Web Animation / DiabLoL

"I'm being repressed!"

(Honk-Honk!)

You know that classic Action RPG franchise, Diablo? The one where you battle to protect your mortal realm of Sanctuary from the evils of the Burning Hells? The one with the game where you repeteadly slay the Prime Evils just to have a tiny pebble to put into your fancy hat? The one with the game where you walk back and forth to duplicate elixirs?

Take those games, chibi-fy it a bunch, tweak the personalities of the character classes, imagine them being a caricture of some gamer style, add a healthy dose of Hilarity Ensues and toss that all into the Horadric Cube and you have a basic idea of what these animations are all about.

Produced by Carbot Animations, the DiabLoL series is an animated web series available through YouTube, released on a roughly bi-weekly basis on Saturdays, each short (typically a minute or two) chronicles the perils that the heroes of the two (so far) games go through, from the Cycle of Hurting inflicted by The Butcher to the annoyances of a level 1 Stamina Meter, all while refusing to stay a while and listen to the lore.

For other web series' developed by Carbot Animations, head over to WowCraft, HeroStorm, or StarCrafts. There's also a fledgeling series based on Overwatch titled Underwatch.

So far, the first DiabLoL and DiabLoL II are finished, although the latter is planned to continue with additional episodes and there are a few extra episodes based on Diablo III, Reaper of Souls, and Rise of the Necromancer. However, his Diablo IV videos are not counted amongst this particular series.

DiabLoL includes examples of these tropes:

• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Tyrael comforts PallyPal in "Baal Runz 101" when the latter starts weeping after suffering a lag freeze at the worst possible moment.
• Affectionate Parody: These animations are certainly meant to be a love letter to the days you've spent in any of the games.
• Anti-Villain: As part of the Affectionate Parody, the forces of the Burning Hells would rather just mind their own business, as seen in the encounter with Diablo in 1, who was just... dancing disco with his fellow demons. It's just that the heroes are too loot-crazy to barge into their peaceful lives that they reacted badly and causing harm. This is more blatantly shown in 2
• Artificial Stupidity:
  • The golems summoned by Jazreth in the first DiabLoL never did anything helpful, just wandering around the current floor, opening doors for monsters and tapping away on their phone. The Butcher also had a case of this as Jazreth was able to safely wittle him down with Firewalls.
  • The Rogues of DiabLoL II apparently don't fair much better, with the Druid's freebie Rogue tripping and drowning in the river not even a few steps after leaving the Rogue Encampment. "So it begins..."
• Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: "There and Back Again" in DiabLoL II has this happen to the party as they chase Fallen Carvers in the Stony Field, only to be chased by the infamous Rakinishu and his Charged Bolts.
• Big "NO!":
  • The Paladin lets these out several times, first when he realizes he's Zeal-locked by Fangskin and when Duriel grabs him.
  • The final episode Stinger had Tyrael do this after destroying The Worldstone because it unleashed Diablo Immortal (which was actually accurate timeline-wise, as the game was supposed to be a Midquel bridging Diablo II and Diablo III). Carbot had to put up a 'Just Kidding' disclaimer to assure that no, he's not gonna do DiabLol Immortal.
• Bound and Gagged:
  • During LOD Opening Cinematic, to show that Nihlathak is a bad guy, a short scene shows him tying Anya up on a chair, gagging her (classic mustached bad guy style) and then shanking her to a portal. Though by the time the heroes find her in Good Anya, she's no longer tied up and already frozen like in the game proper.
  • Diablo himself got the treatment when Diablo Immor(t)al hijacks his place and delivered an utter Curb-Stomp Battle to the heroes.
• Brick Joke: Tyrael accidentally unleashed Diablo Immortal, and yet Carbot ended the short with 'Just Kidding', so it was dismissed as a funny, harmless joke. But that's more like Carbot won't be making a series of animation series of that game. Turning the whole game into an in-universe character as the embodiment of ruination of the franchise, considering the state of Blizzard Entertainment and have it appear in person several episodes later? That's on the menu. Nobody expected that the throwaway joke item that was won by gambling and couldn't be refunded back in Short on Staff would play a big part in ending the series... hypothetically^note The episode was not numbered, therefore it counted as a what-if episode.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Prince Aidan in DiabLoL never gets a break due to his class, getting stunlocked by the Butcher, turned into a pincushion from arrows, getting one-shot by the Skeleton King, swarmed by Dark Ones when retrieving the tavern sign, beaten up by Horned Demons and then dying to friendly fire when Moreina tried to save him, gets kited away from Tristram by one of Lazurus' Succubi and dies four times in "HELLo Diablo" by being fireballed from all directions, fireballed again after being revived, dying to friendly fire from Jazreth's Charged Bolts, and then detonated by Diablo's Apocalypse spell. Moreina and Jazreth didn't die as much as poor Aidan did though they would make up for that with their corruption and eventual defeat in DiabLoL II. Even after Aidan became Dark Wanderer, his reason of the horrific act at the beginning turned out to be because he was bullied in the bar like a school nerd, and cried on the outside first.
  • In DiabLoL II, Xul seems to be shaping up to this due to his Squishy Wizard status, even compared to Isendra. The Druid, meanwhile, also seems to have bad luck, possibly due to his Master of None status.
  • Rule of thumb seems to be that the harder to use classes (Paladin, Druid, etc.) will often get the short end of the stick while popular classes (Sorceress, Amazon, etc.) are usually the ones doing everything.
• Censor Box: Whenever Andariel is present, her naughty bits will always be censored.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Diablo Immortal proved its dreaded status by wiping the floor clean with the heroes and their money, something that not even the Uber Prime Evils could accomplish.
• Cycle of Hurting:
  • Poor Aidan when he fights the Butcher gets hit-locked to death.
  • This happens to the Paladin in DiabLoL II when he attempts to fight Fangskin with Zeal but gets Zeal-locked and melted by the released Charged Bolts.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • "Heart Attack" is notable in that the only player on-screen is the Druid by himself, a class that is considered a Master of None.
  • "NecroCancer" features, well, the Necromancer as the sole character. Fitting as the quest in the episode involves confronting Nihlathak who has necromantic abilities of his own.
  • The Paladin winds up being the one to defeat the Diablo clone in "Diablo Annihilation" thanks to how broken Smite is.
• Discount Card: The Barbarian utilizes both the "Edge" Runeword bow and grand charms to get a discount while gambling for rings and amulets from Gheed.
• Dodge the Bullet: Cassia utilizes Avoid in "Epic Flail" when the Hydras bombard her with fire and gets a lucky Dodge in the next episode when a Stygian Doll explodes, shredding Isendra and sticking a bone shard in the Paladin's eye. This comes back to bite her in "Where's Izzy" when she Dodges Izual's attack in the middle of a Strafe volley, resulting in a Strafe-lock and an easy kill for said boss.
• Doppelgänger Attack: Used by Baal in "Baal Runz 101" when another eight-player looting party shows up, leaving behind a blatantly fake copy while hiding in the bathroom. It didn't help Baal in the end.
• The Dreaded: What's the most dreaded thing in the Carbot-verse Diablo games? Is it the Prime Evils? Nope. Perhaps those sadistic murder-hobos calling themselves 'heroes'? Nope. It's... Diablo Immortal. Even Tyrael is genuinely scared of it. It also curb stomps the heroes with ease.
• Early Game Hell: Starting out at Level 1 with very limited Mana Meters and Stamina Meters is rather annoying as seen in "New Char".
• Enough to Go Around: As per the second game, key items are parodied here like the Horadric Cube cloning itself, the chest in the Arachnid Lair containing multiple Khalim's Eyes and a bowl of Mephisto's Soulstones with a note saying "Please take one - Mephy"
• Eye Scream: The Paladin gets a bone shard in his eye in "Haters Gonna Hate" when he causes one of the infamous Stygian Dolls to explode.
• Eye Take: Moreina and Jazreth (not sure with Aidan) share one when the anonymous Warrior casually shoves the Soulstone into their forehead through the helmet.
• Face Palm: When the Rogue accidentally shot the Warrior dead, she slaps her face with her palm.
• Failed Attempt at Drama: In the Chaos Sanctuary, the Paladin is taken out by Finger Mages. The Amazon lunges with her spear and deliver a loud "NOW YOU DIE!!" battle cry. Next scene shift to her slowly trying to impale a Finger Mage and only succeed in wrecking her weapon into pieces, leaving the monster unharmed.
• Funny Background Event: While the paladin is trying to figure out how he'll fit his new charm into his backpack, the rest of his party is getting beaten to death in the background.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: Blood Raven in DiabLoL II keeps running away from everyone, reviving the Hungry Dead that the heroes kill and riddling the Druid with Annoying Arrows, even as she's being chased by him as a werebear. Only when one of his ravens catches up to her does she get pecked to Death by a Thousand Cuts with a helping of implied Eye Scream.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: In "Altered Plans", Isendra gets the bright idea to hire a Desert Mercenary to fight Fangskin and feed him potions from a safe distance. It doesn't quite work due to the low damage output and the whole screen winds up being flooded with Charged Bolts to the point even the video slows down.
• Groin Attack: The Assassin delivers a flurry of Dragon Talon kicks this way to a Hungry Dead in "Going Rogue", continuing even after he goes down.
• Gross-Up Close-Up: After Diablo is killed the first time, we're treated to a "lovely" view of Albrecht's bloodied face as the item duping Warrior takes the Soulstone.
• Hate Sink: Diablo Immoral, as the personification of why fans are furious at Blizzard Entertainment and the seedier practices of money-sinking mobile games like Diablo Immortal (and the start of the downward spiral of Blizzard since 2018). It proceeds to bring an end to the series by defeating the heroes and turning them into tons of money. There's no humor to be found. There is no salvation. There's only pain and frustration. "The sanctity of this place has been fouled" is played for dead seriousness.
• In a Single Bound: Perhaps parodied by the Barbarian in the DiabLoL II teaser trailer when a Player Killer was coming for the party, in which he performs a Leap Attack all the way into Mt. Arreat in the background. This would continue into the series proper with him Leap Attacking to skip large parts of areas such as the Maggot Lair, Arcane Sanctuary, and the River of Flame leading up to the Chaos Sanctuary. The Barbarian leaping for almost everything is also one of the Running Gag across the show.
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: The Horned Demons in "Cave Man", who are unable to cross a tiny stream of lava to reach the heroes, followed by Aidan locking them behind a literal waist-height fence.
• Jerk Jock:
  • Fangskin and the Claw Vipers are depicted as obnoxious body builders, unplugging the power cord to Lut Gholein and darkening the sun before effortlessly slaughtering the three heroes that try to stop them.
  • The Infector of Souls and his flunkies in the Chaos Sanctuary are seen playing basket ball before proceeding to toss the ball to Xul, then dogpiling on him and the Assassin.
• Jump Scare: Delivered by the one and only Butcher in "The Meating Room", followed by an accurate representation of what we all did when we first encountered him.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Face it, you've had this reaction whenever a Level 98 with their triple auras suddenly joins your game like in "Free plz", though it's less for the person themselves and more for the potential Uniques and Runes they might drop. The Druid even squeals with joy as a maul gets dropped.
• Last Chance Hit Point: Parodied several times by the Druid's tranformation skills reverting him upon taking fatal damage only to be finished off right after.
  • Being Bashed around by Fangskin's flunkies before being finished off in "Altered Plans".
  • Literally ripped out of his werewolf form by the Tranvincal's Water Watchers before Hydras pummel him in "Epic Flail".
  • Having the head of his werewolf form smashed off by a Level 99's Blessed Hammer only to die to a Quill Rat in "Legit Dueling".
  • Crawling out of his werebear form to escape Pandemonium Diablo but die from the Fire Nova in "Uber Tristram".
• Last Ditch Move: Those dumb little Stygian Dolls in the Durance of Hate.
• Loading Screen: Yes, even the memorable opening gate and Dark Wanderer loading screen is used for a gag when PallyPal gets hung up joining servers in "Baal Runz 101".
• Loot Drama: In-Universe; this starts in DiabLoL II when a level 99 Paladin fresh off the Ladder joins the server in "Free Plz" to start dropping random items that everyone else dogpiles over, no matter how worthless.
• Low-Speed Chase: The slow walking speed of the first Diablo is parodied with Aidan screaming his head off while the Butcher chases him at a casual stroll in "The Meating Room", followed by Jazreth and Moreina being chased by King Leoric at a brisk power walk in "A Bone to Pick". Again in "The Archbishop" when Aidan is chasing down a Succubus.
• Mana Burn: Represented by Uber Baal in "Uber Tristram" but instead of the gout of flame, he simply takes the remote control Xul was using to curse enemies and knocks the batteries out.
• Mundane Utility: Behold, the mysterious cosmic object, The Cube, able to turn three gems into a somewhat better quality gem. Just like in the game.
• More Dakka: A tripod mounted minigun in "Radamentary", used to represent the ridiculous power of the Assassin's Wake of Fire sentry.
• Naked People Are Funny:
  • Characters being nude is used to represent their lack of equipment after respawning. Albrecht after Diablo's death, however...
  • Also used in the "LoD Opening Cinematic" when a Barbarian is depicted respeccing at Akara and thus stripped of his epic endgame armor without the stats to wear it.
• Ninja Looting:
  • The Assassin's Running Gag in DiabLoL II so far thanks to her Burst of Speed skill, much to Cassia's anger who eventually declares PvP against her. Apparently losing an ear didn't mean much as the Assassin was still doing it a couple episodes later. Not like Cassia's any better since she pulled this on the Paladin in the previous episode.
  • Even without the Assassin running around, Xul gets one on poor Cassia by turning a pair of rare boots into an Iron Golem.
  • The Barbarian finally gets one on the Assassin after Baal's death, swiping what appears to be Tyrael's Might due to her being overburdened.
• No Ontological Inertia: Averted in the first DiabLoL, as Archbishop Lazarus learns when Jazreth's Guardian kills him even after killing their summoner^note Call-Forward not intended.
  • This gets turned around in DiabLoL II when The Summoner throws a molotov before killing himself by tripping down a set of stairs, the molotov still lands and kills the Assassin.
• Offhand Backhand: Twice by King Leoric in "A Bone to Pick", who decapitates Aidan without breaking his stride chasing after Moreina and Jazreth.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • A group reaction, followed by a Screw This, I'm Out of Here! by the seven heroes standing around the fire in the DiabLoL II teaser trailer when a Player Killer declares PvP against them.
  • Corpsefire gets one when a stray Fire Bolt springs a leak in his oxygen tank in "New Char".
  • Baal has this reaction as a looting party shows up in the Worldstone Chamber.
  • Cassia when she realizes she's been Strafe-locked in "Where's Izzy" before the Fallen Angel kills her.
• Pet the Dog: Although most of the time the monsters are hostile to the heroes, they sometimes help out as well.
  • In "Tomb Raiders", Isendra asks a Crusher beast for directions to the true Tomb of Tal Rasha. She even thanks him for his help and moves on... Only for the Barb to start Bashing him about.
  • Lilith in "Key Targets" appears as if she's going to fight but upon seeing the bag, smiles and gives them Mephisto's Brain with no fuss.
• Pooled Funds: This happens to the Druid in "There and Back Again" when he opens a chest that happens to contain an absurd amount of loot and he winds up drowning in the pile of gold.
• Rage Breaking Point: Cassia loses it after the Assassin kept snagging the drops in "Going Rogue", portaling back to town to declare PvP against her. She simmers back down to mild annoyance when the Assassin does it again in "Tristrun".
• The Reliable One: The Sorceress is often the character that comes through with solutions, without seemingly being more powerful or important than the others. Using a mercenary against the vipers, killing Andariel and Mephisto, bringing the characters to Travincal, enchanting vs. Duriel, among others. And ultimately, she's the one who killed Diablo with Static Field. And when things do get too difficult, her player will switch characters and start playing the uber-decked out build, that happens to look like Loki. The Amazon occasionally as well.
• Running Gag: There's a lot.
  • The helmeted Warrior item duping in the background throughout the first DiabLoL.
  • The Barbarian Bashing enemies around, using Leap Attack to traverse through obstacles, and using Find Potion and Find Item on various corpses.
  • The Assassin Ninja Looting with her Burst of Speed skill.
  • The Druid's freebie Rogue hireling who drowned in the river outside of the Rogue Encampment keeps showing up later in any rivers (of water, of course).
• Schizo Tech: Done for the sake of parody, apparently Sanctuary has the graces of electricity, plumbing, telephones, smart phones, gasoline, etc.
• Screaming Warrior: The Barbarian, natch. Other characters also have battle cries of their own in several instances, the Paladin in particular screaming his head off once he's driven to use Smite.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Both Pandemonium Diablo and Uber Baal have this reaction once the Paladin breaks his sword and starts using Smite against them, they even give him the Hell Torch so they can get away.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Worldstone is actually the prison for Diablo Immoral. And Tyrael set it free. Oopsie.^note In the actual game, Baal corrupted it so Tyrael had to destroy it. But in this series, Baal most likely doesn't have malicious intent with the Worldstone, he's just there as the obligatory final boss. Thus Tyrael destroyed the Worldstone for nothing and triggered a massive accident.
• Searching the Stalls: Baal tries to hide in the restroom of the Worldstone Chamber in "Baal Runz 101" while the eight players tap their weapons against the stall doors and spam their "Die!" vocalizations. Then the door to his stall opens...
• Shield Bash: The Paladin utilizes Smite to beat the ever loving Hell difficulty out of the Diablo clone in "Diablo Annihilation" and again in "Uber Tristram".
• Shout-Out:
  • Elzix (The gambler NPC in Act 2) is replaced by the Merchant from Resident Evil 4, complete with his signature "What're you buoyin'?"
  • The cow talkshow host from "There is no Cow Level" is labelled/named Cowman, and then The Barbarian pounced on him.
• Skippable Boss:
  • Treehead Woodfist in "There and Back Again". Extra Strong, Extra Fast but not Extra Smart as the heroes already made off with the Scroll of Inifuss while making a battle plan with his flunkies.
  • The poor Smith in the Monastery Barracks in "Classic Andy". He doesn't have the same scare factor as The Butcher, and Cassia just runs right by and snatches the Malus before he can do anything.
  • Same for Coldworm the Burrower as Cassia sneaks around her to retrieve the Staff of Kings, only for the Barbarian to Leap Attack through the walls and kill the boss with all that entails.
  • Once more with the Crush Beast known as Thresh Socket in "Good Anya" which the four players just run past to get into the Crystalline Passage.
• Socketed Equipment: The Assassin takes this a bit literally in "A Runed Item", inserting a Chipped Emerald in one of the eye sockets of a helmet she looted off a Dark Stalker, then proceeding to, once again, Ninja Loot and snatch the Sol Rune Cassia was about to take and inserting it in the other eye socket.
• Stylistic Suck: Downplayed. There is no drop of animation qualities during the Diablo Immoral episode, but Carbot does not include any of his signature humors during the Curb-Stomp Battle, in order to show the viewers that he's just as disappointed like them and can't even make a joke about it.
• Tactical Door Use: Moreina attempts to do so against King Leoric in "A Bone to Pick", at least until he put his foot in the doorframe.
• Take That!: In conjunction with the fandom's unanimous dislike for Diablo Immortal, Carbot takes pleasure in taking potshots against the game:
  • In the end of "Short on Staff", Cassia decided to use the Gamble option, which net her garbage items, and the last one being Diablo Immortal, and unlike the other crap items that provided bonuses (+2 to Hygiene) or additional texts (Literal crap), that one had absolutely nothing and the merchant doesn't even want to refund that item.
  • In The Stinger of "Destruction's End", Diablo Immortal arises after the destruction of the Worldstone, scaring the hell out of Tyrael and he lets out a Big "NO!" in the same vein of Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith.
  • In a rather funny twist, Diablo Immortal itself proved to be The Dreaded, though re-named as Diablo Immoral. How? It easily Bound and Gagged Diablo himself, and then curb-stomps the otherwise invincible heroes, brutally crushing all the money out of their wallets. Still treated as a Take That! towards Blizzard's controversy, but nobody expected it to be destructively kick-ass.
• Trap Master: The Assassin will often use traps, particularly the Wake of Fire and Blade Sentinel in "Radamentary". Notably, lots of Death Sentries are used when fighting the Boss Rush in Baal's Throne Room.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Sometimes the "heroes" will slaughter demons, undead and other monsters even if they're harmless or even helpful.
• Villain Protagonist: The "heroes" often go around slaughtering harmless and even helpful demons, undead and monsters in their endless quest for loot, that they seem more like a bunch of merciless, pillaging murderhobos who occasionally cross paths with bad guys that need to be stopped.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Exaggerated with Andariel's weakness to fire, a single Fire Bolt from Isendra instantly crisps her.
• You Bastard!: "There is no Cow Level" is an intentional gut punch that can present the question: "Are we (the players) the bad guys here?", in which the heroes invade and destroy a whole civilization of innocent cows and leaving the Cow King alive so they can repeat this actions for more loots, since instead of being a mandatory dungeon to complete the game, this is a Bonus Dungeon and wasn't that necessary to complete the game.