TOME
![](https://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/7/72/Tome_first_167.jpg)
"Sometimes I wonder, if there is more to this game than everybody thinks there is. Like there is something bigger in all of us, just hidding out, watching us. Wouldn't you want to know?" |
Describeth TOME here? But of course, because I, NYLOCKE, DRAGON OF CAUTIONARY PAGE EDITION! Will describe it here... |
Originally called TVTome Adventures (full-name rarely used), TTA is a flash series created by Chris "Kirbopher" Niosi, using as inspiration a Self Insertion RP which took place on the TVTome.com forums (now TV.com).
The plot centers around a group of players in an future MMORPG named "TOME" [1] and their fight against the D-Bug organisation, a group of hackers seeking a mysterious "Forbidden Power"..
TTA started as a humble and amateur sprite-animation series, which during it's long run naturally kept on getting better. As a matter of facts, TTA is notable for its great length (a total of 73 episodes over 3 seasons and a three-part movie), specially for it's media.
![](https://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/0/07/Tome_remake_4705.png)
After it's somehow sloppy early stages, the series used an unique combination of sprites and hand-drawn graphic, while the voice acting was mostly done by the writers of the original RP (each one voicing his/her character).
The author has openly admitted the heavy influence of both .hack and Megaman.EXE. References to Anime are also frequent--Dragonball Z being the most common (for example, the character of Zetto, fact which is frequently Lampshaded by other characters).
After Niosi entered college, he had less time for the series (at first, the fourth 27-episode season was shortened to a handful of OVAs, then scrapped altogether). He continued it with smaller projects, such as the three-part Super Freakin' Parody Rangers, which features Expys of the characters Zetto and Ruri.
However, on 11/11/11, a fully animated Continuity Reboot of TTA re-titled Terrain Of Magical Expertise was released, this time with a huge cast of stars (including Little Kuriboh among it's voice actors) and heavily promoted by Newgrounds.
The remake feature an unique style in which the animation is set to resemble video games like Mega Man Battle Network or The World Ends With You, and it looks just that cool. So far four episodes have been released.
TTA and TOME can be seen at Newgrounds.com.
TvTOME Adventures Provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: The characters are all based on users from TV Tome to an extent.
- All Your Powers Combined: Phaxal
- Another Dimension: The Netking's server world, as well as the dimension containing Motherboard.
- Arc Number: 1111
- Artificial Limbs: Zetto, doubles as a Grappling Hook Pistol and a Gatling Good Arm Cannon.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign / Gratuitous Japanese: Kalasu Angel does not mean "angel of death"; many characters use Japanese phrases like "Yoshi!" (Okay!) and "Shine!" (Die!); and don't get me started on "Kageryuken".
- Appears to have been removed from the remake, to the point where Bunny Ears Lawyer "Nailock Kotetsu Ryu" (who spoke almost exclusively in Gratuitous Japanese) has become "Nylocke, Dragon of the Cold Steel" (who speaks in Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe).
- Author Stand In: Almost all of the characters are based on "authors"--the creator of the series actually has two avatars, kirbopher15 and Zetto.
- Awakening the Sleeping Giant: The D-Bug Dragon at the end of Season 2, although the good and bad guys don't so much join forces to stop it as they do just happen to both be trying to kill it for different reasons.
- Blood Knight: Many of the characters, but mostly Zetto.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: Nailock/. One of the more powerful and skilled fighters in the game, but also a Large Ham who sprinkles his speech with Gratuitous Japanese.
- Butt Monkey: Gamecrasher, Nailock and (occasionally) Kirb himself.
- Captured Super Entity
- Charged Attack: Rob*'s Asterisk Shield. Hit it enough times and then... "RELEASE!!!"
- Chekhov's Gunman: Darkeyesofanubis, the villain of Season 4 makes a cameo appearance in Season 3, though Season 4's cancellation negates the effects of this.
- Covered in Gunge: Splat and Bling Bling's (Doubling in the Continuity Reboot) attacks are slime based.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Nailock. He's off-the-wall, zany and doesn't seem all there at times, but he also defeated one of the main villains in record time, defeated the strongest of a group of the strongest players in the game, and is one of the only people to defeat Zetto.
- Deadpan Snarker: Gamecrazed
- Deadly Upgrade
- Deal with the Devil: Alpha, in the original series, took the offer of the virus frags out of a desire to become stronger.
- The Ditz: Nailock Kotetsu Ryu
- Dungeon Bypass: The Motherboard404 arc.
- Early-Bird Cameo: T-Bones, Grounder and Thunder256 make cameos in the first episode of TOME, despite not appearing in TTA until Season 2.
- Energy Absorption: The items created by Rob* and Zetto's arm.
- Evil Plan Several:
- When first facing Kirbopher15 in his transformed state, EXE knew he had the D-Bug virus within him, and planned to make it his own. He convinced the Webmaster to make an '1111' item so Kirb could trigger the state, and would only do so if confronting his accomplice Zetto, by letting the heroes go covert at the D-Bug Org. II base while keeping the other Netkings ignorant. Absorbing too much viruses while transformed, Kirb unleashes the D-bug, that seeks to fight the strongest fighter in TOME, and eventually makes its way to EXE's room, which had a stash of 10 virus fragments, and manages to control the dragon by fusing it to the Super Computer.
- Evil Twin: The "Shadow Users" are (mostly) nonsentient copies of every user of the system.
- Expy: Zetto is one of Vegeta.He even has his hairstyle!
- The Faceless: Voltarius in late season 2 (The Voice beforehand), and an unnamed season 3 villain...though Anidoug was the villain of Season 3.
- Facial Markings: Alpha, as well as various other characters.
- Fan Boy: Zetto is a Dragonball Z fanboy, and has an avatar and personality resembling Vegeta. This tends to annoy the other characters, even though plenty of them seem to like the show as well.
- Filler Villain: The Flux Gang in the movie. Not quite. Flux himself was to make a reappearance in season 4 in a similar body to that of Neomutant's.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: Stated by the man who created the battle system to be "the game's top three elements".
- Five-Man Band:
- The Hero: Alpha
- The Lancer: Kirbopher15
- The Smart Guy: GameCrazed
- The Big Guy: Nailock
- The Chick: Flamegirl, though she crescendos into being an Action Girl post season 1.
- Tagalong Kid: Gamecrasher
- Fusion Dance: (Alpha+Zetto = Alphazet (Composite), Alpha+Kagemamoru = Virus-fused Alpha (Power Booster))
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Voltarius, who is really Zetto.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Season 4 was to have one of the Anubis Guild's members, Fauna, pull a Heel Face Turn and sacrifice herself by overclocking her powers to destroy the barrier surrounding the stronghold so that the final assault could begin.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Niosi voiced Khoury in the Pokémon anime.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: Voltarius, Phaxal
- Humble Beginnings: Compare the first episode of TTA with the Newgrounds-sponsored first episode of TOME.
- An Ice Person: There are really too many ice elementals. Niosi likes ice.
- Specifically, a lot of the the Player Characters in the RP that TTA was based on had ice-related abilities. "Shoot an icicle" seems to be a common low-level attack which a lot of characters use though, even if they are not ice-based.
- Improbable Age: One of the game's programmers was a teenager.
- The Infiltration
- It's Personal: Both viruses.
- Jack of All Stats: Alpha is of a Neutral class, and has a variety mix of elemental attacks and non-elemental skills.
- Knight of Cerebus: Zetto
- Kudzu Plot: A number of dangling questions were left after season 3. Some of the answers can be found by trawling Kirbopher's Deviant ART account.
- Large Ham: NAILOCKE!
- Limit Break
- Loads and Loads of Characters: Just look on Niosi's Deviant ART account, and just see how many characters alone are in the series.
- Long Runner: By the standards of the medium.
- The Man Behind the Man: Had season 4 come to full fruition, it would've been revealed to be Darkeyesofanubis, who was responsible for the creation of the Kagemamoru Virus, the D-Bug Virus, and generally has masterminded the events of the series as a whole.
- Also the climax of season 2: While Zetto was indeed Voltarius, the boss-man of the group, EXE was the one really in charge of the D. Bug (original and II) Organization.
- Minor Injury Overreaction
- Missing Episode: Newgrounds viewers would never see The Movie (leading to confusion when the season 3 finale references it) or the Anime Openings.
- Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: Giga
- MMORPG: TOME
- Noob: (Quite a bit of characters, but the most blatant ones are Raccoon and Sojojo. Their voices are even modeled after DBZ Dragon Villains Cell Junior and Kid Buu to drive home how childish they are.
- Nostalgia Level: The Donkey Kong minigame in one episode, created by a character who is a Mario fanboy.
- One-Winged Angel: Zetto. Twice. Then there's Ravenfreak, Racoon, Sojojo and Simdragon. All have been subject to the Virus Frags at one point or another, and each has taken on a different form when they utilized one.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: (Zetto) and Tormentros/Kalasu Angel
- Pastiche: The series is a pastiche of .hack and Megaman.EXE.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Gamecrasher
- Powers as Programs: Literally--Alpha even receives an antivirus which manifests as a "Vaccine Cannon" attack.
- Promoted Fanboy: There was a call for "extras" at one point. Most of the Netkings also seem to be Fanboys or Fangirls.
- Psycho Serum: The virus frags, which grant users with great power, at the likely cost of their sanity, though.
- Retired Badass: PaperAceChase and the other members of the "Ranks of Sanctuary"
- The Rival: Zetto, to Alpha.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Kagemamoru in the Sanctuary Region and the D-Bug in Kirbopher.
- Storming the Castle: Heroic and villainous uses.
- Super-Powered Evil Side: Alpha and Kirbopher.
- Sword Beam: Kirbopher can fire icicles, tornadoes and lightning from his sword.
- Those Two Bad Guys: rac000n/Rockoon and Bling Bling/Doubling. Their TTA counterparts were hard to understand and quick to vengeance respectively, while TOME takes a completely different route; their voice actors had so much fun making them into a comedic duo that they pretty much took Kirb's planned script and ran with it.
- Transformation Trinket: Kiropher15 goes superpowered anytime he cuts '1111'. The first time he did it when his EXP reached that number, and then used it again when facing Webmaster and his Deletion Beam (a collection of 1s and 0s), which he would later use to help Alpha beat Kagemamoru. In the second season, Webmaster gave Kirb a '1111' item that he could use in a pinch, but one time only. Kirb does so, but awakens the D-bug virus fully in the process.
- Tournament Arc: The Z Tournament
- Transformation Sequence: Zetto and Raccoon had these. Rockoon in the reboot also gets this when he merges with Kajet.
- The Wiki Rule: Has a wiki here.
- What Could Have Been: As noted above, there was supposed to be a season 4,but it has been unceremoniously canceled because Niosi has had a lot less time to work on the series, and presumably, loss of interest in the series as a whole (possibly due to Fan Dumb). A good portion of the fanbase was definitely not pleased with this outcome. And it's a shame, considering the material prepared would've been grand in scale and epic as hell.
- ...Except now the series has been reborn as T.O.M.E. complete with full high-level voices, sponsorship from Newgrounds, and the first monthly episode up. Right now.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: The viruses.
T.O.M.E (The Remake) provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Flamegirl
- Anti-Villain: Demonking. He just wants the money to go back to school, okay?
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign / Gratuitous Japanese: Averted, Nailock became "Nylocke, Dragon of the Cold Steel" (who speaks in Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe).
- Berserk Button: Rockoon is NOT a rodent, ok?
- Big Good: Nylocke.
- Bragging Theme Tune: One between Alpha and Kirbopher in TOME's "Battle On!"
- Butt Monkey: Kirbopher.
- Calling Your Attacks: (Lampshaded by Alpha in episode 1) "About how you find screaming at the top of your lungs to be an effective opening attack."
- Cluster Bleep Bomb: Doubling, does this. His sister, Splat, prefers the Precision F Strike version.
- Combat Pragmatist: Gamecrazed.
- Combined Energy Attack: What ultimately causes Demon!Rockoon to kick the bucket in episode 4.
- Cooldown Hug: Flamegirl gives Alpha one to stop him using the Forbidden Power to kill Ravenfreak.
- Continuity Reboot: TOME, which starts the story over from the beginning.
- Covered in Gunge: Splat and Doubling's attacks are slime based.
- Curb Stomp Battle: Nylocke, in episode 4 of the reboot, gets utterly wasted by a vengeful Granda. Entirely Played for Laughs.
- Deal with the Devil: Alpha becomes a part of this only through his naivete.
- Foreshadowing: TOME displays the "Forbidden Power"'s ability to physically harm players from episode 1.
- Facial Markings: Alpha.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Niosi voiced Khoury in the Pokémon anime. The remake introduces a number of well-known actors, including Little Kuriboh.
- Large Ham: NYLOCKE! Dragon of loud exclamations!
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The end of episode 2...
Nylocke: NYLOCKE! Dragon of the Rolling Credits! |
- Also done at the end of episode 4 with Rockoon...
Rockoon: This is NOT how I thought these were ending. |
- Lovable Coward: Asterob.
- MMORPG: TOME
- Nightmare Fuel: Alpha when he obtained the Forbidden Power, the scream included.
- Ravenfreak being hit by the Forbidden Power, had Flamegirl not stopped Alpha, he probably would have died.
- No Indoor Voice: Nylocke.
- Non Sequitur Thud: Nylocke, just after the Curb Stomp Battle he had just been on the end of...
Nylocke: I...I am Nylocke...Horrendously-violated dragon...With split ends. (thud) |
- One-Winged Angel: Rockoon in the reboot has the dubious honor of being the first antagonist to do this, thanks to "Kajet".
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Kirb's the red; Alpha's the blue.
- Shipper on Deck: Nylocke, Whyti and Saturndiva for Alpha x Flamegirl.
- Sissy Villain: Ravenfreak
- Sword Beam: Kirbopher can fire icicles, tornadoes and lightning from his sword.
- Those Two Bad Guys: Rockoon and Doubling. Their voice actors had so much fun making them into a comedic duo that they pretty much took Kirb's planned script and ran with it.
- Transformation Sequence: Rockoon gets this when he merges with Kajet.
- True Companions: The Five-Man Band.