FINALLY hear Linkara's commentary for the Electric Tale of Pikachu episode!
Other things not mentioned:
-The cry that I heard when fighting MissingNo. seemed to be Zapdos' cry. I remember that specificially because once when I went to fight Zapdos in the Power Plant, I was terrified to hear its cry and thought the game had glitched and MissingNo. was in the power plant.
-The other reason why the other reviewers could still tweet and do all their videos was because I wasn't going to insist they all stop production on their own stuff just to satisfy the storyline in MY videos. A lot of other producers rely on the income from the videos just like I do and it's ridiculous to think that mine are more important than theirs.
ALSO! While I was looking through footage in my projects folder, I came across Behind the Scenes footage I filmed during the Brawl! Never really released it before because there's not much to it, but hey - you can experience just how tedious it can be to sit in a room for ten hours and watch other people record. Enjoy!
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Commentary and Behind the Scenes
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Watch Marble Hornets. Watch Marble Hornets. Watch Marble Hornets.
Even if you're not much of a horror guy, it's a stunning example of what you can do with almost zero budget and just a couple friends helping you out. Roger Ebert even had nice things to say about it, and he isn't a guy who pulls his punches.
Man, I love commentaries, fave special feature on a DVD (tied with alternate endings, which obviously wouldn't be the case here. Not unless you reveal you had plans to show that this whole thing was being played on someone's Game Boy the whole time, with the trainer sprite being replaced with a Linkara sprite and you were battling a wild MissingNo. It'd be the like St. Elsewhere ending for the YouTube generation XD)
Just imagine if your first Pokemon game was Yellow instead, we'd probably never have this storyline... either that, or the villain would have been Giovanni or the ghost of Marowak, disguised as one of those shadows you see if you enter the tower without the Silph Scope.
I love the commentary!
Love the mentioning of all the little stuff fans noticed. And that all those post were fanmade! And that you didn't think of stuff til like seconds before filming!
Also yeah the Pokemon Manga artist being a Hentai artist.
I like the Skeleton MissingNo. look!
Can a Glitch be copyrighted!?
MissingNo could remain dead just do what you've been doing the whole his presence and/or the effects of his death causing people to gain powers! Like Kryptonite in Smallville, The Hellmouth in Buffy, ect!
Still wish I could subscrib for emails from this!livithe
Seriously. Watch Marble Hornets. Sometimes I have to watch from behind my hands but it's great and The Operator freaks me the fuck out. Well, the basic concept of Slenderman freaks me out. Also Maskie. Also all of it. SERIOUSLY WATCH IT.
Since you mentioned it: I do think that your tendency to try to fill all the plot holes is probably your biggest weakness as a writer, and it's honestly not that much of a flaw. It does mean you have a tendency to go on excessively, which occasionally makes it feel like you don't trust the story or yourself to pull it off.
I'm looking forward to more Magic Gun plot this year. Of all your storylines, that's the one that's haunted me for a while, and it's the one that's inspired the most fanfic plotbunnies from me (the world will never see them). I also think that the endgame with the Dolorum is among your best acting.
So Harvey likes Pokemon and 90's kid likes Care Bears. What do the other character's secretly like?
At last, ah. I've been in eager anticipation of this video ever since you got the review finished proper, and it was as satisfying as I had hoped. Just one question I had that wasn't addressed: why didn't the Entity ever absorb Vyce directly? Was it really that scared of losing any of its reality (not to the point of dying, obviously) that it feared a confrontation of any sort would result in diminishment? Or was Vyce and/or some combination of his tech just refined enough to somehow be immune to the Entity's absorption?
"Just one question I had that wasn't addressed: why didn't the Entity ever absorb Vyce directly? Was it really that scared of losing any of its reality (not to the point of dying, obviously) that it feared a confrontation of any sort would result in diminishment? Or was Vyce and/or some combination of his tech just refined enough to somehow be immune to the Entity's absorption?"
Pretty much that, over time, Vyce had developed enough weapons and technology designed specifically to fight the Entity that, unlike all the people we saw getting absorbed by the Entity throughout the storyline, Vyce was able to fight back and any encounters with him resulted in diminishment, so it retreated to plot its next move or move to a new dimension.
Should you be disappointed that people realized what it was? Why not be happy that people were clever enough to decipher the clues?
On the 'champion' thing, it strikes me you could have simply had Vyce mention that Linkara was one of the few people who had access to technology advanced enough to be a problem.
Personally I agree, the game REALLY hasn't changed. That's the main reason I stopped playing, once you get past a certain point and there's nothing new, just old features done a bit better and split into two games*.
*And seriously, they REALLY couldn't immediately come up with the idea of automatically switching boxes once the first one fills up with Pokemon?
Hey Lewis,
I don't know if you've seen this, but somebody made an awesome music video using footage from the Brawl and combined it with Europe's The Final Countdown. It's pretty cool!
Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPvwDao0VQI
Oh, wow. I was totally thought you were posting those messages from "Missing No." Awesome. I hadn't seen the "special edition" cut of the review, and the shot of Linkara circling the Entity was a very cool addition.
As a fan, I didn't have a problem with your means of "talking the Entity to death," as it were, nor do I think your dramatic speeches are too wordy. Rather, considering you review and homage superhero comics, it's an entirely appropriate style for Linkara to speak in. One point of criticism I would have, though, is that you then did the same trick with Linksano a couple episodes later, and that seemed a bit repetitive. (And poor Linksano just doesn't rate the same tactics as the Entity.)
I still thought the finale was well worth the build-up, and probably my favorite of your "Final Battle" episodes. I know you had some complaints when it initially aired, but I hope you aren't discouraged; it's just the nature of things when you have a big build up to an event.
(And don't feel bad; I'm a horror fan, and I still haven't seen Marble Hornets. Really need to get around to that...)
Honestly, Marble Hornets is a little overrated. The storytelling is poor, the camerawork is annoying (even when Slendy isn't causing glitches), and the characters have a tendency to do things that make no sense. Maybe it got better with second season, I don't know, I only saw the first season and that was a year ago when I first became fascinated with the Slenderman concept. Slendy's appearances were usually well-staged, though.
Honestly, I think your fans figuring it out is just that you laid out a great, engaging mystery with good clues, and have reasonably smart fans. :D
Plot arcs and character depth and grueling hours of editing... I think you put more work into your reviews of bad comic books than were put into a lot of the books themselves.
Hey there! I don't often comment on videos, but I thought I could add something here.
As to copyrighting a glitch; From a technical perspective, MissingNo is owned by Nintendo. While not a character or even intended to exist, the code that could generate it is owned by Nintendo, as are the glitched sprites and corrupted data that it represents. That said, I don't think they'll make MissingNo Plushies anytime soon (although, they do seem exist...).
Now on the topic of Cuthulu; While I found it reasonable and believable that the entity could be defeated by facing it's own existence (Linkara spoke to it with logic, and while it may be a glitch, it's origins is still that of computer code; pure math and logic), I would find it less likely that Cuthulu or any Great Old One/Outer God could fall sway to it. Cuthulu is, essentially, an Alien who came to earth in distant eons for unknown reasons, possibly imprisoned here. It's unlikely to find him "dead" because, well, he is. Most of the time. To quote The Call Of Cuthulu:
"These Great Old Ones, Castro continued, were not composed altogether of flesh and blood. They had shape — for did not this star-fashioned image prove it? — but that shape was not made of matter. When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would never really die..."
I tend to interpret this to mean that, when the "stars are wrong" they do not exist in this dimension or somehow phase out of reality (Part of the 'joy' of Lovecraft is that these things are supposed to be far beyond any understanding we can hope to achieve). Consider further that Cuthulu may have been warring with other Great Old Ones or the Outer Gods. His motives, his thoughts, (if Cuthulu even "thinks" in a way we can understand it) are unknowable by man, his existence on this world may have been part of a cosmic war that rages outside of time. Man feels his presence through nightmares as he slumbers between reality, but we mean nothing to him. The revelation, of course, is that humanity is far smaller in the realms of creation than can ever be realized by our insignificant existence.
THAT said, Lovecraft wrote in a time (the 1930s) where, in society, it was a foreign thought that there was more in the universe than just this planet. Sure, we understood that space existed, but we hadn't thought to explore it or even postulate what might be out there. In modern times, we have the tools and the knowledge to be able to confront the vast unknowable, and maybe even reconcile our place in the cosmos.
So that was a rambling mouthful, but I hope there is something in there to take away or at least provoke discussion. My knowledge of Cuthulu Mythos is a bit shaky, but I hope I was able to convey my thoughts well.
Geez Linkara the Behind The Scenes freaks me out because I've seen like two others for the Brawl and I remember some of this dialogue from a different angle.
And here I genuinely thought the shot of the comic book was because you wondered why 'The Clone Saga' existed, which was what inspired you to ask Missing No why exactly he existed.
...I guess I wrote my own joke into the episode by accident.
"Pretty much that, over time, Vyce had developed enough weapons and technology designed specifically to fight the Entity that, unlike all the people we saw getting absorbed by the Entity throughout the storyline, Vyce was able to fight back and any encounters with him resulted in diminishment, so it retreated to plot its next move or move to a new dimension."
So if that is the case, why didn't you use Vyce's technology against the Entity once you found out that the Entity was actually real?
Ah yes... the messages from the Entity.
I have to admit, I did author one of them... Didn't really expect it to go all ARG later on...
So, yeah, that happened.
I would have used a different method to create the video glitches, but since that's a thing of the past - for now at least - there's no need for me to explain it... Right?
KHoyt, I assume that NSD prefers Heavy Metal over any kind of dance music and well, Boffo has a clown-phobia? Of course, that's all up to Linkara.
I loved the part with TRICORDER! TRICORDER! I assumed he had a master ball.
The Entity story arc was a damn good story arc. I really liked the slowed reprise of the theme song myself. That moment when it was played was in my opinion a hopeless do or die situation.I'm also glad that the Entity is completely dead. I'm looking forward to any upcoming arcs and if there is a sequel arc then that would be interesting. If not that's cool. I bet the Ninja style dance likes One Piece or PotC . Ya know,during the entity arc I was experiencing some coincidental video problems and commenting problems myself.
I really enjoy hearing your insights on making the episode. I remember coming home from my friend's house and waiting till midnight to see it; I WAS SO BUZZED.
I was probably one of the only few who did not figure the MissingNo connection because I couldn't care less about Pokemon. Sorry.
I know people were kinda calling bullcrap on the Entity's suicide. You know my feelings about it. I am not sure what continuation you can concoct that wont feel like a cheat but I am interested to see what you can come up with.
I already commented on the original video, but this was the best storyline. Better than anything you have done,before or since so far. I had been looking forward to this commentary, glad to finally hear it. I could go on and on about how hooked I was into the story and how pleased I was with the payoff. Just so well done. After you brought it up I can see where you missed doing 90's kids eyes at points toward the end, but that's cool. I hope to someday meet you at a con or something, your work is just amazing.
Even though I had commentated on the original video myself(when I didn't have a blogger account) I still love the closure of The Entity Arch. The combination of Silent Hill and Pokemon ,The Doctor Who style of talking to the Entity of its purpose and why its their. Sure some might think talking to the Entity to convince itself to commit suicide is a lame way to win but I think it was pure genius,it's like Linkara said in the commentary, how would you attempt to kill a god...especially one that was supposed to not exsist?
It would be interesting to see if The Entity would return because Hell it's a Glitch and in a sense as much as you try and get rid of them...Glitches still in video games and possibly forever remain in video games in a way effectively Immortal..why I say this? Because believe it or not Space Invaders in itself is a glitch in case your curious I'll provide the link. http://www.screwattack.com/news/space-invaders-glitch
Also one last thing I'd like to mention sense hell Star Wars got brought up alot during the commentary. In the new Episode of The Clone Wars(takes place between Ep 2 and 3) it will be revealed that Darth Maul never died at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi....yeah I'm pissed off too.
See, you said you were kinda disappointed with the whole, not being able to cover your eyes with static in the later shots. I actually thought that made a lot more sense having the Entity 90's kid eyes showing just kinda showing that it's not the REAL 90's kid because he always wears the sunglasses. It really just gave it a more separate feel that I thought worked incredibly well.
Hey, Linkara, you said that when you fought MissingNo., it had Zapdos's cry. I did some research and the strange thing is that 'M, which is similar to MissingNo, but different in ways, has the Zapdos cry. Here is the link to the Wiki page about 'M: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/'M
I hope this helps
From now on, I'm just gonna imagine 90's Kid as a Brony, just cause it's a nice and funny evolution from Care Bears.
Re: Then fans figuring it out - Well, I don't know if you have this problem, but if I had come up with that poem, I'd worry it was too clever for its own good and Linkara figuring it out would be an instance of Bat Deduction, as TVTropes calls it. Fans figuring it out in real life proves Linkara could realistically do the same.
Like I said, that might not have been a problem for you, but there you have it. Irrefutable evidence that the story makes sense.
I like to think that the reason reviews and such were still being released is that linkara realized what was happening, and especially in reference to his fellow reviewers. After realizing this he tasked nimuway (excuse spelling i know its wrong and i apologize) with completing the editing on reviews, as well as posting tweets for other critics.
You know, not matter how many times I see it, Linkara's "Talk the Monster to Death" scene really does come off as brilliant when you realize how pathetic beings supposedly "Beyond Good and Evil" are. Because ultimately, being "beyond good and evil" makes them come off as being...well, beings who's existence is ultimately worthless. Good is, in itself, how we define what is right and normal. If you don't have a concept of "good", that's like saying you know what a crooked line is when you've never seen a straight one. It's illogical.
But one thing that makes me stop and think is...Vyce. Okay, he could never really kill the thing. And his attacks mostly just pissed the Entity off and, at most, KINDA hurt it. A bit. And yet when Vyce is told about the Entity being dead, he scoffs at this.
Vyce kinda goes from this calm, collected chessmaster to somebody who's shown to utterly LOSE it when he's confronted with real setbacks and failure. Much like Doctor Doom! The minute his plans start fallin' apart, he starts becoming a lot less Shakespearean and suave. And on the ship, even AFTER Linkara told him about the "visual records", Vyce refuses to believe what he sees.
And this is the part that comes off as...well, something that makes me scratch my head. Okay, I can get him not taking Linkara's word at face value since Linkara DOES tend to be tricky sometimes. But does he honestly think Linkara just made up that footage of speaking with the Entity whilst he was on the ship in an "outright deception"?
Yeah, Linkara was trying to fool a guy whom he thought was off on some podunk planet and unable to come back for years! So he gets 90's kid and his friends together to perform a creepy little youtube video to trick said guy who, again, he had NO real reason to believe would be coming back. Yeah, Linkara whipped up footage of the Entity using magical fairy dust of plot convenience!
I guess it goes back to the whole "Vyce could only wound it a bit" thing. Vyce just didn't want to believe that his goal would never, ever be reached. So much so that he refused to even think about the situation logically. Even when he saw footage of the Entity outright SAYING that he was just a nuisance, Vyce couldn't accept this, couldn't accept that, like the Entity, HE could never find a satisfactory existence on HIS current path. His ego was just so HUGE that all intelligence he had just went out the window.
Kinda ironic. The hunter and the hunted had more in common than they thought.
Hey, if you're going to do a commentary on the Star Trek 3 review, please explain how the heck Vyce was able to turn into data, because that seems like an ability that came out of nowhere. Especially since he had been stripped of his tech, so how the hell did he do it?
Huh. The commentary really puts things into perspective on how much effort is put into the story heavy episodes.
Was the Entity finale a particularly time consuming entry to Atop The Fourth Wall or does each conclusion to a storyline have this much work put into it?
"Was the Entity finale a particularly time consuming entry to Atop The Fourth Wall or does each conclusion to a storyline have this much work put into it?"
Pretty much, yeah. The Mechakara finale was the only storyline where I wasn't working until the last second to get it done with. I was able to pretty much get it all done with two days before it needed to be released. Every other storyline has had me working overtime to complete them.
There was one thing you didn't answer: How many postcards did YOU have to send in order to get the official Pokemon League hat?
Wait, Iron Fist rules Latveria now?
Who rules Wakanda, The Scorpion?
White Rabbit said...
"...that suitcase you have on your bookshelf... It always reminds me of a :3 face right-side up."
What sort of pills are you taking? 'cozt the ones that mother gives you don't do anything at all.
Also, I've totally noticed the same thing.
Will Captain America and Spider-Man kill me if I can't prove I'm not a robot?
Just loved to hear your commentary on the Entity finale (Linkara vs. MissingNo). I understand your disappointment that people have figured out that MissingNo is the Entity, but look at it this way: it could have gone the way of Armageddon 2001, where the idiots changed the identity of Monarch.
Anyway, I loved the Entity storyline for its Cthulhu style horror and complete deconstruction of actual eldritch abominations. I believe reality should be grateful that MissingNo won't be coming back unlike the other bad guys you've fought. (Though, I wonder if we'll ever get another eldritch abomination . . .)
It greatly pleases me that you actually WERE inspired by SHODAN. I picked up a SHODAN vibe almost instantly. :-D
I've done a Let's Play of System Shock 2, if you're interested. It is a truly amazing game that has a legitimately eerie atmosphere. Picture Bioshock, only better. Here's a link to my SS2 playlist on youtube, should you care to give it a shot. :)
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFD6770B89B130DB4&feature=edit_ok
If you want to review some Pokemon comics, the new Pokemon Black and White mini-volumes would probably be a good place to start. It's actually part of the Pokemon Adventures storyline, but it's far enough ahead and pretty standalone (so far) so you don't have to read the previous stuff.
Hehe, I was looking up MissingNo on Bulbapedia after watching this. Turns out the Kabutops skeleton MissingNo (the one you got) only appears if you have a "w" as the 3rd (or 5th or 7th) character in your name. You put "Lewis" as your trainer name, didn't you? :P
Sorry, random. :)
I found the pic you mentioned in the electric Tale of Pikachu vid (of MissingNo. Vs Red) and figured I'd share.
http://spookydoom.deviantart.com/art/Some-Things-Just-Should-Not-Be-157497842?q=boost%3Apopular%20MissingNo%20and%20red&qo=34
I love your viewpoint on the conqueror idea. I've come to be baffled why certain villains want to rule the world. They seem to be enamored with the challenge of achieving that goal, but once they have taken over the world, what's left to do? Sit on your ass all day? You don't need to be supreme ruler of all humanity to do that. Sure, there's the power to have or do anything you want, but that must get boring when all the world hates you with a vile passion. Dr. Doom himself has taken over the world only to give it up realizing the futility of the prospect.
I have to say that the ending to "Planet of the Symbiotes" felt like the end to "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I." Climactic to the Nth degree, and your ending to the storyline was much more satisfying than "put the Borg to sleep."
I was just thinking, way too late, that you could've taped some pieces of green paper over your eyes, and just do a green screen type of effect for the Entity's eyes instead of rotoscoping them in. I had a friend who was doing a Star Wars fan film years ago for a class project. I don't think he slept for a week trying to finish the lightsaber rotoscoping, and he never did finish all of it. So, I empathize with you.
I am an independent filmmaker. So, if you ever need some filmmaking advice, feel free to ask. I don't really dabble in visual effects, but I am very skilled in video editing, cinematography, screenwriting, and direction. Still, I think you've done an excellent job. I've only been watching AT4W for a few months now, but I've watched nearly every episode. Your videos are always a highlight of my day.
-NJM
RavensFilm Productions
www.ravensfilm.com
I have to be honest, though I absolutely loved the Missingno saga, I feel like when Linkara was questioning the beast, that the dialogue between him and it could have been a little better. It felt less like he was trying to get it to consider the folly of existence and more like he was trying to depress it. In my mind, if I had written this, I would have gotten him to start of by asking questions about why existence is futile and then finished off with a question that it couldn't answer. I felt like because the was more than human, it would be more single-minded and machine-like, especially since it's made up of broken code, it would break if you ask it a question it couldn't understand. So he would start off giving it hints about why existence is futile and finish off with a question like "what is the goal of your goal?" and the being would start freaking out because it's purpose has no meaning and while it's head was spinning, he would ask to define the experience of non-existence and it would take to it' new goal with joy and wild abandon.
But that's just me.
Thinking about it, it makes sense for other creators to be posting stuff and sending tweets even when wisked away by the Entity. It makes sense if you treat this like a comic book storyline.
After all, comics have crossovers all the time that have characters in multiple places concurrently, but no one makes a fuss over how that can be possible. They're just assumed to be not occuring simultaniously in universe.
Take Black Panther for example. In the pages of The Defenders, the male Black Panther is (allegedly) dead because of events there, yet he's running around in Avengers Vs. X-Men just fine. If he's really dead for reals, it means AVX just happened and resolved itself before his death in Defenders. And (like I assume) if he's not really dead, then the two can occur in whatever order.
Such must be the case with this storyline. How do we know all these guys were doing this stuff in real time? I think some characters in AT4W referenced time passing, but that could just be orbital wobble, and those other creators could be reviewing stuff at any time in universe.
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