end.wmv
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This article is about the third Awakening video. You may be looking for the series finale. |
| Video title | end.wmv |
|---|---|
| Creator | Jadus |
| Channel | Jadusable |
| Upload date | March 20, 2020 |
| Runtime | 8:03 |
| Tags | jadusable, BEN, drowned, message, reach, was, he, right? |
| Game | The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask |
"With nothing but isolation, we defaulted back on old habits and did what we had always done - we shared our lives. And, just like we had always done, many of us overshared our lives. [...] A number of people grabbed onto the trend like a life vest - to them it was some semblance of normalcy of the old world on a familiar platform. But this wasn't the old world and this was the first of many harsh reminders."—Jadus, end.wmv
end.wmv is the third video of the Awakening Arc and the twenty-third video in Ben Drowned. It is preceded by hubris.wmv and followed by transmission.txt.
Synopsis
On March 20, 2020 at 4:30pm, this video premiered on Jadusable's YouTube channel. The entity from before, now giving his name as Jadus, continues sending messages. Gameplay from Majora's Mask continues.
Video
Description
Time for the game to really begin
Transcript
About 35 minutes before the video premiered, the thumbnail began changing. Each change is documented below.
The game fades in and Link stands on top of the Clock Tower with the Skull Kid. There's no music. He walks forward and locks onto the Skull Kid, revealing an Elegy statue standing where he was moments ago. The living room from the previous video appears again, with the entity from before continuing the message:
- When it became too much to ignore, it was far too late for most of them. It's hard to blame them; everyone is just built differently. It's like fighting - you can plan and train all you want, but you don't truly know how you'll react until the moment comes. The ones that thrived were the ones that dug into the essence of their human condition - the ability to adapt and overcome. The ones that rolled with the punches, eager and hopeful for things to return to normal but prepared if they didn't, fared the best.
- I was not one of those people. Even though I could feel something deep in my gut that things were changing forever, it took a significant amount of time for me to wake up. I spent the first few weeks feeling as though I was in a confusing dream while everything crumbled around me. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what woke me from my stupor, it was more of a gradual acceptance. Eventually I got tired of pinching myself.
- I was far from alone. At some point, everyone would become keenly aware that the world was changing and our old society was not compatible. You could only hope that this learning moment was not the result of a fatal mistake.
- In some cases, our virtuous nature was used as a tool to manipulate us. In other cases our righteous indignation was used to whip us into a hysterical fear. Those who refused to divide lost just as badly as those who divided too much.
- (Note: The original final line in this paragraph was replaced by the above. It reads, "In the final case, they discovered a massive solipsistic conspiracy WAKE UP")
- Soon, the only logical course of action became a pragmatic one - we isolated ourselves entirely, cementing strangers as enemies - unable to trust what we couldn't see. They twisted our most prized possession into their mark.
The video cuts back to the game. Link walks closer to the Skull Kid and is taken into the air, but the view is interrupted by several rapidly-changing images (see Gallery below). Afterward, Link is put back down where he was, unharmed. Link looks back at the Elegy statue, then back at the Skull Kid. The screen cuts to the living room one more time, and the message continues:
- With nothing but isolation, we defaulted back on old habits and did what we had always done - we shared our lives. And, just like we had always done, many of us overshared our lives. There are only so many things to trot in front of the camera when you're confined to your apartment before you start looking for other things to show off. Sunset beaches and designer apparel were retired; survival gear and supply kits became the new premium currency in the social media marketplace.
- There were different variations of the hashtag but the principle was the same - gather and organize your food, water, and medicine in an aesthetically pleasing stack and pose in front. People feigned that it was to raise awareness, but in reality it was just another thing we could use to lord over each other. A number of people grabbed onto the trend like a life vest - to them it was some semblance of normalcy of the old world on a familiar platform. But this wasn't the old world and this was the first of many harsh reminders.
- If nothing else, it certainly saved a lot of the tech savvier groups' time. Why bother casing a place when your mark does the work for you? Search the trending hashtag for what you need and vet your mark. With law enforcement exceedingly strained, we never really appreciated how much vulnerable information we offered to complete strangers in the old world. A person's social media becomes the perfect dossier for sussing out the viability of a target - you can extrapolate so much information by the digital footprint we used to leave behind. You get a real sense of someone - from how likely they are to be armed, to their current morale, to even how they'll react when their door is busted down at 3am.
- Online white page databases were forcibly removed by executive order a week or two after the outbreak of lootings began, but the damage was done and the trust in our fellow man irrevocably shattered. In this new world where bringing attention was now undesirable, you quickly learned that the ones who thrived didn't stand out at all.
The game continues. Link is now in South Clock Town, behind the Clock Tower. The town is empty except for the dog and there's no clock. Link looks upward and sees that the moon is quite far from the town. The volume of the game fluctuates a few times before settling at a normal level again. Link approaches the door to the Clock Tower and gets the message from Tatl one normally receives after the first encounter with the Happy Mask Salesman. He enters the tower. He is then seen talking to the Happy Mask Salesman, who is angry with him for not receiving Majora's Mask. He is told, "Only ' hours remain" before entering the lower level of the tower. At the bottom, he looks at the massive cog before turning to where an Elegy statue stands, staring at the door. Link joins it and a harsh sound occurs before we see the living room one more time. The message continues:
- Saying nothing of the other growing pains, it seems like something unexplainable is happening here - more than just the societal collapse.
- Spiritually, rather.
- It seems paradoxical, but there are a large group of people who struggled to find a place in the old world that became - for lack of a better word - liberated here. There's a reoccurring phenomenon I keep running into of new leaders in this world who were anything but in the old one. I've felt something similar myself.
- It's as if the jarring breakdown that happened in my country has completely shattered my own perceptions of reality and what is possible in this world. As a result, it's only natural that my old perceptions of what I can and cannot do are no longer valid here. In some roundabout way this has given me permission to become someone I've always wanted.
- We will see.
- - Jadus
Gallery
The following images were used as thumbnails leading up to the premiere of the video:
The following images flashed by rapidly at 2:24:
The following was found via spectrogram:
- End spectrogram.png
Notes
- A cipher was found in this video's spectrogram: "xbt psfyszsm splkw"
- The solution comes out as: "was berkeley..." The last word couldn't be read with a single shift, and can come out to "right" or "heard".
- The video is zoomed in and panned to the left very slightly. It's not currently known whether this is significant.
- While Link is initially shown with the Hylian Shield and Kokiri sword, after 4:46 he is shown with the Mirror Shield and Gilded Sword equipped. This is the same loadout Jadusable had during jadusable.wmv.
