The Bonus Stage Time Paradox

J.E.Smith · Post by **J.E.Smith** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 8:56 pm

This has to be the craziest thing a flash series has ever done. Basically, the flash toon series Bonus Stage ( http://www.bonusstages.com/), which so far has 87 episodes, ended its next to last season on a really funny cliffhanger.
Basically, during the three part season finale, one of the main characters, Phil, realizes he's wasted the past three years doing the series and he would have had a more succesful life if it never happened.

So he uses a device to travel through time(After messing around with history for a bit), and goes back to the first episode and succeds in stopping the series from being made. As a result, he has caused a time paradox, and the show's creator even went as far as removing all episodes execpt for Episodes 1 and 87(Which ends abruptly due to Phil messing with the show's history). Even the Bonus Stage Wiki ( http://www.bswiki.com/index.php/Main_Page_ ) has decided to go along with the gag and is acting like none of the other episodes happened!

To see all the craziness, here's the three part season finale, along with the current verison of first episode where Future Phil appears(While you can't access the episodes from the site's menu, the SWF files are still available):

Bonus Stage 85:
http://www.bonusstages.com/bs85.swf

Bonus Stage 86:
http://www.bonusstages.com/bs86.swf

Verison of Bonus Stage 1 where Phil appears from the future and causes the show to cease to exist:
http://www.bonusstages.com/bonusstage1.html

Bonus Stage 87(Season Finale that ends abruptly due to Phil's handiwork in Episode 1):
http://www.bonusstages.com/bonusstage87.html

Also, while the SWF files for episode 2-86 are still up, if you enter the HTML address, you get nothing but a black screen and the errie sounds that play at the end of Bonus Stage 87 when the show just suddenly ends.

Anyways, the show and site should return to normal after the next episode where Phil will probably restore things to the way they were. But this has to be the craziest stunt a web series has ever pulled.

Post by **Segaholic2** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:03 pm

OKAY!

Brazillian Cara · Post by **Brazillian Cara** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:50 pm

Bonus Stage... is that one with the white guy who speaks funny?

Frieza2000 · Post by **Frieza2000** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:40 am

Bonus stage is brilliant. If you've never seen it, try it.

Koosh Koosh! · Post by **Koosh Koosh!** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:41 am

fnurr

chriscaffee · Post by **chriscaffee** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 1:28 pm

It's grown on me.

Baba O'Reily · Post by **Baba O'Reily** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 1:59 pm

I don't want to like it, but I'm obligated to.

Light Speed · Post by **Light Speed** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 2:41 pm

Whenever I start a new series I find myself going back to the first episode and watching or reading every single thing in the series. Usually over the course of a day or two. I don't really feel like commiting that much time to this so I'm just gonna assume it sucks.

Professor Machenstein · Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:45 pm

According to this thread, it appears Matt Wilson cancelled the series because of fans stalking him and financial concerns with his family.

I would not be suprised if Matt planned this "time anomaly" from the very beginning, however. The series touts that it takes place inside of a "simulator" of sorts. According to the episode description of BS: 88, Phil is stuck in the world's outer programming shell. I assume that Phil only killed his past self in the "simulator" and the "world's outer programming shell" is outside of the simulator or what have you. Of course, I should not apply logic or any of the complexity nonsense for a series that specializes in randomness.