Headscratchers / To Boldly Flee

• Why doesn't Zod ever use his superpowers? If he ever used them, they would've won easily!
  • According to Linkara's Tumblr, Zod lost his powers in Superman II.
• Why doesn't Handsome Tom appear? If 8-Bit Micky is in it, why isn't Tom?
  • Tom has said he doesn't like acting, and he could always still have a cameo.
    • He also had a total of three lines across Kickassia and Suburban Knights, which all took place in the later; whilst Mickey became an Ensemble Dark Horse Breakout Character. It's possible that it was decided (Possibly by Tom himself) that there was no point in flying Tom out to Chicago only for him to stand around for a few days.
  • You could also ask why isn't Nash in the main cast when Hope is. Odds are, he will also have a cameo appearance (most likely as Space Guy)
  • They may have had other commitments as well.
    • He appears for two seconds in a montage describing the effects of the Plot Hole in Part 2.
    • Nash did appear for a longer cameo in Part 8, helping Critic get the word out about the Plot Hole.
• Isn't it awfully egocentric to claim that SOPA and similar bills were specifically proposed to silence media critics? As damaging as the bills could have been to the Internet in general, the site was only one of the side groups that would have been affected by the fallout from an attack on more significant targets, like sites that allow downloading of complete works. It also ignores the existence of print and televised reviewers who would have been less directly affected and yet would still have harsh opinions of poorly-made works in the aftermath. (I sincerely hope this is part of the whole critic-centric plot warping; it doesn't work as straight satire.)
  • That was probably the only real flaw for me too, but I think it's important to recognize that this was written during the months where everyone was really scared that they'd lose their jobs even it seems like it's going overboard now. But luckily they've got some good jokes out of it and the guy playing Prick will hopefully carry on being charming.
  • I don't think it's really a matter of satire in the end, and probably not an effect of the plot, either. It's just Doug's writing style. The Critic is a human Daffy Duck — the punching bag of the universe, a lightning rod of abuse. In this world, with that in mind, the government absolutely would pass an entire bill just to screw him over and destroy his site.
    • As a side note, if the movies at risk are ones like Smurfs 2 and additional Squeakquels... that's usually Film Brain's material, while the Critic won't even review it for a good decade using his usual rules. And FB's not even American!
    • Film Brain may be British, but the mainstream video sites he'd be using like TGWTG and YouTube are firmly American and therefore subject to American law.
    • And if SUCKA is similar to SOPA, it still would have affected him directly anyway, since under that law most internet traffic would be subject to it on the basis it affects the internet traffic directly (since most routers are American) rather than specific sites.
  • This was directly addressed in part 6. SOPA was created and defeated exactly like in the real world, this one really was directed at critics and anyone else who relies on Fair Use laws.
• More significantly, how does confining the Nostalgia Critic to his house do anything to stop that? He works from home! Considering the only charges he has against him involve FCC violations, what does one expect to accomplish by leaving him with nothing but the Internet to pass the time?
  • I assumed, with the explosions and Prick not being able to work a computer but totally able to deal with that beaming thing, it'd make him an easier target for Terl to kill.
    • Wasn't the point of the punishment scene that it was made without Terl's input and he wanted them to go further? It doesn't sound like it had his interests in mind, unless Prick's meeting with him was shown in anachronic order.
  • That might be the point: the people who confined Critic don't even know how to turn on a computer, let alone understand how the Internet works. Just like with SOPA: an attempt to police something that is international and is not fully understood by the people who came up with the bill or with the repercussions of their actions.
    • Your forgetting that he still hasn't have a trial yet. This probably just part of his bail terms. What I want to know is why he has wait 20 years for trail when that would be violation the speedy trail clause of the Constitution. Oh yeah Ruleof Funny
    • Actually? That's a pretty decent exaggeration of our current criminal justice system. "Speedy" trial just means "as fast as possible". And, sometimes "Possible"...isn't very fast...
  • Actually he was never arrested or officially charged, and the FCC violations aren't even crimes unless the bill passes. Some guy who just came to his house, told him he was under house arrest, and he went along with it. His ankle bracelet also gives him a shock instead of just tracking him. My guess is that this will be a plot point later that none of it was legal or official, the house arrest was staged by his enemies, and he's just a gullible idiot.
    • This is belated, but the film gives no indication that the arrest is not official.
• Not that I am complaining since I love both of them as reviewers, but why are Paw and CR members of the Space Research Committee? I can understand Angry Joe and that Sci Fi Guy, but why CR and not Linkara (since he has, you know, a SPACESHIP)? From a real world prospective, it obviously makes sense since you can work somewhere but be an expert in a completely separate field, but this is TGWTG, there's got to be an actual reason other then to give an excuse to have CR in the special.
  • I don't know anything about CR, but Paw makes sense to me. If anyone was going to hear the mysterious beat echoing through space, it makes sense for it to be the music reviewer who's always wearing headphones everywhere.
  • Linkara probably didn't take it seriously compared to the stuff he's done. His scene with Paw on the phone enforces this. Probably not a smart move, but neither was letting Mechakara in directly afterwards.
• Something nit-picky, but still a bug: are we supposed to think that Critic destroyed Terl's planet and abandoned Ma-Ti? I can buy the former as Terl is just being a Never My Fault douche and the latter as something evil brewing, but if we are then neither of those happened. He asked Terl if there was anything he could do when they found the planet was going to explode, and Ma-Ti died in his arms.
  • My guess is that whoever's behind the messages is trying to fuck with his head, as is Terl. I suppose it could be said that Critic abandoned Ma-Ti as a friend (i.e. making him go do menial tasks throughout Suburban Knights) but as you rightly pointed out, Ma-Ti died in the Critic's arms, and the Critic could do nothing. In the right set of circumstances, a few well-placed messages might fuck the Critic's head up so he starts believing that he left Ma-Ti to die and destroyed a planet.
• Did Paw tell everyone what happened to That SciFi Guy offscreen, or has he not told them yet?
  • Apparently not.
• In Part 2, Dr. Insano states that the Split Personality subplot in Kickassia (and the fact that Spoony was able to transform into him) was caused by the Plot Hole, as he and Spoony are obviously two different people—implying that this has always been the case. Fair enough...except that the concept of Insano as Spoony's split personality wasn't really a plot hole to begin with. While it's true that Kickassia was the only place where we've seen a Jekyll & Hyde-style conflict, Dr. Insano was originally introduced as Spoony's alternate personality, and was explicitly identified as such^note  (at the end of the Final Fantasy VIII review, Spoony tries to convince Insano not to kill him by reminding him, "You can't kill me—YOU'RE me!". It was only later (specifically, after Linkara brought Spoony back from the dead via cloning) that Insano came to be portrayed as a separate, full-bodied character. If anything, Insano's portrayal in Kickassia was more true to the character's roots.
  • Insano's 'roots' were as a presidential candidate with Fu Manchu running for Vice President, and when they spoke in Final Fantasy VIII, they were in two different places, talking through video, otherwise Squall couldn't have heard him through the walkie talkie. The concept of Spoony changing back and forth into Insano was only teased at in the Adamantium Rage review, then explicitly shown in Kickassia, and then was never referenced again. Besides, Insano's existence has just been one plot hole after another: unofficially, he's practically negative continuity incarnate.
  • Spoony has stated many times that there is no continuity, there is only Insano.
  • If anything, the fact that he's gone back and forth over the years just means the Plot Hole explanation works that much more. Because there are that many more plot holes to explain.
• What's the deal with the robot?
  • Patience, my young apprentice. All will reveal itself in time.
• Why does JesuOtaku={ turn into a hyperactive computer hacker?** He is meant to be Edward from Cowboy Bebop, which is a very popular anime series (and JO reviews Anime).*** Gort was in the dream, and he helps throughout the special; it stands to reason that he implanted the dream in both their minds knowing that it would lead to this... somehow.*** I took the sudden transformation to be the Plot Hole changing thing, as we saw in that montage in the second episode* OK, I know Mechakara isn't exactly easy to beat, but how in the hell did he manage to curb-stomp Linkara in Part 1?** He immediately punched Linkara out and tied him up in their first meeting, I don't watch much [=AT4W anymore, but I got the impression Link mostly needs his toys to win the fights.
  • Quite easily - He needed the entire supporting cast to help the first time, to morph into Zeo!Linkara the second time... Here, he was caught off guard & completely unarmed by an archenemy who simply outclasses him in terms of strength.
  • Plus Mechakara might have used Malachite's gauntlet in some way give him an advantage.
    • But Mechakara is trying to know how to use it (and that's the main reason Mechakara is helping Terl. How could he have used it? Nobody besides Malachite knows.
• Most of the the relatively popular contributors that couldn't make it to Chicago appeared in the Plot Hole montage. OK, that's fine, but why didn't Benzaie appear in it? He is a very popular contributor.
  • Benzaie has a cameo as Zod and Terl's on-board French translator.
• Wait, how is the Nostalgia Critic able to leave his house? Doesn't he have the shock anklet? Shouldn't he be fried for all that stint he was off his ship? I know, I know, Plot Hole.
  • Watch part three again. They beamed off his shock anklet.
• The transporter shenanigans are amusing, but there's a pretty good reason why this almost never happened on Star Trek. Whatever happened to Terl's ship having its shields up?
  • I think the shields (at least in Awesome-verse) only protect against laser weapons.
  • Star Trek was also extremely inconsistent about this, a number of battles featured boarding parties beaming over when both sides had their shields up while others explicitly stated this was impossible. We do know the critics' shields were disabled by sabotage in the initial attack while the baddies lost the only guy who new how to operate the tactical equipment and started randomly hitting buttons.
  • While it was never said, they may have lowered their shields to let the Critic on, and they got Joe instead.
  • Why keep the shields up, when the Exit Strategy no longer has any weapons online?
• If the Executor is the man behind all the evil Hollywood shit, including SUCKA, wouldn't that mean that Lame R. Prick was working for him the whole time? Well, if that's the case, then why did Prick need to contact Turl and make a deal with him to help out? They were already on the same side!
  • They don't necessarily know that, though. The character the Executor is modeled after is not exactly in the habit of telling everybody everything, after all.
    • Even if they didn't, why would they not come to realize it? Really the arrangement they came to was completely unnecessary, and the Executor could easily have just stepped in and said "Um, you know you guys were gonna have to do this anyway, right?"
  • Prick was convinced of something stupid by a lobbyist with an agenda, but seemed to be acting of his own volition with no knowledge of a larger organization.
    • Indeed, Part 1, Prick tells his assistant to go find Turrell, since he "may be useful." So it's pretty likely that Prick is just a random guy, though opposing the Critic for similar reasons. Or at least, starts out this way; he just joins up with Turrell probably for convenience.
• Why does Spoony have such an insulting perception of Linkara? Linkara has saved all organisms from being killed by Mechakara, the universe from being conquered by Lord Vyce, and reality itself from being absorbed by The Entity. You would think that Spoony would be grateful.
  • As the "lamps"/"couldn't tell he was Mechakara" thing showed, all that stuff doesn't really matter to anyone outside his show. And let's face it, hero he might be but Linkara can still be a self-righteous whiny douche sometimes.
    • Yes, but he's done stuff for Spoony, too, in both of their shows. Like resurrect him.
    • At which time Linkara also tried to brainwash Spoony and gave Dr. Insano a body, thus allowing Spoony the privilege of constantly having to avoid Insano trying to kill/experiment on him. Not to mention Linkara was fine with N!Bison putting a few holes in the doctor, who was using Spoony's body at the time, during Kickassia. Even with the good Linkara's done, Spoony has valid reasons to hate him.
    • This is even a plot point in Atop The 4th Wall, where Linkara might be turning into a villain because despite all the good he does, he's still a callous douchebag (especially to Spoony).
  • Most internet reviewers don't have such a weird life as Linkara, and when they do its usually because the Rule of Funny. Since the majority of Channel Awesome and the planet in general learn about Linkara from his show, they probably just think that Mechakara, Vyce and the Entity were characters Linkara invented for his story. Angry Joe and Spoony are the only ones involved with these events(and Spoony was dead for most of it), and given how Linkara is becoming more and more of a dick they wouldn't care to tell anyone.
  • In Linkara's crossover review with the Nostalgia Critic on the Batman comic book adaptation, it's revealed that the Critic thought all of Linkara's storylines were just skits.
• It's true that Oancitizen has a great voice, and we've seen that he can get jealous when others start singing without him. But shouldn't he be a bit more practical about this? Not necessarily about keeping their cover, but about the fact that unlike Zod and Chick, he doesn't know the song?
  • Well, he could try to memorize the chorus after seeing Chick singing and then repeat (After all, in the actual movie, that's what he did, just sang "We're a distraction!", so maybe he wanted to just sing that while Chick and Zod would fill in the rest). On the other hand, he has deep connections to The Plot, so maybe AWizardWouldDoIt?
  • I got the impression that he 'did' know the song, from the condescending way he asked the Chick if she knew it.
• How did Mechakara come back? Last time he showed up on Atop the Fourth Wall, he was blown up and his hand was on Linkara's shelf. Linkara would have noticed if Mechakara transferred his consciousness from the hand to a new body, since he noticed when Lord Vyce did it. So how did Mechakara get the body we see him with in To Boldly Flee?
  • Linkara explains here.
• How come Snob states that Clodd deserves a trial for his crimes in spreading bad filmmaking, when Critic was put under house arrest for infringing copyright laws with no trial?
  • Just a guess here but in-universe, because the world wants to see Critic suffer; out-of-universe people with more money and power often get treated better when it comes to justice. Or injustice as the case may be.
  • Because Clodd is the bad guy, the critics are not, and If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!. Even Last Angry Geek doesn't say that Clodd doesn't deserve a fair trial for his crimes, just that it's a moot point since he wouldn't get one.
• Why would a song intended to distract the listener from their impending doom mention said impending doom in damn near every line?
  • Because people only listen to the choruses of pop songs?
  • Because Zod requested it - its a coincidence. When I hear 99 Red Balloons I don't expect the world to get nuked. I don't call someone whenever I hear Call Me Maybe.
    • I think the questioner is referring to the fact that it is a song from The Destroyed Planet of Krypton, from a length of time ago approximately equal to the age Clark Kent is generally presented as being. As in, the doom being sung about is in all likelihood the whole "massive planet-quakes, planet-core has turned into radioactive glowing rocks, the conversion into which is spreading outwards, the resulting forces and changing densities tearing the planet apart and there may be nuclear explosions going on somewhere down there, our government has abandoned us and refuses to recognize the problem instead focusing on belligerence and infighting" issue. Which is, while understandably something you'd expect songs to be trying to take your mind off of, not something you would expect those songs to actually discuss.
    • Since most of the population was taken completely by surprise and the destruction was over in a few minutes, the original was probably improvised on the spot. OR since Zod left before it happened and knew about it, it might just be the Kryptonian version of 99 Red Balloons.
    • Perhaps the song, in addition to being really catchy, was a satirical political commentary. It's calling out the masses and the politicians who are flagrantly ignoring the fact that Krypton is doomed and everyone can see it. Or the populace all knew that the apocalypse was coming and the song was refreshingly honest in that it was actually acknowledging it instead of ignoring it.
    • A problem with this again is that Zod describes the song as the Hit of that year; so if the song had not been old enough to be popular and ranked high in charts, then it wouldn't have been described as such, and Chick would never have somehow found it and learned it. It's then pretty impossible that the song was made "on the spot" because it would mean it never actually got popular. The idea that it was that year's hit is probably because it appeared months or a few years before the explosion of Krypton.
    • Maybe it was first written as a parody of Jor-El's ranting that the World was ending which then actually came true. Kinda like if Nena's 99 Red Balloons had got to No.1... and then there'd been a nuclear war.
    • My head-canon? Lara Lor-Van moonlit as a singer.
• The Masked Man/Gort's secret identity. Was that supposed to be The Angry Video Game Nerd? Or was it the real life James Rolfe, completely out-of-character just like Writer Doug was?
  • With the respect they show for each other, it's most likely to be the Nerd. Just without the glasses.
  • He appeared multiple times before the finale and helped the critics before any signs of another universe existing appeared in the real universe. It was definitely the Nerd, not James.
  • Are we sure it's not Board James, who previously "assisted" them in Kickassia and doesn't wear the glasses at all?
    • It wouldn't make much sense since Critic wouldn't recognize Board James. He wasn't with the group when he had that cameo. It makes more sense for it to be the Nerd considering the history between Critic and Nerd.
  • According to the commentary, it was AVGN and was supposed to be the final acceptance and a complete end of the feud between NC and AVGN.
• Regarding the scene in which Film Brain is sent inside Spoony's brain and encounters his naked, horrifying superego: It seemed that Doug and Rob, in writing the special, did not know what the term superego means.
  • Or they did know, and it was just Played for Laughs.
  • According to that article, the ego ideal is a part of the super-ego, so it's not entirely wrong, just inaccurate.
• Why did Film Brain say that his first review was Equilibrium when it was The Adventures of Pluto Nash?
  • If I remember correctly, Equilibrium was the first one shot. But does it really matter? It's the one everybody knows.
  • Of course, Todd also said that his first review was of Kesha's "Blah Blah Blah"...even though it was only the first one that was posted on TGWTG, whereas the first review he actually did was of "Down" by Jay Sean ft. Lil Wayne. So maybe they were just going by the first videos posted on the website.
• Why were Film Brain and Bennett so worried about Spoony when the Plot Hole began to expand? Spoony was on the Exit Strategy the whole time. What they saw was only a representation of Spoony's subconscious.
  • The Plot Hole was directly connected to Spoony's mind, it would make sense that they'd be worried about the Hole crashing down (since it is connected to Spoony's mind, they assumed that the thing crashing down would have some really damn big ill effects for him]
• What happened to Dr. Insano at the end? Did the USS Exit Strategy crash into him? Did they just give it to him? Or was this some random occurrence thanks to them now living in the Plot Hole?
  • He probably just stole it. The critics did steal his stuff to make the ship.
  • Well, it's not like the reviewers really need the Exit Strategy anymore... plus Dr. Insano was yelling at them to give all his stuff back. Since they installed all of Insano's stuff into the Exit Strategy, they probably just thought it would be easier to just give him the ship and be done with it. Plus the Exit Strategy was built out of the Critic's house and since the Critic isn't there anymore, there's no reason to keep it.
• What was with the bomb in Mechakara's chest? Where did it come from and why was there a detonator on the USS?
  • Remember part six with the Thermal Detonator JewWario threw? And how Mechakara swallowed it without it going off? That's the one.
• In the first episode, why didn’t Mechakara just kill Linkara? Neither he nor his allies had any reasons to keep him alive.
  • Linkara knows magic, and Mechakara doesn't. If Mechakara hadn't allied with Turrell yet (and Turrell presumably wouldn't have been so surprised by the critics leaving orbit if they'd been communicating from the start) he may have been keeping Linkara alive as a potential source of information about Malachite's Hand. He does say he'll kill Linkara once he's deciphered it.
    • Still after the last two confrontations with Linkara someone would assume that he has learned his lesson and would finish of Linkara as soon as he had a chance.
    • On the one hand...yes. On the other hand, Mechakara has always been about the slow torture, and a tied-up Linkara with no weapons poses no real threat to him. Who would have expected someone to randomly teleport Mechakara away? (A better question is why he was keeping Linkara at home, given that a number of other people live there, including Mechakara's alt-universal self who can hack his defenses, but maybe he was just interrupted before he could take Linkara someplace more secure.)
  • Funnily enough, Linkara wanted to say this during the scene where they're trying to make the plot hole bigger, according to his commentary in on part 8.
• For much of the series, Terl was a Harmless Villain, but once he started acting on his own in Parts 7 and 8, he really put the NC and the USS crew on the ropes, which begs the question — Why did he even bother teaming up with anyone if he was capable of this much on his own?
  • Teaming up with someone else wasn't really his choice, the Executor did a You Have Failed Me and gave him Zod as a "new master". And he also won in part four.
  • That's the thing. Once he stopped taking orders from the Executor and started doing things his way, he actually became a threat so why did he end up working for the Executor in the first place if he could have done it on his own?
    • Perhaps it was similar to how Snob got turned? The Executor made him all these promises but treated him as any other expendable lackey.
  • The ship and crew he was using came from the Executor, he simply didn't have the resources he needed on his own. Don't forget his original plan was to legally demand extradition, not a direct attack.
• This goes back to Suburban Knights. If Ma-Ti snapped from all the ridicule and neglect critics have been giving him and wanted them to suffer, why did he stop Malachite from killing them?
  • I got the impression that whatever happened after death was the thing that festered his resentment. They certainly established in part one that he called Critic his friend.
    • Well, yeah, that's my point. He was so sincere in his Heroic Sacrifice and seemed at peace when he was dying, and the next thing he wants to kill the universe. In this case what DID happen to drive him to that? The Plot Hole? But now the Nostalgia Critic has merged with it, so does this mean, OH, SHI-.
    • While it's almost certainly not the case, does anyone remember how Linkara convinced the Entity to find out what happens to an Elder God when it dies? Then, when "Ma-Ti" is back from the dead, he simply decides to destroy the universe by allowing the Critic to leave the Awesome-verse forever, I couldn't help but think that maybe The Entity found the answer to Linkara's question and performed Grand Theft Me on Ma-Ti's SOUL. Ma-Ti has moved on at last... and soon The Entity will return, with The Nostalgia Critic as his new avatar.
  • When you die, it is said that you rewatch your entire life. If true, Ma-Ti got to rewatch every time the critics insulted, beat, berated, neglected, tricked, and belittled him. Combine that with the fact that he sacrificed his life to save the people who had treated him like crap for years, and they thought the best way to honor his memory was to incinerate him, stuff him into an oatmeal box, and send his remains out in pursuit of V'Ger. Ma-Ti had a post-mortem Face–Heel Turn.
• What's the point of making the plot hole bigger? The plot hole is unstable, making it bigger only put the Critic's universe inside it. Which didn't solve the problem at all. In the end, the Critic has to do is to merge with it, which he could have done as soon as Ma-Ti left.
  • Rob answered this exact question.
• When the Plot Hole is getting unstable, the script says that it will only stabilize if someone else merges with it. Why didn't the Writer or the Nostalgia Critic simply edit the script to get rid that plot point?
  • Because that would be another Plot Hole, which would have it's own set of consequences and would have to be dealt with. Why could the Plot Hole be stable without someone in it when it previously needed someone in it to be stable. If the rules just changed without no in-universe explanation, then more plot holes. The only way to handle a Plot Hole is to have it be resolved in a way that makes logical sense within the story, otherwise it remains a Plot Hole. Given that the Hole was controlled by Ma-Ti after his death, and given that the Hole became unstable after Ma-Ti moved on, the only logical way to handle the Plot Hole is to have someone else inside it to ensure it stays stable.
• Does The Other Guy (Rob) exist in the TGWTG cinematic universe? Because if Insano stole Critic's house at the end of this film, he would be either kidnapped or homeless!
  • I think Rob the character is stable enough to live on his own and just use the Critic's house for poker games or just being a dinosaur.
  • Rob went on to become the world's most successful circus freak.
• So, the Hole needs someone inside it to stabilize it. But it merged with the Universe, which means it now has billions of people inside it, so wouldn't it become super-stable or something? Why did the Critic just kinda disappear into it? That didn't happen to anyone else who ended up inside it.
  • I think there's a difference between merging with it and just being swallowed by it. The universe is inside the hole, but the Critic is the hole.
• How do you pronounce Pawavision, anyway?
  • Pah-wah-vi-zhon?
• I just rewatched Suburban Knights, and something stuck out. How did Ma-Ti transfer his character to Spoony? By the time Ma-Ti showed up to the fight with the gauntlet, Malachite had just punched Spoony around the world twice or possibly more than that). By the time Spoony returned to the field in Chicago, Ma-Ti was busy fighting Malachite, and then died in the fight. Ma-Ti and Spoony never had the opportunity to nerd meld. How did his character transfer?
  • The Last Angry Geek explained this as soon as he and the Critic watched the footage. It's a disturbance in the plot, and Ma-Ti (now evil) used it to his advantage, thinking it'll be one step closer to get Critic to destroy the world.
• What specifically was the Plot Hole created in the fight at the end of Suburban Knights?
  • Most likely Malachite's magic vs Ma-Ti's Heart ring Beam-O-War that ended with Malachite losing his power and being warped to Seattle, and Ma-Ti dying so clearly there was some magical thing going on there.
• Real Life Doug Walker seemed rather blasé about the fact that he managed to bring the Nostalgia Critic to life!. Not only that the AVGN teleported into the Real World as well which means that characters that are not Doug's also exist as living/thinking beings and ALSO have the ability to enter the Real World. Given how the TGWTG talent tends to treat their characters like butt monkeys and the fact that the Awsomeverse is filled with really nasty villains, Doug should be a wee bit more concerned about the Pandora's box he has opened if out outright terrified by its implications.
  • He had a little Oh, Crap! when they first met, but Doug has a reputation for being a calm, supernaturally nice guy and probably thought it best to break it to the Critic gently what was happening instead of freaking out himself.
    • Assuming that Real World Doug has the Nerves of Steel required to help the Critic resolve the situation with the Plot Hole and not wind up with a clone of himself walking around, the real Headscratcher is how Doug could ignore all of the other implications of the Critic's appearance. For example Doug might have asked the Critic to stop any of the Big Bads in the Awsomeverse from using the Plot Hole to enter the real world once the Critic had merged with it.
  • Plus, he does explain that he brought the Critic there on purpose. It's possible that in-universe Doug just decided to allow the Nerd through too and he can control how the plot hole works (to a limited extent, anyway).
• How can the Critic age into Doc Brown if he is no longer mortal?
  • Nothing has been said to suggest Doc Brown was a fixed thing that had to happen. His blowing up in Scooby-Doo (2002) might have been foreshadowing for not his existing anymore, or he's on a different timeline, or my personal theory: the two had interacted so much that Critic was never going to change into his future self anyway.
  • Alternatively, at some point the Critic will descend from being one with the plot hole, probably before the seahorses take over.
  • Also alternatively, maybe he can just magically poof the Doc Brown Critic into existence when it's necessary to preserve the timeline and then just poof him right back afterwards.
  • He descends after being Donnie DuPre, so this issue is resolved.
• If the Critic being removed from the timeline causes the awesome-verse to cease to exist, how do you explain You're A Rotten Dirty Bastard?
  • He can't be removed mid-story. It causes things to glitch. The Dirty Rotten Bastard story is a story based entirely around him not existing.
• If The Critic merged with the Plot Hole and became the universe, does this mean that he's God now, and, if so, why does Santa Christ still exist? Shouldn't he be erased from existence?
  • He and Chick went over this in her review of Cutthroat Island. He dodged the question of "are you God?" so I'm assuming that's a no, and he always loved Santa Christ. Why would he erase him?
• Who or what is Lame R Prick? His SUCKA bill makes him appear to be a businessman or a lobbyist, but where the hell does this guy get police and federal officers at his beck and call? Who the hell is this guy?
  • What, you think big businesses can't bribe police and federal authorities? Joking aside, Prick was one of the Executor's agents (though not an effective one if what Snob and the Executor discuss in part 5 is any indication). And considering the resources that the Executor had, it's not unreasonable that he has his own Men in Black outfit.
• Why does Spoony's mockery of the Nostalgia Critic include saying that all he does is swear all the time when Spoony swears just as much? Is that supposed to be Hypocritical Humor?
  • Spoony's always been an asshole, and what he sees of Critic is a plaything (as you can tell by the robotic movements) who's just a compilation of man-child traits. Linkara and Joe are just as parodied and exaggerated. Plus it's a way to feed into the Critic's belief that he's an awful reviewer and nobody needs him.
• Okay, I get that The thermal detonator was powerful enough to kill Terl, Zod and Mechakara, but how was it so powerful that it actually managed to destroy the entire Death Bomb?.
  • Maybe the Death Bomb was made using Turl's Psychlo technology, and the Psycho's stuff is notoriously flammable (particularly the air).
  • More likely it was the house ship's engines/fuel being exploded by the thermal detonator, causing a chain reaction that took out the Death Bomb's fuel/reactor, causing the stupendous explosion.
  • If you look close, the house gets blown up by the thermal detonator, and the explosion ignites the fuse on the Death Bomb, leading to it's destruction.
• I know the answer to this is 1. Doug likes to add a few new people every special and 2. not everyone can make the shoots, but it still seems weird that if Critic could beam anyone to his house he doesn't beam Suede Tom or Benzaie despite bringing back everyone else from Knights, and also brings in CR and Panda despite them not appearing in previous specials at all, even for a cameo, but doesn't bring in Nash Diamanda or Rap Critic. Kickassia at least explained why the guys from Brawl that didn't partake in the adventure weren't in it (Miss Gamer was stuck in a game, and Sean and Goggles weren't home when Critic called them) and Suburban Knights had Critic trick them with free cars so some could have simply not fell for it or not read the letter (it's actually shown that JO did just that. She would have shown up for the events of Knights but she didn't check her mail. In fact thats the only reason she's onboard here as well). So it kind of bugs me that Critic could have transported the entire sites staff if he wanted but inexplicably didn't. I suppose there could be a reason why it wouldn't work for some people (anyone in "Federal Custody" wasn't they manually drove, and it took Mechakara instead of the real Linkara despite him being right there) but it isn't explained.
  • It's possible that the teleportation device can only beam TGWTG contributors if they're at their primary place of residence, hence why Cinema Snob, Sage, Luke, Spoony, and JesuOtaku were not beamed also.
  • Maybe the transporter wasn't locked onto people so much as it was to certain items, allowing for the person to piggyback along. Examples: Linkara's hat (which Mechakara was wearing at the time), Mickey's tie, Joe's coat, and other items that are associated with the various persons that were transported. Snob and Bennett weren't wearing their 'signature' stuff (glasses and hat, respectively) when they were arrested, Dr. Insano likely had a countermeasure in place to keep Spoony from being transported (why let someone who stole his stuff take his favorite guinea pig away?), and Film Brain would have definitely volunteered to let the Critic have a permanent transporter lock on him.
• When Linkara was being attacked by Mechakara, why did he call the Nostalgia Critic for help? What could the Nostalgia Critic possibly do to help him against Mechakara?
  • Maybe use his beaming device to teleport Mechakara out of Linkara's apartment?
  • Word of God says that, in a scene that got cut, Critic was supposed to call Linkara for advice about Ma-Ti instead of Film Brain. Linkara, in a panic, would have called back the most recent call he'd gotten.
• The pivotal moment, when the Critic rejects the freedom of the real world for the sake of his friends, grew a bit less heartfelt, once I got to think of it. Namely, what would the Critic do in it? He's literally a man from out of nowhere. He has no background, no family, no ID, no friends, no experience or understanding of this world's working (maybe some, since Doug would write the Critic's world based on his own, but still it would be very much simplified), no money or place to live. Hell, the only viable way for him to settle here that I can think of, would be to Kill and Replace Doug!
  • Presumably Doug would take care of him? And the heartfeltness came from Critic being so miserable in his own world where he's just entertainment that he'd rather be nothing in ours.
  • Look forward an annual special and Doug shows us another story of a fictional character who gets pulled into our world, but this time he stays and not only survives, but thrives here. And Jimbroth would likely have more trouble adjusting to our world than the Critic would.
• What's with the absence of some of the cast members during the final battle. After being beamed back when Zod realizes their ruse, Nostalgia Chick and Oancitizen completely disappear until everyone meets on the bridge before going into the plot hole. Angry Joe also disappears until then even though Marzgurl, who was with him, appeared on the bridge during the battle. Todd and Lupa were also completely absent until that last scene. Where were they all before then?

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