Pastra is a Youtube channel that largely discusses/reviews various horror media, from the big names to the more obscure indie projects, primarily sharing his passion for the works he talks about and highlighting the positives of even the more divisive works (with some exceptions). Other content includes VODs of the games he plays, an ARG regarding the character known as Lankmann, and some Analog Horror, primarily Dreams Of An Insomniac, a series revolving around their primary mascot, Clyde the Eastridge Demon.
Pastra's Youtube channel can be found here.
Media featured on Pastra's channel
- Abandoned by Disney
- Batmannote
- Bendy and the Ink Machine
- Critters
- Epic Mickey
- Five Nights at Freddy's
- Five Nights at Treasure Island
- The Heilwald Loophole
- Hello Neighbor
- Iron Lung
- It Steals
- Lacey Gamesnote
- Lethal Company
- Mandela Catalogue
- No One Lives Under The Lighthouse
- Popgoes
- Poppy Playtime
- Resident Evil
- Sonic CD
- The Upturned
- The Very Organized Thief
- The Walten Files
- Zardy's Maze
Tropes:
- Abandoned Mascot: Lankmann reveals in his game to be the prior face of Pastra back when he intended to center his channel around an ARG, but instead chose a different path and appearance with the success of his chosen videos.
- Ambiguous Syntax: "Iron Lung and the Fear of Being Watched" It is indeed a video about Iron Lung, but is also about another ARG being run wherein Pastra is being stalked by someone who's trying to intimidate them into making specific forms of content. In other words: The video is about Iron Lung, as well as the fear that Pastra is being watched, rather than merely the fear of being watched as it's utilized in the game.
- Author Appeal: Pastra is a big fan of works in the horror genre, as evident by the works he's covered on his channel. And it's not limited to just discussing it on his channel; he's posted some Analog Horror videos of his own, and some of his usual discussion videos veer into horror with Lankmann performing a Hostile Show Takeover, among other things...
- Author Avatar: Pastra depicts himself as Clyde, a vaguely-humanoid monster that looks like something that hides in children's closets, topped off by them wearing an orange hoodie.
- Bookends: For the introduction of the Bendy and the Ink Machine video, it starts with live footage of Pastra IRL, rather than his avatar Clyde. By the end of the video, Lankmann interrupts Pastra's outro to declare that they should do something truly special: a face reveal. Pastra resistance to the idea gets interrupted by Lankmann implicitly turning time back to the beginning of the video with Pastra saying "here goes nothing, I guess".]]
- Characterization Marches On: Lankmann, previously a resentful Abandoned Mascot who would imprison Pastra and run a Morton's Fork game with their freedom on the line, would in later videos effectively become more of a roommate to Pastra who's just as obsessed (if not moreso) as their creator in regards to horror media.
- Double-Meaning Title: Pastra's video "Iron Lung and the Fear of Being Watched". It's not just referring to Iron Lung and its theme, it's referring to Pastra's situation in the rest of the video.
- Enemy Without: Lankmann, as they're the prior mascot/avatar of Pastra who became their own entity after Pastra effectively replaced them with Clyde after finding an audience with his discussion videos rather than the planned ARG with him as the face; they're implicitly formed from Pastra's self-doubt over his choice, calling themselves "the culmination of all that regret and lost potential".
- Formula-Breaking Episode: The channel primarily covers works of the Horror genre, or at least works that feature horror elements, which makes the Sonic CD video a notable departure. The focus on horror seems to even be enforced by Lankmann, who by the end of the video calls out Pastra for the departure.
- Honest John's Dealership: Lankmann has an "evil alter-ego", Swaggart "The Swankmann" Salesworth, who comes out whenever Pastra's doing a promo, who acts just like an especially supernatural one of these. He's an Affably Evil Spamton-esque salesman closer to infomercials than spam emails, who's not above transforming someone into a marketable plushie to sell them off and kidnapping their friends to force them to hawk the product in question.
- Hostile Show Takeover:
- Lankmann pulls this on Pastra's channel out of resentment for the purpose of his creation being abandoned in favor of Clyde, along with his ARG being neglected in favor of videos that put Pastra in the spotlight.
- In a more comedic tone, every other Special Guest ends up breaking into Pastra's home to take over his channel for a segment in a few videos. By the time DMuted's segment in the Security Breach: RUIN video was done and over, Pastra's already fed up with the repeated takeovers.Pastra: Okay, okay, enough of that! I am sick and tired of everyone breaking into my house and thinking they can just take over my channel for the day. It was terrifying when Lankman did it, it was infuriating when Phil did it, and this is just plain confusing!
- Played for Horror in the Iron Lung video, where after some instances of Foreshadowing, the footage shifts to a series Live-Action footage of Pastra dealing with a stalker, who implicitly gets murdered by them after he refuses to abide by their orders.
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Pastra prefaces his discussion of Critters: A New Binge that he won't be saying anything exaggerated or hyperbolic about the contents of the show, expressing this trope at the Big Bad being the Critter President, the two character (Christopher and his mom) having only one defining character trait that is important to the plot, and The Reveal of Christopher actually inheriting Critter DNA due to his mom having a one night stand with the Critter President.Pastra: The entire plot of this show happens, all because his mother had sex with the fucking Critter President, and gave birth to his child! I told you that these one-note character traits would somehow be relevant to the story of this show—I fucking told you!
- Ominous Visual Glitch: Lankman's appearance is accompanied by the video suddenly halting with a glitchy distortion.
- Papa Wolf: During his playthrough of Bendy and the Dark Revival, he develops an immediate fondness towards little Bendy, even after the twist that he's a de-powered form of the Ink Demon, and becomes very protective of him. And once he sees The Reveal that the Keepers experimented on and tortured Bendy to the point of making him cry to keep him in this weakened state, he is furious.Pastra: I'M KILLING THESE MOTHERFUCKERS! THEY TORTURED HIM AND MADE HIM CRY! […] I'M KILLING EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! THEY HURT MY BABY!!!
- Sound-Effect Bleep: Phisnom's filthy language in the Hello Neighbor video gets subject to these type of edits, censoring certain words with the Neighbor's gasps and grunts; his Cluster F-Bomb in particular using a variety of sound effects from the game.
- Special Guest:
- Phil of Phisnom suddenly busts into Pastra's house during their Hello Neighbor video to (falsely) call out Pastra for reviewing the game with their usual positive attitude — and after that misunderstanding, proceeds to go on an extended scathing rant about the gameplay of the game until they're forced to leave.
- DMuted, after disguising as Pastra for who knows how long in the RUIN video, reveals themselves to discuss the antagonist of the DLC, The Mimic, and their origin.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Discussed with The Scarecrow. Pastra finds that most works that use the character only do so for the sake of using their fear toxin, rather than explore the character themselves — Batman: The Animated Series, a show that redefined a bunch of its characters, portrayed Scarecrow in a manner that primarily focuses on his fear toxin, with his established backstory and relevance to the conflict being otherwise secondary.
