[1337] An Army Of Ph33r - 100% Complete, "THE 4TH WALL OF PH33R!"

finally done. It's too much, and overdone, but hey, its comic 1337.

that said, here's a larger version of the whole thing:

http://www.megatokyo.com/extra/1337_LARGEREZ.gif

(animated, yes. about 6mb)

cheers!

fredrin

Yay!!!! very nicely done

26 minutes ago: megatokyo ‏@megatokyo

As you might imagine, the final release of 1337 actually broke the website, but it's fixed now and showing the final version of 1337

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29 minutes ago: megatokyo megatokyo ‏@megatokyo

well, the site is broken, so here: http://www.megatokyo.com/extra/1337_11.
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39 minutes ago megatokyo megatokyo ‏@megatokyo

Comic 1337 updated: COMIC 1337 UPDATED! 100% COMPLETE! 1337% AW3SUM!, http://megatokyo.com/strip/1337

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I believe the words that come to my mind on seeing the last panel are "Uh... What?"

Was planning on updating my avatar before posting again, but forgot direct image upload is not an option. Hate using online image hosting. I don't even know if I can remember my Photobucket passcode. Probably have to reset it.

But yeah... Image issues aside, I seriously hope that Fred is going to pull some surprise... wait... a... minute... Yeah. I think I get it now. (Which obviously means I don't get it at all and am just wildly guessing.) Largo understood that a diversion was needed... and... proceeded to make a soup kitchen into a storytelling... event... venue... ... ... or something?

Yeah. I am totally out of practice and just rambling to fill space after lurking too long.

THAT ANIMATED PANEL, FRED. THAT KILLED ME. I LOVED IT SO MUCH WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE. Still recovering from the face-full of AWESOME.

I loved the return to the 4 panel system and the neat hyperbola of Largo's manic verbiage. Most like Erica's calm and centred view on things - soup calms most mens minds ...

Need a gif of just that one panel...

Also, although some people called it, damn Fred, that's bittersweet...

Alright, folks, explanation time. I think... never sure what Fred's thinking exactly. The "Disastor Relief Center" sign is a huge hint, though.

IIRC they were on a train to Sendai? So comic 1337 is set somewhere between mid 2011 and the present, I would guess. I assume this isn't immediately after since I don't recall an entire day worth of the comic where everything is just shaking the whole time... This is probably a scene set in an area that was hit by the 3.11 tsunami. There are still places where everyone is living in temporary shelters and dormitories and such. Maybe I should upload a couple photos I took recently of a town that was hit? Well, not photos of the town, really, since there isn't a town there anymore...

Okay. I can see how it works from that angle. Sort of. A ph34r that makes the very walls tremble.
Quite clever if intentional. I can certainly see how recent events could be considered very much a "disturbance" even if the quote inversion (single voice, million times) seems a bit... "awkward"?

States right here that they are in Miyagi: http://megatokyo.com/strip/1289 so that places them in the right area.

Honestly, from a larger story perspective, I do think it's kind of awkward. Rereading the segment, notice how it starts in 2010? (... wow so long ago?) I suspect that whatever story was planned may have been derailed by 3.11. Get it? Derailed? Because they are on a train... Megatokyo does sort of drift through real life time as it goes on. It has been a couple weeks and twelve years in-comic. But everything only aged a couple weeks. It's just twelve years later. I guess it's worth noting that, until today, that was pretty much just to keep the pop-culture references relevant, which makes sense to me. It remains to be seen whether or not comic 1337 is plot-relevant. It is possible that whatever plot-relevant reason Largo and "Princess Awesome" had for going to Miyagi is still there, and that this is just a little statement about how there are still victims of the tsunami without houses and such.

A damn good job! Big thanks. Going through Sendai in two weeks ... will report ... Thanks for a Junpei update as well.

Sendai just looks like Sendai. Although an unusually large amount of the highway system in the area is brand new or under construction or not yet rebuilt.

[edit] Mostly, anyway. I didn't see the areas near sea level.

[edit[edit]] I just noticed the "flapbot" screens. I spy a LEGO man's head, SGD, I have no idea what, and pr0n. On a laptop with three monitors. So... is that anyone in particular, Fred? There aren't really any distinguishing features as far as I can tell.
The lolcats style captions on Largo's more... out there moments are also a nice touch.

Oh yeah, and Minami Sanriku has no cell phone reception in some places, hence why Largo's phone lost its signal. That's probably true of some other areas as well, so that doesn't necessarily give us a location. It's in Miyagi... I didn't think about it earlier, but the comments on Madoka Magika actually give us a rough date! Namely between several days after 03.11.11 and 04.21.11 (when episode 11 of Madoka Magika aired).

This post has been edited by Cthulhufish on Jul 10 2012, 03:59 AM

Interesting, so this comic actually has nothing to do with Piro's story. Which means all bets are still off as far as how that situation is going to be handled. Piro may have tried to contact Largo, but Largo is busy with other things.

Damn. I got all teary-eyed. Well done, Fred. Very well done.

Thus ends a great waste of resources, now back to the story

Ph33r or not, Largo's duct tape can not be pwnzed. >.<

Largo's use of his Ph33r bots here is pretty farking cool! Largo rocks!

For once, I agree with Invisigoth. Granted comic 1337 was 4w3s0m3, but it pretty much negates any sort of hypotheses we came up with. Unless... interesting to see Junpei in the area. Perhaps this ties into an incoming call from Piro in the next comic and provides a plot device to get the three of them on the way back to MT or support from cyberspace.

And flash animation ph34rbots are full of win.

It looks like 1337 was a sly bit of omake. Nice. You never know what Fred's up to.

So the last few updates have actually been in Largo's head. How much of the comic has been in Largo's head, really? We've been thinking of Largo-vision and Piro-vision and wondering when Piro would see reality -- maybe Largo-vision is just a really loose grip on reality.

Maybe Piro-vision is too. Now, I'm wondering if Piro is back at an empty game store, and the whole bathhouse scene is something Piro made up.

Then again, this whole thing is something Fred/Piro made up.

The meta.

So this is what a BSD feels like.

Largo is crazier than a shithouse rat...

Actually, for starters, this is not an omake or an OSE, it's a story comic - it fits within the story structure. There are even a few tidbits in there for you guys to nibble on. this IS MT after all - even DPDs can be important sometimes.

As for the time frame - MT and it's liquid time... it's just the nature of being so slow in the release schedule, and also just dealing with how things change over time compared to time passage in the the story itself. When MT started, the concept of having a camera on your cell phone was really something crazy and new (if you remember Miho's cell phone). Trying to stick to that time frame would hamper the ability of the story to relate to readers. ^^;; (i think Neverwinter Nights would STILL not have come out yet, sticking to MT time).

You may have noticed that i made mention of some things regarding simplifying some things in the comic pages here on out in an attempt to unshackle the story and get story flow moving along better. comic 1337 was very much an indulgence, a fun one in a lot of ways, and i hope you enjoyed it. I'm sort of darkly amused that i'm probably the first guy to every do a bath scene that people couldn't wait to end, so hopefully the rest of this chapter will move into high gear now. If 1337 cleared the decks in my head the way i think it did, i might just be able to do it.

after all, i think you guys are probably getting tired of tying yourselves in knots over such a paltry trickle of story. That's needs to stop. It's warping you.



fredrin

I actually enjoyed the bathhouse scene. While you didn't use much obfuscation steam and primarily used images of people from behind or from the shoulders up, it worked quite nicely. Further, it did continue the story.

Or to put it Shakespeareanly, methinks thou dost protest too much.

So. MT finally has its animated version.

I loved it, Fred! I had great LOL!
The FlapBots are my personal favourites, though.
It sounds a little like the Constructicons, Aerialbots &c. in TF.
When the FlapBots join together, do they form The Amazing BitCruncher?

...I don’t think I want to ask a similar question concerning the WTF-bots.



This post has been edited by BetaCygnus on Jul 10 2012, 08:24 AM

Thus ends our trip through the Japan Tsunami Memorial.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled insanity.

BTW, Fred, I was already warped to begin with.

That is such a sweet Hero shot of the Largonator! The Ph34rbots streaming past both sides, bracketting him as his uber-pompadore waves in the wind of the Ph34rbots passing.
Well worth the wait for you to finish it.
Truly 1337 has made its mark.

Very nicely done, particularly the animation. The very model of a 1337 page. One comment, I enjoyed the bathhouse scene immensely, both for the plot development and the humour, and I was sad it ended.

So, from Fred's hints, my WAG: it will turn out that the earthquake was linked to Piro triggering the otaku mob. These two threads will tie together somehow.