Letters from the Field - Photos & Videos from Pre-Origins

[brett307]

I'm very glad you started this! With the O4 being gone for so long I've never really gotten the chance to examine who these characters are beneath their stereotypes. I think it will be really interesting to see how they act in their pre-brainwashed personalities, seeing as how each character's personality in WaW and Black Ops I are conceived from Richtofen's experiments: Nikolai can only function with vodka, Tank was given anger issues and Takeo's mind was broken into making him only speak in quiet proverbs.

I'll be a little disappointed if they're the same exact people. But I trust Treyarch because its their story, not ours. Even though without this community, we wouldn't have gotten the story.

That's generally what they do: each map they give us some Easter Eggs and unresolved plot elements that are left to us to resolve and after seeing common theories on multiple sites (including this one!) they often develop it into the official plot.

The most famous example was after Shi No Numa when someone reported hearing a zombie say "SAM!" on the map. The team apparently saw this post and said to each other "let's make a Sam!". On Der Riese we got to hear the voice of Samantha Maxis, the daughter of Ludvig Maxis. Many started to believe she was the voice heard when obtaining a Power-Up and the Teddy Bear. Next map when a Power-Up is obtained, Richtofen says that Samantha is behind it.

Things escalated from there. :P

[TheRealMistyBriarton]

I'm very glad you started this! With the O4 being gone for so long I've never really gotten the chance to examine who these characters are beneath their stereotypes. I think it will be really interesting to see how they act in their pre-brainwashed personalities, seeing as how each character's personality in WaW and Black Ops I are conceived from Richtofen's experiments: Nikolai can only function with vodka, Tank was given anger issues and Takeo's mind was broken into making him only speak in quiet proverbs.

I'll be a little disappointed if they're the same exact people. But I trust Treyarch because its their story, not ours. Even though without this community, we wouldn't have gotten the story.

That's generally what they do: each map they give us some Easter Eggs and unresolved plot elements that are left to us to resolve and after seeing common theories on multiple sites (including this one!) they often develop it into the official plot.

The most famous example was after Shi No Numa when someone reported hearing a zombie say "SAM!" on the map. The team apparently saw this post and said to each other "let's make a Sam!". On Der Riese we got to hear the voice of Samantha Maxis, the daughter of Ludvig Maxis. Many started to believe she was the voice heard when obtaining a Power-Up and the Teddy Bear. Next map when a Power-Up is obtained, Richtofen says that Samantha is behind it.

Things escalated from there.

Oh yeah, Samantha was the community's creation, huh?

[feedthemachine94]

That's generally what they do: each map they give us some Easter Eggs and unresolved plot elements that are left to us to resolve and after seeing common theories on multiple sites (including this one!) they often develop it into the official plot.

The most famous example was after Shi No Numa when someone reported hearing a zombie say "SAM!" on the map. The team apparently saw this post and said to each other "let's make a Sam!". On Der Riese we got to hear the voice of Samantha Maxis, the daughter of Ludvig Maxis. Many started to believe she was the voice heard when obtaining a Power-Up and the Teddy Bear. Next map when a Power-Up is obtained, Richtofen says that Samantha is behind it.

Things escalated from there.

Oh yeah, Samantha was the community's creation, huh?

Yea. It was actually. Go watch te call of duty xp interviews with the zombie guys and they tell us exactly what the other poster said.

[brett307]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxW6QbnblSs Have fun bud.

[feedthemachine94]

Have fun bud.

That's it. Thank you man.

[TheRealMistyBriarton]

Yea. It was actually. Go watch te call of duty xp interviews with the zombie guys and they tell us exactly what the other poster said.

Wow. that's neato, so this is our story too. :D

[Flammenwerfer]

Yea. It was actually. Go watch te call of duty xp interviews with the zombie guys and they tell us exactly what the other poster said.

Wow. that's neato, so this is our story too.

It always has been. ;)

[TheRealMistyBriarton]

Yea. It was actually. Go watch te call of duty xp interviews with the zombie guys and they tell us exactly what the other poster said.

Wow. that's neato, so this is our story too.

It always has been.

Touche.

Lmfao, the Scandinavian guy asking if the game can ever end without dying, haha, and he said he wanted them to make a Zombie western map...

PHYSIC!!!!

[ZombieOfTheDead]

Speaking of the CoD XP thing, was anyone else kinda pissed that most of the people asked kinda stupid questions? Like we could really have found out alot in the story from that, but hardly anyone asked something interesting.

[Flammenwerfer]

Speaking of the CoD XP thing, was anyone else kinda pissed that most of the people asked kinda stupid questions? Like we could really have found out alot in the story from that, but hardly anyone asked something interesting.

Eh, I doubt Treyarch would have actually answered any story-related questions anyway. They love to be cryptic.

[ZombieOfTheDead]

Speaking of the CoD XP thing, was anyone else kinda pissed that most of the people asked kinda stupid questions? Like we could really have found out alot in the story from that, but hardly anyone asked something interesting.

Eh, I doubt Treyarch would have actually answered any story-related questions anyway. They love to be cryptic.

I think they would've answered some things, like why the O4 went to shi no numa and such (or rather, who told them to go there). They would never give away future zombie map possibilities, but perhaps minor fill in the blank details they could have.

[TheRealMistyBriarton]

Speaking of the CoD XP thing, was anyone else kinda pissed that most of the people asked kinda stupid questions? Like we could really have found out alot in the story from that, but hardly anyone asked something interesting.

Eh, I doubt Treyarch would have actually answered any story-related questions anyway. They love to be cryptic.

I think they would've answered some things, like why the O4 went to shi no numa and such (or rather, who told them to go there). They would never give away future zombie map possibilities, but perhaps minor fill in the blank details they could have.

I still doubt Treyarch would've answered that.

[PINNAZ]

CODXP - "We will never do a cutscene"

(But we will do cinematics)

[Flammenwerfer]

CODXP - "We will never do a cutscene"

(But we will do cinematics)

Well, by that, they meant they would never have a cutscene in the middle of the gameplay. Before (and after, in Solo CotD's case) is completely fine because it doesn't interrupt the gameplay.

[TheRealMistyBriarton]

CODXP - "We will never do a cutscene"

(But we will do cinematics)

There is a difference, they do them before the level starts. not during the game.

[feedthemachine94]

CODXP - "We will never do a cutscene"

(But we will do cinematics)

I'm glad they did though.

[Tac]

Full character bios:

Tank Dempsey: American hero. Give him a loaded weapon, a good woman, and something to shoot at and he’s happy. Cross him and he’ll rip your guts out and use them as a bandolier. Dempsey was selected for this mission after he showed his true grit at the battle for Peleliu. His unit was captured during the early raids before the main invasion, and he spent 2 weeks in a rat infested bamboo cage submerged in malarial water. Eventually, he gnawed his way through the cage, and then gnawed his way through his captors armed only with a Bobby pin and his Medal of Honor which he keeps secreted in various body cavities. There is no before the war for Dempsey, there is no after. There is only the legend of Tank Dempsey, and how he won the war for the rest of us.

Leaving behind a wake of destruction and meat sacks wherever he goes, Dempsey is the man to have on your side when faced with an undead apocalypse.

Stalin himself cannot stare Nikolai in the eye, no one can. For in his eyes you see the soul of a man burning with a hatred of all things living. His closet is full of skeletons, many of them with the flesh still attached. Before the war, Nikolai quickly made his way up through the party ranks by killing the next man in line, and by marrying politically. His aspirations all came crashing down after his fifth wife mysteriously died while cleaning Nikolai’s axe with her neck. Little did he know that she had been sleeping with a high ranking party official on the side. After her tragic demise, Nikolai’s reputation spread quickly through the party, and it wasn’t long before Stalin himself had heard about the psychopathic politician who killed anything that came within 5 feet of him. As soon as the war started, Nikolai was dropped at the front line and forgotten about, where he wallowed in self pity and Vodka for several years.

With many weapons in his arsenal, not least of which is his breath, Nikolai Belinski can look death in the eye and say “I know you”.

Tattooed on the inside of Takeo’s eyelids is the Japanese proverb “Life is light when compared to honor”. For Takeo, life has no meaning if not to perfect one’s discipline and to reveal a warrior’s true character and honor. He ponders this and other philosophical questions as his Katana slices through the flesh and sinew of his enemy.

Takeo was born into wealth. His family dynasty dates back several centuries, and throughout that time they have been highly decorated Samurai and Bushi. Takeo is no exception to this celebrated bloodline. When the family first saw the young, life-filled 5 year old Takeo playing in the street with his Katana and slicing the tails off terrified kittens, they knew he was destined to bring honor to the Masaki name.

The war was a perfect opportunity for Takeo to explore his bloodlust and study the nature of those less honorable than himself. If you fall victim to his swift action and might, know that you have helped a man better than you reach enlightenment.

Beware The Doc. This message was scrawled across walls of every town under Axis control. Starvation may cripple you, dysentery may wreck you, and gunfire may rip the flesh from your bones, but Beware The Doc.

Meet Dr. Richtofen, known affectionately as The Butcher to his victims as they scream in agony moments before he snuffs out their light. Throughout his career, Richtofen has always been at the forefront of torture and information extraction research. Before the war he was a back alley plastic surgeon, who created an army of monstrous affluent Weimar socialites that would follow him around and laugh at every joke the genius doctor made. This all fell apart when the republic fell and the Nazi party took control. To Richtofen, their values were too moral, too liberal for his liking. He joined the army so he could satisfy his need to watch people die, slowly.

An incurable sociopath, he sees no moral distinction between natural death and murder. The victim is the victim, regardless of how their demise manifests itself.

He has a collection of stuffed animals, most of them posed in positions of terror at the instant of their death.

[ETEl2NAL407]

Lots of great discussion about the O4's past...Thanks to everyone.

I am more interested in the revelation from Samantha.

She states that 2 germans, Maxis and Richtofen, were seeking "dark and mysterious forces". Maxis is nowhere to be seen in this cinematic, but he is mentioned in Richtofen's first letter as "the doctor". I am assuming that this was an archaelogical dig that Maxis and Richtofen were working at, seeking their dark and mysterious forces. Either they were using the war as a front, or just couldn't avoid it and their site became a battlefield.

Normally, I wouldn't expect soldiers to be doing any archaelogical digging, as archaeologists usually need to be sensitive in what they uncover. In the cinematic, however, there seems to be a haste in the work, hence we see a soldier using the butt of his rifle to smash through a wall marked with some ancient symbols/writing. This could represent the greed that Maxis and Richtofen had in finding these forces. They were not trying to piece together these ruins stone by stone and make sense of it...They knew there was something here and sought it with reckless abandon.

Therein lies the moral of our story: "Careful what you wish for."

I think this is why we see the shocked look on Richtofen's face. They dug too fast and too deep and unearthed an ancient evil. Much like the dwarves of LotR at the mines of Moria. Instead of some shadowy singular demon, they seemingly unleashed a curse or a plague of zombies.

We can deduce from the cinematic that zombies infect their victims, as the first ones found by the soldiers are the Templar knights, but as the soldiers are attacked, we then see soldiers as zombies.

I'm thinking (and this is only a theory) the purple eyes are because of the Templar's faith. I am not a religious person, myself, but if we are going to say that the red eyes of the MotD zombies indicate control by Lucifer, we should also say that the opposite of Lucifer exists...God, Jesus, the Holy Trinity, whatever. A Templar knight would have been ordained by the Catholic church to fight for Heaven in God's name, thus they are blessed in a way.

I believe the crusaders were the first to uncover the ancient evil of the zombies, but by their divine endowment, they were able to resist...to a point. The purple eyes indicate their resistance to this evil.

I would stick by my initial theories about yellow as the default color, or we should just say yellow means "infected" and that Samantha never tried to alter this color when she became able to control them.

I could be horribly wrong in this theory, as the cinematic seems to suggest Samantha has more power than expected. After all, she knows more than we do... "My names's Samantha and I'm going to tell you how all this really began."

So, we don't know the whole story yet? Or what we think we know is not correct? The emphasis on "really" implies so much.

[MysteryMachineX]

Btw, to everyone saying that Nikolai looks like Reznov, I just want to say that you have stumbled on the biggest hidden secret in all of Zombies; that two Russians both look.... Russian! Sarcasm aside, you probably look a lot like another person of your nationality to another nationality.

[Jeager1999]

Btw, to everyone saying that Nikolai looks like Reznov, I just want to say that you have stumbled on the biggest hidden secret in all of Zombies; that two Russians both look.... Russian! Sarcasm aside, you probably look a lot like another person of your nationality to another nationality.

What's funny is this is Young Nikolai who looks a lot like Old Reznov. But it's the Beard, without it, he would look like his older self.

[SirPlasticDucky]

I still feel like Sam won't be the announcer. I think she could be a voice you hear while doing the EE. Like the 04 in the CotD EE and the mystery man in Ascension.

[feedthemachine94]

I still feel like Sam won't be the announcer. I think she could be a voice you hear while doing the EE. Like the 04 in the CotD EE and the mystery man in Ascension.

Or like Mob Of The Dead, where we collect te headphones to listen to Ferguson tell us the story.

[TheNathanNS]

I think Samantha will narrate a story for us if we do the EE. Like Stanley/Brutus did in Mob of the Dead.

Why?

Samantha: "My name's Samantha, and I'm going to tell you how it really began"

Brutus: "So you want to know the truth???" [Cue Stanley's story]

I hope this EE is as good as MOTD's. Instead of a unspecified ending, I want the effect of this EE to effect other maps.

Plus remember the Buried trailer?

Ghost: "You will stay forever....."

So I think we'll hear Samantha's "intro" speech in the map itself.

[James Dean]

All sterotypes can be insulting, but they do exist, unfortunately.

I am not trying to insult or offend anyone, but as the stereotype of Germans pertains to matters of sexual fetish, the stereotype demands mention to explain Richtofen.

The stereotypes also exist in the N4.

Stu, the old, paranoid, cynic.

Russman, the hobo.

Marleton, the nerd.

Misty, the girl next door.

Actually, nazi's were against gays, so.

It's apparent that they made Richtofen eccentric. With that being said, there's nothing set in stone about him being gay. He's talked about women. If anything pertaining to the gay lifestyle, he's bi-curious/bi-sexual at best. His "gay" quotes give off a strong sense of being so, but even then they can be defined as him speaking out of his rear end to amuse himself. As with the storyline, it is all a matter of opinion and left open for interpretation of the player.

Ok, I really don't think that Origins has anything to do with Samantha. This is long before her time. Origins could be a part of Maxis. This is even before Richtofen became a doctor. But, I still don't believe that anyone that we have known thus far is a part of this project. We have all thought this started in Der Riese.... I think that we were wrong. But, what do I know.

[James Dean]

DFeB5Jx7G38

The video has been removed. Where did it go?