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Characters / BrainScratch Commentaries Main Members

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The main members of the channel.

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    Nayrman214 (Ryan Nathan Malis) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_9980.JPG
"Huzzah!"

The creator of the group, who presented the idea to Lewis in the Find The Computer Room's forums, and later Johnny. While he's The Quiet One, which is why he enlisted the others in the first place, he's also known for having very strong opinions and being a clever Deadpan Snarker. In the beginning, he was in charge of recording all of the games, though this is no longer the case.

Ryan has appeared in almost all of the commentaries, contrary to popular belief.

So far Ryan has recorded:

Tropes that apply to Ryan:
  • Accentuate the Negative: Ryan will often be the first member to point out any flaw that he believes the game has.
  • Bias Steamroller: With Nintendo just playing it safe. He loves the games and enjoys the system and consoles; but like Yahtzee, he wishes they'd just stop phoning it in. One example is how he retroactively despises Mario 3 not because he hates Mario 3 (he admits to being unfair about that), but because it seems to be the well that Nintendo jumps down all the time for new games, he grew to hate that every future game in his eyes are essentially remakes of Mario 3.
  • Blood Knight: Mostly in the New Super Mario Bros. Wii playthrough, but he generally likes to kill any enemy in his way.
  • Born Lucky: If you can wall jump, in a game you can't wall jump in, and kill an enemy in a Mario game, by jumping under it, you are beyond lucky. Now if only that applied for him outside video games...
    • He wins Waluigi's Island by doing nothing but running around in circles and spouting "Anarchy!". This can be attributed to him spending the entire board on the space switching island, but even then, he was just doing it to be a dick and wasn't even trying to win.
      • A general rule: If it's a multiplayer game, expect Ryan to dominate and likely win it by default.
    • He's also exceptionally good at Superman 64, causing Ted to suspect he bribed the game.
  • Borrowed Catchphrase: Will occasionally mimic George Takei's Oh myyyyy..
  • Calling Your Attacks: "Super 69 Awesome Spinning Attack, GO!"
  • Catchphrase: Nayrman seems to have a lot of these. Here's a quick list:
    • "Yaaay!"
    • "Pourquoi?!" (literally French for "Why?!"), although this one isn't used as much anymore.
    • "Huzzah!", although this one isn't used as much anymore.
    • "You could just go."
    • "Hi, [Insert Name Here]."
    • "Bye X", whenever an enemy is leaving the screen.
    • "I'm glad I paid for those child grabbing lessons." (Said whenever any character is kidnapped or grabbed.)
    • "You've wasted so much of my time", used whenever the person recording the game they're commentating over... well, wastes their time.
    • "God Dammit!" Said whenever Ryan fails on completing a section or when something out of nowhere hits him.
    • "Sloooow doooown," whenever the game's frame rate drops or chugs along.
    • "Weeeee," said whenever the player character goes flying in the air.
    • "Blindsided!"
    • "Fuck you, I can fly!"
    • "You got a/the X!" said whenever the player character gets an item and Nayrman says the phrase in the same tone of Zelda's "item get" jingle.
    • "Oh My." Said in the style of George Takei.
    • "It's symbo-o-olic!" Said whenever something, well, symbolic occurs.
    • "Anarchy!" and "Chaos route!" During the Waluigi's island board of Mario party 3. Also, "Waah!"
    • ""Dr. Light is an ass hole!", which he says in every Mega Man X commentary.
    • "It's everyone's favorite X!" whenever a hated character/level/mechanic is shown on-screen.
    • "Eeeeeeevil Koopa wizard!" whenever Kamek/Magikoopas appear.
    • Seems to have a new one every video, which he will proceed to use constantly, only to never use it again once the video is over.
  • Celebrity Resemblance: While it has not been said by any of the crew, he resembles a cross between Kramer from Seinfeld and Leonard from The Big Bang Theory
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Like most of the BrainScratch crew, he has a very foul mouth.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Mostly in recent commentaries.
  • Dull Surprise: He claims this is why he needs the other commentators.
  • Evil Laughter
  • Fan Boy: Batman could eat a nursery full of babies and Ryan wouldn't care.
    • DC in general, though John says it is probably nostalgia.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Ends up dying to TOAD MAN of all people due to his "speedrunning" in Megaman 4.
  • Jewish and Nerdy: In the commentary of The Santa Clause for Hellfire Commentaries' Disneython, Ryan mentions several times that he is Jewish.
  • Know-Nothing Know-It-All: With Pokemon competitive battling. Downplayed in comparison to Ted, it mainly comes in whenever he judges a Pokemon as "good" or "bad" based on the same insufficient criteria of typing and bias. Unlike Ted, he at least doesn't argue with others as if he knows more about it than they do.
    • Although to his credit, Ryan DOES have a much better idea of competitive battling, such as how to use a sandstorm team effectively, and anything he's harsh on does have points against it (like, if he were to hate on ice type hail teams, it would be because of ice's notorious Glass Cannon reputation).
  • Manchild: Just as much as the others and he knows it.
  • Never My Fault: He often tries to come up with an excuse whenever he fails miserably. This is especially noticeable in the Super Mario 3D World playtrhough where he uses the camera as an excuse for why is failing.
  • Old Shame: The Mario 1 and Mega Man 2 commentaries. Also, IT'S TOAD MAN!
  • Otaku: Putting aside the general nature of the channel and its commentators, he's acknowledged as the one most informed about Anime & Manga.
  • Significant Anagram: The first four letters of his net handle are an anagram of his first name.
  • The Smart Guy: Oftentimes he will bring up a scientific explanation to whatever topic is at hand, such as Spike being able to survive in space due to internal pressure. He has stated the only class he ever failed was Programming (or coding, whatever), implying that he survived Calculus with one of The Four Horsemen of Georgia Tech.
  • The Quiet One: Ryan isn't particularly chatty, but in lets plays for DmC: Devil May Cry and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, he would go on for several parts without saying anything, which was lampshaded by Johnny. Even the commentators noticed how quiet Ryan had gotten.
  • The Stoic: He's pretty much reserved and indifferent at times unless something really grinds his gears.
  • Troll: A defining characteristic. Particularly when recording the Megaman 3 footage and refusing to edit out a tedious grinding segment that lasted two parts and during the Waluigi's island board of Mario party 3. He basically spends the entire time dicking people over with the space switching island And he still wins. Basically, if he can screw you over by any means, he will.
  • Took a Level in Cynic: Ryan was quite snarky in the early days of the channel (and still is to this day) towards Nintendo, but he genuinely loved the games he was snarking at. As the years went on, Ryan grew more and more cynical, complaining a lot more about Nintendo's decisions and their directions while turning up the snark in their more recent games without joking about it. He seems to have mellowed out in more recent commentaries, though.
  • Valentine's Day Vitriol: Thanks to his Twitter, Ryan has made it absolutely clear that he despises Valentine's Day, and for what reason? Valentine's Day happens to be his birthday, and the attention it draws away from something as valuable to him as when he was born has led him to see the holiday as completely superfluous.

    The One True Nobody! (Lewis Daniel Medeiros) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0031.JPG
"You missed a Ring Box!"

The second founding member of the channel, the idea originally being pitched to him by Ryan, after which he invited Johnny. He's a huge Persona and Resident Evil fanboy. He's considered the main instigator for the group's many tangents, especially the one's that don't relate to the game they're commentating over, or the guy who raises the most questions about the.He originally went by the screen name "SolarisParadox", and later "The Heartless Wanderer". He currently goes by as "The One True Nobody!" on Twitter, but he just goes by his real name in videos.

Despite being a full member, computer problems have lead Lewis to miss these commentaries:

So far Lewis has recorded:

Tropes that apply to Lewis:
  • Abandoned Catchphrase: Lewis's "Peach was useful!" was abandoned after its overexposure during the 3D World playthrough.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The amount of blue screens his past computers have suffered would make any sane man mad.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: No matter how unrealistic a video game's setting and characters are, he's always concerned about less questionable things.
  • Allergic To Needles: Mentioned in the F-Zero Gx playthrough, that when he gets a shot, he passes out.
  • Artistic License – Linguistics: He discovered the proper pronunciation of "Awry" during their commentary of Sonic '06.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Lewis is a pretty nice guy, if a bit shy and full of snark, but when the crew's channel was fucked over due to a copyright strike and the group was getting no help from YouTube, it made him quite irritated and rightfully so. However, his anger exploded when he found out that people were harassing the woman that issued the copyright strike (which she later apologized for since it was a mistake on her part and she posted a video of her trying to remove her claim, but couldn't do it due an unknown error) and he called out everyone that was trying to demonize her and other let's play channels that didn't like Brianscratch.
  • Catchphrase: Whenever he starts arguing about something, is cut off at the end of the part, and then re-mentions his point at the beginning of the next part, he says, "As I was saying".
    • He also says "I have a question," for when he wants to ask a question and wants everyone else to be quiet.
    • "I accept my position as your lord and savior."
  • Character Development: At the beginning of Mario 3D World playthrough, he spent a majority of the time running around in circles and dying. As the game progresses though, he becomes more competent, spouting "Peach is/was useful!" whenever he does something good.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Seems to think on a different wavelength than the others, as he'll tend to ramble on topics with little to no relation to the current game that no one else gets and not understand comments that the others make.
  • Cross Player: He tends to have a habit of choosing Daisy in the Mario spin-offs.
    • In Super Mario 3D World, he occasionally chooses Peach. In Sonic Shuffle, he chooses Amy.
    • He also used Peach in Mario Party 2 (as Daisy doesn't debut in the series until 3); he lampshaded the fact Peach and Daisy don't have outfit changes in the Mario Party games at one point.
      Lewis (during a round of Platform Peril in 2): I'm in a long dress and heels.
  • Contrived Coincidence: During the commentary of Sonic Forces, partway through it, Lewis claimed he called dibs on whatever the next Sonic game was. While Lewis did indeed end up being the one to record Frontiers, he openly admitted he forgot he said that he would do it back in Forces.
  • Cursed with Awesome: He was bullied as a child... but at one point, the bullies threw money at him. They paid for his ice cream that day.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Much more so in earlier commentaries, but he still snarks every now and again.
  • Evil Laughter: Doesn't do so often, but when he does, it's impressive.
  • Fan Boy: Of the Sonic, Persona, Resident Evil, Naruto, and ESPECIALLY the Devil May Cry series.
  • Grammar Nazi: Lewis tends to correct the grammar of the other commentators.
  • Inexplicably Identical Individuals: He looks near identical to Leon S. Kennedy. Though, this was intentional, as he states that one day he brought his copy of Resident Evil 4 to the Barber Shop and asked them if they could give him Leon's haircut.
  • Killed Mid-Sentence: Lewis's call sometimes drops while he's talking, prompting the rest of the commentators to shout "Lewis? Lewis! Leeeeeeeeewwwiiiiiiiiissssss!!!!!!!"
  • Kleptomaniac Hero: If he can collect it, you bet your ass he will. And he will complain if someone (usually Johnny) passes up easily-obtainable collectibles. This occasionally comes back to bite him in the ass, as seen in the Catherine playthrough.
  • Manchild: At the very least a parody of it.
  • Logic Bomb: He will be the first to question something in a commentary. His logical questioning eventually gets the better of him in the Kid Icarus Uprising commentary.
  • Put on a Bus: Several times, due to computer problems. This began the many sagas of the Not-Lewis Chronicles.
  • The Spock: Often questions nonsensical aspects of the games they comment on.

    SomecallmeJohnny (Juan Alberto Ortiz) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_9979.JPG
"Greetings, fellow Subscribers!"

The most well-known member of the group. He's a video game reviewer on YouTube with over 412,000 subscribers and was invited by Lewis to join the group. He was initially quite shy in the first few commentaries, but is now considered the most lively member of the group. He's also considered the most "professional" member of the group, though that doesn't stop him from being very foul-mouthed and comedic.

For tropes pertaining to Johnny on his channels, click here.

Johnny has appeared in almost every commentary to date, since he's one of the original BSC members. But even he has missed a few every once in a while:

So far Johnny has recorded:

Tropes that apply to Johnny:

  • Angrish: In Part 17 in Portal 2 Co-Op.
    • Sonic Genesis as well, especially during the unnecessarily complex trial up a flight of flail-guarded stairs.
    • Also at the beginning of the Shadow The Hedgehog LP, when explaining why he finds the game worse than Sonic 06.
    FTA: I think this game has broken Johnny!
  • Artistic License – Linguistics: He learned how to pronounce �Chasm� during their first TV Tropes episode.
    • Johnny managed to screw up his grammar in Part 1 of Sonic Genesis and ends up saying at one point "A fuck ton of lot".
  • Berserk Button: Sonic Genesis. Even the entertainment value from displaying how broken the port is couldn't subside his rage from countless cheap deaths.
    • Shadow The Hedgehog, which he finds worse than Sonic 06 because of the tedious "Find/Kill all X" missions and having to replay the game 9 more times for 100% Completion. It is the only game that he openly expressed reluctance to comment on, as even Genesis at least gave the joy of showing it off to Ted.
    • In the past, he would get very irritated when anyone made fun of his weight, often insulting the person right back. Nowadays, he plays along with it.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Johnny is considered to be the most down to earth guy in the whole group and is usually not bothered by anyone with a different opinion, even if said opinion is downright stupid. That being said, it can be outright scary when Johnny suddenly flips out when one of the above in his Berserk Button triggers is pressed or in the case of part 7 of the group's revisit of Sonic Adventure 2, getting into a very heated debate with Ted over how the game handles exploration for extra rewards and whether or not the game did it correctly.
  • Blood Knight: Will kill anything in his way when playing video games, even if they are harmless. Often says "They're in my way", as an excuse for killing them.
  • Book Dumb: While very articulate in his opinion of what makes a good game, a highly skilled animator, and a master player of what he likes, he isn't the brightest guy in terms of academic/"book" facts. One small example of this is that he didn't know that New Hampshire had no sales tax until Ted outright said it, despite the state being universally known for that. Even he admitted one time that Matt is most intelligent member of his group.
  • Catchphrase: "Greed was the enemy!"
    • "My dick! My diiiiiiiccckkkk!"
    • "I would like to remind the audience that X is not Y..."
    • "For those of you who are not aware..."
    • "I was just about to comment on that."
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Possibly the most out of all the members.
  • Evil Laughter: The Clement and Johnny Classic City Escape video and the beginning of Sonic Genesis is the best example.
  • Fan Boy: Of the Sonic the Hedgehog and Metroid series.
  • The Hyena: Downplayed. He chuckles quite frequently.
  • Iconic Outfit: The majority of the fan art used in the thumbnails for the start of a lets play series has Johnny drawn in his gray hoodie/sweater and black pants, which he wore often on his own channel.
  • In Harm's Way: When he plays Mega Man X games.
  • Manchild: He does admit to this.
  • Man Witha Thousand Voices: The amount of impressions or original voices he can pull off is outstanding. Luigi seems to be his favorite.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: He begins Sonic Genesis laughing maniacally before hysterically asking himself what he's getting everyone into.
  • Nice Guy: John is very respectful and friendly, possibly the most out of all the main members. Although, you have to look past his snarkiness and foul mouth.
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten: "It's STORM EAGLE; I KNOW!"
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Even though his real name is "Juan", most people (himself included) just call him "John" or "Johnny".
  • Rage Breaking Point: Ryan winning on Waluigi's island by literally running around in circles and being a dick.
    • The final part of Sonic Genesis.

    ExandShadow (Edward "Ted" Wiesen) 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0486.JPG
"Hey guys it's ExandShadow!"

The youngest member of the group, who joined at random as a guest during the Resident Evil 4 commentary before later becoming a permanent member after recording Pokemon Yellow for the team. He has strong opinions that he has little issue voicing, which has made him a very polarizing member of the group, though fans still enjoy his bright personality and overall positiveness.

Following his first appearance in Part 40 of Resident Evil 4, Ted has appeared in all commentaries except:

So far Ted has recorded:

Tropes that apply to Ted:
  • Accentuate the Negative: Not to Ryan's degree, but he still considers it odd to play through an entire game without bringing any attention to its flaws.
    • Generally, he will do this with any game he dislikes immensely. He jokingly does it to other games as well.
  • Artistic License – Music: He knows how to play the flute.
  • Artistic License – Linguistics: He tends to be the king of this.
    • He mispronounced Chasm in the second TV Tropes episode.
    • He also combined insignificant and inconsequential into Insiconsequential in part 2 of Sonic Genesis.
    • Again, Ted somehow manages to combine dramatically and drastically into dramastically in part 13 of Pokemon Crystal.
    • Ted coins the term "satisfication" in part 5 of Metroid: Fusion.
    • Ted combines Salvage and Scavenge into Scalvage in part 10 of Pikmin.
  • Ascended Extra: Ted was just added randomly during the Resident Evil 4 playthrough, before he eventually became a permanent member.
  • Ascended Fanboy: He was a big fan of Brainscratchcomms before he became a guest commentator and then the official fourth member of BSC.
  • The Baby of the Bunch: Believe it or not, he is, in fact, the youngest member of the group.
  • Berserk Button: Bringing up having a shiny.
    • Although mentioned, if you say it in something unrelated to Pokémon, he won't care.
    • Anything related to Gen 4 of Pokémon tends to put him in a bad mood. Lampshaded by Ted himself during "The Bullshit Video", in which Ted observes that he could go on a rant over practically any aspect of the game that someone could bring up. During the Pokémon Y livestream, Johnny catches a Bidoof (that was female, mind you) and nicknames it Ted just to set him off.
    • He states that no game, not even Gen 4, pisses him off more than Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
  • Brought to You by the Letter "S": Ted wears a hat with the letter "T" on it.
  • Catchphrase: "GOD DAMNIT!"
  • Celebrity Resemblance: People point out that he looks like Loki. Not that he minds at all.
  • Convenient Replacement Character: He became a permanent member around the time when Lewis was Put on a Bus. He stayed in the group after Lewis' return.
  • Cousin Oliver: One of the youngest commentators to date.
  • Don't Explain the Joke: Does so very frequently.
  • Fanboy: He adores the Pokémon, Kirby, Ace Attorney, Paper Mario, and Tetris series.
    • He also loves Sonic Adventure 2 more than any member.
    • Also, Marvel Comics
    • Don't forget Dragon Quest, Pikmin, Shin Megami Tensei, and the DK Bongos, as well.
  • Embarrassing Middle Name: So far he’s the only member of the group to not reveal his middle name, and he wants to keep it that way because he claims it’s embarrassing.
  • Fan Hater: Ted was once pretty bad about this, saying on several occasions that he doesn't get how [insert game he doesn't like] has any fans, and frequently starting arguments with the game's defenders in the comment section. He was probably most condescending toward Pokémon Gen 4 fans (and in general was much more vocal about his hatred of the games in earlier videos). Recently, he's shown some awareness and remorse for this trope (though not to the point where he is above putting those he antagonized in the wrong for any lingering resentment). He has also been on the receiving end of this trope for trying to portray Metroid: Other M and Sonic Boom as So Okay, It's Average.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: By his own admission, he used to have this with Gen IV of Pokemon, more so than any commentator toward any game when the game wasn't even the topic of the video (Ex. Johnny rarely raging about Sonic Genesis and Shadow the Hedgehog outside of their actual commentaries); anything about the game would set him off on an angry rant. He recently decided to keep quiet about it until the actual commentary.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Subverted on the “jerk” part in that its more of him being opinionated about things he's passionate about, but he will complain about something that he thinks is useless. For example in the Paper Mario: Thousand-Year Door Playthrough, he talks about how he dislikes the party member Flurrie for her refusal to help the Punis unless she gets her necklace back, and says how he finds her ability incredibly situational. He also has a strong dislike against Pokemon Generation 4.
  • Know-Nothing Know-It-All: While he was at one point a competitive battler, he stopped after Gen IV and considers the metagame from this point on "too unbalanced to enjoy". This results in a somewhat simple-minded view of the metagame based on immediately available information. One example was instantly deeming Magnezone bottom tier due to its 4X weakness (oblivious to its stats, move pool, or even resistances while on the topic of typing), as well as having simple-minded strategies like "always having Ice Beam", among other things. It doesn't help that Ted is intentionally avoiding learning more about the metagame.
  • Manchild: He is much younger than the others, but still old enough to qualify.
  • Mr. Fanservice: He seems to have obtained quite a few fan girls. He remains humble about it, though.
  • Pungeon Master: Not a very good one, but still...
  • Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Ted pronounces the first couple of notes used for the battle themes in Pokémon Red and Blue as "widdly widdly widdly widdly widdly widdly woo". He uses it to describe a Random Encounter for RPG games in general.
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Downplayed. Many fans complained that Ted's personality is divided depending whether if he's on Twitter or if he's commentating. They state that while he's happy, ecstatic, and friendly while commentating, he is more blunt and to the point on Twitter. He states that he does admit to doing this.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Denied being this when Amanda, at one point, started calling him "Lewis 2".
  • Took a Level in Kindness: He has at least said that he wants to become more tolerable to different opinions. YMMV on how well the execution has gone.
  • Un Evil Laugh: All of his attempts suck. Although, it is debatable if his attempts are real ones, or if he's just sucking on purpose.
  • Verbal Tic: In more recent videos, he seems to have developed a habit of ending most of his sentences with a chuckle noise. Can be rather hard to unhear once you've become aware of it.

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