Suburban Knights (TGWTG.com 3rd Year Anniversary Special)

[Flynn]

Think about it, Mechakara was taken down before Kickassia happened, and the Lord Vyce storyline happened afterwards. This time, Linkara has an ongoing storyline during the anniversary event, which Linkara makes references to in following videos, and this serves as a way to conclude this event while building up Linkara's story, possibly leading to similar scale crossover to fight The Entity. That and as the resident magic guy on the site, and owner of a space ship to hide the gauntlet and gemstone on, it makes sense for him to keep them.

But it also alienates anyone unfamiliar with his storyline. I know Doug's made a conscientious effort to keep out largescale continuity references in the anniversary shows, so I can't imagine doing something like that here.

[benfromcanada]

Christ, what an awful episode. Worst of the bunch. And it was improving, too! Yeah, the second Arwen montage joke wasn't good, or bad. I wanted to strangle the book nerd (Jaffers?) with his own intestines. The voice, the awful "a little too..." joke that went on too long...and then, random shooting. Shooting at point blank and missing everyone, just to get another "hilarious" and "totally not overused" retreat joke. How many times must our heroes be shown to be cowards before it gets boring to be reminded of that?
And yeah, Film Brain should have stayed evil longer. At least his scene with Luke and Marzgurl was good.
I think it was last one where the good witch was there, right? I hated that whole thing. The witch was fine, and the "which" joke Doug made about the pun was alright, but otherwise it irked me, and went on too long. And Tom didn't use magic to win, he poked her eye.
And honestly I don't give half a flying fuck about this Suede guy. Hooray for his fans, I guess, but to a good lot of us it was a guy we didn't know getting reunited with his friends and treated like a guy we should know, which is as interesting as it sounds.
Phelous is totally trolling us with this rock biter thing. I guess he's a rock troll? And Paw...one joke does not make for a good character. That character should have gone to a good over-actor, like Angry Joe. He knows over acting. He knows how to over act and make it entertaining. And Brad really looks like he doesn't want to be there.

Bright spots:
Lupa, Brad and Spoony can act, and make their characters good. Angry Joe can overact to the same effect.
FB and Luke play well off each other.
Bennett's costume is hilarious. Nothing else about him is, though.
Marzgurl is great here, her character is perfect
Mickey makes for a good bestiality joke
I never thought I would say it but I like Ma-Ti here
ORLANDO! I FUCKING LOVE THIS GUY! If he has a fanclub I'll pay the dues to get in.
I like Linkara in everything he does, including this, even though he isn't a good actor

[raizumichin]

Whoa hey, some plot development. Still a little whiplash between the gag scenes and the serious scenes though.

about the ending:

Spoiler! :

Wasn't there a bunch of assholes a while back who said that they wouldn't let Suede come back? Where is their god now?

[Wolfenbarg]

Something happened!! And it was boring...

Remember in Kickassia when we saw a low, creepy angle of Doug while we got creepy atmospheric music courtesy of Pro Scores while he told Brad he'd blow him sky high if he found that Brad happened to be a Nasty Wasty? Well the advancement of a narrative also requires an advancement in tone, and this scene accomplished that perfectly. What started as a group of idiots who were obviously invading a plot of land that was of absolutely no consequence to anyone eventually pulled you into it by having the main character take it very seriously. The cinematography there wasn't excellent by any means, but very effective for the limitations that were present. So why in this part are we advancing the plot in a normal, boring ass house at a completely flat angle to get expository dialogue from someone who is using another running gag (though this one I actually laughed at)? Them finding out information from the book was fine, but my rant on the tone is still important. We already established very early on that this is just a ridiculous quest in a Chicago suburb, but as the narrative has been advancing and legitimate threats have been popping up, why aren't we taking the setting as seriously as the narrative demands it? Now just to clarify, I'm not saying that this needs to become a serious fantasy movie, but if this is still being treated as the same kind of stupid quest they embarked on in part 1, where is the tension? Without the tension, where is the story? This boring, flat basement really sucked all the life out of everything. Even removing the basement dweller could have added a lot more to the overall scene. Sunglasses Guy even is starting to get old. Why did he use the same shtick again? We got some extra information about his character this time, but it's really making me question why he had to kill the girl if he was just going to do this again?

Please give us a good final act at least.

[purplefebruary]

I'd like to add to the complaints that Film Brain's stint on the dark side was too short, although I could see the humour in the villains finding him so useless they want to ditch him ASAP

Spoiler! :

I've only been on this site for a year so I don't know much about Suede, but welcome back anyways!

[LiveFromTheWitchTrials]

I don't know how Film Brain puts up with being lazily written into the 'fey limey' cliche and, worst of all, the butt of a tired Harry Potter joke. I understand his characters function as being comic relief within a niche fan-service film already composed entirely of in-jokes, but I just think he's being sold short, especially since his (and others') acting has markably improved since the last special. When I first read the title 'Suburban Knights' I was expecting something 'Clerks'-like, and it's not too far off: tongue-in-cheek, geeky indulgence in suburban dullsville USA. It's all in good fun, but making the Brit wear a Potter costume AND be a pathetic sycophant? Come awn, what's next, Benny Hill?

[Excalibur]

Come awn, what's next, Benny Hill?

Careful what you wish for. They might just sink to that old joke.

[ScreenName11]

Yeah that episode was purrrrrrrrrrty boring. Film brain should have stayed evil longer.

Really the only redeeming part was Nostalgia Critic flipping out and making references to his character's common problems, (constantly rescuing zelda, hitting a chicken that causes a bunch of other chickens to come and attack you)

The worst part is though is that now I have a good prediction on the climax will occur.

Note that this is only a guess, its not an official confirmation, but I strongly see it coming.

Spoiler! :

As hinted, only a pure heart can find/wield the gauntlet. So when they find it, its pretty obvious out of all the people who have appeared in this special, that one character who will be able to wield would obviously be Maati.

^Again, not official, but boy do I see them pulling something like that. It fits the cliche.

[Squeezebox]

Pretty much on the okay side, but it does contain the single greatest sum-up of the 21st century: "It sucks, but the technology is cool." (Also, would an average guy like Jaffers had know what the Internet was being used for in 1981 if he'd been locked away since then?)

I love how Lupa acts confused during

Spoiler! :

Suede's return.

[Squeezebox]

I thought of a funny ending for this, though I have a feeling others wouldn't like it (judging by many user comments). But I feel it would be funny if the sunglasses guy were to be defeated by "Zack the Psychomaniac". Maybe it'd be a little random, but as I said in a previous post, I haven't really noticed any references to any specific past episodes of The Nostalgia Critic

There was a brief reference to Warriors of Virtue, Doug/Link said "Well, excuuuuuuse me, Princess!", and that one chick in part 4's first line was "My dad shot her. It was weird." Also, Benzaie being dressed as Conan the Barbarian and Paw being dessed as Profion from Dungeons and Dragons could count.

But if you mean specific bits from past episodes, not just reviews, then yeah, he hasn't directly referenced anything yet.

And to add to that list, there was a reference to Neverending Story 2 in the last part. (No, nothing related to the Rockbiter.)

[Cylonator]

Damn, i have to admit episode 5 was a pretty weak one. Lots of plot progression this time but not enough excitement( be careful what you wish for) Film Brain's "possessed" plot didn't go anywhere and the appearance of Suede was a little "Huh? who the @#$* that?" It's probably because at the time he was around i was probably only watching Nostalgia Critic videos and very little else from the other team. Most of the new members of the site will most probably be as clueless right now scratching their head with the infamous Dreamworks eyebrow stare. His acting was also poor compared to the rest of the team and appears very wooden next to Doug. On the positive side, i really enjoyed Rob's performance although i still wonder why no one was hit especially the Critic himself after Jaffers firing on the team directly at point blank. It's great to see Ma-Ti( he's stealing the show with every scene he's in now and somewhat likable) in almost every episode since he'll probably play a very important role towards the finale.... probably. The scene where the Cloaks driving off abandoning poor possessed Film Brain is also one of the funnier scene in this episode.

[estefan]

A lot of exposition in Part 5, but no humour. Except for the bit where

Spoiler! :

Suede asks the Critic to touch his sword. That was great.

And ScreenName11, I think you're spot-on. I'm thinking they're definitely leading towards that conclusion and I would like that to be the case. Poor Ma-Ti. No respect at all.

[Cferra]

Jaffer's reaction is to be expected. The average citizen of the early '80s didn't know much about The Internet. It was fairly new and only used by the government. It started in the '50s and '60s and now has spread to more commercial use so that people like you and me can communicate over vast distances.

Check this out for more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet

The year after Jaffers disappeared, the Internet started to grow in usage by small leaps and bounds.

As for Lupa's reaction, I think that was just to show that she was the newest member in the group and wouldn't know who Suede was. Everyone else in Doug's group were reviewing around the time Suede posted vids. That and they wanted to explain it to the new people on the site.

[Squeezebox]

Jaffer's reaction is to be expected. The average citizen of the early '80s didn't know much about The Internet. It was fairly new and only used by the government. It started in the '50s and '60s and now has spread to more commercial use so that people like you and me can communicate over vast distances.

Check this out for more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet

The year after Jaffers disappeared, the Internet started to grow in usage by small leaps and bounds.

As for Lupa's reaction, I think that was just to show that she was the newest member in the group and wouldn't know who Suede was. Everyone else in Doug's group were reviewing around the time Suede posted vids. That and they wanted to explain it to the new people on the site.

Which is why I'm wondering if somebody from 1981 would have even known that the Internet was used as a government communication system because it wasn't anywhere near as prominent as it is now (though he is a nerd, so I guess there is a possibility that he may have done his research in those days.)

Oh, and I totally got the Lupa/Suede thing. I was just saying I found it funny for the reason you explained.

[rmlohner]

Was that the music from Aguirre, the Wrath of God playing as the Critic figured everything out? Awesome reference, if so.

[Slughorn42]

I don't know if anyone else picked up on this but there was a clue as to when Jaffers disappeared in the news report in Part One. Remember, it ended with the newsman (played by Doug and Rob's dad I presume) saying, "On a lighter note, the President has been shot." Well, Reagan was shot by John Hinckley in March of 1981 and sure enough Jaffers was trapped in the book in 1981. Nicely done guys! Didn't pick up on that the first time around.

A couple other things:

1. Was that Doug and Rob's mom as the witch? I'd be interested to know who she and some of the other new faces are.

2. Anyone else surprised by the lack of references to Kickassia? I would've expected a few in-jokes about it by now but I haven't noticed any.

3. Can we expect an appearance by James Rolfe whether as the Angry Video Game Nerd or Board James or whoever?

[Cylonator]

Can we expect an appearance by James Rolfe whether as the Angry Video Game Nerd or Board James or whoever?

I'm sure most people here love to see a cameo from James. Cross your fingers!

[Linkara]

Am I the only one expecting The Entity to show up at the end? And Linkara would either be given or somehow take the magic items for the battle he's expecting down the road?

Think about it, Mechakara was taken down before Kickassia happened, and the Lord Vyce storyline happened afterwards. This time, Linkara has an ongoing storyline during the anniversary event, which Linkara makes references to in following videos, and this serves as a way to conclude this event while building up Linkara's story, possibly leading to similar scale crossover to fight The Entity. That and as the resident magic guy on the site, and owner of a space ship to hide the gauntlet and gemstone on, it makes sense for him to keep them.

Thanks, but I try to keep my own storylines contained within my own show so people don't need to go through a dozen other producers' videos in order to understand them. XD


As for people criticizing pacing, jokes, etc., it's probably important to keep in mind that this, like Kickassia, were written with the intent of being a movie. While they're split up for the site to maximize the return, have a week-long celebration, AND because people don't want to have to buffer for a full two hours of a single blip video, it IS intended to be watched in full as a movie. Criticisms like "what was the point of this scene?" or the expositional bits aren't quite as big a deal when you view it as a whole and not getting 24 hours to process it.

As for humor, well, humor is subjective. I laughed my ass off at most of this even though I was actually there recording it with them. However, for the few people out there who claim we're hypocrites for disliking a movie like this, I disagree fully. We all read the script, we all viewed the rough cut, and we all found it hilarious. Like Kickassia, Suburban Knights is a farcical comedy based around the premise of a bunch of internet reviewers trying to do something grand and epic. The difference between this and Kickassia is this one actually has serious moments in it aside from the ludicrous nature of internet reviewers trying to invade a tiny country. And you know what? I think it works. Much as I love Kickassia, I think this movie has a stronger script, a better story with character arcs (sure, one or two have been resolved already, but it's development nonetheless), and a grander, larger feel as we move towards the conclusion.

Or, if that's not sufficient, I will say that 20 of us were all gathered together and we all had a blast doing this and we all agreed that it was good. Now, of course, your opinions are your own, but that's where we're coming from. We didn't do anything we didn't want to do.

[HmmWhatsHisFace]

It has been established that Jaffers disappeared in 1981; Have his friends been playing obstacles to those who seek the gauntlet for 30 years? Apparently, not only did Jaffers give them magical powers but he also slowed or stopped them from aging. Those people look to be in their late twenties or early thirties and I don't think Jaffers was LARPing with babies.

[GoofyHairOzzie]

Check this out for more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet

It explained one thing - Al Gore didn't invent the internet as what some had originally thought.

Other than that...

Spoiler! :

I'm possibly the last person to say this to Suede so welcome back anyway.