Adorkable: Stampy. Other than a carry-over in real life, in Episode 689, "Dramatic Building", he discovers that unlit campfires could be re-lit by undead googlies burning at sunrise, and immediately and enthusiastically starts coming up with a new minigame idea based on the mechanism that he learnt about in the video.
Was Stampygoodnose the dog's death an accident as Stampy now believes, or is it an early warning sign for the man Hit The Target would become?
Did Hit The Target intend to kill himself in Episode 42, "Unexpected Drama", or was it an accident, like Stampy believes it to be? If it was on purpose, did he do it so he could respawn wherever his bed was and escape Stampy that way, or did he intend on dying for real?
Were the Mirror Stampy and his helpers from Episode 658, "Mirror World", Ambiguously Evil, or were they manipulated into thinking Hit The Target was a good person similarly to how the Lunar Friends were?
Is Veeva Dash really as much of a villain as she seems? A YouTuber by the name of 'Stampy Theories' once made a twopart video arguing that she was secretly good, or at least had been lied to in a similar manner as to how HTT tricked Stampy in "Revelation", and another YouTuber by the name of SierraNightlight — who also acts as a moderator on Stampy's livestreams — expanded upon that theory in her Lovely World Iceberg video.Veeva Dash's Heel–Face Turn in the finale suggests that she's secretly aligned herself against HitTheTarget for a while before she actually defected, but it remains an Ambiguous Situation in canon.
Does Hit The Target just see Veeva Dash as a minion, or does he truly care for her?
Angst? What Angst?: Stampy seems unusually nonchalant after Hit The Target attacks, even if many of the plots involve various cases of kidnapping and attempted murder, and even in a couple of cases, arson. Subverted in that it is implied some attacks may have left an impact on him after all, such as his hesitance to use the cloning machine and reluctance to talk about what actually happened to his helicopter and the events related to the incident.
Archive Panic: The series numbers at 823 episodes, and with each episode mainly about 15-30 minutes in length (with a few outliers in the hour-long range and a few that are shorter, usually HitTheTarget attacks), it would take an grossly estimated 233 hours (under the assumption that each episode is about 20 minutes long) to watch the first 700 episodes on average, or almost 10 days without sleep... and that's excluding Stampy's Funland and all the Behind the Scenes videos, the latter of which are implied to be canon. Good luck.ContextTo be fair, the Lovely World is under construction over the course of years, so for it to be this long is to be expected. The main plot-relevant episodes are those where HitTheTarget attacks (or at least makes a plot-relevant appearance), which alone amount to 7 hours 31 minutes 36 seconds (excluding the choose-your-own-adventure attack — Episode 291, "Egg Hunt") as of Episode 700, but obviously, this is disregarding the foreshadowing in the episodes between battles.
Best Known for the Fanservice: The kid-friendly version of "fanservice". Stampy has multiple videos showing himself building and adding things to the landscape of his World, but since these episodes are seen as boring, his viewers instead go for HitTheTarget-centric episodes, as well as any episodes themed around a tradition, like the Christmas episodes, as they are able to give the viewers some level of excitement, which ends up also making them the most popular. The 100th and 823rd episode especially suffer this, the former being a celebration of the first triple-digit episode number occurrence in the series and the latter being the long-awaited Grand Finale his viewers have been desperate for, both of which are immensely popular too.
Breather Boss: Seeing how easily she was defeated, the Ender Dragon definitely counts as this in comparison to the storyline behind the SLW (read: HitTheTarget).
The foreshadowing regarding HitTheTarget's attacks is usually ridiculously obvious. You can usually make a pretty accurate guess exactly what his plan is.
Veeva Dash was first seen sneaking to the Dog House, ran away when Stampy approached her, wore an outfit of red and gold, and often held items such as poison potions and wither skulls. Yeah, it was no shock when it was revealed she was working for HitTheTarget.
Catharsis Factor: Although some viewers may feel bad for HitTheTarget after "I Won" due to him being stuck in Stampy's trap, other viewers who are less sympathetic towards him may feel it to be well-deserved after everything he's done to Stampy and co. over the course of almost nine years. c!Stampy himself holds the latter view, naturally, though he still admits to feeling bad to leaving HTT to spend the holidays in the trap as well.
Stampy: And I know it might sound a bit mean, but like, just cast your memory back to all of the horrible things that HitTheTarget has done over all of the years, like [he] literally killed my dogs, tried to Take Over the World, like... I think this is just a nice bit of revenge.
Continuity Lockout: Thanks to its long runtime, coming into the series at a random point will utterly confuse any viewer, both regarding the builds in the World and the progress with Stampy's battle between the Big Bad.
Crosses the Line Twice: In Episode 542, "Hero Helpers", HitTheTarget taunts Stampy — on low hunger level — by eating steak in front of him. It would have classified as Kick the Dog, but Stampy's aghast yet narmy reaction to this throws it straight into the parody category.
Cult Classic: Although the series plays into the Rule of Cool too often for the overall Minecraft community to receive it and only Stampy's viewers themselves are particularly devoted to the series, it's still classic enough to be remembered as one of the most iconic web series on the Internet.
Diagnosed by the Audience: It has been theorized that Fizzy might have ADHD and/or autism due to his strange quirks, but nothing has been confirmed in canon so far.
Fan Nickname: Several fans have taken to addressing the antidote to the Magic Campfires as a "soup" or a "juice".
The Helpers' interactions and daily lives off-camera. Some tweets alluded to their off-camera lives, but nothing is ever explicitly shown — some of which can transpire as Funny Background Event moments, like Fizzy riding the 'Creeper Coaster' in Episode 355, "Friends and Foes". Episode 670, "Hacked" also gives some hints towards this, as William Beaver is seen tending to his carrot patch before being pulled from his day off.
Sometimes, Stampy mentions checking on HitTheTarget's fortress off-camera to see if he's up to something. One would wonder what goes down in the fortress when HitTheTarget and Veeva Dash are preparing for the next attack or handling some daily life stuff. And judging by Veeva Dash's tweets, we might have some canon basis for some of these...
Branching off of the above, especially in post-hiatus episodes, Stampy can be seen building out of materials that he didn't have access to pre-hiatus, such as variants of prismarine in Episode 742, "Something Inspiring". This leads to some questions on what Stampy had been doing off-camera to gather those materials, like fighting Guardians near an Ocean Monument.
What happened to Lee Bear after he left the SLW? And where did all the other Helpers run off to?
Life in the Mirror World, and what drove the Other Stampy to work with HitTheTarget.
Despite their ambiguous canonicity, the Halloween episodes are rife with fanfic fuel, introducing several new characters and scenarios. What happened to the witch who cursed Evil Mr. Pork Chop? Is Luna the only wolfwere? And, if the stories are canon, how did Stampy find out about any of them?
Fanon: All of the "anthropomorphic animal" characters have received three variations of designs — humanized, as actualfunny animals, or a mixture of both. Stampy himself seems to have a small preference for the latter type, as said during a Love Garden sequence, but overall likes all three.
Some fans ship Polly Reindeer with Veeva Dash (usually known as Reindash or Veevolly), while a minority of those shippers throw in HitTheTarget for good measure for a Love Triangle (with Polly remaining enemies with HTT).
Some other fans ship all three of the "New" Helpers (William, Polly and Fizzy) (typically referred to as Polyam Helpers) together, even though there is next to no romantic subtext between any of them.
Some portion of fans ship Stampy and HTT (currently and typically referred to as Starget).
Pretty much any joke made about Hit The Target in the earlier episodes qualifies. The Running Gag about him building an evil dog army and taking over the SLW was pretty amusing when he was just a friend of Stampy's (albeit a bit of a jerkass), but became significantly less funny after he decided to do those things for real, as many pointed out in the comments section of his debut video when it was reuploaded.
As mentioned on the YMMV page for Stampylongnose, any episode with Lee after it was found out he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman, and was subsequently kicked off the show.
Episode 76, "Revelation", becomes this after HitTheTarget's treachery is revealed in Episode 92, "The First Cake", especially when it is coupled with Stampy's ecstatic reaction to having his friend back.
Similarly, Episodes 344-354, which all feature Veeva Dash as a Helper, immediately become this after her betrayal, especially because she has continuously dropped hints throughout the episodes about her true allegiance.
Episodes 551-575 become this after the reveal in Episode 575 that Polly had been replaced by a Rotten Robotic Replacement and kept captive inside of a tiny cell the whole time. It's significantly harder to re-watch and enjoy those episodes while knowing that Polly is suffering and her friends are none the wiser.
Episode 184, "Clone Calamity" was considered one of the Lighter and SofterHitTheTarget attacks (though several minor characters get permanently killed in the episode)... until Episode 700, "Tragic Day" is released, where the concept of the previous attack is recycled and taken up a thousand notches, with disastrous results.
Episode 690, "Shiny Sword", has Stampy joking about how often dogs used to die in his world, ending with him explaining that they've all been kept very safe since then to a worried Luna. 10 episodes later...
In Episode 1, "Welcome to Stampy's Lovely World", Stampy mentioned that he wasn't going to be playing much Minecraft. 6 years later, he had passed the Episode 600 milestone for the same series — on top of several other Minecraft series, and even after taking a hiatus for almost two years, he's still going in this World. As a matter of fact, the 701st episode was be released on the 9th anniversary of the first episode being uploaded to YouTube, and Episode 749 was the ten-year anniversary special.
I Knew It!: Usually when it comes down to clues foreshadowing future Hit The Target attacks, the fanbase in the comments section is quick to point things out, most notably Veeva Dash being Evil All Along.
Iron Woobie: Stampy's been lied to, stabbed in the back, had his beloved pets and friends kidnapped several times, got into several hostage situations, etc. over the years, yet still remains unfailingly cheerful and friendly.
Veeva Dash is a vain, manipulative Lady of Black Magic who's managed to hack the in-universe fourth wall — but also a lonely individual who's only fighting because she thinks it's the right thing to do, and loves her boyfriend despite the many, many hints that he couldn't care less about her.
BrickIt from the Show Within a Show "What Is This?" is a smug dudebro YouTuber who has no qualms about terrorizing a bunch of innocent rabbits or trespassing on what is most likely private property to spy on Stampy, but his adventure soon leaves him scared and tired, desperately trying to escape a foe the audience knows he doesn't stand a chance against. Even he doesn't deserve being attacked by an Enderman, and the fact that his fate is left unknown at the end of the short only makes things worse. You just wanna give the guy a hug.
As evident by the fact that the Hit The Target episodes always get significantly more views than the others, many people only tune into Lovely World for the Hit the Target attacks.
A slightly more obvious one, most fans join the series as an audience member due to Minecraft nostalgia, and only that, but making it out as nostalgia for Stampy's series itself. As a result, Stampy's comments are always filled with remarks regarding "nostalgia"/"childhood" with little about the actual video content. Most of this can be attributed to false fandom, as they are clearly not devoted to Stampy himself despite their claims as his supposed longtime audience (as can be explained by them only following the videos that are easiest for them to find than going through the entire series unbiased).
Like You Would Really Do It: Three months after his supposed defeat, Hit the Target escapes in "Christmas Invasion". Which is what everyone expected. No way were the Hit the Target attacks over.
Magnificent Bastard: Veeva Dash is seemingly a Minecraft helper and good friend towards Stampy Cat, but is revealed to be the girlfriend and partner-in-crime of Hit The Target. Pretending to be an ally of him to gain Stampy's trust, she promptly betrays him and lures him to the castle to release a wither on him. She proceeds to become the technical genius of the duo of crimes, making extremely ingenious contraptions such as mind control devices, lasers, and a voice-stealing contraction. She also shows extreme tenacity, using invisibility potions and crafty schemes to try and defeat Stampy and his allies, even luring Stampy into a trap with a voice-disguising parrot. Forming a temporary alliance with Stampy to get out of a dangerous situation, Veeva decides to redeem herself, sending warnings to him about Hit The Target's schemes and plots. During the series finale, Veeva Dash helps Stampy stealthily by hitting him with a invisibility potion to rescue him from Hit The Target, and when Stampy decides to give Hit The Target his World in order to protect his friends and dogs, Veeva Dash abandons Hit The Target and joins Stampy and his friends for a new adventure.
Nightmare Retardant: HitTheTarget is supposed to be seen as the terrifying antagonist that brings chaos to the titular world wherever he goes... except Stampy's hilariously awkward but admirable acting during every episode he appears in makes him seem less threatening and makes Stampy himself sound like a Paper Tiger (especially accounting for the fact that he is more powerful than HTT in-universe and could easily kill him but narratively chooses not to).
Downplayed in Episodes 536 to 540, which are spent constructing an airport and related transport vehicles, to which Stampy notes in Episode 536, "Airport", that it was "probably the thing that people have asked [him] to build more than anything else in [his] Lovely World". However, he also states that he himself had wanted to build it for a long time but never had a good idea and design for it until then.
In Episode 814, "Most Requested", Stampy builds the face of his own character avatar for his "Stampy Says" mini-game because it's what people wanted the most, according to the title.
In Episode 819, "Final Mini-game", as his last mini-game within the Funland (built between the mini-golf course and Creeper Coaster), Stampy builds a Flower Power sequel since his Flower Power mini-game first introduced in Episode 114, "Flower Pot", is a fan favourite build.
The spin-off Stampy's Funland focuses on re-playing old minigames, which is something fans have been asking for for years. Not only that, but some episodes include older Helpers such as Sqaishey and Squid, which several viewers have wished for since William, Polly, and Fizzy became the main Helpers.
Rooting for the Empire: Veeva Dash notably retweets fans' comments showing support towards her and HTT. A small minority of viewers were also seen cheering for HTT in the premiere chat whenever we got his perspective in Episode 733, "Christmas Invasion".
The ending to Episode 541, "I Lost", which is an Unexpectedly Dark Episode even among Darker and Edgier episodes. One of the reasons may be because Lovely World episodes tend to steer into the Strictly Formula territory, and the ending seriously shakes up the status quo, even if only temporarily.
The enderman Jump Scare in the short movie What Is This?, which premiers in Episode 564, "Scary Movies".
The deaths of Bengy and Corey, and apparently Fluffy in Episode 700, "Tragic Day", especially since they've been around since the early days of the series, with Corey being the youngest among them (and the second youngest dog in the pack for the bulk of the series) as he was tamed in 2014, while the other two were tamed during the Lovely World Classic era. The Spoiler Title does absolutely nothing to prevent the shock of the incident or help the viewers pog through the pain, as evident by the comments section being flooded with fans mourning their deaths. While Fluffy was eventually revealed to be alive all along, Bengy and Corey are definitely not making a comeback anytime soon.
Typically, you can tell from the title and thumbnail when it's a Hit the Target episode. Stampy will also claim at the start of the video that he plans to do some other thing, like start building a new shop or minigame. However, you already know that that's not going to work out for him.
In his 400th and 800th special, Stampy claims to be doing a tour, but from the length of the video, you can guess he's not and instead it'll be a Hit the Target attack.
Strawman Has a Point: For obvious reasons, since he's only there to Take Over the World, it's not completely true, but in "Saving The World", HitTheTarget points out that Stampy's Lovely World revolves around only Stampy's ideas. How it's partially correct is that pretty much every building in the town and Funland both is something Stampy came up with, and there are little ideas that are within the world that his Helpers come up with, besides the three shops in Stampy's Town, and the few HTT himself added when HTT took over Stampy's Funland, as well as a few Easter Egg builds that Stampy leaves behind as decoration.
In 2013, Stampy briefly switched to the Plastic texture pack. Stampy quite liked it, but changed it back when majority of viewers said they preferred the old one. Reflecting on it many years later, Stampy remarked people probably disliked the plastic texture pack just because it was something different.
Stampy received a small amount of complaints for demolishing his original mob trap. However, after he fully rebuilt the new design, Stampy holds his ground and insists no one could think the old design earnestly looked better.
Stampy's bedroom was where he started everyone of his videos, so when he drastically remodelled it, he of course got a few excessively angry comments. However, he notes the main reception was overall positive and accepting.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: In his debut episode (Episode 179, "Cloning Contraption"), Stampy Cat Clone decided to head off into the unknown and create his own Lovely World. It would have been interesting to see how he adapted to the real world, whether his personality would stay like Stampy's or change over time, and just what he would create in his Lovely World 2.0, but he died in his very next appearance, Episode 184, "Clone Calamity", and never respawned.
The second half of Episode 670, "Hacked", involves the Helpers taking down Hit The Target and Veeva Dash in the Nether, while Stampy stays in the Lovely World due to having his permissions taken away. Given how Hit The Target can speak in the Nether, and one of his beliefs is that Stampy treats the Helpers like slaves, it would have been the perfect opportunity to switch to Helper Cam a la "Hero Helpers" and have Hit The Target try to convince William, Polly, and Fizzy to betray Stampy. Instead, the entire battle takes place off-screen. To be fair, though, what happened during that period of time would definitely make good Fanfic Fuel.
The soul campfires didn't just make Stampy forget things; they gave him flashbacks too, ranging from mistaking Secret for his (thought to be deceased) dog Fluffy or hallucinating Polly as Crimson Azoth, who hadn't appeared in Stampy's world for years. With this, one could remember that both Hit the Target and Veeva Dash used to be Helpers, and you'd think their plan would be to trick Stampy into still believing they were. However, when the attack occurs, Stampy simply just doesn't know who Hit the Target and Veeva Dash are, and the fact that the campfires made Stampy confuse the past with the present never really amounted to anything.
Unexpected Character: As Stampy leaves the Lovely World in the finale, he brings along pretty much every single friend he's ever made. This includes characters who hadn't been seen for years (Harrison, Harriet, Fred the Enderman, the Lunar Friends, etc) and characters who weren't even well-know fan favorites that hadn't been so much as acknowledged for hundreds of episodes (Lucky Cat, Holly and Jolly, etc.).
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: In the sense of being an Anti-Hero on occasion, Stampy has been perceived as being morally better than HitTheTarget by proxy of not being The Caligula, in comparison to HTT himself. This is in spite of what Stampy has done over the years to both his Helpers and his enemies, establishing his moral greyness, such as doing Necessarily Evil acts and having Moments of Weakness that show he isn't as pure as he first seems. On the other hand, HTT deservedly does not get romanticized by the audience, of whom see him for the evil person he is.
Viewer Gender Confusion: Fizzy, with his love for bright colors, androgynous appearance, and non-gender specific name, can be mistaken for female. Him not being able to talk doesn't help.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: A happy, child-friendly show set in a happy, child-friendly land with happy, child-friendly characters... and then there's HitTheTarget, who uses methods such as kidnapping, drugging and even outright torture and/or attempts to sentence the protagonist to a Fate Worse than Death at least twice to achieve his less-than-savory goals. Oh, and suicide becomes a plot point in an episode (even if it's not considered as big of a deal in a survival Minecraft setting due to the respawn mechanism), there are plenty of fearful moments throughout the series, and the main protagonist is, in more cynical interpretations of the series, implied to be a severely traumatized workaholic who's repressing his issues (presumably trying to Cope by Creating) to the point that it took about seven years for anyone to notice. Granted, most of the horror falls into the Fridge Horror category, but still.
The Woobie: Secret, the dog HitTheTarget tamed to clone a dog army out of. It is heavily implied that she was trapped in the Cloning Contraption for over two months, and when Stampy discovers her there, she accepts a porkchop from him and follows him without hesitation.
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