0:00 - Alright. Let’s get right into it, shall we? Having a loading screen in a youtube video makes no sense, but Cage’s head bobbing on the screen for several seconds is an irresistible visual. If anyone ever theorised that the loading screen meant that this YT video was originally intended to be an actual flash, no. I never even considered that (RIP Flash).
0:06 - The first song was obviously going to be Skaianet. The actual reason why this flash is so long is that I couldn’t decide what song I’d use. Yeah, fuck it. I just used all the good ones and made the video length 14:13. What are you going to do about it? Complain that the pacing sucks? Oh yeah, you big brained motherfucker? You’re totally right. But it’s your fault ever assuming I was obligated to have a single rational thought while making this story.
0:09 - According to YT stats, 35% of the viewers have already left at this point. Lesson #1: Never start slow. Just jump right into the action. Lesson #2: Cage head scare viewer away.
0:32 - This animation is obviously a kind of a 4/13 10th Anniversary celebration, so I decided to reference a lot of flashes. Most of the time that allowed me to literally copy Hussies assets and cut production time significantly. Here in this sequence that lowkey references [S] Jack: Ascend, time was absolutely not saved. These effects were a pain to make, especially the spinning motion. It’s cool though, and as it begins from Stiller’s eyes it sort of reflects his insane existence.
1:00 - As I planned this flash, I knew the duel would happen on top of a tall building. I thought it would be nice if I’d pick some famous Hollywood building for it. Knowing literally nothing about the area, I just googled “famous tall hollywood building” or something, and the only even relatively tall building was this one. But if you know this building, or even just look up images of it, you’ll see that it’s not that tall. In fact, there are multiple taller buildings nearby. But having one building taller than any other is a good visual, so thus the gag of extending this building to unrealistic heights was born.
50% of the all-time viewers have left by this point.
1:22 - Cascade Jack and Snowman reference… Maybe I won’t go through all of the nods to save both of our time here. I think the chances are that you are a real Homestuck aficionado who can recognize them with ease. And if you aren’t, you are pure and blessed. I will not tarnish your innocence.
2:30 - The beginning of the second act, and not so coincidentally, the second track. The Nick-Buscemi "fight" is probably the weakest part of the whole flash. Let us not get into much detail and shun it appropriately. Oh, and the Capitol Records building roof doesn’t look like that. But this way it’s more of an arena for this incredible showdown.
3:03 - The biggest animation mistake of the whole flash, but one that I haven’t seen anyone mention. For this to be actual spinning motion, I should’ve alternated between Nick’s legs/Buscemi in the distance and Buscemi’s legs/Nick in the distance. I even made the assets for that, but forgot to apply them. WHOOPS!
3:20 - Around here is the average playtime of the video, for understandable reasons. I didn’t put much effort into this part because all of it went to the last half of the battle. Only 35% of the viewers (about 5,600 at the time of writing) have ever made it to this point.
5:20 - Over five minutes in, the flash really begins. Oh, I know, I know. Sucks. But I hope Tensei’s G4M3 or D13 paired with this hunk of a man makes up for that fact a little.
5:44 - I haven’t mentioned it yet, but there was kind of a running gag with the red question marks in the SBaHJ to denote stupid questions or mysteries. It’s kind of subtle so I don’t know if anyone ever noticed. This is the height of stupidity, so obviously this gag makes a reappearance. I think this is the most screenshotted part of the whole video. I’ve seen at least 4 people screenshotting this separately.
6:25 - The REAL battle finally begins. The most intense part of the whole animation.I’m really satisfied with the cuts in the whole video, but especially in this part. I think getting the cuts right is one of the most important things in making a HS-style animation. Hussie rarely uses hard cuts. Some of the cuts in Ollywood aren’t exactly Hussie-styled, especially at the point where Stiller throws the Oscar at Buscemi, but they suited the best for the moment.
7:15 - Lord Buscemi and Nick of Time engage in some kind of Time-power battle. I intended it to be some kind of use of fraymotifs where Buscemi attempts some unknown move and Nick counteracts it. It’s unknown what it would’ve been, but as an outsider Stiller is caught in crossfire and the effect causes multiple dead time clones to separate from him (as well as some other SBaHJ junk). You can see a similar effect with Buscemi and Cage, but the time clones don’t truly separate from them. So I guess the intent of the attack might’ve been something like swapping the target to a dead version of them from another timeline.
7:35 - I don’t know where he was hiding that. I think someone speculated that it was what his very prominent bulge actually was. Okay, sure, whatever you think. I will not canonize anything about Stiller’s bulge, but there’s something big there for sure.
I wasn’t too eager to include the kind of infodump at the middle of a hectic battle, but otherwise many wouldn’t have put together Glover’s description of stealing the Juju from his dead alt-self, so I think it had to be done.
8:20 - This is the end of the second act, and Buscemi's gorgeous face welcomes us to the third and final act of this highly predictable narrative structure. Not that that's bad, but having 7 acts? And countless act acts and intermissions? That's the real shit.
8:35 - The moment a million hearts were shattered. A random note about the art in this flash, which sorta applies to the whole story. The artstyle is hardly consistent at most times. I intentionally varied the style to make the whole thing look like it was hastily put together by a team that really didn't have time to choose a single style. I guess I intended it to make this whole thing seem more legit, even though I ended up uploading this to my own channel and revealing that it's a fan work soon after it went up. Originally I thought I'd let the charade go on until 4/13, but most people weren't buying into it anymore and even if someone were, there still was a chance nothing would happen on the "big day". So I'd rather let down the believers sooner than later.
8:45 - This is when things go fully anime. If you look at the premiere chat on Youtube, you’ll see it go absolutely crazy for the climax.
9:00 - Watson and Glover exchange glances. They know that what must be done, has been done. How do they know? Vriska told them. Vriska knows best. That’s what she’d want me to say.
9:02 - I don’t know if it’s clear, but you can see his hands turning darker. He knows he can’t keep holding the laser forever. So it’s time for his last, desperate move. Giving Buscemi his Oscar.
9:09 - I don’t know if I made this way too gruesome. I mean, there’s no blood, but you can see the holes in his body. I don’t know if that counts as trypophobia, but seeing him disintegrate like that is kinda horrifying.
9:14 - The background is from Google Maps. Literally just the top-down view. I thought I’d just see how the area looks from a reference and then draw it, but then realized I could just cut a corner. It’d be better if I had thought of using Google Earth instead.
9:40 - Some people have cried or almost cried at this point. I understand them. The loss of Ben is almost too much for me too. Okay, but honestly, I never thought that’d be a reaction to this. I thought the whole thing was way too cheesy to get any real tears out of anyone. I guess I was wrong, and that’s fine. This image by the way is from Hollywood Cemetery. Located in Richmond, Virginia. God damn it.
9:50 - Ben Stiller wasn’t born on 4/20/1969, but maybe Hella Jeff was? I don’t know. Does “been stiler” mean Ben Stiller or that he used to be Stiller? Who knows. Who made this conksunk gravestone anyway?
10:05 - Garish piece of shit suit. Nick I thought you’d be better than this.
10:18 - And there it is. Nick discards the destroyed film reel, which he kept around for some reason. How long after the showdown did this funeral take place? Who knows. Like a day or two, since on the third day he shall return.
Nick comes to the conclusion that the movie wasn’t worth this tragedy, and soon after the Homestuck community would come to question if the Homestuck Epilogues were worth the tragedy. But if the question is that if the Epilogues weren’t worth it, is there any worth in staying around? That’s a question we’ll get back to in The Other Side.
11:05 - Here it is explicitly confirmed that Stiller's... ghost? Spirit? Essence? Soul? Whatever it is, it survived his mortal death. Well, unless you interpret the scene as a joke. I intentionally left it a bit vague for the sequel I was already thinking about. But as The Other Side proves, Stiller still lives, and will for a long time.
13:00 - I kinda made the Nic Cage Song visualizer both to pad the length to 14:13 and to have a happier ending to this animation than a funeral. But also because it's funny.
14:08 - You may recognize this a parody of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Logo. Y'know, the one with the lion? That one. But with Becquerel as the lion instead, which would make sense for a Skaianet movie studio. Which could also mean Skaianet produced the Con Air 2: The Epilogue movie in-universe? Well, certainly Skaianet was involved in this whole thing in various ways.
Seriously though, it doesn't really make sense that Becquerel and Grandpa Harley are referenced here, since this is the post-Scratch Earth after all. Well, maybe post-Scratch Skaianet was aware of those two due to having all the cross-timeline tech such as the Transmaterializer Jake and Jade used to conduct their communications with. At least in this story it would make sense. Not that this logo really needs to.
The URL here is not actually to the Skaianet blog I was using to tell this story. Someone else had that Tumblr URL back then. While finishing up the last part of the flash, being days late and mere hours from the announced premiere time, I hastily wrote in the wrong URL. Many people noticed that and some even thought it was another part of the ARG, which it wasn't. I had just messed up. However, later same year I managed to grab the URL for myself, retroactively making it correct! I'm glad I did so, that mistake would've otherwise haunted me for the remained of my Homestuck days. You can find the other blog here: skaianetsystems.tumblr.com
14:14 - At the time of writing this, only about 20% of the viewers have ever made it to the end. If you have seen it to the end, congratulations. You're now officially a part of the exclusive Ollywood Club. There are no benefits.