Web Video / Robin and Zephyr

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Robin and Zephyr are a duo of YouTube content creators who focus on video game playthroughs with the occasional Gag Dub of a cutscene. Their main content outside of the two playing together are challenge runs (mainly involving Shin Megami Tensei and Yu-Gi-Oh!) that often rewrite the plot of the game being played for comedic effect or to justify whatever ruleset they have in mind.

Robin and Zephyr's videos include examples of:

• Actually Pretty Funny: Eternal Punishment Maya Only has Guido and Sub Scribe (Tatsuya) discuss whether to the channel should do the Tatsuya Scenario. An embarrassed Sub asks not to rename the Tatsuya Scenario only to change his tune when Guido suggests calling it the "Sub Story".
• Adaptational Context Change: Tatsuya and Maya's heart to heart in Torifune is changed to Sub and Maya reminiscing on their respective challenge runs, the two noting the coincidence of Abe no Seimei being vital parts of their strategies.
• Adaptational Heroism: Chiaki in SMT Nocturne’s canon develops a fierce hatred of the Manikins, going on to massacre a peaceful group of them after she loses one of her arms to one. In Nocturne Hardtype Demonless, Chiaki (now Deus) is a champion of the Manikins who fights to give them a happy ending, standing in opposition to Robin’s destruction of the entire demon world after the Manikin massacre (performed by the Demi-fiend in this version).
• Adaptational Personality Change: Nocturne Hardtype Demonless completely overhauls the Demi-fiend’s relationship with the other Reason makers, in the process giving them completely different Reasons and worlds they want to create. This is partially caused by the Demi-fiend, Isamu and Chiaki being replaced In-Universe with Robin and his fellow SMT challenge runners Nyarly and Deus As Themselves:
  • Isamu’s breakdown and eventual desire to create a world where only he exists becomes Nyarly going mad from learning about the endless cycle of Nocturne challenge runs and resolving to destroy the game to end Nocturne challenge running forever.
  • Chiaki’s Fantastic Racism towards the Manikins is flipped into Deus being a huge fan of them and appointing himself their protector after Robin massacres the Manikins and murders Futomimi (which were both Chiaki’s fault in canon), seeking to create a world where the Manikins get their happy ending. The overhauled standoff in the holy land is Lampshaded by Robin in editing.
  • Hikawa, instead of trying to eliminate human ambition and create a World of Silence, is a joke villain trying to become a Shin Megami Tensei protagonist while Robin gives him advice out of pity. After being told that SMT main characters kill their friends, Hikawa sorrowfully admits he doesn’t have any and tries to befriend Robin so he has a companion to backstab.
• The Ahnold: Aogami in SMT5 Demonless, thanks to the textboxes changing his name to Aogami Schwarzenegger and Zephyr deciding to give him Arnold's accent.
• Approval of God: invoked Robin's triumph over Metatron in his Nocturne Hardtype Demonless run sees a surprise appearance of Zombero, the creator of the Hardtype mod, who had only scant appearances in the SMT community since 2018. He even voices Kagutsuchi at the end of the run.
• Artificial Stupidity: Robin discovers that, in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses without any Monsters, not playing monsters heavily confuses the AI, making them waste turns shuffling their cards around instead of pressing an advantage to go for his Life Points. Lampshaded by Seto after his battle where he spent 4 turns doing nothing as Dick barraged him with burn spells.
  Seto: I apologize; I know not what came over me. T'was like all my knowledge of the game fell from my head.
• As Himself: Nocturne Hardtype Demonless stars Robin along with fellow challenge runners Nyarly, Deus, and Gamechamp3000. The conflict of the game becomes a fight between the three SMT challenge runners over the fate of Nocturne itself while a confused Gamechamp with minimal knowledge of the franchise stays on the sidelines with no understanding of the game's plot.
• Couch Gag: Non-Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne challenges would start with a few seconds of Nocturne's intro cutscene before cutting to the actual game booting up.
• The Dog Bites Back: Heat merging with the E.G.G. communication core to become Vritra is framed in Digital Devil Saga 2 Demonless as him fusing with the trashcan that Robin consigned him to, and coming back for revenge as the hardest boss in this challenge run.
  Heat: Well well well... Here to take out the trash?
• Dresses the Same: Parodied in Innocent Sin Tatsuya Only. The fight against Yasuo sees him and Sub Scribe both use Shax as their Persona of choice, with Sub responding as if both of them were wearing similar clothes to a fancy party.
  Sub: ...
  Sub: Well ONE of us is going to have to change.
• Dungeon Shop: Eternal Punishment Maya Only constantly lampshades some of Trish's more esoteric locations, from a mad scientists lab to a mirror dimension to the Sea of Souls. Maya's reaction to that last one is a blunt "OK, how the fuck—"
• Early Game Hell: Unwittingly invoked at the start of DDS2 Demonless. Battles in the Occupied Sector — the tutorial dungeon — don't drop money, and you don't get access to any shop for supplies. Normally this is less of an issue as the party's demon forms and skills can make quick work of random encounters and the first boss. However, with the restrictions of the challenge run, battles take longer and consumable items are much more important, so the lack of money and tight limit of supplies leads to the tutorial dungeon becoming more tedious normal.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Pre-2022 challenge runs don't have any of the Gag Dub moments that would become common in Digital Devil Saga demonless and onwards.
• Easter Egg: When Brahman appears at the end of DDS2 Demonless it begins communicating in "the language of the gods". Its speech is subtitled in Wingdings; translating it reads "My next run is going to be Yugioh: Duelist of the Roses. Reshef Without Monsters is impossible; sorry guys."
• Embarrassing First Name: The Persona 2 solo character runs dub Tatsuya "Sub Scribe", and a Running Gag causes people to think of a particular kind of "sub" when people hear his first name.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In Duelist of the Roses without any Monsters, part of Manawyddan fab Llyr's motivation for wiping out humanity is the existence of a white-washed Shadi.
• Expy: DDS2 Demonless sees The Tribhvana become Team Rocket, showing up to fight the Embryon spouting their usual introduction. As for individual members, Jessie replaces Heaven, James replaces Earth, and Meowth replaces Air.
• Foreseeing My Death: Nocturne Hardtype Demonless sees Futomimi happily divine Robin's future for him only to get a less-than-pleasing outcome.
  Futomimi: Allow me to prophesize your future, as a token of my gratitude
  Futomimi's vision reveals dozens of dead Manikins and the Futomimi taking a fatal blow from a repelled attack.
  Futomimi: Oh, uh... I gotta get out of here! (Panicked fleeing noises)
  Robin: Huh, wonder what his deal was.
• Foreshadowing:
  • in Digital Devil Saga Demonless a door that Robin takes care to avoid is heard emanating ominous-sounding distorted lines. This is the door to the superboss, and the lines come from the Random Battle theme in Nocturne. As Robin focuses on clearing out the run and any bonus challenges, the lines echo every so often, getting louder each time. When he defeats the Final Boss and is about to triumphantly declare the run complete, the lines come back so loudly and incessantly that he realizes he cannot put off the fight any longer and gets to it.
  • During the initial attempt to fight Ongyo-Ki in Nocturne Hardtype Demonless, the Oni angrily accuses Robin of “cast[ing him] through time with [his] fell magics” to the Demi-fiend’s confusion. Robin then uses a Good Bad Bug in the rematch to defeat the Ongyo-Ki, the effects of the glitch banishing the Oni to their initial meeting.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Invoked in Digital Devil Saga Demonless. Heat attempts to consume a defeated Bat as Agni, only for Serph to remind him that they aren't allowed to use their demon forms. Heat and Jinana rebuke that it doesn't count because they're in a cutscene.
• Gender Flip: The female Chiaki's role in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is taken by the male Deus As Himself in Nocturne Hardtype Demonless. While he's still represented by Chiaki's model, he's still referred to as a guy by the other characters.
• Gilligan Cut: Roland attempts to take on Meganada by himself, waving off the rest of the team's concerns with a calm "Everything will be fine" before immediately cutting to a badly wounded Roland yelling that "Everything is not fine". The same thing happens when Argilla goes off to back up Roland.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: When faced with Shadow Katsuya and Ulala in Eternal Punishment Maya Only, Robin is in need for an upgrade, and chances upon Rangda, who has the right resistance spread to solve most of the problems that occur. The problem is that Rangda requires a material obtained from a miniboss in Sumaru Castle, which he skipped earlier in the playthrough. Rather than backtrack, he chooses to brute-force the fight with what he already has.
• Hypocritical Humor: After Maya's awakening in her Persona 2 solo run, Joker mocks the writing for giving Maya the Persona Maia. When Maya asks Joker what his Persona is, his response is Visible Silence as his text box refers to him as "Joker (with the Persona Joker)"
• Literal Metaphor: Upon arrival at the Sun in Digital Devil Saga 2 Demonless, Schrodinger congratulates Seraph on their pronouns becoming they/them, not because they're non-binary, but because they're literally two people.
• Mood Whiplash: invokedAfter reaching The Very Definitely Final Dungeon in Digitial Devil Saga 2 Demonless, he outlines the bonus rewards you get for the right dialogue options you picked across both games, while dramatic music swells as the bonds between the Embryon and the other Tribes reach fruition. Robin then goes on to say that this is All for Nothing as the rewards cannot be used under his challenge run, and Heat's own gun is slightly weaker than Roland's, so he throws all of them into the trashcan. He still drags Heat back out of the trash as he has plans for him a little later in the run.
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer:
  • When going against Seto in Duelist of the Roses without Monsters, he takes an aside to explain the origins of "Christian Rosenkreuz", who, as his research reveals, might not even be an existing person. When lining up all the historical accounts of Christian Rosenkreuz^detailssomeone who apparently lived to 106, believed to be the reincarnation of Lazarus, and whose body was apparently found perfectly preserved 120 years after his death in a chamber he built himself; also, since the game is set just one year after Christian's death, this means that he's somehow alive and still dueling and still looks as young and spry as Seto Robin gets increasingly befuddled until he just becomes impressed at what the man has allegedly accomplished.
  • During Innocent Sin Tatsuya Only, Professor Ideal's "Pawn of Hitler" line has her text box disappear to reveal the statement "actual line in the game".
  • Eternal Punishment Maya Only gives a "yes that's real" popup during a conversation between the Meteor Jerk and Maya when the former points out one of the original EX Dungeon questions asks for information that isn't actually in either game in the Persona 2 duology (Maya's favourite food).
• Oh, Crap!:
  • After predicting his death at Robin’s hands in Nocturne Hardtype Demonless, Futomimi is less than happy to see the Demi-fiend listening in on him begging Deus to save his people.
    Deus: What do you mean? [Robin] would never do something like that-
    Futomimi: I foresaw it the day I met him. Deus, you must put a stop to this madness before he can make his way through (turns head to see Robin) OH GOD, HE’S HERE ALREADY.
  • When Robin tries to outlast Metatron in Nocturne Hardtype Demonless, he discovers that the mod has compensated for that, giving Metatron a massive increase to max MP.
    Robin: ...We can simply keep ourselves healed up and slowly mill his MP away— (death) —My bad, unlucky. I said we can— (death) —We can slowly mill his— (death) —WE CAN'T MILL HIS MP AWAY!
• Ominous Visual Glitch: In Digital Devil Saga 2 Demonless, the video is temporarily unable to withstand the concept of Brahman's Brahma Sutra attack. When Robin attempts to explain it, his voice cuts out as garbage text starts overwhelming the screen, including YouTube errors, the video itself crying for help, and a Freeze-Frame Bonus of Don't Touch Me's warning popup from Lobotomy Corporation.
• Past-Life Memories: At the end of Innocent Sin Tatsuya Only, Robin himself gets reset along with the world at the end of the game. As a result, Robin doesn't remember any of the events of the run during the Eternal Punishment Maya Only challenge... at first. Whenever an event from the previous game becomes significant, Robin gets a sense of deja vu alongside a flashback to the previous timeline/game.
• Running Gag:
  • The Shock scream: A channel wide gag where an enemy who gets afflicted with shock lets out a stock scream while Robin ignores their suffering to explain how to beat them.
  • As a nod to some Bowdlerization in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, Robin would quip that "D-E-A-T-H spells 'Final'", "F-I-N-A-L spells 'Death'", and then repeatedly go on to claim whatever random mishmash of letters he has on his board after winning a duel spells "Final".
    Robin: "Just spam [Esper Roba's brothers] with traps until F-I-A-N-L spells 'Final'."
  • "Challenge run. No demons." "It's a cutscene, it doesn't count."
  • Throwing useless party members / Personas into a trash can, sometimes pulling them out when they might be needed again, and chucking them right back in if they're still useless.
• Sequel Hook: Innocent Sin Tatsuya Only ends as it does in the original game, with the world resetting. When the new reality comes into being, Robin (reset alongside everything else) begins a fake intro for a Can You Beat Persona 2: Eternal Punishment With Only Maya video for the outro. The next main challenge video would end up being this Maya Only challenge run.
• Stable Time Loop: The Ongyo-Ki’s fate in Nocturne Hardtype Demonless: He comes across Robin, attacks him for sending him back in time while the Demi-fiend has no idea what the demon is talking about, wins the fight, and then Robin comes back for a rematch and sends the demon back in time with a glitch to restart the cycle.
• Shout-Out:
  • Philemon tends to introduce himself to Persona-users with "Here I come, I am Phile-mon".
  • Robin is a huge fan of Project Moon and doesn't hesitate to sneak references to their games into the challenge runs, from changing the sound of Maya's handguns in Eternal Punishment to the Solemn Lament from Library of Ruina to having Meganada's release in Digital Devil Saga 2 act like a Nothing There Abnormality Breach (using its voicelines for the creature and giving Angel a Lobotomy Corporation style "Abnormality Breach" notification while having "First Warning" play when Roland is told it killed his squad).
• Tempting Fate: In Can You Beat Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards Without Monster Cards, Robin mocks Marik's taunt that the evil duelist has figured out Robin's weakness by pointing out the deck can be utterly dismantled by a single Harpie's Feather Duster. When actually fighting Marik, not only does Marik have Harpie's Feather Duster, he has two. In a game that limits the player to one copy of HFD in their deck.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Eternal Punishment Maya Only has the team brute-force the password to Sumaru Castle only knowing that they need a seven-letter word that starts with the letter P, with Baofu correctly guessing that the word they need is from Greek mythology since that's where all of their Personas come from. After only four guesses, only two of which were actually 7 letters ("Philemon", "Persona", "Pleiades", and the correct answer "Perseus"), they open the way forward. Subverted in the EX Dungeon / Philemon's Torture Nexus. An already stressed out Maya finds another password door, guesses "Persona" and is told that's incorrect, goes through the dungeon as intended to get the password and gets enough letters to form... Phile??n, much to Maya's lack of amusement.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman:
  • After spending a good chunk of Digital Devil Saga Demonless dunking on Heat for how weak he is (Heat's grenade launcher has low base power and its Herd-Hitting Attack properties are rarely useful in the most important battles), Robin gives him a chance to shine for the fight against Ravana (who turns invisible and has to be hunted down in one of 6 possible positions, Heat's gun is capable of attacking all of them at once). Heat takes aim, fires... and misses (because Ravana has to be attacked directly by a single-target skill). Robin then throws Heat back into the trashcan.
  • Later in the run, Robin brings Heat back out for Metatron for the express purpose of No Selling his attacks until Metatron is out of MP so that he can then progress the fight without the threat of getting roasted by Fires of Sinai.
• Title Drop: Eternal Punishment Maya Only has Sub Scribe caps off his explanation of the Other Side's destruction with a poetic lamentation:
  Sub: Remembering my friends... that is my Innocent Sin. And having to stop Nyarlathotep again is my Eternal Punishment.^note Capitalized like that in the custom text box
  Sub: So please, Maya, just let me handle this from here...
  Maya walks up and slaps him.
  Maya: Did you just drop the names of both games?!
• The Unpronounceable: Manawyddan fab Llyr proves to be a difficult name for Seto to handle. When Manawyddan challenges Seto to pronounce his name to stop him from destroying humanity in the White Rose path, Seto proves unable to accomplish the task. When Manawyddan is summoned again in the Red Rose path, he grumbles as Seto commands "Marmalade fab Liar" kill Dick Lancer and dies astonished when Dick reveals he can pronounce it perfectly.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: When the Smile Hirasaka cleaning lady finds Belphegor in the woman's bathroom, she matter-of-factly states that she's not paid enough to deal with "another" demon lord and quits on the spot.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Maya doesn't hesitate to rake Philemon over the coals over some of the decisions he made when designing the Torture Nexus, particularly forcing her to give an amnesiac Tatsuya Sudou back his memories (causing her to get attacked) and the general suffering he put her through with the Nexus' "evil" design. By the time he finishes explaining himself, her response is a quiet "What would you like me to tell your family? Because they will never find your body."