"Sometimes I wonder, if there is more to this game than everybody thinks there is. Like there is something bigger in all of us, just hidding out, watching us. Wouldn't you want to know?"
—Alpha's trailer of the remake.
DescribethTOME here? But of course, for I, NYLOCKE, DRAGON OF CAUTIONARYPAGE EDITION! Will describe it here...Originally called TVTome Adventures (full name rarely used), TTA is a flash series created by Chris "Kirbopher" Niosi, using as inspiration a Self Insertion RP which took place on the TVTome.com forums (now TV.com).The plot centers around a group of players of an MMORPG titled TOMEnote no, not that TOME and their fight against the D-Bug organisation, a group of hackers seeking a mysterious "Forbidden Power", sometime in the not-too-distant future.TTA started as a humble amateur sprite-animation series, which gradually improved during its long run. The series is notable for its great length (a total of 73 episodes over 3 seasons and a three-part movie), especially for its medium.
The remake
During its somewhat sloppy early stages, the series used a unique combination of sprites and hand-drawn graphics, while the voice acting was mostly done by the writers of the original RP, each one voicing his or her own character.The author has openly admitted the heavy influence of both .hack and Megaman Battle Network. References to Anime are also frequent, Dragon Ball Z being the most common—for example, the character of Zetto, fact which is frequently Lampshaded by other characters.After Niosi entered college, he had less time for the series (at first, the fourth 27-episode season was shortened to a handful of OVAs, then scrapped altogether). He continued it with smaller projects, such as the three-part Super Freakin' Parody Rangers, which features Expys of the characters Zetto and Ruri.However, on 11/11/11, a fully animated Continuity Reboot of TTA re-titled Terrain Of Magical Expertise was released, this time with the internet equivalent of an All-Star Cast, including LittleKuriboh among others, with heavy promotion by Newgrounds.The remake features a unique style of animation reminiscent of video games like Megaman Battle Network or The World Ends With You, and it looks just that cool. So far, seven episodes, and four shorts, have been released.TTA and TOME can be seen at Newgrounds.com.Now has a character sheet.
TvTOME Adventures (The Original) Provides examples of:
As Long as It Sounds Foreign/Gratuitous Japanese: Kalasu Angel does not mean "angel of death"note Spell My Name with an S aside, "karasu" is just "crow" in Japanese; many characters use Japanese phrases like "Yoshi!" (Okay!) and "Shine!" (Die!); and don't get me started on "Kageryuken".
Author Stand In: Almost all of the characters are based on "authors"—the creator of the series actually has two avatars, kirbopher15 and Zetto.
Awakening the Sleeping Giant: The D-Bug Dragon at the end of Season 2, although the good and bad guys don't so much join forces to stop it as they do just happen to both be trying to kill it for different reasons.
Badass Normal: Out of whom many consider to be the five most powerful players in the game, Nailock is the only one without any kind of game-breaking advantage; Alpha, Kirbopher and Gamecrazed were all influenced by powerful viruses, and Zetto is a Netking.
Blood Knight: Many of the characters, but mostly Zetto.
Chekhov's Gunman: Darkeyesofanubis, the villain of Season 4 makes a cameo appearance in Season 3, though Season 4's cancellation negates the effects of this.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Nailock. He's off-the-wall, zany and doesn't seem all there at times, but he also defeated one of the main villains in record time, defeated the strongest of a group of the strongest players in the game, and is one of the only people to defeat Zetto.
When first facing Kirbopher15 in his transformed state, EXE knew he had the D-Bug virus within him, and planned to make it his own. He convinced the Webmaster to make an '1111' item so Kirb could trigger the state, and would only do so if confronting his accomplice Zetto, by letting the heroes go covert at the D-Bug Org. II base while keeping the other Netkings ignorant. Absorbing too much viruses while transformed, Kirb unleashes the D-bug, that seeks to fight the strongest fighter in TOME, and eventually makes its way to EXE's room, which had a stash of 10 virus fragments, and manages to control the dragon by fusing it to the Super Computer.
Evil Twin: The "Shadow Users" are (mostly) nonsentient copies of every user of the system.
Expy: Zetto is one of Vegeta. He even has his hairstyle!
The Faceless: Voltarius in late season 2 (The Voice beforehand), and an unnamed season 3 villain...though Anidoug was the villain of Season 3.
Facial Markings: Alpha, as well as various other characters.
Fanboy: Zetto is a Dragon Ball Z fanboy, and has an avatar and personality resembling Vegeta. This tends to annoy the other characters, even though plenty of them seem to like the show as well.
Filler Villain: The Flux Gang in the movie. Not quite. Flux himself was to make a reappearance in season 4 in a similar body to that of Neomutant's.
Fire, Ice, Lightning: Stated by the man who created the battle system to be "the game's top three elements".
Heroic Sacrifice: Season 4 was to have one of the Anubis Guild's members, Fauna, pull a Heel Face Turn and sacrifice herself by overclocking her powers to destroy the barrier surrounding the stronghold so that the final assault could begin.
Specifically, a lot of the the Player Characters in the RP that TTA was based on had ice-related abilities. "Shoot an icicle" seems to be a common low-level attack which a lot of characters use though, even if they are not ice-based.
Improbable Age: One of the game's programmers was a teenager.
The Man Behind the Man: Had season 4 come to full fruition, it would've been revealed to be Darkeyesofanubis, who was responsible for the creation of the Kagemamoru Virus, the D-Bug Virus, and generally has masterminded the events of the series as a whole.
Also the climax of season 2: While Zetto was indeed Voltarius, the boss-man of the group, EXE was the one really in charge of the D. Bug (original and II) Organization.
Motive Decay (Tormentros goes from mercenary to self-proclaimed "Angel of Death", though this is largely due to a Psycho Serum overdose)
Noob: (Quite a bit of characters, but the most blatant ones are Raccoon and Sojojo. Their voices are even modeled after DBZ Dragon Villains Cell Junior and Kid Buu to drive home how childish they are.
One-Winged Angel: Zetto. Twice. Then there's Ravenfreak, Racoon, Sojojo and Simdragon. All have been subject to the Virus Frags at one point or another, and each has taken on a different form when they utilized one.
Promoted Fanboy: There was at one point a call for fans of the series to submit avatars for use as "extras". Most of the Netkings also seem to be Fanboys or Fangirls.
Psycho Serum: The virus frags, which grant users with great power, at the likely cost of their sanity, though.
Retired Badass: PaperAceChase and the other members of the "Ranks of Sanctuary"
Those Two Bad Guys: rac000n/Rockoon and Bling Bling/Doubling. Their TTA counterparts were hard to understand and quick to vengeance respectively, while TOME takes a completely different route; their voice actors had so much fun making them into a comedic duo that they pretty much took Kirb's planned script and ran with it.
Transformation Trinket: Kiropher15 goes superpowered anytime he cuts '1111'. The first time he did it when his EXP reached that number, and then used it again when facing Webmaster and his Deletion Beam (a collection of 1s and 0s), which he would later use to help Alpha beat Kagemamoru. In the second season, Webmaster gave Kirb a '1111' item that he could use in a pinch, but one time only. Kirb does so, but awakens the D-bug virus fully in the process.
Tournament Arc: The Z Tournament, as well as the X-Games.
Transformation Sequence: Zetto and Raccoon had these. Rockoon in the reboot also gets this when he merges with Kajet.
What Could Have Been: As noted above, there was supposed to be a season 4, but it has been unceremoniously canceled because Niosi has had a lot less time to work on the series, and presumably, loss of interest in the series as a whole (possibly due to Fan Dumb). A good portion of the fanbase was definitely not pleased with this outcome. And it's a shame, considering the material prepared would've been grand in scale and epic as hell.
Ravenfreak's voice actor is... well, a voice actor (Lucien Dodge to be precise).
In episode 4, Rockoon, in exasperation after having been constantly misidentified as a rodent, exclaims "Do I look like a lab rat?" His voice actor, Deven Mack Jr., played the character of Lab Rat in Grossology.
Adaptation Name Change: Most of the cast, though usually similar to their original names.
Audio Commentary: Niosi has released commentaries (meant to be synced up with their respective episodes) on his Soundcloud page. In addition to himself, they feature LittleKuriboh (voice of Nylocke), ShadyVox (sound designer and the voice of Alpha), D-Mac Double (assistant voice director and the voice of Rockoon), Kajetokun (composer), Crikeydave, Foolyguy, Heilos (background artists), and Blizooka (script supervisor).
Battle Couple: Alpha and Flamegirl in the Gemini tournament
Breather Episode: "Fraggedquest", a light-hearted filler romp about The Power of Friendship, comes in between the two darkest episodes of the series to date, "Highest Form of Flattery" and "Awaken the Beast".
Break Up Make Up Scenario: This is an ongoing plot between Alpha, Kirbopher and Flamegirl. It started when they had an argument in Awaken the Beast, and it continued when they were shown to be avoiding each other in Minigame Madness, and Dragon Drama. The only part yet to happen yet is the part where they all make up.
Call Back: The opening scene from "Awaken the Beast" is one to the beginning of the first episode.
Calling Your Attacks: (Lampshaded by Alpha in episode 1) "About how you find screaming at the top of your lungs to be an effective opening attack."
Lampshaded again in Episode 5 and justified (In Kirb's opinion) as giving the attack extra "oomph".
Casting Gag: In episode 2, a character who is identified primarily as the sister of another character is introduced. She is the sister of none other than (the Real Life) Kirbopher, Alison Fanelli - also known as Ellen from The Adventures of Pete & Pete.
Combined Energy Attack: What ultimately causes Demon!Rockoon to kick the bucket in episode 4.
Cooldown Hug: Flamegirl gives Alpha one to stop him using the Forbidden Power to kill Ravenfreak.
Continuity Reboot: TOME, which starts the story over from the beginning.
Couch Gag: Every episode begins with a view of the World Map of TOME, before zooming into a specific region as one of our Five-Man Band logs in and arrives there.
Though "Fraggedquest" opens as usual, we don't actually see Gamecrazed logging in; he's already there when the episode begins. (Note that we don't see him logging out in "Mansion Midnight", either.)
Alpha inflicts them when he uses the Forbidden Power.
Alpha inflicts them on a lot of players when he's suffering a Demonic Possession from the Forbidden Power, including Kirbopher. He receives one in return from Zetto.
Early-Bird Cameo: Saturndiva, Whyti, Granda, T-Bones, and Elecscope all appear in Episode 1 during Nylocke's speech.
Everyone Can See It: Alpha and Flamegirl; even Flamey seems to be aware that Alpha likes her (though she halfheartedly denies this in the company of her friends), but Alpha appears genuinely uncertain about Flamey's feelings.
Extremely Short Timespan: Every episode so far takes place over the course of only one "session" of gameplay each. The shortest so far is "Mansion Midnight", which depicts about one hour (in a fifteen-minute episode).
Foreshadowing: TOME displays the "Forbidden Power"'s ability to physically harm players from episode 1.
The Gemini Tournament, formally introduced in "Awaken the Beast", is first foreshadowed several episodes prior in "Mansion Midnight". Where Asterob says, the Mansion was being used to test a tournament feature for "a bigger event coming up". In "Fraggedquest" players are also seen using the Mansion for tournaments.
Four Temperament Ensemble: Nylocke is Sanguine, Kirbopher is Choleric, Flamegirl is Phlegmatic, and Gamecrazed is Melancholic. Alpha is Supine, a very rare type indeed for a protagonist.
Friendless Background: Alpha, most definitely, but there are also signs that this is true of Kirbopher, Gamecrazed, and Nylocke as well. Even Flamegirl, when she mentions her "friends", is usually talking about other players of TOME. This may be the reason that The Power of Friendship is such a key theme of the series.
Friend Versus Lover: Kirbopher says all Flamegirl is Alpha's Fangirl and Flamegirl argues that Kirbopher won't leave Alpha alone, and that he "jumps on his balls every time he logs on". In actuality though the reason they argue constantly is because they're both jealous of the other for having Alpha's attention. Nylocke even implies this jokingly.
Green Hill Zone: One of the three regions of TOME, ;Sanctuary. Because battles aren't allowed there (it's exclusively dedicated to social networking), it's been very scarce so far, appearing for the first time in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in "Dragon Drama" (and thus hasn't yet been properly "introduced" like ;Lavendera and ;Mechcity were).
Hey, It's That Voice!: Niosi voiced Khoury in the Pokémon anime. The remake introduces a number of well-known actors, including:
Micah Solusod as Archy. His fellow voice actress and girlfriend Apphia Yu voices Whyti.
Michele Knotz provides TOME's "System Voice" narration in episode 1 and the Traveler's guide. She also does various voices across seasons 9 through 15 of pokemon, and some of the movies, including major characters like Jessie, and May.
Hub City: The region of ;Mechcity, first appearing in "Highest Form of Flattery". It places greater emphasis on social networking than ;Lavendera, and is a far more visually interesting and diverse setting.
I Have Many Names: NNNYLOCKE!! Dragon of constantly increasing titles!
In-Series Nickname: Of the five main characters, four are often referred to by derivatives of their usernames: Kirbopher is "Kirb", Gamecrazed is "GC", Nylocke is "Nye", and Flamegirl is "Flamey" to most, aside from Saturndiva, who calls her "Flames".
Nylocke addresses his friends as "Sir" or "Lady", except for Kirbopher, whom he always calls "Squire".
Instrumental Theme Tune: Not normally, but Episode 6 featured for the ending an Orchestral version of Battle On!
Ironic Echo: "Well, it's about time!" Used by Kirbopher, voiced by himself, in the episode just before he jumps Alpha, and used by Zetto, also voiced by Chris Niosi, in his debut in Episode 5. Bonus points that its used for both their respective Establishing Character Moment.
Kissing Discretion Shot: A scene in episode 7 is suggestive that Alpha and Flamegirl kiss, but it fades to white, and we don't see it happen.
Leitmotif: A number of characters and settings have one, unsurprising given the RPG Elements of the game.
Let's Duet: Judging by the animations Starlight Speedway the song that plays in the credits of episode 7, appears to be a duet between Alpha and Flamegirl. Although they got a different person to sing for Flamegirl, and the lyrics don't particularly mean anything.
Nylocke: I...I am Nylocke...Horrendously-violated dragon...With split ends. (thud)
Not Named In Closing Credits: Deven Mack, Jr., though he is listed as part of the crew for the episode "Awaken the Beast", is not credited as part of the cast for his appearance as Rockoon in the tag.
Notable Original Music: In contrast to the original TTA, which borrowed anime and video game music, TOME has an original soundtrack composed by Weston "Kajetokun" Durant - though most of the tracks were originally composed for a planned SNES-style RPG project that fell through. Though fans have been clamoring for a full soundtrack release, to date Niosi has only made a few tracks available on the show's Bandcamp page, because he still has yet to use all of Durant's music on the show itself.
Oh Crap: Demon Alpha, when the forbidden power is deflected by Zetto, which causes him to lose the battle.
One Shot Character: Most of the villains are One Shot Characters, except for Rockoon who loves his hacking job, Demonking who is redeemed by Nylocke and appears again in a short later, another nameless character that appears in both "Awaken The Beast", and "Dragon Drama", and of course The Big Bad, D-Buggers.org, who leads the hackers.
One-Winged Angel: Rockoon in the reboot has the dubious honor of being the first antagonist to do this, thanks to his hacking of "The Shadow Guard Beast".
OOC Is Serious Business: Nylocke has such a breakdown in episode 6, though in private to GameCrazed.
Police Are Useless: Minigame Madness reveals The moderators are unwilling to do anything to stop Alpha's virus powers hurting other players, as they don't think it's a "REAL Problem". That probably means they don't do anything about players hacking the game either. They will ban the occasional scammer though, but even that is ineffective as said scammer is known to have made multiple accounts.
The shadow guard idol was drawn to look like the silver monkey in Legends of the Hidden Temple. The head attaches to the other pieces with a spike.
The scene in episode 4, where Rockoon mocks Nylocke for always being in character, was a reference toDOTDOTDOT, narrated by Deven Mack Jr. (voice of Rockoon) and animated by Mick Lauer (voice of the quest giver).
Nylocke's "Hoo!, ha!, parry!, dodge!, spin!, thrust!" in episode 5 is this to an episode of Looney Tunes called "Robin Hood Daffy".
Rockoon can be a shout out to Looney Tunes himself sometimes.
Also in episode 5, Nylocke describes the Gemini tournament as "a showcase of bonds beyond time and space!". LittleKuriboh and ShadyVox played Yugi and Jaden in Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged: Bonds Beyond Time.
The Minigames in Minigame Madness are shout outs to real phone apps. Specifically, Bejewled, Fruit Ninja, and Angry Birds.
Stealth Hi/Bye: Elescope gets freaked out by Nylocke leaping at him... But is truly shocked when GC warps up behind him to chat.
Talking to Himself: This promotional video. for Kirbopher's panel, premiering a new TOME episode at Kamicon, starts with Yami Yugi, introducing Kirbopher, and failing at pronouncing Kirbopher's name correctly. Then Nylocke drops in to try to help! Hilarity ensues.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Flamegirl and Kirbopher throw one at each other in episode 5, Flamegirl's is about how Kirb always hangs around them even though they piss him off and that he's more obsessed with Alpha then anyone. Kirb claims that all Flamegirl happens to be is Alpha's fangirl and takes everything in a video game (like fighting hackers) too seriously.
There Are No Police: Or in this case, admins and mods. The hackers seem to have been allowed to run amok with impunity, with only the Five-Man Band to stop them.
Finally averted with the "Minigame Madness" short, in which an (unnamed) admin or mod is seen taking reports from players (following up on the events of "Awaken the Beast"), and then banning a known troublemaker.
Those Two Bad Guys: Rockoon and Doubling. Their voice actors had so much fun making them into a comedic duo that they pretty much took Kirb's planned script and ran with it.
Tournament Arc: The upcoming "Gemini Tournament" shows every sign of being one of these. Planning for the event was a running subplot in "Awaken the Beast", "Minigame Madness", and "Dragon Drama". The twist is that contestants must compete in pairs - creating an immediate tension in that our Five-Man Band cannot divide cleanly into groups of two, and one of them will have to seek a partner from without. Kirbopher had been hoping to ask Alpha to be his partner prior to the whole "Demon Alpha" incident; he then asks Nylocke to be his fallback choice. However, Nylocke eventually partners with Gamecrazed instead in the closing moments of "Dragon Drama".
Other confirmed (or strongly implied) partnerships entering the tournament include Tsuzuku/Shogun, Saturndiva/Whyti, and Hyprelynx/Elescope. Zetto is also competing, but his partner is currently unknown.
Alpha partners with Flamegirl for the tournament at the end of "Infectuation", thus leaving Kirbopher as the odd one out in the Five-Man Band. Kirb then pairs with the Tag Along Kid, Archy.
Alpha has a flatter, more deadpan affect to his voice in the first episode. In his subsequent appearances, he starts with a more delicate and tentative pattern, probably to help contrast with his Let's Get Dangerous moments and later, his Demonic Possession.
Could also count as Fridge Brilliance, since Alpha is shy and wasn't that open when he appeared in Episode 1.
Nylocke has a high-pitched and breathy voice at first, but starting in the second episode it has a deeper, booming timbre, which better portrays his No Indoor VoiceLarge Ham qualities.
Wall Jump: Demonstrated by Nylocke to reach the top of a building in ;Mechcity.
"FOOLISH! You should cease your stupidity, and step over to the side of the serpent! JOIN ME! and we shall rule TOME like the regal creatures we really are!—- Serpentine, TOME, Nylockes Day Off
Xenafication: The end result of Niosi turning Flamegirl into an Action Girl in the remake. She's been upgraded from the sweet, and polite, damsel in distress she was in TTA, into a warrior with a no nonsense attitude in the remake!
Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Nylocke and the Quest Giver; at the latter's insistence, anyone seeking a quest must also address him in this fashion. Both Flamegirl and Rockoon pull this off with aplomb.
.Now has a character sheet.
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