Atop the Fourth Wall/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


For History of Power Rangers examples, see here.

  • Arc Fatigue: The Vyce arc, which took around nine months from beginning to end.
  • Author's Saving Throw: After various comments pointed out that Linkara never saw the outside of Vyce's ship, yet instantly recognized it, the next episode has Pollo note this, then Linkara asks who else would have a ship with a giant V on it.
    • In the commentary of "Pokemon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu", Lewis admits to having pulled one with why Missingno was afraid of Lord Vyce, aware that with how he built it up as an unstoppable universe devouring Lovecraftian demon and considered that it would probably raise the question as to why it was running from him. He came up with the idea Vyce's attacks were able to hurt it, but, according to Missingno, at least, couldn't kill it, but it found getting rid off him to be enough of an inconvenience that it hid out in our dimension so Linkara would defeat Vyce.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: The conclusion of Amazons Attack involves Linkara becoming sucked into a portal, becoming animated, then teaming up with Wonder Woman to fight a giant version of the comic itself. It has a 'To Be Continued' on the end, so it was clearly intended to go somewhere, but was left hanging.
    • Or was intended to be a Take That at how Amazons Attack essentially went nowhere.
  • Broken Base: Let's just say there's a split between the people who love the increasingly-prominent "story" segments and the people who wish Linkara would just drop them altogether.
    • Also, viewers were really divided on his opinion of the Lady Gaga comic. Even Iron Liz posted a vlog rebuttal to his review (which, to his credit, he willingly posted a link to).
  • Complete Monster: Mechakara. Even the Entity was less evil than this robotic bastard.
  • Crazy Awesome: The fight at the end of the Power Rangers Zeo #1 review.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Not including the ultra-catchy "Gunslinger" OP theme, he's lately quite fond of borrowing music from the Matt Smith era of Doctor Who (in particular, the the Doctor's "I Am the Doctor" theme) as well as themes from Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III the Search For Spock.
    • The old-school midi version of "Gunslinger" used in his Game Boy #1 review.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Entity... Travels through time and space, influences our world without ever being seen, the picture on Harvey's Twitter..., the mp3 files that are nothing but unnatural noises and the captured being tortured... Please tell me I'm not the only one who notices the connections.
  • Ear Worm: The theme tune, as well as some of the music used in the reviews (particularly stuff like the Power Rangers theme).
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: DUUUUUUUUUUDE!! '90s Kid is the most awesome Atop the Fourth Wall character EVEEEEERRRRRRRRRR!! His guest review of Freak Force was RADICAAAAAL!!
    • Harvey Finevoice has also become quite popular, though not quite on the level of 90's Kid, whose recent plot-relevance might just make him a case of a Breakout Character.
    • As of the New Guardians #1 review, the spotlight has been taken from Linkara by the crazy antics of Snowflame. Read the comments to see why.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • Fans have appropriately dubbed his Super Mode "Pimpkara".
    • The Treehousians have dubbed the spirit inside the magic gun Meg (based on the initials MG for "Magic Gun").
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: The Superman vs. Terminator review mocks his Schedule Slip on Revolution of the Mask, with Linkara decades in the future promising fans the third issue will be out soon. Issue two came out a couple months later, but a bit after that, the comic's artist seemingly vanished from the face of the Earth, not responding to any of Linkara's messages after they wished each other a happy Thanksgiving. Thankfully he soon found a new artist, but that was a scary period.
    • In his Planet of the Symbiote Review, Linkara makes a joke about a character who looking like an older 90's Kid. Said character is possessed by a Symbiote. Come the end of the episode, it turns out Linkara's joke wasn't far from the truth.
    • Knowingly mocked in "Mr. T #1," when he says that only an idiot could ever think Mr. T could be guilty of any crime, then immediately prays that T is not involved in some horrible scandal in the near future.
  • Ham and Cheese: His Snowflame impression.
    • Only to be outdone by Will Wolfgram's Snowflame in the "New Guardians #1" review.

Snowflame (Will): Snowflame is stealing your shoooooooes!

  • Harsher in Hindsight: He concludes his two-part review of The Rise of Arsenal by remarking that hopefully, DC's forthcoming (at the time) reboot will erase both Cry For Justice and this mini from continuity, resurrecting Lian Harper in the process. Later that week, DC stated that one of the changes is that Arsenal/Roy Harper will be undergoing a reduction in his age and would now be too young to have had a daughter (Or at least, the Lian the readers knew) yet.
    • His Blue Beetle tribute in which he praise it on it more lighthearted approach to superheroes and him ashamed that more darker comics get more subscribers then the original runs of the series in light of the new series of Blue Beetle that is going with a Darker and Edgier approach.
    • As a throwaway joke in the review of The Dark Knight Strikes Again Part 2, Linkara sees pixilation in the comic and complains that the comic is glitching out, speculating a Missingno is involved. Fast forward to the end of the Entity saga...
  • He Panned It, Now He Sucks: After his reviews of All-Star Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder and The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Linkara suffered a bit of backlash from Frank Miller fans who said that Miller's contributions to the comic industry (namely, The Dark Knight Returns) gave him a free pass to do wackier stuff. Linkara heartily disagreed.
    • He seems to have taken steps to avoid this with his Spawn review, noting at the beginning that he didn't want to bash Spawn as a character, and that Spawn was better than most early Image by far.
  • Hell Is That Noise: The voice of The Entity, especially when it laughs.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • At one point In his Doom's IV review he said 'IN AMERICA'. In episode 45 of the Abridged Series he provided a guest voice for that show.
    • During his Blue Beetle Tribute, he went into an episode of anger induced insanity; claiming he would be the only one to hold the title of Linkara and run the show. Later on after being kidnapped, it was shown he had left in his will that Iron Liz would take his place. Even so much as to have her wear his hat and use his scripts.
    • Not two days after his Ultimatum #5 review and his calling DC and Marvel out over rebooting continuity, DC announced they were relaunching their entire comic line. He was stunned enough by this to declare himself the Comic Prophet over Twitter.
    • Back in 2008 when the show was just getting started, Spoony mentioned it (not in a negative way) as an example of an internet review show that focuses on the reviews and doesn't have any overarching plot. Since then, Atop the Fourth Wall has become the defining example of a plot-focused web review show.
    • In the Batman the Animated Series episode "On Leather Wings", Alfred comments, "Are we developing an interest in rock and roll, sir?". The comment gets a lot funnier with AT4W's Running Gag of Batman hating rock and roll.
    • Linkara's magic gun looks exactly like the guns from a very popular Sentai. He's going to be very happy when that gets adapted into Power Rangers...especially since he can dual-wield it with the Dragon Dagger and have it be canonical.
  • Holy Shit Quotient: Goes off the charts numerous times, especially in response to the Visual Effects of Awesome.
  • Iconic Character, Forgotten Title: Does this in his opening credits. Atop the Fourth Wall gets name-dropped once (twice in the full version), but the song ends on repetition of his name and a separate logo.
  • Internet Backdraft: His critique of The Dark Knight Strikes Again has led to some harsh responses from Frank Miller fans and his lack of response to The Maxx was taken as an indictment of its quality. Verging into real-world politics was his crossover with The Nostalgia Critic to review Superman IV; they staged a rather elaborate joke about the unrealistically happy reaction of all the world's leaders to Superman announcing that he was taking their nukes. In this exchange he mentioned Israel not as a value judgment, but simply as a group of people that probably would not burst into wild happy applause if they were stripped of their nuclear arsenal by outside forces. He received a barrage of hatemail afterwards, both from people who supported Israel and thought he was being disloyal and from people who do not support Israel thinking he was supporting their sovereignty. He even addressed this in his commentary for the review.
  • Memetic Mutation: I AM A MAN! *punch* and variants.
  • Mondegreen: "Coins, robots, amazons, and drugs!"
  • Moral Event Horizon: Mechakara firmly launched himself into Complete Monster territory when he tried to drive Linkara into Driven to Suicide (and it was not Played for Laughs), by making him think he was the father to the daughter that was turned into his magic gun.
  • Nightmare Retardant: Okay, once the Entity was finally out in the open, it had a lot of really creepy-as-hell lines with a neat voice filter effect, and the way it kept glitching out and teleporting around the room was genuinely creative and freaky. But it's in the form of 90's Kid. Linkara already has such an adorable baby face and 90's Kid has such dumb fashion sense it dulled the edge of the horror a bit.
  • Padding: When Iron Liz reviewed Chain Gang War she got her own version of the theme tune... only for Linkara's regular theme tune to play immediately after it.
  • Parody Sue/Gary Stu (Depending on your feelings about the AT4W storyline): Linkara (the character), especially after the Power Rangers Zeo #1 review.
    • Whatever Marty Stu-ness he may have had is brutally subverted during the first fight with Vyce, where everything he throws at him is ineffective and Vyce manages to curb stomp Linkara (while saying that being the Universe's champion really isn't as big a deal as it might sound like), and just when you expect him to get back up and kick Vyce's ass... he just lies there in a Heroic BSOD, obviously shaken by these turn of events.
    • Linkara might actually count as a deconstruction of a Marty Stu. First of all, for all of his victories and wonderful tech, he's never actually permanently defeated any of his enemies. Dr. Insano has Joker Immunity, Mechakara has come Back from the Dead more than once, Dr. Linksano will probably never die due to being a Harmless Villain, and Lord Vyce... well, we all know how well that went down. Secondly, Linkara is supposedly the "Champion" of his universe... but Lord Vyce has already stated he's killed sixteen Champions. In other words, the title means nothing in the grand scheme of things. The character himself also has quite a few flaws, such as his Pride. After defeating Mechakara during the Vyce arc, Liz gives him a look that can only really be summed up as a "What the Hell, Hero? Face", probably because he didn't help her while powered-up; not to mention that his willingness to fight and fairly frequent boasting tends to get him pummeled, even if he does make a comeback later on. Also, he flat-out stole Neutro from his Arch Enemy; not exactly his most heroic of moments (Though Linkara is using it for good rather than leaving it in the hands of a mad scientist).
    • There's also the fact that his Heroic Willpower might not be as strong as he thinks it is. During the Mind Rape sequence in the Silent Hill review, it's made clear that he would have pulled the trigger if the spirit within the gun hadn't stopped him (Mechacara says he did and the gun just refused to fire). He literally depends on his True Companions to keep him alive.
  • Small Reference Pools: The Entity being revealed for being Missingno That thing is actually one of the safest glitch Pokémon. Fans have hacked the first generation's code to see that there are a lot more dangerous glitch Pokémon out there.
    • Linkara later said in a comment that "You have so many names" is meant to reference the other glitch Pokémon. So the Missingno that appears in Atop the Fourth Wall represents every glitch Pokémon.
    • In his commentary of Pokemon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu, he states that he's aware of the other glitches in the game, he chose Missingno because it fit the best with his Cosmic Horror Story arc.
  • So Bad It's Good: Some people enjoy the Vyce arc solely because of what a hilarious Sue it makes Linkara, and also to see how epic he can make it. Given some of the reviewed material, this may be deliberate.
  • Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: In his Athena #1 review, he takes quite a lot of time making it clear exploitation of women is wrong, and that he criticizes it because it is an on-going problem.

Linkara: Which is why, today, we're digging into Athena #1, a comic that released last year, that seems to think T&A are more important than good storytelling! That's why I'm criticizing it, people! It's still going on!

Linkara disscussing the effect of Sue Dibny's rape: There are five narrators sprinkled in this book. None are women.

  • Viewer Gender Confusion: Iron Liz, in her debut appearance, was wearing Linkara's jacket and hat and very little makeup, and was holding a comic book in front of her chest. Those fashion and blocking choices - coupled with an unusually deep voice, due to an unspecified medical condition - had a lot of people confused. The name "Iron Liz" helped settle things, as did the introduction of her blog, where there is a much more flattering photo of her on display.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: Lord Vyce's ship.
    • For the most part, Lewis playing so many characters is accomplished by only showing one at a time, or using fairly obvious splitscreens. Then comes the redone version of the Entity finale, which includes a shot of Linkara walking around '90s Kid, completely seamlessly.
  • What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: Pretty much Linkara's entire reaction to Snowflame and the New Guardians... and he thinks Snowflame is either the worst or the greatest thing ever because of it.

Linkara: Ladies and gentlemen, I can say without a doubt that this is the crackiest thing I have ever read!

  • The Woobie / Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds: The little girl from the Silent Hill Dead/Alive prologues. The parents who she loved and adored never cared about her other then using her as a sacrifice to forge a weapon to use is mass genocide for their God. She was tortured and killed to create the weapon (Linkara's magic gun), but when they touched the weapon they were driven insane and killed.
    • The fact that her name has been forgotten, even by the cultists who killed her makes it just a bit more painful.
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