Tree From My Youth

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Lucas: Mom, can piggy come in and eat with us?
Claus: No Lucas! Piggy is a bad man. Do not look at him.
Hinawa: Your brother is right, Lucas. Piggy is a bad man. But you can let the chicken in, we're having omelets!

Tree From My Youth is the sequel to the radio plays Fobbies Are Borange and Loids Are Not Christmas. Like its predecessors, TFMY follows a game in the "Mother" trilogy, in this case Mother 3. Unlike the other plays, which were off-the-wall parodies, TFMY is a more or less straight adaptation of the original game, though it hasn't lost the creative team's humorous touch.

TFMY is written by a group consisting of Benjamin Carignan (Katon), Martin Tovar (Matilda_Caboose), Stephanie Rick (Frau Landers), and Conor Coderre (Shaon), with occasional contributions from original Fobbies are Borange writers Stephen Georg (xfisjmg1) and Chaz Estell (BlackLeader).

TFMY officially premiered on February 20th, 2009. There was a "fakisode" that played the week before, inspired by the hype created by a growing population of people who believed that TFMY was going to premiere on the 13th. Titled Tree Of My Youth, it had intentionally bad acting and a three-minute speech about the tree from Lucas's youth.

Lucas (Courtney Williams & Benjamin Carignan) is the leading role in Tree from my Youth; two voice actors were cast since Lucas is heard at two different ages. He's a crybaby and scaredy-cat, but also often the only one who realizes how weird some things are (ie, the "game tutorial").

Flint (Stephen Georg), Lucas's father and the main character of the first chapter, is an old-fashioned cowboy with a scruffy exterior and a heart of gold. He thinks a man should be dirty and smelly and that those traits attract the ladies.

Boney (Ruby Young & Edobean) is the canine companion of Flint and, later, Lucas.

Duster (Martin Tovar) is the son of Wess, a crotchety old neighbor of Flint's and retired thief. Duster is shy and retiring but has a few useful skills and helps out when he can. He helps Flint in the first chapter and becomes the main character of chapter 2.

Kumatora (Stephanie Rick) is the foul-mouthed Princess of Osohe Castle, encountered by and later joining Duster, Wess, and Rope Snake during chapter 2.

Salsa (Stephen Georg) is a monkey held captive by the nefarious Fassad, and the focus of chapter 3.

Tree From My Youth can be found in its entirety here.

Tropes used in Tree From My Youth include:
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different: Lucas appears to be a major character for the first episode. They're on chapter 3 and he hasn't made an appearance in five episodes.
    • Just like the game. He'll probably show up at the end of Chapter 3.
  • Arab Oil Sheikh: Fassad. Sort of.
  • Arcadia: Tazmily Village.
  • Ascended Extra: Rope Snake. Quite the small character in the game, but given a much bigger role in chapter 2. After all, radio plays depend on dialogue and it'd just be strange for Duster to be talking to himself for half the chapter.
  • Ascended Meme: Subverted in chapter 2.

Duster: Oh, a box. I wonder what's in here... a piece of cheese. A piece. of cheese. I. LOVE. finding things in boxes.

  • Black Magician Girl: Kumatora.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: The ants in chapter 2 and Alec in the prologue. Only Lucas really notices, though...
  • Butt Monkey: Salsa's torture was cranked Up to Eleven.
  • Camp Gay: The Magypsies.
  • Continuity Nod: Several to Fobbies Are Borange, especially in the prologue.
    • A good example would be the first episode of Chapter 4, which contains references to Paula's flashbacks and one scene containing a snippet of "This Key Doesn't Work" in the background.
  • Cosmic Plaything: Lucas's mother is dead and his brother is eaten alive by vultures by the end of the first chapter!
  • Cross-Dressing Voices: Courtney Williams as young Lucas, Edobean as Boney's thoughts, Jessi Heron as Rope Snake, Samantha Beiermann as Fuel.
  • Easing Into the Adventure
  • Everything's Better with Monkeys
  • Everything's Better with Princesses: Kumatora.
  • Evil Laugh: Fassad. Chaz did an excellent job vocalizing the "Nwehehehehehehe!" that made the character so distinctive in the game.
  • Expy: Paul and Nana are rather obviously meant to be Jeff and Paula. Justified in that... well...
  • Fan Nickname: Like FaB, fans as well as the creators tend to combine the actors' usernames (or, in a few cases, their actual names) and the names of their characters. Lukaton, MysticLucasFreak, Stephatora, MatClaus, DusterCab, Ruboney, Xflint.
    • Fuelshi [dead link], canonized-somewhat by Mashi herself.
    • Though it gets confusing with Alle, who is played by Kalle. Her name is already a portmanteau!
  • Heavy Sleeper: Duster.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: If you've listened to at least Fobbies Are Borange, it will likely be rather easy for you to pick out who plays what.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Brutally subverted with Rope Snake and Cousin Oh-So Snake.
  • Jerkass: Fassad.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: The Oh-So-Snake is Rope Snake's cousin.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Fassad.
  • Man of a Thousand Voices: Okay, Martin has like a billion parts in this show. I'm not even kidding.
  • Mock Guffin: The Noble Spittoon.
  • Mood Whiplash: Done just as well as the game, which is saying something.
  • Nominal Importance: Averted. Minor characters are given names and often guest actors.
  • Promoted Fanboy: It's come to the point that if you liked either this show or FaB, and you have a microphone, it's a given you're going to end up in TFMY somehow. It is fairly likely that every person who has edited this page has had a part in either series at some point in time. Whether that means that the fanbase is incredibly small or TFMY is the embodiment of this trope is open to interpretation.
    • Leaning more towards "embodiment of this trope", as the launcher of this page became a member of the writing team.
  • The Rashomon: Chapters 2 and 3 occur simultaneously.
  • Real Life Relative: Hinawa and Flint's actors are a couple. The same pair also play Salsa and Samba.
  • Rebellious Princess: Kumatora.
  • Schedule Slip: The series at one point went a month without an episode being released before a hiatus (that lasted another month) was announced. It was joked that, since the next episode was to take place three years in the future, the hiatus would be three years long for extra realism.
    • That record has been quadrupled at this point.
  • Shoutout: There are lots to both other series and the one it's based on.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Lucas is timid and gentle, while Claus is more outgoing and excitable.
  • Talking to Himself: Martin has an extended conversation with himself in episode 6. It's like he writes the script so he can talk to himself.
  • Tear Jerker: Episodes 3 and 5. Number five especially.
  • Title Drop: Lucas in the prologue.

Lucas: Ah, my favorite tree. I've spent so much time playing on this tree, running around this tree... talking to myself in front of this tree. Great times with this tree from my youth.