Silent Hill: Dead/Alive #1-2 (REUPLOAD) - Atop the Fourth Wall

Edited to remove copyrighted end credits music.
There was a Silent Hill comic here. It’s gone now. Nah, just kidding - there’s nothing related to Silent Hill in this thing.
Originally uploaded October 4th, 2010.
RUMINATIONS: The ending to the first Silent Hill reviews was basically for funsies - a little romp where I hit Pyramid Head and then shoot a chaingun at him.
Now it was time to play for real.
If I was going to top the previous year, I needed to make the storyline SERIOUS, make it emotional, make it actually REFLECT Silent Hill more than the comics did to show how you do it right. The magic gun’s backstory was perfect for it.
Like most elements of the show, it took me a while to figure out just what exactly its backstory was. I could have just left it alone and just have it be some unexplained prop, but since the storyline was evolving into more than just “fight robot version of me,” I needed to create MYTHOLOGY, create BACKSTORY, create explanations for things. Since this was Silent Hill, I used the cult idea as a basis for the backstory - that a sect of the Order decided that, instead of trying to bring about their God, they wanted to purge the earth of the unbelievers first. And so keeping with the brilliant logic of the Order, they created a weapon out pure hatred, rage, and despair - a magic gun that would slay their enemies.
The idea of incorporating the backstory into the beginning by telling a story was inspired by Big Finish’s Doctor Who audio dramas - specifically a play called “Scherzo.” At the beginning of each part, the 8th Doctor told the story of a foolish King who banished music from his kingdom… and the terrible consequences of his decree. The music used in the background is also taken from some of the audio dramas, though not the same one as “Scherzo,” which also happens to be my favorite of all of them.
The storyline’s about to get dark, but you’ll see more of that next week.
...Aaaand it was also the source of the infamous "LINKARA DOESN'T GET SCHRODINGER'S CAT!" recurring comment, matched only by "The Kool Aid Man would boil, not freeze in space!" remark for things people felt the need to correct me on.

[@Headbanger142]

"You're confused. Desperate. Terrified." "YES!"

[@cynthiapot672]

Wow....Linkara hates Christabella so much, that he chuckles evily when he finds out that she's vulnerable.

[@TARINunit9]

Linkara's joke is actually spot-on: Silent Hill Homecoming really does understand the franchise better than Dead/Alive. For one simple reason: it knows what the hell Pyramid Head is supposed to be: (spoilers for Silent Hill 2 and Homecoming) In Silent Hill 2, Pyramid Head is James' manifested guilt. After euthanizing his wife, James fears that he is now just a killer, a brute that pins people down with his muscles and throttles them. And Pyramid Head is that brute. It is the town mocking him. Pyramid Head is an executioner, draped in a butcher's smock and carrying a "knife" that's more like a guillotine. This is why a second one spawns after he kills Eddie. James figures, why does he deserve forgiveness? He's no better than the murderous brutes. He's committed the ultimate sin, fitting that he would be slain by something just as horrible as him. (Keep in mind Eddie was killed in _self-defense,_ to put perspective on how badly James is beating himself up) In Homecoming, Pyramid Head is categorized onto a boogeyman-class monster. These things are the boss fights of the game, and they show their elite heritage with their size and power -- just like Pyramid Head was against James. It's really stupid that Pyramid Head himself is actually in the game (he's Adam Shepherd's boogeyman... which makes me ask, why? The other murderers got new, unique boogeymen) but it respects what he represented: the strongest guilt of all. The guilt of taking a life. In Dead/Alive, they're just pathetic random monsters. Scott Ensen literally does not get Silent Hill

[@sta3po]

Great point Linkara. Most, hell nearly all people are unaware that was Schroedingers point. He was mocking the absurdity of superposition, it was supposed to illustrate the stupidity of the principle, now it just illustrates the stupidity of, well, people.

[@YourUncleBenis]

"The world is made of meat." I'm gonna have the most EPIC barbeque!

[@Longshanks1690]

I loved this Silent Hill era of ATFW - in review and story. They were just a special flavour of bad, apparent to someone who knows FA about the series.

[@GhostOfBilly]

The "real" Silent Hill that normal people see is just a quaint resort town on a lake with a little motel for truckers and the like, a hotel or two for tourists as well as an amusement park. I live in a town that's basically Silent Hill minus the baphometic demons (at least as far as I know) and I can honestly say that resort towns are rat holes for the people that actually live there year round but are somewhat nice in the summer when the businesses get the tourism boom and have to look attractive and inviting.

[@justwannabehappy6735]

We must destroy those towns.

[@paulmahoney7619]

As well don’t resort towns usually have overinflated costs of living.

[@GhostOfBilly]

@@paulmahoney7619 Depends on the type of "resort". Mine's a simple lake town, so the cost of living isn't insane but with the type of businesses that actually flourish here (seasonal and small, with very little infrastructure to take care of their employees), trying to live here year round is rough.

[@Jarod-vg9wq]

When linkara tells you a story at the beginning about a creepy cult you know your in for it,

[@Jarod-vg9wq]

The story narration you give for dead/alive is awesome it’s hair raising and sums up why seeing hill is the way it is

[@lodn113]

I keep coming back to these Silent Hill comic reviews of yours, I love them and your awesome storyline! Keep being your incredible self!

[@Jon_the_Wizard]

My neighbors had a dog named Bear. He was a giant black lab. Not all that pleasant of a dog, either, now that I think about it.

[@Shadethewolfy]

A big black lab named Bear. Also a scary black lab.

[@Crazy56U]

"You've been alone in here all day." _Still_ gets to me.

[@YuzuruA]

"Why they keep handing him this crap?" Looking at this review in 2019 seem appropriate for Konami

[@MicrowavedAlastair5390]

Did Lord Vyce not realize that Linkara needs no help on the path to insanity?

[@ninakrishnamurthy6674]

Probably wanted to speed the process along. Also remember, this was Mechakara's plan. Vyce had virtually nothing to do with it.

[@jacobriggs9652]

So I'm actually re-watching this series, and Iron Liz seems to be reading a very familiar book.

[@gatorshark0870]

Oh yeah, she's totally reading the book about the Enity! Good catch!

[@LuciferVonCarstein]

Schrodinger's thought experiment was supposed to mock a group of scientists who genuinely believed in this line of thinking. He's probably rolling in his grave over how seriously his cat scenario is taken.

[@johnmcclure40]

Ah, well he's either rolling over in his grave or remaining still. Until we dig him up, however we cannot tell, and so he is in a state of flux.

[@JaelinBezel]

How about that character from Hellsing Ultimate based on his cat scenario, complete with inexplicable cat ears and being named Schrodinger?

[@TARINunit9]

My favorite take on the thought experiment is as thus: "If you lock a cat in a soundproof metal box, nothing special happens. The cat just dies, and you're an asshole"

[@0ctothorp]

I really appreciate you doing what you do to keep these videos alive. Thank you.

[@lordofhnajuty]

Wait a minute, was this the start of Konami wanting to get out of video games and into pachiko machines?

[@ZephyrinSkies]

Oh the nostalgia. 8 years man, i feel old

[@TevyaSmolka]

i loved your silent hill reviews they were really funny and the storyline was really creepy :)

[@Shadethewolfy]

He's been told about this already, but here's a good way to think about Schrodinger's Cat Box in case anyone's confused Flip a coin. Before it lands, it spins in the air, yeah? You could say that while the coin is spinning, it's both heads and tails. It's only when the coin lands that the waveform collapses into it being either heads or tails The cat is the coin, and when the box is closed, it's spinning. It's both alive and dead. The box opening is when the coin lands, showing either heads (alive) or tails (dead). Hopefully that helps

[@15oClock]

You know, Schrodinger's Cat was designed to be stupid. He was trying to demonstrate how some scientific theories relied mutual exclusive ideas existing simultaneously were illogical, so submitted the scenario to make his point. Unfortunately, they thought he was doing the opposite, using the idea to support their theories. Typical.

[@ninakrishnamurthy6674]

But sometimes those theories are scientifically logical. After all, light is both a wave and a particle.

[@craigkuhlman6869]

I could've sworn I heard Linkara was wrestling with a Murlock when Ike failed to ape the majesty of Evil Dead 2

[@TheNumnutRandomness]

I remember when these first came out. The Silent Hill series is still some of my favorite set of reviews from you.

[@hairlesskang]

Just looking at this comic makes me silently ill. The artwork looks like a psych patient's inkblots, the story is more Lovecraft than SH and why is Christabella the main demon girl and not Alessa?

[@justwannabehappy6735]

Porn.

[@reptile1677]

Because someone apparently thought a swearing little brat was scary

[@lorddrayvon1426]

@@justwannabehappy6735 that would require some comprehensibility. Or at least discernable artwork. Say what you will about Zena or Athena but they at least resemble people.

[@ElManReborn616]

About the cat thing: as already stated in the comments, it was a mockery, but it was meant to explain how unintuitevely quantum particles works. In a real life scenario, the cat would either be alive or dead, and opening the box wouldn't change that, but quantuum particles are in multiple states at once. Immagine that the cat is in the box and it would jump out if you opened the upper face of the box or drop out dead if you opened the base, and it's always like this. Now, before you open the box, you have to admit it's alive and dead at the same time, except it wouldn't really make sense because cats are not quantuum particles.

[@AlexOlinkiewicz]

I remember re-watching the old uploaded versions not to long ago. I'm in game development and working on my next game which is gonna take some inspirations from horror games like Silent Hill, So good to re-watch let's plays and reviews of Silent Hill and other horror game related stuff, is good reference and background noise while I work on my next game.

[@MGDrzyzga]

Years later, and this is still the review that I want to rant about the most. The whole concept of Schrodinger's cat is meant to describe superposition, the observation that against all logic, at the quantum scale the cat IS both dead and alive until you check inside the box. Like, if you could do this without collapsing the wave function, there's a red light when the cat is dead, and a green light when the cat is alive. When there's a superposition, both lights are on until you open the box, and then one light is on. There's enough observed instances with both lights being on until you check the box that this illogical Dead/Alive cat IS our best explanation.

[@noirtreize2713]

Linkara reupload his Silent Hill reviews? Groovy.

[@lsmite1778]

Wut a co-ink-idink I was just watching some silent hill reviews for no decernible reason whatsoever and now this. Spooky

[@callapratt7927]

One of my favorite arcs so far right here

[@chasformer3091]

Someone recreate the arguments about Schrodinger's Cat.

[@Tareltonlives]

"ACTUALLY what Schrodinger was doing was mocking the Theory of Quantum Superposition, arguing that it implied that a particle would be both at a position and not at the same time following that model! It's a rhetorical device to mock Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen and what was called the Copenhagen interpretation. FUCKING DUMBASS" Or something similar.

[@ninakrishnamurthy6674]

Personally, the most ludicrous thing about Schrodinger's Cat is the fact that VLR took it completely literally and used it to demonstrate the future changing the past, which has literally nothing to do with Schrodinger's Cat. It's even more baffling because the other thought experiments VLR uses are used accurately.

[@berpipo]

@@ninakrishnamurthy6674 Nina Krishnamurthy to be fair, the way the game explains it is good enough to fool those who have no idea what the theory is really about.

[@Emperor_Oshron]

in all seriousness, i really DID meet a guy once who had a dog named Bear :P

[@zakfett92]

My house... My boat...

[@DollyBelladonna]

Hey Linkara, I met Treyguard of Knightmare aka "Ooh Nasty" 15:30 lovely guy and a legend of my childhood

[@marylynch948]

No way. You meet Treguard the Dungeon Master in real life? Wow. That's awesome.

[@jonathanwarrdddedcxddeecec4787]

A big dumb hulk like demon and his dog companion in a hellscape sounds fun

[@TevyaSmolka]

oh yeah i remember this review this was really funny

[@disneyfan85]

I've seen at least one dog named Bear. It was on one of those dog-themed station IDs for KOFY, a TV station in the Bay Area.

[@desertdragonme]

this review was the best :P

[@Cdr2002]

The “excuse me for a moment” whisper

[@DoomMomDot]

a comic so bad it broke Linkara ... and the end credits ...

[@alexkogan9755]

I almost forgot how god awful the art is in this series

[@Cdr2002]

Yknow there are people who will try to claim ANYTHING is actually a misunderstood underrated masterpiece… but I’ve never seen the defense brigade for these comics

[@christopherb501]

There were apparently some waaaaay back in the day for Ben Templesmith, the very first artist here. Other than that, yeah, jack all.

[@Cdr2002]

@@christopherb501 I think that’s more fair, what works and doesn’t work for people with horror artwork that’s meant to be unnerving and etc is extremely subjective (all of this is but yeah) and very much depends on the person

[@SpeedyEric1]

I never heard of Schrodinger's Cat before this episode was first posted, and I don't really care for it to this day.

[@RichardWatt]

I always felt sorry for the cat :(

[@Merit2397]

To be honest, that clip of the woman mentioning the hotel, dose make me think of Jimmy Stewart being a voyer from the movie Rear Window.

[@noahmagana137]

10 years of dead/alive

[@Cdr2002]

The only way these comics could work at all is if the town is actually messing with EVERY character and the likes of Christabelle and Whatley just THINK they’re important when they’re really playthings going through nonsensical motions

[@RadarKat73080]

I miss Iron Liz.

[@maxmcelhannan7477]

i honestly thought i was the only person who thought schrodinger's cat was bull crap.

[@1rhpsfan]

8:57 Let's call her Banana just fur funzies.

[@TheSkully343]

Y U M M Y N U M M Y R A I N B O W I N S I D E Y O U R H E A D.

[@sylvianraccoon]

Should have reupload close before october. but still a good watch. #LikeAndSubscribe 👍

[@Tareltonlives]

This is the only time I've seen a title invoking Schrodinger with illustrations invoking Rorschach. If this comic wasn't made by idiots, I'd think it was going for a 20s-30s retro feel to connect with the sort of "out of time and disconnected with reality" atmosphere of the subject matter.

[@Tareltonlives]

Okay, who else wants a "TNG crew in Silent Hill" crossover? I mean, it's not that different from all these "psychological manifestation" episodes that pop up on Trek once in a while.

[@r.a.fgattaiguy845]

27:11 that mosquito dog drawing is traced from the generic render you can find on google...

[@shehabahmed1125]

I don't know why atop the 4th wall is not famous it must have more than million subscribers

[@lorddrayvon1426]

Of all the clips I thought this show would use, Knghtmare was not one of them.

[@christopherb501]

An old favorite among TGWTG circles.

[@superkgaming8305]

What happened to iron Lizz

[@DeathGodRiku]

She and Lewis broke up. As far as I know they're still friends but she has a life of her own and was last seen in the 300th episode

[@andreworders7305]

27:13 Exposition man!

[@andreworders7305]

I liked the art in the first 2 issues of dying inside, but it did not fit Silent Hill. The next issue on......ee god

[@dakotadoyle7573]

Ash Williams in Silent Hill

[@brycetack5301]

Hey linkara are you ever gonna talk about power rangers ninja steel dimensions in danger also first

[@christiancrusader9374]

When it finished and when it's convenient for him. He tried to tell people that before and some of them got upset with him and called him bipolar.

[@frankspick7544]

what i know the story is the same but did he added the pictures

[@1rhpsfan]

Los Angeles, April 17, 1992

[@DetectorCliche]

16:07 Why did you read her dialogue in that voice? XD

[@dragonempress8367]

She's mickey mouse now

[@shadowlinkbds]

Reupload for copyright? Big surprise.

[@AT4W]

Yeah, but this one's on me - end credits music.

[@TevyaSmolka]

stupid copyright nonsense

[@TevyaSmolka]

yup

[@jamesgrandstaff8917]

Just asking this question. Feel free not to answer if that's your choice. When will you get back to making the History Of Power Rangers series again? Thanks

[@joelgordon7814]

James Grandstaff dude, the joke wasn’t funny the first time.

[@AT4W]

You can keep track of updates on it via my website's State of the Wall posts.

[@jamesgrandstaff8917]

@@joelgordon7814 what joke? I don't understand

[@joelgordon7814]

James Grandstaff you wrote it: think for a second.

[@pokejoseph]

3spooky5me If this comic didn’t suck

[@windwind3170]

Back when Linkara had a chin.