This might get downvoted to hell but it's just my opinion. Vol5 felt EXTREMELY underwhelming in my opinion, especially when compared to the previous ones. It didn't feel as tense and disturbing, Jude as a character was really uninteresting to me and the whole episode just feels off. The last few volumes and the side episodes hyped up this teamup between Adam and Thatcher, Adam being confirmed to be a sleeper alternate, The Intruder having a bigger presence and Gabriel admitting he found a way to device Thatcher. All that just to be shoved aside randomly. I'm guessing we'll see more of that arc in future episodes/volumes but I just feel like this story would've worked better as a side story. But hey, again that's just my opinion and maybr it'll grow on me eventually
There's drama?
Omg no way💀
There was
Did you wait for vol 5 in a forgotten by God cave?
Watch wendigoons vod of him watching vol5, Alex Kister comes on a call W him in the last half hour and talks about why it wasn't fully connected to the grand story of Adam and thatcher. iirc he wanted to just show more of the horror within the series rather than follow a "main storyline".
Is this gonna be for future episodes or just vol 5? Because imo I feel like setting up a whole story and volumes for the characters Sarah,Adam,evelin,thatcher etc to go and focus on other characters confusing, especially after the reveal of Adam in vol 4.
Pardon me if I end up sounding a bit rude but wouldn't just showing horror and worldbuilding work better as one of those "side episodes" instead? Every "volume" so far was the main story. Episodes like Intruder Alert work well as world building and horror showcase episodes.
i mean I guess but also Jude is adam Murray's father so it is linked. I did think the volume left more questions than answers but as far as being part of a horror series I think it was a pretty good volume
I don't think it was a bad volume. It just really felt underwhelming compared to the rest. And I understand that Jude is Murray's father but we see his mom, his main motive for the first time in one of the side episodes. We also see Adam transforming into an alternate in them as well. I just have a feeling that the volumes should continue the main story that was set up.
Imo it helped alot with worldbuilding and all that - like it gave more context into what was going on with Jude and the Murray family in general, along with MAD.
But worldbuilding was already a thing in those side episodes like the one explaining MAD, Intruder Alert etc. I just have a feeling that official "volumes" should serve as the main story.
It wasn't as scary, but it did explain a lot of things tbh. I didn't think much of it at first but after rewatching it on wendigoons stream it grew on me a lot.
I’m not sure why everyone is upset about it not moving the plot forward— Alex has been saying for a while now that this volume was going to focus on Jude and that it’d take place in the 90’s. I totally get how the focus on this character we’ve had very little introduction to can feel underwhelming but I think everybody is just antsy to see more Thatcher and Adam
What I don’t get tho is people saying it was bad; the claymation portions with the shepherd and the end with N attacking Jude were some of the creepiest scenes from the whole series so far, imo
I don't think it was bad. Just not what a lot of us were expected to see. I understand Alex wants to expand the world of Mandela but like I mentioned in some other comments, I think his "side episodes" do that amazingly already. In my opinion this volume's Jude storyline would've worked better as a side story, not a main volume.
Yeah I do agree with that. It seems that Alex wants to go back and forth between the 90’s and 2000’s with each volume, but I’m not really sure what else he’d focus on in the 90’s storyline if not the Murray family. We already saw Thatcher’s experiences in the 90’s in Vol. 333, so maybe Volume 7 will focus on Cesar? That’s like the only other character that has any prominence in the 90’s storyline
At least those who didn’t like the focus on Jude’s character can take some solace in knowing he’s now dead lol
It's been stated by Alex that his plan for Mandela is to end at Vol. 6, although recently he's said he probably won't stop making content in that universe after 6
It felt like a lot of stuff was missing?? It felt really limited as we didn't see half of the stuff that was promised in the trailer. I feel like it was rushed tbh. I would rather wait two more months for something that's really good then get something early that's mediocre. Not that it was mediocre, it was scary, but we didn't really get very many answers; in fact, we were left with more than we came with. We don't know if Jude is dead or alive, (assuming he's being tortured by the alternate???) and we don't know how N got its name or what is so special about it. The only thing that we know for sure is that N was the alternate that Jude saw in volume 333.
This volume did reveal interesting things....we first were showed finally how the Department of Temporal Phenomena is investigating the whole Alternate threat and that they understand it as "temporal bleeding", giving hints as to the possible origin of this whole threat...we have also seen how Jude was supposed to be representative of Judas in Gabriel´s fucked up biblical reconstructions, but he ended up escaping and Lynn take his place in the story, so Gabriel wanted to punish him for that...we seemed another victim of the alternates and how they are pretty cruel in attacking, and we also had the amazing revelation of who was that white text in the end of Overthrone, it was one of the Shepherds which was deceived by Gabriel...
The reveal that N was also the same alternate that attacked the Murrays is also a great reveal. So, in the end i think this volume did reveal a lot of things
Didn't we already know about it being N that went after the Murray's?
Yeah, I'm not saying it was a bad volume or that it did nothing right, it was just so obviously rushed. We didn't see half of the content in the trailers. Yeah, the scenes with the shepherd were good, but it sounds like Alex started working on volume 5 around the time the allegations came out, had a set release date, and couldn't meet it on time so he dropped the volume with the content that was finished.
yeah honestly I kinda agree with you, I watched vol 5 and I thought it was alright but it definitely felt like it was missing quite a fair bit since all the teasers from beforehand made it seem like it was gonna be much bigger than it actually was, hell we didn’t even get that clay animation that was in the first teaser video, I feel like the drama that happened awhike ago is partly responsible for alot of stuff being cut out as one of the main things I remember from it was that some of the notable cast members left the series and I’m not sure whether they’ve returned after the drama (I’ve seen some people say they have but that hasn’t been confirmed and judging by the fact that barely any of the main cast of characters appeared in vol 5 I’m leaning towards them not coming back for this), I definitely think there was meant to be more to this volume but due to the drama that happened Alex had to cut a fair bit of stuff out and just make do with what he had (to back this claim up the Mandela wiki claims that Mark and Cesar were originally supposed to play a role in this volume but after the drama happened Alex decided that they would not appear in the volume and would maybe not appear in the series again), especially since the second teaser video kinda implied the ending was gonna have a bit more animation but it’s mostly just jumpcuts and still images instead and it just ends abruptly, that and the fact some aspects of the volume are just kinda confusing to me especially the whole deal with the shepard which I couldn’t understand at all other than just “bible references”
but hey that’s just what my opinion of what I thought of the episode, everyone is entitled to their own opinions
I was really confused with that Bible stuff
I thought that for the wait, it was extremely underwhelming. 12 months for that. Granted the content itself was good, I enjoyed it for what it was, but there was so much more that needed to be explained and it feels like plot threads are just being left hanging for the case of suspense.
The narrative isn't moving along. It's staying stationary and going into unnecessary details in places it probably shouldn't. We haven't moved past Adam being revealed as an alternate. That to me is a tragedy.
It's going to get talked about, we just gotta wait for another volume. This is probably the last of the 90s timeline to be shown for a while so all the stuff next will most likely feature Adam, just hold yalls horses
I now retract my statement. It's very good and has a good amount of background info that we did need for Adam and his potential upbringing as well as the reveal on the Shepard. 9/10 episode. It's now in my top 3 right under vol 3 and 4.
I enjoyed it for what it was but it felt more like filler if anything. I mean I liked all the ideas that it introduced like The medication for M.A.D. and stuff like that but I'm pretty sure it was just meant to be an introduction episode for Jude
I totally agree, I felt very underwhelmed with volume 5. I thought the stop motion aspect of the volume was really really cool and I would love to see more of that in the future. The world building was good but idk it wasn't my favorite
All that just to be shoved aside randomly.
Not entirely. All you've mentioned either already happened or will happen in the future. This one focused on Jude, and if anything you see Alternates being more active here since Vol. 333. You have both the intruder that tormented Jude and Gabriel's influence on people.
All the rest though, it's true. Vol 5 had a lot of still shots and slow shots where nothing happened. Tension was built, but there wasn't much justifying it.
Also, Alex told Wendigoon that people shouldn't be expecting an Endgame-level episode, but rather slow-burners and tense moments. And that isn't bad, it's just something that won't appeal to everyone.
I respect your opinion, but I personally don't think that whole arc in current times (2009) involving Adam, Thatcher, Evelyn, Sarah, etc. is that interesting... I think the story from 1992 and directly involving Alternates, Gabriel and the US Department of Temporal Phenomena is much more interesting than seeing a story focused on any other character that we have seen several times and who have already been victims of the Alternates... I much prefer to see the incident at Murray House being better explored and seeing the story of how Jude Murray dealt with the situation after losing his family, because he is a new character with a different story and personality...i´m not saying i hate these characters, it is obviously not the case, i just think it would be kind of tiring to see them every volume, the storyline has to vary sometimes after all
That's why for me this volume was actually the best so far, because we finally saw more of USDTP and Gabriel....I really hope that Alex continues to focus more on these storylines related to biblical lore, the government and showing more new victims of Alternates.
Yeh I agree and I wouldn't mind if it had some insanely good horror but apart from the last few minutes it was watching not much happen. Like if I skipped it I would still understand the story and the plot. Was a bit disappointed
I feel ya, it was almost, dare I say disappointing in a way?
I’d say so myself. Most of us were expecting Andrew to make an appearance after all.
he deleted his socials, also in scrimblo catalogue his face wasnt shown. he probably didnt want to be identified as cesar anymore after him getting sexualised.
That's understandable, I respect him. It's just kind of unfortunate that some of the light promises weren't in the actual volume. But over all, if we delete the extra expectations, Volume 5 is pretty good.
i agree! tho i feel like mark and cesar were more interesting characters than the rest..
Its because it was meant to be creepy, also it was in the past
the teaser 1 for vol 5 was cut
That I found interesting. (drama-related?) Everything else I actually really liked.
I'm also really interested in that, especially because it seems to have little relation to what we actually see in the volume. The clay character looks nothing like Jude, more like Mark.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that shares this opinion. I am always glad to see a new episode, and its produced excellently. But waiting all these months just to get a side story is a little disappointing. Though the claymation was the best part, finally giving a hint into that "chained up" stuff.
My guess is that after having AltGabriel (which remember is Satan) literally show up in person in the modern day in front of Thatcher, Alex wanted to take a step back with the story and show the more human side of this invasion, which I’m sure is a building block to set up the next major event in this story
I strongly disagree. The reveal of Adam’s father as Judas, combined with the expansion on the backstory for him and Lynn, was fascinating. The episode was unnerving and featured plenty of traditional jump scare moments seen in other analog horror, while also being well paced and expanding on the universe. I think this is a half-baked take that’s mostly upset we don’t see Thatcher and Adam team up, which isn’t even confirmed to be a thing.
Kind of understandable, it wasn't what I thought it was gonna be, it was a bit boring, but some things were probably cut due to the drama.
On the contrary, this was the most tense and disturbing one to me. That final scene with N chasing Jude through the safehouse left a lasting impression on me.
I thought it was great, acting, cinematography, and pacing has been steadily improving. And the claymation segments were a treat to watch
i wasn't a giant fan of vol 5 either , but i moreso liked that it was going iin detail of jude and what happened to him and all . i feel like it could've been way better if the voice actors stayed with alex waiting for their side of the story . . though i understand they might have been scared for their reputations
true
Better than 4
Keep in mind that, due to the drama with Alex, there is a chance that Vol 5 was bound to be different and/or have more content, which potentially had to be removed from the final product.
So yeah, maybe you are picking up something here.