The Black Pawn Movement
was a real, fictional group. In other words, the group itself was real. The group in the videos was not. Savvy?
The main purpose of the group was to reveal and show how Orwellian much of the Twilight series' more rabid fanbase can get. In the off season the group enjoyed more familiar pastimes. The fictionalized version of the group held five primary members: D~ (the Straight Man, most of the time), A~ (the Deadpan Snarker), K~ (the one fan, a Cloudcuckoolander), V~ (essentially a female analogue to that one guy with the mask) and most recently Z~, who...wasn't really all there. The group was also currently in the process of riffing Twilight The Movie, though it had fallen into Development Hell and was subsequently canned.
When riffing videos, the BPM searched for the most idiotic and insane videos that Twihards (Twilight + Diehard) could muster, sometimes causing the original video to be taken offline, inadvertently also making them video mirrors of some Twihards' Old Shame. However, sometimes they also had videos either forced down or asked to be taken down, to which they complied. This inevitably resulted in Missing Episodes.
In 2010, the BPM expanded their riffing range from only the Twilight FanDumb to all FanDumbs, in response to the Twilight craze dying down over time. The three biggest new inclusions to the range at the time were Beliebers, Juggalos and Little Monsters. Furries were also a popular target.
By 2013, after a canon Grand Finale, video production had slowed to a halt, ending the Black Pawn Movement.
The Black Pawn Movement provides examples of:
- Berserk Button: D~ is set off by extreme stupidity, A~ gets angry at the Twihards' normal stupidity level, and at their poor reasons for liking the books (Edward Cullen usually being the main and mostly only reason). A~ actually snapped and was Put on a Bus for a few videos, for everyone's protection.
- Cloudcuckoolander: K~, who is actually as intelligent as the other two, but rarely shows it.
- Color-Coded Characters: The text for everyone is a separate color: D~ is white, A~ is green, K~ is cyan, V~ is red, Z~ is blue and ^Tails^~ is orange. The fonts for each person are also different. During the WMM-era of videos, the colors would change occasionally. For example, when a video had a lot of white where the text appeared, D~'s text would change to orange to compensate.
- Deadpan Snarker: While this applies to everybody to various extents, A~ thrives on sarcasm and mocking stupidity. mArley, her AI mimic in BPM: 2212, continues in her footsteps, though more as a means to be Shattyr's Foil. Crush follows A~'s style much more closely in-video, however.
- Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Whenever the fictional BPM responds to a video, or when they comment on others' videos. D~ and A~ have both been noted to comment on fansites of Twilight.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Everyone within the fictional BPM. This makes it hard for some viewers to ascertain who is male and who is female at first glance. This was later averted when The BPM were revealed, in 2010.
- The Hyena: Z~, interjecting quick laughing fits after some of his comments.
- Hypocrisy Nod: In "Rated S", when they call out the original uploader on using WMM more than Sony Vegas, both of which were used for the original video...Then advertising their spinoff show, Dn A, immediately after. "IT COMES WITH A FLASHY INTRO!"
- In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It: "Stephenie Meyer's How to Write Good like Stephenie Meyer (from the author of the Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer)"!
- Old Shame: In-universe: One video they riffed was revealed to have been made by ^Tails^~ before he started BPM based on what his ex-girlfriend told him about Twilight. You can watch it here.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Subverted with A~: Her full name was used by V~ as a Full-Name Ultimatum to snap her out of a rant (it's "Anastasia", by the way).
- Patriotic Fervor: Played for Laughs when A~ stops a video and starts raving about AMERICA, climaxing with the Star-Spangled Banner playing with the American Flag waving in the background, before D~ gets irritated and cuts it short.
- Product Placement: When a video was cut short due to a bad conversion, they advertised for the sound editor Audacity while they were waiting for it to finish recording the audio stream. A~ promptly pointed the fact out after they finished.
- Put on a Bus: A~ was inexplicably "on vacation" for a few videos, it was later revealed upon her return that D~ "punched her lights out" because she "went crazy" in the time between her last appearance and the "on vacation" explanation, not going into any further details before A~ starts whaling on D~ for revenge. It was later found out that A~ had snapped from a Twihard's extreme idiocy, which forced D~ to knock her out in an attempt to keep her from going on a rampage.
- Running Gag: Left 4 Dead soundclips in videos from Canadians, especially Francis' "I hate Canada".
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Every person or "faction" that proclaims war against them, most notably Viperhor.
- Shout-Out: Many, including shout outs to MST3K, Who's on First?, Twilight Sucks and even TV Tropes itself.
- In BPM: 2212, Crush is an active participant in the wonderful game of F-Sport.
- Spin-Off: DnA, which cuts the riffers back down to two and broadens the targets to pretty much everything. More recently, BPM: 2212, which takes place in the future.
- Straight Man: D~, most of the time, however he sometimes delves into Deadpan Snarker territory as well.
- Token Minority: K~ is the only actual fan of the Twilight series in the BPM to be revealed so far. Conversely, D~ was the only male of the fictional group until Z~ was introduced.
