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"A video a day keeps the sanity away"

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Brett Tear, also known as Tear of Grace is a British YouTube gamer who specializes in heavily edited video game playthroughs and montages. He started his channel back in 2011 and has since evolved from doing simple Halo: Reach, Halo 4 and Minecraft trolling videos to increasingly more edited playthroughs and montages of games such as Grand Theft Auto V, Dark Souls 2, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, The Binding of Isaac (Rebirth and all of its DLC), Dark Souls 3, Super Mario Maker, and more.

Tear is known for his distinct commentary and editing style which includes various visual and audio effects, pop culture references, excessive use of rather creative British swearwords, hilariously bad jokes and puns and his unmistakable accent. He regularly submits himself to torture through various video game challenges, all of it for the entertainment his viewers. He also highly enjoys editing his videos and prioritizes quality over frequency, which often results in schedule slip-ups. To remedy this, as of June 2016 Tear has hired other editors, and as of 2022, he has also hired an editing team in the form of Zygo Media to further lighten the load.

Tear also supports various other smaller YouTubers who he enjoys watching and frequently promotes them at the end of his videos.

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    Games Tear has played 

Main series


Wonderful One Offs


Tear of Grace provides examples of the following tropes:

    A-C 
  • Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Whenever he inadvertently manages to break a game and its character models:
  • Accentuate the Negative:
    • The whole video of Fly in the Room is him talking about how simplistic the game is, how little content it has, how expensive it was despite having so little content, etc.
    • His Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 video features an extended rant about how broken and buggy the game was, especially when compared with the previous installments.
    • Episode 110 of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth (and the parody video that came after it) is mostly him complaining about how incredibly bored he is with the game and seeded runs, and how he continues to do it anyway because most people still like to watch it and don't give other series a chance. He later returned to the game after a quick break, and surprisingly had fun with it again.
  • Accidental Aiming Skills: In the first part of Dead Rising 3, Tear found a battery lying around and then a sledge hammer and thought about combining them, but accidentally hit the right trigger instead and threw the sledgehammer into a zombie's face, killing it.
  • Accidental Misnaming: Tear is apparently very annoyed that many people refer to him as "Tears" of Grace.
    • Referenced and Played for Laughs in the very first episode of Dark Souls 3 while reading about a spell called "Caressing Tears" during a loading screen:
      Tear: Caressing Tears? You know, if you're the person that spells my name wrong all the God damn time, I'm thinking you're beginning to come on to me!
  • Added Alliterative Appeal: His video titles frequently feature fantastic alliterations (E.g: Mario 64: Chaos Edition - BOWSER'S BROKEN BULLSHIT, Mario 64: Chaos Edition - MARIO MAGMA MISERY and Super Mario Maker - MARIO MAKING A MURDERER).
  • Adorable Abomination: After it was pacified, Tear found the Botchling in the The Witcher 3 to be quite adorable:
    Tear: I like this thing now. I mean sure it looks like something of a realistic version of The Binding of Isaac, but I don't care.
  • Aesop Amnesia: In Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Tear would often forget about certain abilities of the Uruk captains that he was fighting note  right after becoming aware of them, and due to his slow QTE reaction time, he would often die.
  • A God Am I: Referenced in the fifth episode of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, after Tear manages to locate the secret room which just so happened to be an angel room by sheer luck:
    Tear: I'm a genius! [finds an eternal heart inside] I'm a God!
  • The Ahnold: In one of his nonsense impersonation videos from his alternate channel, he quickly devolves from Mr. Burns into Arnold Schwarzenegger.
  • Alas, Poor Villain:
    • Tear expressed great regret at having to kill Sif, Pinwheel and to a certain extent the Moonlight Butterfly in Dark Souls.
    • In Shadow of War, Tear expresses regret at shaming Bruz the Chopper to the point of madness, pointing out that he only did it because the game's plot demanded it. Upon their encounter in Minas Morgul, Tear opts to give him a Mercy Kill rather than recruit him or continue to torture his mind.
  • All Germans Are Nazis: In episode 11 of Super Mario Maker, while attempting to complete Super Expert mode, Tear starts to get frustrated because he keeps dying on a level made by a person with a German flag:
    Tear: I'm at the point where I'd like to make a joke about the level name but I can't because it's in a different language. I mean, I can't make the joke that it's in lines and squiggles but it is in fucking Hitler-speak so...I should, I should not have said that, that's fucking awful.
  • Alliterative Name: "Googley-eyed Ganon", the nickname of his Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin character.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: In-Universe. Tear comes to the conclusion that Unravel's Yarny is actually a vampire:
    Tear: The longer I live, the further I go, the more I decay and lose myself and then I found what you thought to be a random lawn ornament and found some yarn and took it to regenerate myself so I can continue to live while in actuality this is all the fever dream, that old lady was victim, I just sucked her blood and now I, Lord Dracula of the dark night can continue my murderous ways as I frolick on with my new found "yarn". I'm seeing through your shit game, you're not fooling me!
  • Anachronic Order: The third episode of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth featuring the Keeper is actually footage of the first time he has ever played as the Keeper.
  • And There Was Much Rejoicing: Tear's reaction to seeing the dead bodies of the parents from the Dead Island trailer, while playing the Definitive Edition of the game:
    Tear: It's that couple, from that trailer, remember? You know, the one that made this game look like it wouldn't be bad? Oh, I'm sorry that you completely misrepresented this game. I'm glad you're dead to be honest! It's a shame you're not here for me to actually punch.
  • Angrish: Taking into account the things he submits himself to when playing games, these moments are surprisingly rare:
  • Anti-Climax Boss: In-universe. The fight against the Gaping Dragon in Dark Souls. Tear barely gets hit once, cuts the dragon's tail off and ultimately mentions that he remembers the fight being a lot tougher the first time he played through the game.
  • Anti-Humor: "What did John Marston say before he kicked the bucket? How far do you think I can kick this bucket?"
  • Apologizes a Lot: To his opponents if he accidentally backstabbed them in Dark Souls 2 PvP (unless they were using an overpowered and unbalanced build, that is).
  • April Fools' Day:
    • For 2016, Tear released a video titled "THE BINDING OF ISAAC AFTERBIRTH BONANZA", which had no intro and a thumbnail which consisted of just one big smiling Isaac face. A few seconds into the video, Tear reveales that this is actually a "Best of".
    • For 2018, Tear uploaded a video titled "OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT | Totally Real Content That Isn't an Annual Farce".
  • Arch-Enemy: Acquires a number of these over the course of his Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor series:
    • Prâk Jaws, affectionately dubbed "Bane" due to his iron mask, was a recurring Uruk captain berserker who could only scream and grunt and whose only purpose in life seemed to be to hunt down Tear, humiliate him in combat by not finishing him off and leaving while giggling at him, and then appearing again when he least expected it. Even worse, he apparently could not stay dead.
      • It comes to a head in the second-last segment of Tear's campaign playthrough, where Prâk appears as the captain of the Ered Glamhoth garrison, maskless and Suddenly Speaking. However, due to the battle taking place in a unique location that cannot be revisited, Tear is able to finally kill him for good.
    • Krûk Blood-Axe, who was Tear's first seemingly immortal nemesis before "Bane" showed up. Krûk unfortunately suffered a case of Redemption Demotion after being branded, leading Tear to not dominate other difficult Orcs for the sake of having a challenge.
    • Pigug the Shadow, towards the end of the series, replaces Prâk as the unkillable uber-nemesis. Unlike his predecessors, Pigug is a fairly scrawny spear-thrower who never stops talking, and his every line drips with perversion. He also chews through several branded captains and is the only major nemesis that Tear never defeats for good.
    • In Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Norûk the Bone Collector was shaping up to be this: in the span of one episode he hunted down Brett repeatedly and shared Krûk's No Chance perk, using it to deny Tear any hope of an orc savior whenever Tear gets caught by him. In the end, he was defeated and killed in Episode 11.
    • Then there's Ûkrom the Machine, formerly Ûkrom Blood-Storm. The Nemesis brought over with the Nemesis forge, he was thought to have been defeated in the Arena, but came back to haunt Tear in Episode 15. The Machine eventually goes down during the final fight of Act 3.
    • The Haunt from The Binding of Isaac, well, haunts him. He hates this "Spectral Shithead" mainly for ruining his Lost runs. He hates him so much that he had a painting commissioned of him, probably so when he has a bad day, he can punch the shit out of it. Trust me, when he finds him, it'll either be accompanied by anger, panic, or glee because his run is so overpowered.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In Yandere Simulator
    Tear: This is a little..psycho shrine where you collect pieces of things from people that you stalk. For instance, a band-aid from which you can get Hepatitis C, a toothbrush where you can get Gingivitis and an apple where you can get a healthy nutritious snack.
  • Art Evolution: Tear's editing style has evolved significantly along the years:
    • He first started to add background music in February 2013 with a video titled "How to: Win Youtube & Get all the Monies".
    • A few months later, he also started adding in simple audio and video distortion effects as well as humorous comments written on the screen when he got something wrong while recording the video.
    • After he started playing Dark Souls 2 PvP, around mid-2014, he started editing in the score along with the names of the players that killed him or that he killed on the screen, accompanied by more humorous caption comments.
    • His editing further improved with his Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor series at the end of 2014, adding in more and more complicated visual and audio effects (screen cracks when he was downed by an Uruk captain, short audio clips for captains which had the "No Chance" ability, etc).
    • Alongside all of these video editing changes, Tear's commentary also started to focus more and more on bad jokes and puns. To make them more bearable, he started adding in short clips of JonTron and Caddicarus to accompany them, often with distorted audio and/or video effects.
    • By mid-2015, Tear also started to add more and more visual representations of his bad jokes and puns, and the sheer volume of edits increased significantly, so much so that by July he couldn't keep up with a double daily upload schedule anymore.
    • After June 2016, due to the amount of time it took him to edit his video (which results in frequent upload schedule problems), Tear hired three other editors to help him out: "NipsOfGrace" (Jack Linford), "DaveOfGrace" (David Clarke) and "HolesOfGrace" (Luke Holesworth) (in 2017, after the YouTube ad revenue problem, Tear had to let Jack Linford go).
    • In August 2016, Tear along with his editors started a live-action shenanigans series called "Behind the Tears" and in November, Tear also started a podcast series called "Tear Talks".
    • In January 2017, Tear started to play and record games with his editors (featuring both gameplay footage and live action footage of them) and in July, Tear started to use a facecam in a few of his videos.
    • Tear's video thumbnails have also evolved significantly from the time he started his channel. Trials Evolution was the first game he recorded which featured custom thumbnails with writing in the left side and a cropped image on the right. This thumbnail style remained virtually the same until he started his The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth series, which featured a thumbnail with the name of the game above, a central cropped image and two mirrored ones to the side, a blue sky background and flames placed around the cropped images.
    • His iconic "What could go wrong?" intro card also changed quite a bit. He first started using it in May 2014 in his Dark Souls 2 deprived NG+3 boss runs, though with different background sound effects and songs every time, and two other "sub-intros" before it, the first one containing the name of the game that he played and the second one being a pun. A few videos later he settled for "Peer Gynt - Morning Mood" by Edvard Grieg, which would remain the tune that accompanies the intro to this day. At the beginning of October 2016, Tear switched to an animated version of the intro with a different background (a stage instead of a dandelion field) and removed the first two "sub-intros". He also started to edit various bits from his videos before said intro, originally bits which were also found in the video itself and then "extra" parts akin to the Hilarious Outtakes.
  • Ass Shove:
    • One of his regular threats to the enemies in the Souls games is that he's going to take the weapon he's currently wielding and "shove it up their ass".
    • Another one of his frequent insults (usually aimed at the developers of a game or level when said game or level starts to get on his nerves), is to tell them to "find the nearest object and ram it up their ass".
    • In-game, Tear inadvertently did an ass shove on the Armored Boar in Dark Souls, mentioning that he didn't even know there was an animation for it.
  • Atomic F-Bomb: After getting cornered and dying to the two bridge Scourge Beasts for the second time in the very first episode of Bloodborne, Tear lets out a big "Mother FUCK!"
  • Atop a Mountain of Corpses: Crouched on top of them, at least.
  • Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: In the first episode of Lords of the Fallen, Tear goes barging in to fight an Infested, only to realize there were two of them and proceeds to retreat by rolling away.
  • Attack the Tail: Is all he tries to do in the Souls games, even if the enemy that would get its tail cut off wouldn't yield any weapon that he could pick up. He even tried to do this in his NG+10 broken ladle runs.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!:
    • In the ninth episode of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while Tear was spying on one of his branded Uruk captains, Snagog Iron-Arm, as he was fighting another random Uruk:
      Tear: Oh, did you let him get a hit in? What's the matter with you, you are disgracing my name. Never mind, he killed him...ohh, a spider!
    • In his Rise of the Tomb Raider video:
      And in Lara's search for a tomb to raid
      She has found herself in need of medical aid
      On the northwest border of Syria is where you'll see ha'
      And in the middle of the desert is where she'll be a'
      And...oh there's a fucking eagle!
    • In episode 31 of Middle Earth: Shadow of War, after getting downed by a random orc berserker:
      Tear: I didn't realize I had no focus! God sake do I hate poison, piece of God damn dookie butt...that's a nice moon.
  • Audience Participation:
  • Ax-Crazy: His temper during his various Minecraft trolling series.
  • Back from the Dead: Many Uruks in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle Earth: Shadow of War came back to haunt Tear:
    • Prâk "Bane" Jaws, Tear's most memorable Arch-Enemy from Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor had returned from the grave at least twice.
    • Krûk Blood-Axe, another Uruk captain that hunted Tear, had also returned after being killed twice before he was branded by Tear.
    • Ishgha the Mad cranked this up to eleven, his most notable trait being his ability to cheat death over and over again. Tear killed him many times and in practically every way imaginable except decapitation: everything from throwing him off cliffs into the sea to lighting him on fire; Nothing seemed to work. Hearing his Battle Cry of "STICKY GLUE" or "BUTTONS" in the middle of a fight was a common occurrence for many episodes.
    • Ûkrom the Machine, formerly Ûkrom Blood-Storm, an Uruk captain that Tear imported from Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor using the nemesis forge and which was killed in the Minas Ithil arena, returned to haunt and humiliate Tear in Middle Earth: Shadow of War.
  • Badass Army:
    • Tear's Uruk army during the last campaign missions of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, which included warchiefs such as Krûk Blood-Axe, Feldûsh Giggles, Grisha the Coward and Thrak the Relentless.
    • The Uruk army that Tear used during the final fight of the third act of Middle Earth: Shadow of War, which included warchiefs such as Hûra the Obsessed, Krûk Gore-Tide, Horza the Ruined, Kûga the Tower and Râsh the Gravewalker.
  • Badass Boast:
    • In episode 98 The Binding Of Isaac: Afterbirth, after getting Wide Shot with Penny Tears:
      Tear: "And the heavens have opened and God reached down into my life and said upon me 'Rek thigh scrubs an fk ther sht ahp'".
    • He gives one in Dark Souls III after defeating the Nameless King. On his first try.
      Tear: I've got a name for ya, bitch: Sir Deaded of House Rekt. Git gud, SCRUB!
  • Bad Boss: In Shadow of War, Tear!Talion has a tendency to kill or shame his own men for some of the most silliest of reasons. For instance, an orc walked into his shot as he was giving a monologue. So he decides to shoot him. As he puts it, "he walked into his shot".
  • Bait-and-Switch:
    • Tear's opening line in episode 106 of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth:
      Tear: Right then, ladies and gentleman, welcome back to Afterbirth, here I am doing what the fuck I want, playing some fun seeds for fun, and if you have a problem with that, I have two words for you...I'm sorry.
    • During his torch-only boss run against the Deacons of the Deep in Dark Souls 3, Tear accidentally refers to himself as a "silly little boy" for attempting this challenge. He then quickly remarks:
      Tear: I've suddenly realized I probably shouldn't refer to myself as a silly little boy when in the company of many a priest. You know what they like to do to little boys...teach them good manners and bring them up right.
    • In the fifth episode of Middle Earth: Shadow of War, while trying to dominate Bruz, Tear became increasingly annoyed at being peppered with spears and eventually snapped:
      Tear: If you throw one more spear...in my fucking head, you know what I'm gonna do?...I'm gonna turn you on my side and just brainwash you just to really fuck you over.
  • Battle Theme Music: He almost always uses Hard Rock, Metal or Heavy Metal music tracks for his battle videos, especially for the bosses and PvP opponents in Dark Souls and the Uruk captains in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For:
    • In the fourth episode of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Tear complained about the game not giving him any bombs. The very next room is one filled with fly bomb enemies.
    • A similar situation also happened in the sixth episode of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, where Tear complained about not having any bombs and a floor later the game decides to spawn some troll bombs, twice. A bit later in the same episode, Tear entered a Challenge Room, only to find both chests containing troll bombs as well.
    • And again in the seventeenth episode of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth Plus, Tear goes on a lengthy rant about having to pay for some of the less desirable additions of the expansion, namely the Stoneys, Portals and especially the boss Big Horn. One has to only guess who Tear ends up fighting when he enters the Boss room mere seconds after concluding his rant.
    • In Shadow of Mordor, he groused at the start of one episode that he hopes he finds some Uruks of worth in the area. Said episode was the debut of Prak "Bane" Jaws.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Getting Bob's Brain in The Binding of Isaac (in his later videos he clarified that he only hates getting it with a high tear rate build).
    • In the same game, getting to fight The Haunt as the Lost, especially after getting a couple of good items beforehand.
    • Also in the same game, getting the Key Bum follower when he needs keys and Bumbo when he steals coins Tear needs, Tear even lampshades why he ever takes Bumbo.
      Tear: (after Bumbo steals some coins) -Why do I ever take you? All you do is take the piss!?!
  • Big "NO!": Since Tear enjoys submitting himself to all kinds of video game related challenges, he tends to let out Big Noes quite frequently:
    • After repeatedly dying to the Rotten in his Dark Souls 2 NG+10 broken ladle challenge run.
    • After dying to the Bed of Chaos by missing a branch jump the first time around in Dark Souls.
    • After dying to Delirium as The Lost in The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth Plus.
    • After dying for the very first time in his first Dead Cells Brutal Update video, Tear lets out a gigantic screaming "NOOOOOO!".
  • Big "OMG!": He let out a big one after being knocked off the edge by the Iron Golem, which was whittled down to less than half health, in Dark Souls.
  • Big "SHUT UP!": Had one during his playthrough of Dark Souls, and it was aimed at the neighbor's dog that kept barking over his recording.
  • Big "WHAT?!": During his final encounter with Prâk Jaws, who was presumed to be long dead, in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor.
  • Blatant Lies:
    Tear: Would you like to explain the walking cyst that set me on fire and poisoned me? Would you like to explain the peaceful nature of the bird that tried to peck out my eyes? You, my dear dragon bitch, are more full of shit than an unattended cesspit!
    • "Looks Great!"
    • The title of Tear's second Dead Cells Brutal Update video, "SO MAD I QUIT".
  • Bond One-Liner: After almost every boss killed in the Souls series, in The Binding of Isaac and in various other games:
  • Book Ends: Episode 123 of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth starts with Tear picking up Milk on the very first floor of his first run and ends with him picking up Milk again as the last item at the end of his third and final run.
  • Born Unlucky: "Tim Dickins", the leper-class character in his team in Darkest Dungeon who couldn't hit nor dodge anything.
  • Borrowed Catchphrase: "Sufferin' succotash".
  • Brick Joke: In episode 112 of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth, mid-way through the video, Tear starts complaining that his cushion is too squeaky and throws it away. At the end of the video, in the outtakes, there's a scene where Tear complains about throwing it away and then for next 30 seconds he can be heard trying to put it back on.
  • Broke the Rating Scale: In episode 102 of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth:
    Tear: You trying to be funny? Is that your attempt at humor? Because if it is, I've got to give you five and a half stars for that one.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Literally, on his NG+ playthrough of Dark Souls, Tear underestimated the Hellkite Dragon on the bridge and went right up to it and started to stab it. Cue the dragon one shotting Tear followed by a Death Montage of him getting repeatedly killed by it.
  • By "No", I Mean "Yes": While discovering a plugged sinkhole in Don't Starve: Reign of Giants:
    Tear: Plugged sinkhole? I don't want to fuck with that...but I'm gonna.
  • Call-Back:
    • Tear's last Race the Sun episode was titled "RACING THE STAKES". A few months later, his second Super Meat Boy episode was titled "RAISING THE STEAKS".
    • Tear's monthly "Best of" videos are actually a continuation of a short series of videos called "Channel Highlights" which he started a year earlier and only had two episodes.
    • His Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin character was a "super ripped red looking motherfucker" who he nicknamed Googley-Eyed Ganon. In Dark Souls 3, Tear spent twenty minutes designing a similarly looking Ganon character.
    • In the thirteenth episode of his Dark Souls 3 singleplayer playthrough, Tear randomly starts singing the Surfin' Bird song by The Trashmen that he previously used in the first episode of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD.
    • While playing through the airplane level of Sonic Adventure, Tear played the same heavy metal track (Duke Nukem by Megadeth) that he played during the airplane level of Sonic Unleashed.
    • His fifth Middle Earth: Shadow of War video was titled "FORGING AN ARMY", referencing his previous Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor series.
  • Call-Forward: While playing through the Destiny Prison of Elders arena, Tear mentions that some day, if he reaches the highest level, he might just face Skolas (with a caption that read "remember that I said this"). In the next episode, he did in fact face Skolas.
  • The Cameo: Tear's channel logo made a cameo appearance in the Eddsworld episode The End (Part 1), in a scene where a character was looking at a YouTube video. His channel description read: The Binding of Indie, Send Help.
  • Camera Abuse: Referenced on many occasions when a projectile that would have otherwise hit Tear's character missed and struck behind him, prompting him to say that the camera man just got hit or killed.
  • Camera Screw: invoked He frequently complained about this in many of the third person games that he has played, especially in the Souls series, in Super Mario 64: Chaos Edition and in some of the Sonic games including Sonic Unleashed.
  • Can't Believe I Said That:
    • In Besiege, Tear builds a vehicle resembling a "cock and balls". Later on he remarks:
      Tear: Seriously, it's so simple to just have fun with it by doing wheelies and trying to break part of your cock off...well that's something I've just said.
    • While fighting the Four Kings in Dark Souls:
      Tear: Just let me heal, cuz' I'm, I'm assuming purple jizz is coming my way...I just said that.
    • In Dark Souls 2 PvP, after defeating a dark-infused katana player with his very own cancerous Havel rapier build:
      Tear: Can you imagine how much damage that would have done if I weren't being a tryhard prick? I mean, this is the funny thing, me doing what I'm doing isn't the worst thing. It's pretty bad, it's like number two on the list, but that weapon does so much damage it should be replacing nukilar weapons. Why did I say nukilar? Nu-clear. Fucking English. There is no "U" in "nUclear"...I just heard what I've just said.
  • Catchphrase: Has quite a few:
  • Censored for Comedy: Tear doesn't usually censor anything, least of all his commentary. There have been a couple of exceptions to this:
    • While describing the Mooks in Rise of the Tomb Raider (accompanied by captions and sound effects):
      Tear: They have the reaction time of a God damn mushy spud, where's the threat, where's the danger, Lara Croft could be flicking a (bleep bleep) in the middle of the snow, she'd be in no danger!
    • While attempting to complete Super Expert mode in the twelfth episode of Super Mario Maker. The swearing was bleeped out and the on-screen captions read "BAD BRETT".
    • During his torch-only boss run against the Curse-rotted Greatwood in Dark Souls 3. After successfully evading one of the bosses attacks only to be hit by a second one, Tear started raging and bleeped out some of his cussing and once again captioned "BAD BRETT" on the screen.
  • Cliffhanger: Quite a number of Dark Souls and Bloodborne episodes have ended this way.
  • Climax Boss: Prâk Jaws' final appearance serves as one for Tear's story playthrough of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.
  • Cluster F-Bomb:
    • The entire Dark Souls 2: Crown of the Old Iron King NG+10 broken ladle challenge video against Fume Knight Raime:
      Tear: Just fucking fucking fucker you FUCK!
    • After failing to defeat Manus, Father of the Abyss in the first Dark Souls game and rage quiting:
      Tear: I'm done, you can fuck off, I'm pissed off so you can be pissed off, I didn't beat him, see you next time for a part three, fuck you, fuck this, fuck...
    • The ending of the second episode of Unravel is absolutely filled with them.
    • After killing the Curse-rotted Greatwood with a torch in Dark Souls 3:
      Tear: Thank fuck for that! FUCK YOU! FUCK FUCKING YOU!...GOD! FUCK YOU!!!
    • After dying to the Crystal Sage in Dark Souls 3:
      Tear: I have come to the conclusion that I cannot be absolutely fucking fucked to fucking deal with that fucker's first fucking phase so...I'm gonna use a much powerful torch to get to the challenging bit.
  • Comically Missing the Point: In the second episode of Salt & Sanctuary, Tear pulled a lever and entered a big room. The very first thing he saw and complained about was a salt platform which he feared would crumble under him...and somehow failed to spot the giant monster standing a few feet away from him.
    Tear: Bundle of salt again, is that going to crumble and kill me? No..oo, suddenly my eyes are working and I'm seeing Strained Man McFuck Shit!
  • Continuity Nod:
    • After encountering a Harpy in the Winter's Run level 24 Destiny Strike, Tear referred to it as "the uninteresting, metallic, shitty little triangular Harpy", not the other one he mentioned earlier, referring to the last episode of Destiny where he was talking about the "big breasted bimbos with wings" Harpies.
    • In the ninth episode of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Tears encounters an Uruk captain by the name of Blorg the Marauder who introduces himself by telling Tear that if he tries to run, he's going to have his gurkars hunt him down, to which Tear responds by saying that the last guy that told him that"...got away and lived, but we don't talk about that", referencing his encounter with Mûggrish the Wanderer from the previous episode.
    • In the tenth episode of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Tear mentioned that the "porn star" got promoted. The porn star in question was the Uruk captain Lûga Hot Tongs who only appeared in the episode eight and the one that Tear said as having an "Uruk sex name".
    • In the eleventh episode of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Tear comes across an Uruk captain named Ûkbûk the Rhymer and comments on the fact that he actually does rhyme, unlike his singer who doesn't sing, referencing his own branded Uruk captain Bagabûg the Singer from episode two.
    • In the seventeenth episode of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Tear was ambushed by an Uruk captain called Dûgza Man-Hunter. Upon noticing him, Tear remarked that he looked just like the last manhunter he fought, referencing Hoshû Manhunter, who first appeared in episode thirteen.
    • In Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin, while fighting the Old Dragonslayer, Tear commented on the amount of damage he was doing to the boss and how he had so much trouble with it in the past, referencing his encounter with the boss in his old playthrough in the standard version of the game.
    • In Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin, while riding down the cage elevator in the Lost Bastille, Tear commented on how he never understood how that was an acceptable method of travel and said it was the equivalent of snow sledding your way to work in a coffin, referencing the way to get down to the Frigid Outskirts in the Crown of the Ivory King DLC, of which he did a video on in the original version of the game.
    • In the eleventh episode of The Witcher 3, during a mission where Geralt finds clues about a Noonewraith attack, Tear complains about having to fight "another one of those God damn things", referencing the two fights he already had with Noonewraiths three episodes ago. During the actual Noonewraith fight, Tear commented about how, unlike last time, he was now actually using properly leveled equipment:
      Tear: You should know by the way that this thing is like four levels higher than me and I'm actually dealing damage to it, and it's still dealing damage to me, you see this is why you don't use level one equipment when you're fighting something that's level God damn ten.
  • Cosmic Plaything:
    • In his Raft video, during his second game, Tear realizes that a piece of his raft randomly disappeared:
      Tear: Where the hell did a quarter of my home go? I put down a water purifier and the next thing you know I'm missing a bit of my life. Okay, um...is this the price I pay for wanting to drink?
    • Later in the same video, after he rebuilt and expanded his raft, he discovered that his water purifier and stove disappeared:
      Tear: Now all I need to do is [looks around] wonder...where my...cooking station and water thing went. What the fuck happened to those? They were right here, I was cooking a fish, I was boiling water. What the...uh, alright then, fine, I'll build more, it's not as if I've just been robbed...in the middle of fucking nowhere. HELLO GOD, I'D LIKE TO FILE A COMPLAINT!
  • Cosplay:
    • In Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 3 PvP, Tear would regularly cosplay as one of the NPC characters or bosses from the games, with the same (or similar-looking) armor and weapons.
    • Played for Laughs in the singleplayer mode of the Souls games. Many times when Tear tried to defeat a boss by standing between its legs and hitting its groin, he said he "was cosplaying as his dick".
  • Country Matters: While they don't exactly fly, Tear does occasionally belt out a C-bomb when he's particularly upset, one memorable occasion being when he found out during the Cuphead playthrough that Sally Stageplay's baby was attacking him too.
    Tear: Oh, Sally, congratulations, it's a cunt.
  • Crosses the Line Twice: In-Universe. Referenced while killing baby skeletons in the Tomb of the Giants in Dark Souls:
    Tear: Wow, did the little baby thing drop me humanity? I just kicked it, I kicked the baby. That is...this is crossing the line on multiple levels!
  • CurbStompBattle/OneHitKill:
  • Curse Cut Short: Averted while fighting a Super Mutant in the very first episode of Fallout 4:
    Super Mutant: Ha Ha Ha! You hit like a-
    [Tear kills the Super Mutant]
    Tear: Like a what? Like a freight train with your basket ball?! Fucking piece of shit!
  • Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: In Destiny, while playing through the Prison of Elders arena and dying to a Wizard:
    Tear: Where the fuck did the wizard come from? And if you dare say the moon, I shall bitch slap the taste out of your mouth and into your arse!
  • Cut Short: Happened to many of his past series, the most famous being The Witcher 3 due to the lack of audience support and Bloodborne: The Old Hunters which cliffhangered when it turned out that the video of the final boss fight got corrupted. Tear eventually did an episode on the Orphan of Kos in July 2017, a year and a half later...and he still didn't manage to beat the boss and complete the expansion.
    D-O 
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!:
    • Playing Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor after he was done with Assassin's Creed: Unity:
      Tear: I don't want to break the illusion, but I'm having a really fucking hard time playing this after switching between Unity. The counter button is something completely different, I keep pressing fucking B.
    • Trying to get back into Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin after having played Bloodborne:
      Tear: It is so awkward healing these days, after playing Bloodborne. In Bloodborne, you press it, you're done. In this game, you got to get into a fucking queue to heal!
  • Deadpan Snarker: Tear's general commentary when he starts getting frustrated with the difficulty of a game or its game mechanics.
  • Death by Irony: In episode twelve of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Tear was finally killed by a mad Uruk called Ishgha the Mad (who would always open his fights by saying "Buttons!") because once he was downed, he didn't press the right button to counter Ishgha's attack.
  • Delayed Reaction: In Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, almost every single time Tear gets downed it seemingly takes him a couple of seconds to even realize there is a QTE counter on the screen, let alone react to it.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: "That's the shortest P-block block I have ever seen!"
  • Determinator: Tear's Dark Souls 2 NG+3 deprived boss runs, NG+10 broken ladle and bare fists runs and Dark Souls 3 torch-only runs; regardless of how many times Tear would die and how many consumables he had to waste, he would still get back and try to defeat the bosses, even if he did end up summoning help for some of them.
  • Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: In the final minutes of his first Lost-Vs-Delirium video, he blames his last death in the video for him invoking this trope to try to make the Delirium fight easier and it backfiring on him hard.
  • Did I Just Say That Out Loud?:
  • Didn't Think This Through:
    • While running through the Tomb of the Giants in Dark Souls, Tear planned to evade the horde of enemies that were chasing him and eventually went down a slope where he thought he remembered a bonfire being. There was no bonfire, and he just cornered himself on a ledge.
    • Later on in the same game, Tear was once again chased by a bunch of enemies while trying to retrieve an item on a ledge. Once he got to the item, he realized that there was no way back and had to fight his way through a bunch of Wooden Scarecrows. After killing them he stopped to reflect on how close he was to falling off when suddenly, two giant Guardians appeared and killed him.
  • Die, Chair, Die!: In Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin in the Lost Bastille area, Tear isn't satisfied with just opening the door, no, he has to actually destroy it. OVERKILL!
  • Disney Villain Death:
    • Tear's preferred method of dealing with the Uruk captains in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor was to throw them off cliffs (which started in the fifth episode of the playthrough when one of the Uruk captains he wanted to recruit was killed by a random Uruk soldier, prompting Tear to throw him off a nearby cliff). He went to such great lengths to do so that he would sometimes carry captains for miles around just to throw them, regardless of any other enemies that would aggro on him.
    • This tradition also continued in Middle Earth: Shadow of War.
    • He also started to really enjoy kicking enemies off ledges in Dark Souls, so much so that by the end of the game, he went out of his way to Back Stab the Black Knights before the Gwyn, Lord of Cinder boss encounter in such a way that when the animation was done, they would be thrown to their deaths (even if that meant that any loot that they might have dropped was going to be lost).
  • Disproportionate Retribution: In Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while fighting the Uruk captain Mûzglob Gold-Fang during his recruitment attempt. After Ûkrom Blood-Storm, another captain that continued to hunt down Tear, quite literally storms the encounter, humiliates Tear and then leaves, Tear decides that it's not enough just to kill Mûzglob and so he murders the rest of the regular Uruks that Mûzgblob wanted to recruit.
  • Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Or more accurately Do Not Taunt The Editor but during a game of Four Souls Brett proceeds to call out his editor for giving him grief after the last game, leading to said editor reminding Brett of their power over him by editing a segment of the video to mess with Brett while leaving Luke and Dave alone.
  • The Dreaded:
    • Prâk "Bane" Jaws, Krûk Blood-Axe, Pigug the Shadow, Ûkrom Blood-Storm, Zog Bag-Head, as well as a couple of other nemesis who hunted down Tear in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, became this.
    • The Haunt, a particularly difficult boss in The Binding of Isaac, especially since Tear seemed to frequently encounter it while playing as the Lost and having a decent build.
    • The Pursuer(s) also became this in Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin.
  • Driven to Suicide: At the end of his Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare video, Tear spends a few seconds lamenting his family's death as well as the fact that he killed everybody he ever met in the game before jumping into the water while riding his horse.
  • Drives Like Crazy: In both his Grand Theft Auto V singleplayer and Online series.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: His older videos were almost completely unedited, had worse microphone quality and very few if any bad jokes and puns. Tear also spoke a lot slower and frequently put on various accents, mostly American and Irish (though that hasn't completely gone away).
  • El Spanish "-o": In episode 112 of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth, after playing as the Keeper and picking up Holy Water:
    Tear: I mean I'll take that, why not, it's kind of useful when I get hit and make a little bit of a splash but overall it's kind of what they say in France, le useless.
  • Epic Fail:
    • Every single time he has managed to die to a boss in the Souls series when it only had a sliver of health left (E.g: include the Darklurker, Ornstein and Smaug, the Four Kings, Iudex Gundyr, the Curse-rotted Greatwood and the Crystal Sage).
    • In episode 107 of The Binding of Isaac, while playing as the Keeper, Tear managed to get a very powerful build with Tech X and Growth Hormones and decided to abuse the Blood Donation Machine in a shop, exchanging one of the two health coins that he had for two coins. The sixth time doing this, however, he forgot that he only had one health coin left and donated that as well and died.
    • In episode 108 of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth Tear again managed to get a very powerful build while playing as the Keeper with the Swallowed Penny, Bomber Boy, Magic Mushroom and Guppy's Collar and decided to abuse the Sacrifice Room by getting damaged and immediately healing thanks to the Swallowed Penny. Right after saying that he can do that forever, he got teleported to the Dark Room and died to Super Greed.
    • In the sixth episode of Super Mario Maker, Tear spends 40 minutes trying to beat a particularly hard level. Once he enters the final pipe and celebrates having won, he falls into a pit and forgets to wall jump and dies (cue Fur Elise).
  • Epunymous Title: Almost every single one of his video titles.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Refenced in the fifth episode of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, where one of Tear's Uruk captains, Pûgrish the Beheader was ambushing a rival captain, Flak the Brute. During the fight, Tear noticed that his captain and his other Uruks mooks all stood around Flak and were repeatedly stabbing him whenever he turned his back on them, prompting him to say:
    Tear: This is dirty even by my standards, seriously with this, this is mean.
  • Even the Subtitler Is Stumped: Always done in post-production by his future self or his editors:
    • In episode 109 of The Binding of Isaac: Aferbirth:
      Tear: For anyone that wants to use this seed themselves "freel?" free to, you know, let me know how stupid I was by re-rolling that a few times and pointing out what an awful mistake it was for me taking this, feel free.
    • Played for Laughs in the last episode of Sonic Unleashed where Chip's wing flapping was captioned as "FAPPING".
  • Evil Laugh: His Prâk Jaws laugh impression is a combination of insanity and evilness.
  • Exact Words: In the first episode of Dark Souls 3, after lighting the very first bonfire:
    Tear: [BONFIRE LIT] You know with the recent surge of use of that particular word, you'd expect me to make a joke about that, wouldn't you? You thought wrong...I'm gonna make a bunch of them, cause I'm that comedically crippled.
  • Eye Scream: The Surgeon Simulator 2015 video where Tear jabs the patient in both eyes with scalpels, only to have them wiggle around as he was moving.
  • Fast-Forward Gag: Was used quite heavily in his Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2 and Bloodborne videos when running back to a boss after having been killed. It was usually accompanied by sped up music as well.
  • Flat "What": Has his own version, "U wot mate".
  • Flowery Insults: His comedy is mostly this, bad jokes and a tone of puns.
  • Fly in the Soup: In Tear's case, "why is there a cutscene in my GoatZ simulator?".
  • Freudian Slip: Referenced during his Dark Souls 2 Ivory King armor build, while facing the same opponent for the third time (DamCemX), and thinking about another opponent that he had just fought three times before (ChrisXRedfield):
    Tear: Did you have no arrows left, is that embarrassing for you Chris...Chris, oh fucking hell, there's a God damn Freudian slip.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Rarely used, short versions of his staple visual puns.
    • In his The Witcher 3 Patreon request video, Tear points out an in-game audio glitch when he talks to the NPC quest giver which is only visible for a split-second.
  • Friendly Enemy: "Obnoxious VIRGIN", a human invader that got summoned into the Looking Glass Knight fight during Tear's Dark Souls 2 NG+10 broken ladle run, quickly saw what Tear was trying to do and instead of attacking him, he just stood by and watched the whole challenge unfold.
  • Friend to All Living Things: He seemingly dislikes killing animals, even if the animals in question are hostile (such as the Caragors in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor or the Wolves in Skyrim. He even disliked killing the Moonlight Butterfly in Dark Souls).
  • Funny Background Event: His videos are usually filled with them, from Uruks falling from ledges in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor to weapons inexplicably jumping around in Dark Souls and zombies rolling down stairs in Dying Light. Most of the time Tear is incredibly quick at pointing them out.
  • Fun with Acronyms:
    • In Rainbow Six Siege, due to his horrible aiming skills, Tear got killed by a random terrorist wearing a mannequin mask, causing him to remark that he was supposed to be S.A.S. followed by a caption where S.A.S stood for "Significantly better At Shooting".
    • After playing Cuphead for a while, Tear stated that he was beginning to think that StudioMDHR stood for "Murder Death Hate Regret".
  • Gag Dub: The beginning of the fourth episode of The Binding of Isaac: Antibirth features a live action ad for CrunchyRoll where one of the characters that Tear plays is a poorly dubbed "ninja".
  • Gainax Ending: Many of Tear's videos end with surreal imagery and music:
    • The ending of his first Fallout 4 video.
    • The ending of episodes 153 and 154 of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth Plus.
  • Game Mod: One exists which adds Tear's rants to The Binding of Isaac.
  • Gasshole: At times.
  • Genki Guy: In the very first episode of Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition {TU13}. Tear even commented on this:
    Tear: Have you noticed how weirdly animated I am? I don't know why, I'm just suddenly bursting with energy!
  • Genre Savvy: Tear has played enough games and seen enough movies to know what's going to happen next:
  • Gilligan Cut:
    • In episode 63 of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Tear sent one of his recently branded Uruk captain, Rûg Blood-Storm, to duel with another random captain, Malmûg Guard Master. He then jumped down to observe the fight and said he won't get involved. The footage immediately cuts to Tear introducing himself to the Malmûg.
    • In the very first episode of Bloodborne, Tear is confronted by two Scourge Beasts. He manages to pull one away and fight it and upon realizing how much health it has, Tear prays that the second one doesn't get involved. The video then cuts to him fighting both Beasts at the same time.
    • In the third episode of Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin, after Tear died to the two Ogres in the starting area and lost all of his souls, he decided to go back and kill them stating that he wished not be trolled by the "fat cycloptic twats" anymore. Cue him immediately getting killed by one of the Ogres.
    • In the first episode of the re-released Dead Rising, while holding out in the Willamette Parkview Mall, Tear notices a lot of NPC characters around him and states that he "should probably get to know their backstories, their motivations, their wants and needs in life" so they can support each other through their time of need. The footage then immediately cuts to the NPCs dying to the zombies while Tear sarcastically bemoans their death.
  • Gonk: He doesn't call his Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin character "Googley-eyed Ganon" for nothing.
  • Good Parents: Played for Laughs in episode 111 of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth. After failing to make any kind of progress with the Keeper, Tear gives up and the video cuts to an image of the Keeper on fire and surrounded by a humorous caption that reads: "like a loving father, I will never beat you". note 
  • Goshdang It To Heck: Accidentally, while playing Overwatch:
    Tear: That's what you get for being McGreedy you God damn McGrunt. I inadvertently censored myself there, wasn't going for it.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: invoked During his playthrough of Sonic Unleashed, Tear comes to realize that the greatest villain of the story is in fact the camera and the controls.
  • Groin Attack: See "cosplaying as his dick", above.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: When a settler started coughing on him in the very first episode of Fallout 4:
    Tear: Did you just cough on me? Alright, no, I've had enough of him already, this is bullshit! [Tear then pulls out a shotgun and headshots him]
  • Have a Gay Old Time: Referenced in the very first episode of Dark Souls 3:
    Tear: I'm Nobs from I don't know where and we're gonna have a gay old time. And that's in The Flintstones kind of way, not the Elton John kind of way.
  • Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Tear generally names his video game character Nobs. While playing The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, Tear regretted this decision while talking to a certain inhabitant of the island:
    Tear: [sigh] I've made a small boy say Nobs...
  • Heroic BSoD:
    • After accidentally killing his own branded Uruk captain, Blorg the Marauder, in the tenth episode of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Tear became absolutely frozen, so much so that he allowed a random Uruk to kill him.
    • In the sixth episode of Sonic Unleashed, while trying to point out a level pop-in issue, Tear turns werewolf Sonic around, accidentally getting between a pot and a concrete railing and picking up a Sun Medal that he didn't even know was there, causing him to remain speechless for a couple of seconds.
    • After witnessing the Orphan of Kos' transition to its second phase in Bloodborne: The Old Hunters.
  • Heroic RRoD: While trying to complete the Super Expert mode for the first time in Super Mario Maker, Tear loses 49 lives at the antepenultimate level, throws his controller on the floor and leaves the game running while monologuing about his failure, losing 3 more lives in the process before attempting to beat it again.
  • He Who Must Not Be Seen/The Faceless: He used to be one for more than four years of his YouTube career during which he never showed his face, but had occasionally given clues to how he looked like in real life, stating that he had a shaved head, a beard and wore glasses. He also usually modeled his in-game characters after him. On March the 30th, 2016, Tear had officially revealed his face on Twitter, and then also edited the photo into one of his videos.
  • Hilarious Outtakes: Between September 2015 and March 2017, he used to dedicate the last part of his videos to short, funny clips that he couldn't fit anywhere else in his videos.
  • His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Brett Tear, that is.
  • His Own Worst Enemy:
    • Invokes this while mentioning his unfamiliarity with Rogue Legacy:
      Tear: I think it's safe to say that I'm going to be my worst enemy by the end of this.
    • In the NG+10 broken ladle fight against Fume Knight Raime in Dark Souls 2: Crown of the Old Iron King, during his first attempt against the boss, Tear accidentally healed instead of rolling away which caused him to die, prompting him to state that:
      Tear: I think the biggest battle is going to be with my brain, trying to get it to fucking work!
  • Hitbox Dissonance: Tear often complained about the hitboxes in Dark Souls 2, especially when he only used a broken ladle to take down bosses.
    • While fighting Fume Knight Raime in the Crown of the Old Iron King expansion, Tear remarked that:
      Tear: If my character model is making contact with your character model, how in the blue fucking dickens does my weapon not make contact with you? Makes no sense. If my arms and legs, which are holding my weapons can touch your fucking leg, why doesn't the weapon that I'm swing at it hit it?
  • Hong Kong Dub: The "ninja" that Tear plays in his various live-action CrunchyRoll ads.
  • Humiliation Conga: He experiences this while running through the Catacombs in Dark Souls. First he gets hit by a skeleton that he couldn't hit, then he falls thorough the floor, lands in front of a Black Knight, gets hit by said Knight and is left with only a sliver of health left, runs to heal and the Black Night from before jumps through a wall and kills him.
  • 100% Completion: His obsession with getting every single achievement in The Binding of Isaac. As of March 2016, he has successfully completely every single one of them.
  • Hurricane of Puns: Being a master of puns, Tear sometimes tends to go overboard with them:
    • During his fight with the Duke's Dear Freja in Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin:
      Tear: This is just depressing, your children won't defend you because I'm wielding a flame. Dear bloody me, I think it' safe to say they're bloody fickle, aren't they? I guess you could also say that their love and care for you kind of burned out. Either that, or when it comes to defending their own God damn family, that they aren't all too bright. And I guess with all the rage you've been showing, that it's safe to say your children's lack of shit giving for your life has certainly got you fired up!
    • Later on in the same game while fighting Mytha, the Baneful Queen:
      Tear: You know, I've got my own personal theory why this silly woman is without a head. I think it might be because she fell in love with a man and lost her God damn mind, and because he was a cruel piece of shit, he said "you know if you cut your head off, you'll be immortal and live forever", and as I'm about to kill her, that makes it a bold faced lie, so you could say he Ana"CONNED"her. Terribly proud of myself on that one, terribly proud. And you could also say that she did that in order to get ahead in life. And when it came to the women's baseball team, she didn't quite make the cut.
    • After stumbling across an in-game ad for a man with a burger head in Trials of the Blood Dragon:
      Tear: It's fucking Burger Man running around. I've seen Pepsi Man, I've seen fucking Burger Man. What the hell? You know, they should make a God damn anime about that man, about how he's got beef with everyone...and I'm going to kill myself. I'm not sorry though. You can give him a saucy relationship and you can have him relish his victories.
  • The Hyena: He regularly descends into this after witnessing bugs and glitches in the games that he's playing.
  • Hypercompetent Sidekick: During the Desolation of Mordor DLC, Tear's bodyguard Tahaar of the Sands quickly got stronger by saving Tear's ass from near-death more than once, and now gets more kills than even Tear himself in any given battle. The latter gets a little annoyed after some time; while he can't blame him for killing orcs he can't help but feel his thunder thoroughly stolen.
  • Hypocritical Humor:
    • The entire fight with Petrus in Dark Souls, where Tear calls him a son of a bitch for repeatedly healing yet right after that, he also heals as well:
      Tear: Oh you son of a bitch, you healed. You son of a bitch, nobody said you could do that! No one. Now can you give me a moment to heal.
    • Another, much grander and absolutely golden example comes up in his Shadow of War playthrough. Throughout the game, whenever he encountered the Nazgul, he bemoaned the fact that he couldn't simply join forces with the Nazgul, claiming he'd be much more fond of that than the (human) idiots he has to put up with for the sake of plot. When Talion finally does so after having been abandoned by Celebrimbor, taking one of the Nine Rings for himself, Brett angrily calls him an insane idiot. Minutes later, when he has to fight the Witchking once more, he's back at wanting to join forces.
  • Idea Bulb: Only the clinging sound which is a post-production editing trick that he commonly employs, particularly before flashing a caption on the screen to laugh at or in some cases accentuate what he just previously did or said in the video.
  • I Hate Past Me/Unreliable Narrator: Used as a Running Gag in the form of an caption popping-up on screen which mocks what he just previously said or did in the video, sometimes also accompanied by the sound of an Idea Bulb.
  • I Have No Son!: In the beginning of his Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare video, after John Marston's wife is attacked by a zombie, Tear discovers that his son just stood next to the window and watched all of it happen without doing a thing, prompting him to declare that he's not his son and even trying to shoot him:
    Tear: I'm really trying to kill a fucking useless prick, I really am.
  • Implacable Man: Prâk Jaws, Krûk Blood-Axe and a couple other Uruk captains in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor who keep returning even after Tear has consistently killed them.
  • Improbable Weapon User:
    • The ladle, in Dark Souls 2. And not just any ladle, but a broken one.
    • Also, the torch in Dark Souls 3.
  • Indy Escape: In the second episode of his second playthrough of Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty, Tear goes running past an obstacle course of bombs, on fast forward, with the Indiana Jones theme playing in the background.
  • Inherently Funny Words: "Soggy", probably because of the amount of times he had used it in combination with the word "nob". In the second video of Don't Starve: Reign of Giants, after it started raining and all of Tear's inventory items became wet, he was surprised to discover that the name of the mushroom lying on the ground changed to:
    Tear: A soggy cooked Green Cap...the word soggy is now in this game.
  • Innocent Innuendo: Referenced in the tenth episode of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, when Tear was facing a screaming Uruk captain called Ûggû Black-Thorn:
    Tear: You know, if you were to play that to a black screen...that would be pretty misleading, and you could imagine it would be something completely different.
  • Instantly Proven Wrong: In the eight episode of Super Mario Maker, while passing through to the second stage of a user made level in Super Expert mode, Tear is too slow and the platform in front of him is blown up by Bob-ombs. Just as he finishes mentioning that the game gave him a reset (the pipes) and how that makes it both challenging and fair... he is instantly proven wrong when the Bob-ombs detonate just as he gets back, prompting him to say it's neither of those things.
  • Intentionally Awkward Title: When his video titles don't contain some sort of pun, they are usually quote awkward (E.g: "Submerged - LIFE IS BETTER DOWN WHERE IT'S WETTER").
  • Interface Spoiler: In Dark Souls 2, he's not fooled by an NPC disguising as a friendly unit that's actually hostile.
    Tear: NO. Nothing's ever friendly when you can lock on to it, NOTHING.
  • Interrupted Suicide: After being chased by a bunch of ghosts in the New Londo Ruins in Dark Souls, Tear eventually reached the item he wanted to get and upon realizing that he was trapped, decided to kill himself by throwing himself into the bottomless body of water next to him. He didn't even manage to do that as the ghost that chased him prevented him passing through a crevice and killed him.
  • ...In That Order:
    • After being defeated by the Uruk captain Hoshû Manhunter in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor:
      Hoshû: With you sweetness, the fun never ends!
      Tear: Everything in this game wants to kill, love and fuck me, specifically in that order!
    • Averted, in Don't Starve: Reign of Giants.
      Tear: I really need to find an animal that's big, kill it, fuck it, then eat it, maybe not specifically in that order. Cuz' you know, I prefer a hot date!
  • I Regret Nothing:
    • Killing Rhea of Thorlund in Dark Souls. note  After seeing the loot she dropped, Tear said he regretted nothing.
    • While playing a seeded The Binding of Isaac run and discovering the Black Market, Tear apologizes for having to kill the key and coin beggars since he didn't have any coins and didn't want to spend any keys. After discovering that they dropped an eternal heart, four coins and a bomb, Tear quickly said that he in fact regretted nothing.
  • Jerkass: In the first episode of the re-released Dead Rising, after reuniting Jeff with Natalie and noticing them kiss each other, Tear's first reaction after taking a photo of them is to kick a football at Jeff, knocking him to the ground, and telling him to go fuck himself.
  • Jump Scare:
    • His old Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs playthrough was filled with them.
    • While trudging through the wasteland in Fallout 4, Tear saw that a Ghoul that appeared to be stuck while navigating a ledge, only to jump at him after he got too close to it and quickly looked away for a second.
    • In the third episode of Bloodborne: the Old Hunters, Tear gets jump scared within second of playing the game, after going through a door in the Research Hall and having an enemy instantly lunge at him.
    • In the second episode of Dark Souls 3, while going through the Undead Settlement, Tear gets jump scared in an item gank by a Cage Spider after expecting the hanging corpses in the room to be the actual disguised enemies.
    • High Lord Wolnir also gave him a good scare in the fifth episode of Dark Souls 3.
    • His Resident Evil 7: Biohazard video also features a lot of jump scares.
  • Kick Them While They Are Down: Played for Laughs after dying to the hollow Master in Dark Souls 3:
    Tear: He was applying a negative status effect to me when I was already dead. Talk about kicking a dog when he's down...good God, he was kicking the God damn dog on its way down.
  • Kindhearted Cat Lover: He apparently loves cats, and according to his twitter photos, he had a lot of them running around his former house (even a couple that he didn't actually own).
  • Lame Pun Reaction: Almost every single time he made a particularly bad pun or joke, he would point out how bad it was and that a child could do better, or lament on how that qualifies as a joke or how this was in fact his job, etc.
  • Last-Second Word Swap: In the fourth episode of Bloodborne: The Old Hunters, whilst getting overpowered by Maria of the Astral Clocktower, and dying to her:
    Tear: Fuck a...[he gets killed]...an exceptionally attractive woman with protection to avoid infection.
  • Laughing Mad: Has become quite a running gag, especially after facing the mad Uruk captain "Bane" in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Tear has started to imitate his mad laugh, accompanied by various distorted audio effect.
  • Laugh Themselves Sick: Literally, he said he got a headache after laughing so much when one of the mad Uruk captains that killed him started chanting "Prick Prick Prickle!". This, along with a few other mad Uruk quotes such as "Buttons!", "Sticky Glue!" and "Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle!" became catch phrases/memes in the comment sections of his videos.
  • Leave No Survivors: At the end of the Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City expansion, after accepting that he has doomed the world, Tear stumbles across a figure in the distance and, mistaking it for a beetle, goes in to kill it stating:
    Tear: Also I believe there's a...there's a buzzy beetle over there. I'm not sure what's occurring with it but I'm going to go murder it as it's the last thing that's somehow...*realizes that it's an undead*.
  • Left Hanging: In the seventh episode of Shadow of Mordor, Tear declares that after last time (the previous episode where he was repeatedly killed by the Uruk captain Krûk Blood-Axe), he has a bit of a to-do list. Phase one was to get the "cool guy" (the Uruk captain Hork the Corrupt) on his side, and that's about the only phase he even mentioned.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: He had one such moment while playing through the Summoning Pits raid in Destiny. A few minutes into the fight with the end boss, Phogoth the Untamed, one of the random enemies around dropped an engram right next to the boss. A few second later, Tear decided to just run in to get it, even if it meant that he could end up dying and jeopardizing the mission.
  • Long Runner:
    • His Grand Theft Auto V series, at over 300 episodes.
    • His Minecraft series, at over 230 episodes.
    • His Dark Souls 2 series, at over 190 episodes.
    • His The Binding of Isaac series, at over 150 episodes.
  • Lovable Coward: In his playthrough of Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.
  • Love Floats: Played for Laughs in Assassin's Creed: Syndicate where glitches would frequently cause NPCs to float in the air for a short period of time. In episode two, after seeing an NPC couple floating around in the air, Tear remarks:
    Tear: Well, they're popping in the air again. For the love of the Lord, every single loving couple has to levitate, it's like the sign of true romance in this city.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The first time Tear played Dark Souls 2, he was overly reliant on tanking all the damage with his shield rather than learning how to dodge properly. note 
  • Mad Libs Catchphrase: The Borrowed Catchphrase "Sufferin' succotash". Some times it's "Sweet sufferin' succotash", other times it's "Sweet sufferin' Christ".
  • Madness Mantra: "BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL..."
  • Male Gaze: "That ass, I guess." "And again, that ass!"
  • Manchild: Most of his bad jokes and immature attitude reflects this, and he even calls himself one in the comments section of one of his videos on his alternate channel.
  • Manipulative Editing:
    • In his Destiny Vault of Glass raid video, Tear pretends like he finally managed to receive the much sought-after Gjallarhorn, only to quickly reveal that he actually edited that in.
      Tear: And just like that, I can fake getting a good item.
    • Subverted in episode 154 of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth Plus. While walking into a room, Tear said that he had a feeling that the secret room was behind the wall on the left, bombed it and failed, then did the same thing with the wall on the right and succeeded. Ashamed of the blunder, he left a message for his editor:
      Tear: Editor, only use the last half of that.
  • Man of a Thousand Voices: Tear started out his channel pretending to be American, then made a series of video where he sounded Irish. He still occasionally does Irish imitations in some videos.
  • Married to the Job: Between January 17 and June 14, 2015, Tear uploaded two fully edited videos per day. He later stated that during this time, he barely had time to leave his house, let alone do anything else.
  • Meaningful Name: Azdûsh Spear Master, an Uruk captain that Tear encountered in episode 19 of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. As if his introductory line to Tear wasn't enough, saying that "the whole of Mordor comes running when he opens his mouth and blows", Tear noticed how it was even worse that he was called a "spear master".
  • Medium Awareness: In his Destiny 2 video, at the end of the cutscene where Dominus Ghaul pushed the Guardian off a ledge, Tear scolded Ghaul for putting the title screen up while he was still talking to him.
  • Mirror Match:
    • During one of his matches in Dark Souls 2 PvP, while cosplaying as Jester Thomas, Tear ran into another opponent (his friend, Darth Kalz) wearing the same exact armor and wielding almost the same exact spells as him.
    • Many of Tear's NG+10 broken ladle challenge runs against bosses in Dark Souls 2 featured him wearing the bosses's armor.
  • Mondegreen Gag: In Super Mario 64: Chaos Edition, Tear interprets Mario's last line when throwing Bowser into the lava as "So long gay Bowser".
  • Mood Whiplash:
    • He goes from incredibly happy to incredibly annoyed in the span of a second in the first The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth episode after he gets two keys to give to the Key Beggar and receives nothing in return:
      Tear: Hey, mister man, I think, I think there's a God up there and he's looking down on you and...he's calling you a greedy son of a bitch that can go burn in hell!
    • In the second episode of The Binding of Isaac: Antibirth, Tear finds himself in a room with bombs behind obstacles and decides to get to them by using a Tower card, destroying a marked rock containing a golden chest in the process. After getting hit and realizing that he still didn't get to the bombs, he gets enraged and says it wasn't worth it...then immediately opens the golden chest and, upon discovering that it contained Cricket's Head, yells that it was worth it.
  • Multiple Demographic Appeal: Tear plays a very wide variety of games, including Sandbox games, Shooters, Action-Adventure games, Dungeon Crawlers, Roguelike games, Action-Roleplaying games, etc. His longest lasting series were focused mostly on Nintendo Hard games.
  • My Greatest Failure: His failure to pick up Brimstone the first time he saw it in the fifth episode of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, because he thought it wasn't very good. His decision caused an uproar in the comments section of that video and he has referenced this blunder a couple of times since then.
  • Name McAdjective:
    • After taking longer than normal to spot an enemy in the second episode of Salt & Sanctuary:
      Tear: Suddenly my eyes are working and I'm seeing Strained Man McFuck Shit!
    • In the fourth episode of Dark Souls 3, Tear discovers a bonfire and rests at it despite knowing that he would respawn "Shit McGuiness back there".
  • Nature Documentary
    • Parodied in a segment of his first Don't Starve: Reign of Giants video.
      Tear: And here we see the Beefalo in his natural environment, screaming, happy, ever present, loving life, enjoying the day to day and walking towards me and he's about to eat my face.
    • Parodied in Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty:
      Tear And here we see a Slig in it's natural environment, trying to coerce with another of its kind.
    • And again parodied in State of Decay:
      Tear: And here we see an idiot in his native environment, checking the corpse of another man in the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse, and if we quieten down and pay close attention, we can actually hear the moment the Universe realigns the clever-dumb balance...and there it is!
  • Next Time On: (Oddworld) New'n Tasty.
  • The Nicknamer: He had the tendency to do this with the Uruk captains in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. Prâk Jaws was nicknamed "Bane" due to his muzzle, "Hoshû the Blue" was named "Sonic the Hedgehog", "Narûg the Poisoner" was named "The Viper", etc.
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • In-Universe and referenced during Tear's fight with the Chaos Witch Queelag in Dark Souls:
      Tear: That terrified me? Forgot she did that, just started shitting lava out of her every single orifice, that's nightmare fuel!
    • Referenced in the second episode of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006):
      Tear: She doesn't even have any features rendered. She's just a pale blob. What is her face? That is nightmare fuel!
    • Referenced again in the first episode of Super Mario Odyssey after capturing a toad:
      Tear: Uh? Yeah, nightmare fuel as you do, just possess a toad and become the toad, I mean is this okay with...
  • Nintendo Hard: He enjoys the challenge that these games present and he's actually quite decent at them. He sometimes makes them even harder with self imposed challenges.
  • No-Dialogue Episode: Tear made two Halo: Reach trolling videos early on during his YouTube career which contained no dialogue whatsoever, only captions.
  • No Indoor Voice:
    • While fighting Gravelord Nito in Dark Souls:
      Tear: Oh my God, that's a lot of damage...Nito, my boy, MY LAD...I just said that out loud.
    • In the very first episode of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while Tear was fighting the Uruk captain Pûgrish Beast Slayer,a spear thrower with a damage bleed effect:
      Tear: Did you just...you just made me bleed, and I'm not talking about it in a sexual manner either.
      [after the introduction, he gets hit again]
      Tear: Can you please stop making me bleed...I need to stop fucking saying that out loud!
  • No Sense of Direction:
  • Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: The tactic that he employed during his second series of Minecraft trolling videos by becoming invisible and luring people into traps and then hiding and turning off invisibility to suggest that he was not the one behind those deeds.
  • Not Even Bothering with an Excuse: In the first episode of Kingdom Come Deliverance, after Henry's father asks him why he threw dung at Deutsch's house, Tear nonchalantly replies with:
    Tear: Uh, the quest step. It told me to do it so I did it.
  • N-Word Privileges: Referenced while fighting a group of Nekkers in The Witcher 3:
    Tear: It's a Nekker! You're about to be facing the God damn Geralt guillotine...are there more of these Nekkers, aren't there? If I mispronounce that just a little bit, it's the end of my YouTube career, just so you know.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • In Destiny, while playing one of the Queen's Wrath missions, Tear managed to successfully kill the end boss with ease, only to be surprised by a bunch of random enemies being spawned on him which eventually killed him. The mission was still successfully completed though.
    • In The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Tear finally managed to beat the Lamb with the Lost, only to discover that the game was not on hard mode. He eventually completed the challenge a few months later.
    • Finally managing to beat Super Mario Maker's 100 Mario expert mode...only to find out that he now had Super Expert mode to complete.
    • During the fight against Sister Freide and Father Ariandel in the Dark Souls 3 Ashes of Ariandel DLC. When Freide reveals herself as the boss and takes out her Sinister Scythe.
      Tear: He's not the boss, she is. You're kidding, right?
    • Later in the episode, when Freide revives herself as Blackflame Freide.
      Tear: Are you? [Freide revives] Oh. You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!!
    • While fighting the second boss of Ashes of Ariandel he gets a nasty surprise when the boss summons the big wolf that kept fucking him over earlier. It turns his casual stroll into a journey through hell.
      Tear: [As the boss raises his sword to the sky and stands there] Wh-what are you doin'? [Backstabs boss and chuckles] Letting me backstab you? [Second health bar appears] Oh no! No! No! No!! No!! [Second boss emerges] NO!!! NOT THAT FUCKING THING!!!
    • In his fourth episode of Middle Earth: Shadow of War after effortlessly taking down a pair of captains then ends up dealing with an Uruk he never wanted to see again, Ukrom Blood-Storm, to his shock and fear as he tries to run away.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Mainly during The Binding of Isaac when playing as the Lost or the Keeper and trying to make any sort of progress with them. He even referenced this once, in episode 99 of Afterbirth:
    Tear: Ladies and gentleman...this is the part where I make no jokes and focus...like fuck.
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Tear started his YouTube career with a video where he put on a Fake American accent, however it was very obvious that he had problems holding it.
  • Opening Narration:
    • Most of his videos start with: "Right then ladies and gentleman, welcome (back) to <insert name of the game here>".
    • Sometimes used as a Running Gag, typically during the first episode of a new series which usually starts with something along the lines of "In a world where X has happened, it is up to Y to solve this".
  • Orphaned Series: Many of his series went the way of the Dodo:
    • "Channel Highlights" was a very old series which only featured two episodes, but was reincarnated years later as a monthly "Best of", which itself only had a few months worth of episodes.
    • A Telltale Game series was initially planned where Tear would play a lot of story-driven games, but he only did one episode of The Wolf Among Us and then abandoned it.
    • The original Dark Souls 2 series ended very abruptly, after only 11 episodes and 4 bosses killed. The series then went on an extended hiatus and was later continued with a few episodes of the bosses in both expansions.
    • WTF is This Sh!t was a series planned to showcase poorly made games but ended up only having one episode.
    • A Bloodborne NG+ series was planned, but due to its poor success on the channel and Tear getting frustrated at the enemy scaling in the game at that level, the series only ended up having a couple episodes.
    • Tear initially wanted to play a lot more of The Witcher 3, but due to its poor success on the channel, he only ended up doing 11 episodes.
    • Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin NG+ ended after only the third episode.
    • The Dark Souls 3 torch-only challenge runs ended after five episode, with Tear giving up on the idea after his fight with the Deacons of the Deep.
    • "Tear Talks" was a planned podcast series which ended after only four episodes.
    P-Y 
  • Pants-Free: In episode 110 of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth, it is revealed that was the first time Tear has ever worn pants while recording a video.
  • The Paranoiac: About the white phantoms in the Souls games. It didn't help that the enhanced edition of Dark Souls 2 actually added in real enemy phantoms, which made Tear even more paranoid, but this time he actually had a reason to be.
  • Parody Commercial:
  • Perfectly Cromulent Word: "Hapdashery", mentioned while failing to kill the Lost Sinner in Dark Souls 2 with a ladle:
    Tear: We will pray I can actually poison you until the pyromancers turn up and pretty much negate all of my effort into a big bundle of joy, fun and hapdashery...don't know what that is.
  • Person as Verb:
  • Pie in the Face: One of the clips that he used after making a bad joke included Caddicarus taking a pie in the face.
  • Piss-Take Rap: Hurricane of Puns style, during a game of Overwatch:
    You know, if that annoying little God damn Junk guy had life steal, he'd be called Junk Bat.
    And if Mercy managed to revive him eight times, he'd be called Junk Cat.
    And if he decided to become a gamer and start playing Fallout, he'd be called Junk Vats.
    And if he's gonna decorate his front door with a little bit of a greeting, he'd have a Junk mat.
  • Play the Game, Skip the Story: In-Universe. As seen in his Skyrim and Dying Light playthroughs, Tear isn't really fond of having to stand around and listen to what the characters have to say, he just wants to progress and enjoy the gameplay.
  • Precision F-Strike:
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Tear seems to make just as many pre-mortem jokes as he has does post-mortem ones:
    • Before killing the slime boss in Titan Souls:
      Tear: When you arrive in hell, tell Satan Jello!
    • Before defeating Gravelord Nito in Dark Souls:
      Tear: The light is green, the traffic's gone and now you're fucking dead!
    • Almost every single time he has faced It Lives in The Binding of Isaac, his pre-mortem (as well as post-mortem) line for it has been: "It Lives, now it dies!".
  • Prepare to Die:
  • Previously on…: Bloodborne: The Old Hunters and Middle Earth: Shadow of War.
  • Product Placement: Parodied in the form of a Running Gag where Tear makes a joke about a real life product and then cuts to an image of a TV with Tear saying that he isn't affiliated with the product, "at least not yeeet."
  • Pungeon Master: He has the tendency to crack puns at every possible opportunity, sometimes one after the other.
  • Pyrrhic Victory: His first attempt at Super Expert mode in Super Mario Maker. Tear manages to get all the way to the fourth level (out of six), wastes almost half of his hearts trying to complete it and ultimately gets so annoyed that he throws his controller on the ground. After a Heroic RRoD and 3 lives wasted by not pausing the game, he gets back into it and completes the level with 3 lives to spare, which he loses on the next level and ultimately fails to complete Super Expert mode.
  • Quip to Black: Tear used to use this technique at the end of every videos, only with a pun instead of a witty one-liner. In the past, he would simply cut to black and then give a short, funny monologue or rant. Afterwards, he started cutting directly to the outtakes part.
  • Rage Quit:
    • In the first Dark Souls game after he failed to defeat Manus, Father of the Abyss.
    • Happened quite frequently in The Binding of Isaac, after he fails to defeat a specific boss with a Glass Cannon character like the Lost or the Keeper.
    • More recently, after failing to defeat the Orphan of Kos in Bloodborne: The Old Hunters, when he even managed to break his controller.
  • Rapid-Fire "No!":
    • The Super Mario Bros theme songs that Tear sung while rushing through the Anor Londo ledge area in Dark Souls was composed entirely of No-es and Nope-s.
    • In the first episode of Slime Rancher, after discovering that the slimes that he was farming were starting to turn into black tarr monsters.
    • In Dark Souls 3, while fighting the Crystal Sage in his torch-only challenge run, Tear once again starts singing the Super Mario Bros theme songs of No-es.
  • Redheads Are Uncool: In the fourth episode of Middle Earth: Shadow of War, while Tear was defending the courtyard of Minas Ithil, he was confronted by the assault leader, an orc named Pâsh the Assassin who gave quite a lengthy speech about how he cannot be defeated. Tear's response?
    Tear: I'm not about to die to a ginger.
  • Reference Overdosed: A major part of his commentary revolves around making various pop-culture references.
  • Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?: In episode 88 of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth, Tear discovers an item called Tech X and remarks that he remembers created something a while ago. In episode 83 he did in fact create the same item effect with Technology and Ludovico Technique, except it was green instead of red.
  • Reverse Psychology: Tear regularly used to do this as a gag by suggesting various names and things that people should not google, at least one per video. (At times it has also been straight up Schmuck Bait).
  • Rhymes on a Dime/With Lyrics: He often starts singing out of the blue, usually just reciting popular songs when he has nothing else creatively to say and sometimes making up his own lyrics when he starts getting frustrated with a game:
    • In the fifth episode of Super Mario Maker:
      Don't kill me...thank you Bow
      Why did the fire go-o out
      And I'm wondering what the fuck I did different that time
      Don't really care but that did rhyme
    • In the ninth episode of Middle Earth: Shadow of War:
      Uruks and Caragors and big ol' great bastards
      Spear throwers, dickheads and great big ol' gobshits
      These are a few of my favorite things
      Gotta love all of the pain that they bringz!
  • Rhyming with Itself:
  • Right-Hand Cat: Tear owns multiple cats which sometimes climb onto him while he's recording (on rare occasions, he has also complained about them sinking their claws into him in the middle of his commentaries).
  • Running Gag:
    • "Doing a bit" which involves zooming in on his stationary character and having a long, drawn out monologue about a topic relevant to the game he is playing. Tear never pauses the game when doing this, and it sometimes results in his monologue being interrupted by an in-game event such as an enemy attacking him.
    • Bane has sort of became this after finally getting defeated in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. Any Uruk captain that started following Tear around after that was jokingly referred to as Bane's reincarnation. The Haunt in The Binding of Isaac has also been called a Bane reincarnation due to the sheer frequency of his appearances.
    • Tear occasionally mentions that somebody named Barry is responsible for editing his videos, even thought at the time he said that he edited his videos himself. The name is likely a reference to Barry Kramer, the editor of Game Grumps.
    • Pretending not to know who Jacksepticeye is, usually in the comments section and very rarely in the videos themselves.
    • Every time he used to make a particularly bad or uninspired joke, he would make a transition effect titled "Bad Joke" and then show a clip of Caddicarus or JonTron.
    • Tear used to frequently mention names of porn actresses in his video as well as various things he considered disgusting (E.g:: goatsee, pain olympics) and told people not to google them.
    • Making a Double Entendre, such as "I was convinced you were going to diddle me, thankfully I was the one doing the diddling" and "stop jumping away from me when I'm about to make you bleed" and then saying that if he's ever going to have any problems with the law, these jokes would definitely get him arrested or locked up.
    • Making a really bad joke or pun and then lamenting his comedic skills and wondering why people still watch him or why he hasn't been taken down yet.
    • Playing a sped-up, looped version of the "Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop" song by Scatman John every time a video game character starts spazzing out (which started with the infamously buggy Sonic The Hedge Hog 2006 but which seems to have spread to more and more titles that he has played since then).
    • Transitioning to a scene where Tear, his character or any other element of a game is floating through space, usually accompanied by distorted music, at the end of his videos.
  • Sad Battle Music:
    • Tear's fight with Knight Artorias in Dark Souls. Usually, he would use some Hard Rock or Heavy Metal tracks while fighting bosses, but with Artorias constantly killing him, the music he used set the tone for a very depressing battle, along with a black and white filter to hammer in the sadness. He still eventually won though.
    • Later on in the same game, he employs the same musical and visual effects while repeatedly being killed by the Bed of Chaos. After a lot of raging and complaining about how broken the boss design was, he eventually managed to kill it as well.
    • The fight with Oscar of Astoria in the same game is set to Moonlight Sonata with Tear lamenting the fact that he had to kill him, but said he was not the real Oscar anymore.
  • Sadist Show: Tear's channel description reads: "If I could describe my "Job" and what I do in two words, I think it'd be: Gaming Masochism. I do my best to provide entertaining content, typically at my own expense, so if you enjoy the suffering of others, look no further."
    • His old Dark Souls 2 NG+3 deprived boss runs and NG+10 broken ladle and bare fist challenge runs, which were also his most popular series at the time, were all about watching him die over and over again and seeing him become more and more frustrated with the game. The successor to this series, his Dark Souls 3 torch-only runs, also feature copious amounts of sadism.
    • His The Binding of Isaac series where he tries to complete every challenge in the game, including beating every boss with the Lost and the Keeper.
    • His Super Mario Maker series, which had Tear playing some of the hardest user-created levels out there and failing over and over again.
    • His Monster Hunter World challenge runs where faces some of the hardest bosses in the game while not wearing any armor and without using his Palico companion.
  • Sanity Slippage: Multiple times when failing to make progress with the Lost or the Keeper in The Binding of Isaac as well as repeatedly dying to bosses in Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 3.
  • Scenery Porn: He often gushed at the landscapes in games such as Bloodborne and The Witcher 3.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In episode 19 of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, after Prâk Jaws hunted him down for the fourteenth time, Tear just decided to book it and ran away from the fight.
  • Sedgwick Speech:
    • During his fight with the Throne Watcher and Defender in his Dark Souls 2 NG+10 broken ladle challenge run:
      Tear: Oh I'm dead, aren't I? Oh I'm dead. No I'm not. [dies]
    • During his first attempt at killing Black Dragon Kalameet in the original Dark Souls:
      Tear: No no no. I'm dead. I'm literally...Okay, still alive? Not sure ho... [dies]
    • While fighting the Old Dragonslayer in Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin:
      Tear: Oh shit! I lived! I died...
  • Self-Deprecation: In almost every single video and almost always aimed at his intelligence, comedy or play style:
    • In the final episode of Agar.io:
      Tear: My comedy has gone so far downhill, it has gone down south to the Central park of Comedy.
    • While trying to find a secret in Dark Souls:
      Tear: Let there be light...ok you see if I were a smart man, I would have done this before...we all know I'm not a smart man.
    • After leveling up off-screen in Rogue Legacy:
      Tear: Now every time I kill somebody I get like 10 health and 10 mana...although that has something to do with me being a Lich...I'll explain it all when I die, which won't take long.
    • In the fourth episode of Dark Souls 3, after tear stumbled across a dead mushroom person in the Crucifixion Woods.
    • After glitching and darting away from the Shop Ship merchant in his first episode of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD:
      Tear: The disappointed look on his face as I left, ha ha ha, that's fucking awful. That is the face of true loneliness, trust me I know, I have mirrors...
    • In episode 154 of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth Plus, after confusing the square-shaped tear pattern of his character with a circle:
      Tear: It's not a circle, that's my ignorance of shapes, you see I never made it out of school, you see me being a YouTube boy, it's making the God damn clickbait and the hibbidy hibbidy God damn pun jokes. I don't know what math is, you know it's a miracle I pay my bills, I just throw into my credit card system and hopefully the direct debit gets paid and then the lights stay on...the joke is that I'm stupid, clearly for thinking that fucking long winded bullshit would get a laugh at the end!
  • Self-Disposing Villain:
    • One of the giant skeletons that he encountered in the Tomb of the Giants in Dark Souls. While trying to evade Tear, it accidentally leaped to its death.
    • Later on in the same area, Tear ran away from yet another giant skeleton only to find himself with an extra thousand souls, which meant that the enemy had just accidentally killed itself.
    • In Dark Souls 3, while going through the Catacombs of Carthus, Tear stumbled upon yet another skeleton that rolls to its death.
    • In episode 117 of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth, Tear came across a Roundy that couldn't hurt him (because he was immune to its explosive attack) and which later accidentally helped him find two very useful items and then eventually managed to kill itself.
    • In his playthrough of Amy's campaign of Sonic Adventure after using an elevator to escape Zero, the E-series robot in a futile attempt to catch Tear ended up falling down the elevator shaft much to Tear's equal befuddlement and amusement.
  • Self-Imposed Challenge: Tear's first truly successful series is the one where he tries to beat NG+10 bosses with a broken ladle and later on with bare fists. Years later, he tries to beat Dark Souls 3 bosses while wielding nothing more than a torch.
  • Sensory Abuse: Tear's Isaac runs occasionally generate synergies so broken the game's display gets either epilepsy-inducing or simply eye-searingly bright, which are usually punctuated by brief song snippets. One notable (and prolonged) case was when he grabbed Ludovico Technique at exactly the wrong time, and the entire screen got flooded with horribly bright and bouncy lights and scythes, completely eclipsing everything onscreen.
    Tear: Oh, Ludovico!
    [cue pandemonium, complete with Misirlou]
    Tear: ...what the fuck have I done.
  • Shotguns Are Just Better: Tear seems to prefer the shotguns in most of the shooters that he plays, which includes Destiny, Fallout 4 and Rainbow Six Siege.
  • Shout-Out: Has its own separate page.
  • Signature Laugh: His distinctive, Muttley-like laugh.
  • Signature Style: Lots of talking and monologuing, tons of puns and bad jokes, a lot of creative British swearwords sprinkled with a few pop culture references and a very distinct editing style.
  • Sniper Duel: Tended to happen quite often in his Grand Theft Auto V: Online series.
  • So Unfunny, It's Funny: The sheer volume of bad jokes per video actually makes them funny. Tear even referenced this once while playing through Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin:
    Tear: If you don't love me for my bad jokes by now, you sure as shit likely hate me!
  • Special Guest:
  • Spiders Are Scary: Tear says that spiders in real life don't really scare him, but the ones in video games creep him out.
  • Spoonerism:
  • The Stinger: The very first time Tear did a post-credits scene (the credits being part where he advertised other smaller YouTubers), it was intended to be a very short post-gameplay joke of him monologuing over a black screen. Steadily, he turned this idea into a regular part of his videos, and it went on for a few months until he got bored of it and found it nonsensical. He eventually replaced those parts with what he called "outtakes", short clips which he didn't know how to fit into the main part of his videos, and in March 2017 he gave up on those outtakes as well.
  • Stock British Phrases: Are part of Tear's regular commentary, being British and all, and he starts focusing on them even more once he becomes annoyed with the games that he is playing.
  • Stock Sound Effects: Tear's editing style revolves around these combined with visual puns and various other special effects that he mixes and matches in every episode. The most frequently used sounds include:
    • The Goofy scream sound effect when he or one of his enemies falls from a great height.
    • The Here Comes The Money track by Naughty By Nature when finding money or valuable resources.
    • Fryderyk Chopin's Funeral March when dying.
    • The The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time chest opening sound when finding or picking up a good item.
    • Roger Daltrey's scream from Won't Get Fooled Again after defeating a boss or online opponent.
    • The Psycho shower scene stabbing sound when he murder someone (usually via stabbing).
    • Demonic laughter whenever he gets a bad pill in The Binding of Isaac.
    • A slightly altered Wilhelm Scream when his character dies in The Binding Of Isaac.
    • The Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop song by Scatman John whenever he sees a video game character model spazzing out.
    • The infamous metal scream from The Sacrament (from Highlander: The Search for Vengeance) when there's a lot of power on display in one shot (usually a Game-Breaker synergy in Isaac)
    • A snippet from Night at Bald Mountain when something horrible happens.
    • A snippet from the Mako Reactor theme when it's time to despair.
  • Stuff Blowing Up:
    • Most episodes of Grand theft Auto V: Online usually devolve into this.
    • The first part of the sixth episode of Dying Light is filled with exploding hazmat suit zombies.
  • Subliminal Seduction: In episode 91 of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth, after picking up Black Powder and drawing a pentagram on the ground, Tear edits in a sequence intended to sound very demonic. When played backwards, it's actually him saying "double cheese burger with fries and a big Mac".
  • Suddenly Speaking: Prâk "Bane" Jaws, Tear's most memorable Arch-Enemy from Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, who previously only grunted, giggled and screamed, suddenly gained the ability to speak (and lost his mask as well) during the Lord of Mordor story mission.
  • Suicide as Comedy: Tomato Gaming's suicide at the end of his Sims 4 video.
  • Surprisingly Sudden Death: In his Dark Souls playthrough, while running through the Blighttown swamp and complaining about how the area annoyed him. He didn't even get to finish his sentence that an Infested Barbarian with a boulder knocked him down and quickly after that another one killed him.
  • Surreal Humor: Many of his videos end with surreal gags (E.g: floating around in space in a ball while monologuing in an incredibly deep voice).
  • Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: In the episode 75 of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while going up against Lamlug Swordsmith and executing one of his allies, Tear mentions that:
    Tear: In a game of Rock–Paper–Scissors, I like to think that sword beats spear!
  • Take That!: He likes to randomly take jabs at things, sometimes comparing their quality with the quality of his comedy:
    • In the third episode of Agar.io:
      Tear: My comedy has gone so far downhill, it has gone down south to the Central park of Comedy.
    • While playing Tony Hawk: Pro Skater 5, Tear encounters a lot of issues with it and says that he gets that it's just a skating game and that he has played Tony Hawk games before, "the good ones, the ones they put effort into, the ones that weren't just made in order to keep their licensing agreements".
  • Tantrum Throwing: Quite a regular occurrence when taking into account the games he plays:
    • Happened very often during his Dark Souls 2 NG+3 deprived boss runs and NG+10 broken ladle and bare handed challenge runs (and later, his Dark Souls 3 torch-only runs). Almost every single time he would die, the sound of the controller being thrown around would be heard in the background.
    • Happened very often in his Super Mario Maker playthrough as well. In fact, in the very last episode, he threw his controller so hard that he broke it and had to order a new one.
    • After coming back to Bloodborne: The Old Hunters to face the Orphan of Kos after a year and half long break, Tear gets so frustrated that he puts on a facecam (in the middle of the video) and after many failed attempts at killing the boss, breaks his PS4 controller on-camera.
  • Team Killer: In pretty much every single game that features friendly fire, from singleplayer ones like Dead Rising to multiplayer games like The Division.
    • Tear's old Halo Reach, Halo 4 and Minecraft trolling series revolved around him finding more and more creative ways to kill his teammates.
  • Tempting Fate: Happens so frequently that he even made a relevant comment about it. In Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin, Tear mocked a Drakekeeper for trying to follow him inside a building and being too big to fit through the door. He didn't even get to end his sentence that two smaller Dragon Knights barged through the door and ganked him. Later on in the same video, Tear mocked two Giants and was barely able to finish his sentence before one of them absolutely destroyed him in two hits. Tear then remarked:
    Tear: I feel like when I say things like that, I'm just asking for some wonderful fucking involvement of the heavens to just prove me wrong. It's like some glorious divine intervention...to fuck me over.
    • Early on in Shadow of Mordor, Tear makes the mistake of saying "Maybe we'll actually find some Uruks of worth around here." His very next fight is his first clash with Prâk "Bane" Jaws, described above under Arch-Enemy and The Dreaded.
  • That Came Out Wrong: Referenced while imitating the voice of Abe in Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty:
    Tear: "Something new 'n' tasy, coming soon? Oh, I hope it's not meee!" I kind of slipped into the gay guy from Family Guy towards the end, didn't I? I just slipped into him, I just said? That's not at all what I meant.
  • Third Time's The Charm: Averted in his first Dark Souls video where he tries to parry an undead three times, only to fail each time and resort to spamming him with his sword attacks.
  • This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!:
    • The title of his last Surgeon Simulator video, "SEPTIC EYE TRANSPLANT 2015 BITCHES".
    • In the eleventh episode of The Witcher 3, after killing a bandit on horseback:
      Tear: And that's why you don't mess with a Witcher, bitch!
  • This Is Gonna Suck: He's had enough bad experiences to see horrible moments coming a mile away, and he will make it known:
  • 'Tis Only a Bullet in the Brain: In Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Tear contemplates why he cannot just murder a guard to get a key. He then tries to kill the guard with a throwing knife to the head, twice. The second time, the knife remains embedded in his ear with the tip coming out the other ear, with the guard acting like nothing happened, causing Tear to get into an incontrolable fit of laughter.
  • Title Drop: He does this in episode 19 of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and episode six of Sonic Unleashed.
  • Tonight, Someone Dies: Tear admitted to wanting to kill Crossbreed Priscila from the very beginning of episode 13 of his Dark Souls playthrough, knowing full well that his fans were going to hate him for it.
  • Too Awesome to Use:
    • The Arc Blade super ability of his Bladedancer character in Destiny. Tear even commented on this once, after his teammates had killed the last enemies:
      Tear: Where did it go? You killed him without me? I wanted to knife him, I saved my special to just fucking end up not using it, brilliant, like every other freaking mission.
    • The general sniper rifles in Destiny. After discovering that it can two-shot a Fallen Captain, Tear realized that he should stop neglecting it.
  • Too Dumb to Live/Violation of Common Sense:
    • Trying to avoid a greatarrow flying towards him in Dark Souls by rolling away from it rather than towards it. note 
    • Attempting to riposte note  the giant sewer boar in Bloodborne while it was charging towards Tear...needles to say, he couldn't and he got instantly killed.
    • Trying to parry a flying Iudex Gundyr in Dark Souls 3.
  • Too Powerful to Live: The Graug in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. After using it to kill 6 captains in a row with minimal effort in episode 13, Tear realized that he had become too powerful and killed the Graug, regretfully stating that:
    Tear: I am sorry...but there's certain centers of power that just aren't allowed to live. Graugs possessed by an immortal being might just be one of them.
  • Troll:
    • Tear's initial Halo Reach and Halo 4 series were all about trolling his own teammates.
    • His multiple Minecraft series were also all about trolling the other people in the session, who voluntarily submitted themselves to this.
  • Underdogs Never Lose: Ogbur the Warlock, one of the Uruk captains that Tear dominated in Middle Earth: Shadow of War, simply refused to die, despite Tear rigging everything against him and pitting him against an adversary who was three levels higher. Through his victories, he won Tear over and he was allowed to continue living peacefully on the map.
  • Unfortunate Names: "Râsh of the Black Gate", an Uruk captain from Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. Tear thought that his name sounded more like a skin condition than a captain, and it was like being called "Boil of Mount Doom".

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