I just had a look at all the Bowser patterns from 4:57.01 to 4.57.39 (waiting 2 framerules on the title screen - equivalent to 4:57.36 to 4:57.74 waiting 1 framerule) and I found only 3 that kill you, if you jump close to his head:

• at 4:57.02
• at 4:57.04 very hard to avoid the hammers, but probably don't need to worry about these
• at 4:57.11 the hammer bro will throw a hammer and Bowser's fireball will be high, no other time in this range besides 4:57.02 will have this behavior So if you do see the hammer bro throwing a hammer and Bowser's fireball being at the highest possible position, prepare to do either of those jumps that are both very tricky: Yes, it's over his head again, but it's really really close.

Every other time (when you are in the 4:57.01 to 4:57.39 range) you will always be safe either running under him or jumping slightly over his head. It seems the current common method jumps too high and is an unnecessary risk. Maybe people who actually savestate practice 8-4 today will be able to confirm this?

I was really looking at something else that turned out to not be really relevant in this instance: The bubbles that come from Mario's mouth in the underwater section are on a global timer. By looking at where the bubbles are when the screen transitions to the final screen and also looking at the hammer bro and fireball, you have a lot of information and can pretty much predict exactly what Bowser will do, but now that information is pretty useless unless you are <4:57.06. Maybe for higher PBs or warpless looking at bubbles can become useful, if someone wants to look into it.

I'm assuming there are no patterns between 4:57.01 and 4:57.39 where the podoboo gets in the way? Mav told me that between 4:56.92 and 4:56.99 (exclusive) the podoboo is not possible to pass. Do you have any information on this?

Nice find, never would have guessed that the bubbles were on a global timer. I always approached bowser with the idea of trying to jump as close to his face without getting it, although I leave some space in case he changes direction after I jump.

kosmic, the 4:56.961 and 4:56.978 frames yield an impossible podoboo pattern. Those are the only ones I've found within the relevant time frame (i.e. 4:56.91 - 4:58.25)