Fans have wanted this forever, even with some of the current controversy. Some are concerned about the $60 price tag for the PDF. Others are a little confused by some of the changes, and still others are unimpressed with the final result. Does MoN for 7e hold up now, and more importantly, are the changes justified? Is it truly all that Chaosium said it would be, or is it a flop? To quote the ineffable Dan Bell, "I really do want to find out", so let's dive in and see how things have changed, shall we? Along the way, I'll be giving my own opinions on the changes per chapter, and how well or poorly I feel they fit. Plus, I'll give insights on the new Peru prologue, bringing things full circle. We'll take this piece by piece, first with an overview and then some pointers on each individual chapter. Let's get started with the overview right below the jump.
I swear to God I might just need to get a restraining order on Nyarlathotep if this keeps up, because this campaign just will not leave me alone. Of course I couldn't resist signing up for the prerelease list, slamming down my $60 on July 1st, 2018, and reading through the re-imagined re-release of Chaosium's perennial classic, Masks of Nyarlathotep. It's been almost exactly two years since I ended my first run of the game, and with the advent of this updated version of the campaign I've once more been drawn back into the Strange Dark One's black web of intrigue and conspiracy. It's a siren's song that is hard for any Keeper to resist, and a classic of roleplaying gaming.
Fans have wanted this forever, even with some of the current controversy. Some are concerned about the $60 price tag for the PDF. Others are a little confused by some of the changes, and still others are unimpressed with the final result. Does MoN for 7e hold up now, and more importantly, are the changes justified? Is it truly all that Chaosium said it would be, or is it a flop? To quote the ineffable Dan Bell, "I really do want to find out", so let's dive in and see how things have changed, shall we? Along the way, I'll be giving my own opinions on the changes per chapter, and how well or poorly I feel they fit. Plus, I'll give insights on the new Peru prologue, bringing things full circle. We'll take this piece by piece, first with an overview and then some pointers on each individual chapter. Let's get started with the overview right below the jump.
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As any good Keeper knows, it's important to have an idea of how to start your game before the mystery thickens and the terror happens. To get there can be hard work, so what is a beleaguered Keeper to do?
Psst. Hey kid, wanna learn about Decadent Literature, The King in Yellow, and the story collection that helped launch Lovecraft's own writing and weird fiction as a genre?
This is gonna be a brief tabletop musing of mine, mostly because I am busy today and don't have much time to talk. However, I think it bears discussion, because it's a crucial consideration for any Keeper, and ultimately, any GM. The question: How the hell do you portray monsters and gods realistically?
Okay, so you knew this was coming.
Lately this Slenderfan has come out of the woods, camera in hand and a pack full of journals with delirious scrawlings on my back, to discover something fairly disturbing. Something I'm sure everyone by now knows is obvious and which honestly makes me feel as though I'm missing a few pages somewhere. When did the Slenderman stop being frightening? It's a strange feeling, seeing this change that's gradually happened since 2012, when I first put on this fandom's mask and allowed all its dark mystery to take me hostage. He scared me then. He scared everyone then. He had a strangeness to him, an otherworldliness that couldn't really be matched by anything except something out of a Lovecraft novel. It wasn't so much his appearance - he is, after all, just a faceless, tall man in a black suit - but more or less what exactly he did to you. Following, haunting, terrorizing, slowly driving out all sanity within you, until finally your clock ran out and he came for you, taking you away someplace unknown, to do something unimaginable, for a reason that was unfathomable. And of course, as the horror cliche goes, "they were never heard from again". This was, and still is, the impression I have of the Slim Gentleman, and to be frankly honest, it still spooks me and drives a good part of my interest in psychological and Lovecraftian horror. So then imagine my surprise when, devoted Slenderacolyte that I was, I crept from the shadows of the forest, saw what had become of such a fascinating being, and lifted my mask to yell, "What in the fuck happened here?!" Or, tl;dr - Slenderman has ceased to be scary for the majority of the public. Why? Is it because of that game that came out a few years ago, and was so recently updated to include a story befitting an episode of Marble Hornets (as well as two new levels which are quite frankly as awesome as they are horrific)? Was it the memetic status this emaciated boogeyman so quickly gained afterwards? Was it the fact that nothing new had been done with the Mythos, and that his growing fanbase continued to demand more and more material that never came to be, or worse, was not up to their high expectations? Or was it simply that everyone simultaneously became bored, and moved on to greener woods, resulting in things like the awesome TheWestRecords, the currently ailing WhisperedFaith (which really isn't as good as it once was), and the Fear Mythos community? Well... maybe none of those. No, I blame a different source for the Operator's downfall, a much more insidious poison that has destroyed the once fertile, dark, and intriguing forest of epileptic trees that is the Slenderman Mythos. I blame shitty writing. Now before any of you get up in arms, yes I have heard of the recent Tumblr Slenderverse Fiasco involving a group of certain creators (which I won't name here) having a "bad series night" in a private tinychat, where they streamed series they felt were awful. I'm aware of the damage their careless bantering about it has caused, and while I do believe they've been pretty damn callous (and some have even bullied others) and irresponsible about sharing the details of the event towards certain people in particular and should apologize for that, I also believe they absolutely have a right to roast series they don't like. Good taste is subjective, creators are people, and people can mock anything they feel like - it's absolutely their right because they live in a country where free speech is a thing. And unfortunately, that mocking can get downright nasty, and should not be shared with the public (which it was, and shame on said creators for that). My opinion on the event itself is ambivalent, but I personally feel, as a creator myself, that if you put out a piece of creative material, you do not get to have a say in what people say about that work. If people mock it, then they mock it, and you need to accept that as it comes. If people think it's killing their fandom, then they do, and you need to learn to roll with that. And if your heroes and idols mock it, well, maybe it should serve as a reminder that they too are people, and people are inherently flawed. Just because someone's a celebrity does not mean they're necessarily a nice person, or even that they like you all that much. Was some of what they did a shitty thing to do? Yes, absolutely, and I 100% sympathize with the people that actually were emotionally and mentally hurt by those callous actions, but come on, people - that does not excuse your behavior here. You getting your feelings hurt and feeling like you've been betrayed by someone you never even really knew that well is pretty damn sad, and if that did describe you, then you really need to grow up, move past that shit, and get your priorities straight, because trust me - the world is not nice, your idols don't owe you a damn thing, and it's quite frankly childish and selfish to think that they do. That said, this whole thing does bring up another very serious problem, aside from some creators getting high off their successes and many fans childishly assuming these creators admire them as much as they admire the creators, then feeling betrayed and hurt when said creators do not live up to their expectations or beliefs. That issue is, as I've pointed out before, that there is too much bad writing in the Slenderverse right now, too much excess clogging the system, and that's why the 'verse is in a downswing right now. There is just too much glut in the system, too much detritus of the same concept reapplied and rehashed over and over. There is no denying that plenty of people still want, and still want to produce, Slenderman media, but half of them are simply not doing it right, copying the same stuff everyone else does. You can argue that the games did it or creator cruelty did it or Marble Hornets ending did it or insert bullshit excuse here, but the fact remains: we need to end this plague if we want our old Slendy back. We need to focus on what really makes him frightening and fascinating, and that means applying some logic here. "But Sugary!" you cry, tugging feebly at the fringes of my tawny, Timasky-inspired jacket I always wear on chilly fall afternoons like this one, "I want to write a slenderblog/creepypasta, or film a slendervlog/short film! I want to see more Slenderman! I want to write him and I promise I'll do it really good and really cool and everyone will love it!" First of all, why are you grovelling on my jacket, because that's pretty weird and I'm not Herr GroBmann's maker. Second, you think you can do it, write him. You don't need to ask permission to do that, he's pretty much open-source anyway (even if that open-sourceness is disputed) since he's sunken into the pop culture miasma. But if you're going to write him, take a few tips from this Slenderauthor, and try to remember them:
You all knew that as big a fan of Lovecraftian Horror as I am, that this was coming.
First up, a quick warning. This blog entry discusses a very... notorious and controversial and heavy topic in Sci-fi and horror literature, as you can probably see from the title. There will be some unfortunate language used in quotes as a result in this entry. Be aware that the opinions expressed in this piece are not intended to belittle or in any way cause offense to anyone, of any race, color, or creed. I am aware my own privilege may play into what I am about to say here today, and I am aware of how serious this issue is. But as a female horror author with mental illness, I would be stupid not to comment on this very, very serious issue that, to my knowledge, I wasn't aware that people didn't know about and were still very troubled by. So, here goes nothing. This is your final chance to leave if you think this entry might be problematic for you, or if you just don't want to get involved. So guys, H. P. Lovecraft was a Jazz Era (20's-30's) Horror and Sci-fi author who wrote a great number of stories and poems. In many of his stories, the pervasive themes of human insignificance in the universe and the fear of the unknown and other are prominant. They speak to a paranoid place in our minds, the part that wonders if something... evil and other isn't watching us as we speak, something dangerous and disastrous and beyond our mortal ken. What do we really know about the universe, even with all our scientific advances? What can we really hope to achieve when humankind itself is so primitive, backwards, and pointless compared to the rest of what's lurking out there? How much knowledge do we really have on the earth's history, or hell, even our own family history? No, better to remain blissfully ignorant, for ignorance is bliss. Anyhow, Lovecraft's legacy left a huge impact on science fiction and horror as a whole, and introduced the Cthulhu Mythos (which Lovecraft himself actually referred to as "Yog-Sothothory" due to Yog-Sothoth being a more important figure in his work than Cthulhu himself) to the world. Vast, abyssal cosmos of monstrous creatures, blind idiot gods at the center of time and space dancing to the beat of blasphemous drums and flutes, Pharaohs that embodied a crawling chaos and black goats of the woods that spawned thousands of monsters... This and more Lovecraft brought to the imagination of hundreds, and eventually, millions. There are RPGs, video games, movies, and all sorts of other cool as fuck things based on his works. He's part of the reason giant monsters are so damn awesome. And not only that, but his (admittedly purple prosy) literary works have inspired today's horror authors, names like Neil Gaiman and Brian Lumley, and, of course, yours truly. Lovecraft was also a racist dumbfuck. Like, really a racist dumbfuck. Like, more so than most people in the 20's, a racist dumbfuck. He basically believed Hitler was "too optimistic" in his genocidal plans, he felt that people of color, immigrants, and non-city-dwellers were moronic and subhuman, and he was anti-Semitic as fuck. The man literally wrote a poem called "On the Origin of Niggers" and his cat was named "Niggerman". I swear to Azathoth I am not making this up, because I couldn't if I tried. There is simply no two ways of getting around it - Lovecraft had some very, very nasty, venomous views, and these nasty and venomous views are intricately woven into his work. If you're a Lovecraftian like I am, and that paragraph up there made you twinge, or made you angry, or made you burn inside... Good. Absolutely, positively good. Because it should make you angry, it should upset you, and it should horrify you to know that the very author you idolize was a bigot. That means that you, on the inside, know those same bigoted beliefs are 100% wrong, and it means you are a much better person for it. It's also completely okay to feel that way. It's okay. Really. I promise. It's also okay, then, to do what Nnedi Okorafor, a sci-fi and fantasy author of color, did and express concern about a notoriously and overtly racist person like Lovecraft being used on an award for fantasy works. She was apparently not aware, until a close friend of hers showed her a particularly... virulent poem written by Lovecraft, that Howard was very much not fond of non-whites. This, understandably, gave her a lot of reservations about her recent awarding of the "Howard" (as it's come to be known) for her novel. And to be honest? I 110% do not blame her for that - hell, I'd be a bit offended too, even if my own privilege shields me from the kind of vicious racism people of color face. Is it any wonder she and others feel it's time to change the World Fantasy Award design from something other than a guy who believed that people of color were "Filled with vice"? But then again, here's the question - should this award's design be changed at all? Obviously, yes, the design itself is ugly as fuck - I mean, have you seen what this award looks like? It looks like Lovecraft and a Deep One mated and had an unholy abortion. Yes, it's that ugly-looking, as Goomi pointed out in his hilarious Cthulhu Mythos webcomic Unspeakable Vault of Doom. But of course, that's not what I'm talking about - I mean, should we keep the award's design or not, however ugly its implications may be, based on what it says about the past? Let me explain this another way - yes, Lovecraft was racist, extremely so, and anti-Semitic. He also was damn imaginative and damn creative, as even one look at any of his works shows. The fact that his bigotry played a huge part in his work, especially his early work (by the 30's, even he realized how ass-backwards a lot of his views were, mostly because he had since gone out into the world and realized they were wrong), is undeniable - come on, the man made one of his primary big bads, Nyarlathotep (my favorite of his creations), have avatars in the form of dark-skinned men, and basically dehumanized the cultures of Africa as backwards worshippers of things that should not be. That's pretty damn blatant. But does it change the fact that this same work is considered to be part of classic horror literature, or that this same work inspires many, many people to write? Does it change the fact that, in many people's opinion, the man's work was some of the best horror authorship and creativity of all time? In the end, I am ambivalent to the changing of the award, although I do hope they make it something less hideous-looking if they go for changing it. I am, however, with Miss Okorafor on one thing - how to deal with the beliefs of who the award was modeled after, and how to deal with the fact that our idols often are flawed and fallen in ways we can't help but be disgusted by. On that, I'll just close this by quoting her own words, because I feel she says it better than I can: "This is something people of color, women, minorities must deal with more than most when striving to be the greatest that they can be in the arts: The fact that many of The Elders we honor and need to learn from hate or hated us. Do I want “The Howard” (the nickname for the World Fantasy Award statuette. Lovecraft’s full name is “Howard Phillips Lovecraft”) replaced with the head of some other great writer? Maybe. Maybe it’s about that time. Maybe not. What I know I want it to face the history of this leg of literature rather than put it aside or bury it. If this is how some of the great minds of speculative fiction felt, then let’s deal with that... as opposed to never mention it or explain it away. If Lovecraft’s likeness and name are to be used in connection to the World Fantasy Award, I think there should be some discourse about what it means to honor a talented racist." I couldn't agree more, Nnedi. I couldn't agree more. Note: This is edited from a discussion a friend of mine and I had on Skype. Nothing has been edited except names for privacy, and a few other things for readability.
[3:25:47 AM] DarkShadows: I think the Operator is a metaphor for mental illness. Look what happens in MH. It's basically the story of four young men who suffer from crippling mental disorders. The symptoms the Operator causes for people hearken back to this (except the coughing). The fact that people slowly lose their mind through the story also goes back to this. In the end, Alex succumbs to his mental illness. He refuses to "take the medicine" so to speak and ends up harming himself and others, and eventually dying. Jay fights it for much longer, but also does not succeed and ends up dead simply because he does not listen to the advice of his friend Tim, who tries to warn him that if he doesn't get help then the problem will get worse (as mental diseases do). Brian and Tim were already suffering from mental illnesses, but Brian never overcame his. Tim snapped out of it just long enough to realize his actions were not sane, and they were hurting people. So, he got help. He got better. He relapsed because Jay pulled him into confronting his actual issue again instead of letting it fall by the wayside, but even then Tim held on strong enough to prevent a complete relapse. Tim succeeded in the end because he held onto the idea that there is hope, there is a way of getting better, there is a way out. Marble Hornets therefore is a story about mental illness and how to deal with it - first by showing how someone who falls into it should NOT deal with it, and then by also showing how someone already in it SHOULD deal with it. That said, what have we learned from MH about this?
[3:27:35 AM] DarkShadows: I just felt there was a very, very strong theme of mental illness and learning to cope with it in MH. Maybe it's because I've basically been in and out of therapy my whole life, IDK. But that's what I read it as. Tim is easily also one of the best examples of a mentally ill character who is relatable, sympathetic, and a genuine person. Too many things in the media do not portray mentally ill people favorably. Tim fucks up, Tim has his issues, and Tim eventually learns to deal with them however scary or horrible they are. [3:29:09 AM | Edited 3:29:14 AM] AIDAN : What about that time he kept Jessica secret from J for two years? [3:29:20 AM] DarkShadows: Think about it this way. Jessica was an enabler. [3:29:43 AM] A: Maybe...but it was also a major cause of Jay's breakdown - the grief. [3:30:12 AM] A: I understand Tim's reasoning but disagree with his choice. [3:30:29 AM] DarkShadows: Jessica was essentially a human form of a delusion for Jay. She was never something attainable. Tim knew that if Jay found that out, it would ruin him. He basically did what anyone would do - he tried to hide it. He couldn't. I disagree with his choice as well. [3:30:40 AM] DarkShadows: I'm not saying what he did was good, I'm saying as a character he's relateable. [3:30:50 AM] A: oh definitely. [3:30:57 AM] DarkShadows: Everyone in MH did some really, really morally questionable things actually. [3:31:37 AM | Edited 3:31:49 AM] A: I actually think [Tim]Masky was the most morally white character. [3:32:28 AM] DarkShadows: Nobody in that series was sane, at all. I think Tim had an upper hand though because he's been dealing with this shit since childhood. He basically already had some coping skills to deal with the whole Operator thing, which IS his mental illness as we have established. [3:32:49 AM] DarkShadows: Why do we ask for help? because we realize we've fallen down. [3:32:54 AM] A: What you're saying is his acceptance gave him an advantage. [3:32:57 AM] DarkShadows: Yes. So while everyone else continued to decline, Tim essentially got a bit better. When Tim tries to throw the mask away at the end and then goes back for it, that shows that despite what he tries, his mental illness is part of him. He can't get rid of it so he might as well as embrace it. [3:34:07 AM] DarkShadows: Every character had their own story arc. That was Tim's. [3:34:20 AM] A: I don't think embrace it, I think more like "become reliant on". [3:34:30 AM] DarkShadows: I disagree. [3:35:07 AM] DarkShadows: Notice Masky never does come back. My theory is that Tim keeps the mask as a reminder of why he tried so hard to get better in the first place. He doesn't wanna be in that dark place he was ever again. [3:35:21 AM] A: A mental crutch of sorts, he didn't ask for it. It became him. Once you are part of something like that you shape yourself around it. [3:35:26 AM] DarkShadows: Yes. [3:35:39 AM] DarkShadows: A painful piece of yourself, but a piece of yourself nonetheless. [3:35:52 AM] A: He, unfortunately, was as much Masky as Masky was Tim. [3:36:04 AM] DarkShadows: Is that unfortunate though? [3:36:16 AM] A: Yes, he didn't want it. He was forced into a state of near insanity. [3:36:31 AM] DarkShadows: Nobody wants to be mentally ill, dude... [3:36:32 AM] A: he almost killed two people. Why would he want that? And its unfortunate that he was put in that position [to start with]. [3:37:47 AM] DarkShadows: you're not getting at what I am. I'm saying that at first, Tim hated the fact he had this awful side to him. Because he nearly killed two people. Because he hurt a lot more. Because he's never really been sane. That tortured him. By the end of the series though, Tim has learned to realize that, as painful as it is, Masky and all he did as Masky is part of him. Masky is another representation of Tim's mental illness, the part Tim does not want to face and hates, but by the end of the series, he's learned to accept. [3:38:51 AM] A: and what I am saying is that it is unfortunate he was put into a position where that was part of him to begin with. Yes, he had to accept it, but no one should have that kind of mental stress put on them. [3:38:58 AM] DarkShadows: Yes, I agree. [3:39:21 AM] DarkShadows: But you're also assuming that the Operator is not a metaphor. I am speaking from the POV of the Operator being a symbol. XD [3:39:31 AM] DarkShadows: I'm doing some literature dissection. That's all. [3:39:38 AM] A: I do tend to think more in the literal. [3:39:50 AM] DarkShadows: Yeah and I think more symbolically. XD [3:40:22 AM] DarkShadows: LITERALLY speaking, you are right. Tim's hands were tied. everyone's hands were tied. Why? Well probably because the Operator had some agenda. What that agenda is, we just dunno and we never will. It's possible he just wanted everyone dead. It's also possible he was just seeing what would happen. It's even possible that he only really cared about Tim's end of the story this whole time, and all these other people got wrapped up in it. [3:41:58 AM] DarkShadows: I'm of the opinion, speaking literally, that the Operator really just wanted to see what would happen. he took an interest in Tim at a young age. He Proxified Tim at a young age. Therefore, of course he's gonna keep an eye on Tim. He's interested in seeing what Tim does with this new status. [3:42:13 AM] A: Well I do also mean from a mental perspective of the unfortunate thing that is mental illness, and with rare schizophrenia like that, dual personalities is one of the worst things, that thought that the one thing that is truly yours, your mind, is host to something you loathe. [3:42:24 AM] DarkShadows: yes,you're right. [3:43:01 AM] A: It would terrifying, to think that if he ever couldn't afford his meds, he wouldn't get to own his body. Something ruthless and cold would take it over, and [he] wouldn't remember who saw [his] face staring them down in horror. [3:44:06 AM] DarkShadows: Which is another reason I think the ending is about Tim finding a way of accepting that part of himself. Instead of running from it like Jay did, or just accepting it like Brian and Alex did and losing himself entirely, he found a balance. Yes he does have to worry about the meds thing, and that was brought up. [3:44:27 AM] DarkShadows: So really... the pill bottle is a symbol of control. Which... think about this. Pill. Pills sometimes are round, especially many anti-psychotics. X through a circular pill... Operator symbol. The symbolic lack of control. The nullification of control. Over yourself, over your state of mind, over everything. [3:45:41 AM] A: And that would explain Brian using it. He accepted the loss of control [3:45:50 AM] DarkShadows: Yes. So did Alex. [3:46:30 AM] A: And Masky, since he wanted Tim to lose control, not entirely i don't think... but just enough. [3:46:38 AM] DarkShadows: Masky is Tim, though. Masky is Tim without any control. [3:47:21 AM] A: That's a maybe, is he though? Is he Tim or is he another sentient being? He thinks different; acts different. [3:47:35 AM] DarkShadows: I dunno if it's ever exactly clarified *what* disorder Tim suffers from. Some say schizophrenia, some say DID. [3:47:48 AM] DarkShadows: People do think and act different when they're mentally ill. Their brains don't operate normally. That doesn't mean who they are when they're not under control is someone/something else. [3:48:36 AM] A: True, and I suppose we never get to know. That's something only Tim really knows. [3:49:13 AM] DarkShadows: It depends what exactly Tim's diagnosis is. So, decide for yourself. If it's Schizophrenia or an anxiety disorder of some kind, I'm likely right. If it's DID, you're probably right. [3:50:11 AM] A: It's funny, even the channel had another side to its illness, ToTheArk. [3:50:42 AM] DarkShadows: Even Tim yelling at Alex in the penultimate episode, "Stop, this is what it wants". Meaning, this is what Alex's illness wants in a sense. Tim was literally pleading with Alex to control his illness and get help. Tim was trying to help him. Because Tim went through that, he lost his friend to that, he lost Jay to that. [3:51:23 AM] A: He lost everyone [to that]. [3:51:28 AM] DarkShadows: Pretty damn much. It's watching you right now. Watching and waiting. Run away. Now. It's your only hope. Run and never look back. You might still be able to save yourself. And for God's sake, whatever you do, don't look out the window... ... Now that I have made all the Marble Hornets fans in the audience collectively wet themselves, on to the actual discussion. But first, I have a brief addendum. I previously stated some incorrect facts concerning Slendy's origin and creation at SomethingAwful, as well as some incorrect information concerning its appearance. Those mistakes have since been corrected and I apologize for that. No really, I'm sorry about the mistakes. It's not because I have a creepy guy in a mask holding me at knifepoint or anything... So guys, let's talk about the Slenderman Mythos. Anonymous, creepy, and absolutely everywhere, there is not a single more genuinely symbolic entity of what the internet is than the tall, skinny, faceless humanoid abomination for which this series of blogs, vlogs, fanfics, creepypasta entries, and various other tales (including a video game now, called Slender, and several spinoff games of it) are named. And there is probably nothing more frightening than a being created online that some people are now convinced is real. What is the Slenderman? Simply put, an eldritch abomination older than humankind, known mostly for spiriting away young children and causing horrific tragedy to follow in its wake. It stands anywhere from 9-12 feet tall, and is impossibly skinny (which is where its moniker comes from). It has many names - the Tall Man, The Operator, The Thin Man, etc. It commonly is seen to be wearing a gentleman's business suit, complete with a usually black or red tie, its arms are far too long for its body's proportions, and it is completely faceless. It has no eyes, no mouth, no ears, and only a vague concept of what we'd consider a nose to be - and sometimes, not even that. It is commonly shown to have tentacle-like appendages which it can expand and retract at will, used for snagging hapless victims. It dwells in forests mostly, moving through the trees with supernatural speed and agility when you can't see it, and standing eerily still or slowly closing in when you can. It can teleport and be in multiple places at once. It seems to have some form of psionic ability, and some say it can even induce madness and hallucinatory images. Some say it kills its victims and leaves their organs replaced haphazardly in their body cavities or the bodies horribly mutilated. Others say if it captures you, it warps your mind and body until you become a being fully willing to work for its own agenda. What is this agenda? Nobody knows. If you think about it too long, it will find and begin to haunt you. If you research it, it begins to follow you, and the more you research it, the more it will appear to you... and you will be the only one able to see it. You will be stalked and eventually disappear... unless you can avoid it. If you believe too strongly in it, or become too obsessed with figuring out this enigmatic being that tails you, then you slowly go insane. If you stare at it for too long, it will pull you into some sort of trance, leaving you entirely helpless to its attack. Encountering it is said to cause sickness, including headaches, nausea, vomiting, coughing, and other indicators of illness. If captured on film, either motion or still, it causes strange distortions, including static, audiovisual problems, and other issues. Its true nature is shrouded in mystery and fear, and seems to see humans as something foreign to observe... or possibly destroy. It seems to be connected to a strange symbol, pictured above - a circle with an X drawn through it, known as the Operator symbol - and it is unknown if this symbol protects a person from its influence... or summons the being. Some say it is waging war against humanity, taking some of our kind and turning them into servents called Proxies. Some say it is neutral, and the tragedy attributed to it is merely coincidental. Some say it is a magical being or a fae. Some believe it is an alien or other foreign being. All agree that it is most certainly not human, and it is very, very dangerous... How did it come to be? The Slenderman was born from a forum competition back in 2009 on the infamous and always interesting SomethingAwful forums, in a contest meant to involve creating a photograph of a monster or manufactured urban legend. It was here that the first few images of the Slenderman were formed, painting it as distinctly malevolent. These images won the competition, and soon became memetic, spreading throughout the internet. Eventually, the manufactured legend outgrew its home territorry when two SA forum Goons created the Youtube series Marble Hornets (presumably a reference to the black and white static caused by the entity and the buzzing noise associated with said static). This video series, now up to 60 episodes and counting, essentially codified and confirmed much of the canon surrounding the Slenderman, and now is considered the codifier of many aspects of the Mythos. From it sprang two other video series called EverymanHYBRID and TribeTwelve, the other two of the "Big Three" Slenderman Mythos web series, and from them have sprung blogs, vlogs, video series, films, and more, and the legend shows no signs of dying yet. The series that began all this madness even has a spinoff series called totheark, which focuses on a recurring and mysterious character that is present in several of the Marble Hornets videos. Today, the Slenderman and its mythos continue to flourish and thrive, generating paranoia and fear in generations of internet users and inspiring horror afficionados everywhere. But why is the Slenderman such a potent source of fear? What about it jangles us to the core? Even someone unaware of what Slenderman is would no doubt be frightened by it, but why? That is what I set out to discuss and hopefully answer here today. For those Slenderfans in the audience, no, this won't become another Slenderblog (hopefully) - I don't think I could even begin to keep up with half of the blogs because they're so damn tangled together and every single one out there has crossed over with at least five other blogs at some point, some of them doing so multiple times. Plus, I just don't have the time to sit down and construct the kind of elaborate tale that so many of those blogs weave, and I'm not sure what, if any, new ideas I could contribute to the Slenderman Mythos. If you did come here looking for another Testing123 or Just Another Fool, I'm sorry to disappoint you. If you came here looking for another Marble Hornets, then I'm really sorry to disappoint you. This is just an out-of-canon look at the entity this Mythos is based around, and nothing more. Hopefully it will give some insight into those looking for a more basic interpretation or just some interesting discussion - you know me, I love horror, and I love talking about horror even more. I was recently engaged in conversation with a relatively newish author on FFN named Zaikia, who has apparently become interested in the Slenderman Mythos. She is currently working on a Slenderman Mythos fic based in the same universe as the series Marble Hornets (many Slendy stories depict this series as genuinely fictional in their own in-story universe, although many still borrow elements from it), and I've been giving her a little bit of feedback on improving the story from a characterization and writing standpoint. Admittedly, it's difficult to pin a personality on a character that isn't human and literally is a blank slate, but that is ultimately the beauty of it - because the Slenderman has no one interpretation, any interpretation is correct. Its story is ongoing and its origin is multiple choice, somewhat like how the Joker's origin is multiple choice. This increases author flexibility and has resulted in myriad discriptions of the being's motives, personality, abilities, powers, and even some slight variations in its appearance. It's the reason some people, when drawing the being, give it a mouth with teeth, and others leave it blank. As new ideas fall into place from various blogs, vlogs, films, and other sources, old ideas fall away. It used to be commonly thought in the fandom that the being's face appeared differently for every person that saw it. Now, it is believed that it has no face and never did, always appearing blank to every person that sees it. During the course of the conversation I had with Zaikia about her story, the discussion turned to theorization on the being's abilities and powers as well as why he watched humans so much. Later, the discussion turned to the topic of why the Slenderman is such a frightening figure in general, without any of the trimmings of legend attached to it. Below is an excerpt from this discussion. As always, it's been edited only where necessary to clarify things and add in more information. Notably, the masuline pronoun (He/His/Him) is used to refer to this being, although it should be noted that this being is more properly an it, and generally considered to be genderless. The masculine pronoun is used for clarification only. "I think it is very likely that he (Slendy) is an observer. The same way we observe animals at a zoo with interest, he observes us. It is likely he has existed since the beginning of time and will continue to exist for as long as humanity does. My theory is that he so happens to feed upon human fear, and that is why simply being around him when he's in the area causes such paranoia - something about whatever he is, I think. I don't know if he intentionally causes it for his amusement/sustainance, or if it's an aftereffect - but I do agree that belief in him makes him real, and the more you believe in him (sort of like the boogeyman) the more power he has and the more he could potentially come after you. Perhaps he is a protector of the forests or a forest spirit of some sort; perhaps he simply adapts whenever humans do and is highly evolved to be some sort of predator to the apex predator - man. Whatever he actually is, I'm not exactly convinced that he's completely evil - or if he is, then he is only evil by human standards of evil and might not even think of himself as evil. We believe him to be evil because he hunts us - what prey does not think of their predator as an evil pursuer? And think about it - when have we ever seen Slendy, in any tale about him, physically harming a human being with clearly malicious intent? It's just too blurred a line to say for certain what side of the fence he is on. "It is possible that the tendrils are there as feelers of sorts - they sense motion, currents of air, the presence of other beings, etc. They are basically his means of gathering information about his surroundings. Since he doesn't have any visible eyes that we know of, he may "see" in heat vision or some form of inaudible-to-humans echolocation, or perhaps he hunts by sound waves or vibrations, which could also be felt not only through the ground but also through his tendrils. He may even hunt telepathically, pinpointing his prey by reading where they mentally are or tracking them through their growing paranoia, which would lend credence to the idea that he is a phobovore (fear-eater). If he does have actual vision, it is probably nothing like our vision. For example, he may see in fuzzy, black-and-white vision, and he probably can see incredibly well in the dark. It is even likely that he is blind, but not completely, and can sense changes in light and darkness only. Or he could have some sort of vision that is even more foreign to humans than this. It would seem as though, if he does actually eat humans, he may do it to scare them even more and said human is actually warped somewhere, not devoured, since in recent interpretations, no bodies from any of Slendy's victims are ever found. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if he was somewhat like the Weeping Angels in Doctor Who - those creatures are motionless when you look at them, incredibly fast if you turn your back, and if they catch you, they will warp you to another time entirely and feed upon the time-space that you left unoccupied. Maybe Slendy does something like that to his victims, with the exception that he certainly can move if you can see him, and is incredibly fast if you can't. We may never know, and as long as this character is speculated on and written/drawn/has videos made of him, we'll have lots of possibilities to discuss." At this point, Zaikia pointed out that she believed the paranoia surrounding the Slenderman came from its lack of any visible facial features. I agreed, bringing up the idea of the Uncanny Valley as well as some interesting implications behind why the Mythos is so frightening: "I agree. Nothing is scarier than nothingness, and what is Slenderman but the ultimate example of anonymity? He lives in forests. It is unknown what his mission is or where his victims are taken. He has no face. He wears a suit, and anyone who wears a suit is clearly very serious or on business duty, and is either untrustworthy or considered to be less approachable. Anonymous, an internet trolling group, uses the image of a faceless man in a business suit as their mascot, and for very good reason - they do not have any set identity, which makes them rather frightening and unknowable. There being a concept of nothing there in the woods while you're wandering about at night is far scarier than the idea of there being something there, because at least you know there is something out there. You can pin a name and face to a monster like the Rake, another Creepypasta entity (or Creepybeast as I collectively refer to them). No so with Slendy. "Why is this? Because the Slenderman is literally unknowable and unknown, precisely because he lacks the one thing humans use to understand who and what a person is - a face. Humans attach a LOT of identity, personality, and knowability to a face, to the point that we even see faces in inanimate objects like clouds, cars, chairs, and more. This effect, when taken to the extreme, is called Pareidolia, and is a type of psychological phenomenon called apophina, the seeing of meaningful patterns in meaningless information. That is why we see faces where there aren't any, and why we give personalities to inanimate objects. Now, think about what this means in terms of a human being or humanoid that lacks these features. If someone or something lacks a face, we become instantly uneasy and frightened, because there is nothing to attribute any sort of personality or familiarity to. We don't know what the person is thinking, we don't even know if they're human. So really, Slendy having no face is playing to our fears of the uncanny and unfamiliar. Slenderman came from the internet, from collective speculation that willed him into being, and he sprung from our subconscious fears of strangers, foreign things, being lost, loneliness, etc. He continues to exist in our minds because all humans, to some degree, exhibit fears of those things, even if we will not admit it. If given a phobia to represent, Slenderman would represent xenophobia, the fear of strangers or foreign things, things we don't and can't understand. He operates on the same fear that most eldritch abominations, from Lovecraft's Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep to the alien geometries of the house in House of Leaves, operate on. In other words, Slenderman is literally the embodiment of a very common human fear, one passed down from ancient ages innumerable. And that fear is the fear of the unknown. "Why does the Slenderman inspire this fear of the unknown, exactly? Because of the Uncanny Valley effect. This term comes from the world of robotics and engineering, and was coined by a Japanese robotics professor named Masahiro Mori. In layman's terms, the Uncanny Valley is a theoretical graph of familiarity versus how human-like something is, usually a robot. When a human being comes into contact with something human or human-like, they feel a sense of familiarity with that thing. If something is clearly not human, like a teddy bear, we feel alright with it in the room so long as it is clearly not supposed to be human-like. However, the more human that thing acts and the less human-like it looks, the more uncomfortable the person becomes with it. Our brains think it should be a person, but it's just... not, because it doesn't act like a normal, healthy human. It's a person to our brains, but it is a person that isn't quite right. In a graph of familiarity and how human-like something is, as we get more towards something looking like a human but not acting quite like a real human, the more uncomfortable we get, creating a dip in the graph. This dip is the "uncanny valley", where the human-like thing seems human but we know it isn't human - it's not human enough, or it's too human for what we know it should be. This creates strong revulsion, fear, nervousness, and general dislike of something, and the valley is deeper if an entity is moving rather than if it is still. At the bottom of the valley is the zombie, or a human corpse. This is likely why so many people dislike dolls, clowns, and very human-like robots - they act human, but don't look it, or they act human, but not quite human enough. Here is a graph of the Uncanny Valley to help explain my point: "I believe the Uncanny Valley is something that the Slenderman, as a concept, deliberately invokes. He looks human. But he's not human. He acts almost human, but he's not human. He moves, but his motions aren't human. That creates a strong feeling of wrongness and results in paranoia, and that is where the frightening aspect of the Slenderman comes in. He doesn't look quite human, doesn't act quite human, and doesn't have a face. He's too tall to be human. His proportions are wrong for a human being. He watches people constantly, and that spooks people. Think of any very human-like robot - gives you a weird feeling seeing it move, right? That's the Uncanny Valley in effect, sending chills down your spine and making you shiver until you get a bad case of the goosebumps. In other words, the Slenderman is just human-like enough as to make us feel like he looks uncannily familiar to a human... but he is not human. And that is why this being is such a potent example of nightmare fuel, and why he induces paranoia in those who read, watch, or discuss tales about him." So, there you have it, a little bit of discourse concerning one of the most fascinating, quickly growing, and downright terrifying memes the internet has ever spawned. Now, do be careful out in the woods on those last-minute camping trips, I've heard there's been some unexplained disappearances reported recently. And for those currently blogging about their encounters with this entity, those still running from it, I will say this: 01001001 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100001 01101110 01101110 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100010 01101001 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101001 01101101 01100101 00101110 00100000 01000111 01101111 01101111 01100100 00100000 01101100 01110101 01100011 01101011 00101100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110111 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01101110 01100101 01100101 01100100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00101110 ----- That's where the original article I wrote ends, made up of discussion about how Slendy invokes the Uncanny Valley to great effect, and why so many find him frightening even if they aren't aware of any of the stories within the mythos. However, that's not the end of the discussion, as I've since talked with some other Slenderfans about the topic of horror tropes, the psychology of horror, and Mr. Tall-And-Faceless in general. What follows is a series of excerpts from those discussions, speaking a bit more about the subject of horror in the Slenderman Mythos. As always, the discussions are edited for brevity, clarity, and better readability. -----
"It is highly unusual in Lovecraft-style stories, and even seen as Jumping the Shark to some, to go into the idea of the abomination in the story (whatever it is) having some sort of sentience. Usually they are mindless beings that don't even know humanity's there, really, although a few are sentient and do purposefully toy with humans, such as with the Lovecraftian being Nyarlathotep. Slendy is different in this regard. It offers human beings odds, odds stacked in its favor, and if it feels you are not worth the gamble, it can either kill you, or let you go. The idea of Slendy being sentient and purposefully choosing its victims like a human serial killer would is, to me, far scarier than the characterization some have of him as being an aimless, hungry hunter, because it implies that Slendy is purposefully tormenting humanity and actively enjoys messing with his targets. It makes it less of a passive abomination and more of something that will chase you down relentlessly and torment you without any sort of remorse whatsoever. And that very idea is chilling enough to send shivers all through your spinal cord. "I also find it fascinating that this particular entity, because it has seen so much fandom evolution, can be written as anything from almost neutral to pure evil, as sentient or aimless, as genuinely liking children in a friendly manner and not truly intending them any harm or as actively hating children and intending great harm to them indeed. It can be written as being fascinated by humanity, or disgusted by it. It can be written as being curious and therefore seeing us as specimens to dissect, experiment with, and observe. It can be written as hungry for our flesh and blood, or as merely hungering for our fear. That type of fluidity with a character is only possible through an amalgamation of many, many different traits and takes on them, and what's unique here is that Slendy is never explicitly given a canonical motive for what it does. That makes it unique from other mercurial characters like, for example, the Joker from Batman - he's also a fluid character with a great deal of interpretation to him, but he differs from Slendy as a villain because he does have a motive, and we sort of do know exactly why he does what he does, but we can still write him in several ways and several flavors because his whims literally change with the tides. The Joker can be anything from a prankster to a monster clown to a flat-out killer and anything in between, because that character's basic trait is that he changes his motives, methods, and ways to fit every particular scenario. Much like a real clown, the Joker puts on facades and acts to get what he wants - he does what gets under peoples' skin, but because people are different, the Joker must differ his methods. And he actively enjoys doing so, because everything is a joke to him. "With Slendy, we don't get that kind of clear-cut motive and we don't get a resolution. We have a character that is literally without an identity, without a face even, and represents anonymity and the fear of the unknown. So in a way, all these stories are really our human attempts to "pin a face" on the Slenderman so we can either confirm or deny those fears of what it really wants. So really, Slendy is even more fluid than any other fluid character could ever be - not only does it not have a clearly set reason for existing or doing what it does, it doesn't even have its own identity, symbolized by its lack of any facial features. Humans attribute a LOT about identity and knowability to a face, and when something is literally devoid of that, not only do we panic, we also begin to wonder just what that faceless being's real plans are... and that anonymity and mystery often makes us spin a blank-faced being as malevolent. That's also why I have a love-hate relationship with the idea of some people giving Slendy a mouth with really sharp, awful teeth that he can conceal and reveal at will. That's a really cool, creepy concept, but I feel it somewhat ruins the horror of there being nothing there for a person to identify with on any level. It somewhat ruins his anonymous, unknown and unknowable feel, I think, even if it is really damn scary. And what is the Slenderman but the ultimate personification of anonymity and the unknown made real? What is it we can say is one of the most primary human fears but the unknown? There's so many ways you can spin that fear, so many things you can do with something that has no clear motive... it's very versatile for an author, because it leaves things open to interpretation. "That's a good reason why I love the Slenderman Mythos actually - versatility. Because the antagonist's motive is not clear, you can pretty much tell whatever story you want to tell, and that's a level of flexibility not really reached with characters that have a specified goal. Even in fanfiction, which I also write, you're pretty much restricted to what and who the character is - for instance, it'd make no sense for someone like Batman, who is supposed to be the good guy, to suddenly start attacking random civilians, unless there was a specific reason he would do so (for example, the people we think are innocent civilians are actually criminals in hiding). With a character like Slenderman, you really don't have that problem, and I think that's why its mythos has grown so quickly. What, it's been like since 2004 since Slendy was first introduced on SomethingAwful as part of a random contest there? That's only about 8 years. It's not even a decade old in fandom terms, and Slenderman already has almost as many stories about it as any of Lovecraft's monsters and beasts. That's not just impressive, that's formidable, and it comes from a fandom that is very open about its main antagonist, which is why there ARE so many different interpretations. It's not really about how you happen to like your Slenderman. It's about how you feel it should act in a given situation, and what you feel is creepiest/worst/best/most unique about it. "On that note, I do have to wonder just how many of the legends concerning Slendy are actually true in-canon, and how many of them are misunderstandings. If you dig deep enough into the Creepypasta lore behind this being, some of the first supposed "folklore" tales about it show it not so much as a child-killer, but as something that scares naughty kids straight in the most frightening possible way - by stalking them until they agree to obey their parents, and then kidnapping them if they refuse to behave. In some adaptations no bodies from its victims are ever found (this seems to be a recent thing; the implication is that the bodies are either somehow absorbed or eaten by Slendy, or the victims are made into Proxies). Of course, it doesn't help that it has freaking tentacles and moves so fast that it could be twenty feet away from you one second and right behind you the next. I am personally of the opinion (in-canon only, of course) that Slendy doesn't really care all that much about humanity (because it just isn't human and therefore we're just another animal to it), but does view us as a curiosity and something to test the limits of. That is, we're an experiment to it, although it's also equally likely that we could be a food source - but then again, nothing from the mainstream canon purposefully supports the theory that it eats humans, if it even has to eat at all. As for the organs in bags and mutilated bodies so prevalent in the original tales about the being, my theory still holds water - do you have any sort of attachment to or care for a frog you'd dissect in Biology? Probably not. Same case with Slendy, except there's no human dissection store that it can just go to and obtain dead humans for, and it really doesn't need to steal bodies when it can so easily capture them for itself. Then again, the canon for this mythos changes so much you have to be willing to accept different canonical interpretations, depending on which webshows you watch, which blogs you read, which fanfics, etc. It's why I like sticking outside of those tales and spinning my own interpretation, because that leaves things so, so much more open in terms of a story-telling viewpoint. And the nice thing is, since the canon is ever-changing and always open to new ideas about Slendy, there's really no right or wrong way to tell a Slenderman Mythos story."
"I'd LOVE to see [Slenderman] and its mythos enter the mainstream; there's certainly an audience for it amongst those who like Lovecraftian Horror, Supernatural Horror, or even just a good monster story every now and again. Maybe some books, maybe some feature films... but to be honest, I almost want it to stay exclusively an internet thing, because really, the concept of this being is probably something best told in whispers and legends, best thought possibly real, best disseminated through the internet like an urban legend, since it is already a fabricated urban legend to begin with. That's part of where the horror with Slenderman comes from. It's an urban legend... so who knows? It could be real. People do really disappear in forests and end up dead. People have ended up being stalked by strangers - just look at any celebrity who's had an obsessed, crazy fan follow them to and from work, to their houses, even breaking in to get at them in some cases. People do indeed sometimes see things that look unearthly at night and think they're shadows. What if they're not? It appeals to the Little Us, that little kid who timidly believes there really is a monster under the bed - but now, that Little Us is in a big body, and all the Little Us wants is to be scared and have fun with it. "I think ultimately, Slenderman and his mythos could NOT have been created anywhere other than on the internet. Not really, and even if he were, then he would not be the same being we know and love (to fear?). Note that Slenderman is at his core, a being that represents everything we do NOT know. In a word, anonymity. Now what is the greatest and worst thing about the internet? The fact that you are anonymous. You can have any identity you want. You can have hundreds of identities. You can throw away identities with things like throw-away email addresses. Or you could have no identity at all. Now what is your biggest fear as an internet user? That someone will harm you and you will never know who did it? That someone could disappear, or watch you, or take something from you, and you wouldn't even have a name, let alone a face, to go on? I'd say that's probably exactly it, if not for you, then for a lot of people online. The kind of fear borne of the concept of someone unknown harming us, someone we can't even read (because we can't see their face), is unique to an environment that cherishes anonymity and considers identities to be something that you can dispose of if the need arises. The internet IS that environment. So if that's the case, and it is, and Slendy was born on an internet forum, and he was, then doesn't it seem apt that a being that perfectly encapsulates the fear of the unknown, the fear of people and things we don't know wishing us ill, came from the internet? Something interesting to think about."
"Slendy is just an amazing, beautiful, dangerous, deadly, and fascinating creature of self-made urban legend and Lovecraft-flavored lore. Leave it to the internet, a place where anonymity is praised and seen as a virtue, an ally, and a tool to be used and exploited, to create a boogeyman that is essentially a personification of the dark side and fear of too much anonymity. Plus, tentacles. The internet has seen enough hentai to know where that is going. Slenderman is essentially a boogeyman for what internet users fear - being found out, being watched, a lack of privacy, too MUCH privacy, the loss of identity, etc. It's also a strong symbol of things humans have feared for a very long time - anything uncanny valley, anything that hunts us, anything that we do not and cannot comprehend. There's a strong, strong existential terror aspect to the Slenderman mythos, not just because this being hunts us, but because everything about its behavior implies that we are far more insignificant and weak, far more vulnerable, than we ever want to know is possible. And should something come along that puts us in our place, something that takes us someplace where we're never seen again... we would never be able to deal with it. Not in a million years. Slenderman isn't scary because he's a Lovecraft-flavored monster that stalks people. Slenderman is scary because we only ever see him for short periods, get small glimpses of him, see him shrouded by static, see him in blurred camera shots, see little hints of him, etc. And when he does show up in the flesh, 100% visible? He doesn't really do much more than stand there and watch... unless he does so happen to feel like attacking you. And by then, it's far, far too late to run or even scream, because he's always watching... "What people should realize when they're writing horror, be it a Slenderman Mythos tale, a Creepypasta, or even just a short ghost story or psychological thriller, is this: it's very important to not only feel what exactly a story's mood and tone is, but also to put yourself in a character's shoes to really, really understand them. Some authors never learn how to do that, and their work is sub-par as a result. You really need to be able to do this in order to have any chance of really drawing your audience in, especially in a horror story, because if you don't, then even your scariest scares will come off as cheesy, cliche, and cheap at worst, and merely creepy at best. By putting yourself into a character's shoes, you not only begin to understand the motives, methods to their madness, quirks, and personality better, but you also basically have put yourself into that scenario. It no longer is about what another person feels - it's now about what you feel, and you are a far better gauge of your own emotions than those of another person's, real or fictional. It's easier to do this with something like the Slenderman Mythos - who hasn't felt watched at night, or felt true terror at some point in their lives? In fact, if you have never been afraid of the dark, afraid of the unknown, paranoid you are being watched, or terrified of that monster in your closet, then check for circuitry and odd wires sticking out of your body, because you're clearly a robot of some sort. It's easy to take those fears and transplant them onto a character in the Slenderman Mythos in particular because you can actually understand what the character would be going through - the worst terror of their lives, constantly being tormented into mental instability by their own fear, their loneliness and paranoia eating at them so badly that they eventually can and do lose their mind. "The goal of any author is to essentially act as though the events are real to them, because doing so helps translate just what those emotions are to the reader. Good authors do this so well that they can move their audience to tears, make them despise a certain character just as much as the author's protagonist does, and terrify them with nightmares that seem all too real to wake up from. This requires a very good understanding of your own emotions first, especially painful ones, because those are some of the strongest emotions a person can feel. I believe that out of strong emotion comes some of the world's greatest prose and poetry, because like with anything, the more energy you put into something, the more you get out of it as a result. Fear is a very powerful emotion, and any writer with a strong grasp on how to make it feel real and raw can really make their audience fear even things that they normally would not. That is, after all, how Slendy got to be the popular, infamous monster we know him as today - because a couple of people from SomethingAwful saw some scary pictures made by a fellow SA member, and decided to make a video series about the scariness of the unknown, the primal fear of being hunted and possibly killed, the horror of things that humans can't understand, and the idea that more often than not, what we don't see is oftentimes far, far scarier than what we actually do." Nope, you can't. I promise you, you really can't. You cannot.
I'm sorry, I know I said I wouldn't post any more Creepypasta related stuff for a while and I know I've sort of discussed this before, but I just have to get this off of my chest again or I'll explode into a million pieces. That, and when I wrote that entry, I wasn't as knowledgeable about the Mythos and about the Slenderfans in general, although I have been getting more into it and am starting to understand why some of them react the way they do. Look guys, I know you see this Mythos as your baby, and really, it is. I greatly admire the work you guys do and appreciate the amazing world you have built around something that began as little more than a few pictures on a SomethingAwful thread. I know some of you are very upset about certain things that are "Ruining the Mythos" and therefore some of you believe that these things are not valuable to anyone, ever, either inside or outside of the Mythos. But when you say that something is "ruining the Mythos", you're forgetting something, something very important. You cannot ruin the Mythos. Do you know why you cannot ruin the Mythos? Because the Slenderman Mythos, being a collective, open-source horror story that literally anyone can add to and discuss, changes so much that you can consider anything canon or not. Just because one blog's Slendy has it impaling people on trees doesn't mean another blog will; the other blog might have it as a harbinger of doom or just quietly stalking someone into insanity. We're all adults or almost adults here (and I'd urge parents of very young Slenderfans to read/watch the story first before they let their child view it because seriously people get torn apart and impaled on trees and shit), and we can all make our own choices in this Mythos as to what we consider canon or not. We can choose to ignore stuff that doesn't make sense to us, because everyone's interpretation of the Tall Guy himself is different. Hell, I even have multiple interpretations for different scenarios, and it's that multi-faceted beauty of the Mythos that makes anything possible and nothing set in stone. Your blog/vlog is kind of like Schrodinger's Cat - although, instead of being both alive and dead, it's both in and out of canon, depending on what fan you ask and which interpretation of Slendy you subscribe to. Therefore, doesn't it make sense to count every story as valuable in its own way since every story is literally a different universe playing with different concepts of the same communal character? There's no continuity, only a handful of constants about the central antagonist, and those things are that it's tall, it's insanely skinny, it's faceless and it's in a suit. So what is all of this bullshit about some stories and fans "Ruining the Mythos?" Look, I know you guys like things a certain way in the Mythos, I understand, really, I do. I like my Slendy a specific way too. Like everything, your first impressions of the Mythos color your perception of it as a fan pretty much forever. If you start on a very serious, very gory Slenderblog with a very evil and aggressive Slendy, you're going to probably prefer that interpretation. As for me, I started on a silly little video game, then progressed to Creepypasta and fanfilms, and then got into the blogs and vlogs. Because of that, my ideal Slendy doesn't necessarily kill people and isn't necessarily even evil, to me it's best portrayed as an alien being that has its own rationale for why it does what it does to humans, a rationale the human mind can't ever comprehend. See, I find the interpretation of "Slendy = EVUL!" far too limiting. It takes this incredibly fascinating being that is horrifying in multiple ways and boxes it up into a prepackaged set of plots and motives, and no offense to you if you like this interpretation, but I find it stale and boring. If I want to read about a villain that does what he does Foar Teh Evulz, I'll read a story about the Joker. XD Now granted, I still have a lot to learn and I am nowhere near as well-versed in this Mythos as some of you, but where I've been as a fan in the past is part of who I am as a fan now, and I can't change that. So, sorry, but if you really don't like me as a Slenderfan just because I got my start through some stupid little horror flash game (that was made by a Mythos fan, for the record, as a quote-unquote "Love letter to Marble Hornets"), then put on your big person undies and deal with it. My experiences with this Mythos do NOT make me any less of a fan than you just because I view Slendy differently from you, and it sure as Hell does not give you the right to make me feel unwelcome. My interpretations have changed, and my introspection on the character has changed, but I am NOT any less of a fan. Do NOT lump me in with these people who call Tall and Faceless "Slender" and harp on about Wifin' in the Club and $20 just because I once started out that way. That's not fair to me and it's not fair to any other newer Slenderfan who got into this Mythos recently. I will fall, I will stumble, and I will find my place as I discover what does and does not work in this Mythos. But do NOT harass me when I do mess up or make a joke I didn't know was overplayed, or when don't know a reference to some vlog or ARG I haven't started watching yet. Point me in the right direction and say why I messed up so I can learn from it. The only thing anyone learns from being shamed or bashed is that they are unwelcome in that community, and that is not an okay lesson for us to teach newer Slenderfans because, like it or not, the newer folks in the audience are the people who will support this Mythos in the future. They're future vlog actors, blog writers, and creepypasta tellers. They're future guiders of future generations of Slenderman fans. This Mythos is for EVERYONE to share and add to; you don't get to use your seniority to harass newer users just because they know less about the Mythos, and you sure as hell don't get to be a jerk to people just because you've been around the Mythos longer than they have. Just because you don't like something someone says does not mean you get to be a dick about it. It just means you're an asshole. If you're still not convinced, allow me to tell you a story. Aside from being a Slenderfan, I'm a Batman fan, and I got into that Mythos around 2008 when The Dark Knight came out. I went and saw the film, and I was blown away by Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker so much that I started to delve a bit deeper into Batman - the animated series, the comics, the graphic novels, everything. My first graphic novel was Joker, and my first serious foray into comics was The Killing Joke. I slowly grew to prefer a more comic-style Joker, and I slowly became a more well-rounded Batman fan, although the Joker is still who I focus on and prefer reading about. And I never would have become a fan of such a fascinating character and the superhero he battles with if it hadn't been for The Dark Knight. But do you know what happened to me for the longest time before I started reading the comics more? Blame-gaming. Being ignored or trolled by more serious fans and being called a "Ledger Fangirl". Being told I "wasn't a true fan" because of where I started out and what I had read. Being made to feel unwelcome. All because I didn't start in the right spot for these people. And now I am seeing the same damn thing in the Slenderfandom, all because a silly little game got popular and some extremely serious Slenderfans got all butthurt that their Mythos went mainstream. It wasn't cool back then in that fandom, and it's not cool now in this fandom, either. I see it every single time someone yells at a person because they called Slenderman "Slender" instead of politely correcting them. I see it every time someone makes a fanfilm that doesn't perfectly include all these little minutiae about the history and origins of the character. No, if it's not perfectly perfect in every way, and if it's not up to THESE peoples' high-ass standards of the fandom, it's not something any Slenderfan should look at seriously and the person who made it is not a true Slenderfan. Look guys, I understand. I have berserk buttons too, and sometimes, the fairweather fans press them. I understand the rage that comes from hearing someone call Tall and Faceless "Slender" instead of one of the many, many more proper names for it. I understand the irritation at ignorant fairweather fans who played Slender: The Eight Pages and now think they know everything about Slenderman. I understand and I feel your annoyance and pain. But two wrongs don't make a right, it just makes you fucking wrong. Man up (yes, even if you're a woman) and be the bigger person. Those people will eventually move to the next big thing and leave the Mythos alone, forgetting all about it. It's the people that become interested and stay that will help the Mythos thrive. But it's these people you're hurting when you bash them for not knowing enough about the Mythos or harp on them for making a joke they didn't know was played out. It's not okay to bully new people just brcause they didn't start out the way you did. There is a line between snarking and being a jerk, and far too many people cross it, either with or without realizing it. You might not realize that you're hurting someone over the internet, but if and when those barbs are pointed at you, it really does hurt. We should be welcoming more people into the Mythos and turning the influx of new people from Slender: The Eight Pages into gold, not shutting people out because of it! If you let more people in and allow them to learn from their past mistakes, then they will bring more interpretations and new ideas to it, and the fandom will flourish. But when you harshly criticize (NOT critique, that's different) a newcomer's starter, barely-informed Slenderblog just because it's not what YOU want to see and not what YOU feel the Mythos is about, it both makes that person feel like they will never be welcomed in the fandom (so they may give up as a result) and makes you look terribly closed-minded. Just because a film says it's based on the game "Slender: The Eight Pages" does NOT make it bad by default. What makes a Slenderfilm (or any film) bad is poor acting, poor script-writing, poor pacing, poor attention to detail, poor effects, etc. And just because there aren't a billion little references to the Mythos or a film is very basic in interpretation doesn't make it bad, either. What it does make it is "Slenderman for Dummies". Everything in this Mythos has at least a little good to it, even a shitty Slenderfilm. If anything, it can serve as an example of what NOT to do to make your own film good. Even that horrible awful porno Slenderblog that I will not name gave us a goofy Slenderfan meme in the form of "periwinkle blue", and even shitty Slendershipping 'fanart' can provide LOLz at how terrible it is. To further drive home my point, I've compiled a list of common complaints I've heard in and around the Mythos, from creators, fans, and others, and I've explained why these things are NOT ruining the Mythos and really should just be ignored if you don't like them.
Okay, I think I'm done now. This has been literally bugging me for days now and I just had to get it off of my chest. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some woods to film in... Hi there, and welcome to yet another installation of Weird Science, a series of blog entries here on Musings where I take a look at the fictional and apply scientific and mathematical fact to it. Today, I'm headed into the forest lovely, dark, and deep to tackle the trigonometry of the Slenderman. Care to join me, reader? Yes? Well, alright - just make sure you stay close! Stragglers never fare well in these woods, especially when it's night time and they're all alone... Now, as my more loyal Muselings will recall, I love discussing mathematics and science. Now, usually that pertains to statistics and chemistry, but what some of you might not know is that I'm pretty good at trigonometry, too. I can judge angles by looking at them. I can solve for the sine of theta and the number of radians in any given degree with the best of them, and I fully believe that just about anything measurable can be solved with a little trig. So today, I'm going to apply that trig knowledge to a favorite horror fandom of mine, and specifically a scene in my short Slenderfic The Hunted. For those who haven't read it yet, this blog entry is spoiler-free, but does discuss the story's beginning. If you'd like to read The Hunted for context before you read this blog entry, you can do so by clicking right here, but no context is needed to understand what I'm doing here. Let's start with the scene from the story in question - my protagonist, Jeremy, up in his hunting blind which is eight feet off the ground, looks out of it to see Slendy standing about 30 feet away from him. He is able to look the being in the eyes - or he would be able to, anyway, if Slendy had any eyes to look into. Jer, confused and more than a bit startled at the apparent height of the being, looks down at the ground at an angle of 17° from horizontal to double-check what he's seeing. The question is, can he estimate how tall Slendy really is by doing this? Before we answer that question, let me give you guys a little right triangle trig review, since we'll basically be working with right triangles anyway. The right triangle has three parts - an adjacent side (sometimes called b), an opposite side (sometimes called a), and a hypotenuse (sometimes called c). You can find one side if you have the other two by using the Pythagorean theorem, which states that a^2 + b^2 = c^2. That funky-looking little O with a line through it is the Greek letter Theta, and it denotes an angle that isn't a right angle. Hopefully, you remember that the square in the corner means a right angle (which measures 90°;), while the arc next to theta means any other angle. You can find the a missing side if you have only an angle and a side by taking the sine (opposite/hypotenuse), cosine (adjacent/hypotenuse), or tangent (opposite/adjacent) of the angle in question, depending on what side it is you want to find. You can find a missing angle by taking 180°, and subtracting the other two angles you do have from it. Now onto the question at hand. Could Jeremy accurately measure Slendy's height with trigonometry based on what he observes around him? The answer is yes, of course - but how? Well, let's look at what we know. First off, we know that Slenderman is going to be be making a right angle with both the ground and its line of sight to Jeremy, since it's standing 30 feet from Jeremy and is also standing straight up and down, as Slendermen are wont to do. Jeremy can also look down at an angle of 17° to see its feet. This makes a triangle with an unknown opposite side (Slendy's height), an adjacent side 30 ft long, and an unknown hypotenuse that makes an angle of 17° from Slendy's feet to Jeremy's position 30 feet away. We'll call this triangle the SlenderTriangle. Note that the SlenderTriangle is missing two sides, but we can fix that later. As for Jeremy, his story's a bit different. We know that Jeremy's hunting blind makes a right angle with the ground, since the tree grows straight up, and we know he can look down at the ground at an angle of 17° when he's looking at something 30 feet away from him - in this case, Slendy's feet, or more likely, the foliage and trees obscuring its feet, since this is in a forest. This creates a triangle with an adjacent side of 30 feet and an opposite side of 8 feet, with an unknown hypotenuse between Jer and the ground that forms an unknown angle between Jeremy's position and the ground 30 feet away. We'll find this angle later - we can't definitively give the angle as 17°, because in the story Jer only says he can look Slendy in the non-face, not that Slendy is any specific height. That means the SlenderTriangle may not be a right one, depending on Slendy's actual height, but we'll assume it is one. As for Jer's Triangle, as we'll call it, we do know it's a right triangle and thus can apply right triangle trig rules to it. Notice that both our triangles need the same hypotenuse. Since Jer's Triangle has two sides, we can use the Pythagorean Theorem to get the hypotenuse. Because the SlenderTriangle's not completely right, we can't do this trick with it. So, setting up the Theorem for Jer's Triangle, we get 30^2+8^2=c^2. After that it's a matter of simple number-crunching to get our hypotenuse, which turns out to be 31.04 feet. We now have all three sides of Jer's Triangle and two sides of the SlenderTriangle. We can now estimate how tall Slendy would be, both with the information we found and the information given. Now, according to the very, very loose canon surrounding Slenderman and its Mythos, the entity in question can be anywhere from 6 to 12 feet in height at a given time, and can adjust its height at will. If we take a mean height of this range, we get 9 feet as the average height for our faceless friend, which is pretty accurate to how most people tend to depict it. So we're hopefully aiming for a height of 9 feet for the SlenderTriangle's opposite side, but a bit taller or shorter would also work, although hopefully not below 8 feet (too short for the blind's height) or above 10 feet (too tall for the blind's height). Given that range to aim for, let's look at Slendy's height. Since we have an angle and two sides, we could use the Pythagorean Theorem to solve for the opposite side. We could also use the Law of Sines if we assume the triangle's not a right triangle, but that's a bit too convoluted. So, assuming the SlenderTriangle is a right one, we can simply adjust the equation to find sine a bit and get our answer. Currently, if we stuck all the numbers in, we'd get the following: sin(17°) = opposite/31.04. So to solve for the adjacent side, all we have to do is move our hypotenuse value over. That gives us an equation that looks like 31.04 * sin(17°) = opposite, and if we solve this equation, we sure enough get a value of 9.08 feet for the opposite side. That means Slendy is, in this scenario, standing just a bit over its average height of 9 feet. An intimidating height for it to stand at to be sure, and definitely reason for poor Jeremy to have pause when he looks out of his blind and sees it standing there! This can also work the other way. If we wanted to give Slendy a mean height of 9 feet and measure the distance from it to Jeremy, we could take the Pythagorean Theorem and solve for the adjacent side of the SlenderTriangle, or we could multiply our hypotenuse by the cosine of our 17° angle. Either way, we'd get the same result - a 29.7-foot distance between Tall and Scary and our hapless hunter, Jeremy. This value is off by slightly less than a full foot, but it's still close enough to the 30-foot distance of Jer's Triangle to work for the proportions given. This is still assuming that the SlenderTriangle is a right one; if not and the adjacent side really is 30 feet, we'd need to use the Law of Sines to solve this - right triangle trig wouldn't work. Now there's just one more question to solve, since I promised I would - what is the exact angle that occurs between Slendy's feet and the hypotenuse, since Jer could also look down at them to help him calculate his suit-wearing stalker's height? To solve this, we actually need to use the tangent formula, which is found, as you recall, by dividing the opposite side by the adjacent side. Actually, we could use any right triangle trig formula we wanted to find this angle, but using the tangent is easier since we could have done that calculation before we got the hypotenuse anyway. So, following that calculation, tan θ = 8/30, but we need the angle, not the actual tangent of said angle. That's where the inverse of tangent comes in, which here means that arctan(opposite/adjacent) = θ. Therefore, if we plug in our numbers and solve, we find that θ = 15°. Well, actually, it more accurately equals 14.9°, but the value's close enough that you could still call it 15° and be safe. However, if you were to use that angle in a calculation here, you'd probably want to play it safe and go with the more accurate value. That's it for this installment of Weird Science. Hope you had a fun, safe trip through the forest, and - hey, did we lose a few back there? Oh... guess not. I can see them up in those trees over there. They look kind of dead, though, judging by the branches sticking through their torsos... what do you say we get out of here and leave well enough alone? I'd hate to lose any more valued readers... As a horror and suspense author, I often am asked by younger authors how to use certain descriptive words pertaining to the emotion of fear. Like most people asked a word definition, I usually tell them to consult a dictionary, but recently I've been thinking about the true differences between common words used to describe different levels of the powerful emotion that is fear. Anxiety, panic, terror, horror, dread, scared, alarm, trepidation, even the word "fear" itself - all these words describe levels and layers to fear, and all these words are used in different ways.
But what makes horror different from dread, and vise versa? To answer this slightly thorny question, I decided I would write a blog entry to discuss the differences between the many words for fear. So, I'm going to go in order of building fear intensity to describe each word. We will start off with the mildest, concern, and end with full-blown panic.
Slenderfans, you ever get that weird feeling? No, not like you're being watched when you're walking in the woods at night, the other one. No, not like there's some message hiding in a random bit of binary, either. The other other one. The "Outside the Mythos" one. The one where you're reading a blog, or watching some new web series set within the Slenderverse, and you see someone break character just long enough to say to the effect of, "This doesn't feel like Slenderman", and then several other fans follow suit. First of all, I'd love to know how that character got close enough to Slendy to touch it and know what it feels like, and still live to tell the tale, but I digress. My real question would be "When did we decide there was a specific canon to the story of an internet-borne eldritch abomination that never had any constants to start with?" And the answer to that would be, "When enough Slenderbloggers decided to use the same formula."
Now let me explain a second for those who don't really know what's going on. See, there's a lot more to the Slenderman than just Marble Hornets and the game Slender, so much so that I tend to see the whole fandom as having two parts. The first part, which is pretty much restricted to ongoing blogs, vlogs in the same vein as Marble Hornets, and various other things that take place in that continuity (including some fanfics), is known as the Slenderverse (hereafter called just "The 'Verse" for simplicity's sake) and is pretty much a setting in which a very specific story is being played out. In that universe, Slendy is apparently waging some sort of war on humans, a war that only those under its control or able to stay alive long enough after encountering it are aware of. People die, people disappear, people suffer and are used. Humans, both with and against their common antagonist, share their stories and connect and try to stay alive together, determined either not to suffer alone in the dark, or determined to destroy all hope those who fight it have. The result is essentially an ongoing, massive Slenderman-themed RPG that occurs entirely on its own in a specific area of the blogosphere. It is a very dark story, and the atmosphere is very different within the collective story. Blogs frequently cross over with each other, to the point that a reader might have to follow five or six different blogs at once in order to get the full story of what's going on - and in a world where entries go missing, anyone can go insane, and anyone can be an unreliable narrator, even then it may be impossible to know what is truly going on. The 'Verse, which is truly an amazing (if confusing) universe, is just one of the many, many areas within the Slenderman Mythos. The Mythos, being a collection of everything ever written, filmed, or created pertaining to Slendy, is absolutely massive for something that was only created in the past four years or so. It has undergone so much change and mutation that you can tell how early on in the Mythos a story was written just by looking at what traits Slendy is given in it. The Mythos encompasses all the legends ever written and all the stories ever told about it, and the constant change it undergoes is essentially encouraged by the creator of the meme, an SA goon named Victor Surge. Because of the changing traits and landscape of the Mythos, the antagonist these stories surround can be anything from entirely malevolent to occasionally beneficial, a dreaded bogeyman to a protector of children, a mindless predator to an intelligent killer, a fear eater to a human eater, and everything in between. This provides a certain degree of flexibility but also a degree of uncertainty, in that since everything here technically goes, there's no way to keep things consistant. It's no wonder, then, that most bloggers and vloggers stick within the Slenderverse particularly, kind of like how a Batman fan could prefer writing for the DCAU to the Nolanverse. The important thing to note here is that while the 'Verse is a specific setting with specific rules and specific ways things should be done to keep consistancy going between blogs, the Mythos is flexible and really doesn't have any rules - if it's scary, then go with it. Wanna say Slendy's just trying to prevent humans from suffering a worse fate than death by it? Go for it. Want Slendy to be able to literally puppeteer people with his tendrils? Tha's cool, brah. Want to speculate on just what the ever-loving crudbuckets of static is up with Slendy skewering people on tree branches? You are most certainly welcome to anytime, thank you and come again. Theories can grow and change more readily in the overarching Mythos, so it's no wonder that those fans that want some sort of consistancy in the stories (or who just really want to get balls-deep in some conspiracy theory, scary ARG fun) tend to gravitate towards the 'Verse. Now, if you've spent any amount of time at all actually getting into the Mythos, chances are you've looked at some blogs and vlogs. And if you actually follow any of those blogs or vlogs, you've surely noticed a formula to them by now: Human goes about life or does something trivial, Slendy shows up to say hi, human starts being stalked, human starts going insane/is killed/becomes Hallowed/etc. There's usually Proxies involved, or at least some sort of mysterious possibly on Slendy's side character around providing cryptic clues and taunts, and the format is usually that of an apocalyptic log. There may be more than one person involved, and if so, one may or may not have some tragic happening in their past or have been visited by Slendy as a child and gotten away. Depending on the story, the protagonist might die and leave the blog/vlog unfinished as a result, might end up walking over to the dark side and shift the tone and focus as a result, or just continue on until things reach some sort of non-resolution. Rarely does a blog or vlog ever deviate from this formula, and that's okay - these stories are creepy reads, they make sense in the context of the Mythos, and they follow the guidelines and general feel of what the 'Verse should be. They are as interesting and addictive as they are scary, and that is the draw here. Unfortunately, the tendancy to criss-cross blogs with each other, along with the constantly changing story inside of the 'Verse, tends to lead to what TVTropes calls Continuity Lockout. This is what happens when there are so many little storylines and minutiae to a series that, while old fans really have fun with it, newcomers become easily confused and frightened away. I know that, as a relatively recent fan of this Mythos, that I personally find the blogs a bit too convoluted for my own personal tastes. It's not that I dislike any of them, but there's so much going on at once that I can't really get any idea of the overarching story, even if I follow five blogs at once. For me, I feel left out in the cold somewhat because I can't find a good jump-on point without getting confused. It's not like with comics, where you can reboot things every two decades or so and start over fresh. You can't reboot a blog, it doesn't work that way on the internet. The only way that anyone could ever possibly 'reboot' the 'Verse is if all the bloggers went, "Well this is all just getting way too complex, let's start over" - and even then, they wouldn't do that because 1) Complex, insane theories and confusion is part of the collective story, and 2) It wouldn't be the same story if it were all rebooted. This is all really great, it's just not for me. I do not really do work within the confines of the 'Verse. I write for the Mythos, not because I find the 'Verse incorrect or inflexible or anything, but because the Mythos is just so much more open to newcomers like me. That, and I don't write fanfiction for the 'Verse - I write it to fit in anywhere, and I can't do that kind of fitting in anywhere if I did write for the 'Verse. And that is part of why I prefer to call myself a fan of the Mythos proper, rather than of the 'Verse. Now note I said "part of the reason". That's because the other reason why I'm not super involved with the 'Verse (although I have considered it just for funsies) and why this blog is NOT a Slenderblog is because of some of the attitudes towards new things in the 'Verse. See, because there's a specific canon created there, there's a specific expectation of what should happen in your Slenderstory. That means that anything new becomes either shot down, or is ignored. Sometimes, even if you follow the formula, your blog pretty much languishes. It's very hard to break into the Slenderverse as a recurring character, but it's very easy to get hooked. And therein lies the rub. Let me recount an example of what I've seen reading some of these blogs. There's an interesting, if rather Sue-ish, Slenderblog out there called H(a)unting, about a girl who has been Slenderstalked for ten years, and yet has never been killed by her stalker. The mysteries continue to mount when a new being named //It//, a being very similar to Slendy, starts attacking humans in the area. So basically, Slendy ends up rooming with this girl. It's quite the clever commentary on some of the differences and tropes involved in Slenderblogs, and there's quite a bit of humor involved. It manages to do something very different with the antagonist character while still making sense within the 'Verse's canon, and for the most part the fans seemed to like it. However, this changed when the author of the blog decided she wanted to introduce the Rake, another Creepypasta monster, as a recurring character, and she happened to give it traits similar to a very, very scary version of a dog. At one point the Rake gets very badly hurt by //It//-Proxies, and in the entries that follow the protagonist (the aforementioned Sue-ish character) mentions she doesn't want it to die. This apparently was seen as "jumping the shark" and "too Mary Sue" even for that blog by several fans, whom loudly rebelled and started to troll the blog's comments by posting pedophilic fiction copy-pasted from God only knows where. No, I'm really not kidding, but I really wish I was. The story posted in multiple parts was very much pedophilic, very graphic, and disgusting, done in a purposeful attempt to scare people away from the blog or bring unwanted attention from disgusting perverts. It was enough to scare me away from reading any more of the blog and pretty much ended my desire to read any more Slenderblogs for a long, long time. And honestly, could you really blame me? Why would I want to read anything set in a fandom where people think it's okay to post this kind of content when they don't like something someone is doing? People, this author tried to do something different in the 'Verse and got horrendously flamed and trolled for it. This kind of behavior is not okay. It's backwards, unfair, and cruel, and it looks pretty damn terrible to someone who's new to the fandom. Not only that, but it sends a clear message to fans like me who might have even wanted to start their own Slenderblog - do what we say you should, or you will never be accepted here. We don't want your kind here if you're going to try to do anything different, new, or unique. And that is not any sort of environment I would ever want to be involved in. Is this really the kind of message we want to send to new fans? Why can't we accept newcomers and people who do different things as equally as we accept older members? We're all bound by our love of a creepypasta monster, why should we treat someone who is trying to be different any less equal than someone who is following the formula? How is that respectful to any blogger that puts in their time and effort into making a story, or to the characters involved in the 'Verse? And that brings me to another subject that seems to perturb older Slenderfans - newcomers. There are an awful lot of older fans out there who will look at newcomers and wonder if they have the wrong idea about the fandom, and I know why they have such scorn. You see, because the indie game Slender was so popular, many people (myself included) got more interested in the Mythos proper. Some of us newcomers decided to do the research, others... well, others, not so much. Those others are the problem - these are the idiots who think the name of the antagonist is "Slender", who are fangirling and squeeing and saying things that amount to, as TVTropes would put it, "Slendy In Leather Pants", and people who are misunderstanding the Mythos entirely. I hate to break it to you guys, but if the Slenderman and everything related to it that you have ever seen is not making you shiver in paranoia and look twice at the nearby treeline for at least a week, you are doing it wrong. I will say the same thing here I have said so many damn times about the Joker: Slendy is not a bishie. Slendy is not a good guy. Slendy is not "just misunderstood." Slendy is not sexy. Slendy is not going to give you hugs, and no, it very probably doesn't just want $20. Slendy is a scary, awful, terrifying thing that stalks you because we don't know why, and never stops stalking you or watching you. It doesn't stop, it can't be stopped, and you will end up either dead or insane by the time it's through tormenting you. It chases humans. It preys on humans. I know every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man, but Slendy isn't even human to begin with, let alone an actual man. None of these make for qualities of a good fangirling item, and you are still fangirling over it. And when I say "fangirling", I don't just mean being a spaz and calling it adorable or whatever, I mean actively wanting to have sex with it. I have called this out before and it is still disturbing. What you people are doing is the equivolent of saying Cthulhu is "just a little hungry". You should be terrified of running into the Slenderman, not ecstatic. Let me tell you about how I got into the Slenderman Mythos. I, like so many of you, played Slender when it came out last August. I had freaky fun with it, partially because I sort of knew about the Slenderman already. However, that same night I decided to go watch as many short films and read as many Creepypastas as possible about the being in question. One of the short films I watched was called Windigo, and I heavily recommend it to all you Slenderfans out there because it is awesome. Through the powerful combo of Creepypasta and films, I quickly became very paranoid, but the worst part was I just couldn't stop reading. It was all so very fascinating and so terrifying and I was already becoming ever more entangled in the Mythos. So much speculation, so many mysteries, and so much fear. This lasted for several weeks, to the point I saw the Slenderman in every little tiny thing - a guy walking to work in a black suit, a set of crossed trees that kind of looked like the Operator Symbol, static noises on the radio in the morning, sign posts, etc. I quickly began to dread that the stories might just be real, even if I knew they weren't, to the point I actually had a nightmare about the Slenderman chasing my boyfriend and I in the forest. And every single second of it was so damn awesome. Of course, I'm still looking for new Mythos stuff, so every so often I still, even now, have flashbacks to that panic and paranoia that got me so interested in Slendy in the first place. I still get just ever so slightly nervous around forested areas when it's dark. I once freaked out when my computer visually glitched while I was listening to the creepiest Slendy-related song ever (those brave enough to take a listen should look up "The Slender Stalker" on Youtube to understand what I mean). That is what the Slenderman should do to you, people. That is what your experience should be like. It should give you trouble sleeping at night, it should make you dread that maybe, just maybe, it could all be real. It should make you so scared of static that you shudder just a little bit every time you're adjusting the radio and accidentally hit a non-channel. What some of these newcomers don't get is that this is a horror series, a horror Mythos in a similar vein to H. P. Lovecraft's work - and they refuse to get it. I have little tolerance for these people, and you can almost always tell them from the serious fans because they call the Slenderman "Slender" after the game. This behavior is annoying and I've already ranted on it once, so I won't do it again. But at the same time, you have all these older fans, particularly in the 'Verse, who are looking now at any newcomer and acting as if they're unacceptable people to have in the fandom, just because the newcomer mentioned they got into the fandom through Slender. People, that game is not to blame for idiotic behavior. The people who don't do the research are. If you're going to blame anything for the influx of idiot fans, which by the way, happens in every fandom that gains some modicum of mainstream popularity, then blame the actual idiot fans. Not the game, not the newcomers who are looking for more Mythos stuff, the idiot fans. They are part of the problem, whereas newcomers like me are part of the solution. I hate being lumped in with the fangirls and fad-seekers, and always have. I feel very hurt when you guys compare me to those people, because when I get into a new fandom, I actually take it seriously. I would never have gotten into the Mythos if it didn't scare me enough and fascinate me enough at the same time to take it seriously as something enjoyable. When I joke, it's because I care and am kidding with you guys, not because it's serious. I want to be part of your community, but so many of you are so slow to trust me, and I don't mean when you're acting in character because then it makes sense in context. How come you're so afraid I'm going to "taint" your fandom when I take it just as seriously as you do, or would like to in the context of the story? Why do you want to make me feel so unwelcome? I just don't get it. Slenderfans, can't we all just get along? We shouldn't be hating newcomers because they're new, or shunning new ideas about the Mythos just because we don't like the idea of them in our little corner of the canon. We shouldn't make it seem, to use the obvious metaphor, like so many of us can't look at the forest for a single damn tree (if anything, we should be looking to see if Slendy is nearby, not at trees). We need to start connecting more and being more accepting of newcomers, and then maybe, just maybe, we can start walking arm in arm (or in Slendy's case, arm in arm in arm in arm in arm...) together without thinking anyone is going to ruin anything. Because, I promise you, they really aren't. Let's save the conspiracy theories and paranoia for the actual stories, mmkay? :3 Guys, I am an occasional peruser of Creepypasta, short horror, and Slenderman stories. I love horror stories, I love reading them, writing them, and seeing other people's reactions to them. As I've said before on this blog, I prefer psychologically horrific stories to stories that rely on gore and violence, or on too many monsters. The former is why I watch slasher films to root for the bad guy, and the latter is part of why, while I do admire the Fear Mythos and even find some of the beasties therein really damn cool (The Intrusion squicks me in so, so many ways and Wooden Girl is an awesome concept for a fear of being controlled, and of course Slendy and the Rake are in there too), I don't feel as much of a connection with it as I do with the Slenderverse. You can mail me your hatred now or later, preferably in the form of a Creeper, since nothing really says "I hate your guts" like a walking bundle of TNT.
But I digress. As a horror author, I very often see young horror authors make... mistakes, and those mistakes lead to poorly written, unscary stories. I can't tell you how many times I've had my suspension of disbelief broken in a Slenderman story by something silly like describing his facial features as "faceless face" or something like that. I once read a relatively decent Slenderstory where they had him sitting at someone's kitchen table. Not standing. Sitting. With his legs kind of awkwardly stiff in front of him and his hands dragging on the floor. I literally laughed for three minutes as I imagined dear old Mr. Thin looking up at his latest target and saying, in that derptastic voice a certain LittleKuriboh gives him, "HIIIII GUUUUYYYS, ARE WE HAVING PANCAKES FOR BREAKFAST?" And if you wouldn't laugh at the idea of Slenderman asking you about breakfast foods, then you, dear reader, have no understanding of what "Narm" means. Point is, the wrong choices in writing horror can ruin your scary moment fast, perhaps faster than in any other genre. Just like writing a sex scene incorrectly can kill the fantasy fuel instantly for your reader, so too can incorrectly written suspense and horror kill any sort of tension and fear your reader has built up. For example, done correctly, the Slenderman scares the living fuck out of me, because I have actually experienced the kind of worry and paranoia he inspires in his victims and the idea of something subtly, patiently screwing with my head freaks me out so damn much. But if not written correctly, I'm more liable to snark at him and want to give the guy a hug, even if he's ripping your protagonist to bloody little shreds. Done correctly, the idea of a tiny spider slowly inching towards me on a thread would terrify me, but normally I am not scared of spiders, at all (gasp! A girl not scared of spiders? What is this blasphemy?!). Good horror builds and builds, offering no hope of release from tension until the author wants to let you go. As a horror reader, you are ideally at the mercy of the horror author - you're their captive audience, their willing victim, and they as a result get to screw with your head for the duration of the story... that is, if the story is good and they do a decent job of putting you in the right frame of mind. This brings me to the point of this blog entry. While pasta-binging, I stumbled across the Creepypasta Wiki's how-to guide on writing Creepypastas, and thought it was a good read. Good enough that I feel it should carry over for all horror writing, and even for writing in general. If you'd like to read the whole thing in their words, that's right here. But as for this site, here's my paraphrasing of their guide and some added explanation. These are rules you really should follow and consider with any writing, but since it focuses on horror writing, that's what I'll stick to. We'll start off like the guide does by pointing out the three basic types of fear you can instill in a reader:
So, now that we know what kinds of fear there are, and what things can be considered scary, how do you get these feelings to show through the storytelling? That's where tension-building comes in. Now, you probably have a lot of questions about how to do this, such as:
And now, the really big question... how the hell do I start/end this thing, anyway? Let's break that into starting a story, and ending a story.
That's all! Now go forth, write horror, scare the reader... and try not to look out the window... >:3 CAUTION: This particular entry heavily discusses some disturbing, creepy, and scary aspects of the Slenderman Mythos. There are links to stories and videos below the cut that can and will give some people nightmares, or at least leave you paranoid for a good long while. The links/vids may also potentially spoil those of you who have not caught up with/started certain series yet or are new to the Mythos. if you think you might be spoiled, or if you are someone who is easily jumpscared, made paranoid, or otherwise scared, please proceed at your own risk. Also, I say "fuck" a lot in this entry; sensitive eyes be forewarned.
---------------------------- So, I'm starting this journal entry with a little story. The other night my best friend (whom I'll refer to as HexAngel or Hex, as she goes by online) and I decided to hang out at her house and marathon Slendervlogs. We'd previously done so successfully with Marble Hornets, and had a ton of fun getting creeped out, spooking each other, riffing on Jay's genre-blind behavior, and getting involved in the story. It was a fun, fun night, and we agreed that we'd have to do it again sometime with another series. Returning to last night, we were playing some Guitar Hero and discussing Slenderman series and ARGs when the topic turned to once more Marathoning a Slenderseries. I in all my infinite wisdom said we should marathon TribeTwelve, since I knew from experience that it was a shorter series than Marble Hornets and could easily be caught up on in one night (I was only about a quarter of the way through watching it at the time). Hex agreed, so we high-tailed it over to her house to hang out and watch some TribeTwelve, all in one sitting. I was a bit apprehensive at first, since I only knew a little bit about the series, but since Marble Hornets hadn't really scared me so much as creeped me out, I figured this series wouldn't be so bad, either. Besides, I was a hardened Slenderfan, I could deal with a few Proxy scares and Tall and Faceless showing up out of nowhere - there's no way this series could scare me that badly, right? Dear God I was so, so wrong. Because that series is fucking terrifying. Legitimately terrifying. It pushes all of your fear buttons, every one imaginable - paranoia, jumpscares, fridge logic, everything gets hit. And it jangles your nerves SO. BAD. It doesn't matter if you've seen it once or a thousand times, it still gets you, and it still scares you shitless. In fact, it was about halfway through one of the Observer's updates that I remembered precisely why I hadn't continued to catch up on the series. Because I needed a damn break from that surreal horror shit. The experience of watching this series, being scared again, and remembering why that made me enjoy the series so much has made me reflect on other aspects of the Mythos. I'm here in the vast forest that is the Mythos because I enjoy being scared, and I love surreal and Lovecraftian horror concepts. But what exactly about it scares me? I'm used to the Tall Guy by now, so what about it is still keeping me going instead of causing me to burn out? What keeps me so interested outside of the theorizing? What am I afraid of? So, I compiled this list of eight (possibly more if I add on later) vlog moments, stories, and general concepts that scare or at least freak me out in the Slenderverse. It takes quite a bit to spook me and even more to keep me scared for a long time, but once you get me there my mind takes care of the rest. For the sake of keeping it simple, I'm restricting this list only to vlogs and stories that actually take place in the Slenderverse - no Fear Mythos content allowed, and for the most part the Surgist stuff isn't used as much in the Slenderverse so it probably won't be on here. Now, let's start this list of horror... 8. ICANSEETHEGIANT, Teacher, his teddy bear, and the chair. God damn, I love this series. It's like taking ten doses of acid and then watching ToTheArk videos for an hour. It's like if the Observer got high on ecstacy. It operates on cartoon logic and a sense of childhood fantasy... and fear. It's quite eerie and does a good job with very little, using surreal horror and a few simple effects to get its story across. In short, it's a great series and you really should check it out. Now, you might wonder what I'm talking about with Teachers and teddys on chairs and stuff above. Very simple. Teacher is the name of a Proxy-like (?) character in the series, who has been helpful, cryptic, and really damn creepy, as such characters are wont to do. We don't even know if he's a Proxy, a rebel pretending to be one, or a Proxy that is trying to rebel against Slendy. The chair is a MacGuffin used for plot-important events during the end of the first act of the series. The teddy bear, we don't know what's up with it yet, but the consensus is that it makes everyone following this series very, very nervous. Without spoiling anything, the two linked videos above show some very... nerve-wracking interaction between Teacher and those aforementioned items. And both jumpscared me, despite the fact I KNEW jumpscares were coming. I put it up here on the list only because I thought it was creepy, but it didn't inspire a severe sense of paranoia. However, it came pretty damn close with how good it was with the tension. This whole series is just full of surprises and suspense, and I find it really cool that this series is doing so much in terms of emotional tension and paranoia-building with so, so little. The guy behind this series doesn't even have the incredibly minimal budget Marble Hornets had, and ICSTG is probably the most refreshingly different and interesting Slenderseries on Youtube right now. If it can do THAT to me with nothing more than a morphsuit, Movie Maker, and some creepy-ass music and character behavior, then it's well on its way to becoming something seriously big in the Slenderverse. Teacher, you creepy motherfucker, you keep on Wobbledance-Headbanging. You keep on Wobbledance-Headbanging all damn night long, bro. Shine on, you crazy, crazy Slender-diamond. 7. TheOriginFiles, Lost in the woods and being unable to find the path back out. Okay, this wasn't a scary update to start out with, even though we pretty much know it's a Slenderseries at this point (it's fairly obvious to anyone who knows a thing or two about the Mythos). The problem here is fridge logic. What happens basically is, group of best buddies go hiking deep into the woods... then when it comes time to come back home, they start walking... and can't find the way back out. They keep walking in circles, and even when they take the most direct route in an opposite direction, they end up at the same exact pathway again. And again. And again. So what's creepy about this? Well, think about it - this is a Slenderman series. Now remember where Slenderman lives. Now remember that he can, in some series, warp reality to mess with people. Now think about it - what if they couldn't find the path because Slenderman kept messing with their perception or teleporting them without their knowledge? Why didn't he just take them all if that was the case? Why screw around with them unless he was doing it for fun...? That realization alone made me shiver. This series' Slenderman? Is the kind of Slenderman that likes to fuck with people, and that to me is one of the more terrifying ways he can be portrayed. 6. Marble Hornets, Entry #18. Oh sheesh. Okay. Now I know I said Marble Hornets didn't really scare me so much as leave me paranoid. That's still true, and Marble Hornets still doesn't so much scare me as make me paranoid. Except for this one little entry. This one creepy little entry where Jay returns to that creepy fucking house I assume is Tim's, the one which in the previous entry was BEGGING for something to be hiding around a corner in it. Entry #16, there's nothing there, nothing at all. Entry #18, however, Jay enters the house through the back, finds everything ashambles, starts searching. Nobody's in the house, and it's shown several times that nobody's there. He wanders down the hall, and at some point turns back... and finds Masky sitting on the damn couch. Just staring at him. Like WTF? How would you like that shit, you go upstairs in the dark and you know you're the only one there, and then you find some random creep wearing a mask just staring at you. And staring. And staring. And then running at you in blind attack mode. I just. No, I don't want any of that, Masky, I don't, please never do it again, I don't like it. Please. I love you Tim bby plz don't do this to me. ;-; 5. Just the entire idea of Slenderman's tentacles/tendrils. I entirely blame a fellow (remaining nameless) Slenderfan for this one. Entirely. We were discussing Slenderman's tentacles (please don't ask why, and yes, it WAS a worksafe discussion), and I brought up a personal theory of mine - he uses them to feed. Then my lovely friend decided to post that maybe, they can creep under your skin like roots, and grow into your brain, and manipulate your thoughts... just... urgh. That same thread came up with the idea of them being slimy, like slick mildew or something. And of course my stupid, overactive imagination then decided it had to visualize what it would be like getting caught in those things and having them all over your face and in your hair and touching your neck and... *shudders* Having something behind me touch my spine, neck, shoulders, or hair is seriously one of my prime bits of paranoia fuel. The idea of tentacles, especially Slenderman's tentacles doing that... I can't. I just can't. They creep me the fuck out, man. 4. Marble Hornets, Entry #72. This one's pretty recent, and normally, Marble Hornets doesn't scare me too badly. It has jump scared me a few times (I'm looking at you Entry #68, how the fuck did you manage to make Alex jump scare me I don't even), but otherwise I am usually okay with it. But like I pointed out above, it's the paranoia that gets me, every. Single. Time. About three hours to a few days later, when my mind goes, "Okay, wait, WTF I just realized something HORRIFIC about that last entry," and then I curl up in the corner and make scared kitten noises. This entry though, this one managed to make me do that in the span of about 15 minutes, or about as long as the video took to play, and then made me continue to do so for about 10 more minutes after it ended just from the implications of what could have happened alone. Let's count the number of bad, bad things that happen in this entry. 1, Jay and Tim find Alex's old house completely open for entry, never a good sign. 2, there is an attic, and a basement, and as we all remember from previous entries, small spaces and underground places are BAD. 3, Jay keeps hallucinating Slenderman - sorry, I mean the Operator - out in the tall grass... and then he actually shows up there. My heart literally sunk a little watching that part. 4, drawings, lots of drawings, with names of previous people Alex knew crossed off - that is, a freaking hitlist. Alex Krailie had a motherfucking hitlist, with Jay's name on it. 5, they actually go in the basement, and then suddenly night time because the Operator is a motherfucking troll. 6, Jay collapses while Tim keeps running, then Tim appears to almost have another damn seizure. 7, Tim (being a total badass) goes back for Jay, actually walks right up to the Operator and yells at him, and then nearly collapses himself while gratuitous static plays over everyfuckingthing and we get the closest freaking look at the Operator in full so far in the series. Okay so that last scene was actually pretty fucking awesome, but still, not good. At all. Because notice how the Operator has clearer and clearer shots of him as the series progresses, almost as if he's stalking the audience as well, right through the fourth wall... okay cue scared kitten noises again plz no not interested i already bought slenderscout cookies ktnxbai. ;-; 3. WhisperedFaith, the Rake under a bed and in a GODDAMN CLOSET: I've discussed WhisperedFaith on this blog before, and explained why I liked it so much - because it does different things with different characters. Why am I including it here? Because the Rake is canon for the Mythos (via EverymanHYBRID) and because word of creator says that WhisperedFaith takes place in the Slenderverse. So anyway, in WhisperedFaith, the aforementioned Rake hides in the aforementioned places. ... Great. Now not only am I afraid of tunnels and swivel chairs, I'm afraid the Rake is living in my closet. And the best part about all this shit? My bed faces my fucking closet. Thank you for rekindling my fear of the boogeyman, WhisperedFaith, I was worried that I might be forgetting what primal childhood bedwetting fear felt like. [/sarcasm] 2. TribeTwelve, that creepy phonecall to the broken phone Noah finds. So you find this weird broken old phone in a box full of random computer parts and shit. It doesn't work, its internal memory is corrupted as all hell, and the number has been deactivated and retired. So, imagine your disturbed surprise when, one night, you wake up to realize it's vibrating as if you're recieving a call. And when you pick up, the link above is what you hear. ... Yeah that's the last time I'm leaving MY phone on overnight, too. I don't blame you, reader. I really, honestly don't. Seriously, what the everloving crudnuggets IS going on there? Why the creepy laughter? Who is the guy saying "Sorry, sorry, so sorry" at the end? What the hell happened to him? Why the fuck did the call have to be at night? Noah, buddy, I do not envy your damn life. Now come here so I can give you some hugs, you clearly need them more than I do. 1. TribeTwelve (yes, again), just about any update that includes the Observer. aodfhiFBFVIswF. This. Mother. Fucker. The Motherfucking Observer. This guy is the creepiest fucking character I've ever seen. Every single time I realize I have another update/taunt of his to watch, my heart sinks a little. Every single time I watch said update, I brace myself for jumpscare impact. This creepy bastard jumpscared me four seperate times in four seperate videos in a damn row. This terrifying bespectacled freak continues to make me shudder even thinking about some of the shit he's pulled on poor Noah. Freaking. Spying on him, with electronic devices. Using espionage, hacking his channel and twitter, taunting him constantly, leaving creepy little nearly subliminal messages in his videos... just... urgh. Oh, and dear God, do NOT get me started on his damn update videos. Those things are the most surreal things ever to grace a Slenderseries, and they are incredibly paranoia-inducing. Just look at that fucking shit up there. Watch that shit to the end. I fucking dare you to watch that shit to the end. Because I seriously cannot even, once was enough. Never again. Nope. You can't make me. Fuck this. And now, here's a cat demonstrating my exact response when I first saw those videos for the first time. One good friend from Slender Haven put it this way: "The Observer doesn't follow commands, he gives them. And his command is BE AFRAID." Mission fucking accomplished, you creepy bastard, you and your creepy little Collective friends. Mission. Fucking. Accomplished. So, over on Slender Haven (a Slenderverse OOG forum I haunt; its creation story is... well, best not gone into here), we were all discussing our favorite series, getting threads for ones that didn't have them yet, and such. One person posted a thread about a non-Slenderseries that takes place in the Slenderverse (by word of creator at least) called WhisperedFaith. This series uses the Rake as its primary monster and does a great job of it too, scaring me more than some of my favorite Slenderseries have (The Rake hiding in a closet is bad enough in-game. It's even worse when you yourself have a closet facing your damn bed... T^T) and having some awesome special effects too. Not that it's perfect; it too delves into similar cliches from the Slenderverse, except that it applies those cliches to a different monster now.
Now, as a Troper, I'll be one of the first to tell you that Tropes Are Not Bad, and neither are Slendertropes. Stuff like screwing with cameras and Proxies have been around the Mythos for almost as long as it's been a thing. Other tropes, such as spamming the Operator symbol around everywhere to indicate it's a Slenderseries you're watching, are more recent things, especially since Slender: The Eight Pages became a thing (Hint, folks, those notes you keep finding? They belong to a certain Mr. A. Krailie, and he'd dearly love them back). Both of those categories have earned a good amount of ire from some Slenderfans, and for good reason - the Slenderverse is limited, and even with the Fear Mythos as a branching-off from it, it's still becoming WAY too canon for its own good. There's too many things people expect to happen in a Slenderseries now, and too many tropes that keep being used too much. This is a problem. See, the Slenderman Mythos is what we like to call "Chaotic Fiction". That means it's a fictional world that isn't set in stone, that changes with each adaptation, that can be interpreted multiple ways. Much like the concept of a boogeyman or Aesop's fables, the Mythos can be adapted to suit anything you so desire. Could he be good? Sure, why not? Could he be able to climb up walls and trees to get people like some sort of hellishly oversized daddy long legs? Cool, and keep that Slenderman the HELL away from me. Could he be thinking, feeling, and intelligent? Go for it. Could he have violet blood and smell like fresh summer peaches? Well, I and the others are going to laugh our colelctive asses off about that and make a meme about it, but go right the hell ahead, bro. By extension everything related to Slenderman can be readapted. Why not have a Proxy that, instead of being fully mind-controlled, is trying desperately to break free but just can't (has been done quite a few times)? How about instead of a Proxy, you have another monster that's never been seen before that has a rivalry with the Slender One? What about doing a series where the protagonist is actively hunting Slenderman for some reason and show the interaction between those two characters? And lest we forget, Slendy's not just a background element or driving force, he's a character too and that means he needs to have some sort of motive, even if the motive is never known in-game and kept secret to all but the creators. A flat Slenderman that doesn't do any of his own acting is boring; a Slenderman that is actively influencing things in several ways for some reason known only to himself (and maybe any Proxies, if the story has them) is far more interesting because it leads to more interaction between characters and lends a LOT more credibility to any horror or tension you're trying to build. And I mean, come on, there's gotta be a reason he decided to come out of the forest and chase your protagonist, otherwise why would he even bother? Now going back to WhisperedFaith a moment. I don't like it just because the Rake's in it instead of Slendy, despite how cool a monster the Rake is. I don't like it because it's in the Slenderverse either; it could be a Fearvlog for all I care and I'd still love it, or even a vlog connected to its own Mythos. I like WhisperedFaith because it tells its story well and has a good idea of what pacing is. You'd be surprised (or maybe not) to know just how many Slendervlogs and blogs are out there with poor pacing and poor storytelling. Not everyone's made to be a writer or vlog-creator, and nobody is born with the natural ability to write good (even if they're born with the right creative drive, aptitude, and type of brain to do so). I didn't get to be a good author by just willing my stuff to be good, I got there with practice. Just because I've been told I have a talent for writing doesn't mean anything in terms of how hard I worked to hone that talent into something even better. So what makes WhisperedFaith succeed where so many smaller Slendervlogs fail? Well, it helps that in WhisperedFaith, you know something's... off... from the get-go, but it doesn't outright state what and it's not all "Oooohhhh cryptic bullshit! Ask me what it means, ask me what it means! 8D" from the start. Yes, it uses similar cliches to Slendy-centered stories, but in the end it's not about mysterious groups of people (though there is one in it) or creepy cryptic bullshit. It's about a kid wrapped up in a mystery that involves a monster chasing him oh and there's this group of people involved with said monster too. See, my issue with most Slenderseries, despite how much I love 'em God bless, is the fact that there's too much crypticness and not enough scary for the sake of just being scary (which it should be). It doesn't always need to be about Proxies or groups of people or mysterious symbols and codes (I'm looking at you Marble Hornets). What it is about is Slenderman, the monster, and it should be about that. Not enough vlogs are focusing on Slendy as a character; his role as a scary unknown variable that is out to get you keeps being doled out to other antagonistic characters (I'm looking at you HABIT, Observer, and others), and that's an issue. I think if more series took the approach that WhisperedFaith does, and made it more about Slendy himself actively wanting/needing something from the protagonist (give him a motive, why's he after this random person?) and going out of his way on his own to get it, it may work a bit better. What's objectively creepier, some weird tall thing waiting outside for you to falter and leave the house, or some masked freakazoid telling you that some weird tall thing is standing outside waiting for you? The monster should attack the protagonist, unless for some reason it cannot and happens to have people for that. In fact, that's what Proxies originally were - Mind-controlled Slenderman extensions he could use to interact with targets in ways he otherwise couldnt, or to keep tabs on his targets while he was away doing... SlenderThings. They are not and never were there to be Slenderman. Slenderman is there to be Slenderman. The point I'm trying to make here is, a good horror series (and by extension, a good Slenderseries/FearSeries/horror ARG) should function on, "unknown creepy thing is after me", not on "unknown creepy group of people is after me and there's a monster there too." No horror film ever benefitted from having a monster that doesn't do much. For example, the Friday the 13th franchise is about Jason Voorhees, despite the fact that his mother was the killer in the first film. In every other film, said mother is relegated to mythos lore and Jason is the bad guy. This is arguably for the best, because Jason Voorhees is an active monster that is more interesting than his mother is, despite the fact that her memory/ghost has acted as a guiding "conscience" to Jason in the past. Friday the 13th, the first in the series, is therefore a "prequel" film of sorts to the legend and mythos surrounding Jason Voorhees, not the legend of his mom because she's not the primary focus of the series. A good Slenderseries (or Rakeseries or Fearseries) should do the same thing and focus on the monster, NOT on the collective of people around the monster. Just because a group of creepy folks worked for TribeTwelve does not mean it will also work for your series, and just because Proxies worked for Marble Hornets does not mean it will work for your series. Furthermore, those series are protected by the Grandfather Rule - if someone or something was a pioneer of something, or did it first, it's still cool for that thing/person and only that thing/person. That's why I give those series a pass - they were there first. Just like it's still okay for the Joker to let out an evil, crazed laugh, it's still okay, for example, for Marble Hornets to have Proxies and cryptic bullshit. But newer series need to bring new ideas to the Mythos, or this Mythos will fail to thrive. *looks up at the title*
... Really? That's the title I'm gonna go with here? Of all the titles for a Weird Science entry that I could think of, the first one that springs to mind, the first one that I choose, is "The Krailie Conspiracy"? Wow. I mean really, just. Wow. That title sounds like some sort of arcane, cryptic fan theory about Marble Hornets, or possibly even the title of a Marble Hornets fanfic. Alternatively, it sounds like someone mixed The Bourne Trilogy with Marble Hornets, and that, unlike half of the forest epileptic trees that grow wild in this fandom, not only kind of makes sense but is far too fucking awesome to exist on this sinful earth. Anyway, the reason I came here today is because I want to talk about something... off I noticed in a recent Marble Hornets entry. Specifically, Entry #69, wherein Tim and Jay go looking for something back where everything started, and find a bunch of burnt tapes. Seems an average enough entry from MH, right? Definitely sets up some important plot points with those tapes, too, but this isn't about that. No, this is about what seems to be an oversight on the part of the MH crew. You see, as much as I love Troy and co. and find them all to be pretty nice guys, they aren't trained to write scientific fact into their series about a tall, faceless creep. Granted, when you're using Slen- Sorry, I mean The Operator, you're not gonna focus on scientific fact, you're going to focus on telling a good story, and these guys are great filmers and storytellers, but not that great at science. What I'm saying is, they might not have done their research 100% with this one, and it has to do with how those burned tapes appeared in this entry. First, let me explain a little bit about recording stuff on tape for those younger Hornets in the audience that weren't born in the VHS era. Before DVDs became a thing, there were all sorts of formats for films, home movies, and TV show episodes. We tried just about everything to get our movies in a home video format, including giant laser-read disks the size of a damn tire rim that you had to flip over halfway and that didn't even hold as much data as a CD-ROM did. The most ubiquitous form of home video format by the time I was born in 1991 was the VHS tape. The way a VHS tape worked was through a magnetized plastic tape that held video data. Don't ask me how in the Hell it worked, because honestly I don't know, I was maybe 7 at the time. And when you were done watching the video, you had to rewind the tape back to the other side so you could play the tape again. Hence the old video store saying, "Be Kind, Please Rewind", because some assholes would rent movies, not rewind them, and then bring them back so the next person would have to rewind the tape to watch the film. It was annoying. Now, thing is, we used tapes like these in video cameras too - yes, just like Alex in Marble Hornets, we too had those little cassette tapes we recorded shit on, you stuck them in the side of your video camera in a flip-open thing, and you hit record, and it would record it on the tape. Then you could either replay it in the camera (if yours was a fancy flip-screen thing), or you could put it in a special VHS player sized cassette and watch it on your TV. If that's not enough, even longer ago we put actual VHS-sized cassettes in these big ol' cameras you had to hold on a tripod or on your shoulder, and... yeah. Technological advances really make things a lot easier, don't they? Now, here's where I have a bit of a problem with Entry #69 and its burned firepit tapes. The way the tapes burned should not have been possible, given the levels of heat even a small fire can get up to and the way the plastics in a VHS tape tend to melt. Let me explain this to you guys, because I know most of you out there probably don't give half a thought to plastics. First thing you should know is this: Plastics are all polymers, from the Latin words "poly", meaning many, and "mer", meaning unit. Many plastics we use in everyday life form chains of these little mer units, something like this: mer-mer-mer-mer-mer-mer, where each "mer" is one single repeating unit, and each dash is a covalent bond. depending on how organized or loose the chains are in the plastic, we can call a plastic amorphous or crystalline; in general, the more crystalline a plastic is, the more brittle it is, and the more amorphous it is, the more it tends to flow in weird ways, like chewing gum. Yes, chewing gum's a plastic, in fact, it's polyethylene in one of its most amorphous forms. Now you know why I don't chew bubble gum. These chains can also sometimes crosslink with other chains to strengthen the plastic and form nearly unbreakably strong bonds (which in fact, is how epoxy glues work), but I won't go into that because it's not important here. Look it up if you're intrigued. Now, VHS tapes, like the ones above and just like the ones Alex Krailie used in filming his disastrous student film project, are made of a couple different types of plastics. The casing is made out of polypropylene (a very tough and ubiquitous plastic), the reels are made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC, used in piping), I'd hazard a guess that the clear windows are polystyrene (a brittle plastic unless foamed) due to experience with how brittle they are, and the magnetized tape is a polyethylene (the same stuff found in garbage bags) ribbon coated with things called pthalates (which, due to their alignment on the polyethylene chain, can hold a magnetic charge, and therefore can be used to record data). That last type of plastic product is commonly called mylar. Now, judging by the kind of tapes Krailie used (the small ones you put in a handheld camera), I'd guess that the four plastics in most use here are the same as for the bigger VHS tapes - polyethylene (mylar), polypropylene, polystyrene, and PVC. This poses a problem when it comes to something called the glass transition point. In laymen's terms, the glass transition point (Tg) of a plastic is the point at which a melting plastic becomes brittle, like glass. This can also happen at super-low temperatures, because some plastics and other polymers have Tg values below the freezing point of water. Of course, melting point also differs for each plastic, and each plastic melts in a different way. For reference, here's the glass transition and melting points for the four types of plastic found in a VHS cassette tape:
Now for reference, the hottest your typical outdoor fire can get is about 1000 to 1,200 °C, since fires don't usually burn with white-hot flames in your typical campfire. The lowest temperature possible for a fire that has a visible flame is 525 °C, if the flame is just barely visible. It's possible Krailie used wood or leaves with a fuel or lighter-started fire to burn his tapes, judging by the small amount of damage that was inflicted on the tapes Jay finds (the ones that aren't completely melted). And therein lies the problem - the tapes Jay discovers in Entry #69 should be entirely useless to him, because all of the plastics used in the manufacture of tape cassettes melt at temperatures well below your average small campfire made from burning twigs and leaves. Even if Alex used coal for his fire, that's still a high enough temperature to decimate any plastic he threw into it almost instantly, even if the fire was burning with a relatively cold flame. So the question is, did Marble Hornets fail thermodynamics and polymer chemistry forever, or is there some kernel of possible truth to what allowed certain tapes to be saved? Well, the answer is yes, depending upon where the tapes were in relation to flame proximity. That is, how close where those tapes to the actual fire itself? Notice in Entry #69, Jay not only finds some tapes off to the side of the mass of destroyed burned tapes, but he also digs under them to find some tapes that were spared the full heat of the flames. This makes perfect sense - heat rises, including that of a flame, so it's feasible that any tapes far enough off to the side of the actual fire, or located beneath tapes that were actually burning in the fire, could be spared a good amount of the actual heat and therefore might not fully melt the casing. They might reach their respective glass transition points for each cassette casing, but it's likely that the actual tape cassette would survive. However, there's one problem here - the casing and tape reels inside could not possibly survive the actual heat, unless they were buried far enough under the actual burning tapes, or were really far off to the side. In fact, if you were to burn a VHS cassette, the plastic casing would melt first, then the tape reels, then the clear windows, and finally the mylar tape inside. You still couldn't salvage a fully burned tape even if you had the film; the heat would pretty much destroy it. So the answer is, yes, there's truth to what Jay finds in that firepit in the park - you really can have tapes that are spared the full wrath of a flame, if you get lucky and some are far enough away and the flame isn't very hot, but all this assumes that Krailie burned the tapes in such a way that they were all unsalvagable. However, as we see in Entry #69 above, this is very clearly not the case - a good handful of the tapes survived pretty much intact, and in fact the next two entries show footage from those tapes functioning perfectly fine and being almost totally undamaged (and they were probably enhanced by Jay, too, but you never know just how much actual work the guy had to do on them to make them function properly). It seems pretty obvious to me that Alex did not burn the tapes as well as he thought he did (hey, the guy clearly wasn't operating on all mental cylinders by this point in time), and with that, I now put on my Proxy Mask to start speculating as to what went on here. It seems pretty clear to me that Alex was in a rush to burn those tapes before someone (Jay? Hoody? Tim? Another former MH cast member?) found them, which leads me to four possible conclusions:
Note: This post is a cross-posting from We The Afflicted, a forum I used to run concerning a fictional universe involving humans that have been altered into eldritch monsters. It sometimes crosses over with the Fear Mythos and the Slenderman Mythos, and as such deals with similar themes. The following came from a thread concerning gripes people had about blogs, and this was one of mine. Because it's a cross-posting, nothing has been changed or edited except those details which are there to help it make more sense. Be aware that this guide was written with the Slenderverse and Slenderblogs in mind specifically, but it can be applied to any Fear and its servants.
--- One of my biggest gripes about blogs, particularly Slenderblogs, is those people who make Proxies and Fear Servants do stuff that either they have no business doing, or that their master could do for themselves. Sorry, no, you don't need a Proxy for watching someone or killing someone when Slendy can do both of those himself. Now let me make this very clear: I do NOT hate Proxies or Fear Servants. What I *do* hate is people adding shit for no other reason than it to be one more level of abstraction, or because it's a common trope and they are under the misconception that they have to use it. I hate mindless drone characters that don't have personalities, and most often people write Proxies like that when they aren't being used in a story focused on them. If you're using those characters, think about why you are using them, and give them at least some sort of minor back story or personality. And keep these things in mind:List of reasons a Servant/Proxy should be used in a story:
Note: This was pasted from a correspondence with someone over at the Fear Mythos Forums. The focus here is on Fears, but goes for any other Eldritch character as well.
------ Eldritch characters can be rather tricky to write, because writing them requires thinking outside of how a human might percieve things. Fiction where you're writing from a non-human's perspective is actually called "Xenofiction", from the Latin word "Xenos" meaning "foreign" and the word "fiction" meaning... fiction. XD Xenofiction can comprise anything from writing from the perspective of a dog, an elf, a dragon, or yes, even Eldritch entities. To help clarify all this, I will use Slenderman, since I use him a lot in my writing and he kind of "speaks" to me the most of any of the Fears. I won't say I "understand" him best, because I'm constantly learning and developing new attributes to him as befitting a Fear of the Unknown, he's consistently undefined and as such always changing for me. But I do have some constants to which he tends to stick, and his themes resonate with what I tend to write most, if that makes sense. The most important thing to remember is that eldritch beings, despite being very clearly not human or animal, still have personalities to a point. Sometimes they are not the same as a human personality might percieve them. For example, Slenderman stalks and sometimes kills humans. His motives for doing this might be as simple as "he's evil" or "for funsies", yes, but it could also reflect a desire to amuse himself, curiosity of humans and how they work, or even an urge to hunt and humans being the current prey du jour. Some adaptations have him eat humans somehow. Some don't. But that's a bit of a different issue and your portrayal would depend on your headcanon for Slenderman. Personally, I generally write Slenderman one of two ways: Either he is an extremely curious creature, ever running observations and experimental 'tests' on humankind, or he's this being that honestly sees his actions as 'play' and doesn't consider the impact it has on humans, good or bad - their opinions are quite irrelevant and in fact unintelligible to him, much as his would be to us. In both cases he tends to be quite an introverted, introspective, aloof, and intelligent soul, equally capable of being ruthless and cold as he is of being gentle and merciful, should he choose it. However his standards of what "ruthless" and "gentle" are differ wildly from what most humans think they are, which makes him come across as this cold, evil, dark, and dangerous predator. Oftentimes, to the confusion of his human targets, he comes across as completely unreadable, making him quite unknowable and frightening to humans in general. It's always best to decide a motive for a character. That motive may or may not reflect the moral positions of "good" or "evil". For example, Slenderman might be chasing your character because that character knows something they shouldn't. He might also be after your character to warn them of something, to acquire something they have (perhaps knowledge of something), to kill them because he dislikes your character or otherwise, because he assumes stalking is a sign of friendship/'liking someone', because he's interested in their reactions, or because he thinks they'd make a good Proxy. All of these could be construed as "good" or "evil" if you really want, but they don't have to be. Many eldritch beings actually exhibit what we call "Blue and Orange Morality", that is, their morality does not reside on the human "good vs. evil" spectrum, even if humans percieve it as that. This can be tough to define, but I find the best approach is to simply portray the being in question as True Neutral - that is, they have no allegiance to anyone other than themselves and don't really bother with morality as we conceive of it. I often write Slenderman in this way, and in fact it's how I view all of the Fears. You can translate this to Fears being like a "force of nature" or something that doesn't have an alignment. The emotion of fear itself is a good example - it can be a good or bad thing, depending on circumstance. Regardless of the case, try to decide on a motive for your character first, and morality second - and then build the character's actions around the motive. And if you do use "good and evil" as a thing for eldritch morality, consider that since not all humans are fully good or evil by definition, neither are all eldritch beings. Another thing to remember is that characters act and react to things. Slenderman might decide to kill the protagonist, but make a Proxy out of their friend. You of course don't have to reveal why this is in the prose, so long as "why" is set in your head somewhere. Maybe Slendy made a Proxy out of the friend because they are more physically or mentally adept, or because they are more receptive to his commands somehow. Maybe the protagonist is killed as a sort of "culling of the herd" of humanity, or is a necessary evil to achieve some goal or keep some event set in stone. Maybe they were killed because they simply made the wrong choice, or because it was a mercy killing. The possibilities are really pretty infinite, if you think outside of the box a bit. Another scenario: let's say a protagonist has discovered something that causes a snag in some plan of Slendy's. Now Slenderman, as a character that acts and reacts, must reconsider his course of action, and change how he reaches his goal based upon that. Characters act on their surroundings and on other characters, and react to events in their surroundings as well as the actions of other characters. Remember that, and try to keep your eldritch characters dynamic so as to keep plot moving forward. Eldritch beings often experience the world in ways humans do not. Slenderman lacks all the facial sensory organs we humans have - he can't and doesn't necessarily smell, see, hear, or feel things the way we can. This is where your imagination gets to come into play. Perhaps his tentacles are very sensitive to vibrations or heat signatures given off by living beings, and that's how he hunts. Perhaps he echolocates and "sees" that way. Maybe he sees in ultraviolet (which damages normal human eyes over time, which would mean he has to see with a different method other than an eye). If he needs to eat, how does he do so? Via a concealable, alien 'mouth' of sorts? Does he use his tentacles like roots to suck nutrients from victims, or does he extend them and use them like plants use leaves, to photosynthesize? Does he feed upon human fear instead? Does he "see" sounds or "feel" color (synesthesia)? All this stuff can determine how Slenderman acts and reacts to an environment, another character, and events in the story. This is all dependent upon how you feel something without any eyes, nose, mouth, or ears to speak of might percieve the world and hunt prey, and it's based upon the character's actions and reactions in other portrayals of him. It's the same for any other Fear - how has Plague Doctor been written in the past? If he's a mass of sentient bacteria, how do you think such a creature might percieve the world? Does Wooden Girl use her strings to pick up vibrations and catch people that way, maybe using them like a spider web to snag people? Is Cold Boy made of sentient ice, or does he cause ice to occur where he appears? Look at how others have portrayed these characters, and think about why they may have been portrayed that way. Character studies are always a great way to practice this - and that's actually exactly what "I, Slenderman" was, a way to get into his suit and tie and figure out what went on in that alien head of his. It was also a way to break myself of some of the fear I initially felt getting into that Mythos. Practice a bit with your characters and characters you like to get a feel for them. Who knows? Maybe you'll find a few Fears that "speak" to you and play well with you the way Slendy does with me. And of course, this being a highly open-source Mythos, all of this can change even between your own stories. You never have to write a Fear the same way twice! For example, in Twelve Days Slenderman is a mostly helpful, if highly frightening, living representation of anxiety and worry, whereas in areas of Project Him's stories, he's much more of a bogeyman-like figure, a monster in the closet, something that seeks to cause and spread as much fear as possible. And in Observation, he returns more to his original roots as an organ-snatching, forest-dwelling monster that kills for the sake of watching humans who know about him suffer and die. Three very different interpretations, yet all the same character. This blog entry is adapted from a Skype conversation with someone who asked for help in creating and designing a monster character, and specifically wanted to be a Fear that takes the motif of "bunnies" and makes it horrifying and serious. Here were my thoughts on the matter. As always with excerpts, nothing has been changed except for minor editing to make it easier to read.
----------- Creating a new monster character... I guess you could take one of four approaches to it:
You should think all your options over first, however, before deciding on an idea for it. Then, once your theme is decided, think about how the monster behaves, acts, etc., what it does. Decide what your monster's basic motive is. For example, Slenderman (Slenderman Mythos) stalks and torments people psychologically, Pyramid Head (Silent Hill, specifically Silent Hill 2) punishes, Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th) kills irresponsible teens. So, what's your monster do that makes it special? What's its Modus Operandi? Once you have a theme and motive/personality for your monster, now you need to write a story with them that explores those themes and lets that monster's motive shine through. Going off my previous examples, the Slenderverse deals with mystery and obfuscation, Silent Hill 2 deals with guilt, and Friday the 13th deals with the consequences of being irresponsible with a child's life (especially if you're distracted by underage sex). So what's your story deal with? Tie it to your monster. The monster, remember, is the reflection of the story's message, theme, or big idea. A lot of times, I find that horror deals with the fear of the unknown, or the fear of repercussions for one's actions, or simply the fear of something awful happening. Those seem to be very, very common themes. I could write a whole thesis paper and a half on themes in horror games, movies, novels, and other media. For example, everyone knows Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein for a fun contest at a party with some author friends, but did you know Frankenstein is also essentially an allegory for the dangers of science going too far and the limits of human knowledge? H.P. Lovecraft dealt with very similar themes in much of his work, calling these limits "Things man was not meant to know" - literally, discoveries about the vast universe that for our own good, should stay hidden. Lovecraft also liked using the concept of human fragility, specifically human mental capacity, equating too much knowledge of dangerous stuff with madness in the most literal way possible. Edgar Allen Poe, meanwhile, also dealt with the fragility of the human psyche, but spoke more from emotional matters and intellectual ones, including the ever-present fear of death. There's a lot of overlap and it just makes horror such a fascinating genre. Don't be afraid to overlap or reinvent themes! |
About The Blog
Welcome to Musings 2.0, my personal blog here on WordFlow! Here, you can find out what I'm doing now and where I'm going next, as well as get my thoughts on the Cthulhu Mythos, assorted sundry writing topics, and various scientific topics. Archives
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