Discussion about the Comicbook pages

[anonymous]

So yesterday @RadZakpak and me were in a discussion about the meaning of the classic comicbook pages we see as loading screens in Black Ops I and II. What always striked me, is that the style of drawing is different between Black Ops I + Nuketown Zombies if you compare it to those of the Black Ops II Victis maps.

 

Artstyle 1

Spoiler

Artstyle 2

Spoiler

 

As you can see, the BO1+NKZ comic pages look more childish and colourful, while Die Rise and Buried's look more realistic. Now it was Rad's idea that the comic pages might be the Kronorium from Samantha's point of view. We know that the appearance of the Kronorium to the reader differs from person to person. I remember we initially thought this merely could be applied on the actual events/times that could be read from it, differing from the readers point of view, but I think it also goes for the way the Kronorium pages look (for example, Stuhlinger only sees colourful pictures).

 

The Kronorium looking like the comicbook of a child makes sense if we consider the reader is Samantha. But why would Die Rise and Buried look different than the others? We considered the idea that this might be from Eddy's point of view, as Richtofen is the controller in these maps. Evidence for this idea is that Nuketown Zombies, even while in Black Ops II, has the Black Ops I/Samantha style of art because, just like in Moon, the map starts when Samantha is the controller. It would also make sense because young girls tend to draw and like things more colourful and friendly, wheras young boys make drawings with darker colours. This can be directly applied on the difference we see between the comicbook art styles.

 

What's also good to notice is that in the Die Rise loading screen, at the left side you can see that this comic book is the same as the Nuketown comic book. So despite the change in artstyle, all comic pages seem to be in the same book. This makes sense if you keep in mind that Richtofen directly followed Samantha in the MPD, explaining this sudden shift in artstyle of this same comicbook.

 

Interesting as this might sound, how would it work in reality? How can the controller in those maps correlate with the little kids in the House? It reminded me of the Origins final cutscene, where Sam and Eddy are clearly seen playing the storyline ("Zombies should have blue eyes" - Eddy). It also reminds me of the fact that upon opening the MPD in Moon, we get an achievement called 'Cryogenic Slumber Party', and Sam and Eddy are seen wearing pyjamas in the House. Also, during the Moon and Buried loading screens we hear a song called 'Samantha's Lullaby', which is also sorta heard in the song 'the Gift' in Revelations (which takes place around the House). What's up with all this? How are the children connected to Samantha and Richtofen as Controllers? Have their views on the Kronorium inspired their games they are playing? How could they have gotten access to the Book?

 

EDIT: I'm reminded of the fact that the maps Nacht der Untoten, Verrückt, Mob of the Dead, Origins, BO3 and BO4 have no comicbook pages as loading screens. This might be because the maps don't take place during either Sam's or Richtofen's residence in the MPD (with the exception of Classified, but that one takes place outside the Cycle once you complete the Easter Egg). However, in the Kino comicbook page we do see Nacht and Verrückt in the first two panels. Is Samantha the Controller in these maps after all? My idea is that this would make sense, as the Aethereal Controller is timeless. Even while Samantha entered the MPD chronologically after Nacht and Verrückt, she already entered the mechanism in another cycle later in time, which is also projected back on Nacht and Verrückt because upon entering the MPD, the Controller is timeless and everlasting. This would also mean that from the moment Richtofen entered the MPD, the eye colour of the zombies in all previous maps would turn blue and he'd become the controller (either that or Richtofen is exclusively disconnected from the past due to Maxis' interferring and severing Richtofen's link with Earth via the Rift). Fun talks, curious to your ideas!

 

[RichKiller]

In any discussion about the comic pages I think it's important to also bring the loading screens from the comics and the Dice presentation (can be found in here).
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qvQwSXxhzURSFDE8XvDA_hh1_5QEgZHi

Unlike what some people think, these new comic books do not replace the older pages:

Original nuketown loading screen:


Die Rise styled loading screen: 

 

In order to delve into the loading screens, you have to delve into Samantha.
We know that the comic book is directed to Samantha:


"Have fun with papa in Poland. Mommy will miss you but she has work to do in Dresden" 

This entry is weird because we know that Samantha's mother has died: 


One option is that Samantha sees Sophia as her mother, with the absence of the real one.



However, in BO1 moon, Samantha brings up her mother quite a few times. It is possible that Samantha has interacted with her mother within the Aether.

Quote

"Where... where is mommy?" (Upon removing the P.E.S. mask)

"Just like mommy used to make" (Upon killing with the wave gun. Other such quotes refer to the flesh as food)

The importance of mothers is no stranger to zombies.

In Tranzit, upon being revived, Stuhlinger says the following: 

Quote

I saw ... a tunnel of light ... and my mother was there.

There is also the following AO document, indicating further to the importance of the mother figures: 

Quote

I had two dreams last night. The first was of my mother. In the dream I am a child, 8 maybe 9 years old. She holds my hand as we walk down the street - but I break free and run off ahead of her. Behind me, I hear her screaming. She begs for me to stop, to turn around before it's too late.

When I finally do, it is indeed too late. Two angels float above her on either side. They are dressed in robes, bearing huge carnivorous teeth. They have no eyes - at least none that I can see. I try to run back to her - but with every step closer I take, she floats higher. I try to call out to her, but I have no teeth. I try to reach out to her, but my arm is too heavy to lift. But as long as I tried to save her, I felt guaranteed that the angels would take her. But if I let her go...

"Mother" is also the key for the Rezonv cipher from ZnS (Eluding to the "motherland", but the choice here is interesting because they could have chosen "Motherland" as the key).
It is also brought up in all of the BoTD ciphers (Sal, Billy and Finn): 

Quote

I'll start with my mother and father. They did the Ellis Island thing, came over with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Grandma, Bella, Silvercup, and me growin' in mama's belly...  I ran, Lord. I ran to the Windy City and I didn't look back, forsakin' my mother and father. That's a sin bad enough for an Italian, but for a Roman Catholic too? I guess I had all this comin'. (Sal)
 

Caught this guy Rudy cheatin’ in a round of dice and cracked his melon with a whiskey bottle. Had a laugh, drank more, and woke up the next day to the cops at my mother’s front door. Welcome to juvi Billy Boy, happy #th birthday. I’m a free man, came home, found my mother strung out on somethin’ her new squeeze was givin’ her, in addition to a few bruises. So I followed him to the bar that night and brought the knife my old man gave me. Piece of shit broke off in his ribcage. No cops that time though. Mom saw the blood and kicked me out, so I wound up on the street, sleepin’ at a bus stop. (Billy)


I dunno if you'll ever get this letter, or if it's even real, but if you do, I wanna let you know I agree to the divorce. You deserve better, Angelina, some honest guy, with an honest face, and an honest living, maybe have a couple good lookin' kids that take after their mother. (Finn)

Back to the loading screens and Samantha, It's safe to say Samantha has interacted with some sort of a mother figure, possibly within the Aether itself. 
Samantha's interaction from the Aether comes from the house. The house is perfectly designed for Samantha:
Fluffy is alive, she can play with toys all day long, and she is also with her father (with a plan to make their heroes and stories real).

Furthermore, Samantha had interesting interactions with Keepers, as shown from the DE paintings.



You can see here an animal (perhaps fluffy), a bird and the flowers with red eyes, while the sun has black eyes (perhaps it has red eyes as well). 
(For the first time I just noticed there are also frozen mountains in the background).
Similarly in the following painting all figures have red eyes.

 

 

 

It's important not to underestimate these drawing as Samantha is aware of ZnS and GK, as well as the house: 

 

 

Samantha gains access to interesting information, highlighted in the loading screens.
The keeper portal is revisited yet again, with Samantha seeing Monty's gobblegum machines
(Monty has its own factory where he makes perks, chocolate, elixir based gobblegums... He even brings Samantha and young Richtofen toys to play with)

 

 

So Samantha sees events from the future, and we can see how Monty and the keepers interact with her and show her things. 

Not going to do a full analysis here, but Origins Samantha is also sided with Monty and the keepers while the Apothicons fight her. 



So just repeating everything said here 

• The comic book is directed to Samantha, specifically by a mother figure.
  After leaving the Aether in Moon, Samantha mentions her mother, looking for her and reflecting on past memories 
• Monty and the keepers interacts with (DE) Samantha.
• (DE) Samantha sees events of the future.  
• In the house, Samantha lives the live she wanted, with her dad, fluffy, and Monty's toys. 
• (Origins) Samantha is sided with the keepers.

All of this is me trying to say that @RadZakpak's idea about the Kronorium is not far fetched, the loading screens could be the Kronorium. However it doesn't have to be it and it wouldn't take less or more from the point. The point here is that the comic book is just a part of the childish and somewhat ideal experience Samantha is being walked through. 
Samantha doesn't necessarily has fun all the time, but when she does, there's one man trying to be there for her, Monty. 
 

5 hours ago, anonymous said:

What always striked me, is that the style of drawing is different between Black Ops I + Nuketown Zombies if you compare it to those of the Black Ops II Victis maps.

Sadly Anon, I truly struggle to see the difference in the artstyle (for example, the Die Rise loading screen is quite colorful), and if there is such one, it probably comes from technical changes. 

[RadZakpak]

I'll say this: I'm sure that the comics are from a book located in the House. At the very least, Monty gave these comics to her and Eddie, just like he gave them all the Zombies-themed toys based on previous characters' journeys. Like I think Rich was saying, Monty is perhaps trying to help her reconcile the pain and suffering she witnessed while inside the Aether by turning it into nothing more than a game. Just a collection of stories with heroes and villains. He does seem to feel some genuine sympathy for her plight:

 

Quote

Doctor Monty: Samantha! Ohhhh boy! You ever heard the phrase, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"? Well, that fury is even worse with a little girl, especially one as confused as that poor child is. She really didn't get much of a chance, did she? Right out of the gate she was thrown into this madness before she could ever figure out exactly who she was. Still, that's all ancient history now. She's safe, in the house.

 

As for whether it is the Kronorium, I'm not thinking that's likely since there shouldn't have been a time for them to read it while in the House.

 

As a side note, I'd also like to think the real world zombies comics with Victis are canon as well. It's not too far-fetched considering Sam and Eddie had toys of Victis.

[clueless]

I've always been a fan that the comics / other loading screens are in a way related to the Kronorium or another of the forbidden knowledge books (Richtofen's Diary, Nero's Spellbook), especially considering Samuel's interpretation of the Kronorium was colorful pretty pictures which lines up with our comic pages. A child wouldn't read the complex version of the timeline Richtofen gets, so she also gets the comic pages. But as @RichKiller pointed out the Moon pages (and presumably the rest of the book) are made FOR Samantha and addressed by a Mother figure (which blew my mind by the way, brains to you for that!). Potentially Sam has reached her birth mother through the Aether, perhaps the comics are from Sophia before she becomes mechanical (or maybe after???? She learns interdimensional travel as the robotic sphere, maybe she pulled some strings). I still stand by the idea the comic is a book that is linked to the Kronorium if not a segment of the Kronorium itself, but that raises the question of where did the mother figure get the book from?

[RichKiller]

I don't know if it means anything but thought it's worth sharing. It's from the DICE presentation.

 

[anonymous]

Just an idea, of course:

 

So what if within this horrible, dark device, there is a room.

 

In this room, there was a Book.

 

Both Samantha's and Richtofen's soul have been in a cryogenic slumber party within the MPD, now wearing pyjamas in the House while playing with dolls. They use the book for inspiration of their stories. All they see is 'pretty images' of the comic book. Samantha initially played with Ultimis dolls on a map of Der Riese ("Do you want to play a game?"), and the game she played in her room echoed to the events of the real world, kinda like Plato's cave (the events of the physical world are mere reflections of the spirit world). 

[RichKiller]

3 hours ago, anonymous said:

Just an idea, of course:

 

So what if within this horrible, dark device, there is a room.

 

In this room, there was a Book.

 

Both Samantha's and Richtofen's soul have been in a cryogenic slumber party within the MPD, now wearing pyjamas in the House while playing with dolls. They use the book for inspiration of their stories. All they see is 'pretty images' of the comic book. Samantha initially played with Ultimis dolls on a map of Der Riese ("Do you want to play a game?"), and the game she played in her room echoed to the events of the real world, kinda like Plato's cave (the events of the physical world are mere reflections of the spirit world). 

 

I think it's pretty clear that the arrival of the souls are cleared as Dimension 2210 Richtofen and Corrupted and Cleansed Samantha.
Also, whenever bringing up Sam's room I think it is important to bring up the bloody attic, on which it is based, and which brings up the question regards the safety of the children in there. 

 

I'm also not sure if it's safe to say that Der Riese Sam plays with the Ultimis dolls, especially with the context that The Giant provides on the hide and seek game. 

 

If the book is in the attic though, it is possible it got to Samantha's hands, no? I guess it depends on where the timeline of Revelations stands in comparison to the children's timeline.

[Intelligence Quotient]

 

 

 

Sorry in advance for the long reply.

What if while inside the MPD, Sam is in the House in her room, and while there her Mother (or something claiming to be her) was there to look after her? She'd bring gifts, care for Samantha in the House, and be the Mother that she never had. Sam is given a Comic Book by her "Mother". She reads it and follows Ultimis' journey as if a fictitious journey, something she turns into a game played with toys that are also given to her. She draws on her toybox, makes it a "mystery box" from which she pulls things out that assist her toys in "saving the day". A Cymbal Monkey that she imagines explodes, for example.

In actuality her room is really a metaphorical/metaphysical device, a tool through which Samantha can effect the entirety of reality. If Samantha was free to use this power without influence, she would probably fix things and make the world a perfect, happy place as any child would. But she isn't free. Like how Richtofen is manipulated by the Kronorium, Samantha is manipulated by the Comic Book. The panels are windows into reality. These windows even let her reach into places she never was before (Nacht der Untoten, and Verruckt) by virtue of the Comic Book recapping those events. In doing so, other things have been drawn to the past. Ultimus are in places they never were now. And it is no coincidence the comic book pages started at Kino der Toten, as this is where an important figure stepped in...

Tanbor Fudgely's name being below the message from Samantha's Mother could be a hint. The message is supposedly from Samantha's Mother, and as such all the gifts she has been given, but in actuality it was the something far worse in the Aether. This would be Dr. Monty, but initially I believe that before Dr. Monty was finalized, "Tanbor Fudgely" would be the identity of the character (He's a mythical Treyarch figure who has a connection to confectionary in his name). Maybe he could still be seen as one of Dr. Monty's guises, or maybe was The First One's guise.

Through the comic book, Dr. Monty manipulated Samantha, directing her to follow Ultimus and perpetuate the Cycle. He let her game translate to reality, encouraged it by providing toys of the characters, of Zombies etc. for her to play with. I think Dr. Monty made the blueprints for Verruckt, Shi no Numa and Der Riese due to us having seen him make blueprints before (namely for the Summoning Key). In fact, Verruckt is our first glimpse at the Comic Book style. Perhaps it seeded an idea in him, and perhaps Samantha's game in Der Riese pushed the idea of her intervention even further.

Eventually though, by Moon, we know Samantha leaves the MPD. So, disguised as Samantha's mother, Dr. Monty leaves one last message for her:

"Have fun with Papa in Poland. Mommy will miss you but she has work to do in Dresden."

What is actually meant by this is that Maxis is going to save Samantha (As in Maxis' Campaign in BO2, which Dr. Monty proved he favored in the Kronorium). Poland is used in place of wherever in the Aether that Maxis brings Samantha. At the same time, Dr. Monty has work to do in Dresden. Dresden is used in place of Origins.

And when Ultimus Richtofen arrives in the House after entering the MPD, and finds the Comic Book, he uses it to follow Victis - hence the artstyle change, it is more suited to him. Except, he is late. His connection was initially severed, so it meant almost a decade passed before he got to the "House" in Agartha. And Monty wasn't exactly much help, he favors Maxis after all so he's fine that he gets a head start He "arrives" as Victis are at Die Rise, lighting the second spire for Maxis. Strangely, he is able to interact with the Comic Book itself, he is present within it and thus it is presented in Motion. He steps through the windows. He starts talking to Stuhlinger, as he has some sort of connection to him (this is why his voice is all garbled and demonic initially in Die Rise's intro). In realizing he needs to "catch up", he makes them "accept fate and begin anew". They keep going around and around the three maps until they do things in his favor. The NAV Cards dependent on this Cycle restarting and Buried's Card being placed at TranZit's Table is Richtofen's failsafe that he will win the time war... eventually. I think we would have seen this in BO4 with the Victis remakes that never were. His endgame would finally happen in the Broken Cycle, because we know it can't in the actual Cycle.

Richtofen is already losing control, after Die Rise he has lost two Spires, and Maxis is gaining power. Maxis seems to direct Victis to the Rift, as opposed to Richtofen. He's finding it hard to speak to Stuhlinger as his already severed power is diminishing. Richtofen does not necessarily speak in Buried's intro, he barely has the power too, but I think Richtofen is still interacting with the Comic Book here (which is why it is also a Motion Comic). Victis recall TranZit, and thus that is how he finds Victis initially and steps through to TranZit. He reaches into the past, as Samantha did before him. He coughs, he is still getting used to the Aether, and he tries to prompt an alternate outcome.

So from Richtofen's perspective, he starts at Die Rise, inserts himself back into TranZit, and then loops around to Buried by following Victis.

[anonymous]

Thanks for your reply, those are great thoughts! I completely agree with you on Sam's room being adevice through which she can affect the Multiverse (I was thinking a Hypercube perhaps?). Interesting ideas about Sam's mother and Tanbor Fudgely. I recently read something interesting about a pseudoscientific article discussing what happens to a soul when the body is cryogenically frozen. It was concluded that it could travel seperately, now not bound to space because it is free of the physical. This could go for both Sam and Eddie in the MPD (their Slumber Party in the House) and Victis (frozen in Alcatraz while their souls now wander through the Black Ops II Cycle). 

[Intelligence Quotient]

That's certainly an interesting idea. It makes perfect sense too, and makes me wonder about when Ultimus were initially frozen.

[anonymous]

On 5/1/2021 at 11:57 PM, Intelligence Quotient said:

That's certainly an interesting idea. It makes perfect sense too, and makes me wonder about when Ultimus were initially frozen.

Oooh good one! Maybe it has something to do with their souls being in the House? "The testsubjects must never be awoken" because otherwise their souls would never be able to reach the House?

[Intelligence Quotient]

The Cycle depends on the idea that somehow the Souls of the characters get transported back to their physical bodies inside the known universe (and out of Agartha). Perhaps awakening the test subjects is what does this, and makes them wither away.