- Today, I'm describing ZMDE Animations in TV Tropes, but the site can't ruin my life, because I told the other tropers that if I die, their lives get enhanced instead. Make sure to read until the end, because It. Gets. EPIC.
Steven Song is ZMDE (spelled as 'Zen-Mode'), an animator that creates stories about a fictional narrator whose name was literally 'ZMDE' and got into increasingly disturbing stories that might not sound too farfetched in real life. With recurring supporting cast including his parents and sister, ZMDE's rather bizarre life is narrated by Steven.
Then he stumbled into Among Us. And Steven found out that he's really good at playing the game, so he turned his channel into a Let's Play channel crossed with editing, where he put up his game sessions, peppered with monologues in style with his animations as well as voice acting, with several of his friends becoming supporting cast. Steven has also developed his own signature style in playing the game, though he's also open with some unorthodox strategies.
Trope examples. Let's GOOOOOO!!!
- Beneath Suspicion: ZMDE has a VERY GOOD PokerFace or Nerves of Steel that no players ever tried to pin him into a suspicion unless he accidentally outed himself (and even then, he could weasel his way out to successfully pin the blame on someone else). He once used this as an advantage where he made up an excuse for AFK, only to kill off the crewmates when they least suspected it... and no one ever accused him.
- Consistent Clothing Style: ZMDE is always a spiky haired guy with black T-Shirt. When translated to playing Among Us, this means he's always going to be a Black-colored crewmate/imposter with Mysterious Vagabond Mask.
- Epic Fail: Steven Song is still human after all, he couldn't keep up a perfect record of being really good at Among Us, as seen in his "Imposter Can't Kill Me FAILS" and "Worst Imposter FAIL Ever" videos.
- Human Traffickers: Once featured in his stories, where his sister almost got kidnapped by one.
- Let's Play: It dominates his latter videos, ZMDE manages to upload one video per week, but the last of his adventure animations were 2 months ago, the rest afterwards were Among Us (and one Minecraft) videos. However, at the very least, ZMDE modifies his playthroughs into several parts and makes it look less of literal uploads.
- Recurring Element:
- His family members within his adventure animation.
- The player Big Babi in his Among Us animations, usually recognizable with being a Blue crewmate/imposter.
- Running Gag:
- ZMDE often inserts the voice clip "BABABOEY" (which became quite the meme in Among Us fandom) on whenever something that looks dumb or 'didn't go as intended' happens.
- Inserting a cartoon character Evil Laugh whenever he, as the Imposter, got away with his murder and pinning the blame on someone. Commonly either The Joker, Shredder or Skeletor.
- Serial Killer: Featured not just once, but up to four times in his stories.
- Signature Move: ZMDE has several skills when it comes to playing Among Us, and it is used often in his games where it brought him victory a lot of times, usually as a crewmate:
- His most known one is "I'm following (player). If I die, he sus." This enables him to gain the trust of his teammates and also spies on people he thought to be the imposter, until they get exposed.
- Later on, he developed a tendency to yell out "COME AND GET ME, IMPOSTER! YOU CAN'T KILL ME!" to rile up the imposter and hoping that they'll kill him and in process, exposing themselves.
- The Unpronouncable: He's spelled 'Zen-Mode', instead of trying to say 'Zmde' directly out loud.
