Foreshadowing / The Nostalgia Critic

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• The He-Man & She-Ra Christmas Special contained some ominous signs for the upcoming The Star Wars Holiday Special review. The month-long buildup to that review culminated in his Top 11 Christmas Specials review, which ends with a Sequel Hook.
• In the first fuck up video, he says "And clearly I will only die for [my sins]". His death that was meant to stick was saving the world in a Heroic Suicide fueled by his guilt for everything.
• In Junior, even before Kickassia aired,^note Where Doug had already planned for Ma-Ti to die. Ma-Ti's the one who sentences Critic for crimes against humanity. In To Boldly Flee, Critic gives a helpful reminder of this by telling the Chick he always knew he'd pay for his crimes against humanity.
• Early on in the review of "My Pet Monster", he said that he was pitied by his high school classmates for not acting his age. Cut to the end, and he gets pitied again by the director of the movie for the same reason.
  • In the same episode, he acts like an entitled whiner about being "unfortunate enough to rent" the movie. The phone call actually serves as Character Development, as it makes him realize just how stupid that sounds and never does it again.
• In his "Top Twelve Greatest Christmas Specials", he said he thought he was the only one to hide in the cupboard when he got scared. About a year later, in "Old vs. New: Willy Wonka vs. Charlie", we got what he was scared of.
• The Care Bears review has another rant about how his job makes him lose any pride and the evil book tells him she can give him a happy ending. The very next week, he's obsessively trying to keep control of a country.
• One can't help but notice the huge amount of accidental foreshadowing in his review of Last Action Hero. When does all this accidental foreshadowing becomes reality? In To Boldly Flee! Go watch the review, because many of the Critic's lines in relation to the film's plot are either Foreshadowing, a Funny Aneurysm Moment, a Hilarious (or Harsher) in Hindsight moment when you compare them to To Boldly Flee. And since those were accidental, he had no idea it would become such!
  "Kid, leave the plot holes to me. That's my job."
• His breakdown to LordKaT about the damage done to his ego with LK beating Bébé's Kids is lead-up to his admitting to CR that he can't cope with people going into his territory a few months later.
• During an argument with the Nerd before they switch jobs for an episode, he asks mockingly if the Nerd thinks his gig is easy. That never came up again.
• In the Chick's Bratz review, his reason for forcing her to watch it was because he wanted her to be proud of being able to sit through the worst girly movie of all time. His conclusion at the end of his first commercials special is that he's "pathetic but proud".
• By how often Critic expressed his desire to not have Linkara around in Star Trek month, it would have been more of a surprise if Linkara hadn't shown up.
• He set up the Parental Neglect angle early when he mentioned off-hand in the "Top 11 Scariest Moments" that he was allowed to have a gun as a kid.
• The choice of Star Trek month and the new vast abundance of Doctor Who jokes weren't just Author Appeal, it was setting viewers up for the fourth anniversary, which was announced as a sci-fi story.
• At the start of his "Top 11 Simpsons Episodes" episode, the background music used when he discussed the impact The Simpsons had is the same he uses when discussing his pick for the #1 episode: "Bart Gets an F".
• During the meat session scene in Patch Adams, he sarcastically states that he can clearly see the film is going to represent people accurately and with no forced manipulation. Wait fifteen minutes.
• In the Heavy Metal review he's boy-excited over a scene of driving a car in space. Naturally he drives a car in space in To Boldly Flee, but in a self-destructive if still awesome context.
• Cross-show example, but Chick's glee over Critic's reaction to the Child by Rape bit in the FernGully: The Last Rainforest review sets up her willingness to guiltlessly take what she (physically) wants from Todd and exact her revenge on Spoony.
• In his Scooby-Doo review, Critic makes a brief reference to Battlefield Earth and how he accidentally was involved in blowing up the Psychlo home planet. The following week, To Boldly Flee is released and it's revealed that Terl survived and wants revenge on the Critic.
• Speaking of To Boldly Flee, Some of the Critic's dialogue in the Richie Rich Review foreshadows the plot of the film.

  Critic: Oh, I just want to buy a spaceship, go to the edge of the universe, travel through the outer rim, have an existential journey of self, and become the next evolution of mankind, thereby being in control of all the universe!

• In Thomas and the Magic Railroad, he's terrified that he and his world are just delusions of some mentally ill guy.
• There's no real reason for Zod to show up in the post-Suburban Knights Transformers: Dark of the Moon courtroom setting Bum/Critic review other than to remind us that he exists for the following year's movie.
• In the Son of the Mask review, Satan says "God help the poor soul who comes across that nightmare of sadism.". Who, after starting to review the film, does The Nostalgia Critic call for help? Santa Christ.
• The new opening theme has a very grouchy looking Critic shoot at the audience with a blaze of fire right behind him. It can't be coincidence that he's hell-bound at his own hand by The Cat in the Hat.
• In Star Trek V, his painfully awkward attempt at telling an actual joke instead of relying on a pop culture reference (and even then he doesn't manage it), gives more credence to his To Boldly Flee assertions that he's actually a pretty awful critic.
• "The Review Must Go On" from Moulin Rouge! was written by Doug when he decided that he needed to wrap things up, and it really shows. As well as multiple references to being "done" and Chick musing that she needs to watch Scooby-Doo (the prequel to To Boldly Flee), the whole song is about hating your job but doing it anyway, and the message gets cut off by brentalfloss shooting him dead.
• The Devil defending Devil and his own stupidity plenty of times is the big clue that he's actually Shyama-Amon in disguise.
• In "Top 11 South Park Episodes", he says "it's another great reminder to artists that if you're doing it for the money, you're doing it for the wrong reasons". The end of the list has another plug for the DVD (with Soundtrack Dissonance over the usual fire) and by Sailor Moon he's shameless about doing what he does for the money.
• "Are Superheroes Whiny Little Bitches?" has Critic relating to Superman Returns, specifically the scene where Superman is in space and listening to everyone, setting up Man of Steel where Jor-El's "they only lack the light to show the way" speech is used twice to show how Critic has no light in him at all.
• In “Top 11 Adult Jokes We Never Got As Kids”, Critic is whiny about saving “some franchise”, and blows up a poor trainer before running away, so despite all the Trolling Creator about him being the hero, it was pretty obvious that he wasn't going to be and instead act like the Dirty Coward.
• It's not clear whether the harassment thread in Dawn Of The Commercials was supposed to set up the Hyper storyline (in a bite him in the ass sort of way), but his stalking of Emilia Clarke and belief that if women say no then men just want them more pays off in The Uncanny Valley review where he admits to sneaking into a bedroom and it going very wrong.
• In Man of Steel when Zod stops Critic enjoying a scene and Critic immediately cowers, Joe calls him a pussy and Critic defends his subservience by saying Zod is going to castrate him if he pisses him off. Critic does end up pissing Zod off, but Zod is the one castrated.
• Malcolm hitting on Critic in Eight Crazy Nights. It seems like a throwaway joke at first, but then it's revealed in Hyper's first vlog several months later that he's had a huge crush on his boss for a while.
• Lowkey foreshadowing in The Christmas Tree review, as when Critic is hallucinating there's an empty bottle on top of the fridge, and it turns out later that Malcolm and Rachel don't want him to know that they get drunk when he doesn't need them.
• Of all things, his The Wicker Man (2006) wish to be kept inside, not have to talk to anyone, and be used for sex constantly. That almost happens to him when he's this close to falling into Stockholm Syndrome induced by Hyper Fangirl, Malice assumes he's gone through abuse, he wants his clone self as a Sex Slave in the “Sixth Day” review and he bemoans not being allowed to do anything else but pleasure Snob sexually in the Bad Future.
• At the end of Ghost Rider (2007), he sets up psychotic stalkers, his own Sanity Slippage and a World Gone So Mad that even reality blows up with a happy "a new year of madness is on the way".
• In Alice in Wonderland (2010), while spring cleaning he finds a memory stick of his home movies and Carrot Juice steals it from him before he can destroy it. At the end of the episode, everyone watches them while Critic sulks.
• While accidental as it's mostly Lupa's writing, “A Talking Cat?!” review has Critic ask Lupa if she'll leave him alone, she says no (but not about that) and he casually reaches for mace in his pocket, showing that even before Hyper, he's used to people not leaving him alone even when he asks them to.
• Blink and you'll miss it, but Hyper tells Critic in Old vs New: Spider-Man that he has the jacket so he should start bashing Mary-Jane. Turns out to be Suspiciously Specific Denial on her part, as at the end it's revealed she has both a replica of his hat, tie and jacket.
• In Hyper's second vlog, she begins by answering how she keeps getting in the studio with she just walked through the front door because CA doesn't lock anything up. At the end of Small Soldiers, we'll see that also applies to Critic's house.
• In her fourth vlog, Hyper Fangirl was giggling about being willing to Mind Rape Critic into loving her. In Princess Diaries 2, she manipulates his shallow manchild side by pretending to have all the things he likes so he thinks she's at least worthy of kissing. it all blows up in her face however
• Shortly after the Amazing Spider-Man Old vs New review started the Hyper Stalker storyline, Doug/Jason's vlog of the “Suitor” episode of Adventure Time had an incredibly long rant from Doug about how Dogged Nice Guys don't want a relationship, they want a prize that they feel like they're entitled to, which should have told everyone how The Princess Diaries 2 review was going to end. There's also the Breezy vlog where they specifically talk about girls who want Doug are just Loving a Shadow (and Doug mentioning being creeped out by a woman who wanted to grab first his ass and then his wife's), and the earlier Storytelling episode where Doug takes a break to say that both boys and girls need to learn that if someone they like says no, that should be it.
• Even with the film in question, in that review there's a ton of references to bondage in the sexual way, which sets up the ending of Hyper kidnapping Critic to be her Captive Date. He also sarcasm modes that “pity dating always wins”, and in the next episode, he's forced at gunpoint to 'date' Hyper and was very close to letting her win him by falling into Stockholm Syndrome.
• Both used and lampshaded in the Maximum Overdrive review, as when Cenobite!Malcolm starts revealing himself to Critic, Critic whines about the heavy foreshadowing and has a number four prop resting in the shadows as his favorite prop.
• Tamara telling Critic in The Monster Squad that he and other tokens aren't boys any more, but sad pathetic men trying to recapture better days, sets up the monster of the episode: reality.
• In Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, Critic takes special umbrage to Grandma just accepting being kidnapped. Next review, Hyper comes back, and he brings his own kidnapping up but is Made Out to Be a Jerkass. It also tends to be a trend that if he's making a big deal about someone being too relaxed while kidnapped, she'll show up very soon.
• In The Matrix, “Malcomus” and “Tammity”, with Critic going “...really?” and Tammity reminding him that he wrote it, is the first major clue that it's just Malcolm and Tamara being brainwashed.
  • Blink and you'll miss it, but in Critic's rant to Schmuck, he tells him he can play the review back for him to prove his point, indicating that he knows he's in control of this reality before Revolutions confirms it.
  • In Reloaded, Malcolm's Talking the Monster to Death moment is about how History Repeats and people lying to themselves is part of life. For the rest of the month, there's a lot of To Boldly Flee references which Critic doesn't want to acknowledge.
• In the TMNT movie review, the Pop Quiz Hotshot wall is shown for the first time (Critic calls it an “incredibly flamboyant dance club”), the actual pilot finally being released later that day.
• In Conquest Of The Commercials, the son in the abuse family cuddles the meninist car from Mad Max: Fury Road, setting up him being even further into right wing ideals by Cats And Dogs.
• The Adventures of Pluto Nash has him taking out Batman and Superman costumes, and going “I swear this isn't a clue”.
• In more cute usage, not long before she actually came out as bi/pansexual, Tamara revealed she had a book of bisexual erotica and got embarassed about it in Young Frankenstein.

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