Whitechapel - What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-07-08T06:37:41-07:00

Want My Humble Opinion? They got teleport power, they just got teleported in another universe where there's been a plague, and the only survivors are in flooded London. Does this make sense?

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-07-08T07:37:18-07:00

Not at all. Reread through the flashback to FreakTeen era. I think they explain things fairly well.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-07-08T07:54:31-07:00

@govspy Strictly speaking, Jack the Rapper's opinion is still possible. Maybe they hit the universe so hard that they fell out of it. Who knows, really?

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-07-08T09:52:16-07:00

@John Skylar True.

@Jack the Rapper Didnt meant to sound harsh, you DID say your opinion was humble, I should have respected that.

To me, it just sounded like the FA just fucked with their orbit and threw it out of whack. I know that's a very specific and scientific hypothesis, but I just couldn't put it into simpler words than that.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-07-08T13:07:54-07:00

Hey, govspy, was not offended in the least. Well, maybe ypou're right. But I can't believe their psychic powers could have been SO devastating. Locally, OK. Globally? I doubt. But remember when Arkady teleported them all to the mortar attacker's tribe. Impressive, wasn't it? Think pf all of them doing the teleport! Moreover, maybe the "package" choose an Universe where they could be left in relative peace and security.
Im anu case, only an opinion.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-07-08T23:45:34-07:00

Hey, I've been reading through for a fair while, and lurking a little on the forums here but only just decided to make a user, because I find this chat interesting enough to post my hypothesis...

I would humbly submit that:
I believe the FA's were originally intended to be somewhere from around London (correct me if I'm wrong) and when they caused the catastrophe they were in the vicinity of London (again, correct me if I'm wrong.) So furthermore, wouldn't them hitting it with so much power cause a lot of local damage? Enough to possibly lower the continent so that it could flood, and as a result take out all the basic resources that people were dependent on, such as power and the like. So I would submit that maybe it's not on a global scale, but simply the one continent, and they've been cut off from the rest of the world via a lack of tools to communicate with them.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-07-09T02:33:15-07:00

They also mention time no longer reliably running at the same speed in different places. Unless a) Luke was full of shit at the start and b) Their experiences during the "event" were just how they felt due to having over-used their powers, there's been more significant damage than just a plague and a bit of flooding.
But I agree that there's nothing to say that the rest of the world isn't fine, though in that case since no one's turned up with aid in several years, either the British Isles are unreachable from the outside or time is very seriously bent and no one's had time to try yet (or the rest of the world was rather pleased when we all shut up and isn't particularly bothered why it happened).

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-07-09T03:36:17-07:00

@Jack - they couldn't have all done the teleport, because it wasn't until much later that Arkady figured out how to do it. Besides, Mark was the one in the driving seat (I think....?) - and he *definitely* didn't know how to teleport at the time; also, being linked up, if that had been the result then they'd all know how to do it. At the very least, they'd all know how to jump between universes. I'm not convinced there's any real evidence to suggest that they did anything but effectively hit the planet with a very large blunt object and sent it spinning.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-07-09T03:57:05-07:00

Affecting the tilt of the Earth would drastically affect it's seasonal cycle ; unless their "punch" was directly aimed straight through the centre line (and it wasn't, if you believe that the stellar spinning effect was due to actual physical spin rather than time dilation) then it would affect the tilt.

I still like the idea that they accidentally stepped into a time bubble and warped forward to a point where the human race is the source of it's own misery ; hence the time-lapse stellar photography. Flooding is a natural follow on from global warming. Breakdown of society caused by population displacement is a plausible cause for everything else ; no sanitation, epidemic, population crash, no agriculture, etc. But I think someone debunked this idea. Their apparent guilt at having caused the current state of affairs speaks against it, unless they are just i) misled or ii) guilty that they weren't there to prevent it.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-07-09T05:30:08-07:00

I just assumed that the Earth's rotation was interfered with since the stars had become blurs. That just seemed the most simplest explanation. Mark intended on "punching a hole" and they over-blew their own intentions. The entire planet was affected.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-07-09T08:00:20-07:00

@dr_barnowl - if they jumped forward in time how/where did Alice find a Man Utd shirt circa 2007?

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-07-09T08:45:57-07:00

Gravity bends time. I'm pretty sure the Angels can do that, given enough electromagnetic energy. So the stars spinning may very well have been time dilation, or spinning the Earth and pushing it a little closer or further from the sun, or just distorting the hell out of the Earth's magnetic field. There's a lot of possibilities and we don't get to know anything. Although Arkady might have a clue.

Whatever Earth they may be on, it sure looks like they're the ones who broke it.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-07-09T10:39:29-07:00

@dr_barnowl - if they jumped forward in time how/where did Alice find a Man Utd shirt circa 2007?

In an abandoned warehouse full of unsold football shirts.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-07-09T11:29:00-07:00

@dr_barnowl - if they jumped forward in time how/where did Alice find a Man Utd shirt circa 2007?

In an abandoned warehouse full of unsold football shirts.

which, by a strange coincidence, is how most Man Utd fans get them.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-07-09T11:47:11-07:00

Following our fearless leader's advice from another thread, I went back to read up on Luke, in Volume One and caught him "holding a seminar on the nature of time inside the dreams of twelve randomly chosen local people" (or twelve girls he wanted to fuck).

During his lecture (or what may have been him stroking his own ego/talking to himself/any combination), Luke said:

Imagine time as something that can be held in your hand and turned... Time moves differently these days. There's a three-minute delay between here and the Suffolk Coast, since the crash.

I had always assumed that the "crash" as it were was simply a physical change. They fucked up the rotation of the planet, spinned the Earth off it's axis or something, the weather system had been dramatically altered. But I really had taken any temporal theory and tossed it out the window because there didn't seem to be much basis in that, or so I had thought. Maybe...

Maybe I just noticed than Ben Klumaster already said this. I dunno. Sometimes I'm full of crap.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-07-21T10:08:26-07:00

I just assumed that the Earth was tipped on its axis. The altered position of the moon and relation to the sun could explain why the weather is so different and there doesn't seem to be any huge tidal differences.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-08-05T02:13:08-07:00

In any case, it was largely Mark's fault. He drove the others past the point of no return, even when Arkady (or Sirkka) said it was "not right"

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-08-05T02:58:22-07:00

If they jumped forward in time then they must have taken all the other inhabitants of Whitechapel with them (and anyone else they meet) or they would notice the disparity.

Also, Miki says in Ep57 - "Everything around Rutland water got punched down... Apparently there's a lake 15 miles across up there now". So it seems something physical happened.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-08-06T04:27:39-07:00

Perhaps there are dimensions we don't know about (using the quantum physics getout clause) and the FAs turned Britain 'sideways' so now there is nothing but Britain here.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-08-06T05:24:46-07:00

Jack needs to sail down to Dover and see if France is still visible across the Channel.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-11-23T19:29:55-08:00

Just a quick comment since the topic of global warming was broached: Global Warming in and of itself is a very controversial subject. One could easily argue that Earth follows a weather pattern mapped out of centuries, even millenia, due to the extinction of the dinosaurs millions of years ago, ice ages, blah blah blah. Anyway, when one researches this topic, Global Warming did not show up until a correction factor was introduced to weather mapping that had been gathered over many many years, so I personally am inclined to be very sceptical at best that global warming does in fact exist. Anyone that wishes to do so is more than welcome to debate this with me, as I admit a distinct lack of knowledge on the topic.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-11-23T19:39:42-08:00

Having read everyone's ideas, (they're all very interesting by the way) I'm inclined to say yes they altered the Earth's normal rotation, the time difference mentioned is mostly (I would assume) based off GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) just as ours is currently, and if britain has been displaced by their mental falcon-punch, it would make sense that GMT would no longer be accurate or even the same as it was, explaining the "time dilation". Given their apparent god-like abilities, manipulating time doesn't seem such a fantasy, and it makes sense they could choose to slow it or speed it at will, and even communicate across it. Bearing in mind each of the Freak Angels seems to specialise in a specific field, I'm inclined to believe they each serve their own purpose in ultimately fixing the world they've broken, and saving mankind (yes I've abandoned my localised damage theory). We are all aware no doubt that the gravitational forces of the moon is what affects tidal change, so if earth has been thrown off it's usual orbit the tides should be out of whack also, due to the change in gravitational force the moon is exerting, unless of course the moon's orbit was altered along with the earth's.

The weather difference is easily explained in this light as the sun is the major influencing party on this specific factor: The heat from the sun causes water evaporations, seasons, rain, blah blah blah.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-11-26T04:47:36-08:00

Hello everbody. I just joined the comunity.
I've discovered this webcomic just a couple of weeks ago, and must say I love it. I've also read the possible explanations. The one were Earth begins spinning quickly, as one could deduce from the spinning stars picture, has a weakness for me. Two, in fact. First, if nothing had stopped the Earth, stars would keep on spinning like mad, because of the momentum. Second, if the planet was spinning so fast, then everybody would have felt it in the gravity. Perhaps even got flying because of the centrifugue force.
I am convinced that the "punch" was against time itself more than a physical one, but I cannot find any solution that doesn't fall in contradictions...
And yeah, I agree that Jack should make a short sail to Pas de Calais.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-11-26T06:43:37-08:00

Anyone that wishes to do so is more than welcome to debate this with me, as I admit a distinct lack of knowledge on the topic.

Well, instead of wasting everyone's time, why don't you just go out and find out more about it?

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-12-03T03:40:59-08:00

Because, Warren, if you have failed to realise, it is much more interesting to listen to everybody elses opinions, and even more so interesting to debate a topic. Instead of reading bland texts on it, and being bored out of my skull, I could instead read through comments left by those that are more knowledgeable on the topic, and this would interest me more due to the fact that most of the people here would leave some interesting comments, and most likely phrase things interestingly also, due to their individual interpretations and outlook on things.

Forgive me if this seems an antagonistic reply, but I am clearly not "wasting" everyone's time if they have enough time on their hands to read online comics, and cruise through the forums afterwards. Now, I could go and read up on it, and may do so, but if you had nothing more constructive perhaps you should stick to the updates or subtle comic-related hints as I find these more interesting than your attack on my use of "everyone's" time.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-12-03T03:42:20-08:00

On a more positive note though, this is a brilliant comic and I thank you for all the effort and time you put into developing it. I find myself looking forward to reading it again each week, as you have created something of a masterpiece. Good work, and keep it up.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-12-03T04:41:56-08:00

Hi Jareth, welcome to Whitechapel. You're new, and you followed with a nice compliment, so I'm going to be nice and give you one warning: I tend to just silence the accounts of people who respond to Warren's advice with abject fucking stupidity. If you'd like to stick around (and I'm sure you would), how's about you never again respond to "you would do well to educate yourself" with "shut up and stick to entertaining me."

Thanks!

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-12-31T03:28:47-08:00

I don't want a denial of global warming to be the last word on the topic regardless of the fashion in which it was presented, so here's some things everyone should probably be aware of:

While we have scientific data which suggests we're probably causing an uncommonly drastic global climate shift, it's impossible to be completely sure. And since there' a vast commercial interest vested in making sure we're not causing anything of the sort and don't have to do anything about it, you're going to be seeing a lot of suggestions to that effect such as maybe studies sponsored by coal companies. As such when it comes to information about climate change it's important to consider the source; who profits by providing that information and if you have any way to know if it's disinformation.

But the funny thing is, every single procedure we could try to keep a climate shift somewhat in control should be done anyway to reduce gross damage to the environment. The reason we're not is that there's no short-term profit in it.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2010-12-31T20:34:36-08:00

It keeps bothering me that there has been no contact (AFAWK) from the outside world. There is still some low level of technology in the FA world. If nothing else, there is detritus laying around, and if there are people left in Britain, there may well be in other parts of the world who may have had enough time by this point to use it. Maybe. Some possibilities that come to (my) mind:
- everybody else in the world is dead. But - see above - there were a number of people left alive in Britain, so I dunno.
- the rest of the world is just like Britain - some people left alive, barely surviving, but with all that crap still laying around them.
- this ONLY happened to Britain. I too would be interested in seeing Luke do some distance sailing (if they even need to physically do it? With the enhancements I would think they can just teleport themselves further distances, at least after some practice).

I keep wondering if perhaps the FA event physically sucked up ONLY the entire isle of Britain and they are floating in either a time or space bubble, or both. An "actual" chunk of Earth, as in perhaps the rest of the world is going on just fine as before, EXCEPT that something happens when they try to contact Britain - either a physical or energy wall/blockage, or just empty ocean where it was once was. Or perhaps my mind is full of Stephen King novels and the proverbial cornfields of the Twilight Zone?

The maybe-American helicopter appearing could be part of one of several possibilities relating to the above.
I am really, REALLY impatient to get back to the maybe-American helicopter thread of this story! I know, Mr. Ellis, in all due time - right?

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2011-01-10T17:27:17-08:00

Well, my last post was only about logic and pointed out the weaknesses of some hypothesys. Now let's have some fantasy and suggest some possibilities.
If the freakangels can dig a "time moat" consciously, then they very well could have dug a bigger one te day the world ended, unawarely. Perhaps Britain is in a kind of time island and the other countries sent indeed some exploration team back then... and this team is arriving now.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2011-01-11T03:46:24-08:00

interesting documentary about global warming :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpWa7VW-OME

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2011-01-13T09:57:01-08:00

Personally, I like this idea a lot.

Purple Wyrm Aug 6th 2010 (8536.20)
Jack needs to sail down to Dover and see if France is still visible across the Channel.

No matter what the cause of this, the story is delicious and worth waiting for during skip weeks. I came aboard at the start and I'm in for the long haul.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2011-01-13T11:19:55-08:00

I'm guessing we're not going to find out exactly what happened and we don't need to know.

As for global warming... "I personally am inclined to be very sceptical at best that global warming does in fact exist". I'm not sure what you mean by this? Are you sceptical that the earth goes through warm and cool periods? That seems to be a scientific fact. Are you sceptical that the earth is currently going through a warming period? That also seems to be a scientific fact, even going back over the modern temperature records. Are you really saying that you're sceptical that the current period of global warming is caused by man's activities? That might be a bit more open to debate, but I'm inclined to believe the 95% of climate scientists who say it is.

As an analogy, if 95 pulmonologists told me I had lung disease and it was caused by smoking, and 3 pulmonologists who were in the pay of the cigarette companies plus a couple of proctologists told me it wasn't the smoking causing it, I'd give up smoking.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2011-01-13T15:59:16-08:00

Man, this thread brings me down so much. So little love for the 'bloody obvious theory of just what the fuck is going on', which is m' personal favourite; i.e, Our Heroes telepathically taintpunched the Earth so hard they broke time; I'd never even considered the psychoportive Doctor Who take on things. Suppose I'll feel stuipid for a minute then go and read the whole thing for the fifth time...

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2011-01-21T04:06:09-08:00

Since the Big Punch, I'm guessing that various FAs out of guilt or even curiosity must have tried to find out what exactly happened, especially where the rest of the world went, and whether stuff can be gotten more easily than by diving into drowned sporting goods stores. The answer to the last part of the question is pretty obviously "no." At least as far away as Manchester, they're scavenging and making do.

As far as the non-upgraded package enabled any FA to see, everything outside Britain seems to be gone. Or Britain's somewhere else.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2011-01-23T00:07:50-08:00

Neither of these ideas quite passes the sniff test for me, but no one else has mentioned them, so I will.

Matter doesn't just disappear. Wouldn't a Big Punch result in a Pretty Friggin' Dense Pile of Matter left at the bottom of whatever crater was left behind? Matter distorts time. I'm fairly certain that the level of distortion is based on the actual mass, not the density, so it probably wouldn't be quite enough to cause the aforementioned three-minute delay, not to mention the fact that this new pile of mass would be negligible when compared to the mass of the core of the earth, but the mass that got punched went somewhere. At the very least, it might help explain if the Earth is moving differently.

Then again, the idea of a differently-moving Earth doesn't quite hold up. Gravity seems to be the same, more or less, and that requires an Earth that moves similarly to how it always has...assuming that gravity isn't just an invisible tentacle monster that sits at the centre of the Earth, grabbing things.

As for the issue of flooding--moon, anyone? Mess the orbit of the earth about enough, and you could perhaps wind up with a moon that rotates geosynchronously, hovering over London? Granted, they've still got night and day, and they haven't mentioned that the moon seems to be moving oddly, but they haven't not

not said anything...

Although I agree with Chett. Occam's Razor slices most of the science ideas to ribbons. The FreakAngels have figured out how to boss time around. (What's the Static Line, anyway? Is that them moving at the speed of thought, or the rest of the world on hold?) Who's to say that they didn't do it accidentally? If they're just containers for the package, which is just a weird electromagnetic field, then I see no reason that time shouldn't be something that doesn't quite fit the traditional ideas in the FA universe. They wind up with a degree of power over/with time, after all--looking back through time at themselves when they wind up dead and whatnot. The fact that this is a comic, and everything's been linked together pretty tightly thus far, implies that all of the truly weird stuff will wind up being connected quite neatly, elegantly supported by effortlessly dropped hints that you couldn't have failed to miss, if only you'd known that one other piece of information. Although I've got no doubt that we'll see fake keystones at least twice before we get the real one. Warren seems the kind of person to train his readers with a choke-chain. Serious investment in a theory only leads to being yanked back juuust hard enough to make an impression. Once is enough if you're smart, and a crushed larynx is the other end of the scale.

I hope Luke survives, or that they do a proper search of his head before they cave it in. He's the only one that's thought about this seriously, and the only one that really wants to, by the looks of things. Everyone else wants to know what they've done insofar as it relates to their guilt, or the morality of what they've done. He's the only one that wants to know things for the sake of it.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2011-01-23T00:40:47-08:00

I don't know why, but I always imagined that the Static Line would be not so much moving at the speed of thought as thinking (telepathically linked) at the speed of thought...
And (if the authors don't mindme making prophecies) I think yes, Luke will survive and will have a principal role in bringing the story to an end, and even I think Karl will have something to do. It all began when the 12 FA ended the world; what better kharmic way to end the series than the 12 FA making a desperate attempt to solve it (and perhaps smashing the moon against the Earth by mistake...)?

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2011-01-23T09:59:07-08:00

Bjaques: most of the FA's were too much occupied with their own personalities, that and the guilt they felt for destroying the world as it was before, to bother much about the rest of the world. And, regarding their age, you can't really blame them for that. Besides, no FA realized exactly how much power they had and to what purpose they could use it. They only now start to think a bit about hat.
But there is one exception: Arkady: she had an update earlier due to her OD years back, and she tried to stretch her view before to see what the world looked like outside the FA-territory, and she was scared by her conclusion that "it was even worse than she had imagined". I can't remember right away in what episode it was, but she has looked further than the others.

What really happened with the World and Freakangels?

2011-01-28T04:45:18-08:00

@Jareth: RE Global Warming. http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/features/200711_temptracker/ - There are two items in here that caught my attention. One: Our orbit around the sun is not spherical and we are currently entering a part of the orbit that we'd expect global temperature to drop. Two: global temperature measured as reported is currently rising.

RE The actual topic of this thread: I like the idea that this is the real world/ our dimension, but they created a multi-dimensional disturbance which has created ripples going outwards. The ripples could be in time, space or any one of the umpteen dimensions quantum physicists are enamoured of. The physical damage would probably be focussed at the epicenter (pebble falling in pond), but as the disturbances flow outwards, other people begin seeing effects. What interests me is that they *know* about the time lag. If you experience time lag on yourself, how do you know? How have they measured that? Long distance telecomms?

Not really thought this through properly, but in the event that ripples are moving outwards in all dimensions, the rest of the world will feel effects - so will the moon, and other orbital bodies. What happens when the ripples pass through the core of the earth? Is the globe a ticking time bomb? Will they become one with nature and save the planet? I'm going to assume Warren will fsck with us where possible, so I'm guessing my ideas are too pedestrian :)

-A-