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aka: Metalocalypse The Doomstar Requiem

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Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem — A Klok Opera is an hour-long (with commercials) Rock Opera based on Metalocalypse; it was written by and heavily performed (the guitar and a vast majority of the vocals) by series creator Brendon Small. It premiered on the 27th of October 2013 on [adult swim].

Doomstar picks up where the fourth season of Metalocalypse ended: anti-Dethklok group The Revengencers, led by The Masked Metal Assassin and former Dethklok member Magnus Hammersmith, have kidnapped Dethklok's rhythm guitarist Toki Wartooth and album producer Abigail Remeltindrinc. While Dethklok manager Charles Offdensen searches tirelessly for the abductees, the band itself denies having any feelings about their missing friends by partying around the world. Magnus refuses to stand for Charles' interference and Dethklok's apathy, however, so he threatens to murder Abigail and Toki if Dethklok refuses to meet with him and anyone else comes after the Revengencers. With their friend in danger and their fans angered over Toki's conspicuous absence, Dethklok must rise above the selfish, spoiled man-children they are and become the heroes they're destined to be.

Brendon Small released the special's soundtrack via his website on the same day that the episode aired; iTunes and Amazon releases followed a few days later.

This, sadly, would also be the last episode of the series animated. A fifth season was to follow and end the series properly. But disagreements between Brendon and Adult Swim led to a falling out and ultimately lead to the series being canceled. Brendon, however, would finish the series as an audio album, Galaktikon II, which alludes to the characters of the series though doesn't mention them by name. note  However, in 2021, [adult swim] announced that a feature film that wraps up the story in animated form for good is on the way. So this isn’t the true finale.

A proper Grand Finale for the series titled Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar would be released direct-to-video in August 22, 2023. It picks up directly after the end of this special and delivers a conclusive ending to the series.

NOTE: This is effectively a recap page for a one-hour Wham Episode, so nearly every example could be considered a spoiler. Therefore, all spoilers will be unmarked.


We're givin' these tropes, givin' 'em back to you:

  • A God Am I: Dethklok ascends to godhood thanks to admitting that they're family just as the titular Doomstar passes overhead.
  • Animation Bump: The animation is really smooth and more dynamic compared to the previous seasons, and it's noticeable from the character movements. Special mention to the duel between Skwisgaar and Toki, which is just two minutes of awesome guitar playing and special effects.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When talking up the tracker's abilities, he's said to be "raised by wolves, he can kill with his teeth, he can blend into shadows, he can hide in a tree!"
  • But Now I Must Go: Offdensen leaves his role as manager because he says he can't protect the band from harm when their destiny says otherwise.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: Magnus Hammersmith and the Metal Masked Assassin serve as the antagonists of the film.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Doctor Rockzo pulls a You Shall Not Pass! on a group of junkies so that the group can get past them to the building where Toki's being held.
  • The Big Damn Kiss: Nathan and Abigail get one during the credits.
  • BSoD Song: Played for Laughs with "Partying Around The World" and "How Can I Be A Hero?", but played straight with "The Crossroads".
  • Call-Back: "Where's Toki" involves every poster positing theories on his whereabouts being someone that previously appeared on the show, including their adopted son and Toki's rival at Fantasy Band Camp. Then there's the split-second part on the malfunctioning hologram showing Toki's bloody outfit in Dethkids.
  • The Cameo: Jack Black as Dethklok's old manager and the fat kid.
  • Central Theme: Brotherhood, which motivates Dethklok, Edgar, the Assassin, and, it's implied, Magnus in various ways both positive and negative.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: Skwisgaar defeats the other guitar applicants with ease, but then Toki shows up on his own.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Despite being called the Doomstar, giving a dark red glow, and destroying a person completely. The Doomstar's power is controlled by Dethklok who, despite their selfish tendencies, are good guys. This is shown at the end when the red glow is turned into a blazing red and gold aura when Dethklok performs, and when they perform selfless actions such as creating the home for wayward musicians.
  • Death by Childbirth: Metal Masked Assassin's mother died while giving birth to him, according to Offdensen.
  • Demoted to Extra: Murderface's role got smaller for the movie since his voice action Tommy Blanca was not available at the time. While Toki's singing was by someone else and has a solo, it's telling that Murderface doesn't even have a singing solo in the whole movie, let alone a part in "Partying Around the World."
  • Disney Creatures of the Farce: A minor example when Abigail is singing "The Lullaby", she's watched by a pair of rats, and she attracts a bat to land on her finger, scratching its nose affectionately before sending it off.
  • Driven to Suicide: Magnus at the end, after his Heel Realization.
  • Due to the Dead: Averted with almost no mention - the Klokateers spend a good portion of "Tracking" hyping up their tracker, but as soon as they learn he's dead, with his corpse being hastily stuffed into a wheelbarrow, Offdensen's response is "Throw him in the garbage." Even the Tracker's fellow Klokateer refers to him as "this dead man", in the middle of a hasty autopsy.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The main motivation for the main antagonist the Metal Masked Assassin is revenge for Dethklok's (unintentional) role in his brother's death. The Assassin even screams out how they took his brother from him before confronting Dethklok for the finale.
  • Gag Penis: "How can I be a hero when my dick is as big as a shoe?"
  • Good Feels Good: Despite having their apathetic and selfish tendencies thrown in their faces repeatedly during the opera (and by extension the entire run of the show) it isn't until Dethklok is forced to defend themselves using kindness and generosity that they finally come to this conclusion.
    Pickles: I can’t believe how good it feels to be, giving to you, you’re giving back to me!
  • Grand Finale: To the Metalocalypse animated series, not long after this aired, Brendon Small got into a disagreement with the head of Adult Swim and ultimately ended up cutting ties with them. Which in turn got the series canceled before a final season could be set. Brendon has stated he's trying to find ways to showcase the finale and eventually did so through Galaktikon II. However a proper finale would finally be made as a direct-to-video film Army Of The Doomstar.
  • The Final Temptation: The band, minus Toki, consider becoming regular jack-offs during the song "How Can I Be A Hero?". They quickly reach the conclusion that they'd rather kill themselves.
  • Happy Place: In order to get through the nightmare that is their imprisonment, Abigail sings a lullaby to Toki to get him to his happy place — which turns out to be the greatest moment of his life, when he joined Dethklok.
  • Heel Realization: Magnus has one after seeing the power of the Doomstar fill the members of Dethklok. Dethklok themselves subvert this by skipping straight to the Good Feels Good part.
    • The subversion is somewhat justified considering how a number of episodes have members of the band having some sort of Heel Realization or at least show awareness of the band's many personal shortcomings. The band's made a number of failed attempts to overcome their flaws so it's not unreasonable that once they manage to do so successfully, the Heel Realization finally takes.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Ishnifus, who holds the Revengencers back so the band can escape and regroup.
  • He's Back!: In Morte Lumina, where Nathan proudly exclaims that their brother is back.
  • Hidden Depths: Skwisgaar, who'd heaped the most mistreatment upon Toki across the series, turns out to be the one who accepted him into the band.
  • Hope Spot: During the search for Toki, the Klokateers state they have a man who is reported to be the best tracker around. When Charles asks for him, it turns out they already hired him and he's been killed. Subverted in that there's a USB in his body from Magnus who provided a clue for the band to go on later.
  • Letting the Air out of the Band: The only dialogue not sung during the special? The group stopping everything to protest the Insistent Terminology that Toki's their brother when he's obviously not.
  • Lyrical Dissonance: Abigail sings a very sweet, soft lullaby to Toki, describing how they'll be viciously tortured before being butchered and likely cannibalized, but that he should just go to his Happy Place and forget that for a while.
  • Killed Off for Real Ishnifus sacrifices his life to give Dethklok a chance to get away from the Revengencers, The Masked Metal Assassin finally faces Dethklok but ends up being obliterated once the band taps into their godly powers, and Magnus Hammersmith is impaled by the Metal Masked Assassin with an improvised metal spear.
  • Noodle Incident: It's revealed that Dethklok had a manager before Offdensen although it's not dwelled into what happened to cause him to be replaced.
  • Michael Jackson's Thriller Parody: "Givin' it Back" parodies the Thriller video with the failed musicians and junkies acting as the zombies. For extra points, this special was broadcast shortly before Halloween.
  • Mood Whiplash:
    • The Klokateers are singing about how Dethklok has to "Do it all for your brother", when Pickles abruptly interrupts with "Could you stop calling him our 'brother'? It's weird to me."
    • Music-wise, "Magnus and the Assassin", a dark and heavy metal song about the two big bad's plans is immediately followed by "Partying around the World", a trippy song about the band "not" missing Toki and Abigail.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: Dethklok's usual amount of bingeing and emotional repression is portrayed in song with "Partying Around The World"
  • Musical Episode: Taken to its logical extreme, with EVERYTHING being sung.
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!": The Band upon seeing the denizens of The Depths of Humanity.
    Pickles: Oh my god! Our old manager!
    Skwisgaar: Oh mys gods! My old guitar teacher!
    Nathan: Oh my god! Our old groupies!
    Murderface: Oh my god! A douchebag nightmare!
  • My Greatest Failure: Charles telling the band that Toki's kidnapping is this, which led him to resign and take the church's protection. But in reality, its to succeed Ishnifus as the head of the Church of the Black Klok.
  • Out of Focus: The Tribunal, who, unlike most story-driven episodes, play little to no role in the events, only popping up for a short sequence, to reveal that one of the band will betray them.
  • Pet the Dog: The band being kind to the failed musicians attacking them, which results in the musicians turning back to normal. Taken a step further in the credits, where it's shown the Band opened a home for wayward musicians.
  • The Power of Friendship: In the most metal way imaginable, of course. Dethklok finally admitting to themselves that they're family, not just co-workers, causes the Doomstar to energize them and atomize the Metal Masked Assassin.
  • "Reason You Suck" Speech: Edgar Jomfru chews the band out for their reluctance to say that Toki's their brother, singing about how much he misses his late-brother and how much they cared about each other.
  • Redemption Quest: The whole special counts as this for the band's horribly selfish and jerkass behavior throughout the entire show. Ishnifus and the church of the Black Klok are insistent that the band needs to stop being apathetic and stoic to the needs of others and learn to be actual heroes if they want to rescue Toki. Meanwhile, Magnus and the patrons at the "Depths of Humanity" all blame the band for abandoning them, believing themselves to be victims of the band's self-serving climb to fame and they don't hesitate to let the band know exactly what they think of them. It's after being run through such a guilt-wringer and forced into a hopeless situation where violence and clever thinking won't help them that they finally resort to using their wealth and success to legitimately help other people and realize that it's cool to have empathy and help other people out. When they realize that they're willing to die for one another and acknowledge Toki as their brother, they're finally able to take down the Metal Masked Assassin once and for all. The fact that they have the "Depths of Humanity" converted into a "Home For Wayward Musicians" afterward shows that they've actually learned a lesson from all this.
  • Refusal of the Call: The Band refuses to help Toki at first, mostly due to their own doubts of being able to be heroes. It's only when their fans start to leave them due to Toki's absence do they reconsider.
  • The Resenter: The denizens of the Depths of Humanity, who consist of Dethklok's old manager, Skwisgaar's old guitar teacher, and the band's old groupies. Somewhat justified as the band never gave them any credit for helping them on the rise to being rock stars.
  • Rock Opera: Though surprisingly one that isn't entirely metal.
  • Sequel Episode: Not the whole musical mind you, but the flashback Toki has directly follows the one from "Dethcamp" showing Magnus getting kicked out, showing how Toki got into the band, their rise to power, and the construction of Mordhaus.
  • Sequel Hook / The Stinger: The virus put into Murderface in his trip to The Depths of Humanity begins to spread through his body; this hints at his status as the in-band traitor of which Salacia spoke earlier in the special, setting up what was supposed to be the eventual fifth season of Metalocalypse. Thankfully this would be followed up in Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar.
  • Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: Near the end of "Depths of Humanity", then averted.
    Skwisgaar: I found this flyers on the walls inside, I believes I knows where Toki am imprisoned. Our old practice space about a mile away, where Toki had his first auditions!
  • Time-Compression Montage: Toki's solo number "I Believe", showing the recording of their first album, their gradual rise into a world superpower, and the construction of Mordhaus.
  • Tonight, Someone Dies: And it turns out to be Ishnifus, who the viewer would've had the least emotional attachment to. Still went out like a badass, though.
  • Training Montage: In the first half of the song "Training/Do It All For My Brother".
  • True Companions: The plot of the film is basically the band, minus Toki who's both kidnapped and already came to the conclusion years ago, admitting they're more than just a band, they're a family. Doing so allows them to awaken their true power.
  • Long Song, Short Scene: Blazing Star, which can only be heard in full on the Album.
  • Villain Song: Magnus and the Metal Masked Assassin get one in the form of "Magnus and the Assassin".
  • Wham Episode: Ofdensen quits being the band's manager and becomes the new head of the Church of the Black Klok. The band finally realizes that they're family, which helps awaken the power within them thanks to the Doomstar. They also learn to be much more generous as well. For the last Wham, see "Sequel Hook / The Stinger" above.
  • Wretched Hive: The Depths of Humanity, filled with people that Dethklok have neglected in their rise to being powerful and wealthy rock stars.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Assassin to Magnus.

Alternative Title(s): Metalocalypse The Doomstar Requiem

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