Electric Jesus

Antique ammo crate + gilded brass spray paint = sick Max Ammo prop. I couldn’t believe how photoshopped this looked.

Honestly, the way Treyarch ends each zombies season is pretty much the same. It reminds me of when a show gets picked up by a network, so they write a full season, but they don’t know until it airs whether or not there’s going to be a season 2. So they end up having to make the season 1 finale something “reasonably conclusive” so that it’s a satisfying ending in case they don’t get another season, while still leaving it open for continuation. So like, at the end of Moon everyone thought the story was over. Oh snap, no more earth. But then woop nope, we didn’t destroy the ENTIRE earth. Then origins came around, and we were like “oh snap, we were all dolls, the story is just in a kid’s mind, the story’s over.” Then it turns out that’s not the case. then Revelations rolls around and we literally see the title card “The End.” And it was kinda marketed as the end of zombies. Then lo and behold, aether continued. I genuinely think that like, on the back end of things, Treyarch are pretty much obligated to soft-end the story every single time, and they end up having to make the story larger the next year to re-contextualize that “ending” to continue the story.

So here’s the thing: Dempsey is low-key the main character of the whole series. Throughout all of WaW / Black Ops 1, although Richtofen is the main driving force behind plot events, the “relatable” character is Dempsey. The player has the same amount of information as Dempsey on what the grand scheme is. Both the player and Dempsey “have amnesia” or don’t really know why they’re going to these various places, or why they’re helping Richtofen, and you learn plot developments at the same time as Dempsey. Clearly the audience doesn’t have the same level of knowledge as Richtofen, so you default to identifying with the other 3 members of Ultimis, and frankly Dempsey’s the American in a very America-centric franchise. It’s like in the book “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest.” Basically the “main character” of the book is a guy called MacMurphy, but the actual book is written from the perspective of a more minor character “Chief” who barely ever talks and is pretty much just observing MacMurphy. The same thing is going on here, where Richtofen is “the most important character,” but Dempsey is US. In case it never clicked for some of you, the Dempsey action figure is notably absent from the Origins end cutscene. That’s because the cutscene is “filmed” from the POV of Dempsey’s action figure’s eyes. Additionally, after they teleport to the mound in the Revelations end cutscene, the final shot is the camera pulling back and zooming out from Dempsey’s eyes.

1. The One 2. Coming Home 3. Mad Hatter 4. Cold Hard Cash 5. Lullaby 6. Rusty Cage 7. We All Fall Down 8. Pareidolia

Ẏ̢̝̬͎̯͖͈̹̄̒͂̚͞oͩ͏͈̪̺̪͈́u̍̉̒̃̆҉̹̻̘̩͡r̵̫͙̩ͪͪ͆ͮ̆͌̓͠͠ ̽̏̃̂̚͟͟͏̪̞̜̦̥̣̬s̬͓̙̤̥̻̑̓̃͛͢i̡̪̺͍ͪͤ̿̌́̌͐ͅn͎̻͓̒̂͑̉̇̆̃̿̀ś͉͍͇̜͍̦̤ͦ̊̇ͣͫ͛͒̈́ͅ ̙̱̺͍̭ͫ̔͊ͪ͋s̥͈̟ͥ̔̉͑ͦ́ͭ̀ͯ͟e̴̲͕̓̐͡ṛ̷̮̘̺̭ͣ̉ͥ͑ͬ͠v̢̦͔̜͉͈͖̯̮̊̀̿ͬͦ̎͒ͤ͘e̘͆͑ͣ̀ͮ̏́ ̶̘͙̣ͥ͌͆̓̇̄̿̕o̢̯͙ͭ̓̇ͮ͒̽̓ͤ̿́n̸̢̻͉̗̤̻͆̽l̦̞͗͝͞͞ͅÿ̷͓̲̱̤̮̙̭̰̔ ̶̷͋͋͊ͥ͏̟͖̭̼a̷̛̟̤̣̖̗̩̭͉ͪ̈́̽̍̊́s̞̬̅̄̋͗̇̽̔̋͡ ̬̬̞̘̅ͫ͆́̔a̔̽̉̄̋ͮ̇̈́҉̟̜͚̗͎͓n̓͂ͬ҉̻̖̫̭̺̠̼̘ ̼̯̠͉̞͙͚̤̘ͯi̳̱͍̙̩͎̥̓ͤ̓̾͂ͫ̌̅͜ṇ̣̮̱̝̤̃̑ͭ̋̌͘͡v̬͔̻̝̰͇̄ͤ̂͗̅͘͝i̜͎ͦ̊̅̏͌̿ͦ̏͆t̝̮͕̫͔̟̠̩̺͊̊̒̓̕á̙̺̖ͪt̙͎ͭi̻̜̝̖̙͇ͬ̊͆̓̓́o͑ͨ̌ͨ̅͐ͣ͗͊͏̨͏̮͍̱͎͍̜͍n̢̛͉̤̫̝̦̲͕̭ͮͥ͂̅͒́.͓̺̎͌͗̏ͤ̕͜

1. The One. Dead flowers is definitely my favorite Malukah song though, followed closely by always running. Dat high note. But The One is almost too classic to handle. And the fact that you can flush the toilet and activate it in Blackout is great. 2. Nightmare. I do love A7x, but also I just respect the obscurity of how you activate the song. Get cut off by the excavators on Moon in multiplayer, then bleed out and re-spawn on the other side with your friend. “Bridge the gap” by dying. Pretty neat. Imma try it out worked really well in Campaign and Multiplayer tho. 3. Gonna pass on voting on this one for now because I don’t know either well enough. I’ll edit in later if I get a chance to listen to both. 4. Shepherd of Fire. I mean, aside from the fact that it’s borderline a cover of “Enter Sandman” by Metallica, the Origins intro cutscene is iconic. iirc it was featured in zombies before the album even came out, as a tease of sorts. 5. Dead Ended. Clark is honestly my least favorite of the guest musicians, but this is probably his best song, owing mostly to Kevin on the guitar. Clark’s bridge is pretty good tho.

So, there's a special conversation you can trigger between Ultimis Dempsey and Peter McCain if you linger on the second-to-last step in the AO egg, and you have that Dempsey in your game. The conversation goes as follows: Dempsey: "That really you McCain? I gotta know for sure. Tell me something only the two of us would know." Peter: "You sure you want me to do that Tank? we go way back. I could embarrass the heck out of you if I wanted to." Dempsey: "Ok, let's keep it cryptic. Me and Phoebe. Sum it up in three words." Peter: "I. Forgive. You." Dempsey: "Can't say I'm surprised. However mad you were at the time, I knew you'd come around. You've always been the forgiving type." Peter: "...And discrete. See how I didn't embarrass you by telling everyone exactly who Phoebe is? So Tank, I need to know one thing. Did we beat group 935? Did we wipe their whole rotten operation off the face of the earth?" Dempsey: "We wiped a lot of things off the face of the earth. It's complicated. I want you to know that I tried, Peter. We really tried. We came lookin' for you. Me, John Banana, Smokey..." Peter: "I know, Tank. I know." Mkay, so it seems to me that Peter is insinuating that he once had feelings for a woman named Phoebe, but that Dempsey "stole her away" in some capacity. Not only that, but I don't think this was just some random throwaway line about one of Dempsey's past indiscretions to establish past beef with Peter. Peter specifically says "See how I didn't embarrass you by telling everyone exactly who Phoebe IS?" the word "Is" is key, because it implies she has some active current relation to one of them. If it was just a minor insignificant past girlfriend one of them had, Peter would have said "who Phoebe WAS." Granted if she was their age in the 40s she's probably dead by 2025, but she's still present in their minds seemingly. But as it stands, it seems like one of two things are possible. On one hand maybe Phoebe was Peter's wife, and Dempsey had an affair with her, but they got over it and she remains married to Peter. Alternately, it could be that she left Peter for Dempsey, remaining HIS wife to this day. I do remember back in the day, maybe on Moon, Dempsey saying "I gotta get one of these for my 5-year-old!" other than that, which might have just been a joke, this conversation is potentially the first ever reference to Dempsey's family.

That is a very good point, that it might not be a fracture, but we’re just actively re-writing over the original timeline. Since the cycle has been broken, I guess the previous / final lap around the cycle is “the real one” that gets cemented into history.

Mkay so, Alpha Omega doesn’t take place in the original timeline, but a pretty similar one. The key difference in the AO universe’s timeline of events is that Avogadro was created in the 60s, as opposed to 2025 as it was in the original timeline. That’s seemingly how a lot of fractures work. Two universes are identical up until a certain point, until a single event causes them to diverge and grow apart. This is also true of the Original timeline and dimension 63. They are Identical from “In the beginning...” up until the end of the first apothicon war in the 1300s. The two timelines diverge when in Dimension 63, Pablo Marinus decides to write a diary documenting the great war. The discovery of this Diary led to group 935 discovering the France 115 deposits very early in the timeline of Dimension 63. But yes, on to the main point, the France 115 deposits DO exist in the main timeline. But because Pablo never documented its location, it might have gone undiscovered and un-excavated for several more decades in the original timeline. However, Pernell and Broken Arrow are now seemingly aware of the France site. I believe Pernell even says in a radio that he suspects that it’s the single largest 115 deposit on earth. I think, considering we’ve had this trend of Aether maps being half-remakes or map expansions, I can honestly see us re-visiting a version of Origins in which America is doing the excavation, at a much later date than the 1910s. It could be the case that in the original timeline, Broken Arrow unearth the crazy place, and we’re going to go there and capitalize on that. I’d love to see Origins with a new aesthetic tbh. The dieselpunk is iconic, but imagine Origins except all the generators and technology are in American 1960s Jetson’s style. Nice.

Do australians run their zombie-trains counter-clockwise because of the southern hemisphere, like how their toilets flush? I’ve got a bunch to say here, when I have the time, I’ll edit this shortly.

That’s actually entirely possible, because we see the V-R11 Instantly revert someone from dead / zombified to living and awake. With the Elemental shard though, Pernell had to rig peter up to the shard for a longer duration to very gradually bring him back to life.

Another interesting property of the shard is revealed in one of the Alpha Omega audio logs, where Pernell raves about "MKAlpha," a successor to the real-life CIA MKUltra mind-control experiments. He states that the shard would allow them to "Interrogate the subject from inside his own subconscious," or something to that effect. Sawyer: I'll admit I had my concerns Cornelius, but if what you say is true MKAlpha could transform interrogation practices. Pernell: Not just transform, Sawyer, revolutionize! Using the APD to harness the power of element 115, we'll be able to interrogate subjects from within their own subconscious! We can access their thoughts, manipulate their emotions, rewrite their memories! We can procure any confession! Brigadier General, what I'm offering you is Mind Control on a level MKUltra could never DREAM of accomplishing!" It's never directly stated, but we actually see this ability in action in the Yuri interrogation radios. Yuri: Get out of my head! I can feel you! (Russian Exclamation) Pernell: Not until we're finished. Did she tell you about her next attack? During the interrogation radios, Pernell's voice is distorted in a similar way to Hudson's in the black ops 1 Campaign. When I heard Yuri say "get out of my head" I assumed he was talking to Sam or the Shadowman or whatever, but then Pernell replies to that directly. So apparently Pernell has entered Yuri's mind somehow in order to interrogate him? Yuri also says: Yuri: You have been marked by it! you are cursed. I hear it in your thoughts. I can feel it. We also see Peter's ADAM body sitting in an interrogation chair rigged up directly in front of the APD. This gives me the impression that Pernell is kinda entering Yuri's mind in some Aetherial form, and this is done by Pernell entering the APD in order to jack himself into the subject's mind. This might be a long shot, but I can almost imagine us confronting Monty with the Shard and entering like a boss fight arena inside of his mind. This seems like a really interesting power for them to go out of their way to describe, when they could have just made it a regular old interrogation. I suspect we might see more of this.

got this ad on a sunday, no less! (I have no idea personally but I get the vibe that stores being closed on sundays is very America-specific? Can anyone verify?)