Music / Jonathan Young

Jonathan Young (Born June 14, 1994) is a YouTube-based Pop Punk and Power Metal musician best known for his weekly covers of music from Disney films, although he's also done covers of music from anime, Broadway, pop music, and this. Wizards of the Coast has hired him for some of their soundtracks, including for Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.

Not to be confused with voice actor Johnny Yong Bosch.

Jonathan Young's work provides examples of:

• A Cappella: Several of his covers, including "White Christmas", "Shut Up And Dance", and "Blank Space".
• Adaptational Sympathy: His version of "Hellfire" has Frollo put up a much stronger fight before giving in to his lust; even to the end of the song, though he still plans to burn Paris down, he does so while begging for sanctuary and openly crying from his confusion.
• Anti-Climax: Played for laughs in "The Best Band in the Universe". After hyping up The Cameo from Ninja Brian, the song turns from heavy metal to much slower bloopy reggae synth, all without Ninja Brian himself saying a word (as is typical for Brian).
• Cold Ham: Several of the harmonies in "Monster Mash" are delivered looking straight into the camera with a completely still face, but still manage to be as hammy as the melodies. In fact, several of the music videos contrast Young's Cold Ham with Caleb Hyle's Large Ham.
• Cool Starship: The eponymous "Starship Velociraptor" of the same album, which possesses a hundred laser blasters, hardwood floors, a holographic suite, a dozen restrooms with comfy leather seats, and a fully stocked fridge. Its title track (a glorified in-universe advertisement) also boasts a competitive payment plan.
• Content Warnings:
  • One on the music video for This Is Halloween for having blood, flashing lights, and disturbing images.
  • Played for Laughs twice: first was during the "I'll Make a Man Out of You" cover (see No Animals Were Harmed entry); the second was with his "Prince Ali" cover, prior to the song's bridge: "Disney Mosh Incoming"
  • Dinosaur Laser Fight has a similiar one for language and still remains one of the very few covers with swearing.
  • All Star has an epilepsy warning.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: The "metal" video for "Mine, Mine, Mine" reimagines Ratcliffe as a hard-rocking modern CEO who's still associated with the Virginia Company. (In fact, it also includes, unannounced, part of "Virginia Company" before closing with a straight quotation from Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address.)
• The Cover Changes the Gender:
  • Played straight in his cover of "Let It Go". Hilariously subverted in his cover of "Zero To Hero".
  • Averted in "How Far I'll Go." It's still Jonathan singing it but the song is now in third person, still talking about Moana.
  • Played with for laughs in his cover of "Sk8er Boi", where he stumbles over the line "I'm just a girl" and starts wondering just why he decided to do this cover in the first place.
• The Cover Changes the Meaning:
  • The video for "A Whole New World" turns the song into one about introducing someone to the wonders of pizza, all without even changing the lyrics.
  • "All About the Bass" becomes "Only Singing Bass", and goes from a body-positive anthem to ... a voice positive anthem.
  • "Kiss The Girl"'s music video makes "Eric" a lot more awkward around "Ariel", who can presumably talk and is a lot more forward about what she wants. Also, it's a pair of friends watching a movie, eating pizza, etc instead of a couple in a boat. There's also a chorus added to the end that points out the flaws of the original movie.
  • His Cover of "It's Gonna Be Me" basically became a mondegreen Product Placement for the month of May.
• Cover Version: Jonathan's bread and butter, although he has released original music.
• Darker and Edgier: Most of Young's videos are just him playing guitar and jumping around his set, except for "This is Halloween", which featured Jonathan and guest singer Travis Carte covered in fake blood, including some that pours out of Jonathan's mouth, several jump scares, and Jonathan dressed up as a man with ram's horns in a suit, invoking serious devil imagery. He toned it down for the next year's Halloween cover, "Thriller", as the song is covered more light-heartedly and the blood effects are kept mostly in shadow. To date, "This is Halloween" is one of only a few videos to have a content warning, both for blood and flashing lights.
  • In contrast to the recent Halloween videos, most of the Christmas videos have been fairly light mainly Christmas carols and Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You"...then in 2017 we got a pretty intense cover of the The Oogie Boogie Song along with jokey comments on how he ruined Christmas.
  • The album art for "Young Does Disney", Vols. 1 and 2, feature Jonathan in a Disney-esque style: Vol 1 as himself, and Vol 2 as a "hipster" Beast. Vol 3 features a similar drawing, but he has green fire in his eyes and is pictured on a black background with a design reminiscent of Dr. Facilier. It should be noted that, on average, the album does not contain more villain songs than either of the others, and in fact, has a smaller percentage than Vol 1.
  • While most of the album Starship Velociraptor is Denser and Wackier, one song stands out: "Final Frontier", a somber song about humanity building The Ark to escape from Earth after it was rendered uninhabitable after years of pollution.
• Denser and Wackier: Starship Velociraptor is an album of original music, most of which is more wacky and humorous than Young's other works. Among other tracks, there's an "I Am Great!" Song about "The Best Band in the Universe" featuring Ninja Brian of Ninja Sex Party, a song about racing with jetpacks, and a song about assembling an army of tigers with which to fight the sun.
• Distracted by the Sexy/Even the Guys Want Him: Jonathan is not immune to Hercules's charms in the "Zero To Hero" cover. He's likewise distracted by "Ariel" in "Kiss the Girl", although this is intentional on her part.
• Gainax Ending: enforced in his cover of "All Star" on 4/20/18, in order to hit the 4:20 mark for the video. First he begins repeating the line "and they don't stop coming" over and over again, then he appears on screen in front of his music links eating a poptart; the camera slowly zooms in on him and the background becomes a picture of Shrek. He then goes on a rant about how sensationalized internet culture makes it impossible to make money by producing good content, so don't and cash in on nostalgia, trends, and old memes.
• Green Aesop:
  • The video for "Mine, Mine, Mine" is very on-the-nose about corporate greed and environmental exploitation (not that the lyrics were particularly subtle in the first place).
  • "Final Frontier" from the Starship Velociraptor album reveals that the reason humans are in space is because they failed to address the collapsing climate of Earth. The song itself is a lamentation of humanity's inaction and a question if they deserve to continue to live despite what they did to their own planet.
• Harsh Vocals: His covers of "Blue Da Ba Dee", "Never Gonna Give You Up", and "Prince Ali". It should be mentioned though that it's usually the guest vocalists doing them.
• "I Am Great!" Song: "The Best Band in the Universe", which is a heavy metal singer from outer space singing about how awesome he and his bandmates are, traveling ten thousand light years to bring you "the sickest riffs you've ever fucking seen".
• Iconic Outfit: Although Young rarely wears a beanie anymore, he still shows up on album covers wearing one simply because he wore it in his early videos that helped him garner the popularity he has now.
• Irony: The Best Band In The Universe declares that you'll know their name - but never say it. Unless it's a case of Exactly What It Says on the Tin.^note Presumably it's Galactikraken..
• Large Ham: And how. Just look at his covers for "This is Halloween", "You'll Be Back", or "Be Our Guest".
• Lighter and Softer: Since "This is Halloween" in 2014 (see Darker and Edgier above), his Halloween covers have relied less and less on blood, gore, and shocking images. "Thriller" in 2015 has much less blood, and although Jonathan does have visible wounds on his face, and blood coming out of his mouth at a few points, he's lit from behind, so it's not very clear most of the time. "Ghostbusters", 2016's Halloween cover, is completely devoid of blood and gore in favor a more traditional music video. 2017's covers of "Monster Mash" and "Spooky Scary Skeleton" are as cheesy as the original songs.
• Metal Scream: Known to hit the screams when necessary in his covers. Case in point: his English take on JAM Project's "THE HERO".
  • Some of his guest co-performers have done this as well. In particular, Jack Fliegler of ToxicXEternity bellows one in the opening lines of the "Prince Ali" cover video; while Travis Carte screams the rap parts on the "Bleed It Out" cover (Granted it's a Metalcore cover.)
• Mundane Made Awesome: His guest appearances in Google Translate Sings fail to cease his awesomeness even when he sings some of the most bizarre lyrics ever conjured up.
• No Animals Were Harmed: "No Huns were harmed during the making of this video" pops up near the bottom of the screen in the above-mentioned cover video.
• Rated M for Manly: The entire video for the cover of "I'll Make a Man Out of You."
• Renaissance Man: A musical version, at least. He can sing (multiple parts, at that), and play guitar, bass, drums, piano, and keytar. He often supplies his own instrumentation for his songs.
• Rotten Rock & Roll: His covers of various villain songs turns them into this, unless they weren't so already.
• Self-Deprecation: The description for his Metal Cover of Eiffel 65's "Blue":
  "It's not a cover. It's a cry for help."
• Signature Headgear: A beanie, which shows up a lot less since he moved to Southern California but still pops up from time to time. It's still featured prominently on most album art, due to its status as his Iconic Outfit.
• Soprano and Gravel:
  • His version of "Bells of Notre Dame" features this, with guest vocalist Caleb Hyles as the Soprano and Jonathan as the Gravel.
  • Plays this straight with his cover of "The Phantom of the Opera", where Young provides the Gravel to guest Soprano singer Malinda Kathleen Reese.
• Stepford Smiler: Implied in the description of his cover of "Blue Da Ba Dee": "it's not a cover, it's a cry for help."
  • As his "All Star" video stretches on, Jonathan gets more and more tired and his smile seems more forced. At the end, he says that the best way to make money off the internet is to cash in on dead memes (at the time of release in 2018, the Shrek meme-craze had already hit its peak and been on the decline for a while).
  • The line "YouTube is miserable and it never will be fixed" in sk8er boy also implies this
  • Hinted at in his original song Bait as well.
• Star Killing: The goal of the protagonist of "Army of Tigers" wants nothing less than to kill the Sun itself for causing skin cancer, blinding people, and drying out crops and rivers, and so plans to destroy the Sun with his army of tigers. According to the music video, he succeeds by having the tigers stack up and essentially form a Combining Mecha tiger as large as the sun and slicing it in half with its stellar-scale claws.
• Storming the Castle: Unsurprisingly the subject of "Storm the Castle" along with Tyrannicide - La Résistance forms against a tyrannical king, storms his castle, and the leader of the resistance slays the king and destroys his crown.
• Stylistic Suck: Invoked in his attempt to cover "Bat Country", but in a Major key, compared to the original's Minor key. Young puts it best:
  Young: (On the result of the attempt) It ended up sounding like it was written by a very confused cowboy.
• Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: "Starship Velociraptor" has an instance ("There's a dozen restrooms inside, just in case we all have to/Sit on the comfy leather seats...") that basically crosses Curse Cut Short with Nobody Poops.
• Take That!: While trying to reach the 4:20 mark for his "All Star" video, Jonathan goes on a rant about how sensationalist internet culture makes it impossible to make money creating good content, so don't. In the background, there's a Logan Paul video playing with "logan paul" visible in the search bar.
• Testosterone Poisoning: Played for laughs in the "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" video.
• Those Two Guys: With Caleb Hyles, to the point where they released an EP titled "My Chemical Bromance''
• Trademark Favorite Food: Pizza. It shows up in several of his videos, such as "A Whole New World" being all about introducing someone to the wonders of pizza instead of romance, "Be Our Guest" having pizza as the fancy dinner's main course, and "Kiss The Girl" using pizza as a comparison for how good kissing a girl feels.
• Traveling Salesman: Galactikraken stalks the young woman featured in the Starship Velociraptor music video on the street, in the cinema, where she works, and on her doorstop so they can pester her into buying the titular space ship.
• We All Die Someday: The central theme of his original tribute song to Game of Thrones, "All Men Must Die."
  So you can fight for love, or fight for vengeance, fight for honor or redemption
  Fight for what you will while you're alive
  Fight to love or fight for power, never fight a single hour
  Fight for what you will, but you can't hide
  'Cause all men must die!
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Stated word for word in "Army of Tigers." After all, what else does one need to defeat the sun except faith, courage, and perseverance?^note And an Army of Tigers, of course.

The Official AMV for Storm The Castle contains examples of:

• A Dog Named "Dog": The wolf guard who turns his back on the King is named... Wolf.
• Acrofatic: The only fat character in the animation is the King when he goes One-Winged Angel, but he's still agile enough to leap across the room and punch Strider hard enough to nearly end the fight.
• Adipose Rex: While the King initially appears as a human Pretty Boy, it is a glamour and he is actually a morbidly obese pig.
• An Arm and a Leg: Twice in focus, Strider loses both legs when the guards burn down their home, though they later smith some leg prostheses and return the favour by inflicting Literal Disarming on the king during the climactic fight.
• Armour Is Useless: Downplayed, but present. While most people wear appropriate armour, Brass isn't wearing much more than leathers and a skirt, and most blows seem to ignore armour; Wolf puts his blade right through one armoured guard and the courtyard fight shows guards going down in one hit, though in the latter case it could be the result of striking at unprotected areas (the animation is fast and ambiguous). Taken even further in the final battle, as the King's amulet is the only thing that actually stops a sword-thrust, and when his throne becomes plate armour it doesn't take a blow before Strider triggers their Battle Aura, at which point they cleave cleanly through one arm and put a second strike down into the King's neck and chest, both through the armour.
• Ambiguously Brown: Most of the more human heroic characters are noticeably dark-skinned in contrast to the white wolf-guards and King. Brass is themself darker than the others (with some paler stripes), while Wolf is even paler than his fellows, as well as having a slightly green cast.
• Animal Motifs: As everyone here exists on the Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism, all over the place using Animal Stereotypes:
  • The main focus character, Strider, is a deer, drawing on the nonpredatory nobility of such creatures, their vulnerability as prey and the fact that when backed in a corner, you really don't want to mess with them.
  • Brass, the second third of the Power Trio, is a zebra. Drawing on the Animal Stereotypes of independence and hardiness, they provide the emotional resilience needed to push the others on. In addition, they lack the sadism and bloodlust of the predatory wolves.
  • The guards are all wolves, as sadistic predators, while Wolf the defector (and third of the Power Trio) is more of a Noble Wolf (though not without the foibles of the other wolves). Interestingly, only Wolf is shown with visible claws.
  • Many of the incidental background characters are prey animals or otherwise commonly tamed or seen as docile: The farm workers are cattle or goats, the starving beggars are mouselike, rabbits are seen fleeing the burning village...
  • Played With by the King, who appears the most human, not even a Little Bit Beastly (though his coat of arms is a boar), right up until his magical amulet is destroyed and he becomes a hideous Pig Man to symbolise his greed. This in itself is part of the ongoing symbolism of the beautiful face masking the ugliness, a noble wild boar is the face he presents, while his true nature is a bloated, violent pig.
• Battle Aura: The King has one in Psycho Pink after going One-Winged Angel, and Strider gains a blue-white one thanks to their Eleventh Hour Superpower.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Double Subverted. In a video reliant on symbolism, the King is a blonde-haired Pretty Boy, not noticeably uglier than the Power Trio (and more attractive than the pallid and scarred Wolf), but when Strider breaks his magical amulet in their confrontation, he becomes the most hideous character in the video, a deformed, morbidly obese pig, and out of place among the generally cute cast. This in itself is part of the symbolic message, for all the pleasant face of his kingdom, it's an illusion covering up the ugly, greedy brutality underneath.
• Blue Is Heroic: Strider is always wearing blue, their trousers to begin with, following up with their armour in the final battle, and Wolf switches to blue after siding with them.
• Blood Knight: All the wolf-guards, even Wolf, only seen to smile in battle, in contrast to Brass's general cheerfulness and Strider's Tranquil Fury and battle-resolve.
• The Blacksmith: Strider, despite their apparently slight frame. They smith their own leg prostheses and their sword for the final battle. It's pretty clear during close-ups that they've got a wiry strength, in contrast to their larger allies.
• BFS: Though most of the weapons are sensibly proportioned, the two guards who nearly kill Strider in the storming and are stopped by their friends are wielding these. It's actually possible this is why they were such a threat (aside from avoiding Mook Chivalry); Strider is wiry-strong but clearly fights in a more agile style, while Brass and Wolf are far larger and burlier, more able to simply block the heavy weapons.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Brass wields a massive two-handed mallet when storming the castle, reflecting their relative lack of interest and skill at violence compared to their sword-wielding comrades.
• Call-Back: In the castle-storming scene, the villagers seen fighting alongside the main trio were seen earlier in the video when Strider was agitating in the town square. It seems that despite their apparent apathy at the time, Strider did get through to the people.
• Cute Little Fangs: Strider has these, mostly visible when they're clenched-teeth angry at the injustice around them, and foreshadowing their Eleventh Hour Superpower, when they develop full protruding fangs like a Siberian musk deer. Depending on your opinion of Slasher Smiling Blood Knights, the wolves might also qualify, though in their case it's more for predatory symbolism.
• Create Your Own Hero: The King manages this twice with the same character. His abusive leadership inspires Strider's original speeches, and then his attempt to crack down leads to Strider Taking a Level in Badass after losing their legs and training with Wolf, who himself Resigned In Protest. This ties into the themes of the story, it is the King's greed that dooms him.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: After getting pummeled into the ground by the King, Strider calls on their Heroic Resolve and their Little Bit Beastly traits turn up to eleven, they gain a brilliant blue Battle Aura that takes the form of an antler crown, and their wounds vanish.
• Eye-Obscuring Hat: The only wolf whose eyes we see is Wolf, the others' are always concealed under their helmets to underline their inhuman brutality.
• Fangs Are Evil: Zig-Zagged. The wolf-guards have them as part of their Slasher Smile, but in the final conflict Strider gets a pair appropriate to a water or musk deer as part of their Eleventh Hour Superpower.
• Foil: Strider has a foil in every other main character:
  • They are young, charismatic and heroic, while Wolf is grim, appears older, and never shakes the practical brutality of his origin. Their fighting styles contrast too, with Strider being an agile, flowing swordsman, while Wolf is large and strong, simply catching heavy blows, and while they fight Wolf shows a Psychotic Smirk, but Strider is grimly angry until they hit their Rage Breaking Point.
  • They are clearly angry and often pessimistic, seeing the horror around them and nearly falling into despair from their own suffering, while Brass is cheerful and optimistic, encouraging the others and never giving up. Similar to with Wolf, Brass's fighting style is much less refined than Strider's, using size and bulk to wield a hammer as tall as they are. Again, their attitude to fighting is different, being a cheerful Boisterous Bruiser.
  • Both the King and Strider are young PrettyBoys with clear charisma (both are shown giving RousingSpeeches, for example), but while Strider is innocent and fair-minded, with a true nobility to them, the King is an uncaring despot who hides destructive greed. Strider's desire to help others brings them strength, while the King stands alone. And in the final confrontation, though both receive a power upgrade, the King becomes an ugly, barely-humanoid pig monster, his strength derived from his throne and armour, making him Unskilled, but Strong, fighting for his own benefit. Strider remains much more themself, their changes seeming far more natural and not deforming, and their strength comes from their own Heroic Resolve, desire to protect others and hard work of training. This intense mirroring shows the evil of the King comes from his own choices to be cruel, lazy and greedy, as Strider displays many of the same traits and talents, but uses them for others.
  • In addition, both Wolf and Brass are foils to each other. Both are strong warriors who enjoy battle, but Wolf is trained, comes across as smarter, more prone to planning, and taking enjoyment from sadism, while Brass is Unskilled, but Strong and smiling due to indomitable optimism and lust for life, rather than enjoyment of death.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Early in the video, the kingdom's crest can be seen on the wall and again on Wolf's shield as he quits his post: A boar's head. It eventually turns out the king is in fact a pig.
  • As they kick in the door to the keep, Strider's shadow has a large crest or crown emerging from their head, foreshadowing their 11th-Hour Superpower and Battle Aura, which manifests as just such a crest.
• Full-Circle Revolution: Explicitly Defied, Strider shatters the fallen crown underhoof, they will 'not' be a king, not even a "good" one.
• Good Armor, Evil Armor: As part of the Rule of Symbolism, Strider and Wolf both wear relatively simple blue/grey armour during the final fight, representing their poor resources and honest fight (and in the case of Wolf, his loyalty to Strider's cause, having switched from the red clothes he wears after deserting the guards). Brass wears yellow leathers, another heroic colour and showing their rejection of violence as a way of life. The evil wolves wear red, with intimidating helmets that hide their eyes but reveal their Slasher Smile, indicating their inhumanity and violence, while the King wears golden plate that's literally made from his throne, representing his excess and the protection offered by his position.
• Good Colours, Evil Colours: The characters' armour choices fall into this (see the trope above), but also in the final battle, after all the One-Winged Angel and Eleventh Hour Superpowers go off, the King is outlined in sickly Psycho Pink while Strider is glowing a bright blue-white.
• Good Hair, Evil Hair: Used most obviously to contrast the wolves, the loyalist guards have smart, short red hair and are clean-shaven, while Wolf himself has antiheroic unkempt back hair and stubble. Similarly, the King has extremely neat hair in a short ponytail (which he keeps after going One-Winged Angel), while the other two heroes have less 'noble' hairstyles, Strider being rough and shaggy (if clean-shaven) and Brass with long flowing (and striped) hair.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Averted, the brutality of the kingdom is important, so we see it full-force, and the only time it looks like we get one, when Strider shoves a blade into the King's chest in silhouette, it's a Subversion to hide that the King is unhurt, the strike simply broke the amulet concealing his ugliness.
• Handicapped Badass: Strider loses both legs when the guards burn down their home and they get trapped under a flaming beam, but this just inspires them further (after a Heroic BSoD), and after forging their own prostheses and training with Wolf, they're perfectly able to lead the charge to Storm the Castle.
• Hellish Pupils: Subverted, when Strider gains their Eleventh Hour Superpower, their pupils become rectangular like a real deer's as part of their general shift down the Sliding Scale Of Anthropomorphism, but it's not an indication of anything but their rightful rage and it reverts after they win the fight along with the rest of their transformation.
• Heroic BSoD: Implied after Strider loses their legs, their eyes lack pupils as they stare at their (still hidden to the audience) stumps, and the pupils return once Brass comforts them and they gain an expression of resolve, beginning to work on a smithing project (implicitly either their prostheses or sword).
• Heroic Resolve: When Strider falls against the king, a flashback of the abuse inflicted on those they're fighting for lets them get back up by triggering a Rage Breaking Point.
• Masculine, Feminine, Androgyne Trio: Wolf is the masculine, Brass is the feminine, and Strider is the androgynous. In a twist on the formula, both Brass and Strider use 'they/them' pronouns.
• Meatgrinder Surgery: Played for Drama, after Strider's legs are trapped under a burning beam, the only way the villagers are able to get them out is to simply tear them free, with Strider losing both legs above the knee and triggering a Heroic BSoD.
• Mime and Music-Only Cartoon: At no point is any dialog by the characters actually heard and they're not singing the song themselves, with the closest anyone comes to that being that Strider's fliers contain the lyric "Rise now, stand and fight! Take your freedom, claim your right!", and Strider's call to arms of "What are you waiting for?".
• Nameless Narrative: No character in the music video is given a name in the video itself, though they are named in concept art. Strider is the deer, Wolf is the token-good wolf, and Brass is the zebra. The King remains simply the King.
• Not So Stoic: Though Strider is clearly angry throughout, especially when giving a speech, they tends more towards Tranquil Fury off the soapbox, and in battle they lean more towards a grim determination, but once they draw on Heroic Resolve in the final battle, they go feral.
• Oh, Crap!: Strider has several in the first half of the video, some justified (when a guard is coming at them with a sword, waking to a smoke-filled room), others less so (catching the eye of Wolf, who will would join them), appropriate to the timid deer that they are. Once they Take A Level In Badass, they give one to the king, though they never drop the habit entirely themself.
• One-Winged Angel: When the King is confronted, he goes from apparently harmless Pretty Boy to terrifying pig-monster clad in armour forged from his throne and glowing with a sickly pink battle-aura that simply punches Strider across the room.
• Power Armor: When the King's glamour is broken and he's knocked backwards into his throne, he turns the throne into a suit of magical armor that seems to strengthen his blows.
• Power Trio: Strider, Brass, and Wolf, though their dynamic is subtly conveyed due to the limitations of the medium, it's made clear that although they are foils to each other, they need each other and are made far stronger for it.
  • Strider is The Leader^note Charismatic and Determined subtypes, their speeches and leadership forging the path the others follow.
  • Brass is The Heart, while doing little directly towards the conflict aside from employing their large hammer against a few guards, it's clear that their optimism and support keeps the others, especially Strider, going. They also show the least interest in violence, simply using their hammer, unlike Wolf who is a Blood Knight and Strider who trains hard to gain skill with a sword.
  • Wolf is The Lancer, dour and relatively unemotional compared to the others (except during battle), but with the expertise that the others need.
• The Power of Friendship: A subtle but important theme. Strider wouldn't have got anywhere without the others of their Power Trio, Brass's unwavering moral and emotional support and Wolf's expertise and training. Particularly hammered home during the storming in which Strider is being attacked from both sides, and the others intercept the falling blows. It's in direct contrast to the King, who never stands with any other character, not even with his guards, who are simply Mooks.
• Pretty Boy: While the art style means all the characters are reasonably attractive, both Strider and the King deliberately fall into this, in the case of Strider, their unadorned attractiveness symbolises innocence and nobility, while in the case of the King his makeup and finery is a carefully constructed false face that both conceals and betrays his decadence.
• Punched Across the Room: When the King goes One-Winged Angel, lacking an immediate weapon beyond his throne-armour, he simply smashes Strider in the chest and sends them across the room hard enough to crack stone, nearly winning the fight in one blow if it wasn't for Heroic Resolve.
• Punch Catch: When a guard is about to kill Strider in the street for rabble-rousing, the recently-defected Wolf stops the attack by catching the guard's hand mid-swing.
• Psycho Pink: Zig-Zagged, Strider has fairly soft pink eyes that don't qualify, but the King's prominent gem necklace is a bright pink colour, and when he goes One-Winged Angel after it breaks he's lined in that same sickly colour, and his red clothing lightens to match.
• Rebel Leader: Strider becomes this after Taking a Level in Badass.
• Resign in Protest: The introduction of Wolf is him deserting the Guards, apparently at their actions and implicitly (by the camera angles and eyelines) at the inspiration of Strider's speeches.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: It is made entirely clear that the kingdom is cruel and abusive to its people and that the rebels are in the right for overthrowing it and putting an end to both the current kingdom and royal rule as a whole.
• Rousing Speech: Strider is shown giving speeches twice, once at the beginning with little apparent effect, but the second qualifies, immediately before Storming the Castle. These speeches are the only time the lyrics and the animation explicitly sync up, reinforcing the song's own intent as one. It's also contrasted with a villainous version, where in place of the varied and poor audience in the marketplace listening to a speaker standing on a wooden crate and flanked by friends, the King is addressing his uniform and ranked guards while standing alone before the throne in his palace.
• Rule of Symbolism: As a largely dialogueless web animation, relies heavily on this to tell the story. See... basically every other trope.
• Scary Impractical Armour: The wolf-guards' armour isn't too bad, (the actual armour structure is a fairly standard breastplate and pauldrons affair), but the helmets are clearly designed for both intimidation and symbolism.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: Wolf has a relatively slow one as he progresses along his defection, starting by abandoning the Scary Impractical Armour when he deserts, then shifting to blue when he joins Strider, and finally donning a modified set of no-longer-scary armour for the climax. Strider has a much faster one mid-story, going from a simple shirt and trousers to a more elaborate set of armour including a scarf and designed to work with their prostheses as part of their Taking a Level in Badass.
• Slasher Smile: The default expression of the wolf-guards, generally while being cheerfully cruel. It reveals their fangs.
• Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: All the characters appear somewhere between human and Beast Man, though the focus characters lean towards the human end, with the Power Trio being Little Bit Beastly (until Strider gets their Eleventh Hour Superpower) and the King being human in appearance until he goes One-Winged Angel. The guards are an interesting case, being primarily human with only wolf ears and tails, but their armour is sculpted with lupine faces.
• Storm the Castle: It is in the song name, and forms the climax of the video.
• The Shadow Knows: When Strider breaks into the throne room, their shadow shows an impressive crown of antlers as opposed to the relatively short ones they actually sport, symbolising their hidden nobility and foreshadowing their Eleventh Hour Superpower Battle Aura that does have them.
• Token Heroic Orc: One third of the Power Trio is a wolf {named Wolf) who Resigned In Protest from the guards, and he's the only wolf not antagonistic to the group.
• Took a Level in Badass: Strider does this, ironically enough after losing two limbs. They go from a driven but largely irrelevant speech-maker to a Rebel Leader wielding a sword they made themself.
• Tranquil Fury: When not in full flowing speech, Strider leans towards this, especially during their Take a Level in Badass montage, in which they forge their weapon and train in swordsmanship. They hold it right up until their Rage Breaking Point.
• Transgender: According to one of the character designers, both Strider and Brass are nonbinary and use 'they/them' pronouns.
• Unskilled, but Strong: This and related tropes form part of the deliberate contrast between the foil-pairs. The King, once he goes One-Winged Angel, throws simple but powerful blows that nearly end the fight, but once Strider knows what's coming, they are able to use their skill (earned from hard training) to run rings around him. They learned these techniques from Wolf, who is Strong and Skilled, his strength contrasting with Strider's relative lack of such^note Though not weak, Strider is the slightest and smallest of the Power Trio and clearly outmatched by all three other characters, and allowing him to both indulge and use his bloodthirst. This in turn contrasts with Brass, who is similarly strong and wields a large hammer, but despite being a Boisterous Bruiser, has little interest in violence and no skill or desire to learn how to do it more effectively, even if they do fight alongside the others.

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