I know plenty of people will say this. That Snowflame looks awesome. I would've expected him to pop out of the picture and interrupt the video. That would be Kleenex! (Let's see if anyone uses it this summer before it gets tiring.)
Stan Lee's writing quality may not be as good as it used to be, but his acting quality in the Marvel movies have been great in recent years. Heck, his cameo in Iron Man 3 as a pageant judge is one of his best yet. Old dude's got the chops!
So, I checked the comments from the Doom 2099 video and my suspicion is somewhat confirmed but I don't know if it's right until I have enough evidence to support my theory. Either way, off to TV Tropes for me.
Stan Lee not a good writer? you need to read Starborn and Soldier Zero and the Traveler also Just Imagine Shazam. That aside this review was hilarious.
When you mentioned Stan Lee's recent contributions to comics, you forgot to mention that he supposedly still writer the Spider-Man newspaper comic strip, although if I were him, I wouldn't take for it. Last summer's Clown-9 storyline made RAVAGE 2099 look like WATCHMEN. You should review THAT.
You know that weird moment where you don't even have adblock but Blip thinks you do and makes you sit through the 90 second thing? I don't get why that happened. Thankfully when I refreshed the page the ad worked, if poorly. Love the Snowflame background picture. Are you going to be changing stuff around frequently? Because that would be pretty interesting. I don't mind it staying the same though.
This whole month, all 4 comics have evil corporations gaining control in the 2099 future. I guess that means Angry Joe 2099 has an ill luck against Corporate Commander 2099.
Well, to me it seems that what died does not stay dead. Especially if you deal with something that should not be - like a certain Entity. The Maleficum Malorum(sp?) still rests on the shelves, looking over the shoulders of men in hats... well, one man in a hat at least.
Fancy reading something else than comic books, Linkara?
I think because we know Stan's been off the deep end lately that it's no surprise he did bad comics. So jokes about him are no surprise either. Even he himself pointed out how nuts he was when he was on the Simpson and Robot chicken. Still at least Stan admits his mind is no longer in mint condition. Miller on the other hand is the opposite, he thinks anyone that disagrees with him is a loser in their parent's basement.
Nice Snowflame picture though. All you need now is a tarp with a brick wall pattern and you got your self a literal back fourth wall.
That was a horrible comic. My mind couldn't comprehend the stupid. That being said I am gonna miss 2099 Kid.
Stan Lee is stuck in the 60's? Man, this is like "(almost) every movie and its cover is orange and teal" and the "DreamWorks Face": Once you know it, you can't unsee Oo
(Though on the plus side, imagening everyone with Adam West's voice makes the comic that much better.)
I guess it's a change of pace that the big evil corporations are interested in environment proection - even though the execution is all kinds of confusing. Why have this subsidiary in the first place if it gets in the way of your shady deals? Why use ECO patrols to execute people if you have control of the police? It's weird.
So in a world where his enemies use hover bikes and cars, cybernetic enhancements, power suits and deadly ray guns in all shapes and forms, Ravage is going to fight them with junk that can't possibly survive a single fight and a giant truck that one can probably hear from a mile away? Yeah, good luck with that...
I regret to inform you that the 90s Kid of my native is, for lack of a better word, an idiot. My native time is NOT filled with "guns and mullets", since we have advanced to a time were war, famine, poverty and discrimination are no longer an issue. In fact, most of the info ytou got from him about your counterpart from my time is wrong. You don't have to take my word for it. You see, Ensign Munroe also comes from my time. You can ask hi about the proper date later. However, I must stress the following point: the info he gave you on that paper is the only tru info he gave to you. Do NOT lose the paper, under any circumstances. I could tell you why, but I'd rather not risking ruining the flow of the space-time continuum any further.
-Commander Klan Klan of the U.S.S. Frontier, representative of the United Federation of Planets in 21st century Earth.
Linkara, in Spider-Man: Edge of Time it was revealed that Peter Parker was the CEO of Alchemax and the former Spider-Man of 2099 more than a century ago. The Anti-aging technology has allowed him to live longer than normally expected. Guilt ridden over the loss of his loved ones from long ago, he was presumably working behind the scenes and capitalized on Walker Sloan's time gate technology.
With respective realities of Miguel O'Hara and Peter Parker in flux, the Peter of 2099 planned to rewrite the reality in his image and bring all those he cared about back from the dead. He battled Miguel O'Hara using an Iron Spider suit.
Question: Did any of this things really happend in the SPIDER MAN 2099 series.//
stan lee, his writing is outgrown but he is still a cool guy. at the very least his writing is far from that qicked place of god damn batmans, sperm bank wonderwomen who just wants a man, or a world where women have no sense of self dignity in the slightest.
is a mutoid supposed to be what they call the mutants in the future? cause it is kinda stupid.it makes sowing machines seem like a a sensible slang term.
wait, why didn't that massage chick just power drive the guy on the neck when he said he needed to kill her, out right. he was kinda in a vulnerable position. Ravage 2099 issue 2. ravage discovers that his revenge is meaningless because the massage women of the future murdered all the business bossess and took their place.
you basically explained why people defend Frank Miller his writing reflects his political beliefs - ever considered that people might agree with those views? also, everything Miller writes, is overflowing with pure, unspoiled MANLINESS! Miller seems to be one of the few writers who knows what it is to be a MAN! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiXaT_1I-vw
only being able to choose between complete corporate rule or anarchy? that's pretty much how I feel about American politics - you either end up supporting PETA or the KKK one way or another, you are boned
are those numbers going to be important, or is it just a silly movie reference?
Considering his name is Paul-Phillip, it makes me wonder if the last name is meant to be pronounced like it's French or something. Which would make it no less stupid, but maybe a little more funny.
Dear God, this comic was the epitome of "so bad it's good". I had a huge grin on my face the second you started looking at the cover and it stayed that way the entire time. I think this may be a contender for my new favorite review you've done.
To give the comic a little credit, I always assumed the security guys were in on it, rather than gullible (that's why the moron who kills all is own minions had to kill them because they knew it was fake).
The comic's still terrible, though. I always felt like a lot of Stan Lee's later terrible stuff was because he was out of touch and trying too desperately to tap into what's 'in'. Like the NFL or the ecological movement from things like Captain Planet-- without actually understanding those things.
These Eco Patrol people really don't mix with the rest of what we've seen in the 2099 universe. In fact there it seems to be your basic 'pollution is awful and major companies don't care'.
And what exactly was stopping the secretary's father from just contacting his superior with a PHONE? Even in the 90s VIPs had mobile phones. Hell, why was Paul put in charge of anything? If they wanted him as a figure head why not give him a job that didn't include directly interrogating company security or with easy access to the head of it all? Companies push people out of power all the time, it happened to Rodenberry after his failure of the first Star Trek movie.
And have to admit that the dialogue really is terrible. It's actually worse here because Lee was trying to combine 1960s comic book speech with what apparently is slang in 2099. You would think that combined the two would somehow go a complete 180 from bad to good, but no. It doesn't*.
Minor notes. Tiana apparently wears a skirt so short that she should be showing off her underwear every time she shifts a muscle and if Paul doesn't like his last name then why in hell hasn't he gotten it changed?
*Yes I know that Lee's dialogue and story telling was the standard in the 60s. This was a comic written in the 90s and he wasn't writing the comic to have a nostalgic feel. It doesn't work and realizing that would have gone some way to fixing the problems in the comic
So, Linkara 2099 has organic webshooters? Is that because that's what the Sam Raimi 2099 Linkara movies did? Because I always thought the organic webshooters were dumb.
Oh Stan Lee, How you never changed but stay the same. As for why no one says anything about Lee, but more for Miller is simply that we know. We know he hasn't really changed that much but he still has good idea's, and has a huge impact on comics itself. As for Miller, well, he only did maybe a few good comics and helped revive Batman's popularity. however that's it, he doesn't really do that much, nor have that big of an impact on comics.
@SMAXZO becuase Linkara 2099 is none other then Sir John Hurt! :introducing John Hurt as Linkara 2099:
I still take Stan Lee's worst over OMD or Superior Spider-Man. Oh hell over Grant Morrison or the worst of Geoff Johns and Brian Michael Bendis. Cause at stan worst stuff does less damage then any stuff the people mention do. No Stripella mention? Stan also work on manga in recent years. Hero Man is pretty good. This is another one that hasn't aged well. Funny thing about Earthshock clip being played BBC America aired it last night as part of Doctor Who Revisited. The messages on the comic book board. Hm. Wonder what they will mean? :)
-Is there not a single sentence that doesn't end with an exclamation mark? I guess that's what you meant about Stan Lee's writing not evolving past the sixties. -Speaking of, does Stan Lee really do much these days beside cameo in Marvel movies? Awesome cameos, mind. -If the guy's name is literally Ravage...maybe it's pronounced the French way? Ravaajh? -So Linkara is still alive in 2099? He's reviewing comics as a 110-year old senior? That'll be a sight to see. -Why do these fictional cyberpunk megacorps always have to solve troublesome types with the kill squad? Why not just fire them and consign them to the streets as bums nobody will listen to? Solves them a lot of trouble.
Actually do like you reviewing old nineties cyberpunk comics, Linkara. Consider this a happy viewer if you do more!
SNOWFLAME! SWEET! Yeah, I think the filled out background with the shelves looks really good now. I like it. Nice array of items you've got there. Keep up the great work!
In searching a few different topics ("zero six seven", "pretender to the throne", and my favorite "babylonians pretender to the throne zero six seven"), the first thing that pops up are a Black Ops II video, Babylonian Mathematics, Catherine the Great's Wikipedia page and Islam: Pretender of the Throne of David.
...are any of these even close to referencing that note?
Wait...a gun that shoots pigeons? Next thing you know we'll be having flaming explosive sheep falling from the sky and giant statues of donkeys that level the terrain below it. Goodness knows how much better they are than a pigeon gun given how reliable said pigeons are...
Great video, but the joke regarding Tiana's "womanly parts" seems out of place. There's no indication of Ravage being sexist, or if there is, you didn't tell us about it. Still, great video.
Also, this is my first time doing this, but I feel I have to. I'd like to request that you review another issue of that Titans run you mentioned a while back (the one that had an issue of overly big masks, Starfire fanservice and Donna Troy's changing outfit).
Or if not that, please, please PLEASE review something from the New 52. Preferably the Culling storyline from the Teen Titans. I agree that it sucks, but I idn't really read it, since I didn't read the Legion Lost issues. the dialogue from the first and last issues regarding it had horrible dialogue, a confusing premise and overall just felt like a mess... although that could very well be because I didn't read the Legion Lost issues (I still think the book should've filled me in, but whatever).
"Stan Lee's writing quality may not be as good as it used to be, but his acting quality in the Marvel movies have been great in recent years. Heck, his cameo in Iron Man 3 as a pageant judge is one of his best yet. Old dude's got the chops!"
Well he doesn't have to do much, and he's got sunglasses on some times. It makes it much easier to act when you don't have to do much. His role is slightly above that of a regular extra or actor with one line.
I think people don't jump all over you for Stan Lee because he pokes fun at himself regularly, so its all good.
Looks like I'm never polluting again...that or Peter Griffins gun toting animal teaching recycling caught on.
In 2099 flashback technology improved to the point where you can remember things you weren't even there for.
Maybe his name is pronounced Ra-vage like so fromage in French. One of the running gags in the British show Keeping up Appearances was the fact that Hyacinth Bucket would pronounce it Bouquet.
Maybe Alchamax just makes money off of both polluting and cleaning up pollution, they save money by cutting corners causing pollution and then make money from people paying them to clean up pollution.
"Because, Shut Up"...that's pretty much the reasoning behind everybody's actions in this comic.
I'm guessing everything 90's Kid talked about will either happen soon or won't happen for many months and when I rewatch this in November I'll go, "Oh yeah that happened."
I can see why people have been asking for this comic since the beginning, great job turning this crap into gold.
And now if you'll excuse me, I have something to decode...or see if I can turn into beat poetry. Kleenex!
"who else noticed the pattern this month? good comic bad comic good comic bad comic
did you plan this Linkara?"
Yes and no. I knew Spider-Man and Doom 2099 were the most well-liked so I wanted to separate them, but actually I was more excited by the fact that each of the 2099 books had a different thing going for them, all different premises to start with that would make talking about them more interesting.
Oh, you haven't gotten to the nuttiest parts of Ravage. In a couple issues, he stops being a straight gun-toting eco-terrorist and gets weird hand beam powers. And then right after that, he turns into some sort of mutant rhino...thingie who can shapeshift between his mutant and human forms. And then after that is over, he goes full-on primal, wanders into the wasteland, eventually takes over Hellrock, and then his series finally ends with Doom killing him and everything on the island.
Still, his death was surprisingly awesome. All of Hellrock is encased in metal, with Ravage screaming how he'll find a way to get revenge before getting drowned in the stuff. And then the island gets flung into space. It's beautiful in its ridiculousness.
Also, Stan Lee only wrote the first six or so issues, after which he left the book. That was when they did the retool into a shapeshifting mutant, and while the comic was still stupid...I actually enjoyed it in spite of its ridiculousness.
All in all, I loved this run of episodes. I was a huge fan of 2099 back in the day, and still hold some of the books (Spider-Man, Doom, X-Men) in high regard. Hopefully you'll revisit it someday.
"In searching a few different topics ("zero six seven", "pretender to the throne", and my favorite "babylonians pretender to the throne zero six seven"), the first thing that pops up are a Black Ops II video, Babylonian Mathematics, Catherine the Great's Wikipedia page and Islam: Pretender of the Throne of David.
...are any of these even close to referencing that note?"
Wait...a gun that shoots pigeons? Next thing you know we'll be having flaming explosive sheep falling from the sky and giant statues of donkeys that level the terrain below it. Goodness knows how much better they are than a pigeon gun given how reliable said pigeons are..."
HA! Worms reference for the win! :D
*****
And damn you, Lewis, I am STILL trying to figure out that puzzle. Even a 4-hour nap did not help! ARGH! (I keep thinking I've gotten it and then I realize I'm missing a letter or something.)
Also, ad-related - I let them play normally, get the 30-second one at the outset, and now lately I'm getting both a 15-second AND a 30-second ad at the midroll? Is this supposed to be happening?
Note that I did this before reading any comments, so if any of what I say below has been explicitly denied by Lewis, I apologize.
(Potential Spoilers.)
Nimue is being possessed by The Entity.
"Pretenders sit upon my throne" = Thrones are for monarchs or gods, The Entity qualifies. It's also possible that The Entity that Linkara defeated previously was a fake.
"I remember my death." = When Linkara previously defeated it.
And bear in mind that we first learned of The Entity when Linkara told the origin story of the magic gun. Now, we have multiple magic guns, courtesy of Jaeris. Which means that there are other Entities. Or other copies of THE Entity. (Lewis has stated on Twitter that Jaeris will be involved in the next storyline.)
The other concerning thing is that the handwriting on the note is IDENTICAL to the handwriting on The Entity's poem. So we can pretty much confirm that they were written by the same person.
It also shows why it possessed Nimue. The Entity is pure data. It could get into a computer more easily than a huuuuumaaaaaan (presumably). This explains Nimue's strange behaviour at the end of the Star Wars episode.
And Nimue will be the main focus of the next storyline, as we all know. She could easily be possessed by the Entity and that'll get us to focus on her.
What's more is that in the Halloween specials last year, Harvey mentioned The Entity, which could have been added to the script in order to inform new viewers of AT4W of its existence.
And the Entity may be dead, but that doesn't mean anything. Remember, in Channel Awesome continuity, the Nostalgia Critic died and became the universe (which was the Entity's original goal) and then he came back. The Entity could have done the same. And they may even explain it by using the Plot Hole.
Back to the puzzle.
"The world ends at zero, six, and seven."
Presumably there's something hidden in the numbers above the text, but I tried doing everything possible with the letters beneath those numbers and nothing really stuck out.
"The babylonians knew the truth."
Given how much of a sci-fi geek Lewis is, I'm guessing this is a Babylon-5 reference. I don't watch Babylon-5 (yet, planning to start soon), so I have no idea what this could be.
Adding "5" to the list of numbers to look for in the above sequence didn't do anything interesting, for what it's worth.
"I am looking over your shoulder."
Does the phrase "I'm always watching." sound familiar to anyone who knows AT4W history? How about "I see you, Linkara!"?
"Continue to wait for my ascent."
Fourth-wall breaking (something that only the Entity could do) to show that it will be a while before the next storyline. And the Entity could have ascended after its death. I don't know exactly what that would entail though.
And lastly, just so I don't lose it and can come back to the puzzle later if need be:
6355431186 798 5964 71 073086 PRETENDERS SIT UPON MY THRONE
7 93179134 90 63170 I REMEMBER MY DEATH
611 63274 82 13 4165 371 631 83056 THE WORLD IS AT ZERO SIX AND SEVEN
021 31896516986 5371 512 83021 THE BABYLONIANS KNEW THE TRUTH
6 85 8130557 0320 1321 68347118 I AM LOOKING OVER YOUR SHOULDER
72036240 46 4031 721 18 901090 CONTINUE TO WAIT FOR MY ASCENT
Great review, wish I had more to say about it. The only odd thing was that I got the no ads option the first time I started up this video, but then they played after refreshing the page and trying again.
It's strange because I never had this problem when I watch them on thatGuywiththeGlasses.
i think Stan lee, while his writing is old, still is able to have some interesting concepts. for example, i like the concept here, that he is an honest man working for corrupt people, who believes they are honest people. but he is not only proven wrong, but betrayed, incriminated and almost get killed. i like the concept of an honest man having his beliefs getting crushed and having to use vigilantism as the only way to do what he thinks is right. i mean, in this comic we see he is a good guy, who thinks there is good in everyone, that is most than other 90 comics gets. but yeah, it is pretty bad.
Let's see. First each set of numbers is the same number of characters as the words below, suggesting some kind of connection.
I considered maybe adding the number to the number of the letter below it (example: 7 over 'I' and 'I' is the ninth letter of the alphabet so 7+9). That doesn't seem to work but it might be hexadecimal* or something like '79' or something so I can't be sure.
Another possibility is that every number in the line corresponds to a letter and all those letters together are a jumbled sentence. In this case the '0' would either be something to remove or something else (maybe an 'o'). With that the following:
7 93179134 90 63170
would become:
G ICAGIACD I(uncertain) FCAG(uncertain).
However unless this is following a different mathematical system (such as hexadecimal) I don't think it works. The above has too many 'I' and 'A' and not enough 'E' or consonants. Of course that might be what the reference to the Babylonians is. Either something to do with '5' (from Babylon 5) or something to do with the Babylonian sexagesimal system (which is in base 60). Sadly my mathematical abilities aren't quite good enough to investigate that, but we should also remember that it's possible that Linkara went with a much less complicated code and this could be over thinking it.
Thinking outside math: This could be similar to the hints about Missingno, so the words could reference something from a game, comic, book, show or movie (I'm excluding anime and manga because Linkara does not usually use those).
Pretenders Sit Upon My Throne
(Could be MANY different things from the Bible to A Song of Ice and Fire).
I Remember My Death
(Reminds me of GLaDOS and how she was forced to relive her death over and over, but I don't that's it. Still, Mechakara or one of the others is possible)
The World is at Zero, Six and Seven
(Could be anything. Maybe that Black Ops clip on Youtube, maybe a reference to characters who have letters for names, etc. Also we aren't sure what it means by 'the world is at')
The Babylonians knew the truth
(Could be Babylon 5, mythology or something else, looking up 'Babylon' and 'truth' just gets me to a lot of religious sites and no way to tell how relevant -or sane- they are)
I am looking over your shoulder
(Could be anything, even just a way of saying 'I am nearby', still reminds me of ToTheArk's videos)
Continue to wait for my ascent
('Continue to wait' is obviously about the future and a continuation of waiting, not 'right now, start expecting something to happen'. 'Ascent' is an interesting choice, several possible interpretations)
*Getting flashbacks to the 999 DS game. Fun puzzle/adventure game so long as you have some ability at math or don't mind using Gamefaqs on occasion (guilty).
Alright here's my theory. I say its Holo-kara, from what I can gather on the code "Pretenders sit upon my throne" means that Holo-kara thinks of himself as the REAL hero, thinks of Linkara as the PRETEND hero and Comicron One is the throne. "I remember my death" includes the fact that the mobile emitter was damaged and as such killed the hologram. Haven't figured out the rest of the code yet but I'm working on it.
Wow, so the new shelves have Porceline Bunny and Snowflame...at least they forever have a place on the show now.
Seriously the comic was dumb and you sort of lost me the moment you showed the Tigra hologram. (sucks that in 2099 she's stuck like that but the underrated ones are sort of stuck) The concept was ridiculous and, as you said, Stan Lee really is a legend in what he did 50+ years ago but nowadays just does what he wants to do and people let him get away with it. Yeah Stan the Man was awesome...but with this, Nightcat and the Backstreet Boys, you have to wonder how much senility plays into his current aspects. (yeah there is also some aspects going into the classic era but it doesn't matter cause Stan Lee was still a major factor so he deserves respect...for the major aspects)
And hoo boy, I think (19)90s Kid brought something for our next plot...keep an eye on that note, you'll probably need it.
Linkara, perhaps it's a vocal minority that get's on your back regarding Frank Miller. How anyone can deny that the man is nuts and his writing has become ugly is beyond me? Sure, The Dark Knight Returns was great, but that's hardly worth giving the man a pass on how he is today. As for Stan Lee, everyone agrees on him regarding his significance to comic book history and how many low quality projects he's done in the latter part of his life. The thing is, his projects are merely stupid and goofy, and even a little sad.
It seems like EVERYONE was making villains that polluted the Earth on purpose back in the early '90s.
Captain Planet and the Planeteers. G.I. Joe Eco Warriors. Swamp Thing (animated series). The Toxic Crusaders. Ravage 2099.
It's like the people who wrote these things ignored the fact that pollution happens through ignorance, willful or not, or negligence, not dastardly villainy.
I don't exactly know the meaning of this puzzle Linkara, but I do know you and it's usually not what we assume. Before MissingNo, we all thought the Entity was some Lovecraftian Horror.
Okay, I've been working on this code all day and so far have yielded a lot of gibberish, but my much cleverer sister suggested that it's some kind of algorithm. Since my math skills suck, maybe some of you more mathematically inclined can have a look at that.
Though when I read "I am looking over your shoulder" my first instinct was Pollo since the old body is on the shelf right behind Linkara. Or else, like my others, MissingNo will make a reappearance...
Will continue working tomorrow, but the prospects aren't good. May write a fanfic follow up to this.
FINALLY some story line stuff. Alright, so I suspect some code where isolating some of the letters based on what numbers are above them reveals a message. "The World is at 0 6 and 7" makes me further suspect that these numbers are important.
Just isolating the letters with 0 6 or 7 above them revealed nonsense though. I stopped at "PSSOMTH."
Given the code premise one is inclined to suspect that the content actually doesn't matter at all, however, I will note that "The Babylonians Knew the Truth" calls to mind ancient aliens, and it seems to be a description of a person, plausibly the next villain.
The code idea is also supported by how awkward and unnatural the poem sounds. This was clearly built to try to put another message in it.
I'm not gonna defend Rob Liefeld, i probably hate him as much as you do.
BUT you asked why people don't defend Stan Lee, even though he's more "influential" I think it has something to do with Stan Lee being, kinda annoying, I've never seen a Cameo i liked other then Amazing Spiderman and Daredevil, probably because he didnt say anything.
Also I believe it has to do with most of the artist on Comics he claimed to have worked on, has discredited him, and out right almost hate him, I'm more inclined to believe that he had nothing to do with them the more I see his work, Nightcat was god awful, as well as this comic, and a lot of other stuff he's done alone, for a man who takes credit for as many characters from the 60-70 as he does, he hasn't made anything interesting in 30+ years, I mean I remember how much everyone hated his DC run with "Just Imagine with Stan Lee" was, never read them it but I'd love to see you review the series.
I think it comes down to Lee hasnt made anything good in a long time ( personal opinion there )_the Industry has grown to kinda despises his business practices example saying Jack Kirby basically did nothing in creating any of the comics he was apart of etc.
You said you didn't want to talk about the who created what argument, but i think that is a semi big part of it.
anyways love the episode cant wait for more, if your doing all this traveling will it interfere with Morty?
Hm, after reading others comments, and with my lack of anything useful gained from my hours of attempting to crack the code(pat yourself on the back Linkara, you have officially trolled us all the only way one can do so without being an ass hole), I think the entity is a likely guess, but I dunno, it could also just turn out that Heath Ledger is alive and he got demoted to internet critic plot device. Anythings possible. Also, since this didn't help me much, maybe one of you savvy code breaking individuals(seriously, I put this through like 8 ciphers), can put this to use.
Here's my theory: It's the bunny. That bunny on his shelf was NOT there before. You could say that it's LOOKING OVER HIS SHOULDER!!! DUN DUN DUNNN!!!
No but seriously, I love these kinds of puzzles. I hope I can help solve this one!
Lessee... Linkara said on twitter that the puzzle has three parts. Two of those parts are in the sentences, and the third is what you do with that info.
awesome new story line stuff ill print that screen shit out and work on translating it in someway right away........although should just as well leave it to the really really smart and analytical people. and still an amazing review!
Call me weird, but I don't think this is THAT bad a comic. Yes, it has its flaws (Ravage completely changing his accent is hilarious), and is certainly not a work of art, but it doesn't even go near the horribleness levels of, say, All-Star Batman, One More Day, Bimbos in Time, or anything by Rob Liefeld and his imitators. It's the difference between "meh" and "yuck". :)
OK someone already noticed that first part letters assigned to those numbers are 0
TOYHVTUKORNEASET
6
PSOEDTWRANLISIO
7 SMHIETLIEGLCF
tried to make words out of them but getting tired. also if you take each word that starts with those numbers you will have THRONE THE OVER PRETENDERS DEATH THE WORLD AND I SHOULDER SIT MY I CONTINUE FOR
Now I am getting tired and will look at it tommorow
Hope I got those right. And I know that the third line indicates that only the letters under 0, 6 and 7 are important, but like hell am I gonna go for the seemingly obvious clue presented to me. That's just askin' for trouble.
Also, I had a theory that the answer involved taking the letters under 0, 6 and 7 and moving ahead in the alphabet by the appropriate number (six ahead for those under a 6, etc.) based off the "wait for my ascent" line, but I realized that you can't exactly move ahead zero places. So I'm just gonna wait for more clues.
The 64 for Nintendo 64 is actually the cartridge size in MB. Which was kinda blown waaaay out of the water by the Saturn and Playstation's use of CDs.
So it's fairly clear why Nintendo never explained to the public-at-large what the 64 stood for... It'd be easy publicity for the others if you ever brought it up. ('64? How quaint. OURS has 700mb of space! Mwhahahaha!' - simulated Sony rebuttal)
And that sums up this installment of esoteric facts you never really needed to know.
I've not made much progress apart from that. Did a wee look at Babylonian maths, turns out they use base 60 instead of base 10. Not sure if that helps at all, but it's a start.
I'll be sure to post if I think I come across the proper solution.
"Hope I got those right. And I know that the third line indicates that only the letters under 0, 6 and 7 are important, but like hell am I gonna go for the seemingly obvious clue presented to me. That's just askin' for trouble."
"@Fusionater: Since I of course know the answer, just FYI:
Your letter and number assignment is wrong in a few places. ^_~"
Well nuts, I guess I was getting tired, at the very least this tells me that there is some correlation, so it could be worse, so while I spend a week trying to figure this out in vein, no one use my numbers. :p
Well, based on what's been said here regarding the Babylonian portion of the poem,
1. I doubt your trying to make us learn a new system of math to solve your poem...I'm having enough trouble with the 2 I already need to know.
2. I hope that your not directly connecting this to any episodes of Babylon 5...cause than I'm just screwed, although the 67th episode of that show is the first episode of the fourth season, which indicates potential value for the numbers 1 and 4, than I realize that that is probably total nonsense, only to be used as a last resort to solve the puzzle.
Honestly this is a very clever one, good work.
(If it turns out it is the bunny...that's just mean Linkara)
Upon looking over the codes again, I tried breaking down the letters and numbers by line. The results were more gibberish, but I noticed something. The number of numbers used in each line is 9, 7, 9, 9, 7, 9.
Adding 9 to the afformentioned 0, 6, and 7 yielded nothing.
I also looked at the Babylon-5 TV Tropes page, and technically there is an Episode 0: the pilot. Unfortunately, I am way too lazy to track down and watch episodes 0, 6, and 7 of Babylon-5, so I hope that's not important.
Will continue to work on this today, but not terribly optimistic about the outcome.
(I don't mind if you ignore all this, because I know I'm probably in the minority here. But this is something that's been on my mind lately and I wanted to get it out.)
I found your show last year, binged through the archives, and I think it's clear I enjoy it.
However, I like critical deconstruction more than random quips and zingers, and I wish you devoted more time to critiquing the comics than inserting jokes after every line. Looking at how something is stupid and doesn't work is better than just saying "This is stupid and doesn't work." For me the ideal would be akin to the Harry Plinkett reviews; there's jokes, hilarious ones, but there's also really insightful analysis.
2099 month strikes me as a good example of a missed opportunity. It was a unique idea as a way to play with established characters and break out of the bloated continuity the regular series are trapped in. But instead of looking too much at that you just looked at the first issues of a few series, which (like all first issues) have the problems of needing to introduce characters and the setting and tone and can never work as an indicator of what the series is capable of. First issues are kind of low hanging fruit in any case.
I wish you had done more to consider each series more as a whole. I can imagine Punisher 2099 not breaking out of its basic conceit, but did Doom 2099 get better as it went on or get worse? There's clear potential for an arc over the course of multiple issues. Did the series deliver on that?
I know that you have the time constraint, making a new episode each week in addition to your other projects, and making time to read several issues and writing a review of them is probably harder than just looking at one issue. But maybe a half-and-half thing would work? Half the episode about the first issue, and then ten minutes or whatever to more of the series and looking at how things improved or deteriorated after the first issue. You do kind of do this now and then, but it usually feels rushed.
Or even without looking at a series as a whole, maybe less "here's a plot hole, here's a piece of crappy art" and some more "This is why this character doesn't work" or "Here we see the character's actions are motivated more by plot necessity than actual characterization."
But like I said at the top, I'm probably in the minority preferring more critiquing to jokes.
Has anyone tried converting the numbers, not as whole lines but in the fragments they are broken in, into a sexigesimal system. It is the most likely thing that fits the Babylon mention.
To anonymous above: I looked at the sexigesimal system and I can't make heads or tails of it. The problem I see with that is that the Babylonians did not have a symbol for zero, so the "world is at zero, six, and seven" line makes no sense in that context. But I could be wrong.
Here's my two cents worth for the puzzle: The letters under the numbers in order, with the spaces of which line they come from preserved, seems to yield little. I was hoping there'd be, like, one letter sticking out that was clearly a cipher transition to "a" or "e" in english, but it doesn't look like it. I found this handy online cipher site (http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/) that I threw some of the lines though to no avail yet. Don't have much time right now to try any other major things.
Here's my list (replace dashes with spaces where applicable): 0 to yh v tu or neast 1 dey mba heaexd eanwhh oyrde trmc 2 --rs het eu ono 3 rnr eee otsne bnr ovoo ti 4 en rdz--u utw 5 etu--oe okt min 6 psoe d twran lis is io 7 smh iet li e gl cf 8 rtn--is bnt alhr y 9 ip rmm--ya--an
I feel kinda bad when Later Stan Lee comics appear on the show... but only the later ones. Why? Because Stan Lee is an old dude and I just think to myself "aw, give him a break. He's old." XD but I'm not sure if that counts for the 2099 series yet.
Also.. Porcelain Bunny!!!
Great review! :D early 90s future is my favourite future.
Regarding Frank Miller vs. Stan Lee, forget what they brought to superhero comics, what about creators' rights, which is a subject near and dear to my heart. Frank was a huge advocate for creators' rights back in the 80s and 90s (and in a sense still is, regarding his involvement with the CBLDF), and I think he was the one of the people who petitioned Marvel to give Jack Kirby his original artwork back. Stan, by comparison, was legally bound from helping Kirby's situation, and back in the 60's, he called Arnold Drake a communist for wanting to unionize the industry. Granted, Stan had his owned problems with the industry and work-for-hire terms, but history paints a somewhat negative picture of him.
I suck at puzzles (couldn't get the entity one to save my life despite being a pokemon nerd), but I did have an idea.
All the lines start with 0, 6, and 7. Maybe THAT is the order we read them in? The 0 lines, the 6, and then the 7? Or maybe, just ONE of each kind? The puzzle is a three-parter, the numbers are only one part. The sentences themselves are clues, but, I think, that means not all the lines actually matter...
Anyways, here are the sentences in order of number:
021 31896516986 5371 512 83021 the babylonians knew the truth 611 63274 82 13 4165 371 631 83056 the world is at zero, six, and seven (this one is useless to the rest of the poem). 6355431186 798 5964 71 073086 pretenders sit upon my throne 6 85 8130557 0320 1321 68347118 i am looking over your shoulder 72036240 46 4031 721 18 901090 continue to wait for my ascent 7 93179134 90 63170 i remember my death
Not sure if it makes any more sense, but to my tired brain, the order does fit better.
Just my two cents. And one more: Linkara did not mean for this to be super-hard... and definitely not for us to learn a new math system. If google can't help us, it probably isn't what he intended.
Also, of the searches, I think Black Ops or Bablyonian Math are the only two that remotely make sense.
God help me, in spite of how purely awful this comic is, it still holds a special place in my heart, as it was the first 2099 comic I'd ever seen. I agree with everyone who has classified it as "Entertainingly bad" wholeheartedly.
That said, I never did understand what the point of the scene with Henton getting the massage was. He couldn't have scheduled it so that he would get to watch Paul-Phillip's "death" at a time when there wasn't someone else in the room? I mean, both the facts that he's evil and thinks of people as easily disposable had already been established between what he did to his assistant, and the fact that he was currently trying to kill Paul-Phillip. The fact that he decided that while he was watching Ravage "die" was the perfect time to get a massage just makes it seem like he either has terrible foresight, or he's just trying to create reasons to kill people, as if he wasn't already evil to the point of being borderline cartoony.
Besides, with how terrible the 2099 reality seems to be, I can't imagine that there are a lot of good masseuses around, so it seems like such a waste to schedule things so he "had" to kill her off. Now even fewer people will wanna rub the old guy's back.
Okay, kind of a longshot, but this wouldn't have anything to do with Marduk, the Babylonian deity would it?
According to Wikipedia, "The Marduk Prophecy is a text describing the travels of the Marduk idol from Babylon... Marduk prophecies that he will return once more to Babylon to a messianic new king, who will bring salvation to the city and who will wreak a terrible revenge on the Elamites."
That sounds kind of throne/Babylonian/ascension-y. You don't happen to have a Babylonian idol on that shelf do you? Because that is bad news. Anyone who's seen that Brady Bunch episode in Hawaii knows that you're not supposed to just keep whatever idol you feel like.
Progress Report: Last night, around 12:30 AM, I made what some would consider a breakthrough but others would consider more gibberish. By adding 0+6+7, one gets 13.
Counting to the thirteen (starting on letter thirteen for the second run), I came up with the following: TEDDAAEMYCIT. Which I then rearranged to form the following: A CA TEDDY TIME. Or A CA TIME TEDDY, whichever.
Which of course means that the mastermind behind this letter is... BEAR!
Yeah, I got some sleep and then realized that all of that is stupid. I'll be trying more theories as I find them.
Oh, also just had a thought. the Babylonians had no 'zero' but just a concept of nothingness, according to Wikipedia. I guess you could call that a MISSING NUMBER.
Wow some people on this page suspect MissingNo's return other's say Bear did it. I am surprised not one person suspects Boffo. I mean we haven't seen him since before the Gunslinger Arc.
WATCH THE SKIES. I AM COMING, LINKARA. CELEBRATE YOUR VICTORY WHILE YOU CAN. IT IS I WHO SEES ALL AND FINDS IT LACKING. BABYLON WILL FALL, CITY AND STATION. THE SUN IS YOUR ENEMY. WHAT CAN YOU DO? I'm sorry, Mommy. He comes, Lewis. He comes...The blazing one....Mar-AGGGHHH....
Well, it appears that if you are specifically looking for missingno in the numbers, marking down the letters of the name in order(meaning we ignore all i's until we come to the first M, this is what I came up with.
M I S S I N G N O 7 7 2 3 6 8 7 0 6
Which would leave the 2, the 3, and the 8, which wouldn't make any sense, however, if we are to take his name literally, there can be missing numbers(the entire basis of this hypothesis is that the answer is missingno, obviously)
Alternatively, if you are allowed to travel back in the equation, there is at least one of the 3 of 0, a 6, and a 7, to be found in correlation with missingno's name. Could be significant, maybe not.
I'm sure that 0, 6, and 7 are important somehow; however, saying "Zero, Six, and Seven" also seems like a contrived way to sneak in the letters, X, V, and Z. So if there is some kind of substitution code, which requires figuring out an alternate alphabet, perhaps this is where to start.
Though the numbers can't match up since there's repeats; I've taken the letters associated with 0, 6, and 7 but there's so many letters to make anagram word combinations from. So far I've got "SNOWFLAME, LORD VYCE, and HITLERS GHOST." At least one of those seems wrong.
Also, please tell me that the quote above ("THE SUN IS YOUR ENEMY" etc.) is a joke. There's 150 letters in there and the original puzzle has less than that.
God, I sure hope there's actually a solution to this and we aren't just being trolled. I would feel very foolish (but also amused). Though if the solution to this puzzle is followed through, it'll put AT4W at least one story arc point ahead of Steven Moffat, who has yet to explain the season 5 explosion. (And no, "The Silence did it at some point" is not an answer.)
"God, I sure hope there's actually a solution to this and we aren't just being trolled. I would feel very foolish (but also amused). Though if the solution to this puzzle is followed through, it'll put AT4W at least one story arc point ahead of Steven Moffat, who has yet to explain the season 5 explosion. (And no, "The Silence did it at some point" is not an answer.)"
I can assure you that there is indeed an answer and some people have been on the right track in their thinking while others hvae not.
And even if the puzzle isn't solved by the fans, it WILL be revealed on the show when the time is right. ^_^
This is simple, Lewis. The others should have thought of it sooner. The little message is a warning. The numbers represent a line like the letters are arranged in. It has something to do with Ancient Astronauts.
"And even if the puzzle isn't solved by the fans, it WILL be revealed on the show when the time is right. ^_^"
And when that time comes, I'm going to feel really stupid, especially since I have spent three days on it and have come up with a bunch of gibberish concerning everyone from Lord Vyce to Spoony.
Got the non-lettered numbers down. Wrong, most likely. Curse my obsession with conspiracy theories! 6355431186 798 5964 71 073086 PRETENDERS SIT UPON MY THRONE(Reference to the new beliefs conquering the Babylonians and the aliens.
7 93179134 90 63170 I REMEMBER MY DEATH(One of the aliens has a grudge.)
611 63274 82 13 4165 371 631 83056 THE WORLD IS AT ZERO SIX AND SEVEN(Possibly a year?)
021 31896516986 5371 512 83021 THE BABYLONIANS KNEW THE TRUTH(In reference to aliens's nature.)
6 85 8130557 0320 1321 68347118 I AM LOOKING OVER YOUR SHOULDER(The Entity is not what it claims to be.)
72036240 46 4031 721 18 901090 CONTINUE TO WAIT FOR MY ASCENT(They're coming, basically.)
It's been bugging me this whole time, the line "THE WORLD IS AT..." What the hell does that mean? Then I thought, the only comparable phrase is... "The world is at your fingertips." Could this mean that the key to the code is our keyboard itself? I've heard of that being done before. (And, our computers/webcams are looking over our shoulders, just from the front direction.) Perhaps this cryptic message isn't meant for Linkara, it's meant for us, the lovely viewers at home.
Okay, so possible breakthrough. In meticulously analyzing this code (because I spend my free time wisely), I noticed a repeat in characters:
The sequence 118 appears twice, each time matching with the letters DER.
I don't know what this means yet.
Also, we've been looking at the items on the shelf to see who's looking over the shoulder, but since thrones are mentioned in the puzzle... could it be the futon itself?! Best story arc ever. "Death Futon, the Futon that Eats!"
I additionally discovered that if you hit shift while typing 067 you get )^& which is clearly a crabby Linkara face. You can also add a } hat for full effect: )^&}
If DER is indeed Red, Then possibly that refers to the Trainer. The Entity/Missingno is only catchable in Red/Blue. Therefore, the Entity lives and we're all targets.
@madmanjohnson: I've tried turning is backwards and got nothing.
@Sol137: I've put the coordinates into Google and came out in the Atlantic Ocean. If you have a Pokemon Red/Blue game, please try it because I am at my wit's end.
@Craig Then why does he have the Absent Grimoire on the shelf? Plus, the Entity is a Outer God,a mindless blasphemy from outside of the power of us to understand, much less kill.
Maybe 0,6,7 could be co-ordinates in space? I know it's a little on the nose but "the world is at" could refer to a planet besides Earth. Maybe there is some Babylonian mythology of another world, or Earth? Seems a bit of a stretch though.
Assuming that the Babylonians being referenced are in no way related to Babylon 5 (weren't their space stations with other numbers in that show?) and is in fact about the Babylonian people, the connection could be the hanging garden of Babylon. It was a wonder of the ancient world in part because of the Babylonian system of engineering which allowed them to raise water up from the ground. The last line "wait for my ascent" could be about the water ascending through the system.
You may have noticed I'm grasping at straws on this lol.
I've been thinking bout that sentence with numbers... and thought that maybe the numbers could reference a review of comics numbered 0 6 and 7... but couldn't find an episode with a #6 issue that wasn't part of a multi-part review (like Battle for Bludhaven) and the only #7 i found was the Youngblood #3 and Doctor Who #7 review. Still not giving up though!
In each line there is a missing number. In the first line there aren't any 2's. In line 2 there aren't any 2's, 5's or 8's. In line 3 there aren't any 9's. In line 4 there aren't any 4's. In line five there aren't any 9's. In line 6 there aren't any 5's.
Now with that being said in each line there is at least one 0, 1, 3, 6, and 7.
My first thought is that in each line there is a "missing number." aka MissingNo. But right now that's all I have.
PRETENDERS SIT UPON MY THRONE = The Futon will be given a backstory involving Chrissie Hynde.
I REMEMBER MY DEATH = In a stunning revelation no one saw coming, Moarte will be revealed to be Harvey Finevoice's lost son.
THE WORLD IS AT ZERO SIX AND SEVEN = Reviews of Youngblood issues 0, 6, and 7 will feature the conclusion of the next arc.
THE BABYLONIANS KNEW THE TRUTH = The truth was, that Ancient Egypt is evil. This will introduce Linkara's new recurring character, Egyptian-Style Walker.
I AM LOOKING OVER YOUR SHOULDER = Snowflame, whose picture currently is over Linkara's shoulder, will be revealed to be the next big bad for the show.
CONTINUE TO WAIT FOR MY ASCENT = This is just an ad for Brute deodorant. Linkara has to resort to in-show commercials now.
The Number mystery reminds me of Gravity Falls end of the show codes. I think that Pollo suit could be used somehow, because its also over Linkara's shoulder and somethings can move without the power needed to,at least that's the case when it comes to ghosts or other supernatural stuff . I think that whatever is possessing Nimue is the one that the numbers are referring to because the poem or letter combines numbers with human speech and it comes off as unnatural in the way its written. I'm confident that all will be revealed in due time. As for the comic, its Shtako and this month puts me in a mood to watch future cartoons, Motorcity and Batman Beyond.
The comment Linkara highlighted at the beginning of the video was asinine. The commenter's attempt to be passive agrressive and insult Linkara was pretty low.
Just because Frank Miller has written some amazing comics in the past does not mean he instantly get a "free pass" on any ridiculous, bad, or retarded comics he makes. It doesn't work like that. Having created good things doesn't erase the bad, especially when the bad is so offensively bad.
Also, just because Linkara criticizes unnecessarily scantily clad drawn women doesn't mean he is intimidated by the nude female form. It means he is pointing out it's pointless for Black Canary's hips to be cocked sideways while standing straight, or for any other women to have her cleavage spilling out for no reason. If you're the kind of horndog who'll drool at that easily, fine. But there's times when it's sexy, and times when it's excessive.
"I will say that ONE of the things above is on the right track, but not entirely. It’s a misstep that a lot of people are missing and only a few have considered (though I haven’t seen them apply it to the other steps)." -Linkara's tumblr page.
Well now my brain's in overdrive. One of the things listed before that statement is mostly right and must be applied to all three steps.
This could mean that every line, not just the shoulder line, corresponds to one of the things/dudes on the shelves. So Nimue or Pollo might be looking over the shoulder, but another dude on the shelf might have a throne or want to ascend.
OR it could mean that the prevailing numerical analysis is slightly off in a consistent way. It's apparently supposed to simple...
Well, in keeping with that, I've taken the letters under 0, 6, and 7 (0:TOYHVTUKORNEAST, 6: PSOEDTWRANLISISIO , 7: SMHIETLIEGLCF) and rearranged them ad nauseam until I discovered a most revealing message...
"LORD VYCE WILL RISE AGAIN TO FINISH SMOOTHEST KEPT STOUT."
Huh. I didn't know Vyce was a fan of dark beer. Go figure.
Every letter is represented at least once, with the exception of Q. Can't see that being relevant though tbh. Unless the next story arc is going to involve "god" from star trek 5, can't see it being that either.
@dragoon: I've been rearranging those letters for a day and a half and have gotten several answers of that sort. The one I submitted (and that amused our good Mr. Lovhaug most) was "Atop the Fourth Wall is mine. Get lost or die. Kiss Vyce." Needless to say, that was incorrect and these letters can be arranged to tell you almost anything. I think we're still missing a step.
I've been puzzling a bit on the number puzzle. I came up with a message of two sentences. Admittedly, the first makes more sense than the second, but it's just a try for fun :P
NIMUE'S RED EYE IS WATCHING ALL. TO STOP HER, VISIT FOLKSOT.
I've been working on a theory, I don't know if anybody knows, but the Babylonians came up with the concept of zero, but more importantly, they considered zero more of a symbol for the absence of a number (a missing number so to speak.)
So, I've been trying to treat any letter corresponding with zero more as a placeholder for a letter that I could replace with another letter if need be. I haven't had much progress, but I'm just putting that idea out there so other people can know.
@dilbert719: What would be the point of bringing the Entity back? Wouldn't that be simply a re-hash of the original Missingno story arc, since he'd just start absorbing people into himself like before?
The Entity storyline was cool and I enjoyed it, especially the ending but there's really nowhere else to go with it in my opinion.
I don't think that world has been named. It was said that Jaeris used a different system to catalog the worlds he visited than Linkara does. Linkara uses a letter-number system (eg Earth-4W) and I think I just had a brainwave, though I could be very, very wrong. Anyway, FOLKSOT could be an acronym or a system Jaeris uses...
I do think it might be referencing Vice. One is the throne (taken from some clever Tumblr bloke) and two is the death. Three is over your shoulder. Guys, remember how Vice was in Pollo's body? What is on that shelf? Pollo's body.
Maybe he won't do this... but we do know this: It has to do with the Ghost in a Machine storyline. Keeping that in mind...
We know Nimue is involved. We know she is possessed. We know a Ghost is involved. Thus we know the line 'I remember my death' is important. We know that whatever is the Ghost isn't human fully, or it wouldn't go after nimue, but instead one of the cast. Some machine.
We can assume that Linkara won't repeat himself though. The entity is dead, and to bring that back seems, to me, to be silly. Besides, it wouldn't go all Hall 2000 on Nimue, that isn't it's nature. I think that's out. Vice had the storyline before last, so it seems too close to repeat him. Mechakara might fit...
One thing we need to remember is that this is a new storyline, based off of a show/comic/etc. All of them were. (I still don't know who the Gunslinger was, but whatever). That means it can't be the same style as previous villains. This does seem to be a 2001 style- I swear Nimue is Hal- which begs the question: does anything here fit it, or no? Or what does the puzzle fit?
And also: one of the guesses was close, not completely accurate, but close. They were:
Islam (I HIGHLY doubt Linkara would risk that) Black Ops II (I doubt he plays that- but a fan of the game could aye or nay it) Catherine the Great and Bablyonian math.
He also said it was ON wikipedia what we needed. Now, I doubt its Catherine the Great, or Russian, or a monarch. Too broad a subject. So Babylonian Math. BUT, it ISN'T that, but something RELATED. More likely, and taking the line 'the Babylonians were correct' that means something from Babylon is what it is. But not the math system. And its on wiki.
So Babylon, Nimue, a Ghost, a prediction or assumtion. How or where do all those intersect. It can't be too obscure, and it isn't Bablyon 5 (twitter confirmation).
Wait a minute... 6*7... its 42. Remember, of old Hitchhiker Lore?
Grr. We are all overthinking this, and I mean badly. Linkara made it easy, not hard.
*sigh* I am rambling and just bouncing ideas off to anyone smarter than me.
One other thing. Linkara mentioned on Tumblr (or GIF'ed, rather)that we were seeing patterns that weren't there- right after the Vyce comment. But he could be meaning, overall, that we are overthinking it.
And one of us has solved it. Who, I have no idea. But guys, I would re-read the comments. If we can figure out who's right, we can find the answer.
I'm at my wit's end, Lewis. I have lost a whole work week on this and I'm no closer to figuring this out. Is there any more light you can shed on this without giving up too much, or do we just have to keep at it?
"I'm at my wit's end, Lewis. I have lost a whole work week on this and I'm no closer to figuring this out. Is there any more light you can shed on this without giving up too much, or do we just have to keep at it?"
All I will say is that most people are on the right track, but they've missed a step.
Give doug's slip of the tounge last year when he was auctioning stuff and metioned you were going to use Malacite's hand in your story arc (which you corrected to me on twitter as the NEXT storyline) I'd like to guess...
1) It MIGHT have to do with Malacite's hand of some way 2) It might have the return of Mechakara since he was NEARBY when Comicron One showed up before he blew up and he has been able ot jump into other machines 3) What DID happen tO malacite's hand in the first place? was it left in the critic's house? Did Mechakara still have it? That's a BIG question that's clearly left in Lewis's hand!
Looking at all of the letters that appear with the numbers "zero, six, and seven" above them, that gives us:
AA C D EEEEE F G H IIII K LLL M NN OOOO P RR SSSSS TTTTT U V W X Y
This is actually a fairly realistic graph of how often letters will appear in a sentence, leading me to agree with the people that think this is an anagram.
Unfortunately, an anagram solver did nothing, so it's likely that it includes names like "Linkara" "Vyce" "Nimue" "Pollo" etc. which aren't real words.
If it does include "Missingno", then it cannot include either "Nimue" or "Linkara". If it includes "Entity" then it cannot include "Vyce" and it cannot include BOTH "Linkara" and "Nimue", but it can include just one of the two.
So I'm guessing that The Entity will not be involved.
Also "Magic Gun" cannot be included, as there is only one G.
And "Margaret" cannot be included if "Linkara" is included.
The other thing that has me complexed is the fact that there's only one H when "The" is the most commonly used word in the English language. The word "The" must only appear once, if it appears at all.
There are two H's. One in the first line under 7 and the other in the second line under 0.
Also, a weird tidbit I got from Googling: both "World" and "Death" are the names of Tarot cards. "Tower" is also one, maybe there's a Tower of Babel connection. And there's Emperor and Empress if we're talking about thrones. Now I doubt that's helpful, but I figured it was worth a mention.
Have to say, googling things like 'Babylon,' 'truth' and 'death' has lead me to some weird radical political/religious fringe sites, which I'm sure are not the intention. Hopefully I don't end up on the FBI watchlist. It'll be hard to explain.
@dragoon: "Yes, Agent, I was looking at these extremist sites because a comic book reviewer gave me a puzzle that was supposed to be easy and ended up driving a good number of nerds insane."
Having taken a considerable break and coming back with fresh eyes, I decided to skip the cryptology for the time being and focus on googling and wikipedia-ing the crap out of the clues... and I think I've found a theme:
Lucifer. The Devil.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer
He's referred to as the King of Babylon, who is dead and being taunted. At one point he said "'I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God." So that could be the "ascent" we're supposed to wait for. Also, he's the devil on the shoulder, that classic saying.
I'm not sure how this ties in with the code and cryptology yet. And that's assuming I'm onto something.
So, is Nimue possessed by the Devil? That would be epic. And still preferable to Windows 8.
@Dragoon The tower is from the Major Arcana, not used as part of any game and is right after the devil. It can stand for Chaos, crisis, disillusion and downfall. Foreshadowing much? The fact that is not part of any game and is number 16 makes it....A missing number.
In researching Babylonian mathematics, I learned that the Babylonian syllogism has to do with square roots. Maybe we should square (ie, repeat) all the letters under 0, 6, and 7? That would give us a lot to work with...
@Julie Paulson This is supposed to be easy,not squaring the entire thing. Try it anyway,though.Also,a little list of AT4W Major Arcana parallels since I keep finding them everywhere. Linkara-The Magician,The Hierophant,The Devil,Justice,The Chariot The Entity-The Tower,The Devil,Temperance Lord Vyce-The Emperor,The Chariot, The Magician
Well going along with my Devil/Lucifer theory I developed using the clues and extensive wiki-ing, I naturally turned my focus to the number 6, since the number of the beast is 666. So that's when I noticed... three of the six lines start with 6, 6, and 6. And they alternate. Hmm...
Taking the letters associated from 6 from only those three lines, I got the letters "PSOETWRANIS" and when rearranged, I got a phrase:
"SNOW PIRATES"
It's kind of a weird result, and doesn't have much to do with the devil (outside of piracy being bad), but Snowflame is on the shelf. What has Snowflame been up to? Has he really resorted to piracy? And if so, can we really be surprised?
It may well be that this answer isn't right, given that it's so short and vague, and I still have no idea what the zero/six/seven thing was about. But, I'm proud I could rearrange a message with no remainder letters. Of course with my luck, I was supposed to eliminate the 6-based letters, so my answer is possibly the exact opposite of correct.
Also, I have no idea what Linkara would do with just the vague hint of "Snow Pirates." Perhaps "Snow Pirates" is some kind of hip 2090's slang. SEWING MACHINE!
Or maybe it's the catalyst to a bigger reveal. See: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kvno0dMAui1qad2h9o1_500.gif
Good catch there. I tried to do the same with taking zero and seven letters only from lines beginning with them but couldn't connect it. For 0 you end up with "t u" and for 7 it's "C I E F T"
"The comment Linkara highlighted at the beginning of the video was asinine." It's also a big enough block of text to be relevant to the puzzle. Just a thought.
Grr linkara, you ARE annoying. I know you have said somewhere that Ghost in the Machine is next... or was it His Blue Soul? Dang, I forget. Other commenters, do you remember?
@Julie Paulson: Awesome as that would be (maybe a Millerized version of the supporting cast, e.g. "the goddamn 90s kid"), I was thinking more of it being useful as the key in a polyalphabetic cypher. Unfortunately, my internet connection is currently too slow to load anything more elaborate than text or still images, so I can't check at the moment.
@Wildstar His Blue Soul was the arc that had Vyce taking over Pollo....which means....Ghost in the Machine is next. @Julie The next likely big bad is the Entity seeing as how Vyce took over Pollo and Vyce is now similar to the Entity.
@datasnake: I looked back at that comment and it's a little too innocuous to really be useful in the code. The highlighted segment says that Frank Miller deserves a free pass and is equal to Jack Kirby. If it is relevant, I can't see it.
@madmanjohnson: I know about the next storyline, but this message isn't necessarily about that. Remember how the Entity poem showed up in the Vyce arc about a year before the Entity was even mentioned? I have a feeling it's something like that and Nimue isn't involved in this message.
Though upon thinking about it more, Frank Miller as an answer makes sense.
"Pretenders sit upon my throne" refers to the young upstarts like Linkara who dislike his work and have thus overthrown him.
"I remember my death" is Sin City and the fact that he hasn't stopped writing it.
"The world is at zero, six, and seven" I don't know about, since I actually don't know much about Frank Miller that didn't come from AT4W or Wikipedia.
"The Babylonians knew the truth" references the fact that Miller lives in Babylon, New York.
"I am looking over your shoulder"-- I'm pretty sure there's at least one of his comics on that shelf.
"Continue to wait for my ascent" means he'll start writing good stuff again. Maybe.
I know this theory is completely ridiculous and not at all right, but I thought it was funny.
@Julie The fact that Vyce was defeated 2 storylines ago kinda excludes him from the running. Plus, the fact that both Vyce and the entity are Data Entitys implies they have similar powers. This includes possession of machines such as Pollo or Nimue who just happens to be hooked to a powerful superweapon.
@madmanjohnson: How many time has Mechakara died so far? And Vyce wasn't defeated, he was just sent to the other side of the universe. He'll get back to earth eventually. I wouldn't count him out yet.
If it is an Entity-esque plot (and Lewis did say in the commentary that he has an idea for a sequel to that plot), it won't be MissingNo because MissingNo is dead. But there could be other Eldrich abomination-type monsters out there, so... maybe?
Hey Linkara, I have a question/idea for a review in the future. Is it possible if you could do a review of a Deadpool comic? It is ok if you say no. If yes, I would be happy to provide with a comic of Deadpool that is bad.
@Julie Speaking of Tropes, The Irate Gamer Wiki is trying to do a Parody Retcon so I'm trolling them. Also, the entity-like creature could be a inspiration for babylonian gods.
@MadManJohnson: I don't know about the Irate Gamer wiki, nor do I particularly care since I've never actually watched the show, but that sounds like fun.
You make a good point about Entities and Babylonian gods. I am somewhat inclined to agree with this interpretation, but I still can't find the full message. I am going to take a break from this until I have further information, either from the show itself or by challenging the good Mr. Lovhaug to a game of Twenty Questions via Twitter. Whichever comes first.
If it is an Entity-esque plot, I'd wager that Missingno itself is dead, but there are other/similar of its kind, namely... 'M.
Have to say, I'm honestly stumped. I know this puzzle's meant to be easy, and I know I'll kick myself when the answer is revealed, but even given the hints, I have no way of knowing if I'm on the right track or not. Apparently someone's "desperately close" but that doesn't help.
The 0/6/7 stuff is driving me crazy. This is supposed to be easy, and I know there's some trick to it all that likely involves the lefthand column somehow. The thing is there's too many associated letters to unscramble... that is, unless the message is in order and we're supposed to cross out certain letters...
I'll keep working on this, and hopefully it isn't revealed tomorrow. I'm having a blast working on it. (Though one more teensy hint would go a long way.)
I still have my fingers crossed that Bear's involved. He's up to something, and I've been curious to know what his deal is for some time. He is "looking over Linkara's shoulder" and might view the futon as "his" throne.
But if the message pertains the "Ghost of the Machine" arc, we're likely dealing with Nimue and/or Moarte. When Linkara said someone was desperately close and technically had the answer without getting the steps, my first thought was that the "Moarte is Harvey's son" theory was what he was talking about.
Or, since it's from the future, the message could be from/about Snowflame 2099!
I realize I'm casting a wide net with these scattershot theories, but I like to hedge my bets.
Ok, Long shot here. I when in sequence of zero six and seven over the message and got these letters.. skipping ones not in sequence: TEI YDT HTL VNE UIG OSL NOF
and the sentence I made was:
Entity LIves Do NOT HUG LF
also last three lines start with zero six and seven.. and looking up babylonia astrology they would often let prophecies play out by letting the KIng have a substitute like HOLOKARA was. they also believed in a sun centered universe and planets being round. hope this helps someone better at this than me.
A few things I've tried: Adding 0,6,7 respectively to each of their words. I got real excited to see "VY", then it turned to gibberish.
Adding the next number to each of the 067 characters: Gibberish.
I noticed that WORLD can be spelled out of characters marked with 067, but that's not enough to do anything.
Lewis keeps saying we're missing something, and I feel like it can't be right to just ignore the non-067 characters. I'm going to try a bunch of ways of adding the non-067 numbers to the 067 characters and see if anything comes out of it.
My best new idea for the riddle from the last episode is about the shoulder, Holokara was based from Linkara's shoulder, and I don't think he really got enough attention as a villain, maybe Lewis is bringing him back? I should try and figure out if I can connect it to the rest.
"Lewis keeps saying we're missing something, and I feel like it can't be right to just ignore the non-067 characters. I'm going to try a bunch of ways of adding the non-067 numbers to the 067 characters and see if anything comes out of it."
Your name is really Ninety-Three? Or is that you, Lewis, giving us a secret hint under a false name? I have to ask.
I had an idea. The line about the three numbers has been bothering me because of the commas. I think that there is a number missing and that is why there is an extra comma than there should be. After the 'six,' I think there should be another number before the 'and'
Otherwise the 'world' would have to be at three different "locations", being zero, six, and seven.
I have no idea how to figure out which number is missing though.
So I may have made a potential breakthrough. In analyzing not just the letters of the riddle, but the items on Linkara's shelf, the thought occurred that perhaps what is looking over his shoulder is not a traditional character at all. Perhaps early assertions that a Missingno-esque event would take place were correct... so I began focus my attention on the Absent Grimoire, sitting inconspicuously next to Pollo.
So I examined the riddle closely, and utilizing my extensive skills and knowledge of magic, folklore, Lovecraftian otherworldly horror, and wiki-ing the crap out of things until something stuck by sheer dumb luck, I came to several realizations:
1. The letters of the fourth line can be rearranged, in part, to form the word ABSENT.
2. The letters of the fifth line can be rearranged, in part, to form the word GRIMOIRE.
3. Now here's the clever bit. I'm proud of this one, even if it turns out to be utter crap. Using related terminology and my powers of anagramology, I was able to rearrange the letters of the sixth line, in part, to form the word NECRONOMICON. Right? You're welcome.
4. Considering the demonology/ magic theme we're going with, although the word NIMUE can be made from the letters in the first line, my working theory is that the letters of the first line can, in part, be rearranged to form the word MEPHISTO. The plot thickens.
So that's a start. What does that have to do with the numbers? Smeg if I know, but in my research of grimoires I came across a prominent one known as The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses. So that's cool. Not sure where the Zeroth book ended up, though as Mel Brooks has shown, Moses does have a tendency to drop important writings.
So if I'm right (who knows), this will hopefully enable me and other followers of this dark endeavor to solve the Mystery of the 2099 Riddle.
I do have some tentative ideas and theories, however:
1. I acknowledge I'm supposed to work forwards and not backwards. So while I don't know how these words relate to the letters or numbers, I did notice that the word NECRONOMICON does not include the numbers 4, 5, or 8. However, GRIMOIRE above does definitely include a 5 for one of the I's, so either 5's are allowed (no 5's are on the last line after all), or the standard changes each line. So my thought is maybe 4's and 8's are meant to be crossed out? There are no 4's or 8's required for any of the four aforementioned words.
2. Pollo (or at least a body) is sitting immediately next to the Absent Grimoire. But Nimue's a little too close for comfort too (NIMUE is a word that can be found in the first line after all, though I still think it's MEPHISTO). Either way, when demonic books and technology get too close you end up with that Season 1 Buffy episode with Moloch in the computer. Bad stuff.
3. If my theory is correct, it may well be that each line represents only one word, so perhaps that's how we should go about it. I could be wrong, and I'm still holding out for complete sentences. Otherwise we'll end up with MEPHISTO ANGRY! NECRONOMICON SMASH! But so far my theorized translation is: MEPHISTO... ???? ???? ('NEXT'?) ABSENT GRIMOIRE NECRONOMICON
4. If the Absent Grimoire relates to Missingno, then perhaps the MEPHISTO line connects to Missingno's "sister" glitch Pokemon, 'M. So perhaps 'M is short for 'Mephisto. Indeed, they're obtained the exact same way in Pokemon Red/Blue while being different Pokemon. So that's a thought. Of course it I'm right and 'M rears its ugly head, according to Bulbapedia, if Linkara captures 'M somehow and transfers it to Pokemon Yellow, it'll turn into a 3TrainerPoké $. That's just science.
So that's my major contribution for the day. I'll follow through with this, and if I'm right, I'll figure out how it tracks back to the numbers and sentences.
"Your name is really Ninety-Three? Or is that you, Lewis, giving us a secret hint under a false name? I have to ask."
Yeah, it's my default internet handle. A little awkward when commenting on such a numbers-based puzzle.
Anyway, I made a script that takes each 067 letter and then does every possible combination of adding/subtracting (0,6 or 7 as appropriate; all the numbers until the next 067, the next 067 as well) and that just spat out sixteen different lines of gibberish.
I'm going at this from pretty much a pure codebreaking perspective, with little knowledge of AT4W lore, though given the immensely varied speculation in this thread, I don't think that'd help much anyway. I do mean to keep working on it, as soon as I have another idea, or get really bored and try to write a complicated program to brute force solve it.
"You can also make Comicron One from the 6th line."
Yeah, that does make more sense. Good call.
So I've been working on that, along with theorized words in other lines, and I'm come to the working theory that the numbers 4, 8, and 9 get crossed out, and possibly 5 but I'm not sure yet.
Considering that, I was also able to rearrange the letters in the first line, in part, to form the words MORPHER or even YOUR MORPHER(S). And technically there's a Morpher is on the shelf. Perhaps it's sentient? We've been looking at Pokemon... but maybe a Power Rangers analysis is due?
Wait..Who wrote EVERYONE IS GONE in the Absent Grimoire? The Entity wrote the IAMTHENEVERSHOULD so it's not it's writing....Maybe the same person wrote the message in this episode?
I think I might have something. When I counted the from the starting letter of each line, by the number that appeared over it, (7:I, 6:T, 0:T, 6:I, 7:C), I got DELTKE. I put that into an anagram solver, and got back Deltek, which is some sort of software company that can get government contracts. This may be a stretch, but could this have something to do with the answer, Mr. Lovhaug?
Pretender to the throne? Ascension?
ReplyDeleteRandom numbers? Green coat? Insano's an awesome dancer? Why am I asking these questions?
I know plenty of people will say this. That Snowflame looks awesome. I would've expected him to pop out of the picture and interrupt the video. That would be Kleenex! (Let's see if anyone uses it this summer before it gets tiring.)
ReplyDeleteStan Lee's writing quality may not be as good as it used to be, but his acting quality in the Marvel movies have been great in recent years. Heck, his cameo in Iron Man 3 as a pageant judge is one of his best yet. Old dude's got the chops!
So, I checked the comments from the Doom 2099 video and my suspicion is somewhat confirmed but I don't know if it's right until I have enough evidence to support my theory. Either way, off to TV Tropes for me.
ReplyDeleteEnlighten me on your theory. I'm equally as curious. "The world is at zero,six,seven." 0 6 7 ?
DeleteStan Lee not a good writer? you need to read Starborn and Soldier Zero and the Traveler also Just Imagine Shazam. That aside this review was hilarious.
ReplyDeleteWhen you mentioned Stan Lee's recent contributions to comics, you forgot to mention that he supposedly still writer the Spider-Man newspaper comic strip, although if I were him, I wouldn't take for it. Last summer's Clown-9 storyline made RAVAGE 2099 look like WATCHMEN. You should review THAT.
ReplyDeleteYou know that weird moment where you don't even have adblock but Blip thinks you do and makes you sit through the 90 second thing? I don't get why that happened. Thankfully when I refreshed the page the ad worked, if poorly. Love the Snowflame background picture. Are you going to be changing stuff around frequently? Because that would be pretty interesting. I don't mind it staying the same though.
ReplyDeleteThe dialogue may be stilted but Stan Lee's flowery prose is always fun to hear spoken aloud.
ReplyDeleteThis whole month, all 4 comics have evil corporations gaining control in the 2099 future. I guess that means Angry Joe 2099 has an ill luck against Corporate Commander 2099.
ReplyDeleteWell, to me it seems that what died does not stay dead. Especially if you deal with something that should not be - like a certain Entity. The Maleficum Malorum(sp?) still rests on the shelves, looking over the shoulders of men in hats... well, one man in a hat at least.
ReplyDeleteFancy reading something else than comic books, Linkara?
I think because we know Stan's been off the deep end lately that it's no surprise he did bad comics. So jokes about him are no surprise either. Even he himself pointed out how nuts he was when he was on the Simpson and Robot chicken. Still at least Stan admits his mind is no longer in mint condition. Miller on the other hand is the opposite, he thinks anyone that disagrees with him is a loser in their parent's basement.
ReplyDeleteNice Snowflame picture though. All you need now is a tarp with a brick wall pattern and you got your self a literal back fourth wall.
That was a horrible comic. My mind couldn't comprehend the stupid. That being said I am gonna miss 2099 Kid.
Um Linkara...My old college computer has both floppy and a USB port.
ReplyDeletesort of needed because my prof refused to take anything but floppy
so lord vice is coming back
ReplyDeleteI've noticed two patterns of the code that seems connected somehow. Those are
ReplyDelete1) Every line of numbers start with 6, 7 or 0 which is connected to
2) the sentence: the world is at 0, 6 and 7.
So the numbers of 0 6 and 7 are really important to solve this puzzle. Now just to figure out this connection
You can remove this comment if you feel it that its too spoilery for any reason
6355431186 798 5964 71 073086
ReplyDeletepretenders sit upon my throne
7 93179134 90 63170
i remember my death
611 63274 82 13 4165 371 631 83056
the world is at zero, six, and seven
021 31896516986 5371 512 83021
the babylonians knew the truth
6 85 8130557 0320 1321 68347118
i am looking over your shoulder
72036240 46 4031 721 18 901090
continue to wait for my ascent
For those who care.
Stan Lee is stuck in the 60's? Man, this is like "(almost) every movie and its cover is orange and teal" and the "DreamWorks Face": Once you know it, you can't unsee Oo
ReplyDelete(Though on the plus side, imagening everyone with Adam West's voice makes the comic that much better.)
I guess it's a change of pace that the big evil corporations are interested in environment proection - even though the execution is all kinds of confusing. Why have this subsidiary in the first place if it gets in the way of your shady deals? Why use ECO patrols to execute people if you have control of the police? It's weird.
So in a world where his enemies use hover bikes and cars, cybernetic enhancements, power suits and deadly ray guns in all shapes and forms, Ravage is going to fight them with junk that can't possibly survive a single fight and a giant truck that one can probably hear from a mile away? Yeah, good luck with that...
Oh no it's the return of Lord Vyce! AHHHHHH! (I think. I may be wrong)
ReplyDeleteAlso you know who Dethstryk looks like to me? He looks like Judas Traveler if he wore Dr. Doom's armor.
Linkara, seeing how 2099 month has just ended what about Miller month.//
ReplyDeleteGood end to the month. The stuff on that paper looks familiar... I think I should rewatch Camelot.
ReplyDeleteDear Linkara:
ReplyDeleteI regret to inform you that the 90s Kid of my native is, for lack of a better word, an idiot. My native time is NOT filled with "guns and mullets", since we have advanced to a time were war, famine, poverty and discrimination are no longer an issue. In fact, most of the info ytou got from him about your counterpart from my time is wrong. You don't have to take my word for it. You see, Ensign Munroe also comes from my time. You can ask hi about the proper date later. However, I must stress the following point: the info he gave you on that paper is the only tru info he gave to you. Do NOT lose the paper, under any circumstances. I could tell you why, but I'd rather not risking ruining the flow of the space-time continuum any further.
-Commander Klan Klan of the U.S.S. Frontier, representative of the United Federation of Planets in 21st century Earth.
You say "Dr Doom with a white wig and a metal mustache", I say "Dr. Wily as a robot".
ReplyDeleteI mean COME ON!
Linkara, in Spider-Man: Edge of Time it was revealed that Peter Parker was the CEO of Alchemax and the former Spider-Man of 2099 more than a century ago. The Anti-aging technology has allowed him to live longer than normally expected. Guilt ridden over the loss of his loved ones from long ago, he was presumably working behind the scenes and capitalized on Walker Sloan's time gate technology.
ReplyDeleteWith respective realities of Miguel O'Hara and Peter Parker in flux, the Peter of 2099 planned to rewrite the reality in his image and bring all those he cared about back from the dead. He battled Miguel O'Hara using an Iron Spider suit.
Question: Did any of this things really happend in the SPIDER MAN 2099 series.//
I think Paul Phillip's last name is supposed to be pronounced like "Philip" ("fill-ihp"). The "fill-eep" version is "Philippe".
ReplyDeleteI just love the Stan Lee voice.
ReplyDeleteRavage reminds me of James Twilley, from Grimjack (red hair, scar, steampunk outfit)
The most hilarious thing is that the first issues are the best of the series. Art, stories and the main character all regress as it goes on.
Ogranic webshooters after OMD ? Nonsense
stan lee, his writing is outgrown but he is still a cool guy. at the very least his writing is far from that qicked place of god damn batmans, sperm bank wonderwomen who just wants a man, or a world where women have no sense of self dignity in the slightest.
ReplyDeleteis a mutoid supposed to be what they call the mutants in the future? cause it is kinda stupid.it makes sowing machines seem like a a sensible slang term.
wait, why didn't that massage chick just power drive the guy on the neck when he said he needed to kill her, out right. he was kinda in a vulnerable position.
Ravage 2099 issue 2. ravage discovers that his revenge is meaningless because the massage women of the future murdered all the business bossess and took their place.
So, Ravage 2099 is an eco-terrorist Lobo reject (in looks).
ReplyDeleteScrew it, I'm out. See ya next week.
May Heaven forgive me, but I love Ravage 2099. It's just so enjoyably awful.
ReplyDeleteHe's a high powered executive who becomes a crime-fighting garbage man and inexplicably begins using 1930s style Dead End Kids patois.
And then, in a couple of issues, he starts getting the most random super powers ever.
Most 90s anti-heroes were a bad joke. Ravage was the punchline.
awesome Snowflame poster in the background
ReplyDeleteyou basically explained why people defend Frank Miller
his writing reflects his political beliefs - ever considered that people might agree with those views?
also, everything Miller writes, is overflowing with pure, unspoiled MANLINESS!
Miller seems to be one of the few writers who knows what it is to be a MAN! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiXaT_1I-vw
only being able to choose between complete corporate rule or anarchy?
that's pretty much how I feel about American politics - you either end up supporting PETA or the KKK
one way or another, you are boned
are those numbers going to be important, or is it just a silly movie reference?
Considering his name is Paul-Phillip, it makes me wonder if the last name is meant to be pronounced like it's French or something. Which would make it no less stupid, but maybe a little more funny.
ReplyDeletenot trying to be a nit-pick here but Nintendo 64 is called that because it played 64 bit graphics and as always hilarious video ^_^
ReplyDeleteVery hilarious ending to 2099 Month and the note does act like a chilling beginning to the Ghost of the Machine
ReplyDeleteDear God, this comic was the epitome of "so bad it's good". I had a huge grin on my face the second you started looking at the cover and it stayed that way the entire time. I think this may be a contender for my new favorite review you've done.
ReplyDeleteThanks Linkara, now I will have to spend all my day analizing those sentences and numbers :P
ReplyDeleteTo give the comic a little credit, I always assumed the security guys were in on it, rather than gullible (that's why the moron who kills all is own minions had to kill them because they knew it was fake).
ReplyDeleteThe comic's still terrible, though. I always felt like a lot of Stan Lee's later terrible stuff was because he was out of touch and trying too desperately to tap into what's 'in'. Like the NFL or the ecological movement from things like Captain Planet-- without actually understanding those things.
hey linkara loved th review, just wondering, do the numbers correspond with message?
ReplyDeleteThese Eco Patrol people really don't mix with the rest of what we've seen in the 2099 universe. In fact there it seems to be your basic 'pollution is awful and major companies don't care'.
ReplyDeleteAnd what exactly was stopping the secretary's father from just contacting his superior with a PHONE? Even in the 90s VIPs had mobile phones.
Hell, why was Paul put in charge of anything? If they wanted him as a figure head why not give him a job that didn't include directly interrogating company security or with easy access to the head of it all? Companies push people out of power all the time, it happened to Rodenberry after his failure of the first Star Trek movie.
And have to admit that the dialogue really is terrible. It's actually worse here because Lee was trying to combine 1960s comic book speech with what apparently is slang in 2099. You would think that combined the two would somehow go a complete 180 from bad to good, but no. It doesn't*.
Minor notes. Tiana apparently wears a skirt so short that she should be showing off her underwear every time she shifts a muscle and if Paul doesn't like his last name then why in hell hasn't he gotten it changed?
*Yes I know that Lee's dialogue and story telling was the standard in the 60s. This was a comic written in the 90s and he wasn't writing the comic to have a nostalgic feel. It doesn't work and realizing that would have gone some way to fixing the problems in the comic
So, Linkara 2099 has organic webshooters? Is that because that's what the Sam Raimi 2099 Linkara movies did? Because I always thought the organic webshooters were dumb.
ReplyDeleteOh Stan Lee, How you never changed but stay the same. As for why no one says anything about Lee, but more for Miller is simply that we know. We know he hasn't really changed that much but he still has good idea's, and has a huge impact on comics itself. As for Miller, well, he only did maybe a few good comics and helped revive Batman's popularity. however that's it, he doesn't really do that much, nor have that big of an impact on comics.
ReplyDelete@SMAXZO becuase Linkara 2099 is none other then Sir John Hurt! :introducing John Hurt as Linkara 2099:
*cue Doctor who theme song*
That thing 90's Kid gave you probably has something to do with Nimue seeing as it said "I'm watching over you".
ReplyDeletewho else noticed the pattern this month?
ReplyDeletegood comic
bad comic
good comic
bad comic
did you plan this Linkara?
I still take Stan Lee's worst over OMD or Superior Spider-Man. Oh hell over Grant Morrison or the worst of Geoff Johns and Brian Michael Bendis. Cause at stan worst stuff does less damage then any stuff the people mention do. No Stripella mention? Stan also work on manga in recent years. Hero Man is pretty good.
ReplyDeleteThis is another one that hasn't aged well.
Funny thing about Earthshock clip being played BBC America aired it last night as part of Doctor Who Revisited.
The messages on the comic book board. Hm. Wonder what they will mean? :)
Love the review!
ReplyDelete-Is there not a single sentence that doesn't end with an exclamation mark? I guess that's what you meant about Stan Lee's writing not evolving past the sixties.
-Speaking of, does Stan Lee really do much these days beside cameo in Marvel movies? Awesome cameos, mind.
-If the guy's name is literally Ravage...maybe it's pronounced the French way? Ravaajh?
-So Linkara is still alive in 2099? He's reviewing comics as a 110-year old senior? That'll be a sight to see.
-Why do these fictional cyberpunk megacorps always have to solve troublesome types with the kill squad? Why not just fire them and consign them to the streets as bums nobody will listen to? Solves them a lot of trouble.
Actually do like you reviewing old nineties cyberpunk comics, Linkara. Consider this a happy viewer if you do more!
SNOWFLAME! SWEET! Yeah, I think the filled out background with the shelves looks really good now. I like it. Nice array of items you've got there. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteIn searching a few different topics ("zero six seven", "pretender to the throne", and my favorite "babylonians pretender to the throne zero six seven"), the first thing that pops up are a Black Ops II video, Babylonian Mathematics, Catherine the Great's Wikipedia page and Islam: Pretender of the Throne of David.
ReplyDelete...are any of these even close to referencing that note?
Is that set of codes or whatever at the end written on the back of a standard comic backing board?
ReplyDelete*sniff sniff* I smell a new plotline.
ReplyDeleteWait...a gun that shoots pigeons? Next thing you know we'll be having flaming explosive sheep falling from the sky and giant statues of donkeys that level the terrain below it. Goodness knows how much better they are than a pigeon gun given how reliable said pigeons are...
ReplyDeleteNo jokes about poneytails?
ReplyDeletei gotta be honest, this comic seens kinda fun in it's own dumbness... kinda like the transformers comic where optimus dies...
by the way... thing planned for a green lantern review to celebrate Johns's depart?
the webshooters are somewhere useful hopefully.
ReplyDeleteGreat video, but the joke regarding Tiana's "womanly parts" seems out of place. There's no indication of Ravage being sexist, or if there is, you didn't tell us about it. Still, great video.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this is my first time doing this, but I feel I have to. I'd like to request that you review another issue of that Titans run you mentioned a while back (the one that had an issue of overly big masks, Starfire fanservice and Donna Troy's changing outfit).
Or if not that, please, please PLEASE review something from the New 52. Preferably the Culling storyline from the Teen Titans. I agree that it sucks, but I idn't really read it, since I didn't read the Legion Lost issues. the dialogue from the first and last issues regarding it had horrible dialogue, a confusing premise and overall just felt like a mess... although that could very well be because I didn't read the Legion Lost issues (I still think the book should've filled me in, but whatever).
"Stan Lee's writing quality may not be as good as it used to be, but his acting quality in the Marvel movies have been great in recent years. Heck, his cameo in Iron Man 3 as a pageant judge is one of his best yet. Old dude's got the chops!"
ReplyDeleteWell he doesn't have to do much, and he's got sunglasses on some times. It makes it much easier to act when you don't have to do much. His role is slightly above that of a regular extra or actor with one line.
I think people don't jump all over you for Stan Lee because he pokes fun at himself regularly, so its all good.
ReplyDeleteLooks like I'm never polluting again...that or Peter Griffins gun toting animal teaching recycling caught on.
In 2099 flashback technology improved to the point where you can remember things you weren't even there for.
Maybe his name is pronounced Ra-vage like so fromage in French. One of the running gags in the British show Keeping up Appearances was the fact that Hyacinth Bucket would pronounce it Bouquet.
Maybe Alchamax just makes money off of both polluting and cleaning up pollution, they save money by cutting corners causing pollution and then make money from people paying them to clean up pollution.
"Because, Shut Up"...that's pretty much the reasoning behind everybody's actions in this comic.
I'm guessing everything 90's Kid talked about will either happen soon or won't happen for many months and when I rewatch this in November I'll go, "Oh yeah that happened."
I can see why people have been asking for this comic since the beginning, great job turning this crap into gold.
And now if you'll excuse me, I have something to decode...or see if I can turn into beat poetry. Kleenex!
"You can remove this comment if you feel it that its too spoilery for any reason"
ReplyDeleteNah, it's perfectly fine. ^_^ I want people working to solve the puzzle.
I just won't say if you're right or wrong, at least until you've got a solution you wish to present. =3
"who else noticed the pattern this month?
ReplyDeletegood comic
bad comic
good comic
bad comic
did you plan this Linkara?"
Yes and no. I knew Spider-Man and Doom 2099 were the most well-liked so I wanted to separate them, but actually I was more excited by the fact that each of the 2099 books had a different thing going for them, all different premises to start with that would make talking about them more interesting.
Oh, you haven't gotten to the nuttiest parts of Ravage. In a couple issues, he stops being a straight gun-toting eco-terrorist and gets weird hand beam powers. And then right after that, he turns into some sort of mutant rhino...thingie who can shapeshift between his mutant and human forms. And then after that is over, he goes full-on primal, wanders into the wasteland, eventually takes over Hellrock, and then his series finally ends with Doom killing him and everything on the island.
ReplyDeleteStill, his death was surprisingly awesome. All of Hellrock is encased in metal, with Ravage screaming how he'll find a way to get revenge before getting drowned in the stuff. And then the island gets flung into space. It's beautiful in its ridiculousness.
Also, Stan Lee only wrote the first six or so issues, after which he left the book. That was when they did the retool into a shapeshifting mutant, and while the comic was still stupid...I actually enjoyed it in spite of its ridiculousness.
All in all, I loved this run of episodes. I was a huge fan of 2099 back in the day, and still hold some of the books (Spider-Man, Doom, X-Men) in high regard. Hopefully you'll revisit it someday.
"In searching a few different topics ("zero six seven", "pretender to the throne", and my favorite "babylonians pretender to the throne zero six seven"), the first thing that pops up are a Black Ops II video, Babylonian Mathematics, Catherine the Great's Wikipedia page and Islam: Pretender of the Throne of David.
ReplyDelete...are any of these even close to referencing that note?"
Maybe one of them. ^_~
"Is that set of codes or whatever at the end written on the back of a standard comic backing board?"
ReplyDeleteYup. I also use them for Ninja-Style Dancer's cue cards.
"Rexaura888 said...
ReplyDeleteWait...a gun that shoots pigeons? Next thing you know we'll be having flaming explosive sheep falling from the sky and giant statues of donkeys that level the terrain below it. Goodness knows how much better they are than a pigeon gun given how reliable said pigeons are..."
HA! Worms reference for the win! :D
*****
And damn you, Lewis, I am STILL trying to figure out that puzzle. Even a 4-hour nap did not help! ARGH! (I keep thinking I've gotten it and then I realize I'm missing a letter or something.)
Also, ad-related - I let them play normally, get the 30-second one at the outset, and now lately I'm getting both a 15-second AND a 30-second ad at the midroll? Is this supposed to be happening?
I think I figured the puzzle out.
ReplyDeleteNote that I did this before reading any comments, so if any of what I say below has been explicitly denied by Lewis, I apologize.
(Potential Spoilers.)
Nimue is being possessed by The Entity.
"Pretenders sit upon my throne" = Thrones are for monarchs or gods, The Entity qualifies. It's also possible that The Entity that Linkara defeated previously was a fake.
"I remember my death." = When Linkara previously defeated it.
And bear in mind that we first learned of The Entity when Linkara told the origin story of the magic gun. Now, we have multiple magic guns, courtesy of Jaeris. Which means that there are other Entities. Or other copies of THE Entity. (Lewis has stated on Twitter that Jaeris will be involved in the next storyline.)
The other concerning thing is that the handwriting on the note is IDENTICAL to the handwriting on The Entity's poem. So we can pretty much confirm that they were written by the same person.
It also shows why it possessed Nimue. The Entity is pure data. It could get into a computer more easily than a huuuuumaaaaaan (presumably). This explains Nimue's strange behaviour at the end of the Star Wars episode.
And Nimue will be the main focus of the next storyline, as we all know. She could easily be possessed by the Entity and that'll get us to focus on her.
What's more is that in the Halloween specials last year, Harvey mentioned The Entity, which could have been added to the script in order to inform new viewers of AT4W of its existence.
And the Entity may be dead, but that doesn't mean anything. Remember, in Channel Awesome continuity, the Nostalgia Critic died and became the universe (which was the Entity's original goal) and then he came back. The Entity could have done the same. And they may even explain it by using the Plot Hole.
Back to the puzzle.
"The world ends at zero, six, and seven."
Presumably there's something hidden in the numbers above the text, but I tried doing everything possible with the letters beneath those numbers and nothing really stuck out.
"The babylonians knew the truth."
Given how much of a sci-fi geek Lewis is, I'm guessing this is a Babylon-5 reference. I don't watch Babylon-5 (yet, planning to start soon), so I have no idea what this could be.
Adding "5" to the list of numbers to look for in the above sequence didn't do anything interesting, for what it's worth.
"I am looking over your shoulder."
Does the phrase "I'm always watching." sound familiar to anyone who knows AT4W history? How about "I see you, Linkara!"?
"Continue to wait for my ascent."
Fourth-wall breaking (something that only the Entity could do) to show that it will be a while before the next storyline. And the Entity could have ascended after its death. I don't know exactly what that would entail though.
And lastly, just so I don't lose it and can come back to the puzzle later if need be:
6355431186 798 5964 71 073086
PRETENDERS SIT UPON MY THRONE
7 93179134 90 63170
I REMEMBER MY DEATH
611 63274 82 13 4165 371 631 83056
THE WORLD IS AT ZERO SIX AND SEVEN
021 31896516986 5371 512 83021
THE BABYLONIANS KNEW THE TRUTH
6 85 8130557 0320 1321 68347118
I AM LOOKING OVER YOUR SHOULDER
72036240 46 4031 721 18 901090
CONTINUE TO WAIT FOR MY ASCENT
Great review, wish I had more to say about it. The only odd thing was that I got the no ads option the first time I started up this video, but then they played after refreshing the page and trying again.
ReplyDeleteIt's strange because I never had this problem when I watch them on thatGuywiththeGlasses.
i think Stan lee, while his writing is old, still is able to have some interesting concepts. for example, i like the concept here, that he is an honest man working for corrupt people, who believes they are honest people. but he is not only proven wrong, but betrayed, incriminated and almost get killed. i like the concept of an honest man having his beliefs getting crushed and having to use vigilantism as the only way to do what he thinks is right. i mean, in this comic we see he is a good guy, who thinks there is good in everyone, that is most than other 90 comics gets. but yeah, it is pretty bad.
ReplyDeletePuzzle possibilities.
ReplyDeleteLet's see. First each set of numbers is the same number of characters as the words below, suggesting some kind of connection.
I considered maybe adding the number to the number of the letter below it (example: 7 over 'I' and 'I' is the ninth letter of the alphabet so 7+9). That doesn't seem to work but it might be hexadecimal* or something like '79' or something so I can't be sure.
Another possibility is that every number in the line corresponds to a letter and all those letters together are a jumbled sentence. In this case the '0' would either be something to remove or something else (maybe an 'o'). With that the following:
7 93179134 90 63170
would become:
G ICAGIACD I(uncertain) FCAG(uncertain).
However unless this is following a different mathematical system (such as hexadecimal) I don't think it works. The above has too many 'I' and 'A' and not enough 'E' or consonants.
Of course that might be what the reference to the Babylonians is. Either something to do with '5' (from Babylon 5) or something to do with the Babylonian sexagesimal system (which is in base 60). Sadly my mathematical abilities aren't quite good enough to investigate that, but we should also remember that it's possible that Linkara went with a much less complicated code and this could be over thinking it.
Thinking outside math: This could be similar to the hints about Missingno, so the words could reference something from a game, comic, book, show or movie (I'm excluding anime and manga because Linkara does not usually use those).
Pretenders Sit Upon My Throne
(Could be MANY different things from the Bible to A Song of Ice and Fire).
I Remember My Death
(Reminds me of GLaDOS and how she was forced to relive her death over and over, but I don't that's it. Still, Mechakara or one of the others is possible)
The World is at Zero, Six and Seven
(Could be anything. Maybe that Black Ops clip on Youtube, maybe a reference to characters who have letters for names, etc. Also we aren't sure what it means by 'the world is at')
The Babylonians knew the truth
(Could be Babylon 5, mythology or something else, looking up 'Babylon' and 'truth' just gets me to a lot of religious sites and no way to tell how relevant -or sane- they are)
I am looking over your shoulder
(Could be anything, even just a way of saying 'I am nearby', still reminds me of ToTheArk's videos)
Continue to wait for my ascent
('Continue to wait' is obviously about the future and a continuation of waiting, not 'right now, start expecting something to happen'. 'Ascent' is an interesting choice, several possible interpretations)
*Getting flashbacks to the 999 DS game. Fun puzzle/adventure game so long as you have some ability at math or don't mind using Gamefaqs on occasion (guilty).
Alright here's my theory. I say its Holo-kara, from what I can gather on the code "Pretenders sit upon my throne" means that Holo-kara thinks of himself as the REAL hero, thinks of Linkara as the PRETEND hero and Comicron One is the throne. "I remember my death" includes the fact that the mobile emitter was damaged and as such killed the hologram. Haven't figured out the rest of the code yet but I'm working on it.
ReplyDeleteWow, so the new shelves have Porceline Bunny and Snowflame...at least they forever have a place on the show now.
ReplyDeleteSeriously the comic was dumb and you sort of lost me the moment you showed the Tigra hologram. (sucks that in 2099 she's stuck like that but the underrated ones are sort of stuck) The concept was ridiculous and, as you said, Stan Lee really is a legend in what he did 50+ years ago but nowadays just does what he wants to do and people let him get away with it. Yeah Stan the Man was awesome...but with this, Nightcat and the Backstreet Boys, you have to wonder how much senility plays into his current aspects. (yeah there is also some aspects going into the classic era but it doesn't matter cause Stan Lee was still a major factor so he deserves respect...for the major aspects)
And hoo boy, I think (19)90s Kid brought something for our next plot...keep an eye on that note, you'll probably need it.
Linkara, perhaps it's a vocal minority that get's on your back regarding Frank Miller. How anyone can deny that the man is nuts and his writing has become ugly is beyond me? Sure, The Dark Knight Returns was great, but that's hardly worth giving the man a pass on how he is today. As for Stan Lee, everyone agrees on him regarding his significance to comic book history and how many low quality projects he's done in the latter part of his life. The thing is, his projects are merely stupid and goofy, and even a little sad.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like EVERYONE was making villains that polluted the Earth on purpose back in the early '90s.
Captain Planet and the Planeteers.
G.I. Joe Eco Warriors.
Swamp Thing (animated series).
The Toxic Crusaders.
Ravage 2099.
It's like the people who wrote these things ignored the fact that pollution happens through ignorance, willful or not, or negligence, not dastardly villainy.
I don't exactly know the meaning of this puzzle Linkara, but I do know you and it's usually not what we assume. Before MissingNo, we all thought the Entity was some Lovecraftian Horror.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I've been working on this code all day and so far have yielded a lot of gibberish, but my much cleverer sister suggested that it's some kind of algorithm. Since my math skills suck, maybe some of you more mathematically inclined can have a look at that.
ReplyDeleteThough when I read "I am looking over your shoulder" my first instinct was Pollo since the old body is on the shelf right behind Linkara. Or else, like my others, MissingNo will make a reappearance...
Will continue working tomorrow, but the prospects aren't good. May write a fanfic follow up to this.
FINALLY some story line stuff. Alright, so I suspect some code where isolating some of the letters based on what numbers are above them reveals a message. "The World is at 0 6 and 7" makes me further suspect that these numbers are important.
ReplyDeleteJust isolating the letters with 0 6 or 7 above them revealed nonsense though. I stopped at "PSSOMTH."
Given the code premise one is inclined to suspect that the content actually doesn't matter at all, however, I will note that "The Babylonians Knew the Truth" calls to mind ancient aliens, and it seems to be a description of a person, plausibly the next villain.
The code idea is also supported by how awkward and unnatural the poem sounds. This was clearly built to try to put another message in it.
I've been thinking about this code, and... geez, people, isn't it obvious? It's right there behind him on the shelf!
ReplyDeleteIt's OBVIOUSLY the porcelain bunny!
I'm not gonna defend Rob Liefeld, i probably hate him as much as you do.
ReplyDeleteBUT you asked why people don't defend Stan Lee, even though he's more "influential" I think it has something to do with Stan Lee being, kinda annoying, I've never seen a Cameo i liked other then Amazing Spiderman and Daredevil, probably because he didnt say anything.
Also I believe it has to do with most of the artist on Comics he claimed to have worked on, has discredited him, and out right almost hate him, I'm more inclined to believe that he had nothing to do with them the more I see his work, Nightcat was god awful, as well as this comic, and a lot of other stuff he's done alone, for a man who takes credit for as many characters from the 60-70 as he does, he hasn't made anything interesting in 30+ years, I mean I remember how much everyone hated his DC run with "Just Imagine with Stan Lee" was, never read them it but I'd love to see you review the series.
I think it comes down to Lee hasnt made anything good in a long time ( personal opinion there )_the Industry has grown to kinda despises his business practices example saying Jack Kirby basically did nothing in creating any of the comics he was apart of etc.
You said you didn't want to talk about the who created what argument, but i think that is a semi big part of it.
anyways love the episode cant wait for more, if your doing all this traveling will it interfere with Morty?
From the note:
ReplyDelete"I AM LOOKING OVER YOUR SHOULDER"
*looks at video, spots new art over Linkara's shoulder.*
The answer! It's Snowflame!
Hm, after reading others comments, and with my lack of anything useful gained from my hours of attempting to crack the code(pat yourself on the back Linkara, you have officially trolled us all the only way one can do so without being an ass hole), I think the entity is a likely guess, but I dunno, it could also just turn out that Heath Ledger is alive and he got demoted to internet critic plot device. Anythings possible.
ReplyDeleteAlso, since this didn't help me much, maybe one of you savvy code breaking individuals(seriously, I put this through like 8 ciphers), can put this to use.
0
TTT Y H V U K O N EE A S
1
DDD EEEE YY MM B AAA HH X N W O RR T
2
R S H EE T U OO N
3
RRR NNN EEEE OOOO TT S B V I
4
E N R D Z UU W
5
EE T U O O K T M I N
6
P S OO E D T W R A N L III SS
7
S M H II EE T G D C F
8
R T NN I S B T A L H R Y
9
I P R MM AA N
(all the letters that appear for each number)
The most important thing about the future: The Chicago Cubs still haven't won the World Series.
ReplyDeleteHere's my theory:
ReplyDeleteIt's the bunny. That bunny on his shelf was NOT there before. You could say that it's LOOKING OVER HIS SHOULDER!!! DUN DUN DUNNN!!!
No but seriously, I love these kinds of puzzles. I hope I can help solve this one!
Lessee... Linkara said on twitter that the puzzle has three parts. Two of those parts are in the sentences, and the third is what you do with that info.
PAUL-PHILLIP GOES WHERE HE PLEASES!
ReplyDelete*slobber*
awesome new story line stuff ill print that screen shit out and work on translating it in someway right away........although should just as well leave it to the really really smart and analytical people. and still an amazing review!
ReplyDeleteCall me weird, but I don't think this is THAT bad a comic. Yes, it has its flaws (Ravage completely changing his accent is hilarious), and is certainly not a work of art, but it doesn't even go near the horribleness levels of, say, All-Star Batman, One More Day, Bimbos in Time, or anything by Rob Liefeld and his imitators. It's the difference between "meh" and "yuck". :)
ReplyDelete@Fusionater: Since I of course know the answer, just FYI:
ReplyDeleteYour letter and number assignment is wrong in a few places. ^_~
"The World is At Zero Six and Seven"
ReplyDeleteNotice that the first number in each line is a zero six or a seven.
Still working but that may help someone
OK someone already noticed that first part letters assigned to those numbers are
ReplyDelete0
TOYHVTUKORNEASET
6
PSOEDTWRANLISIO
7
SMHIETLIEGLCF
tried to make words out of them but getting tired. also if you take each word that starts with those numbers you will have THRONE THE OVER PRETENDERS DEATH THE WORLD AND I SHOULDER SIT MY I CONTINUE FOR
Now I am getting tired and will look at it tommorow
The only thing that jumps out at me is "I'm looking over your shoulder"
ReplyDelete...and isn't that the Mechakara hand behind you?
the mobile emitter too, for that matter
unless it actually means the porcelain bunny is gonna be evil
@springfieldzombie - Like Fusionater, your lists are inaccurate, just FYI. ^_^ Take another look after you get some sleep.
ReplyDeleteThese are my lists:
ReplyDelete0 - TOYHVTUKORNEAST
1 - DEYMBAHEAEXDEANWHHOYRDETRMC
2 - RSHETEONO
3 - RNREEEOTSNEBNROVOOTI
4 - ENRDZUUTW
5 - ETUOEOKTMIN
6 - PSOEDTWRANLISISIO
7 - SMHIETLIEGLCF
8 - RTNISBNTALHRY
9 - IPRMMYAAN
Hope I got those right. And I know that the third line indicates that only the letters under 0, 6 and 7 are important, but like hell am I gonna go for the seemingly obvious clue presented to me. That's just askin' for trouble.
Also, I had a theory that the answer involved taking the letters under 0, 6 and 7 and moving ahead in the alphabet by the appropriate number (six ahead for those under a 6, etc.) based off the "wait for my ascent" line, but I realized that you can't exactly move ahead zero places. So I'm just gonna wait for more clues.
The 64 for Nintendo 64 is actually the cartridge size in MB. Which was kinda blown waaaay out of the water by the Saturn and Playstation's use of CDs.
ReplyDeleteSo it's fairly clear why Nintendo never explained to the public-at-large what the 64 stood for... It'd be easy publicity for the others if you ever brought it up. ('64? How quaint. OURS has 700mb of space! Mwhahahaha!' - simulated Sony rebuttal)
And that sums up this installment of esoteric facts you never really needed to know.
I think I have the correct list here for the letters that correspond to 0, 6 and 7.
ReplyDelete0 – TYHVTUKORNEASET
6 – PSOEDTWEANSISI
7 - SMHIETLIEGLCF
I've not made much progress apart from that. Did a wee look at Babylonian maths, turns out they use base 60 instead of base 10. Not sure if that helps at all, but it's a start.
I'll be sure to post if I think I come across the proper solution.
CEO Of a big company
ReplyDeleteDouchy Ponytail
Martial arts skills.
Paul Phillipe is Terry Silver! It makes peeeerrrrfect sense.
"Hope I got those right. And I know that the third line indicates that only the letters under 0, 6 and 7 are important, but like hell am I gonna go for the seemingly obvious clue presented to me. That's just askin' for trouble."
ReplyDeleteYep, yours look fine. ^_^
"@Fusionater: Since I of course know the answer, just FYI:
ReplyDeleteYour letter and number assignment is wrong in a few places. ^_~"
Well nuts, I guess I was getting tired, at the very least this tells me that there is some correlation, so it could be worse, so while I spend a week trying to figure this out in vein, no one use my numbers. :p
I'm actually surprised you didn't make a "Chad from accounting" joke when Henton made that one guy fly out the window
ReplyDeleteWell, based on what's been said here regarding the Babylonian portion of the poem,
ReplyDelete1. I doubt your trying to make us learn a new system of math to solve your poem...I'm having enough trouble with the 2 I already need to know.
2. I hope that your not directly connecting this to any episodes of Babylon 5...cause than I'm just screwed, although the 67th episode of that show is the first episode of the fourth season, which indicates potential value for the numbers 1 and 4, than I realize that that is probably total nonsense, only to be used as a last resort to solve the puzzle.
Honestly this is a very clever one, good work.
(If it turns out it is the bunny...that's just mean Linkara)
Progress report, since no one else will care.
ReplyDeleteUpon looking over the codes again, I tried breaking down the letters and numbers by line. The results were more gibberish, but I noticed something. The number of numbers used in each line is 9, 7, 9, 9, 7, 9.
Adding 9 to the afformentioned 0, 6, and 7 yielded nothing.
I also looked at the Babylon-5 TV Tropes page, and technically there is an Episode 0: the pilot. Unfortunately, I am way too lazy to track down and watch episodes 0, 6, and 7 of Babylon-5, so I hope that's not important.
Will continue to work on this today, but not terribly optimistic about the outcome.
(I don't mind if you ignore all this, because I know I'm probably in the minority here. But this is something that's been on my mind lately and I wanted to get it out.)
ReplyDeleteI found your show last year, binged through the archives, and I think it's clear I enjoy it.
However, I like critical deconstruction more than random quips and zingers, and I wish you devoted more time to critiquing the comics than inserting jokes after every line. Looking at how something is stupid and doesn't work is better than just saying "This is stupid and doesn't work." For me the ideal would be akin to the Harry Plinkett reviews; there's jokes, hilarious ones, but there's also really insightful analysis.
2099 month strikes me as a good example of a missed opportunity. It was a unique idea as a way to play with established characters and break out of the bloated continuity the regular series are trapped in. But instead of looking too much at that you just looked at the first issues of a few series, which (like all first issues) have the problems of needing to introduce characters and the setting and tone and can never work as an indicator of what the series is capable of. First issues are kind of low hanging fruit in any case.
I wish you had done more to consider each series more as a whole. I can imagine Punisher 2099 not breaking out of its basic conceit, but did Doom 2099 get better as it went on or get worse? There's clear potential for an arc over the course of multiple issues. Did the series deliver on that?
I know that you have the time constraint, making a new episode each week in addition to your other projects, and making time to read several issues and writing a review of them is probably harder than just looking at one issue. But maybe a half-and-half thing would work? Half the episode about the first issue, and then ten minutes or whatever to more of the series and looking at how things improved or deteriorated after the first issue. You do kind of do this now and then, but it usually feels rushed.
Or even without looking at a series as a whole, maybe less "here's a plot hole, here's a piece of crappy art" and some more "This is why this character doesn't work" or "Here we see the character's actions are motivated more by plot necessity than actual characterization."
But like I said at the top, I'm probably in the minority preferring more critiquing to jokes.
Has anyone tried converting the numbers, not as whole lines but in the fragments they are broken in, into a sexigesimal system. It is the most likely thing that fits the Babylon mention.
ReplyDeleteTo anonymous above: I looked at the sexigesimal system and I can't make heads or tails of it. The problem I see with that is that the Babylonians did not have a symbol for zero, so the "world is at zero, six, and seven" line makes no sense in that context. But I could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteHere's my two cents worth for the puzzle: The letters under the numbers in order, with the spaces of which line they come from preserved, seems to yield little. I was hoping there'd be, like, one letter sticking out that was clearly a cipher transition to "a" or "e" in english, but it doesn't look like it. I found this handy online cipher site (http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/) that I threw some of the lines though to no avail yet. Don't have much time right now to try any other major things.
ReplyDeleteHere's my list (replace dashes with spaces where applicable):
0
to yh v tu or neast
1
dey mba heaexd eanwhh oyrde trmc
2
--rs het eu ono
3
rnr eee otsne bnr ovoo ti
4
en rdz--u utw
5
etu--oe okt min
6
psoe d twran lis is io
7
smh iet li e gl cf
8
rtn--is bnt alhr y
9
ip rmm--ya--an
uhm... ok Linkara 8D
ReplyDeleteI feel kinda bad when Later Stan Lee comics appear on the show... but only the later ones. Why? Because Stan Lee is an old dude and I just think to myself "aw, give him a break. He's old." XD but I'm not sure if that counts for the 2099 series yet.
Also.. Porcelain Bunny!!!
Great review! :D early 90s future is my favourite future.
Regarding Frank Miller vs. Stan Lee, forget what they brought to superhero comics, what about creators' rights, which is a subject near and dear to my heart. Frank was a huge advocate for creators' rights back in the 80s and 90s (and in a sense still is, regarding his involvement with the CBLDF), and I think he was the one of the people who petitioned Marvel to give Jack Kirby his original artwork back. Stan, by comparison, was legally bound from helping Kirby's situation, and back in the 60's, he called Arnold Drake a communist for wanting to unionize the industry. Granted, Stan had his owned problems with the industry and work-for-hire terms, but history paints a somewhat negative picture of him.
ReplyDeleteI suck at puzzles (couldn't get the entity one to save my life despite being a pokemon nerd), but I did have an idea.
ReplyDeleteAll the lines start with 0, 6, and 7. Maybe THAT is the order we read them in? The 0 lines, the 6, and then the 7? Or maybe, just ONE of each kind? The puzzle is a three-parter, the numbers are only one part. The sentences themselves are clues, but, I think, that means not all the lines actually matter...
Anyways, here are the sentences in order of number:
021 31896516986 5371 512 83021
the babylonians knew the truth
611 63274 82 13 4165 371 631 83056
the world is at zero, six, and seven (this one is useless to the rest of the poem).
6355431186 798 5964 71 073086
pretenders sit upon my throne
6 85 8130557 0320 1321 68347118
i am looking over your shoulder
72036240 46 4031 721 18 901090
continue to wait for my ascent
7 93179134 90 63170
i remember my death
Not sure if it makes any more sense, but to my tired brain, the order does fit better.
Just my two cents. And one more: Linkara did not mean for this to be super-hard... and definitely not for us to learn a new math system. If google can't help us, it probably isn't what he intended.
Also, of the searches, I think Black Ops or Bablyonian Math are the only two that remotely make sense.
Wow. Audi's "green police" commercial for the Super Bowl a few years ago had more consistency than this and was a lot more entertaining, too.
ReplyDeleteIt's just absolute nonsense that people would pollute for the sake of polluting.
God help me, in spite of how purely awful this comic is, it still holds a special place in my heart, as it was the first 2099 comic I'd ever seen. I agree with everyone who has classified it as "Entertainingly bad" wholeheartedly.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I never did understand what the point of the scene with Henton getting the massage was. He couldn't have scheduled it so that he would get to watch Paul-Phillip's "death" at a time when there wasn't someone else in the room? I mean, both the facts that he's evil and thinks of people as easily disposable had already been established between what he did to his assistant, and the fact that he was currently trying to kill Paul-Phillip. The fact that he decided that while he was watching Ravage "die" was the perfect time to get a massage just makes it seem like he either has terrible foresight, or he's just trying to create reasons to kill people, as if he wasn't already evil to the point of being borderline cartoony.
Besides, with how terrible the 2099 reality seems to be, I can't imagine that there are a lot of good masseuses around, so it seems like such a waste to schedule things so he "had" to kill her off. Now even fewer people will wanna rub the old guy's back.
Okay, kind of a longshot, but this wouldn't have anything to do with Marduk, the Babylonian deity would it?
ReplyDeleteAccording to Wikipedia, "The Marduk Prophecy is a text describing the travels of the Marduk idol from Babylon... Marduk prophecies that he will return once more to Babylon to a messianic new king, who will bring salvation to the city and who will wreak a terrible revenge on the Elamites."
That sounds kind of throne/Babylonian/ascension-y. You don't happen to have a Babylonian idol on that shelf do you? Because that is bad news. Anyone who's seen that Brady Bunch episode in Hawaii knows that you're not supposed to just keep whatever idol you feel like.
Of course I'm sure my guess is completely wrong.
Also, excellent review as always.
0
ReplyDeletetoyhvtukonaset
6
Poedtwranislsio
7
smhitlieglcf
better?
Bablyon 5: the pilot was called the gathering, Sinclair framed for killing a vorlon.
episode 6 was mind war..super telepath and the finding of the walkers on sigma 957
episode 7 was centaris in love and aliens getting branded by xenophobes.
looking into marduk prophecy later
Progress Report: Last night, around 12:30 AM, I made what some would consider a breakthrough but others would consider more gibberish. By adding 0+6+7, one gets 13.
ReplyDeleteCounting to the thirteen (starting on letter thirteen for the second run), I came up with the following: TEDDAAEMYCIT. Which I then rearranged to form the following: A CA TEDDY TIME. Or A CA TIME TEDDY, whichever.
Which of course means that the mastermind behind this letter is...
BEAR!
Yeah, I got some sleep and then realized that all of that is stupid. I'll be trying more theories as I find them.
Oh, also just had a thought. the Babylonians had no 'zero' but just a concept of nothingness, according to Wikipedia. I guess you could call that a MISSING NUMBER.
ReplyDelete6667070771067066767606
ReplyDeletepsomthoiebydthtwlriavn
0666706070067706007000
tliseuikgorslcnieafset
Fo others who care
Wow some people on this page suspect MissingNo's return other's say Bear did it. I am surprised not one person suspects Boffo. I mean we haven't seen him since before the Gunslinger Arc.
ReplyDelete@shanethefilmmaker: I don't actually think Bear did it. That was just a contrivance I got from working way too late.
ReplyDeleteWATCH THE SKIES. I AM COMING, LINKARA. CELEBRATE YOUR VICTORY WHILE YOU CAN. IT IS I WHO SEES ALL AND FINDS IT LACKING. BABYLON WILL FALL, CITY AND STATION. THE SUN IS YOUR ENEMY. WHAT CAN YOU DO? I'm sorry, Mommy. He comes, Lewis. He comes...The blazing one....Mar-AGGGHHH....
ReplyDeleteWell, it appears that if you are specifically looking for missingno in the numbers, marking down the letters of the name in order(meaning we ignore all i's until we come to the first M, this is what I came up with.
ReplyDeleteM I S S I N G N O
7 7 2 3 6 8 7 0 6
Which would leave the 2, the 3, and the 8, which wouldn't make any sense, however, if we are to take his name literally, there can be missing numbers(the entire basis of this hypothesis is that the answer is missingno, obviously)
Alternatively, if you are allowed to travel back in the equation, there is at least one of the 3 of 0, a 6, and a 7, to be found in correlation with missingno's name. Could be significant, maybe not.
I'm sure that 0, 6, and 7 are important somehow; however, saying "Zero, Six, and Seven" also seems like a contrived way to sneak in the letters, X, V, and Z. So if there is some kind of substitution code, which requires figuring out an alternate alphabet, perhaps this is where to start.
ReplyDeleteThough the numbers can't match up since there's repeats; I've taken the letters associated with 0, 6, and 7 but there's so many letters to make anagram word combinations from. So far I've got "SNOWFLAME, LORD VYCE, and HITLERS GHOST." At least one of those seems wrong.
Also, please tell me that the quote above ("THE SUN IS YOUR ENEMY" etc.) is a joke. There's 150 letters in there and the original puzzle has less than that.
God, I sure hope there's actually a solution to this and we aren't just being trolled. I would feel very foolish (but also amused). Though if the solution to this puzzle is followed through, it'll put AT4W at least one story arc point ahead of Steven Moffat, who has yet to explain the season 5 explosion. (And no, "The Silence did it at some point" is not an answer.)
"God, I sure hope there's actually a solution to this and we aren't just being trolled. I would feel very foolish (but also amused). Though if the solution to this puzzle is followed through, it'll put AT4W at least one story arc point ahead of Steven Moffat, who has yet to explain the season 5 explosion. (And no, "The Silence did it at some point" is not an answer.)"
ReplyDeleteI can assure you that there is indeed an answer and some people have been on the right track in their thinking while others hvae not.
And even if the puzzle isn't solved by the fans, it WILL be revealed on the show when the time is right. ^_^
This is simple, Lewis. The others should have thought of it sooner. The little message is a warning. The numbers represent a line like the letters are arranged in. It has something to do with Ancient Astronauts.
ReplyDelete"And even if the puzzle isn't solved by the fans, it WILL be revealed on the show when the time is right. ^_^"
ReplyDeleteAnd when that time comes, I'm going to feel really stupid, especially since I have spent three days on it and have come up with a bunch of gibberish concerning everyone from Lord Vyce to Spoony.
Got the non-lettered numbers down. Wrong, most likely. Curse my obsession with conspiracy theories!
ReplyDelete6355431186 798 5964 71 073086
PRETENDERS SIT UPON MY THRONE(Reference to the new beliefs conquering the Babylonians and the aliens.
7 93179134 90 63170
I REMEMBER MY DEATH(One of the aliens has a grudge.)
611 63274 82 13 4165 371 631 83056
THE WORLD IS AT ZERO SIX AND SEVEN(Possibly a year?)
021 31896516986 5371 512 83021
THE BABYLONIANS KNEW THE TRUTH(In reference to aliens's nature.)
6 85 8130557 0320 1321 68347118
I AM LOOKING OVER YOUR SHOULDER(The Entity is not what it claims to be.)
72036240 46 4031 721 18 901090
CONTINUE TO WAIT FOR MY ASCENT(They're coming, basically.)
It's been bugging me this whole time, the line "THE WORLD IS AT..."
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell does that mean? Then I thought, the only comparable phrase is... "The world is at your fingertips." Could this mean that the key to the code is our keyboard itself? I've heard of that being done before. (And, our computers/webcams are looking over our shoulders, just from the front direction.) Perhaps this cryptic message isn't meant for Linkara, it's meant for us, the lovely viewers at home.
I was wrong, I'll admit. This new Entity story arc is going to be fun. But if my first theory is right...I swear....
ReplyDeleteOkay, so possible breakthrough. In meticulously analyzing this code (because I spend my free time wisely), I noticed a repeat in characters:
ReplyDeleteThe sequence 118 appears twice, each time matching with the letters DER.
I don't know what this means yet.
Also, we've been looking at the items on the shelf to see who's looking over the shoulder, but since thrones are mentioned in the puzzle... could it be the futon itself?! Best story arc ever. "Death Futon, the Futon that Eats!"
I additionally discovered that if you hit shift while typing 067 you get )^& which is clearly a crabby Linkara face. You can also add a } hat for full effect: )^&}
That one's on me.
@The Dragoon
ReplyDeletePerhaps it means RED?
If DER is indeed Red, Then possibly that refers to the Trainer. The Entity/Missingno is only catchable in Red/Blue. Therefore, the Entity lives and we're all targets.
ReplyDeleteOk, if we can turn DER/118 backwards, try the rest and see if we get something meaningful.
ReplyDeleteMadman, the Entity is dead. Please move on.
ReplyDeleteI remember my death... eegads!!! It's the Nostalgia Critic!!!!
ReplyDeleteThere is no punctuation in it, except for in the line about the world being at zero, six, and seven.
ReplyDeleteThe comma placement is unnatural, leads me to believe 0,6,7 may be co-ordinates, though in relation to what I have no idea.
Even if not I still think the commas are relevant somehow.
Fine, if it ain't the Entity....It's something on the same scale.
ReplyDelete@madmanjohnson: I've tried turning is backwards and got nothing.
ReplyDelete@Sol137: I've put the coordinates into Google and came out in the Atlantic Ocean. If you have a Pokemon Red/Blue game, please try it because I am at my wit's end.
@Craig
ReplyDeleteThen why does he have the Absent Grimoire on the shelf? Plus, the Entity is a Outer God,a mindless blasphemy from outside of the power of us to understand, much less kill.
Maybe 0,6,7 could be co-ordinates in space? I know it's a little on the nose but "the world is at" could refer to a planet besides Earth.
ReplyDeleteMaybe there is some Babylonian mythology of another world, or Earth? Seems a bit of a stretch though.
Assuming that the Babylonians being referenced are in no way related to Babylon 5 (weren't their space stations with other numbers in that show?) and is in fact about the Babylonian people, the connection could be the hanging garden of Babylon.
ReplyDeleteIt was a wonder of the ancient world in part because of the Babylonian system of engineering which allowed them to raise water up from the ground. The last line "wait for my ascent" could be about the water ascending through the system.
You may have noticed I'm grasping at straws on this lol.
Anu was god of the sky in Babylonian mythology, which could relate to "wait for my ascent".
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking bout that sentence with numbers... and thought that maybe the numbers could reference a review of comics numbered 0 6 and 7... but couldn't find an episode with a #6 issue that wasn't part of a multi-part review (like Battle for Bludhaven) and the only #7 i found was the Youngblood #3 and Doctor Who #7 review. Still not giving up though!
ReplyDeleteIn each line there is a missing number. In the first line there aren't any 2's. In line 2 there aren't any 2's, 5's or 8's. In line 3 there aren't any 9's. In line 4 there aren't any 4's. In line five there aren't any 9's. In line 6 there aren't any 5's.
ReplyDeleteNow with that being said in each line there is at least one 0, 1, 3, 6, and 7.
My first thought is that in each line there is a "missing number." aka MissingNo. But right now that's all I have.
I'll give it a try...
ReplyDeletePRETENDERS SIT UPON MY THRONE = The Futon will be given a backstory involving Chrissie Hynde.
I REMEMBER MY DEATH = In a stunning revelation no one saw coming, Moarte will be revealed to be Harvey Finevoice's lost son.
THE WORLD IS AT ZERO SIX AND SEVEN = Reviews of Youngblood issues 0, 6, and 7 will feature the conclusion of the next arc.
THE BABYLONIANS KNEW THE TRUTH = The truth was, that Ancient Egypt is evil. This will introduce Linkara's new recurring character, Egyptian-Style Walker.
I AM LOOKING OVER YOUR SHOULDER = Snowflame, whose picture currently is over Linkara's shoulder, will be revealed to be the next big bad for the show.
CONTINUE TO WAIT FOR MY ASCENT = This is just an ad for Brute deodorant. Linkara has to resort to in-show commercials now.
The Number mystery reminds me of Gravity Falls end of the show codes. I think that Pollo suit could be used somehow, because its also over Linkara's shoulder and somethings can move without the power needed to,at least that's the case when it comes to ghosts or other supernatural stuff . I think that whatever is possessing Nimue is the one that the numbers are referring to because the poem or letter combines numbers with human speech and it comes off as unnatural in the way its written. I'm confident that all will be revealed in due time. As for the comic, its Shtako and this month puts me in a mood to watch future cartoons, Motorcity and Batman Beyond.
ReplyDeleteThe comment Linkara highlighted at the beginning of the video was asinine. The commenter's attempt to be passive agrressive and insult Linkara was pretty low.
ReplyDeleteJust because Frank Miller has written some amazing comics in the past does not mean he instantly get a "free pass" on any ridiculous, bad, or retarded comics he makes. It doesn't work like that. Having created good things doesn't erase the bad, especially when the bad is so offensively bad.
Also, just because Linkara criticizes unnecessarily scantily clad drawn women doesn't mean he is intimidated by the nude female form. It means he is pointing out it's pointless for Black Canary's hips to be cocked sideways while standing straight, or for any other women to have her cleavage spilling out for no reason. If you're the kind of horndog who'll drool at that easily, fine. But there's times when it's sexy, and times when it's excessive.
"I will say that ONE of the things above is on the right track, but not entirely. It’s a misstep that a lot of people are missing and only a few have considered (though I haven’t seen them apply it to the other steps)." -Linkara's tumblr page.
ReplyDeleteWell now my brain's in overdrive. One of the things listed before that statement is mostly right and must be applied to all three steps.
This could mean that every line, not just the shoulder line, corresponds to one of the things/dudes on the shelves. So Nimue or Pollo might be looking over the shoulder, but another dude on the shelf might have a throne or want to ascend.
OR it could mean that the prevailing numerical analysis is slightly off in a consistent way. It's apparently supposed to simple...
Well, in keeping with that, I've taken the letters under 0, 6, and 7 (0:TOYHVTUKORNEAST, 6: PSOEDTWRANLISISIO , 7: SMHIETLIEGLCF) and rearranged them ad nauseam until I discovered a most revealing message...
"LORD VYCE WILL RISE AGAIN TO FINISH SMOOTHEST KEPT STOUT."
Huh. I didn't know Vyce was a fan of dark beer. Go figure.
Every letter is represented at least once, with the exception of Q. Can't see that being relevant though tbh.
ReplyDeleteUnless the next story arc is going to involve "god" from star trek 5, can't see it being that either.
@dragoon: I've been rearranging those letters for a day and a half and have gotten several answers of that sort. The one I submitted (and that amused our good Mr. Lovhaug most) was "Atop the Fourth Wall is mine. Get lost or die. Kiss Vyce." Needless to say, that was incorrect and these letters can be arranged to tell you almost anything. I think we're still missing a step.
ReplyDeleteI've been puzzling a bit on the number puzzle. I came up with a message of two sentences. Admittedly, the first makes more sense than the second, but it's just a try for fun :P
ReplyDeleteNIMUE'S RED EYE IS WATCHING ALL.
TO STOP HER, VISIT FOLKSOT.
So, what is the.... What is FOLKSOT? XD
@Weckar
ReplyDeleteA planet?
@weckar: Or a place in Jaeris's world...
ReplyDeleteI've been working on a theory, I don't know if anybody knows, but the Babylonians came up with the concept of zero, but more importantly, they considered zero more of a symbol for the absence of a number (a missing number so to speak.)
ReplyDeleteSo, I've been trying to treat any letter corresponding with zero more as a placeholder for a letter that I could replace with another letter if need be. I haven't had much progress, but I'm just putting that idea out there so other people can know.
" Craig said...
ReplyDeleteMadman, the Entity is dead. Please move on."
There's no possible way that I REMEMBER MY DEATH could reference a believed-dead character like the Entity. None at all.
@Julie: Could FOLKSOT be the name of Jaeris' world? Or did Linkara already name Jaeris' world?
ReplyDelete@dilbert719: What would be the point of bringing the Entity back? Wouldn't that be simply a re-hash of the original Missingno story arc, since he'd just start absorbing people into himself like before?
ReplyDeleteThe Entity storyline was cool and I enjoyed it, especially the ending but there's really nowhere else to go with it in my opinion.
I don't think that world has been named. It was said that Jaeris used a different system to catalog the worlds he visited than Linkara does. Linkara uses a letter-number system (eg Earth-4W) and I think I just had a brainwave, though I could be very, very wrong. Anyway, FOLKSOT could be an acronym or a system Jaeris uses...
ReplyDeleteThinking more on this...
ReplyDeleteI do think it might be referencing Vice. One is the throne (taken from some clever Tumblr bloke) and two is the death. Three is over your shoulder. Guys, remember how Vice was in Pollo's body? What is on that shelf? Pollo's body.
Maybe he won't do this... but we do know this: It has to do with the Ghost in a Machine storyline. Keeping that in mind...
We know Nimue is involved. We know she is possessed. We know a Ghost is involved. Thus we know the line 'I remember my death' is important. We know that whatever is the Ghost isn't human fully, or it wouldn't go after nimue, but instead one of the cast. Some machine.
We can assume that Linkara won't repeat himself though. The entity is dead, and to bring that back seems, to me, to be silly. Besides, it wouldn't go all Hall 2000 on Nimue, that isn't it's nature. I think that's out. Vice had the storyline before last, so it seems too close to repeat him. Mechakara might fit...
One thing we need to remember is that this is a new storyline, based off of a show/comic/etc. All of them were. (I still don't know who the Gunslinger was, but whatever). That means it can't be the same style as previous villains. This does seem to be a 2001 style- I swear Nimue is Hal- which begs the question: does anything here fit it, or no? Or what does the puzzle fit?
And also: one of the guesses was close, not completely accurate, but close. They were:
Islam (I HIGHLY doubt Linkara would risk that)
Black Ops II (I doubt he plays that- but a fan of the game could aye or nay it)
Catherine the Great
and
Bablyonian math.
He also said it was ON wikipedia what we needed. Now, I doubt its Catherine the Great, or Russian, or a monarch. Too broad a subject. So Babylonian Math. BUT, it ISN'T that, but something RELATED. More likely, and taking the line 'the Babylonians were correct' that means something from Babylon is what it is. But not the math system. And its on wiki.
So Babylon, Nimue, a Ghost, a prediction or assumtion. How or where do all those intersect. It can't be too obscure, and it isn't Bablyon 5 (twitter confirmation).
Wait a minute... 6*7... its 42. Remember, of old Hitchhiker Lore?
Grr. We are all overthinking this, and I mean badly. Linkara made it easy, not hard.
*sigh* I am rambling and just bouncing ideas off to anyone smarter than me.
One other thing. Linkara mentioned on Tumblr (or GIF'ed, rather)that we were seeing patterns that weren't there- right after the Vyce comment. But he could be meaning, overall, that we are overthinking it.
And one of us has solved it. Who, I have no idea. But guys, I would re-read the comments. If we can figure out who's right, we can find the answer.
"Maybe he won't do this... but we do know this: It has to do with the Ghost in a Machine storyline. Keeping that in mind..."
ReplyDeleteWhat makes you think that? ^_~
Oh God, this is for the next storyline, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI'm at my wit's end, Lewis. I have lost a whole work week on this and I'm no closer to figuring this out. Is there any more light you can shed on this without giving up too much, or do we just have to keep at it?
"I'm at my wit's end, Lewis. I have lost a whole work week on this and I'm no closer to figuring this out. Is there any more light you can shed on this without giving up too much, or do we just have to keep at it?"
ReplyDeleteAll I will say is that most people are on the right track, but they've missed a step.
"BE SURE TO DRINK YOUR OVALTINE"
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell? That can't be right. Oh well, back to the drawing board...
I was wondering when someone would make the Ovaltine joke.
ReplyDeleteGive doug's slip of the tounge last year when he was auctioning stuff and metioned you were going to use Malacite's hand in your story arc (which you corrected to me on twitter as the NEXT storyline) I'd like to guess...
ReplyDelete1) It MIGHT have to do with Malacite's hand of some way
2) It might have the return of Mechakara since he was NEARBY when Comicron One showed up before he blew up and he has been able ot jump into other machines
3) What DID happen tO malacite's hand in the first place? was it left in the critic's house? Did Mechakara still have it? That's a BIG question that's clearly left in Lewis's hand!
Looking at all of the letters that appear with the numbers "zero, six, and seven" above them, that gives us:
ReplyDeleteAA
C
D
EEEEE
F
G
H
IIII
K
LLL
M
NN
OOOO
P
RR
SSSSS
TTTTT
U
V
W
X
Y
This is actually a fairly realistic graph of how often letters will appear in a sentence, leading me to agree with the people that think this is an anagram.
Unfortunately, an anagram solver did nothing, so it's likely that it includes names like "Linkara" "Vyce" "Nimue" "Pollo" etc. which aren't real words.
If it does include "Missingno", then it cannot include either "Nimue" or "Linkara". If it includes "Entity" then it cannot include "Vyce" and it cannot include BOTH "Linkara" and "Nimue", but it can include just one of the two.
So I'm guessing that The Entity will not be involved.
Also "Magic Gun" cannot be included, as there is only one G.
And "Margaret" cannot be included if "Linkara" is included.
The other thing that has me complexed is the fact that there's only one H when "The" is the most commonly used word in the English language. The word "The" must only appear once, if it appears at all.
Actually, there are two H's and two N's, so you can have Nimue and Linkara.
ReplyDeleteThere are two H's. One in the first line under 7 and the other in the second line under 0.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a weird tidbit I got from Googling: both "World" and "Death" are the names of Tarot cards. "Tower" is also one, maybe there's a Tower of Babel connection. And there's Emperor and Empress if we're talking about thrones. Now I doubt that's helpful, but I figured it was worth a mention.
Have to say, googling things like 'Babylon,' 'truth' and 'death' has lead me to some weird radical political/religious fringe sites, which I'm sure are not the intention. Hopefully I don't end up on the FBI watchlist. It'll be hard to explain.
@dragoon: "Yes, Agent, I was looking at these extremist sites because a comic book reviewer gave me a puzzle that was supposed to be easy and ended up driving a good number of nerds insane."
ReplyDeleteHaving taken a considerable break and coming back with fresh eyes, I decided to skip the cryptology for the time being and focus on googling and wikipedia-ing the crap out of the clues... and I think I've found a theme:
ReplyDeleteLucifer. The Devil.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer
He's referred to as the King of Babylon, who is dead and being taunted. At one point he said "'I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God." So that could be the "ascent" we're supposed to wait for. Also, he's the devil on the shoulder, that classic saying.
I'm not sure how this ties in with the code and cryptology yet. And that's assuming I'm onto something.
So, is Nimue possessed by the Devil? That would be epic. And still preferable to Windows 8.
@Dragoon
ReplyDeleteThe tower is from the Major Arcana, not used as part of any game and is right after the devil. It can stand for Chaos, crisis, disillusion and downfall. Foreshadowing much? The fact that is not part of any game and is number 16 makes it....A missing number.
Could this be a return of...SNOWFLAME?!
ReplyDeleteFunny, the devil is right before the tower in the Major Arcana. The tower of Babel was also a attempt to ascend to the heavens,tying the two together.
ReplyDeleteIn researching Babylonian mathematics, I learned that the Babylonian syllogism has to do with square roots. Maybe we should square (ie, repeat) all the letters under 0, 6, and 7? That would give us a lot to work with...
ReplyDelete@Julie Paulson
ReplyDeleteThis is supposed to be easy,not squaring the entire thing. Try it anyway,though.Also,a little list of AT4W Major Arcana parallels since I keep finding them everywhere.
Linkara-The Magician,The Hierophant,The Devil,Justice,The Chariot
The Entity-The Tower,The Devil,Temperance
Lord Vyce-The Emperor,The Chariot, The Magician
If we take only the words beginning with numbers 0,6 or 7 then we have:
ReplyDeletepretenders sit my throne I death the world and the I over shoulder continue for
Can anyone make a sentence out of that?
Well going along with my Devil/Lucifer theory I developed using the clues and extensive wiki-ing, I naturally turned my focus to the number 6, since the number of the beast is 666. So that's when I noticed... three of the six lines start with 6, 6, and 6. And they alternate. Hmm...
ReplyDeleteTaking the letters associated from 6 from only those three lines, I got the letters "PSOETWRANIS" and when rearranged, I got a phrase:
"SNOW PIRATES"
It's kind of a weird result, and doesn't have much to do with the devil (outside of piracy being bad), but Snowflame is on the shelf. What has Snowflame been up to? Has he really resorted to piracy? And if so, can we really be surprised?
It may well be that this answer isn't right, given that it's so short and vague, and I still have no idea what the zero/six/seven thing was about. But, I'm proud I could rearrange a message with no remainder letters. Of course with my luck, I was supposed to eliminate the 6-based letters, so my answer is possibly the exact opposite of correct.
Also, I have no idea what Linkara would do with just the vague hint of "Snow Pirates." Perhaps "Snow Pirates" is some kind of hip 2090's slang. SEWING MACHINE!
Or maybe it's the catalyst to a bigger reveal. See: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kvno0dMAui1qad2h9o1_500.gif
@The Dragoon.
ReplyDeleteGood catch there. I tried to do the same with taking zero and seven letters only from lines beginning with them but couldn't connect it. For 0 you end up with "t u" and for 7 it's "C I E F T"
Blip is trying too counter Ad-Block, well, sorry louis, going too youtube.
ReplyDelete"The comment Linkara highlighted at the beginning of the video was asinine."
ReplyDeleteIt's also a big enough block of text to be relevant to the puzzle. Just a thought.
@Anon
ReplyDeleteWATCH THE ADS.
@Dragoon
ANY? Not much of a reveal.
@datasnake: Unless the big reveal is that Frank Miller is the next villain-- unlikely-- probably not.
ReplyDeleteGrr linkara, you ARE annoying. I know you have said somewhere that Ghost in the Machine is next... or was it His Blue Soul? Dang, I forget. Other commenters, do you remember?
ReplyDelete@Julie Paulson: Awesome as that would be (maybe a Millerized version of the supporting cast, e.g. "the goddamn 90s kid"), I was thinking more of it being useful as the key in a polyalphabetic cypher. Unfortunately, my internet connection is currently too slow to load anything more elaborate than text or still images, so I can't check at the moment.
ReplyDelete@Wildstar
ReplyDeleteHis Blue Soul was the arc that had Vyce taking over Pollo....which means....Ghost in the Machine is next.
@Julie
The next likely big bad is the Entity seeing as how Vyce took over Pollo and Vyce is now similar to the Entity.
@datasnake: I looked back at that comment and it's a little too innocuous to really be useful in the code. The highlighted segment says that Frank Miller deserves a free pass and is equal to Jack Kirby. If it is relevant, I can't see it.
ReplyDelete@madmanjohnson: I know about the next storyline, but this message isn't necessarily about that. Remember how the Entity poem showed up in the Vyce arc about a year before the Entity was even mentioned? I have a feeling it's something like that and Nimue isn't involved in this message.
But I think Vyce is.
Though upon thinking about it more, Frank Miller as an answer makes sense.
ReplyDelete"Pretenders sit upon my throne" refers to the young upstarts like Linkara who dislike his work and have thus overthrown him.
"I remember my death" is Sin City and the fact that he hasn't stopped writing it.
"The world is at zero, six, and seven" I don't know about, since I actually don't know much about Frank Miller that didn't come from AT4W or Wikipedia.
"The Babylonians knew the truth" references the fact that Miller lives in Babylon, New York.
"I am looking over your shoulder"-- I'm pretty sure there's at least one of his comics on that shelf.
"Continue to wait for my ascent" means he'll start writing good stuff again. Maybe.
I know this theory is completely ridiculous and not at all right, but I thought it was funny.
@Julie
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Vyce was defeated 2 storylines ago kinda excludes him from the running. Plus, the fact that both Vyce and the entity are Data Entitys implies they have similar powers. This includes possession of machines such as Pollo or Nimue who just happens to be hooked to a powerful superweapon.
@madmanjohnson: How many time has Mechakara died so far? And Vyce wasn't defeated, he was just sent to the other side of the universe. He'll get back to earth eventually. I wouldn't count him out yet.
ReplyDeleteIf it is an Entity-esque plot (and Lewis did say in the commentary that he has an idea for a sequel to that plot), it won't be MissingNo because MissingNo is dead. But there could be other Eldrich abomination-type monsters out there, so... maybe?
Hey Linkara, I have a question/idea for a review in the future. Is it possible if you could do a review of a Deadpool comic? It is ok if you say no. If yes, I would be happy to provide with a comic of Deadpool that is bad.
ReplyDelete@Julie
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Tropes, The Irate Gamer Wiki is trying to do a Parody Retcon so I'm trolling them. Also, the entity-like creature could be a inspiration for babylonian gods.
@MadManJohnson: I don't know about the Irate Gamer wiki, nor do I particularly care since I've never actually watched the show, but that sounds like fun.
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point about Entities and Babylonian gods. I am somewhat inclined to agree with this interpretation, but I still can't find the full message. I am going to take a break from this until I have further information, either from the show itself or by challenging the good Mr. Lovhaug to a game of Twenty Questions via Twitter. Whichever comes first.
If it is an Entity-esque plot, I'd wager that Missingno itself is dead, but there are other/similar of its kind, namely... 'M.
ReplyDeleteHave to say, I'm honestly stumped. I know this puzzle's meant to be easy, and I know I'll kick myself when the answer is revealed, but even given the hints, I have no way of knowing if I'm on the right track or not. Apparently someone's "desperately close" but that doesn't help.
The 0/6/7 stuff is driving me crazy. This is supposed to be easy, and I know there's some trick to it all that likely involves the lefthand column somehow. The thing is there's too many associated letters to unscramble... that is, unless the message is in order and we're supposed to cross out certain letters...
I'll keep working on this, and hopefully it isn't revealed tomorrow. I'm having a blast working on it. (Though one more teensy hint would go a long way.)
I still have my fingers crossed that Bear's involved. He's up to something, and I've been curious to know what his deal is for some time. He is "looking over Linkara's shoulder" and might view the futon as "his" throne.
But if the message pertains the "Ghost of the Machine" arc, we're likely dealing with Nimue and/or Moarte. When Linkara said someone was desperately close and technically had the answer without getting the steps, my first thought was that the "Moarte is Harvey's son" theory was what he was talking about.
Or, since it's from the future, the message could be from/about Snowflame 2099!
I realize I'm casting a wide net with these scattershot theories, but I like to hedge my bets.
Ok, Long shot here. I when in sequence of zero six and seven over the message and got these letters.. skipping ones not in sequence:
ReplyDeleteTEI
YDT
HTL
VNE
UIG
OSL
NOF
and the sentence I made was:
Entity LIves Do NOT HUG LF
also last three lines start with zero six and seven.. and looking up babylonia astrology they would often let prophecies play out by letting the KIng have a substitute like HOLOKARA was. they also believed in a sun centered universe and planets being round. hope this helps someone better at this than me.
A few things I've tried:
ReplyDeleteAdding 0,6,7 respectively to each of their words. I got real excited to see "VY", then it turned to gibberish.
Adding the next number to each of the 067 characters: Gibberish.
I noticed that WORLD can be spelled out of characters marked with 067, but that's not enough to do anything.
Lewis keeps saying we're missing something, and I feel like it can't be right to just ignore the non-067 characters. I'm going to try a bunch of ways of adding the non-067 numbers to the 067 characters and see if anything comes out of it.
My best new idea for the riddle from the last episode is about the shoulder, Holokara was based from Linkara's shoulder, and I don't think he really got enough attention as a villain, maybe Lewis is bringing him back? I should try and figure out if I can connect it to the rest.
ReplyDelete@Ninety-Three
ReplyDelete"Lewis keeps saying we're missing something, and I feel like it can't be right to just ignore the non-067 characters. I'm going to try a bunch of ways of adding the non-067 numbers to the 067 characters and see if anything comes out of it."
Your name is really Ninety-Three? Or is that you, Lewis, giving us a secret hint under a false name? I have to ask.
I had an idea. The line about the three numbers has been bothering me because of the commas. I think that there is a number missing and that is why there is an extra comma than there should be. After the 'six,' I think there should be another number before the 'and'
ReplyDeleteOtherwise the 'world' would have to be at three different "locations", being zero, six, and seven.
I have no idea how to figure out which number is missing though.
So I may have made a potential breakthrough. In analyzing not just the letters of the riddle, but the items on Linkara's shelf, the thought occurred that perhaps what is looking over his shoulder is not a traditional character at all. Perhaps early assertions that a Missingno-esque event would take place were correct... so I began focus my attention on the Absent Grimoire, sitting inconspicuously next to Pollo.
ReplyDeleteSo I examined the riddle closely, and utilizing my extensive skills and knowledge of magic, folklore, Lovecraftian otherworldly horror, and wiki-ing the crap out of things until something stuck by sheer dumb luck, I came to several realizations:
1. The letters of the fourth line can be rearranged, in part, to form the word ABSENT.
2. The letters of the fifth line can be rearranged, in part, to form the word GRIMOIRE.
3. Now here's the clever bit. I'm proud of this one, even if it turns out to be utter crap. Using related terminology and my powers of anagramology, I was able to rearrange the letters of the sixth line, in part, to form the word NECRONOMICON. Right? You're welcome.
4. Considering the demonology/ magic theme we're going with, although the word NIMUE can be made from the letters in the first line, my working theory is that the letters of the first line can, in part, be rearranged to form the word MEPHISTO. The plot thickens.
So that's a start. What does that have to do with the numbers? Smeg if I know, but in my research of grimoires I came across a prominent one known as The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses. So that's cool. Not sure where the Zeroth book ended up, though as Mel Brooks has shown, Moses does have a tendency to drop important writings.
So if I'm right (who knows), this will hopefully enable me and other followers of this dark endeavor to solve the Mystery of the 2099 Riddle.
I do have some tentative ideas and theories, however:
1. I acknowledge I'm supposed to work forwards and not backwards. So while I don't know how these words relate to the letters or numbers, I did notice that the word NECRONOMICON does not include the numbers 4, 5, or 8. However, GRIMOIRE above does definitely include a 5 for one of the I's, so either 5's are allowed (no 5's are on the last line after all), or the standard changes each line. So my thought is maybe 4's and 8's are meant to be crossed out? There are no 4's or 8's required for any of the four aforementioned words.
2. Pollo (or at least a body) is sitting immediately next to the Absent Grimoire. But Nimue's a little too close for comfort too (NIMUE is a word that can be found in the first line after all, though I still think it's MEPHISTO). Either way, when demonic books and technology get too close you end up with that Season 1 Buffy episode with Moloch in the computer. Bad stuff.
3. If my theory is correct, it may well be that each line represents only one word, so perhaps that's how we should go about it. I could be wrong, and I'm still holding out for complete sentences. Otherwise we'll end up with MEPHISTO ANGRY! NECRONOMICON SMASH! But so far my theorized translation is:
MEPHISTO...
????
???? ('NEXT'?)
ABSENT
GRIMOIRE
NECRONOMICON
4. If the Absent Grimoire relates to Missingno, then perhaps the MEPHISTO line connects to Missingno's "sister" glitch Pokemon, 'M. So perhaps 'M is short for 'Mephisto. Indeed, they're obtained the exact same way in Pokemon Red/Blue while being different Pokemon. So that's a thought. Of course it I'm right and 'M rears its ugly head, according to Bulbapedia, if Linkara captures 'M somehow and transfers it to Pokemon Yellow, it'll turn into a 3TrainerPoké $. That's just science.
So that's my major contribution for the day. I'll follow through with this, and if I'm right, I'll figure out how it tracks back to the numbers and sentences.
Probably nothing but 067 is the pokedex number for machoke Machoke in Kanto. I know.. can't be this easy but he does love him some pokemon
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteKanto soon glitches overt idle film thy rips us it
all letters over 067
using letters under each number to form words
You can also make Comicron One from the 6th line.
ReplyDelete@Springfieldzombie you're missing 4 letters there, should be 45 letters corresponding to 0,6 and 7.
ReplyDelete"Your name is really Ninety-Three? Or is that you, Lewis, giving us a secret hint under a false name? I have to ask."
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's my default internet handle. A little awkward when commenting on such a numbers-based puzzle.
Anyway, I made a script that takes each 067 letter and then does every possible combination of adding/subtracting (0,6 or 7 as appropriate; all the numbers until the next 067, the next 067 as well) and that just spat out sixteen different lines of gibberish.
I'm going at this from pretty much a pure codebreaking perspective, with little knowledge of AT4W lore, though given the immensely varied speculation in this thread, I don't think that'd help much anyway. I do mean to keep working on it, as soon as I have another idea, or get really bored and try to write a complicated program to brute force solve it.
Glitch See Film World A Spies Ion Its
ReplyDeleteKanto Overt Thy Us
@Sol137
ReplyDelete"You can also make Comicron One from the 6th line."
Yeah, that does make more sense. Good call.
So I've been working on that, along with theorized words in other lines, and I'm come to the working theory that the numbers 4, 8, and 9 get crossed out, and possibly 5 but I'm not sure yet.
Considering that, I was also able to rearrange the letters in the first line, in part, to form the words MORPHER or even YOUR MORPHER(S). And technically there's a Morpher is on the shelf. Perhaps it's sentient? We've been looking at Pokemon... but maybe a Power Rangers analysis is due?
Obviously the "I'm looking over your shoulder" part is refering to Snowflame. BECAUSE SNOWFLAME WATCHES YOU READ.
ReplyDeleteWait..Who wrote EVERYONE IS GONE in the Absent Grimoire? The Entity wrote the IAMTHENEVERSHOULD so it's not it's writing....Maybe the same person wrote the message in this episode?
ReplyDelete"YOu deserved it Linkara, the ascention of the ordinary man. ICU, ICU ICU always"
ReplyDeletemessages left on other 2099 reviews starting with Wild Thing. anyone checked this out to see if it is part of it?
HK VALIYARD NIMUE CONTROLS STOP SET IT GHOST LIFE WISE
ReplyDeleteletters under 067
I think you solved it
DeleteI think I might have something. When I counted the from the starting letter of each line, by the number that appeared over it, (7:I, 6:T, 0:T, 6:I, 7:C), I got DELTKE. I put that into an anagram solver, and got back Deltek, which is some sort of software company that can get government contracts. This may be a stretch, but could this have something to do with the answer, Mr. Lovhaug?
ReplyDeleteI think the missing step is in what order the lettrs go in or figuring out the cipher
ReplyDelete