Level Up (TV series)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A 2012 Live Action show on Cartoon Network. The pilot movie aired in November 2011 and follows the adventures of a group of gamers who call themselves "Never Fail" and cooperate well together on a MMORPG called "Conqueror of All Worlds". However, they are unaware that they go to the same school, where they hate each others' guts. During a usual gaming session, the three unwittingly open a portal in the game to their world which is exactly the opportunity that the game's main villain, Maldark, was waiting for. He starts sending his minions to take over the real world. But Never Fail also find that if the monsters can become real, so can their weapons. Thus they take it upon themselves to put aside their hatred for each other, stop the monsters, and prevent Maldark from getting through.

The latest effort for a live action series from Cartoon Network, it was made with the consultant help from Jagex (best known for the MMORPG RuneScape) and Rooster Teeth (of Red vs. Blue fame).

Tropes used in Level Up (TV series) include:
  • Action Girl: Angie.
  • Adorkable: Wyatt, the "socially awkward wimp". One girl said it was her type as opposed to overly macho guys.
  • All Trolls Are Different: Well, maybe not the Trash Troll, who appears, wrecks the scenery, and can make off with everything portable that you own (including your character).
  • Beyond the Impossible: According to Max, who created it, the final weapon is supposed to kill the heroes using it with its recoil. The heroes survive it and he is shocked.
  • Big Bad: Maladark, an evil sorcerer from the game world whose Evil Plan is to Take Over the World.
  • Big Brother Instinct: The members of Never Fail towards Angie seemingly. For example, in "Leroy", the group lets it go when Leroy trashes Double Dash Dan, they aren't too angry when he gets Wyatt sent to detention, they even let it slide when he deliberately screws them up in the game, but when he stands Angie up for a date, they're royally pissed off.
  • Big Good: Max who is Never Fail's benefactor and opposes the Big Bad, but he's kinda of a Jerkass
  • Big Man on Campus: Lyle
  • Butterfly of Doom: A case could be made for parody (or taking the phrase too literally) when the Blast-A-Ton fired a butterfly that flew to a leak and exploded.
  • Defictionalization: Currently there is a real version of Conqueror of All Worlds on the Cartoon Network website.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Leroy may have been a major Jerkass, but he really didn't get deserve to be attacked by a giant troll. In Never Fail's defense, that was an accident: The troll was supposed to attack his character in the game, not come out into the real world and find him.
  • Eccentric Millionaire: Max, the creator of the game. Also a self-admited Mad Scientist.
  • Eek! A Mouse!: Lyle can face trolls, in the real world, but can't handle mice.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: the object in the title of the episode "Charm Bracelet"
  • Excalibur in the Rust: Angie's Fist of Schoolage leading up to Grail in the Garbage.
  • Expy: Of World of Warcraft obviously.
  • The Face: In the game world Never Fail lets Wyat do all the talking with other players because he's The Charmer. In the real world, however, he's Adorkable and Lyle's the one with school-wide friends.
  • The Fair Folk: The Rainbow Rider
  • For Science!: Consider this quote from Max "If it bleeds code, its a leak. If it bleeds blood, it'll be a crying shame, but at least the mystery will be solved." This is presumably the reason for his experiments too.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble:
    • Sanguine: Dante
    • Choleric: Angie
    • Melancholic: Wyatt
    • Phlegmatic: Lyle
  • Freudian Trio: The original members of Never Fail
    • The Id: Dante who acts on impluses and is always eating.
    • The Superego: Lyle whose concerned about social norms and doing what is expected of him
    • The Ego: Wyatt is a mix of both and mediates them. Its seen most clearly in the 3rd act of the movie.
  • Gamer Chick: Inverted. Angie doesn't play nor like the game.
  • Gratuitous Foreign Language: Never Fail's battle cry, "Tulta munille," is (possibly mangled) Finnish for "Aim for the balls."
  • Hates Being Touched: Max created a body suit that would shock anyone that touched him.
  • Henpecked Husband: Bob the Barbarian is very much afraid of having to go back into the game to his wife.
  • It Only Works Once: The final weapon Never Fail has to use to defeat Maldark in the movie.
  • Jerkass
    • Max is rude, usually cowardly, and by his own admission, doesn't care about anyone else's well being.
    • Leroy as well.
  • Keet: Dante, full stop. His energy is non-stop and quirky.
  • Leeroy Jenkins:
    • Dante, who even shouts "Leeroy Jenkins!" before charging in to an attack. Lampshaded in the film:

Wyatt: And he jumps in. Why does he do that?

    • Paid tribute to in "Leroy", when Lyle's old friend Leroy ruins their carefully planned raid in the game, though he actually did this on purpose to screw them over.
  • Let's Get Dangerous: Angie doesn't normally take leak busting seriously but when she does

--Boys....Where's my Fist Of Schoolage?

  • Mix-and-Match Critters: The Hampire: a vampiric hamster, and the Skunk Bear, among various others.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Dante
  • No Body Left Behind: "Leaks" disappear upon defeat to respawn back in the game.
  • Won't Work On Me: Bob the Barbarian catches a Mini-Sun blast from Wyatt's Blast-A-Ton and eats it.
  • The Other Darrin: The actor playing Max has changed between the movie and the series. Also it seems the character has also been changed into more of a slacker type rather than paranoid.
    • It also seems Dante's mom changed from the movie to the series, the actress playing her in the movie was older with shorter hair, in the series the actress is younger with longer hair.
    • Wyatt's brother was a skinny little 11 (presumed) year old in the movie, but he has since changed actors and became a 13 year old pudgy kid.
  • Out of Order: The episodes are being shown out of order. The production code for the first premiered episode (not including the movie) shows it was made 6th. They atleast try to help stop some confusion with a recap opening but suddenly the Clan now have a HQ and it's treated as normal.
  • Pilot Movie: The Big Damn Movie received excessive promotion a month in advance of airing, even getting YouTube spotlights on promoted videos. In other words, you can bet your ass this was another series in the making.
  • Portal Network: Too bad using it using to often in a small amount of time can cause bad things to happen in the real world!
  • Rainbow Pimp Gear: When the trio first venture out in Real Life, their improvised gear is essentially this, including multicoloured helmets and sports gear. And a beret.
  • Shout-Out: In the first episode, when the group clean up Bob the Babarian, he's wearing an outfit similar to Ed's of Ed Edd and Eddy
  • Sixth Ranger: Angie, who joins the group in the movie.
  • Swiss Army Gun: Wyatt's Blast-A-Ton. It has over 100 modes.
  • True Companions: Never Fail
  • Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Averted. Lyle outlines the prank against Leroy just before he does it: Find a trash troll, teleport it on Leroy, and have it steal his gear. That's exactly what happens: they find a trash troll, teleport it on Leroy, and it steals all his gear. in real life.
  • Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World: Wyatt finds talking to girls and dealing with school bullies a lot harder than busting leaks. Lyle is more worried about his football record and social calendar than a leak attacking him.
  • Weapon of Choice: Never Fail's team
    • Batter Up Dante's Skull Cracker.
    • BFG Wyatt's Blast-A-Ton which has to be held in two hands.
    • Magic Staff / Magic Wand: Lyle's Thunder Pole. Its big enough to be the former but he only uses it as the latter.
    • Power Fist: Angie's Fist of Schoolage.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Level_Up_(TV_series)?oldid=1941523"