Lets Play / SSundee

Hey, what's going on, guys? SSundee here...

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...and welcome back to some more TV Tropes.

SSundee (a.k.a Ian) is a prominent YouTube Let's Player with over 15 million subscribers; he is largely known for his Minecraft videos, but has shifted his focus to other trending games such as Fortnite and AmongUs, although he has spread out into a wide variety of other games, as well as occasional non-gaming related videos.

Along with him is Derp SSundee, who mainly handles the intros to most of the videos. He has collab-ed with multiple other YouTubers throughout the years such as LanceyPooh, Crainer, CaptainSparklez, along many others. The main group now consists of his new friends, such as Bifflewiffle (Austin), Sigils (Andrew), Henwy (Henry), and Nicovald.

He also assists in running his own free music group, Ninety9Lives.

Tropes in these videos include:

• Berserk Button: When it comes to cobblestone in the Minecraft videos, don't insult or mock it. SSundee will mess you up.
• Butt-Monkey: Sigils and Henwy; if they ever appear in a gaming video, you can expect one or both of them to be on the shirt end of the stick no matter what. However, whereas Henwy is just naturally unluckier than Sigils, Sigils has to deal with everyone else (including Henwy at times) being silly in his, and only his videos.
• Bullying a Dragon: A couple episodes of Troll Craft has him attempting to troll x33n and Neo, the server admins, with predictable results.
• Calling Your Attacks: A running gag when someone (usually Biffle) gets grey weapons, especially a Common Tactical Shotgun (or as they call it, a grey tac). In the board game video based on the crew's catchphrases, Biffle even calls out a P90.
  Sigils: Report: He's [Henwy's] not saying "Grey Tac."
  Ian: If you don't say 'Grey Tac," you can't use it.
• Combo: Ian's most prominent trait in Fortnite Creative videos, even if he doesn't get first place in the looting minigame(s). These include:
  • The Old School Combo (Shockwave Grenades+Boogie Bombs+Clingers+Shotgun+Rocket Launcher) Ian's most known combo; the idea is to stun then with a boogie bomb, then hit them with a clinger and rocket launcher to deal 221 damage.
  • Nasty Shot Combo (Shockwave Grenades+Flint Knock)
  • Nasty Shot Combo 2.0 (Shockwave Grenades+3 Hunting Rifles; this was made to )
  • Smoke Combo (Smoke Grenades+Thermal Scoped Ar)
  • Spider-Man Combo (Shockwave Grenades+Grappler)
  • Spider-Man Combo 2.0 (Grappler+Shield Bubbles)
  • Explosive Combo [2/3 Explosives (Proximity Grenade Launchers, Rocket Launchers, Grenade Launchers) with Instant Reload on; with this load out, Ian can constantly switch between them and avoid cool down delays]
  • Harpoon Combo (Harpoon+Shotgun)
  • Sigils Combo (Jetpack+Boom Now)
  • Sigils Combo 2.0 (Jet-Pack+Balloons+Shotgun+Boom Bow+Any scoped gun)
  • Junk Rift Combo (Shockwave Grenades+Junk Rift) Ian's most customizable combo; this is sometimes used with little to no purpose to troll the other players, especially Sigils. In 2v2 videos, however, Ian can make his teammate equip this loadouts to "kidnap" the other team while Ian shoots the opponents. This can also be combined with other weapons, such as stunning the opponent with a boogie bomb, and wearing a cardboard box with C4s placed all around it.
  • Flint Knock Combo (3 Flint Knocks with Instant Reload on)
  • 2v2 Rocket Ride Combo (1st teammate-Rocket Launcher;2nd Teammate-Scoped AR) This combo has shown up in a 2v2 video with Ian and Biffle working as a team. With these loadouts, Biffle can shoot a rocket, and Ian can ride it while shooting a scoped AR at the opponents.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: The entire point of their 100 Ways To Die challenges. Notable deaths have included: Zerg Rush of Silverfish and Chickens (not at the same time), Alien abduction, trapped in a house of exploding fireworks, surprise meteor strike, falling out of a plane, forcing to choose between your own life or 5 innocent villagers, and the Death Star. By the end of the episode, the loser gets subject to a Cool and Unusual Punishment IRL for that week. However, if Crainer and SSundee get three questions right in a row, Ambrew the host gets to join in on said punishment for that week.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • SSundee is better at Minecraft than he lets on, so this tends to happen often.
    • Pixelmon Lucky Blocks: SSundee, Team Mystic VS Crainer, Team Valor in a 3 VS 3 Pokémon battle. Keehan, who sets up the challenges, made the two able to buy legendaries and use rare candies to level them up. SSundee then proceeds to buy a Mewtwo and make him level 100. The two walk to the arena, SSundee sends out his Mewtwo... and Crainer... well... ^note  The reason for this was that Crainer only managed to get 4 stacks of Nether Stars (their trading currency; an average round of Lucky Blocks will have them both get 8-10 stacks), with SSundee having over sixteen stacks.
    • Actually, almost every Lucky Block challenge ends in a similar fashion, with a few exceptions.
    • A notable inversion occurred during the challenge where they had to disguise themselves as a type of block. SSundee takes just under 3 minutes to find Crainer (before Crainer accidentally kills himself). Crainer then proceeds to find SSundee in roughly over a minute.
      SSundee: No wonder I always lost hide and seek when I was a kid. I would hide in plain sight; I'm an idiot.
  • Pokemon GO: SSundee and Crainer have one hour to capture Pokemon, loser has to get a Pikachu tattoo. After the hour ends, the two say their numbers at the same time: 26 to 4, in SSundee's favour.
  • Fortnite usually has this each video with a few exceptions, in which Ian is behind and has to pull out all the stops to win.
    • In the Driftboard olympics, Ian wins the first event, winning 3 legendaries and gaining the most points, causing everybody else to have 3 green guns each.
    • In the Fortnite poker video, the game either ends with Ian as the victor, or everyone tying. Because of this, Ian can constantly get good guns.
    • In the harpoon challenge, Ian wins the fight with both Biffle and Sigils having ZERO kills.
    • In the first Storage Wars minigame, Ian gets all but 1 of his kills with the Mythic Goldfish (an item that does 200 damage to anything it hits). If that wasn't bad enough for everyone else, that was their shortest battle TO DATE.
• Deadly Game: 100 Ways to Die, in which Ambrew asks SSundee and Crainer various questions relating to (vanilla) Minecraft, with the consequence of being sent to a "death room" that they must try to survive in. ^note If the game is feeling really sadistic, the room will simply kill them. Sometimes, being the Troll he is, Ambrew will ask a question that will have nothing to do with Minecraft in any way.
• Diabolus ex Machina: In the Fortnite Trap Run video, Ssundee is about to leave the course and, well...
• Double Entendre: Dear lord, the Feed The Beast / Meat Castle Adventure series was especially guilty of this.
  • The first Derp SSundee Cold Open of the series has him transform into a purple wiener, which is not only a recurring gag for later intros featuring the taintacle performing actions that result in a rare phrase, but also establishes the immature sense of humor going forward.
  • One of the builds they made is a giant missile made of pure processed meat. A meat missile.
• Evil Twin: Downplayed with Derp SSundee. In-Universe, he's The Friend Nobody Likes, and he makes a short joke related to the video in the intros, but that's pretty much it... unless you piss him off.
• Good Bad Bug: Invoked. If there's an exploit in a game, don't expect it to take long for him to find it. Some of the more prominent examples include:
  • Abusing a glitch to end up with unlimited Baked Potatoes. ^note  via the combined use of a Pac-Man pet, Veinminer, and an unbreakable pickaxe
  • Producing a self-sustaining Agricraft farm to produce unlimited Diamonds, Gold, Iron, Platinum, etc.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: He tries to avoid swearing in his videos, keeping to minor curses and euphemisms. Case in point, upon meeting Funtime Foxy:
  SSundee: Mother father!
• Hell Is That Noise: If there's a Lucky Block Challenge, expect him to get at least one "RIP Headphones users" block.
• Infinity +1 Sword: Or gun, spell, armor, nuclear bomb, etc, most Lucky Block challenges have a weapon or piece of armor that is incredibly powerful but extremely expensive, usually requiring all of the nether stars earned in the pre-game.
• The Nicknamer: In his Pixelmon series, as he doesn't know how to pronounce the Pokémon he's unfamiliar with, he resorts to soundalike nicknames, like calling Bagon Baguette and Celebi Celery Stick.
• Kaizo Trap: In some of the earlier Lucky Block challenges, Keehan would sometimes trap the lucky block with TNT that exploded when a chest was opened, or just hidden within the mass of blocks until it was too late
• Kick the Dog: Subverted. Crainer attempts to do this to SSundee during Troll Craft by resurrecting Gertrude ^note who was killed in the crossfire of Crundee Craft . However, the death trap wasn't secure enough and SSundee broke her out.
• Leitmotif: Such Fun by Tobu, which is one of the songs featured by his music group, Ninety9Lives.
• Luck-Based Mission: The Lucky Block Challenges. In short, SSundee and Crainer open 30 Lucky Blocks ^note plus a Lucky/Unlucky Box, depending on who won or lost the last round and collect materials^note  Iron, Redstone, Coal, Diamond, Emeralds, and Beacons, and rarer things such as Dragon Eggs or Fireworks from whatever meme-laden thing that pops out to trade in for Nether Stars, which they then trade for items to help them in that week's challenge.
  • Which usually defaults to "Kill each other as quickly and/or as much as possible."
  • The newest season has SSundee and Crainer teaming up against Neo and Ambrew. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Ssundee's latest videos have him and his friends play a Lucky Block game in Fortnite Creative. Once again, Hilarity Ensues.
• Mid-Battle Tea Break: Happens in the Ultimate Chicken Horse Video here, here, and here.
• Monumental Theft: Throughout the Feed The Beast modpack has SSundee and Lancey live up to the self-given titles "The Hijackers", where they attach a large structure to their airship and, after excavating the ground beneath it, "hijack" it to claim as their own. They had done so to multiple structures to build their base of operations, including a fortified tower, a pyramid, a village, a hell house, a labyrinth dungeon and a large solid cyan blue cloud. ^note The last two gave them notable trouble, the former lagging and glitching the game out bad and the latter being far heavier for the airship balloons to stand that they had to cut it into two pieces.
• Running Gag: "Do you have a pen and paper ready?"
  • A common exchange in Skyfactory:
    SSundee: Crainer, you must be wondering; "Why did we have to do all that?"
    Crainer: (In a whiny voice) "Why did we have to do all that?"
  • Cobblestone/Dirt = Life
    • Soul Sand = Life (You will be hearing from my lawyer, Kehaan.)
  • #Crundee
  • Crainer is all grown up!
  • In 100 Ways to Die: "Do (you/we) even (question topic), Bro?"
  • Crainer = Barney/Elmo (Russel, you know what to do.)
  • SSundee's flamethrower in The Forest
  • It’s on you.
  • You look like a foot.
  • In 3... (if you guys think I can win, hit that like button,) TWO... (insert funny comment here) ONE, GO!
  • SHAWTY!
  • Show me your shotgun ammo! (Fortnite murder mystery)
  • I will protect this city. (Fortnite murder mystery)
  • If I can (insert task here), you gotta HIT THAT LIKE BUTTON. (Fortnite)
  • RAY OF PURIFICATION!! (Minecraft)
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: Sigils is the straight man to all of his friends as wise guys.
• Stuff Blowing Up: TNT Wars. ^note  Sadly seems to have been canceled, probably due to Crainer's computer not being able to handle the stress of the various modded TNT types.
• Stylistic Suck: "Where Are The Videos" has Ian discuss his unexpected hiatus courtesy of a series of illnesses in 2014, with a black and white reenactment video depicting Ian getting up in the morning to showcase what he did to discover each illness. This includes opening his mouth in a stilted way that doesn't convey words, his choice of words he apparently says to himself, ^Example "Now it's time to blow my nose like I do every morning!" ...I'm normal, right? and fumbling with a bottle of water and a toilet paper roll that drove Narrator Ian to complain about the incompetence on display.
• Took a Level in Badass: Goes back and forth involving the Pixelmon series. At the start of the series, SSundee seems to be just as bad at the game as Crainer and Captain Sparklez. Later episodes prove that while he's not the best trainer in history, he's much more capable compared to his opponents. Then Episode 15 comes along, and while a mistake hits him hard, ^{That is...} SSundee's "Cheat Strat" (according to him) is to use Toxic at the start, then spam Dive and Protect to prolong the battle. Due to the rules of the battle, Crainer can only use Steel type Pokemon. No points for guessing how Poison works against Steel.(Well, barring Salazzle, but Pixelmon only goes up to Gen V) he still manages to win.
• Troll: Yes, yes he is. Crundee Craft was just as much Crainer and SSundee trolling each other as it was actually accomplishing anything. Even when the two are supposed to be working together, ^note Such as in the Skyfactory modpack,it doesn't stop SSundee from screwing around, with TrollCraft being a huge focus on this. Trolls SSundee and his friends have done include, but are not limited to:
  • Robbery ^note  The items are usually returned, though a ransom may be involved.
  • Destruction of their base ^note This is usually either downplayed or fake, however.
  • Robbery of their base
  • Kidnapping
  • Murder
  • Murder of pets
  • Murder of innocent bystanders (virtual wives and children)
  • Sadistic Choices ^note (Villain Derp SSundee's specialty, usually with no way out)
  • Diss tracks
  • Interior Redecoration.
• Unwinnable by Design: Most 100 Ways To/2 Die death rooms play this straight, but occasionally a room will give the player a chance to escape with their life, sometimes through pure luck, other times they'll have to earn their survival
• Verbal Tic: Whenever he's stressed, he gives off a loud grunt / scream that sounds like he's constipated. Lampshaded by Lancey.
  LanceyPooh: You go through a lot of toilet paper, do you?
  SSundee: A little bit. Don't judge me...
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes??: There have been some events that terrified Ian due to being based on water, which he is TERRIFIED of (including Raft, the Doomsday Event, and the underwater board game).
  • In fact... (To a lesser extent, this also includes Biffle, who's afraid of fish.)
  Sigils (during the Doomsday event): Biffle, just think of this as an opportunity to face your fear.
  [Later...]
  Biffle (outside the flood storm with Ian): Come on, Ian. We're gonna face our fears together.
  • There was one video where Ian actually pulled out a heart rate tracker while playing an Arena match in Fortnite. At one point, when he touched the water, it went up to 127 BPM.
  • Believe it or not, Biffle and Sigils convinced him to play Raft. Three guesses to what his reaction was when he first played.