti is still dead. But still involved.
Messy Hair: Although it is Bhargav, he probably can't help it.
After Demo Reel ended, Malcom and Rachel started to perform in the skits for The Nostalgia Critic gag cutaways, playing different characters.Characters played by Malcom
Deal with the Devil: Pretty obvious, though in this case he was responsible for Critic's great Zod impression and Souless' success with bad Dr. Seuss movies. In exchange all critic has to do is babysit Evilina. Souless on the otherhand's punishment is more severe.
Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted. Since he's trying to convert his daughter into Pure Evil, he's disgusted by cute shows like My Little Pony, The Care Bears and Dora the Explorer, while Bratz is not that bad for the purpose.
Played straight when he's shocked to learn that the Critic doesn't think Mike Myers was as funny as people tend to remember. Moreover, he's not exactly fond of the Dr. Seuss movies either.
Name's the Same: There is also another Satan in the form of Teddy Ruxpin, but it is unknown if he's an avatar or a separate character
Papa Wolf: He's very involved with his daughter's upbringing as the Spawn of The Devil.
Hot Mom: For the Odd Life of Timothy Green review. And also Kim Kardashian.
Large Ham: She's really having fun. And given the website is home to both Diamanda Hagan and Team NChick, her overacting is in good company.
The Smurfette Principle: So far she's the only female actress playing all the female characters, not counting the other girl from the Michael Bay skit and the Chia-Child.
Averted for the Catwoman review, where there were other catwomen, including Eartha Kitt (lampshaded later).
