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Fridge Brilliance:

  • Guys, I think I know why there have been no new Board James episodes: he might have been checked into a mental facility after the Dream Phone episode, plus Bootsy and Mike are both dead. But does this mean this is the end of Board James?
    • The episode was aired on April 1st, 2013, which is actually a subtle way for James to say this is not the end.
    • The latest episode leaves it unclear as to whether he actually killed his friends or if it really was the phone, but what you state in your own spoilers definitely didn't happen.
    • Semi-Confirmed. In AVGN's review on AVGN Games, Board James claims he escaped jail with his "Get Out of Jail Free" Card. It's implied he's been spending his time in hiding before "Omega Virus".
  • In the Mr. Bucket episode, the instructions say not to put Mr. Bucket in water. That's how James kills him in the end.
  • The Dream Phone holding a knife isn't that farfetched. Supernatural implications aside, phones have speakers, speakers contain really powerful magnets. The knife is seen being held at the middle part between the blade and the handle.
  • The ending of the Ouija/Domino Rally may confuse people about how Mike and Bootsy might have came back wrong, until you realize that James and his friends came back wrong. Mike now has Elvis Presley's tick ("thank you, thank you very much") and Bootsy has Rodney Dangerfield's tick ("I get no respect"), and both are keeping James' quiet over the events of Dream Phone, which gets eerie when they say "nevermore." Then you remember that Vincent Price (on the cover of Hangman) appeared right before James' lost consciousness, and now he has a verbal tic from Price ("quoth the raven: nevermore") as Price was known to recite Edgar Allen Poe poems.
    • On that note, Vincent Price was on the cover of Hangman.
  • Every game that's the title feature of Board James involves violence, usually as a game mechanic, and/or death towards the player pieces of some kind, which, given The Reveal of how the worlds work, makes sense.
    • Mouse Trap is about catching mice. Most traps, especially the cheaper ones, will simply kill the mouse.
    • Dragon Strike is a board game made to introduce people to Dungeons & Dragons (among other RPGs), which often involve killing monsters (or being killed by the monsters) and was the subject of a moral panic after the disappearance of a player. Not to mention that, in the video, one of the characters kills a scorpion monster by jamming the stinger into his shoulder.
    • Crossfire involves firing steel balls at pucks.
    • Weapons and Warriors is a board game replicating a war.
    • Fireball Island has players being killed by a large fireball.
    • Deadly Danger Dungeon has The Many Deaths of You littered all over the board. Not only that, but it was made by James himself.
    • HeroQuest is also another introductory game to RPGs, but with the added caveat of being set in the Warhammer universe, where there's a ton of killing involved.
    • Mr. Bucket is the first game that doesn't involve violence of some sort. However, with all the jokes made towards Mr. Bucket and his "balls", it manifests into a sexual assaulter.
    • Tornado Rex involves the titular Tornado Rex which spins and attacks the players.
    • One of the TMNT games was named to Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, using the British name due to ninjas being associated with violence. That game, coincidentally enough, doesn't involve violence as a game mechanic. However, one of the other games that's featured in the video does have some violence.
    • Key to the Kingdom has the players go on an adventure, avoiding hazards and fighting monsters to obtain the titular key. However, the player piece will die if it gets trapped in the folding of the board and fails three rolls. Not to mention this is one of the few board games where players can and will actively work against other players to win, as the player with the key will suddenly have a target on their back.
    • Donut Disaster has the donut machine exploding.
    • Loopin Louie is about a "drunken, crazy stunt pilot who's flying around, dive bombing chickens at a barn!"
    • Monster Madness involves four horror movie icons that, if they land on the same space, they get to fight.
    • Battle Masters is another war game and from the makers of Hero Quest, and as such, takes place in the Warhammer universe.
    • Splat involves killing the player pieces by, well, splatting the bugs.
    • Doggie Doo is the only game of the featured (aside from Tetris) not to involve violence, not even in the Alternative Character Interpretation sense like Mr. Bucket or Dream Phone.
    • Shark Attack involves a shark that eats the players, who represent fish.
    • Dream Phone has James likens the game to a murder mystery, since it involves deduction skills. Like Mr. Bucket, the game has no actual violence involves, but gets reinterpreted into a vicious character... maybe.
    • The plot for Omega Virus is about trying to stop the titular virus from destroying the Earth.
    • Lie Detector's plot is that you're trying to solve a murder mystery.
    • Ouija has a rather infamous past that James brings up in the first seconds of the video, involving contacting the spirits of the dead.
    • The reason why Domino Rally was a thing is, as James puts it, "[kids] just want to see shit get knocked down!", with one of the sets involving a guillotine.
    • Wacky Blasters has the mechanic of using the titular blasters on an opponent's balls.
    • The two shows that get the focus are Full House and Family Matters, which have some episodes involving violence in some way.
    • The Video Games episode features a lot of games that use violence as a mechanic, such as Pac-Man eating ghosts (and vice versa), Mario stomping on Goombas (with the game mechanic of sending enemies after Mario), Link slaying monsters, Street Fighter fighting "ON THE STREETS!", and the only exception being Tetris.
    • 13 Dead End Drive's objective is to kill the other players, then leave when your character is the one with the will. With something this direct, it's no wonder that we find out about Board James's true identity during this episode.
    • Nightmare's player pieces are all tomb stones, which has Mike ask if it means they're all dead.
    • Hangman is pretty obvious, since if the man is hanged, it's game over.
    • Operation involves actively operating on what seems to be a fully conscious person.
    • Candy Land doesn't seem harmless, but as the lyrics implies, the players will eventually get diabetes from all the candy. Not to mention the molasses monster...
    • Forbidden Bridge has the bridge shaking, which can knock players off without it having to fall over like the episode showed.
    • And lastly, Battleship is obvious because... "You sunk my battleship!"
  • The reason why things went to shit during the Ouija episode? It's because James screwed up saying "Klaatu Barada Nikto".
  • The games that Bad Luck Bootsy wants to play always get him killed and/or injured.

Fridge Horror:

  • The Dream Phone episode has one hell of a twist ending, where we see James smiling and just acting insane, which could mean that the entire night was part of his imagination and he was the one who killed Bootsy and Mike, not the phone.
    • It got worse. Not only was that night part of his imagination, but so are Mike and Bootsy. James was insane the whole time and Mike and Bootsy never existed! Hey, at least that means he didn't kill them.
  • Board James appeared in the Channel Awesome/TGWTG anniversary movie Kickassia in order to explain Risk to the Channel Awesome critics. Doesn't get horrifying until you realize Board James's earliest incarnation is a serial killer known as the Hangman, and the first time we know he took the Board James mantle is in what James Rolfe christened World 2, the first world created in the aftermath of the Hangman's death. If we assume the Hangman never took the mantle of Board James, that means that the whole of the Channel Awesome universe, from Atop the Fourth Wall to Nostalgia Critic exists within World 2, a world created by a combination of a board game and the Hangman's soul.
  • Consider the implications of the Angry Video Game Nerd not only being an alternate personality of the sort of person we find out Board James is/was before the episode of the reveal, but what would happen with that personality given the clear degeneration into outright evil shown by Board James in the Nightmare episode. Either the Nerd only exists within World 3, or he's becoming more and more the good split personality of a demented lunatic... who can somehow get back to his much less spooky room and general setting whenever he emerges.
  • Board James went to PAX. As in the Hangman. Unnerving seeing a serial killer in a public setting...

Fridge Logic:

  • In the rather nightmarish Dream Phone episode, we eventually find out that the phone was the murderer the whole time. It later floats in the air, holds a knife, and busts open a door with no means of trouble. Huh?
  • The implication that James is just a hallucinating crazyman doesn't add up. Mr. Bucket was able to inflict wounds on people other than James.
    • Except that now we know that he was hallucinating those people too.
  • If Board James hallucinated his friends' existence, then why was he arrested? Furthermore, why did AVGN play along with Board James' delusions during BJ's cameo in the AVGN Games review?
    • Because Board James IS the Angry Video Game Nerd. Episode 25 reveals that Board James is a Split Personality of AVGN himself, which explains why he knew of Board James's arrest for murdering his friends and possibly explains where all the monsters and guests come from in the main AVGN series.
      • Then why does AVGN not know who Mike is, when discussing the AVGN Adventures game?
      • Same reason why he treats Board James as a different person. The Nerd doesn't have Mike in his daily life (at least as the actual character and not an episode's guest), and thus he couldn't figure out why would there be a random person in his game. The Nerd only heard of Board James supposedly killing his friends, not his friend's names. Both are would be unaware that they are alter egos to each other till Episode 25.
      • He also treats James Rolfe as a different person in the Amiga CD32 episode. It's quite common for internet reviewers to play multiple roles in one video and not adress it, so this is probably Mike Matei and not Mike from Board James.

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