History Characters / Slender

* TheReveal: [[spoiler:The new ending introduced in the Steam update reveals Kate is the Chaser]].

** He caused the same for his father. Charles Sr. keeps thinking that he sees his son staring at him and giggling like a kid at times. [[spoiler:[[BrainwashedAndCrazy What happened to Charlie]] suggests and the "[[ADayInTheLimelight Nightmare]]" level reveals that he wasn't imagining it at all. Slender Man deliberately tormented him like this]].

** He caused the same for his father. Charlie Sr. keeps thinking that he sees his son staring at him and giggling like a kid at times. [[spoiler:[[FridgeHorror Considering what]] [[BrainwashedAndCrazy happened to him...]]]]

The recipient of several notes found throughout the game and the owner of the house that ''Arrival''[='=]s prologue takes place in. Lauren spends the game searching for her. At the very end of the first level, you could hear a high-pitched scream in the woods, which presumably belonged to Kate. You later play as her in the "Escape" level. [[spoiler:Slender Man turned her into a Proxy after he caught her, attacking the player at a couple of points in the game.]]\\

The "Genesis" level in ''Arrival'' makes it clear that Kate was also the main protagonist of the original ''Slender: The Eight Pages''.

* SilentProtagonist: [[spoiler:Played straight in the original game, but [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] in ''Arrival''. When you play as Kate in the "Escape" chapter, she talks to her camera, saying to shut all the doors and windows. Leaving her room to do that doesn't really work out well for her. The only thing we hear from her after the point of the flashback is her scream coming from the woods at the beginning of the game.]]

* WalkingSpoiler: Just look at all the other tropes here. It's almost impossible to talk about Kate without revealing her role in ''Arrival''.

The father of the disappeared Charlie Matheson. Already dead by the time ''Arrival'' starts, you get to play as him in the "Nightmare" Extended Chapter.

* TheBlank: He lacks a true face, for sure, but images in ''Arrival'' show that he does have ''something'', at least. We can't tell if they're wrinkles, scales or scars, or some deranged combination of the three.

* CombatTentacles: These sprout from his back, and it's completely possible to be ensnared by them. In fact, it can actually net you an achievement. The 2023 graphical update for ''Arrival'' shows that his tentacles [[CastingAShadow seem to be made out of shadows]].

* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: [[spoiler:While not a deity (as far as we know), it is heavily implied in ''Arrival'' that his entire existence depends on people either knowing he exists or knowing about him at all. Naturally, he goes to great lengths to ensure that his presence lingers on. Those who he doesn't claim immediately [[InfectiousInsanity go on to spread knowledge of him]], while those that are unfortunate enough to succumb to Slender Man's influence become his proxies and hunt his next victims for him. This, if you believe the proxies count as people who know, renders him nigh-immortal, [[ShaggyDogStory making C.R.'s death meaningless.]]]]

** [[spoiler:People who go insane tend to go to [[NightmareFuelColoringBook great lengths]] [[MadnessMantra to let other people know about him]], willingly or not. Notes in ''Arrival'' suggest that Kate and C.R. caught a glimpse of the Slender Man when they were playing in the forest as kids, which now leads them back to him as adults. This helps out his GodsNeedPrayerBadly situation and is likely deliberate.]]

* StalkerWithoutACrush: To anyone who collects his notes. [[TheDeterminator He won't stop until he either turns them or kills them]]. ''Arrival'' shows that the notes aren't even necessary, he will stalk you just because he feels like it.

* MesACrowd: [[spoiler: At the end of the "Nightmare" Extended Chapter, his final method of tormenting Charles is to surround him with seemingly endless Slender Men that keep getting closer and closer while he's immobilized.]]

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:Both ''Eight Pages'' and ''Arrival'' end with him victorious. He catches Kate no matter what you do in the first game and, by the time the second game draws to a close, has turned her into one of his proxies, driven C.R. to immolate himself to death and captured Lauren to do with as he pleases.]]

* OneHitKill: Touch him and it is game over.

* OneHitKill: Touch him and it is immediately over.

* OneHitKill: Averted. Unlike its master, the Chaser will only injure you if it catches you. Let it catch you a second time however and it's game over.

-->'''Slender Man:''' "''Even a bug in this game won't save you from me.''"

* AdaptationalVillainy: Slender Man has always been a malevolent entity, but this portrayal of him is ''much'' more outwardly malicious, even sadistic, [[ForTheEvulz for no other reason than his own amusement]]. In other media, he rarely does anything personally and leaves his proxies to take up the spotlight, but here he actively chases Lauren down and ''physically'' hinders her progress to keep her from advancing further, while intentionally keeping her in the dark that [[ShaggyDogStory he already accomplished his torment of her friends]] and [[YankTheDogsChain he's just stringing her along with a false sense of hope]]. He personally ruined the lives of an entire family by kidnapping a child (Charlie Matheson) and deforming it into an emaciated monster. He drives CR, a freelance investigator, to burn himself to death in a vain effort to keep others from learning about the Slender Man. He haunts Kate Milens as far back as the first game, when she looked for notes in a forest as a kid, drives her insane and transforms her into a SlaveMook that's forced to hunt her old friend Lauren. It's even revealed that he had been stalking Kate and Charlie's families for a long, long time, and he presumably eradicated Kate's parents as well.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Horrifically subverted, though Charles never realized it. When the Slender Man took his son away during a normal picnic at the beach, the Matheson family eventually lost hope and thought the young boy was gone for good. Except the Slender Man never killed the boy, having instead turned him into a monster and made him visit his dear father's window for years to come, always out of reach.

* SanitySlippage: The Slender Man tormented this poor man for years on end with visits by his long-lost son, always out of reach.

* MesACrowd: [[spoiler: At the end of the "Nightmare" Extended Chapter, his final method of tormenting Charles is to surround him with seemingly endless copies of Slender Man.]]

** [[spoiler:The "Nightmare" Extended Chapter reveals that some kind of new experimental drug, implied to have been made with a strange black liquid found in Charles Matheson's bloodstream, caused the patients of a mental hospital to receive visions of Slender Man, spreading his influence even further than before.]]

* BerserkButton: Initially, Charlie is content to stare at C.R. ominously while the latter explores the former's long abandoned homestead. But when C.R. takes some toys that are implied to belong to him while investigating the chapel, Charlie begins pursuing him while screaming his head off.
* BodyHorror: His body in the present day is incredibly malnourished, covered in burn scars and seems to be missing both eyes and the lower jaw. A far cry from the normal, friendly young boy seen on the missing posters.

* ReluctantPsycho: Implied. Though he's shown stalking and attacking both C.R. and Lauren, Charlie does have some qualities that imply he's not as heartless as Slender Man is.

* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler:He abducted Charles Matheson Jr. as a child, luring him away from his parents with a few of his toys. Although we don't know ''precisely'' what he did to him, while Charlie is still alive in the present day, he looks like a walking corpse.]]

* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler:He abducted Charles Matheson Jr. as a child, luring him away from his parents with a few of his toys. While we don't know ''precisely'' what he did to him, Charlie is still alive in the present day, but he looks like a walking corpse.]]

* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler:He abducted Charles Matheson Jr. as a child, luring him away from his parents with a few of his toys. While we don't know ''precisely'' what he did to him, but while Charlie is still alive in the present day, he looks like a walking corpse.]]

!Antagonists
[[folder:The Slender Man]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/slendermanarrivalremake.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Always watching. No Eyes.]]

Our favorite faceless stalker. He's taken an interest in Kate and C.R., and goes after you when you go looking for them... and the results are not pretty.

* InfectiousInsanity: [[spoiler:People who go insane tend to go to [[NightmareFuelColoringBook great lengths]] [[MadnessMantra to let other people know about him]], willingly or not. Notes in ''Arrival'' suggest that Kate and C.R. caught a glimpse of the Slender Man when they were playing in the forest as kids, which now leads them back to him as adults. This helps out his GodsNeedPrayerBadly situation and is likely deliberate.]]

* TheVoiceless: In the present day, Charlie doesn't say anything to Lauren when he meets her, aside from making soft sobbing noises when found in the remains of his house. With C.R, sounds of childlike giggling and sobbing can be heard in his presence, up until C.R aggravates him enough to start chasing him.

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:Both ''Eight Pages'' and ''Arrival'' end with with him victorious. He catches Kate no matter what you do in the first game and, by the time the second game draws to a close, has turned her into one of his proxies, driven C.R. to immolate himself to death and captured Lauren to do with as he pleases.]]

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: The game raises the implication that the only way for Slender Man to truly lose is for everyone on Earth to forget him. Suffice to say, he's not going away any time soon.]]