Rather Vocalized Illusion

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Good Evening everybody, I'm Bhaalspawn, and welcome to Rather Vocalized Illusion!


Rather Vocalized Illusion is the flagship show of Val'Kyr Studios and it's director, Jerry Peet.

Rather Vocalized Illusion (often abbreviated as "RVI" in video titles) is a web based lecture series on Western society done primarily through Youtube. Early episodes were done in Zero Punctuation style animation, with later episodes presented as an in-person lecture.

You can see the show here.

Tropes used in Rather Vocalized Illusion include:


  • Actually Pretty Funny: Bhaalspawn takes a serious attitude through most videos, but often slips a gag or visual pun into his narration that gets much attention in the comments section. YMMV on whether the jokes are actually funny or just groan-inducing.
  • Angrish: Bhaal has moments where he stutters out of sheer shock.
  • Arch Enemy:
    • Disney and Hasbro.
    • Americans also seem to strike a particular nerve.
    • Bhaal has also dedicated videos to his immense hatred of Japanophiles.
    • Bronies were an enemy for a short time. This conflict has since been resolved.
  • Ascended Fanboy:
    • Ethan Anderson (AKA The Psychosocialist) was a big fan of the show, then Peet asked him to collaborate on a few videos. The two now work on the channel together.
    • Brittany Johnson became a recurring character in the Ask Bhaalspawn Webcomic.
  • Asexuality: Bhaal has no reproductive instinct, and no sex drive whatsoever.
    • The sole exception is the fan-turned-best friend, Brittany.
  • Badass Boast:
    • Subverted in a side video, where Bhaal attempts to taunt Bronies. See Tempting Fate below.
    • The Psychosocialist challenged Tommy Wiseau to come after him, proclaiming "I'm Canadian Motherf*cker."
  • Ban on Politics:
    • Peet refuses to cover subjects about US Politics (with the exceptions of historical events).
    • This standing was put to the test in late 2011 when many viewers asked him to do a video about the Stop Online Piracy Act. peet caved to a certain extend and announced an episode about Piracy itself.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Never mention love to The Psychosocialist.
    • While not flying into a rage, Bhaal nuked himself upon learning of the Baldur's Gate Pony Mod.
  • Bloody Hilarious: Early episodes often featured the drawn Bhaal character brutalizing other sprites with absurd weapons with often gory outcomes.
  • Character Tics: Try to find a recent video where Bhaal isn't brushing his hair back.
  • Converted Fanboy: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
  • Crossover: Doomsday Ascending shares continuity with Peet's other rather large fanfic, Tale Of The Valkyrie.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: The Psychosocialist goes around wearing a Hannibal Lecter mask, Proudly listens to heavy metal artists such as Disturbed, Korn and Ozzy Osbourne, Wears all black (with few exceptions) and in videos is shown to be a cynical, dark individual.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Very much so for both Bhaal and Psycho.
  • Devil's Advocate: Bhaal sees no reason to become part of the recent gamer crusade against Electronic Arts (though this might possibly be due to EA owning BioWare).
    • Bhaal actually plays Devil's Advocate numerous times throughout the show.
  • Epic Instrumental Opener: Season 1 episodes always opened with a big orchestral score in the title sequence.
  • Fan Boy:
  • Handicapped Badass: Peet cannot see out of one of his eyes, is partially deaf in one ear, and has nerve damage in one leg. He was granted this title by several commenters.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Many of Peet's responses to negative comments turn out this way.
  • He Who Must Not Be Seen: Bhaal frequently speaks with an unseen and silent assistant that seems to stand just offscreen in newer videos. Oftentimes asking for help in remembering lines.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters: It does not take very many episodes to gather that Bhaal has a severe distaste for humanity in general.
  • Insane Troll Logic:
    • Bhaal once tried to compare Bronies to Homosexuals in terms of persecution.
    • He later retracted this statement saying that it was beyond insane.
  • Jump Scare: Several episodes have had screamers or startling images inserted in them. Many are designed to be comical rather than scary, others use Rule 34 as the imagery.
  • Killed Mid-Sentence:
    • One episode had Bhaal knocked out while talking so the Psychosocialist could hijack the show (a second time).
    • Bhaal was cut off in a rant about plot holes in his second episode on Brony Culture by the editing software.
  • No Fourth Wall: Bhaal is always talking directly to the audience, never to other characters outside of gags.
  • Noodle Incident: Bhaal (and Peet in real life) quickly changes the subject when anyone asks about the "Bhaal/Psycho Slash Fic."
  • Oh Crap: The Psychosocialist's reaction right before Bhaal beats him for hijacking his show.
  • Only Sane Man: Bhaal's presentation style and highly critical view of society takes this approach.
  • Out-of-Character Moment
    • When divulging the things that made him have a better opinion of Friendship is Magic, one of them was that someone showed him a picture of the show's creator [dead link]. He only uttered one word after this: "Wow". Considering that Peet has a history of being uninterested in appearances of people he has never met, this is very out of character for him.
      • This moment was parodied in a preview of an upcoming RVI. Peet makes a point of saying there is no "hot poster girl" for television production, and the same image of Faust jumps onscreen. Peet's reaction seems to be one of discovery.

Bhaal:*Dials phone* "Ethan... I figured out why men like My Little Pony!" *Pause* "Faust is freakin' gorgeous, that's why! It was so obvious!

  • PC vs. Console: Bhaal is an exclusive PC Gamer, stating there is no current generation console exclusive game in existence that has made him want to purchase a console.
  • Rule 34: During a series of videos on Bronies, Bhaal often inserted Rule 34 images into his videos as a method of revenge.
  • Running Gag:
    • TACTICAL NUKE! INCOMING!
    • Bhaal seems to have a habit of forgetting names of characters, settings, and even whole websites, often asking for help from an unknown and silent person offscreen.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Slash Fic:
    • A fanfic exists on the Internet featuring a Bhaalspawn/Psychosocialist pairing.
    • Peet has apparently seen it, but never speaks of it.
  • Squee: Bhaal did this several times in a row in his Brony Culture episode.
  • Stalker with a Crush: LylSweetsFairy.
  • Stroke the Beard: The Psychosocialist does this a LOT.
  • Sturgeon's Law: Bhaal applies this to Anime, Bronies, 4Chan, Americans and Modern Music as validation for hating them.
  • Sweet Dreams Fuel: In his review of Cupcakes and Sweet Apple Massacre, in the midst of all the creepy and disturbing imagery used for the visual aids, Peet inserts a picture of Fluttershy waking up [dead link] with the caption You guys are probably horrified and uncomfortable right now, so here's something cute.
  • Tempting Fate: Bhaal taunts Bronies after recieving an e-mail warning from them, only to immediately have an Atomic Rainnuke dropped on his head.
  • The Wiki Rule: There is a Wiki for this show here.
  • Vaporware:
    • Peet talks about having designed a video game, but the general public seems to have no knowledge about it.
    • Has an article on the show's Wiki here.
  • White Knighting: Bhaal does this in the Ask Bhaalspawn blog, where mistreatment of the character of Brittany is met with his fury... unbridled fury.
    • He also White Knighted the entire company of BioWare in one episode of the web series.
  • You Cannot Kill an Idea: The entire focus of the show.
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