Yogscast Minecraft Series
We start off quite simple, but then, as you go along, things get more complicated.—Simon, Part 5: "The Legend of Pig Island"
The Minecraft Series is a catch-all description for the Yogscast current flagship channel content. It started as a Let's Play of the hit game Minecraft by Lewis and Simon. However, after a few unusual events and weird encounters with a mysterious character named Israphel it turned into a wildly popular Machinima.
The bulk of the Minecraft series is composed of a semi-improvised comedy drama, where Lewis and Simon play the parts of a Xephos, a heroic 'Spaceman', and Honeydew, a mighty dwarf, respectively. The series is set in the fictional land of Minecraftia, where Xephos and Honeydew encounter a range of colorful characters, and, by virtue of their talent and skill (or a succession of lucky flukes), become worshiped as mighty heroes by the citizens of the land.
Season 1 of this was something of a Let's Play about survival multiplayer in Minecraft. Later, after collecting materials at an outpost of obsidian, Xephos and Honeydew build a portal to another realm, releasing an evil and hostile figure, Israphel, which they subsequently pursue. The Filler Season 2 was a survival map of Minecraft on a desert island, later becoming linked to the Israphel saga after an airship approaches. By Season 3, so far the longest and dubbed Shadow of Israphel, they destroy this portal and others like it, engaging in a full-scale war against Israphel and his Cult.
Other videos in the series include custom map play throughs, Mod spotlights that Hannah of the Yogscast often participates in, and Minecraft update coverage.
The series can be found here.
The series as a whole
- Accidental Innuendo: Often invoked and lampshaded by the other saying "I'm sorry?"
- Action Bomb: Creepers.
- Exclusively Evil: The hostile mobs, supposedly, and, according to Simon, cows.
- Anti-Hero: Simon and Lewis are type II.
- Ascended Extra: Professor Grizwald only appeared in writing in an adventure map, but his memorable voice acting done by Simon made him into a One Episode Wonder that made him become a part of the Shadow of Israphel backstory (spelled "Grizwold") in the Legend of Verigan special.
- Attack! Attack! Retreat! Retreat!: They have often chased an enemy, found several more enemies (or just one they didn't expect) and quickly backed off. Doesn't usually help.
- Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: One of the reasons why it takes a while for anything to get done is that Lewis and Simon, to their own admission, keep getting distracted by interesting things that have no baring in the story.
- Badass: Simon is constantly zigzagging in and out of this, quickly dealing with zombies and skeletons one episode and being afraid of a single Creeper the next. Lewis does this as well, though to a lesser extent.
- Berserk Button: Simon doesn't appreciate enemies attacking him in the middle of speaking.
"You little bugger! Come 'eeere!"
- Don't attack Lewis in front of his dog. You will be mauled.
- Do not make any sort of threat to Daisy's safety! Old/Knight_Peculier WILL kill you! King_Finbar learned this the hard way.
- Big Eater: In-game, Simon and Lewis constantly ingest an ungodly amount of pork, bread, fish, cake, soup, and cookies. This is mostly due to them constantly being hurt as a result of their own clumsiness.
- Big No: Simon goes to town with a particularly large one when they discover the yogscave has been destroyed at the start of Shadow of Israphel.
- Simon also just does this whenever something bad happens, like him or Lewis dying, Old_Peculier passing out, or Lewis killing Daisy the cow.
- Blatant Lies:
- Down there just be hard tack and bilging gear.
- You're miles away from that creeper-infested planetoid, Simon. Miles away.
- I just went for a piss...I didn't burn anything....I DIDN'T BURN HIM!!!
- Bow and Sword in Accord: Simon and Lewis go with this - Simon more often using the Bow, and Lewis more often using the Sword, but they do take turns. How much it helps them out is up for debate.
- Brought to You by The Letter "S": For a shortish period in 2011, Honeydew had an S (for Simon...and Superman) emblazoned on his chest.
- Butt Monkey:
- Simon. He seems to always be the first one enemies go after. He also doesn't see Creepers when they sneak up on him (and Lewis only remembers to warn him some of the time), usually causing him to be stealth-bombed.
- Lewis as well, though mainly due to Simon hitting him for seemingly no reason.
- The Chew Toy: Lewis is sometimes subjected to this, with Simon hitting him for no real reason at all, to cheer him up, when he is pissed, because he wants to dye him black, to knock him over a bottomless pit, or because he's "pressing" him.
- The Cameo:
- Total Biscuit's grave is in one of the Shadow of Israphel videos.
- Total Biscuit, Notch, and deadmau5 seem to cameo occasionally in side events such as Granny_Bacon's funeral and a livestream event, but they're actually all bots. Total Biscuit in particular is annoyed by this, as he had sworn to never appear in a Minecraft video.
- Canine Companion: Wolves, whenever they have one. They usually die after a few minutes. Simon gets a damn army of these (around a dozen) when showing off the Biospheres mod.
- Fumblemore had one in the "Legend of Verigan" livesteam before it burned to death.
- Argus_Eyeless has a dog.
- Catch Phrase:
- Simon's "Follow me!" and "Cooooome 'eeeeeeere!" ("Come here!")
- Simon's girlish "Awwww!" along with Lewis' somewhat less girlish one.
- They call each other "Friend" or "Pal" an awful lot.
- Lampshaded somewhat when they first arrive at the Mistral City graveyard and find their pre-planned graves. The prepared epitaph on Xephos's (Lewis's) grave is, rather touchingly, "Goodbye, Friends!"
- Any official merchandise is sent with a thank-you card containing the message "Thanks for the support, Friend!"
- Simon doing a crude rendition of the Yogscast opening theme song with his voice during awkward silences.
- Humming the chest opening music from The Legend of Zelda whenever they find some rare treasure. The "found a secret" from the same series and a simple angelic choir sound also pops up in a similar fashion.
- The charming but odd way Simon says "Hellloooooo!"
- "Balls to it" and variations.
- Asking/saying that someone's "Ballsed it up" whenever someone severely screws something up.
- "Hooraaaaaay!" whenever they escape a deadly situation or find something good. Simon tends to say this more, with Lewis sometimes following up with his less-excited one.
- Simon says "WHOOP" when trying to be cautious or coming very close to danger.
- The Diggy Diggy Hole song, as well as all of its variations.
- Lewis' "hup!" when ever he does a jumping puzzle.
- Fuckin' Hell's bells
- Nooooooo!!! Why would you do that?!!
- See you later, shitlord!
- "This is A-MA-zing..!"
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Simon and Lewis. They spend a good bit of the journey goofing off, causing property damage, getting distracted by shiny objects and generally having a laugh. And then an NPC does something like try to attack a wall they're rebuilding or torture a character they like and they kick so much arse it's unbelievable.
- Deadpan Snarker: Simon and Lewis both manage this when the other is being particularly silly or dense.
- Peculier has his moments.
"The signal tower doesn't need to be that bright..."
- Lysander too.
- Department of Redundancy Department: In "Shadow of Israphel" Part 12,
Mr_Banjo: "This is a beautiful and exciting and fun and exciting place!"
- Drop the Hammer:
- Simon inexplicably has one while playing as Verigan in the Legend of Verigan Charity Livestream.
- Lewis' main weapon in the Aether mod.
- Epic Fail: When Simon, Lewis, and Skylord_Lysander try to sneak into Skylord_Jasper's house, the use a waterfall to quietly make their way down. Skylord Lysander doesn't make it in, and instead gets washed off of the roof.
- When Simon and Lewis play a game of YogGolf, Simon tries to make a simple shot through a gap in a wall... and misses six times... from a couple of inches away.
- Every time they try to build themselves a bridge or stairs to walk across a gap or get out of a hole. After playing Minecraft so much, you'd think they would have some clue about how to do it properly, but as seen in their attempt to rescue Um_Bongo in Shadow of Israphel Part 29, Lewis always manages to block someone else's way with a misplaced block and doesn't even try to break it, while Simon just forgets to put something to stay on under himself BEFORE walking towards empty space and falls from the Skyhold.
Um_Bongo: "Don't take me with you down there."
- They make CHAINS of these in the "The Return" adventure map. Simon accidentally launches an empty minecart ahead on the tracks, then goes with his own. Because of some kind of glitch, he catches fire along the way and dies while riding the cart. Lewis follows the tracks as well, catches fire too but stays alive because he has food, but then he bumps into the first, empty minecart and just lets himself get carried backwards all the way to the start of the tracks, catching fire a second time along the way because of the glitch. Later, Simon manages to get cart-jacked halfway through another minecart ride... By a random pigman. How that happened, he never managed to explain.
- They also manage this on some of the custom map playthroughs, having twice blown up a map so badly they couldn't finish it.
- Surprisingly, Creeper_Boss does this in his first appearance. While Simon and Lewis had to actually fight Zombie_Boss, Creeper_Boss just blows himself up before the heroes can attack, and only deals slight damage. He's more careful in future episodes, though.
- Flanderization: Simon used to be slightly dull and use TNT a bit to blow up doors. Now he's Too Dumb to Live and uses TNT to build bridges over jumping puzzles.
- Jumping puzzles over lava, no less.
- Flat What:
- Lewis does a hilarious one in part 4 of "The Tree Of Life:
Simon: So yeah, just two men, swimming together under a starry night sky. Nothing wei-
Lewis: Well, technically, you're a dwarf.
Simon: Right, right. A man and a dwarf, swimming under the night sky. Nothing weird about this at all.
Lewis: Right.
Simon: ...Lewis, I'm not wearing any pants.
(Beat)
Lewis: What.
- Lysander gives us one after Simon dismounts from a plane indoors and teleports through a ceiling in episode 27 of Shadow of Israphel.
- Father Braeburn has a blink and you miss it one when Lewis falls off the sky platforms, dies, and then comes back and gets his stuff a few minutes later from where he fell.
- This is practically a Catch Phrase of Simon's, especially during Lewis' mod showcases.
- Genre Savvy: Lewis is generally like this when he isn't off being an Idiot Hero with Simon.
- Lewis asked Simon to hold the holy record when Mistral City burned down because he realized he himself dies more often.
- Guest Star Party Member: Both in the canon Shadow of Israphel videos and in custom Minecraft maps.
- In Shadow of Israphel, Old_Peculier sometimes lends a hand with the duo's adventures, but typically leaves after a while. Likewise, PirateTinman helped the duo out for a bit... before being ditched because the Yogscast couldn't figure out a puzzle to get all three party members across. Skylord_Lysander occasionally delves in this, too.
- Some Shadow of Israphel NPCs participate in non-Shadow of Israphel videos. For example, Fumblemore was participating in the first livestream event, and Old_Peculier helped the Yogscast explain the 1.2 Beta update. Fumblemore also tagged along in the Yogscast's adventure in the "Super Hostile Canopy Carnage" maps, along with Swampy_Bogbeard.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: When the duo isn't dressed in stronger armor already given to them for a big battle, Simon normally takes weaker armor when he and Lewis have to share. This usually means leather. This is because Lewis ostensibly needs the more durable armor for the hits he will inevitably take, as he is the aggressive melee fighter, while Simon, who is The Archer, doesn't get hit quite as much, unless an enemy gets the drop on him from behind. Or a creeper is anywhere near him. Which is always.
- The leather cap keeps getting re-purposed into different items. From Shadow of Israphel Parts 3 to 11 it's Granny_Bacon's head. In Part 12, it appears to be Mr Banjo's monkey head. In Part 26 it's a ball gag. From Parts 27 to 30 it becomes a pair of goggles that Simon loves because of Rule of Cool.
- Hit and Run Tactics: The typical method of dealing with creepers when playing Minecraft
- Honor Before Reason: In their earlier videos. When presented with a "jumping across lava" challenge, they decide that they won't tunnel around the lava or just make a pathway across because it isn't in the spirit of the challenge. Their later videos...well, given all the "/give Xephos 46 1" that goes on whenever they can't solve a challenge, this can safely be called total aversion.
I don't like cheating. I've never liked cheating.—Lewis, Season 1, episode 15
- Idiot Hero:
- Simon is quite naive whenever it comes to puzzles, traps, or communication with NPCs.
- Arguably both Lewis and Simon are this, though Lewis isn't quite as bad, especially at communication.
- Lysander has his moments, from allowing himself to be swept off Jasper's roof to constantly getting lost while looking for something.
- Improbable Weapon User:
- Simon's flint and tinder, and temporarily Lewis's bucket of lava. Lampshaded by them, too, calling it their nonconventional weapons of choice.
- In the Star Trek: The Original Series map, Lewis beat two spiders to death with a lever.
- Inept Mage: Fumblemore.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: Taken to almost an art form; the only thing stopping Simon and Lewis from mining out entire buildings for loot in Minecraft is a combination of a watchful NPC and their own incompetence.
- This is just ridiculous with them. Lewis has recently started a habit of stealing arrows from dispenser traps whenever they come across one. Possibly justified, since the arrows would hurt them if the dispensers were activated, which is nearly unavoidable. Plus they need arrows because they use their bows a lot. And technically there ain't no rule against stealing arrows from the dispensers.
- They spend almost an entire episode trying to steal from Skylord_Jasper.
- Kill It with Fire:
- Seems to be Simon's preferred method of combat, other than being the bowman of the pair. Bonus fit, seeing as how a good half of the vanilla creatures they fight in Minecraft are supernatural (Zombies and Skeletons).
Simon: KILL IT! Burn it with fire!
- Lewis temporarily adopted this way of fighting as well with a bucket of lava and kiting.
- Jock_Fireblast likes this as well.
- Old_Peculier destroyed a chicken this way, as well as most of the surrounding forest, in the 1.2 update video.
- Israphel destroyed Santa's grotto this way in the "Santa of Chrismaphel" charity special.
- The Lancer: Played with a little bit, but Simon is arguably this, while Lewis is the one who comes up with most of their ideas and communicates with most of the NPCs. The Yogscast Wiki also claims that Lewis is the de facto leader of the duo.
- Large Ham: A PRIME EXAMPLE OF THIS TROPE WOULD BE THE BRILLIANT PROFESSOR GRIIZZZWAAAAAALLLD!!! HE YELLS EVERYTHING HE SAAAAAYYYYS!!!
- Somehow made even more hammy in the Calmere Nightmare adventure map:
Simon: Am I hamming it up just a little bit too much?
Lewis: You're like Jean-Luc Picard doing Shakespeare.
- Skylord_Lysander, when not being the Straight Man, does this every now and then, yelling "For Victory!" every time he jumps into a dangerous situation. In Shadow of Israphel Part 30, Lewis started slipping Lysander's speech patterns into Grizwaldesque ones, which Simon noticed.
- Let's Play: What the Minecraft videos were before the addition of NPCs and a story arc.
- The custom map playthroughs are straight examples of this.
- Shadow of Israphel is still basically this, in so far as they're playing a game and recording their commentary in reaction to it (they've said in interviews they aren't told the story, so their commentary is mostly unscripted). The game just isn't being played as intended.
- Mad Libs Catchphrase:
- "That's a very nice everything you have here" occasionally replaces "everything" with something else, depending on the situation.
- "I'm an X, and I'm Y-ing a Z..."
- "X, AWAY!" Where X was first "Sean Bean", then most famously "Swampy", and later just "Simon", who does the same voice every time.
- Magic Misfire: Happens a lot when Fumblemore tries to cast spells, with explosive results (except when he makes the Healing Potion for Old Peculier or Flies).
- Only Sane Man: Lewis is sometimes subjected to this whenever Simon starts making impulsive decisions.
- Skylord_Lysander is definitely this when ever he's part of the party. He scolds Xephos and Honeydew for the things they break, he constantly has to remind them to stay on track, and in every video he appears in the heroes do something that completely baffles him. Lysander is quite possibly the most sensible character in the cast.
- Out-of-Character Moment: At one point during the Legend of Verigan charity livestream, Lewis (who is playing Karpath) yells at a young Templar_Adaephon, after the young templar snaps at Professor Grizwald for needing to rest so often, which shocks everyone. Justified in that Templar_Adaephon is Karpath's apprentice. Lewis generally just acts generally braver than normal during the livestream.
Karpath/Xephos/Lewis: Cull your toungue young Templar! We need the old man well and rested!
- Lewis gets another one in the Mine Little Pony mod, near the beginning, as he starts acting surprisingly bossy to the others. Simon even calls him out on it.
Lewis: Fumblemore, where's this house? My ponies aren't doing very well. Where's my rubber tree orchard? Where's my house, guys? What's going on?
Simon: We've only been playing five minutes! Bloody hell!
(...)
Lewis: Fumblemore, I expect that house to be done by the time it's dark, so get on with it. Everyone...
Simon: You're very bossy! I don't think this is really in the spirit of My Little Pony.
Lewis: (starts laughing)
Simon: It's supposed to be about friendship and working together...and stuff.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Dwarves, if it will be taking any material from WoW. Played staight with Simon's character, Honeydew, who is quite proud of his heritage.
- Poor Communication Kills: Simon.
- Record Needle Scratch:
- In the Yogscast Teaches Athene Minecraft video, the Yogscast theme is interrupted to play another track.
- The opening music suddenly stops in the Weeping Angels mod spotlight, when Lewis spots an Angel.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Simon is red, eager to cause damage and wreak havoc and clearly the most spirited about this experiment. Lewis is blue, thinking things through sometimes too carefully, and hardly unnerved. During Planetoids in Minecraft, while Simon was loudly crying over mobs spawning, at night, left alone, and having died earlier, Lewis ignored him and commented on how the clouds were "causing some trouble for him."
- Running Gag: They always run into a Creeper (an enemy that explodes) every few episodes or so and they almost always explode.
- Explosions in general, considering their tried-and-tested way of solving puzzles in Minecraft. "/give Honeydew 46 1" (the server command to give Simon a block of TNT) has become a fan in-joke in its own right.
Simon: Fuck it, let's do this the Yogscast way.
- Lewis and Simon completely flipping their shits over the sight of a monster.
- Simon's several love interests. First Daisy_Duke, then Granny_Bacon, then Isabel_Peculier. Possibly justified considering that the first two were kidnapped (and in Granny's case, killed) shortly.
- Lewis says something which is Accidental Innuendo, and Simon says "I'm sorry?"
Lewis: I need to go get some wood.
Simon: I'm sorry?
- Simon punching Lewis down holes and ladders in adventure maps.
- Their hatred of jumping puzzles, especially ones with lava.
- Simon and Lewis have also come to hate lever and button puzzles as well.
- There's been various mentions of a character named "Bob", usually to break or mock a serious mood.
- Simon's breaking of the laws of physics perplexing Skylord_Lysander seems to be becoming one of these.
- Sequence Breaking: What happens with excessive use of TNT. In the third part of their playthrough of the Forgotten Temple, they stumble upon a message from the mapmaker asking what they [1] were doing.
- In their Shadow of Israphel series, after escaping Grimjaw's little dungeon thing with Tinman, Simon and Lewis got separated from Tinman by being distracted by a giant dragon sculpture. They ended up hiding in a tomb of some kind because of a thunderstorm and giant enemy Zerg Rush instead of heading back to Barbecue Bay like Tinman did. They soon lampshaded this when they left, with one of them saying they probably "weren't supposed to be there yet."
- Shout-Out:
- "Maybe we should just get up on the wall and swear at him until he's forced to retreat."
- "There's probably something on TV Tropes about that."
- Simon and Lewis remark on how Fumblemore is probably a reference to Dumbledore.
- "I have a good idea who did this. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."
- At one point, Fumblemore asks, "Can wizards swim in this game?"
- A reformed Creeper in Mistral City is named Astley, and Lewis was afraid he might get Rickroll'd.
- "Why so serious? ...If he asks you if you want to see a trick, just say "no, not interested".
- Apparently, the papers to climb the Skylords' tower are blank because they're psychic. Lewis and Simon also assume that the Skylords are related to the Time Lords.
- The two leads are a dwarf from Khaz Modan and William Thomas Riker.
- "Underground, underground, zombling free, The Zombles of Terrordale ah-are we..."
- "What can I do for you Zapdos?"
- The undead pirate dwarf called LeChuck.
- The house from Up is behind Dread Pirate Norris' ship.
- "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this! ...Hey, listen!"
- "Up and out, like the Great Glass Elevator."
- "POWER FIST!"
- Episode 30 of Shadow of Israphel is titled Ghost in the Shell.
- "It's turtles all the way down" from Episode 30 is a reference to the first chapter of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time.
- The last episode of the first season ends in a manner similar to an episode of Lost, with the logo slowly rotating and the exact same sound playing as in the show.
- "I did not do it! It naht. Oh hai Lewis."
- They reference the Supernatural method of killing vampires a couple of times.
- "There's a zombie in the mi-ine!~"
- "That's a very nice X you have there..." is a (very frequent) reference to the popular Minecraft meme, which ironically became even more popular with their series.
- Simon has taken to humming the The Flintstones theme song whenever Lewis mentions bedrock.
- Stuff Blowing Up:
- This is what happens whenever Simon gets his hands on some TNT.
- This is Fumblemore's modus operandi.
- Creeper_Boss.
- Take Up My Sword:
- Old_Peculier's father to Old_Peculier, to vanquish the evil spirit and destroy the Hellgates.
- A less extreme example in the Wizard Burgmund custom adventure map, where a person writes a note saying to take his items and destroy the portals.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch: "Man up, bitch!"
- Troll:
- DaveChaos trolled Simon and Lewis in the Yoglympics map when he put a button labelled to go up into the Dodgit event that actually threw Simon and Lewis down into a pit. He then proceeded to try and blow up the winner's podium with Lewis and Simon on it after his "special message" on the wall from the map makers (BOOM!), but just missed them.
- In "Sunshine of Israpony", Lewis and Simon claimed that the niccolite ore (which looks like diamond from a distance) was trolling them.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Simon and Lewis snark at each other, snap at each other (especially when stressed), hit each other and on one memorable occasion Lewis outright kills Simon's character so he can become the Grim Reaper. Similar stuff goes on in all their other videos. But hugging is also attempted, and the odd moment of comedic sappiness making it blatantly obvious they're good friends.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Simon's character, Honeydew.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Even after defending the wall near Verigan's Hold from their boss, Simon and Lewis will panic if a Creeper is nearby.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe:
- The abandoned "Ye Olde Watche Towere", just outside Mistral. A less butcherede example is Granny Bacon's Greasy Spoon Shoppe.
- "Ye Old Ale Pub" in The Curse of Sunny Springs map.
- The World Is Just Awesome:
- Any of the pre-made dungeons and towns in the Israphel saga. Simon and Lewis typically have no idea what they're getting themselves into every episode, so they often awe at the scenery and detail put into the settings. And besides: it's Minecraft. It's bound to happen.
- The Coral and Water Shader and the Amazing Water mods do a good job of this too; the latter is mostly just a couple of minutes of Lewis and Simon going "wow".
Israphel saga
- Action Survivor: Old_Peculier, who is a retired knight, has a smattering of prowess with the sword (enough to keep him from becoming The Load), but is not as good as Simon or Lewis, and needs to rest often and drink a ton of water because of his age. This is then subverted twice, but in two different ways. First, he becomes The Load because of The Taint. Then, he takes a level in badass and becomes Knight_Peculier.
- Adventure Towns: First was Terrorvale, a small, out-of-the-way town with only three NPCs and a couple quests built on top of a vast cave system. Then came Mistral City, an immense city of airships, floating castles, shops, NPCs and even a mine dungeon, now burnt to a crisp then entirely covered by trees thanks to Swampy. Then there was the Carnivale de Banjo, a carnival owned by an eccentric man. Then came Barbecue Bay, a port under siege from pirates built right on top of a nether portal. Then was the Skyhold, home to the Skylords and new location of the Carnivale. Then was Stoneholm, subterranean home to the dwarves.
- Allohistorical Allusion: In the Legend of Verigan flashback, Simon and Lewis have fun debating the strange green exploding monsters, how they tend to creep up on people, and how they seem to be made out of those (creeper) vines that grow on trees, and end up dubbing them "viners".
- The Aloner: PirateTinman, who has been trapped in Grimmjaw's teasure hold for decades because two people are required to solve the first puzzle. Ends up being ditched again by the Yogscast duo because they couldn't figure out the proper way to solve the final puzzle, but somehow manages to get out of the puzzle anyway, Hand Wave'd in a parody animation in the beginning of one of the next episodes.
- Amusement Park: Carnivale del Banjo. Lampshaded; Simon and Lewis refer to the local NPCs as "carny folk" and suspect them of cheating them out of money.
- The Archer: Simon is very skilled with a bow. Too bad he perfers the sword. Israphel is a goddamn sniper with his bow.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: While in Madame Nubescu's scrying chamber, you can see one of the signs labeling the contents of the chests around the room says "Tomes of Nightmare, Prophecy and Tasty Cooking".
- Ascended Extra: Professor Grizwald only appeared in writing in an adventure map, but his memorable voice acting done by Simon made him into a One Episode Wonder that made him become a part of the Shadow of Israphel backstory (spelled "Grizwold") in the Legend of Verigan special.
- Ass Shove: How PirateTinman plays the security tape.
Simon: Oh God, he's going to bend over and slip the disk between his butt cheeks.
PirateTinman: *Bends over*
Simon: Oh my God, he is as well!
- Awesome McCoolname: In Shadow of Israphel Part 24, Lewis refers to his diamond sword as his "Diamond Sword of Awesome" after he gets accidentally killed by Simon and loses it.
- Bad Future: Appears in a map-fragment induced vision in Shadow of Israphel Part 25.
- Big Bad: Israphel, or at least the closest by far.
- Big Damn Heroes: PirateTinman, who saved Isabel from Israphel in a flashback.
- Bigger on the Inside: The "plane crafting table" in Shadow of Israphel episode 27.
- Big No:
- Simon goes to town with a particularly large one when they discover the Yogcave has been destroyed at the start of Shadow of Israphel.
- Simon also just does this whenever something bad happens, like him or Lewis dying, Old_Peculier passing out, or Lewis killing Daisy the cow.
- Played tragically straight by Simon in Episode 38 when Knight_Peculier falls into the lava and dies.
- Bizarrchitecture: Fumblemore's house, which he always rebuilds differently when he destroys part of it with a particularly destructive spell.
- Black and White Morality: Good guys are good, bad guys are bad, and it's just a question of who is on which side in the end. Especially since the good guys are also Idiot Heroes.
- Black Comedy Rape: Ep. 26, though it's only implied.
- Double Standard Rape (Male on Male)
- There's just as much implication that it wasn't rape. Which just makes it funnier.
- Black Spot: The pirates describe the fragment of Karpath's map as this.
- Book Ends: A bit before discovering the town full of NPCs, Lewis and Simon build a portal to the Nether (which doesn't work). At the end of the season, they are at the same portal, preparing to venture into it. However, they end up not trying to enter until the start of season three, with season two being more of a breather season. And the portal still doesn't work.
- Season three starts with the Celaeno on fire, and Simon and Lewis trying to reclaim their Survival Island items from the wreckage. Much later (though not at the end of the series, but at the end of an important part), they find Mistral City also on fire, and are trying to reclaim items from the wreckage. This time, specifically the Holy Record from the church.
- In Survival Island (a custom map that eventually starts having slight relevance to the main plot), they are in a slight hurry at the start to get coal for torches. Near the end, they again go looking for coal, this time to fuel the airship that will take them home.
- Brain Bleach: Both Lewis and Skylord_Lysander reach for the Super Whitening Extra Strength variety when they hear certain... noises coming from the Greasy Spoon Shoppe during Simon's fling with Granny_Bacon.
- Camp Gay: Skylord_Jasper
- Cerebus Syndrome: From the 100% light-hearted beginning as a tutorial teaching others how to play Minecraft, to a highly popular dramedy series with an epic soundtrack, both the plot and the characters mature and become grimly serious. Meanwhile, Simon and Lewis do not (for the most part). Played for some laughs with Mood Whiplash, as the presence of the two heroes stops some well-written scenes that could've been pulled from a horror movie from being downright nightmarish. Such as episode 38's horrific aftermath of some guy who ripped his own bones out that is glanced over by Simon hitting Lewis with an arm and laughing at the slapping sound it makes.
- Chaos Architecture: Lysander describes Fumblemore's floating tower as having this.
- Characterization Marches On: Skylord_Jasper started out as extremely loud and extremely angry all the time. He even threatens to murder Lysander for stealing his towels. The only hint that he might have homosexual tendencies is his preference for pink in his home and Lysander calling him a "fag" while distracting him. When he reappears in Shadow of Israphel Part 26 he is no longer aggressive toward the heroes, he is flamboyantly gay, and he's calling Lysander "lover".
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The sand that always seems to appear in odd places during the Shadow of Israphel series.
- The "Cave of Terror," seen in the first episode, turned out to be not a cave at all, just the underside of a cliff. They decide to use this place to set up a portal to the Nether, which doesn't work. Turns out it may have resurrected Israphel from the dead, allowing him to let evil spread through the world once again.
- The pumpkins' Heads-Up Display, originally just something silly and lighthearted becomes important when the pumpkins (now TVs) held a cryptic clue to find the third map fragment in their HUDs.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Simon has shown shades of this, with his many love interests, who he seems to have only found attractive because of their looks. For further proof, watch the introduction to Shadow of Israphel episodes 21-23.
- Clip Show: The latter half of Shadow of Israphel Episode 35, being told by Knight_Peculier.
- Co-Dragons: Jock_Fireblast, Reverend_John, Creeper_Boss and Zombie_Boss to Israphel
- Comically Missing the Point: In part 10 of Survival Island, Lewis discovers the Temple of the Lost Curator...while Simon is distracted by all the iron and coal that's in front of it.
- When Lewis, Simon, and Old_Peculier come across the Hellgate the former two made much earlier on:
Simon: "OH MY GOD!"
Lewis: "OH MY GOD! A sheep just fell out of the sky!"
- A hilarious (Acted out) one is given by Simon in "The Jackal and the Cave", when they come across a gruesome cave painting depicting The Jackal mauling a small group of people.
Simon: "Okay, okay, I think I can understand this. See, these three guys have been having a barbecue, and this is an x-ray view, showing that they've eaten a bunch of hot dogs,[2] and that black swirly thing in the background [3] is the smoke, coming from the grill."
- Cool Airship: Skylords Jasper and Lysander have one, with Mistral City acting as the main port.
- Crew of One:
- The airships don't seem to have any crew other than a Skylord captaining it, plus passengers.
Lewis: Well I assume it's more than one person on there. It's quite a big thing. Maybe it's one guy though.
- Dead Person Conversation: Simon and Lewis have a very revealing one with Verigan in a vision in Shadow of Israphel Part 25, showing them that Israphel will take over the word if they fail.
- Destructive Savior: Where they go, explosions, fire, and stolen items tend to follow.
- Disk One Final Boss: Episodes 15 and 16 of Shadow of Israphel are all about this, consisting of Simon and Lewis rescuing a wounded Old_Peculier from a deserted guard tower, and then ending up in an epic battle against Israphel and his hordes of minions,and repairing the wall while the enemy is regrouping. All the while, the three are constantly bombarded by a Zerg Rush of spiders, and forced to deal with The Sand everywhere.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Simon traps Strongman_Bruno in a tree as revenge for him cheating him out of a victory in a contest of strength.
- Damsel in Distress: Twice; first Daisy_Duke, who is currently somewhere in the Nether, then Granny_Bacon, who didn't last very long. Both of which were Simon's (very temporary) love interests, funny enough.
- Dude in Distress: Knight_Peculier in Shadow of Israphel episode 15
- Doomed Hometown: The Yogcave, which was blown to smithereens by Israphel. Stoneholm is this for Honeydew and Spacker LeChuck, as the people were enslaved by their resurrected king, and most of the populace was turned into zombies.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Knight_Peculier's death is out of nowhere and painfully anticlimactic. It takes Lewis several seconds to even realize what happened.
- Um_Bongo's death is also very sudden, but unlike the above example it didn't appear to be scripted, but instead the result of a poorly aimed jump.
- Dug Too Deep: Simon says this word for word when exploring the Deepcore Tunnels in part 33.
- Dumb Muscle: Strongman_Bruno.
- Emo Teen: Simon's description of Young!Fumblemore.
- Evil Overlord: What Israphel will apparently become if the duo fails, resulting in the Bad Future seen in their vision.
- Evil Versus Evil: the pirate ship battle between Grimmjaw_Slugface and Jock_Fireblast.
- Exact Time to Failure: As of the ending of Episode 34, an ancient Sand God wakes up and the world ends in 3 days, 7 hours.
- Fail O'Suckyname: Lewis notes his player-invulnerabilty makes him like a superhero. Simon then grants him the names of Uselessnoobman and Terribleatcomputergames Fella.
- Far Side Island: Survival Island pretty much starts off this way.
- Fetch Quest: To make a cure for Old_Peculier, Fumblemore requested a bucket of water (of life), dirt, feathers, creeper powder, and two golden apples. The two golden apples themselves had to obtained by getting diamonds for Granny_Bacon and a record for Father_Braeburn, and stealing them from another NPC. The result? A bucket of muddy water with two golden apples and some feathers in it.
- Another fetch quest appears in Stoneholm. Moira_Magmabloom requires gold, lava, and beer to forge the key to the next area. The result? She gives the duo a lever. Knight_Peculier Lampshades it this time, asking why the duo didn't just make one themselves.
- Find the Cure:
- For Old_Peculier, as he was tainted by Israphel in Shadow of Israphel.
- Later, for Skylord_Baaku in Skyhold. Subverted when Nubescu and/or the Yogscast had the ingredients available. Double subverted when it only delayed his curse.
- Floating Continent: Skyhold
- Fortune Teller: Madame_Nubescu.
- Frothy Mugs of Water: Inverted. The beer in Stoneholm is buckets of milk with a texture pack applied. Bonus points for the new texture having froth on top.
- Funny Background Event: In part 17 of Shadow of Israphel, a zombie is seen lurking about in the background before setting itself on fire and dying.
- The Goggles Do Nothing
Simon: Put the goggles on!
Lewis: Do I get magical powers when I put the goggles on?
Simon: No, but they make you look cool as heck.
- Averted in part 31. Lewis puts them on to protect himself from a plague in Stoneholm (Simon doesn't need them, dwarves are apparently immune to plague) but has to remove them because one of their mods makes you heavier when you have armour on. Fortunately the plague was a lie.
- Grave Humor: The graveyard in Mistral City contains a good selection of this.
- Heartbreaking in Hindsight: When coming across Terrorvale and Old_Peculier for the first time, and realizing they've discovered an imitation of the traditional fantasy RPG village complete with generic, innocuous, friendly barkeep. Simon and Lewis find this absolutely hilarious. Over thirty episodes and a lot of Character Development later we discover that Old_Peculier, the barkeep, had a horrible life, and ran away to Terrorvale and became a barkeep to try and escape the psychological torment of Israphel who's been pretty much haunting him his entire life. It didn't work, culminating in his planning to kill himself right up until the moment Xephos and Honeydew showed up. And even considered poisoning them before deciding to risk trusting them.
- Heel Face Turn: Astley the reformed creeper.
- Hilarious Outtakes: Here and Here. (Major spoilers.)
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Jock_Fireblast is killed in the same fire that he started.
- Home Base: The Yogcave, which is consistently flawed, booby trapped, or on fire. Or outright bombarded while they were away.
- If I Can't Port Here: Grimmjaw blows up part of the bay with his cannons simply because the other pirates wouldn't let him dock his ship in the Bay.
- It Makes Sense in Context: A man in a pilot's outfit and goggles called a Skylord distracting his Camp Gay rival by stealing his pink towels from his mansion so that Simon and Lewis can break in through the roof with a waterfall and attempt to steal his gold record for the third time, which turns out to be hidden in a chest inside his bed. They need this record so that they can give it to a rock n' roll preacher who is also an Elvis impersonator so that he will give them a golden apple in exchange for dedicating his church to the record. That, my friends, is one of many, many, MANY examples.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Granny_Bacon, as seen in a flashback, as well as the Legend of Verigan Charity Livestream.
- Jack of All Stats: Knight_Peculier. He isn't as good with communication or a sword as Lewis, as skilled of a miner or bowman as Simon, or as smart as Skylord_Lysander, but is competent at all of these.
- Jigsaw Puzzle Plot
- Killed Off for Real: While Simon and Lewis frequently come Back from the Dead, as if they were playing regular Minecraft, any "NPCs" who die, outside of the "Legend of Verigan" special at least, remain dead. This applies both to scripted events such as Granny_Bacon's death and apparently accidental deaths, such as Um_Bongo falling to his doom. This rule inexplicably does not apply to Zombie_Boss or Creeper_Boss, who are killed in virtually every encounter, though it's possible Israphel either resurrects them or simply creates new ones.
- As of episode 38, it would appear Knight_Peculier is dead.
- Lethal Joke Character: Young!Fumblemore in the Legend of Verigan Charity livestream. His combat skills are subpar, he constantly destroys his fellow adventurers by mistake with his spells, and can't gather resources without making a mess. However, he is incredibly good at blowing up spawners, and can deal with dense clusters of enemies with a blast of TNT.
- Ludicrous Gibs:
- Jock_Fireblast explodes into bones and porkchops (supposedly flesh) when he dies.
- As do Zombie_Boss and Creeper_Boss during the events listed above under Disk One Final Boss.
- Skylord_Baaku does this quite suddenly, with a suffusion of redstone dust in place of blood, making poor Simon sick.
- Jock_Fireblast explodes into bones and porkchops (supposedly flesh) when he dies.
- MacGuffin: In Shadow of Israphel, the items needed to prove that the heroes' have conquered the trials of Skyhold: Fire, Snow, Leaves, and probably Netherack. They are even called MacGuffins by Simon in Episode 30. He turns out to be right, as Skylord_Lysander admits that they weren't really needed at all just as Simon is wondering why they couldn't have just used a flint and steel to break through the wooden seal.
- Freudian Trio: They become this whenever Old/Knight_Peculier joins them. Simon is the id, Old/Knight_Peculier is the ego, and Lewis is the superego.
- Machinima: Becomes this when a mysterious player attacks them one (in-game) night.
- Major Injury Underreaction: When the Yogscast boys came in for a "How to play Minecraft" video with Jesse Cox on Jesse Cox, Lewis falls in lava. His reaction is quite calm.
Lewis: Oop, I've just fallen in some lava and I died.
Simon: Here is where he died. R.I.P. Lewis. Never forget.
- Simon then walks off.*
- Mauve Shirt: Gareth the creeper and his brother Henry, and their uncle, Mr Astley.
- May–December Romance: Simon and Granny_Bacon.
- Meaningful Name:
- Old_Peculier is old, and a bit quirky. When he becomes Knight_Peculier, this becomes slightly averted - he's a knight, but no longer peculiar.
- A bit less obvious is the fact that he first appears as the owner of a small tavern in a small town, and "old peculiar" is an obscure slang term for beer from a small, local brewery, generally in a small town.
- Jock_Fireblast turns out to be as much of a raging pyromaniac as Simon, as he was the one who burned down Mistral City, and much later, Barbecue Bay.
- The Creepers in general. They usually creep up on Lewis or - much more often - Simon, exploding before they can react or be warned.
- Old_Peculier is old, and a bit quirky. When he becomes Knight_Peculier, this becomes slightly averted - he's a knight, but no longer peculiar.
- Mighty Glacier: Zombie_Boss, due to the fact that he always crouches while walking in order to make him seem more "zombie-like".
- Minor Injury Overreaction: In one episode, while Simon, Lewis, and PirateTinman are trying to dig their way into another part of Grimmjaw's treasure vault, PirateTinman accidentally punches Simon. Simon then starts whining incessently dispite having only having taken one heart of damage. Lewis then replies with the hilarious line "Man up, bitch!"
- "Mission Impossible" Cable Drop: The duo does this when trying to steal Skylord_Jasper's music disk WITH A FREAKING WATERFALL!!
- The Mole: In Shadow of Israphel, this is revealed to be Skylord_Lysander. It later turns this he was framed, and Jock_Fireblast is the real culprit.
- In Episode 29 we learn Skylord_Vitali was this to the Skylords.
- Mood Whiplash:
- In general, the dramatic/story elements of the "official" Shadow of Israphel series is offset by the humor and ineptitude of Simon and Lewis, often cracking jokes and pointing out absurdities as soon as a scene is over. As the series matures with darker themes and the plot of saving the world becomes more grim, the mood whiplash deepens greatly from its completely light-hearted origins.
- The outright horrific depiction of Enoch's final resting place is severely undermined when both Simon and Lewis pick up his limbs and hit each other with them. With sound effects.
- More Dakka: Israphel takes this Up to 11.
- Multi-Episode Flashback: The Legend of Verigan charity livestream.
- Name McAdjective: Simon notes that the crowd Swampy Bogbeard hangs out with would be the likes of "Clucky McFeathers" and "Wooly McBaaface".
- Never Learned to Read: Honeydew and Xephos. Enforced, because all of the notes and map fragments are done through pieces of paper (which are blank), they both have to get NPCs to tell them what the paper is/says. Lewis comments they must not be able to read in Season 3.
- Never My Fault: When Simon accidentally sets the Yogcave on fire:
Lewis: Was that my flint and tinder?
Simon: Yeah... so technically, it's your fault.
- New Age Retro Hippie: Swampy, Fumblemore's brother, who lives in a floating chunk of earth and forces you to climb up using saplings and bone meal. Whether or not this is just Simon and Lewis's speculation of what he sounds like, and not who the character actually is, is up to debate.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Simon and Lewis are the ones that built the portal that led Israphel back to Minecraftia.
- Templar Enoch's expedition to investigate the metal remains ends up having a hand in releasing Israphel.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If Israphel never messed around with Xephos and Honeydew, he never would've lured them to Old_Peculier when he was about to kill himself with poison. The rest is history.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot:
- Spacker LeChuck, a pirate zombie dwarf in a boat.
- PirateTinman, a robot pirate.
- The possessed zombie dwarves in Stoneholm, which are dangerous and unintelligent, unlike Spacker.
- Nobody Poops: Averted. The first time Lewis and Simon meet Fumblemore, he requires some makeshift toilet paper.
- Non Player Characters: A major plot point that causes the Genre Shift from Let's Play to Machinima.
- Nostalgia Level: The ruins of the Yogcave after the trip to Survival Island.
- Off the Rails: Shadow of Israphel has been described by the Yogscast as being like a Dungeons & Dragons adventure, with Simon and Lewis's friends creating an elaborate story for them to play without them knowing the entire story. Thus, (relatively minor) deviations to the main story ensue that the "gamemasters" have to account for and ad-lib. Occasionally leads to Hilarious Outtakes.
- Simon creating a plane inside the aircraft carrier instead of creating it on the carrier is an example in episode 27. Skylord_Lysander is obviously surprised and didn't plan on having to rebuild the plane.
Lysander: Please try not to break the laws of physics any more than you have already...
- As pointed out by many commenters on YouTube, there was a way to get PirateTinman across the lava bridge puzzle instead of just abandoning him...
- Though no NPCs were present to advance the story, the time Simon and Lewis attempt to find shelter at the Temple of Lehparsi after a sudden downpour is definitely this.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: According to the PAX 2011 Yogscast Teleconference, the fight with Jock Fireblast had to be reshot because of one of these, as while Simon completely destroyed him, Lewis, the cameraman, wasn't there to film anything.
- Oh Crap:
Simon: Good news is I've dug our way out. Bad news is we're going to drown.
- One Steve Limit: Averted with Daisy the Yogscave cow, and Daisy_Duke, the missing blacksmith's daughter.
- Orgasmically Delicious: Granny_Bacon's cooked fish.
- Percussive Maintenance: Simon fixes an apparent error in young Granny_Bacon's NPC coding this way, even referencing Fonzie from Happy Days in the process.
- Planet Heck: The Nether, now that it works in multiplayer.
- Port Town: Barbecue Bay, full of loud, talkative pirates - and perhaps even some bootleggers of some kind.
- Posthumous Character: Templar_Enoch, the explorer that worked with Griswold in the desert excavation; Simon, Lewis, and Peculier find an Apocalyptic Log written by him at the excavation in question.
- Rain of Arrows: Israphel's tactic of choice.
- Reformed but Rejected: Mr. Astley the Creeper
- The Reveal: Oh so many in Shadow of Israphel:
- Skylord_Lysander is actually The Mole
- And again in episode 26, where it turns out he isn't.
- Israphel was summoned by the portal Lewis and Simon summoned
- Jock_Fireblast is evil and stole the map fragment. He was the one responsible for burning down Mistral City.
- Old_Peculier's father is actually a knight who needs to destroy Israphel and the portals, but trapped himself in the Nether to also trap Israphel - that is, until Simon and Lewis summoned him (Israphel) again
- Skylord_Lysander is actually The Mole
- Rickroll: Mr. Astley sings "Never gonna give you up", with intermittent hissing, when the heroes find him imprisoned in Stoneholm
- Ring Out Boss: In their first encounter with Zombie_Boss, Lewis kills him by knocking him into a ring of lava around Israphel's castle, which is just as dangerous for them.
- The Rival: Strongman_Bruno and Simon absolutely can't stand each other, and their personalities clash a lot. This is worsened by Bruno cheating Simon out of his victory in a strength contest, and Simon trapping Strongman_Bruno in a tree.
- Sdrawkcab Name: In the temple that Simon and Lewis take shelter in, a sign in front of an obsidian barrier says not to open, or else a beast of sorts named Lehparsi will be unleashed. They don't realize it's backwards for Israphel, and even consider breaking it open just for safety from the current enemy swarm.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: In addition to the wall holding the Sands back, Verigan built a massive machine to keep a Sand God sealed beneath the desert. By the time Lewis, Simon and Peculier find it, the machine has recently failed.
- This Is a Drill: Stoneholm's giant bedrock mining drill.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- Simon ends up burning the floor of the Yogcave when he tries to use his flint and steel to light them a warm, cozy fireplace... on the wooden floor.
- Lewis flooding the Yogcave after tunneling through one of the tower walls. Hell, both Simon and Lewis have a lot of these moments.
- Took a Level in Badass: Old_Peculier, becoming Knight_Peculier.
- Trash the Set: The Yogscast have done this a few times over the course of the Shadow of Israphel series: so far they destroyed the Yogcave, Mistral City, and BBQ Bay. They do, however, either fix or destroy for others to fix some of the older "sets" in the series that they store in either a public museum server or an RPG server for fans to visit.
- Twenty Bear Asses: Almost directly quoted from TV Tropes in Shadow of Israphel Part 7; and yes, they did have a Fetch Quest to Find the Cure.
- The Unintelligible: Zombie_Boss, who only speaks in groans
- The Usual Adversaries: Silverfish. Simon in particular is terrified of them, calling them worse than Endermen, and both Simon and Lewis get mobbed by Silverfish multiplying repeatedly.
- Vague Age: Lampshaded. Old Peculier, who is, well, pretty old, has an uncle, who was around during a time Granny Bacon was young, who seems a little older than Peculier himself, but his father was around during that time too, and a sister who is rather young-looking in the present day and he... Well... Don't think about it too hard. To clarify: Granny Bacon and Templar_Adaephon are both over one hundred years old.
- The Virus: Called "the taint", later during Shadow of Israphel.
- The Voiceless: Israphel.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Simon spewing Jaffa Cakes, following Skylord_Baaku's death.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Jock_Fireblast is ticklish.
- Webcomic Time: At least from the NPCs' point of view, the series is implied to occur over a much shorter timescale than aired.
- In Shadow of Israphel Part 25 (aired June 2011), Spacker_LeChuck mentions part of Swampy's forest being an inn "but weeks ago", even though Mistral City burned down and was evacuated in Part 10 in February.
- In Part 34 (November 2011), the gang have three days until the Jade Sentinel is fully operational. As of May 2012, this is essentially still ongoing.
- Wham! Line: In part 23 of the first season, we have this line.
Old_Peculier: That poor man, his son Israphel was out hunting when the creepers got him.
Mod spotlights
- And Call Him George: In one video, Simon shows off his world (which has the YoGbox compilation mod pack installed) and meets a pink dolphin. He tries to ride it, but it keeps throwing him off. The eventually end up on shore, and Simon coddles the dolphin, which he accidentally beats to death.
- A giant Simon does this to tiny lewis in the Gulliver mod spotlight after nerly killing him with one punch.
As Lewis runs away to hide in a small hole.
Simon: Come here I want to play with you, (Then in a booming voice) I will hug you and squeeze you and call you Lewis.
- Awesome but Impractical: The Skyrim mod, to an extent. While the shouts are not terrible, they ultimately aren't as powerful as they were in the original game and it would be quicker to just slay your enemies with a sword or an arrow to the knee.
- Awesome Yet Practical: The Ugocraft mod can be used to make gates, drawbridges, and even more. Quite useful for castles and forts.
- Boring but Practical: This is how Lewis felt about the Backpack Mod, especially in comparison to the previous Awesome but Impractical Skyrim Mod.
- Buried Alive: The fate of the Weeping Angel that managed to worm its way into Simon's house in his mod spotlight of Weeping Angels. Simon's instincts of being a dwarf kicked in and he Diggy Diggy Hole'd a trap that it fell and got trapped in.
- Brick Joke: Odds are if something explodes, Lewis will go back to showcase a later mod in the resulting hole; For example:
- The nuclear explosion he caused in the Uranium mod spotlight wound up becoming his quarry for the Fossils mod. He also decided to test out the explosives+ mod in a recreated Mistral city after blowing it up in a helicopter.
- During the technic pack mod spotlights, Lewis left after trying out a nuclear reactor that he felt has a dodgy construction. In the very next video, he goes back to look at his house to find out the reactor had overloaded, obliterating his house and most of the cliffside it sat on.
- A Day in the Limelight: Their Wizardcraft spotlight was done via Fumblemore sending them the video and them commentating on it.
- Dueling Movies: Lewis and Simon discuss how disaster movies like Volcano & Dante's Peak, and Armageddon & Deep Impact always come in pairs.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Lewis describes the Boomstick from the Explosives+ mod as this.
- Explosive Breeder: The rabbits, which causes a massive problem for Simon when he shows off his Single Player map with Mo' Creatures, and finds two, which he keeps as pets in his house. He then leaves for a few minutes, finds another one, and brings it home, only to find a dozen baby rabits when he returns, ranging from newborn to about 75% grown up. He puts the third adult rabbit in the house while staring in shock at the swarm of adorable critters. This accelerates the rate of birth. When Simon decides to force his way to the door to get them out, he discovers that he can't get through all the rabbits. [[It Got Worse Then, a few of the oldest children reach full-grown age, and they start breeding too...] This got to the point that he just deleted the file, because his world had been infested and that rabbits were pretty much swarming the landscape.
- Freud Was Right: In Ugocraft Mod Spotlight what is the first thing Simon decides to make given the power to move groups of blocks around? That's right giant pink spinning thrusting flying "winkies".
- Mathematician's Answer: During their showcase of the Fairy Mod, this is Hannah's response when the boys ask her if the pink flowers are the red or yellow ones.
- Mermaid Problem: Discussed as part of a tangent as to how Oxygenated Underwater Bubbles work in the Coral and Scuba Diving mod.
- Mundane Made Awesome: This is how they felt about gravitational pistons in the "More Pistons Mod" spotlight video. You can make bouncy castles!
- Oxygenated Underwater Bubbles: Lewis notes how implausible this trope is when it appears in the Coral and Scuba Diving mod.
- Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: When they showed the Jurrasicraft mod, and Hannah starts killing dinosaurs indiscriminately.
Simon: We got it all wrong! An asteroid didn't kill the dinosaurs! It was Hannah and her diamond sword!
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: In the Zepplin mod video. "That's not Stoneholm or anything."
- Volcano Lair: Fumblemore builds one in the Mine Little Pony mod.
- Why Won't You Die?: Quoted word for word by Simon as Lewis is fighting the Made of Iron Valkyrie Queen in the Aether mod.
Adventure Maps
- The Ace: The reason they take Fumblemore to their adventure maps. He can use magic to fly and explode obstacles, very useful in the Canopy Carnage arc. It was practically made for him.
- Awesome but Impractical: Simon building a bridge of TNT blocks thanks to a previous explosion causing lava to flow in in the Curse of Sunny Springs map. However, he built it right next to the lava where all those blocks can be sparked and explode.
- Big Word Shout: Simon shouting "WHYYYYYY!" after completely messing up a shot in YogGolf.
- Blown Across the Room: Taken to a hilarious extreme with Testificate Golf, a game which involves knocking villager mobs across the map with enchanted sticks.
- Boldly Coming: While exploring the Enterprise-A from the Star Trek: The Original Series movies, Simon, in character as James T. Kirk, wishes to teach an alien spider "the ways of kissing".
- Busman's Holiday: According to Lewis, the Temple of Kikatchu and Curse of Sunny Springs maps are holidays where he and Simon end up saving the world anyway.
- Cheaters Never Prosper:
- Lampshaded by Lewis in The Curse of Sunny Springs, after skipping past two sacrifices and not knowing the other two map co-ordinates to progress.
- Frequently using TNT to bypass puzzles sometimes wrecks the map to the point they HAVE to skip sections of it. It's usually Simon's fault.
- Ironically, one of the biggest example of this trope wasn't their fault; in the Pharoah's curse map, a creeper blew up and activated the anti-cheating measures, blowing up the entire map so that nothing was left.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: The end of Santa's Adventure, with the laughing lasting for quite a while.
- Face Heel Turn: Simon and Lewis both undergo this at the end of their playthrough of the custom map "The Journey", burning down the village. Lewis is especially affected, killing Simon with the Scythe of Death.
- Filler: The adventure maps to the main Israphel arc. The Survival Island videos were this before they were retconned into the story arc.
- Full-Frontal Assault: Simon wound up doing this during the Calmere Nightmare Two map, due to the My Little Pony texture pack not uninstalling correctly.
- I Was Born Ready: Parodied in "The Redmurk Mystery".
Lewis: Right. You ready to kill some spiders, pal? There's quite a few...
Simon: I was born ready to kill some spiders, pal.
- Mr. Exposition: Professor Grizwald usually fulfills this role in adventure maps, due to Simon lapsing into the voice whenever reading the notes they are given.
- Lewis lampshades this in "The Journey", with Simon attempting to do a female Creepy Child voice:
Simon: Dear diary: *Lapses into Grizwald voice*
Lewis: Does everyone in this town have the same voice?
Simon: (Still Professor Grizwald) Yes! Yes we do!
- Later, in the "Mountains of Kikatchu" map, Simon voices Professor Burben, apparently Grizwald's brother, and Dr. Whitewall, who has a different voice but the same speech patterns. Simon chalks it down to a Kikatchu accent.
- Oh Crap: Happens in Monarch of Madness, when Simon and Lewis are at the end of a three-dimensional wool maze and a sign there tells them to set some of the wool on fire and then run. After igniting it, they just stand there for a few seconds and stare at the fire before remembering that they are supposed to leave, at which point they promptly panic and flee.
- Ominous... Something... Chanting: Played with somehow during their charity livestream with Jesse Cox of Jesse Cox, when the crew break out into chanting that ends randomly with "Dovahkiin! Dovahkiin!"
- Paranoia Fuel: The duo is hit hard by this when they play a spooky adventure map called "The Jackal And The Cave".
- Schmuck Bait: Happens at the end of "Rise of the Rebellion Part 2."
- Simultaneous Arcs: Well, not exactly arcs, but each team competing in the Survival Games uploads its own POV of the event. A number of occurrences makes more sense when all the videos are watched back-to-back.
- Tempting Fate: Twice within the space of five minutes in the "Professor Grizwald and the Redstone Keys" map. In the volcano trial, Lewis says that its his turn to die next and a Creeper appears. Then, Simon says that there "probably aren't any Creepers up ahead", before being interrupted by a Creeper ambush.
- Too Soon: In the "Archer Hero" map, while riding the minecart to the finish, Lewis mentions how the last time he rode a track like that was when Knight_Peculier died in Shadow of Israphel. Simon called him out on mentioning it so off-handedly, then says that it made him depressed.
- Unusual Euphemism: The Jackal and the Cave, with Lewis correcting Simon's creative interpretation of the wall paintings:
Lewis: No, Simon, that's not—no, no, no no no no no.
Simon: So... so there aren't hot dogs ahead, is that what you're saying?
Lewis: Quite the opposite, I fear. We will be having our hot dogs ejected from our bodies.
Vanilla Minecraft update videos
- Brick Joke: In their review of the Minecraft Beta release, Old Peculier commented on how the sheep can change colors and become naked after being hit with "It's beautiful!" ... "It's naked!" In the first Minecraft live stream, during Survival Underground, Fumblemore gets a sheep to spawn before it hits lava and burns the wool away. "It's magic!" ... "It's naked!"
- Let Him Choose: How Simon and Lewis decide over the dog during their 1.4 show-off.
Advent Calendars
- Stuff Blowing Up: Days 4, 5, 8, 10 and 11.