History WebVideo / BoardJames

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: '''D'''eadly '''D'''anger '''D'''ungeon

* RuleOfSymbolism: It seems rather correlative that things in the ''Dream Phone'' episode start getting more twisted after James walks through a door with a poster on it that reads "YOU ARE NOW ENTERING [[Series/TheTwilightZone THE TWILIGHT ZONE]]".

''Board James'' is a Cinemassacre WebOriginal series, created and starred by Creator/JamesRolfe, famous for his work with [[WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd the Nerd]] and [[WebVideo/YouKnowWhatsBullshit the Bullshit Man]]. You can find the series [[http://cinemassacre.com/category/boardjames/ here]].

* CatchPhrase: Subverted; the first regular episode ("Dragonstrike") has Board James introduce himself with the phrase "Hey! I'm Board James. [[JustForPun And when Board James is bored, I play some board games]]." This is delivered in such a way that it APPEARS to be his opening catchphrase, but he doesn't say it again until the ''Omega Virus'' episode as an IronicEcho, given the circumstances.

* SharedUniverse: If [[https://animatiom.tumblr.com/post/164949512447/the-reviewaverse-multiverse-chart-v23 this post]] is to be believed, we can link it to hundreds of other internet things like WebVideo/{{The Nostalgia Critic}}, ZTV News, Jaltoid, Robobuddies and the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter of all things.

** A particularly epic version of this happens in ''Video Games!'', which crosses into PaintingTheMedium, as Board James is harassed and partially aided by the WebVideo/AngryVideoGameNerd. [[spoiler: Only for, in the conclusion, Board James just gives up, and walks out of the room, transforming into the Nerd as he enters the 'set' of the Nerd videos...]]

** The ''VideoGame/AngryVideoGameNerd'' appears in the ''Video Games!'' episode. [[spoiler: Complete with James Rolfe switching identity between Board James and the Nerd in the concluding moments...]]

** Board James uses [[WebVideo/AngryVideoGameNerd someone else's]] catchphrases abruptly in ''Video Games!'' [[spoiler: shortly before he becomes the Nerd.]]

* TheOner: [[spoiler:The entire shot of Board James transforming into the WebVideo/AngryVideoGameNerd never pans away from him from when he moves from backstage in Board James to the filming location of the Nerd videos, showing they're literally walking distance apart.]]

* MythArc: At first the series was just an episodic collection of board game reviews, but James eventually created a single overarching storyline which retroactively applies to even the earliest episodes. To sum up, [[spoiler: Board James was a murderer sentenced to death before the series stated, and what we're seeing is him wandering through the afterlife, which takes form from the board games he played as a child and is shaped by his own subconscious. Mike and Bootsy are poor souls trapped in there with him, subject to his whims and murderous tendencies until they realize they can stop him.]]

** See BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor above.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfRules: Some of the board games, particularly Heroquest and Battle Masters (and how!), which were made by the same creators by the way.

* FreezeFrameBonus:
** [[spoiler: In the Nightmare episode, the newspaper clippings are unreadable, except the one at 0:04, which details the circumstances of the arrest.]]
** [[spoiler: A mannequin appears in 5:13 of the Nightmare episode, which represents Mike tumbling down the stairs as he fled from James.]]

** The end of the "Full House / Do the Urkel" episode: [[spoiler:When James's friends tell him he never had friends to begin with, a flashback is shown of James playing Crossfire and yelling at Mike, except Mike was not there at all. Cut back to the present day, where James finds himself alone, realizing that Mike and Bootsy never existed.]]

** In the ''Ouija / Domino Rally'' episode, [[spoiler:Mike and Bootsy are brought back to life...but something seems very, very off about the way they reassure him that nothing is wrong]].

** This goes off the rails entirely when it's ''possibly'' revealed that [[spoiler:James, Mike, and Bootsy are all in prison, and the series to this point may have been AllJustADream. [[MindScrew Maybe.]]]]

-->'''[[spoiler:AVGN]]''': [[spoiler:"You'll always be a nerd...a ''video game nerd''."]]

*** While slitting his wrist at the end of the ritual, James says [[Film/TheExorcist "May the power of Christ compel you!]] [[Franchise/StarWars May the force be with you!]] [[Film/KindergartenCop IT'S NOT A TOOMAH!"]]]

* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler:Many believe that James is going through this over the course of the series. It starts with "Mr. Bucket", which ends with James graphically and disturbingly drowning the bucket in a sink. Then came the end of the "Shark Attack" episode, where he reaches a RageBreakingPoint and ''yells'' at his friends for fucking up everything. Everything culminated with "Dream Phone", where a popular idea is that James was the real killer, not the phone; an idea that was acknowledged but deliberately left vague until the "Full House / Do the Urkel" episode, where it's revealed that there ''was'' no slippage. James was insane all along and his friends never existed to begin with.]]

* RasputinianDeath: [[spoiler:Both the Dream Phone and Mr. Bucket. The phone somehow survived being blown up inside of a microwave, and reappears in the "Ouija / Domino Rally" episode to be re-killed by Elvis Mike. Mr. Bucket was ''drowned'' in his episode, and reappeared in the same episode to also be killed by the same person.]]

* RealAfterAll: [[spoiler: Mike and Boosty ''might'' be real. We're not sure, but if they are they're James's cell mates in a maximum-security prison.]]

** The ''Ouija / Domino Rally'' episode starts off darkly, with an agitated James screaming at the Ouija board regarding [[spoiler:the deaths of his friends]] only to get no response. Then he notices Domino Rally and immediately cheers up, gushing over and playing with the game...up until the Ouija pointer suddenly flies into James's dominoes, at which point it swings right back into darkness with the Ouija board.

** "Full House/Urkel Game" [[spoiler:confirms it, then takes it UpToEleven by showing that Mike and Bootsy are hallucinations too, and always have been, even ''before'' "Dream Phone".]]

** In the "Video Games" episode if you pause the video just right around 1:08 [[spoiler:you can see an image of Mike and Bootsy just as Board James is explaining being trapped for eternity with two ghosts.This foreshadows the reveal in "Board James Mythology Explained" that they have alredy died, and each death just sends them deeper into an another boardgame.]]

* EldritchLocation: When Bootsy and Mike are trying to escape, they end up going from the basement to the attic. WordOfGod explains that [[spoiler: Board James's house is like an IronicHell that has aspects of various parts of his original life as a murderer]].

* TheDogWasTheMastermind: What the twist of the "Dream Phone" episode ''seemed'' to hint at was that [[spoiler:the phone was the killer]], but this was sort of overruled with future information that [[spoiler:James killed his friends/there were no friends he had to begin with]].

* CallBack: Post-hiatus episodes tend to make references to plot twists in episodes prior. For example, the "Video Games" episode (that comes right after TheReveal that [[spoiler:Mike and Bootsy are James' imaginary friends]]) features this line as James reviews ''Pac-Man'':

* RecursiveReality: [[spoiler:The nature of the afterlife in which the characters are trapped, to the point of the ''Nightmare and Beyond'' finale resembling ''Film/{{Inception}}''.]]

* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Board James is the Angry Video Game Nerd... or at least a SplitPersonality.]]

* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Board James is the Angry Video Game Nerd...or at least a SplitPersonality.]]

* MythArc: at first the series was just an episodic collection of board game reviews, but James eventually created a single overarching storyline which retroactively applies to even the earliest episodes. To sum up, [[spoiler: Board James was a murderer sentenced to death before the series stated, and what we're seeing is him wandering through the afterlife, which takes form from the board games he played as a child and is shaped by his own subconscious. Mike and Bootsy are poor souls trapped in there with him, subject to his whims and murderous tendencies until they realize they can stop him.]]

* LyricalDissonance: The lyrics to Bootsy's upbeat Chipmunks-style {{Candyland}} song are [[https://bootsyspankinspi.bandcamp.com/track/candy-land actually pretty grim.]]

** The ''Nightmare and Beyond'' episode switches between [[spoiler: James torturing Mike and Bootsy complete with dark background music]] to a SugarBowl version of them playing ''CandyLand'' with bright and cheery music.