Gaia Online/YMMV

General Tropes

 * Accidental Innuendo The store Sam's Body and Parts, anyone?
 * Let's not forget "Ruby's Rack", which Ruby lampshades sometimes by saying "The store is named after my clothing racks, smartass."
 * Broken Base
 * Fan Dumb: It's everywhere on the site. Starting with A/M/C... actually, it's safe to say people really love defending their favored pieces of media...
 * The trolling of G Online, which was meant to be a Chinese "sister site" to Gaia.
 * "KANOKO DRESSED AS HATSYA?! THAT IS SICK AND WRONG AND I HOPE SHE DIES A HORRIBLE DEATH." No, seriously, someone did this.
 * Because Louie Von Helson appeared when the Twilight series was approaching the peak of its popularity, certain fans assumed he must have been inspired by Edward Cullen. Aside from having nothing in common with Edward (aside from being a vampire, and that's debatable), he's clearly inspired by Louis from the Interview with the Vampire film.
 * This is parodied when Louie becomes an assistant at Edmund's store. If you talk to him, among other things, he gets annoyed at you asking if he sparkles and says that the question is racist.
 * Fan Haters - 4chan and SA. To be fair, there were a lot of Gaian trolls on 4chan during its cancer month...
 * As mentioned above, Gaian trolls to G Online.
 * Fanon: Flynn and Cordell are apparently widely believed to be gay. Word of God disapproves with regards to Cordell.
 * Memetic Mutation - Clementine. For some background, she was a user who fell for a scam. Her mother more-or-less told a journalist, who wrote of her exploit, and got her stuff back. GD laughed at her. Why? She fell for the most simple scam - ones asking for your password, which the website advises against nearly every page.
 * "Dancey Dancey". Ian and Rufus dance together so much that they won the dancing contest at the '08 prom, much to Gambino's frustration-- he'd been planning to hook up with the winning lady, and was embarrassed at having been outdone by a cat.
 * "Twinkie Brows" stemmed from a fanart of Gino in which somebody commented that his Big Ol' Eyebrows look like twinkies.
 * "Hay ur not a bishie", a line spoken by the fourth-wall-breaking yaoi fangirl upon discovering that Cordell is, in fact, female.
 * Cresento landed on it.
 * Although it's past its prime and considered an Old Meme, one memorable thread from 2005 asked "How do you get giftrape?" Of course, it was a simple typo and the original poster had meant gift wrap, but that didn't stop the forum posters from running with it due to the unintentional hilarity.
 * This came back in a hilarious way in zOMG!, when "giftrape" became the memetic Fan Nickname for what happens when someone unprepared gets mobbed by Flying Giftboxes.
 * Gaia is also the birthplace of the Drama Llama meme, which managed to escape the site and found widespread use throughout the rest of the English-speaking internet.
 * Moe: Kanoko, Rina, Peyo, Rufus, Diedrich, Timmy (as a child).
 * The Scrappy: A lot of characters, depending on your point of view. Sasha's too dumb. Kanoko's too successful. Rina's too hyper. Louie's too emo. Devin's too gay. Timmy's too annoying. And Julie's a living advertisement for MTV.
 * The Orion siblings (Saiph, Hatsya, Rigel and Mintaka) have been taking a lot of heat recently for marking the introduction of the inventory sparkles and animated items, which have been pretty harshly opposed, as well as putting Flynn on a bus to space -- which is ironic, considering how people were annoyed by her before...
 * The sparkles thing is even harsher when you consider that Gaians get the option to turn the damned thing off if they want to.
 * Wild Things is a Scrappy in Monthly Collectible form.
 * Ruined FOREVER/They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Pretty much every time a new feature comes out or something is changed. Eventually, most get used to the changes... until a new one is made. Vicious cycle, no?
 * Every update, no matter how small or grand, will often be met by thousands of angry users chanting that Gaia is Ruined FOREVER. When the admins initiated a 2% tax in the market place, it was pretty bloody for a while.
 * Tastes Like Diabetes: Peyo, mainly because of his character art update. Before his art was updated, he looked young enough to actually believe 92 was the biggest number. Now that he looks older, his dialogue is gag-inducing.
 * Item-wise, there are MANY items that are just outrageously adorable. Two specifically come to mind: Gin the Kitty, which looks like a regular playful kitten; and the Kitten Star, a golden cat with his hair shaped like a star and in all sorts of ridiculously adorable poses. Too bad it's just as ridiculously rare and worth around 40 million gold.

Gaia Events

 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: The re-release of the original H2k4 zombie skin was met with joy from 95% of Gaians and indifference from the other 5%.
 * Freud Was Right: A very interesting example was sighted since the beginning of the Halloween 2K9 by some Gaians. The weapon used by the Benevolent Overseer's Order is a GIANT "harpoon/trident" that fires into Sentinel's weapon, a gaping "portal" into a horror filled world (that attacks back by spewing red gunk). An example of exactly how Freudian is seen here
 * Good Bad Bug: For a while, sacrificing a teammate on the evil altar in Frontier Skies didn't actually kill your teammate, but did confer huge bonuses to health, food, and speed. Teammates that actually were dead periodically turned up as the subject of random events anyway.
 * Unfortunate Implications: Easter 2k12 Grunnygeddon, which involved Gaians capturing baby grunnies (birthed by Diedrich) and either sending them to the adoption facility or turning them over to the Easter Bunny and having them homogenized.

Gaia Forums
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Gaia Games
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Gaia Items

 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: When the item Ace Meow was released to anyone who bought Gaia Cash, people were ecstatic. There were (and still are) very, very few nice-looking pet cat items that aren't in the millions in terms of price.
 * Les Yay: Rapid EI Sainte Ciel, tells the story of a nun and a princess. Dr. Singh's reaction to the debut of Sainte Ciel was... interesting.
 * Rina asked Nicolae if he was selling Alruna's Rose during the zOMG intro comic, specifically mentioning wanting "a sexy succubus", and then supported Sentinel's Infernal Nation during Halloween 2009. Think about it.
 * Nightmare Fuel: The King Cheep poses of the Cheepz items. Gahhhhh...
 * Now there's an item actually called Nightmare Fuel...

Gaia Manga / Mini comics

 * Anvilicious: The '08 Halloween storyline closed with an Aesop of this variety.
 * Crowning Moment of Funny: "La la la, I'm a talking barrel!"
 * Tear Jerker: "He's really gone this time, isn't he?" Oh, Gino...

Gaia NPCs
"Don Kuro: *Aside Glance, indicating doujinshi* This isn't canon."
 * Badass Decay:
 * Louie, and Johnny Gambino most notably.
 * Also Louie's sisters.
 * Gino Gambino. He went from being a masked hero (The Masque) to a Butt Monkey after he was free from his father's genetic influence. He's slowly getting better, though.
 * Badass Normal: In some events, Moira. In others...
 * Edmund, who used to belong to a superhero team. The other members? Old Man Logan and Johnny freakin' Gambino.
 * Leon has joined the G-Team in more recent updates. His power? "Um... being really tough, I guess."
 * Josie then terrifies Leon by demonstrating her earring-fu. "Watch out! She has another earring!" She also used to be an amateur boxer, and until her makeover for Global Imports, she had the buff arms to prove it.
 * Die for Our Ship: Fans of Ian or Gino tend not to be fond of Sasha. She seems to have lost all her romantic connections with both since then, but the stigma remains.
 * Draco in Leather Pants: Zhivago.
 * Hollywood Homely: Timmy as an adult, as a Take That to everyone who expected him to be a conventional Bishounen.
 * Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Everybody. NPC Shipping discussions tend to turn into Crack Ship contests very quickly, and people who like mainstream pairings get openly bashed for not being "creative".
 * Memetic Badass: Carl, and the moth from Frontier Skies after it was established that the millions of deaths by chasing after moths and falling off airships were all caused by the same moth.
 * The Death Moth later became a Chance Item prize.
 * Portmanteau Couple Name: Sentiseer, which is the coupling of The Sentinel and The Overseer.
 * "Flyngh", for Flynn and Singh.
 * One of the more... awkward names is "Twiam", which is the Von Helson Twins and Liam.
 * Shipping: Too many to name, even branching down to items. To a certain extent, this has been fueled by the storyline sometimes.
 * Ship Sinking: Ian, Louie, and Gino were all revealed to be siblings. Ivan and Meredith turned out to be cousins. Jaws turned down the Overseer's human form. Grand prize goes to Don Kuro, who broke the fourth wall to set the books straight on him and Devin.


 * Ship Tease: Oh god where do I even start. The devs and artists are among us, and clearly read the fanthreads.
 * The Wesley: Diedrich. A lot of users find him really annoying, and it doesn't help that Gaia seems to think he needs stuffed into every other event.

zOMG!

 * Demonic Spiders: Kokeshi dolls. Woe betide if they gang up on you... and they always do.
 * They're non-aggressive. If you'd rather not have to deal with half a screen's worth of them, don't bug them.
 * The pink giftboxes!!! When they fly... you die.
 * Fluffs. In the first two areas, they're harmless little things, but from Zen Gardens on, if you piss off a fluff you usually start regretting it pretty quick.
 * Bladed Vases and Tiny Witch Doctors. The former because it's really easy to find yourself with four or five of them ganging up on you (but a Fire Rain attack charged with full rage will wipe most of them out); and the latter because it keeps paralyzing you so, so many times each time you try to attack. And if you don't have ANY kind of ranged attack...
 * Freud Was Right: There is a crystal formation in the Sealab Compound that has been compared to a phallus. Not to mention, which is now subject to That's What She Said jokes in-universe.
 * Good Bad Bugs: You used to be able to buff NPCs. Cue people spamming speed buffs on the Pizza Delivery Guy just to see how fast they could make him run.
 * High Octane Nightmare Fuel: The flying gift boxes at Bass'ken Lake. Little cute pink boxes with tiny wings, but get their attention and suddenly they have More Teeth Than the Osmond Family, giggle dementedly, and cry "FILL THE BOX!" over and over again. And they hunt in packs.
 * Memetic Badass: Landshark. In-game he's been pretty heavily nerfed.
 * Memetic Molester: Marshall.
 * Memetic Mutation: GIFTRAPE!
 * "DEFIB PLZ DEFIB PLZ DEFIB PLZ" and its cousin "HELP HELP HELP".
 * "CREW ME PLZ"
 * This pic about sums it up.
 * Nightmare Fuel: When Gaia first released videos of the Kokeshi Doll animations, many a viewer nearly wet their pants.
 * The Flying Pink Gift Boxes. A flock of giant, winged, slobbering gift boxes with huge teeth flying after you screaming "FILL THE BOX!"
 * That One Boss: There have been dozens of threads made to complain about Kat's Kokeshi Doll. Even after it was nerfed.
 * Tier-Induced Scrappy: Iron Will was considered weak until the Willpower mechanic was properly implemented. Adrenaline and Knife Sharpen were disregarded as weak after they became debuffs. And the number-crunchers on the forums all despise Diagnose as a heal for its low efficiency and high aggro, though other players like it for its ease of use.
 * Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Debuffs turn out to be really handy against vampires and werewolves in Deadman's Shadow, so Knife and Adrenaline are now important for every DMS crew. Diagnose's aggro-drawing properties are likewise utilized by tanking builds to distract supernatural nasties for other players to defeat.