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Creator / Team Four Star

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e26124d7ab2e55bad3b6a64df5501242.png

Team Four Star is a Texas-based production studio and Abridged Series Super Group best known for Dragon Ball Z Abridged, amongst other works.

At the moment, the group is active on YouTube. Viewers can also check their official site to find special Let's Play videos of Left 4 Dead 2, Halo: Reach, Serious Sam 3, and Mass Effect 3.

TFS productions tend to be rather popular, as well as genuinely funny, due to the enormous amount of networking, voice talent and writing acumen that can be focused on any given project. Of course, this can also result in Attention Deficit Creator Disorder, as all of them have series of their own, in addition to their TFS responsibilities.note 

In August 2017, the team entered the realm of official, non-parody dubs, with a dub of the anime film Hells, based on the manga Hell's Angels.

After the completion of their channel's keystone project, Dragon Ball Z Abridged, the team has shifted to mostly original works, as seen with various TFS Original video shorts, along with parody works like X in X Minutes and HFIL (which takes place in DBZA's canon).

Members

  • KaiserNeko (Scott Frerichs)note 
  • Lanipator (Nick Landis)note 
  • Takahata101 (Curtis Arnott)note 
  • MasakoX (Lawrence Simpson)note 
  • Antfish (Anthony Sardinha)note 
  • Krosecz (Stephan Krosecz)note 
  • AinTunez (Cliff Weinstein)note 
  • Tyler Coynote 
  • Nowacking (Jesse Nowack)note 
  • Jacob Quinn note 

Frequent Collaborators

Former Contributors and Collaborators

  • Vegeta3986 (Brandon Rainsford)note 
  • 1KidsEntertainmentnote 
  • Kirbopher (Chris Niosi)
  • hbi2k (Ben Creighton)note 
  • CZBacklash (Chris Zito)note 
  • MasterWuggles (Grant Smith)note 
  • LordMoonstone (Kirran Somerlade)note 

List Of Ongoing Works

List Of Finished/Cancelled/Other Works

  • Dragon Ball Z Abridgednote 
  • Hellsing Ultimate Abridgednote 
  • Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridgednote 
  • Attack on Titan Abridgednote 
  • Unabridgednote 
  • An Alternate DVD Commentary of Dragonball Evolution, which can be found at RiffTrax & on their website.
  • Classic TFS Plays, a series of Let's Play videos for the following games (with Takahata101, KaiserNeko, Lanipator, and GanXingba):
  • TFS Plays, a successor of the above series with a more consistent cast (Lani, Kirran, and Grant) and typically doing single-player games while they all deliver MST-style commentary.
    • Dragon Ball Xenoverse (Featuring their custom character Dumplin; Kaiser is part of the LP instead of Grant)
    • Batman: Arkham Knight (Wherin they explore all the roads of Gotham City as Arkham Batman, Adam West, and finally as Terry McGinnis; Kaiser starts as part of the cast but as it took time from his editing and voice acting he ceded his position to Grant roughly 1/2 way through with intermmitent appearances from then on)
    • Transfomers: Devastation
    • Bloodborne (Featuring drunken runs as the blue-skinned "Last survivor of Earth," Dumplestilskin)
    • Fallout 4 (Featuring Cpt. Richard Ravager the Thirdnote )
    • The various Team Four Star Nuzlocke Playthroughs, Nuzlocke challenges of various Pokémon games:invoked
    • One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3
    • Xenogears
    • Drunk Souls 3 (Featuring the third member of the Dump family, Lady Dumpè)
    • Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (Featuring Puddin, the daughter of Dumplin and Towa. Later also features Lirran, fusion of Lani and Kirran, as well as Frogurt, the time-displaced child of Puddin and Cooler).
  • Two Saiyans Play, a takeoff on Two Best Friends Play in which Lani and Taka provide commentary in-character as Vegeta and Nappa.
    • Krillin Plays (alternately Vegeta Makes Krillin Play), in which Lani comments on one-player (usually horror) games in-character as Krillin. Started with Vegeta forcing Krillin to play Slender: The Arrival.
    • Renegade For Life, featuring Vegeta playing video games solo.
    • Baldies Play, in which Nappa and Krillin play video games together.
    • Nappa Plays, featuring Nappa playing video games solo.
    • Goku's Gonna Show You, in which Goku plays popular games on Steam. Typically joined by Gohan.
  • Yes Yes Love Adventure Go!, in which Taka and Zito play Romance Games. Canceled for various reasons but later revived on Taka's Twitch channel with Gaijin Goombah replacing Zito. Prior to the revival, it was replaced with the following:
    • Persona 4 Golden (discontinued after 53 episodes, including several Memestreams)
    • The Memestream, where Taka and Zito play games with an emphasis on meme jokes and generally Denser and Wackier than the other streams. Indefinite hiatus and replaced with Zito's Bargain Barrel streams until his departure from the team.invoked
    • The Unexpectables, an Actual Play roleplaying series involving Taka and Zito, hosted on Taka's channels.note 
  • TFS at the Table, A stream for tabletop games, including a pirate themed D&D campaign that ran from 2017-2019, with Chris Zito as the DM.
  • TFS Podcast (Episode feed here)
  • Abridgimon episode 2 (an April Fools' Day video)
  • LittleKuriboh's works (Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, Naruto: The Abridged Comedy Fandub Spoof Series Show, etc.)note 
  • Voice acting for professional worksnote :
  • Super Knockoff VS, the team's very first video game!
  • FourStarBento, an anime-themed and general TFS side channel.
    • Anime FMK, a weekly discussion & review show wherein Ben, Scott, and Kirran discuss the latest anime and whether they should continue discussing it (Fuck) or stop discussing (Kill), culminating in picking the best of the season (Marry). Canceled because it was taking up too much of their personal time that could be spent working on other projects.
    • Saturday Morning Sushi, wherein Scott goes over Western localizations (or Americanizations) of popular anime.
    • The TalkCast Podshow podcast was moved to this channel, up until it's 76th and final episode.
    • Reviews and video essays by KaiserNeko.
    • A series of Director's Commentary videos going over the entirety of DBZ Abridged, started by Lanipator and KaiserNeko in 2022, with Takahata101 doing his own starting in 2023. Starting with Episode 42, all three members commentate together.
    • A series of tier list making videos ranking various subjects (ie. best anime dad, best Bulma outfits, etc.) featuring Kaiser, Lani, or other TFS members.
    • Bento Bar: A series where two members of TFS have to make a themed cocktail drink, complete with the incorporation of a secret ingredient.
    • Dragon Ball GTFS: A review/commentary series where Lanipator and KaiserNeko rewatch the entirety of Dragon Ball GT, cutting between their reactions to the Episode and offering their own insights and thoughts about the episodes they watched.

Not to be confused with Four Star Television.

This tropes list is for the group as a whole, their Let's Plays, and works without their own pages.

Tropes:

  • The Ace: GanXingBa. He's typically calling out suggestions in the games. Lampshaded by Taka during Hard Rain, when Gan is actually killed and they don't have a defib.
    Taka, panicking: We can't do the finale without Gan!
    • Second in line for that position would have to be Antfish. He gets the highest accuracy everytime he plays with them, and their playthrough of Dead Center with him is one of the few times where they have zero deaths and very few incaps. Simply put, Antfish is the anti-Taka.
    • Taka actually ends up being this with Bloodborne in their live streams. Of course, since they ended up making a drinking game out of how often they died during the game, Taka ultimately got banned from playing it.
  • The All-Solving Hammer: During the Renegade For Life Let's Play of Scribblenauts, Vegeta seems to view Shoggoths as these.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Aside from this being a staple of every abridged series, they have been known to apply this treatment to characters in the games they play, such as imagining King Mickey Mouse as a corrupt tyrant and the mother of the Player Character in Pokémon SoulSilver as having a drinking problem. invoked
  • Alternate DVD Commentary: Taka, Lani, and Kaiser recorded an MST-styled one for Dragon Ball Evolution.
  • Ambiguously Bi: Kaiser summed it up thusly at an 18+ panel:
    Kaiser: We have Lanipator, who's comfortably straight. We have MasakoX, who's painfully straight. And then we have Takahata who's...straight?
    Taka (chuckling): It's true.
  • And Starring: Little Kuriboh gets this type of credit in Dragon Ball Z Abridged. In the first season he was a guest star, only playing the narrator, by the second season he more or less became a main member of the group.
  • Anti-Humor: Piccolo plays card games. The thumbnail sets it up as Piccolo playing Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft… but in reality he's just playing solitaire in complete, dead silence besides vocal grunts.
  • Anyone Can Die: Par for the course in their Nuzlocke runs, but even those who stay on the team for almost the whole game can succumb to this, such as Alex the Fearow in LeafGreen and Ivan Ooze the Slugma in SoulSilver.
  • Author Vocabulary Calendar: The phrase "top-to-bottom" is used quite often when describing things for "DBcember".
  • Babies Ever After: At the end of the Moon Nuzlocke, Sito and Gunbeak, the only two survivors of the main party, have an egg together that hatches into their son, Victory the Pikipek.
  • Back for the Dead: In the SoulSilver Nuzlocke, after withdrawing Martin the Ratata from the PC and training him up, he dies in the very next episode.
    • Also true for Beezy and Lakigr's team, who are all killed by Tantor when they return as opponents in SoulSilver.
  • Berserk Button: Played for Laughs in Dicks of the Old Republic, where Taka will occasionally act like his character Varoosha is sensitive about being blind and will blow up at people who talk about eyes, vision, or the like.
  • Big Bad: Taka becomes the defacto one during their playthrough of DBZ: Super Budoten 2. Taka ends up taking advantage of an exploit that allows him to stun-lock his opponent in an attack cycle, allowing him to beat Lani, Kaiser, and Kirran all in a row.
    Lani: Okay, we've established Taka's not allowed to play anymore; because he likes to kick people into the corner, like a jerk.
    • LordMoonstone plays as the monster against the "Classic Team" note  in Evolve.
  • Big "NO!":
    • The entire group's reaction to the Sequel Hook at the end of Dragonball Evolution.
    • Lani lets out a loud "No" when Dumplin is briefly killed by Demigra in Dragonball Xenoverse.
    • Lani, Kirran and Grant have a huge one in SoulSilver Nuzlocke, when their beloved son Ivan Ooze dies.
  • Black Comedy: Many Dead Baby Krogan jokes are made in the Fire base Dagger Part Two video, including the subtitle.
    How many dead Krogan babies does it take to make a dead Krogan baby joke?
  • Book Ends: Larenti's first two Pokémon in the Moon Nuzlocke are Sito the Rowlet and Gunbeak the Pikipek. They're also the only two party members left alive in the end. Grant makes a note of how appropriate this is.
  • Butt-Monkey:
    • Taka is (playfully) the most picked on, especially during the Halo: Reach videos.
    • Gan tends to refer to Jun as the most useless member of Team Noble.
    • Howard became this regarding the livestream after Siegward died on his watch during Dark Souls 3. The stream chat quickly nicknamed him "Howard the Coward" and regularly flings abuse at him, even blaming him for deaths in the Nuzlocke LP (despite the fact that he has absolutely nothing to do with the Nuzlocke). Of course, it's mostly in jest.
    • Gourdon in Pokémon LeafGreen Nuzlocke becomes one posthumously, with everyone mocking him whenever they can.
    • Mr. Stake in Pokémon SoulSilver Nuzlocke. His very name in reference to his Low-Tier Letdown nature is bad enough, but he also slams his head into things and is only capable of saying his new name. Although after he starts to become more unkillable he transitions into being more of an Iron Butt Monkey.
    • Dodoria in their Xenoverse 2 play-through. Puddin dumps him for Cooler, ignores his affections at first, beats the crap out of him, then eventually strings him along because it makes her feel pretty and then when he finds new love in Cooler, it doesn't last as Cooler and Puddin are back together by the next episode and Kirran opines it was doomed from the start as Dodoria could never reach the pinnacle that is Cooler.
  • Cain and Abel: In Xenoverse 2, they play this angle between Puddin and Mira, since Puddin is Dumplin's daughter with Towa while Mira is Towa's creation.
  • Call-Forward: Both Goku and Vegeta have done gags in their respective LP shows where they tried to imagine what they'd look like if they grew beards, which is represented with a still from Dragon Ball Super where it actually happened.
    • Likewise, the fanmade "Abridging" of the Xenoverse LP underscores the joke of Lani (as Mr. Satan) saying, "This isn't even my final form!" by adding in a picture of Super "Saiyan" Mr. Satannote  from Super.
  • Car Fu: Lanipator is very fond of using vehicles to ram the enemies with in Halo: Reach such as the "hero truck". It doesn't always work, mostly because he'll try it using anything with four wheels—include forklifts and airport luggar carriers.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: Half of the running commentary the team provides during their Let's Plays is this, to the point of arguing weather or not the virus that made the zombies would have infected Batman (it wouldn't), Superman, and who would be the cause (Lex Luthor and Braniac), while in a underground, flooded cavern, filled with zombies.
  • Closer to Earth: During the Fallout 4: Nuka-World videos, the guys remark on the fact that while their male Let's Play characters tend to be Sociopathic Heroes, Villain Protagonists, and the like, their female characters (like Dumpae, Puddin, and Maqubi) are always straight-up heroic, noble, characters.
  • Companion Cube: Kaiser, Lani, and Gan all have their own cubes in Left 4 Dead 2. Lani's is Gnome Chompski, Kaiser's is propane tanks, and Gan's is gas cans.
    Kaiser: "Oh, hey, he had a sword."
    Lani: "I just had a fatal- WHEEEEREEE? Aaaahhh yeah, come to Lani."
    Taka: "Oh God, Lani, just get a room with it."
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef: In Bento Bar, two people have to make a themed alcoholic cocktail for one other person to drink. Not only does the drink have to be themed, but they also need to incorporate a bizarre ingredients together; with the main challenge is avoid becoming a Cordon Bleugh Chef with what they've been given. The first episode requires Jesse and Kaiser to use at least one part of a packet of chicken-flavored instant ramen. Despite Kaiser initially coming out and making a pretty alright and balanced drink with the ramen packet (if Lani is to be believed), Jesse ends up winning the contest of cocktails (Lani admitting that there's something oddly compelling about the briny saltiness and orange mix)..
  • Contrasting Sequel Main Character:
    • The guys play Dumpae, their character for Dark Souls III, as a noble warrior whose main quirk is being a bit of a Blood Knight; this is a stark contrast to both her "father" Dumplestiltskin, who would slaughter anyone he came across, and Cpt. Ravager, who started off noble before becoming a kill-happy cannibal.
    • Where Lakigr was an otherwise normal young adult in Pokémon LeafGreen Nuzlocke, Tantor in Pokémon SoulSilver Nuzlocke is a 28-year old jerkass who talks in Pokémon Speak and ignores or berates his mom (who has a drinking problem). Meanwhile Tantor's son Larenti, the protagonist for Pokémon Moon Nuzlocke, contrasts with both the former MC's by both being the actual appropriate age the game says he is but also being an utterly unenthused trainer who is only doing his Pokémon quest because everyone on the island is forcing him to do so.
    • While Dumplin was a ki attack-reliant fat Majin who suffered a few early defeats against the Saiyans on Earth, his daughter Puddin is a thin Cute Bruiser who prefers melee combat and manages to kick Vegeta around like a ragdoll.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: In their new "Wednesdayhem" gaming streamnote , two members of the team go head to head in three rounds of video game challenges- one each selected by the contestants, one selected from random choices by the audience. The winner goes on to compete the next week, while the loser has to step aside. However, if the loser manages to finish with negative points (which requires them to not only lose every competition, but also have points deducted by losing their own challenge or being an ass), they must endure a terrible punishment: they have to go eat at Applebees.
    • On top of that, the winner gets to choose what appetizer they have to order.
    • It has been noted that this might change in the event that Applebees winds up sponsoring them, in which case their second choice is Olive Garden. Although they note that that might be too cruel, even for them.
  • Creator Career Self-Deprecation: While the "Abridgimon" episodes have had plenty of digs at stuff on the web or fan culture that bothers the team (including the Fine Brothers), each of the DigiDestined is set up to make fun of one of themselves.
    • Joe has LittleKuriboh's busy convention schedule (to the point it distracts him from releasing new content) and hatred of United Airlines.
    • Izzy represents Lani, who used to be a video reviewer for TGWTG.
    • Tai represents ShadyVox, since both rap and are admitted bronies.
    • Sora GirlVoice represents how all the male actors (particularly LK) are terrible at girls' voices.
    • The Dark Masters are voiced by Lani, Taka, and Kaiser (the core members of the team) and only care about money and selling T-shirts.
    • Devimon declares that he learned having money is more important than having an opinion, a play off the perception that Grant "sold out to the enemy" by joining a group he'd spent years critiquingnote .
  • Dating Catwoman: In Xenoverse 2, the gang consider Puddin and Cooler (who not only curb-stomped her in their first fights, but also returned several times over the game to attack her) to be in a relationship by the end of the main story.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Lani, Taka and Kaiser are the most prominent, but everyone on the team is this to the point of Snark-to-Snark Combat constantly happening at their convention panels.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: In the second Jackbox videos, the guys are very upset that there isn't actually a book called "Teach Your Dog How to Dog to Your Dog".
  • Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: At the end of the Kai 2 Breakdown, Kaiser openly admits to withholding the episode in question for the sake of a joke and immediately regrets it.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: During Halo Reach, Gan gets annoyed with his team mates and starts killing them. Taka for his singing and Kaiser for shooting Gan's falcon. Kaiser is also blamed for numerous things, including Kat's death.
    • Lani's Skyrim playthrough has two examples, one in response to the other. While wandering through a small farm he accidentally steals a gourd; some time after paying the debt and going to jail he gets attacked by mercenaries hired by the farmer (as a reminder, the gourd cost 'one Septim). Because he can't kill the farmer (she's Essential), Lani instead kills her daughter, traps her soul in a Black Soul Gem and puts it on the mantel in his home, going back periodically throughout the rest of the playthrough to verbally abuse her.
  • Do Not Call Me "Paul": They all call each other their nicknames way more than their real names. Lani in particular mentioned the only people who call him by his real name consistently are his parents and his (at the time) wife. Some of the team averts this, including Kirran, Grant, and Zito, presumably because their actual names are shorter than their nicknames (Lord Moonstone, Master Wuggles, and CZBacklash respectively).
    • A running gag during the Legacy of Goku II playthrough is their refusal to accept Piccolo's name, saying repeatedly "I am neither Kami nor Piccolo." They then frequently add "But you can call me Piccolo."
  • Downer Ending: The team acts as if the ending to Reach will not be this, as long as they keep fighting. Played for Laughs, obviously.
    Taka: Lani, just get a room with (the sword).
    Lani: I WILL WHEN REACH IS SAVED!
  • Double-Meaning Title: Dicks of the Old Republic episode 17 is simply titled "Dick of the Old Republic"; it refers to the fact that Lani is playing solo for a while, as well as the fact that he's a dick for causing this situation in the first placenote .
  • Earn Your Happy Ending:
    • For Mr. Stake during the team's Soul Silver Nuzlocke. At the start of the stream the guys hated him for his derpy design and Low-Tier Letdown nature and alternated between screaming at him to shut up and plotting ways for him to die. However as the play through went forward Mr. Stake became consistently more badass and unkillable which turned the guys opinion around on him. By the end of the play through Mr. Stake became one of their few original Pokémon to survive the entire Nuzlocke and defeated Lakigr's final Pokémon Buttdork fully earning the guys respect and love.
    • Zig-zagged and ultimately subverted during the finale of the Fallout 4: Nuka World. After managing to activate the power to Nuka World the guys declare that this marks the end of their play through. They note that after all the Cpt. has done (which includes murdering, and then eating, his son, massacring the residents of Vault 81, and allowing the residents of Far Harbour to be consumed by monsters) the Cpt. is now retiring (as symbolised by changing into his vacation clothes) and has decided to live out his days riding the Nuka World rides. However, the guys discover only the Galaxy Zone coaster is actually rideable the rest are just there cosmetically. Cue Lani screaming in impotent rage and deleting ''Fallout 4'' from his PS4's hard drive.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Despite going for the dark side options in Star Wars: The Old Republic, Lani and Taka decide killing a group of engineers to recapture the bridge is "too dark".
    Taka: We're dicks, but we're not that dickish.
    Lani: We're not murders. Mostly.
  • Evil Matriarch: Towa, the Big Bad of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is the mother of their character Puddin. However, in TFS canon it's zig-zagged since while she's still a villain who wants to revive the Demon Realm, she does legitimately love her daughter and is at worst a little distant due to being a workaholic.
  • Exact Words: While playing Fallout 4, the guys asked viewers to give them a name for their Deathclaw Gauntlet, saying they'd go with the comment that got the most upvotes. The top comment was "Fister's sister claw or just Fister's sister"...and that's exactly what they called itnote ; when people complained and demanded the guys rename it, they pointed that they said they would use the top-rated comment, not part of the top-rated comment.
  • Fusion Dance: A Running Gag in the gaming videos is Lanipator and Kirran fusing to form Lirran. He can't appear on camera (because his power would destroy them) and he can only stay fused for a few seconds, but he's always awesome. The guys have remarked that if they used the Potara Earrings, the fusion would be named Kirapator.
    • After the main story of "The Adventures of Puddin", they began to create new Player Characters of each race to earn every possible achievement. Their first new character is an Earthling, and they decided to make Lirran. Lirran would make another game appearance as the protagonist of their Dragon Ball: Fusions playthrough.
    • A few other attempts have been made. During Bloodborne, Kirran fused with Lani's wife Erika, which Lani called "weirdly hot". Kirran and Kaiser tried fusing into "Mooncat", but it didn't work out, with Lani telling them that Mooncat will never be a thing.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: In 2014, fellow Youtuber LordMoonstone (aka. Kirran) would join the group for their Let's Plays and Streams. He's since joined on full time as another writer and editor of their Let's Plays. In 2015, Grant, a mutual friend of Lani and Kirran, joined in on their Let's Plays and was the third member of their trio, up until both Kirran and Grant left the group in 2023.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: In Fallout 4, the guys took one of the Sole Survivor's lines from a questnote  as their personal credo, eventually having the Captain go berserk and murder people for the slightest provocation. Probably the worst example was in the Nuka-World DLC where they had the Captain stand in the middle of a firing range and flipped their shit when they predictably got shot, slaughtering several important characters and locking themselves out of about half the DLC's content.
  • Hot-Blooded: If Lani or Taka get a hand on a chainsaw, get out of their way. This goes double for Lani and energy swords in Reach.
    Gan: "What up Brute? Shotgun beats hammer, shotgun beats hammer."
    Lani: "SWORD BEATS HAMMER! SWORD BEATS HAMMER! SWORD BEATS HAMMER!"
  • Implausible Deniability: In their Nuzlocke of Soul Silver, they claim that Chikorita is the first pure Grass type in the series. When later confronted with Tangela, they insist that it is a glitch Pokemon created by Slowmara. Delcatty receives the same treatment in their Nuzlocke of Emerald.
  • Irony: While playing Fallout 4, the guys said that Cpt. Ravager's Start of Darkness was brought about after killing Palidin Danse, who was thought to be a Synth, and discovering that they were actually a human while hacking up the corpse. However, that character is a Synth, and TFS seemingly missed the plot point that Third-Generation Synths are virtually indistinguishable from human beings even if dissectednote .
  • Insane Troll Logic: Played for Laughs; during the Drunklstiltskin playthrough, Grant and Kirran remarked that they had a Running Gag among their group of friends where they would dismiss statements of scientific facts by asking "Can you put it in a beaker?" This led to them joking that everything from giraffes to emotional trauma aren't real simply because they can't fit inside a beaker.
  • Joke and Receive: Throughout their Dragon Ball Z: Sagas playthrough, the guys joked about Piccolo's fusion with Kami being portrayed as a transformation like it is in the Budokai games. It turns out they were right, much to their amusement. However, Piccolo doesn't "vomit" Kami up after the transformation wears off.
  • Karmic Death: On several occasions, one member of Team Four Star will try to kill a team mate (usually Taka) for slowing them down. Moments later, they themselves will suffer some sort of debilitating injury (frequently in the form of a Tank or Charger).
  • Karmic Twist Ending: After all the murder, racism, and general douchebaggery of Captain Ravager; the Fallout 4 Let's Play ends with him unable to ride the rides he wanted to.
  • Kill It with Fire: Lani's preferred type of grenade in LFD2. He gets a little too enthusiastic in Death Toll.
  • Lame Pun Reaction: In one round of Cards Against Humanity (in which they guys were playing with the Furry card pack), someone plays a white card that says "Hello Fur-iend! Howl are you doing?" Kaiser remarks "I'm a Furry, and I do NOT approve of this message."
  • Large Ham: Everyone has a chance to get really hammy when the time comes.
  • Laughing Mad: After spending a good while trying to get Dragon Fist to work in Xenoverse 2, Lani and Grant finally get an opponent stunned long enough to finish the move in one of the story missions. The mission ends right before it can connect. This promps a small bit of mad laughter from Lani and Grant.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Taka is even called the Trope Namer in Detour Ahead when he opens fire on a witch while screaming.
  • Let's See YOU Do Better!: During Krillin's playthrough of The Evil Within 2, he struggles with the boss battle against Stefano until a frustrated Vegeta comes in and demands the controller to show him how it's done. Krillin gladly obliges, only to be left gob-smacked when Vegeta actually manages to beat the boss in only two tries; to rub salt in the wound, he did it using the same strategy Krillin had tried several times before and failed withnote .
  • Literal Metaphor: In the Bloodborne playthrough, when the One Reborn stops Lani's attack by smacking him with one of its limbs, he curses it as a "leg-ass arm". Grant observes that, considering their opponent, this is the only time that phrase could possibly be literal.
  • Manly Tears: The team's reaction in Halo Reach to Jorge's death.
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!": Several can induce this during Lets Plays:
  • Memetic Mutationinvoked: Besides creating many, Lani is actually the subject of a well-known example, the "In The Way" Guy, which happened when someone ran in front of the camera when he proposed to his girlfriend Erika at Disneyworld.
  • Merging Mistake: DBCember 2019 has Kaiser and Kirran screwing up a Fusion Dance, resulting in the abomination that is Kairran.
    Lani: Kaiser, you got the angle wrong!
  • A Million Is a Statistic: Averted with Taka during the Serious Sam 3 Lets Play, where he seems genuinely horrified to learn that the population of Cairo was killed during the alien invasion. Played straight by everyone Gan, Lani, and Kaiser.
  • Monkeys on a Typewriter: Lani explicitly described their Let's Play of Bloodborne like this. The playthrough consists of Lani, Kirran, and Lani's wifenote  alternating turns on the controller and taking shots every time they die or kill a unique enemy. Besides that, they tended to make decisions based more off of Rule of Funny than actual game logic, like spending most of the game with their character wearing a woman's dress and shoes — and sometimes just the shoes — rather than anything that provided actual defense. All told, they beat the main game and DLC (but not the Chalice Dungeons) in about 65 hoursnote , managed to get the Golden Ending despite doubting they would even get an endingnote , pulled off a few feats that legitimately impressed Grant (the biggest Bloodborne fan in the group), and, again, did most of it while drinking so much alcohol that more than one session ended with Lani passing out on the sofa.
  • Ms. Fanservice: In their "MOUSTACHE" music video, ShudoRanmaru cosplays as Android #18 (except her leggings are replaced by nylon stockings) and dances suggestively.
  • No, You: In their Halo: Reach LP they discuss the concept of Space Europe which is shot down with "it's a massive land", to which KaiserNeko responds, "No, you're a massive land."
    • The only line in "A Moment with Team Four Star: Episode 3" is "No, YOU shut up!"
    • In Bloodborne when Arianna remarks "What a queer scent...", Kani shouts "Fuck you! You're queer!"
  • Orphaned Series: Dicks of the Old Republic became this in late 2017 when the guys decided to cancel their subscriptions in protest of Electronic Arts and their mismanagement of Star Wars Battlefront II (2017).
  • Orwellian Retcon: They admitted to doing this for their Pokemon Emerald Nuzlocke, as they actually wiped at Winona's gym. Because their schedule wouldn't allow them to start all the way over with a fresh character, they elected to simply restart the battle and replaced the footage of their wipe with footage of their victory.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In episode 21 of the Platinum Nuzlocke, Galactic Admin Jupiter's absolute massacre of half of Ryfuba's team is so devastating that Lani forgoes the usual "Shall not be missed" and demands that everyone salute the fallen as they're released.
  • Overly Long Gag: Them saying "Dad" like how Bobby Hill does in King of the Hill, being a reference to how the team hears Stephanie Nadolny's Gohan during their Budokai playthroughs.
  • Pandering to the Baseinvoked: In-Universe, whenever the group plays Jackbox, they treat DBZ Abridged references as this because they know it always gets audience votes even if they aren't actually funny. In the second video Lani starts exploiting this, prompting the others to call him "History's Greatest Monster".
  • Rage Quit: Never directly invoked, but Lani said at Conneticon that this was the reason they stopped playing Serious Sam 3. According to him, when they weren't bored playing the game, they were raging from there being far too enemies swarming them.
    • The end of the Fallout 4 playthrough was definitely this; even though they had played through the core game and all the DLC, Lani's frustration at the fact that there was only one functioning ride in Nuka-World led to him deleting the game from the PS4's memory while screaming.
  • Really Dead Montage: Used to send off the "dead" Pokemon in their Nuzlocke playthrough.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: invokedThe members of Team Four Star were not fond of the original incarnation of Broly, to the point where they actually considered skipping over his movie out of sheer hatred of the character. The Super incarnation of Broly received a much warmer reception.
  • Running Gag: All of their works include at least one.
    • In the iRiff for Dragonball Evolution it was about trying to make the perfect wish.
    • In their Nuzlocke of Pokémon SoulSilver, they insist that every day is Ivan Ooze's (their Slugma's) birthday.
      • Tantor's mother is an alcoholic who buys useless junk with Tantor's money and is sleeping with the delivery man.
      • Mr. Stake cannot die. They've tried to get him killed.
    • Masako has a great running joke in all of his "What If?" videos:
      Masako: There is no Fake Namek....moving on....
    • "Everyone knows Toriyama wanted to end it after X" is often used, as a spoof of the endless (and unfounded) rumors of Dragon Ball's creator originally intending it to end with Cell, Freeza, or earlier.
    • The start of any of their Metal Gear runs usually leads to them alerting the first guard they see. Lampshaded by their run of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes:
      Lani: This is a TFS plays Metal Gear! What were you expecting to happen?!
    • After Taka joins Lani and Kaiser for the DBZA Commentaries from Episode 42 onwards, he almost always messes up on the shared Signing Off Catchphrase "Next time on this thing that we're doing." He manages to get it right a couple of times, however.
  • Screaming Warrior: Taka, so very much. They've even dubbed the Kamikazes in Serious Sam 3 as "Headless Takas".
  • Senseless Sacrifice: The battle with Jupiter in Pokémon Platinum Nuzlocke sees Cleo and Gaks die in an attempt to keep a critical-health Raisin alive, after several minutes debating whether or not he could outspeed Skuntank after the latter's speed was lowered. Even without the Quick Claw, he ended up outspeeding it.
  • Shout-Out: Loads, such as screaming "Team death match!" during their L4D LP.
  • Situational Sexuality: Despite being gay, Kaiser is not above commenting on female attractiveness. In particular, during the Budokai 3 playthrough he praises whomever made yoga pants a fashion trend, and when Lani asks "Aren't you gay?" he defends himself by saying "I can appreciate a nice ass!"
  • Sixth Ranger: Antfish in the Let's Plays when he fills in for Taka.
  • Space "X": In addition to the many Space "X" jokes they make in Dragon Ball Z Abridged, they make references to Space Europe, Space Guantanamo, Space Obama, and Space Vancouver during their playthrough of Reach, along with Space Batman in Mass Effect 3.
    • In their playthrough of Budokai 3, they mention Space Harvard, Space Battleball, and Spaceball.
  • Spin-Offspring:
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Taka was a one-man squad when he crashed Chris Sabat's panel at Sakuracon. Thankfully, he had the decency to give him his panel back after a few minutes.
  • Straight Gay: Kaiser evidently.
  • The Straight Man: GanXingba is much more down to Earth than the rest of the group during their Let's Plays, at times almost to the point of being the "Stop Having Fun" Guy member of the team.
  • Sudden Downer Ending: Has happened a couple of times during their Let's Plays, usually played for laughs.
    • During their finale of Xenoverse the guys quickly realise that there is no way their going to be able to finish the Goku and Vegeta SSGSS Parallel Quest before their time limit runs out. After being revived by one of their NPC's the guys decide to go out with a bang using Dumplin's Last Blast but they don't have enough Ki left to fire it. Cue the timer running out before they can finish charging up and then being blasted by Vegeta's Big Bang Attack just to add insult to injury. Lani says it best:
      Lani: This is the way the world ends. Not with a Bang but with A Last -!
      (Realises he's out of Ki)
      Lani: Oh.
      (Gets knocked out by Vegeta)
      Lani: But with a whimper. This has been the adventure of Dumplin. (Beat) Fuck it.
    • During the finale of their Fallout 4 Nuka World Play through the guys decide to end the adventures of Cpt. Richard Ravager the Third by playing all of the rides they can find in the theme park. However as they learn only one ride actually works at Nuka World. This leads to Lani screaming in rage and deleting Fallout 4 from his PS4's memory therefore making the entire adventure completely meaningless.
    • The ending of the story mode in Xenoverse 2, Puddin and Mira have their climatic battle where Mira absorbs Towa. Puddin finishes the battle by incinerating Mira with a Kamehameha, killing her brother and mother in one foul swoop. As Dumplin put it in the Everyone Laughs Ending:
      Dumplin: HA HA HA HA! My wife and son are dead! HA HA HA!
  • Take That!:
    • Abridgimon: THE MOVIE was a big one to The Fine Brothers and the React World controversy, and to a lesser degree Toei.
    • In Part 9 of the 2017 DBCember (Top 24 Dragon Ball Video Games):
      Kaiser: Uh...what's the Japanese word for Shovelware?
      Kirran: "Dokkan Battle".
  • Take That, Audience!: They're well aware that they're very popular with reaction channels, and frequently put in digs at people who react or re-post their content without permission.
  • Team Killer: Lani has been voted as the biggest one among the group. He merely replied with "the fire cleanses all!"
  • Tempting Fate: Lani in part 3 of Suicide Blitz
  • The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Occasionally during their Xenoverse Let's Play, someone will notice that Dumplin seems to be staring straight into the camera. It comes to a head in Episode 39, when Dumplin kills Lani and Kirran.
  • Tonight, Someone Dies: The trope is discussed and invoked in Part 29 of Leaf Green Nuzlocke: the thumbnail has a giant tombstone on it, and begins with Wanda nearly dead in a fight with Snorlax. However, despite another near death experience, they catch it and beat Celadon Gym with no casualties... then at the Fighting Dojo, a Primeape's Cross Chop crits Alex and kills him while the gang isn't paying attention.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Mr. Stake the Chikorita in the Pokémon SoulSilver Nuzlocke goes from being considered a mentally retarded millstone of a party membernote  to becoming a powerful Stand-user, even getting the final kill on Lakigr's Raichu, Buttdork.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: Gan in the "TFS Plays Evolve" videos is much more laidback than he was in the classic Left 4 Dead playthroughs.
  • Total Party Kill: More often than you would think.
  • True Companions: Despite all the snarking, TeamFourStar are a very close group of friends who love working together and it shows quite often.
  • The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Well, more "cute" than "hot" (and Dumplin arguably counts as Ugly Cute), but Puddin definitely fits the bill.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: Even though they're playing as Demon God Dumplin in Xenoverse, the strongest fighter in every universe, the way they play as him makes him come off as lacking on many an occasion, frequently neglecting to dodge enemy attacks, and their strategy eventually boils down to relying on the Final Flash whenever they can, despite their inaccuracy in aiming it. Kaiser, Lani, and Kirran note that they're holding Dumplin back, and if they simply didn't press any buttons, Dumplin would win any battles for them.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: They can get pretty vicious towards one another, especially Gan against Taka or Kaiser (and vice versa).
  • Voices Are Mental: The trope is briefly discussed in their Xenoverse Let's Play. The guys don't care for it, which is why they didn't use it in Abridged when dealing with the Goku/Ginyu body swap.
  • The Worf Effect: After going through the early parts of Xenoverse 2 with slight trouble at the hardest, often while under leveled, Puddin received multiple crushing defeats at the hands of Final Form Cooler (and while not as often, 100% Frieza) proving that she still had a large amount of improving to do.
  • Weapon Specialization:
    • Left 4 Dead 2:
      • Lanipator: Molotov Cocktails, or "mollys," ("Fire makes everything better!"), the Cricket bat, the Burst/Combat Rifle, Desert Eagles (often shortened to "d'eagles") Gnome Chompski.
      • Ganxingba: AK-47, Sniper rifles, automatic shotgun, gas cans ("Gas can; Our greatest ally").
      • Kaiser Neko: Samurai swords ("Katanananana") and magnums.
      • Takahata101: Chain saws (when he can get them).
    • In Halo: Reach:
      • Lanipator: Energy sword, assorted vehicles
      • Ganxingba: The sniper rifle, needle rifle, and DMR (for their accuracy,) and the shotgun for up close.
      • Kaiser Neko: Plasma launcher
      • Takahata101: gravity hammers, rocket launchers, and fusion rods
    • In Serious Sam 3:
      • Everyone: The Minigun and the Devastator.
      • Gan: Assault Rifles
      • Lani: The Sledgehammer and C4 Blocks
      • Taka: Rocket Launchers and Double-Barrelled Shotguns
      • Kaiser: Shotguns
    • In Mass Effect 3:
  • We ARE Struggling Together: Sometimes, it's honestly amazing that they make it through their Lets Plays without killing each other. No Mercy is probably the most extreme example.
  • Wham Episode: After 18 episodes with no deaths, Episode 19 of Pokémon Platinum Nuzlocke has Scientist Travon and his Kadabra killing Traktorr and Dager, depriving the gang of one of their strongest Pokémon and a HM Slave. Pico is also taken off the team due to being caught on the same route as Traktorr, though it isn't killed off. Not long after in Episode 21, Jupiter kills off half the team, leaving only Raisin and five weak first stage Pokémon.
  • Wham Line: From episode 53 of TFS Plays: Pokémon SoulSilver Nuzlocke, when the boys try to release Slowmara after she's Killed Off for Real, we get this...
    "Slowmara came back!"
  • Wham Shot:
    • Invoked in the Nuzlockes—when a particularly important Pokémon's HP is whittled down to zero, they zoom in on it.
    • Later, when the boys try to release Slowmara after she dies, she suddenly pops right back up.
  • What If?: Over on his own YouTube channel, Masako does a once-a-month "What If Week" where he posts videos positing on possible scenarios for the Dragon Ball franchise. His most popular series by far is What If Raditz Turned Good?, though the rest of TFS playfully teases him about the concept.
  • You Kill It, You Bought It: TFS insist that since Dumplin killed Demon God Demigra in Xenoverse, it means that Dumplin is the new Demon God, and then start referring to him as the "Demon God Dumplin".
  • Younger Than They Look: Ben looks about 5 years or so older than he actually is.
  • You Should Have Died Instead: Referenced by Lani after the death of Ivan Ooze in the SoulSilver Nuzlocke:
    Lani: WHY DO THEY ALWAYS TAKE EVERYONE BUT MR. STAKE?!

 
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Video Example(s):

"The Audience must Hate You"

From Team 4-Star's parody of Demon Slayer. Zenitsu admits he's a perverted & useless coward who screams a lot. When Tanjiro assumes he's hated, Zenitsu points out the audience relates to him.

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Take That, Audience!

Iggy kills DIO

Jan Valentine

Reference as a ...

"A real f**king...

Keith Shadis

Out of Rockets

Why Am I Playin...

420YOLOSWAG4JESUS

Abridged Alucard

Alucard kills E...

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"The Audience must Hate You"

From Team 4-Star's parody of Demon Slayer. Zenitsu admits he's a perverted & useless coward who screams a lot. When Tanjiro assumes he's hated, Zenitsu points out the audience relates to him.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (13 votes)

Example of:

Main / TakeThatAudience

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"The Audience m...

Iggy kills DIO

Jan Valentine

Reference as a ...

"A real f**king...

Keith Shadis

Out of Rockets

Why Am I Playin...

420YOLOSWAG4JESUS

Abridged Alucard

Alucard kills E...