History Headscratchers / TheSlenderManMythos

** He's obviously working with {{CandleJack}} to make them va[[color:lightgrey:luable and more productive members of society. What a nice guy.]]

** He's obviously working with {{CandleJack}} to make them va[[color:grey:luable and more productive embers of society. What a nice guy.]]

** He's obviously working with {{CandleJack}} to make them va

** He's obviously working with {{CandleJack}} to make them va[[color:white:nish. Slendy provides rope. ]]

** The constant use of pop-culture references is [[NightmareRetardant detrimental to the mythos]] in the [[YourMileageMayVary opinion of some readers]].

* Why is it that MarbleHornets get grouped as just another series associated with TheSlendermanMythos when nearly everything about the mythos besides Slendy himself and the original creepypastas came from MarbleHornets? While some tropes ''do'' appear in all of them, some of them are distinctly traits of MarbleHornets (i.e. the LaserGuidedAmnesia, cryptic codes, the distorted tapes, [[MeaningfulBackgroundEvent Meaningful Background Events]], DemonicPossesion and/or MindRape, totheark, etc.), and yet the trope pages credit it as "Common in TheSlendermanMythos" despite that they are all examples of FollowTheLeader and most memorably appeared in MarbleHornets. It seems to give less credit to MarbleHornets than it deserves, or at least making MarbleHornets a victim to SeinfeldIsUnfunny much quicker than it needs to be.

* Why is it that MarbleHornets get grouped as just another series associated with TheSlendermanMythos when nearly everything about the mythos besides Slendy himself and the original creepypastas came from MarbleHornets? While some tropes ''do'' appear in all of them, some of them are distinctly traits of MarbleHornets (i.e. the LaserGuidedAmnesia, cryptic codes, the distorted tapes, etc.), and yet the trope pages credit it as "Common in TheSlendermanMythos" despite that they are all examples of FollowTheLeader and most memorably appeared in MarbleHornets. It seems to give less credit to MarbleHornets than it deserves.

* Does anyone else get the feeling that most of the well-known Slenderman stories are just throwing creepy things about for the heck of it and then trying to string it all together into a story? I mean, half the fun of the documentary horror thing is leaving out information for the audience to guess for themselves, but after a while it stops being scary and just gets annoying. Throwing random things about and saying, "Oh, they're clues, they'll make sense in the end promise!" does not a good story make.
** Hey, it worked for the X Files.
** I was under the impression that that was what mysteries were; clues that don't make a lot of sense to people until the end. There's a reason only observant, intelligent people make it as detectives.

* I don't like it when Slender Man is shown as communicating clearly and non-cryptically with either his victims or proxies/Hallowed. It makes him less mysterious/alien/"other".

* I DESPISE when people call him Slenderman as opposed to Slender Man or The Slender Man. Aside from that it makes him sound like a skinny jewish guy, the Slender Man sounds like the kind of name a genuine urban legend, but Slenderman sounds too familiar, almost comic book character-ish.
** Slenderman, Slenderman, does whatever a slender can....
*** Slends his arms, any size! Catches peeps, just like flies!
*** Look out! Here comes the - OH, GOD, HE'S HERE!!!
** "Criminals are a supersitious, cowardly lot, so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible ..a..a.. a slender! That's it! It's an omen.. I shall become a SLENDER!" And thus is born this weird figure of the dark.. this avenger of evil. The SLENDORMAN!
** Jack Slenderman! The cop who does not play by the rules!
*** SLENDERMAN HATE JAY AND ALEX! SLENDERMAN JUST WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE! SLENDERMAN SMASH!
** OP: This shit is exactly what I meant! It just sounds '''right''' when it's Slenderman. The Slender Man sounds so much more urban-legend-y.

* I really hate when people act like there is some sort of Slenderman Canon(Just as a note, while I understand why you would prefer The Slender Man. It's grammatically awkward to use all the time, especially when out-of-universe.). Like when they speculate about one story and use evidence from another story to contradict something. Unless they decide to mention each other mutually in their stories, all Slenderman stories exist in their own separate universe and their Slenderman is not the same. There are huge inconsistencies between all of the stories/pictures(because we also shouldn't forget that the roots of The Slender Man come from fake paranormal images, not full out stories.) and even trying to act like they're all one story is just stupid. Even back in the Create Paranormal Images thread on SA there were inconsistencies. Even on the earlier pages of the thread! Some images had tentacles coming out of the back, some had splitting arms, some had hands some had mouths, some were taller, some weren't tall by just disproportionate in different ways, some only existed in photographs while some could be seen. Everyone has different ideas what works best with Slenderman and what they think is the right way to do it, but saying "It couldn't have been Slenderman that gave Jim those cuts because as seen in (S)ome Omin(o)us T9(i)tle Slenderman can only disappear people not physically touch them!" is just stupid. The Tutorial says that Slenderman can't hurt you when you look at him, but one of the earliest Slenderman thingamajigs barely resembling a story(it was a series of images with captions between them, presented as "I'm making this forum post in this topic because I'm so scared!") was a man frantically taking photos of a thing that was chasing him on a foggy night in the city(It was really terrifying and still one of the better Slenderman type things IMO.) It ended with "It's tapping on my door." which of course contradicts all the theories about him only being able to move on camera(which of course is a stupid theory probably invented by people that thought MH invented Slenderman.) So yeah, this is my rant about people acting like all the stories exist in the same canon.
** On a similar note, I wish people would stop screaming about blogs they hate "ruining Slender Man". This is a story where you can literally disregard every single bit of information that you don't like. It's one of the few methods of storytelling where you can ignore the weak parts and not miss out on much of the story. If you don't like a blog, don't read it- there are 20 others that might be more to your taste.
** I agree with both points. In particular, I hate that people are coming up with "rules" (Particularly the "core" theory) which they expect to be consistent (I've seen people insisting upon Core Theory in most of the blogs, even ones which clearly have no intention of going in that direction). His chaotic, undefined nature suited him more - plus, the core theory seems to me to both give a way to kill him and to allow the characters in the story to make themselves into BigDamnHeroes which, to me, is just obnoxious. He's scariest when he's a relentless, inexplicable horror, lurking just outside of normality, and attatching rules to his canon limits him.
*** Thing about the Core Theory is that the original form (which included the BigDamnHeroes bit) was pretty much entirely abandoned when it led to [[MarySue people titling themselves and gaining super powers]], and its recent incarnation seems to have been overhauled. Also note that, as of yet, the Core Theory [[HopeSpot hasn't shown itself to work at all]].
*** Yeah, the whatchamacallsits who could tap in to Slendermagic and use it? Not cool. I also have some problems with the Core Theory in that there's a lot more emphasis on proxies--Slender himself is a lot more distant. I prefer him shoving his tentacles straight into everyone's business (...not [[TentacleRape like that]])... like Just Another Fool. The attempt at a sort of "universal" Slender Man canon in Core Theory goes entirely against the original "guidelines". Slender Man doesn't have a canon. Blogs come up with rules individually, and that adds to our fear of (and confusion via) Him.
*** Yeah, the modern slenderblog community annoys the hell out of me. I still watch (and love) [[MarbleHornets the]] [[EverymanHYBRID video]] [[TribeTwelve series]] but I've pretty much abandoned the blogs, it's gotten to the point where if you don't follow every last damn one you have no clue what's happening. I won't bother ranting on Core Theory because I think the massively awesome wall'o'text above explains it great but trying to force consistency onto a mythos whose original draw was how varied and mysterious the central character was is destroying it IMO.
*** [[{{Tropers/Alloflifedecays}} I]] actually started a blog eschewing the mainstream canon entirely in the hopes that it'll catch on. Here's hoping.
*** Could you provide a link to it?
*** I started such a blog as well, though it isn't entirely Slendy centric, and I'm working with two other writers. But I still hope it can get some love.
*** I just read this blog that seems to be shaping up to be a Slenderblog, it can be boring but seems to be in-line with the original stories. The Slender Man goes after children and might have something to do with trees.
**** What one was that?
***** I think it was called Into the Darkness, or maybe Into the Dark
*** I'm a budding Slenderblogger myself, and I want to go back to the older details of Slendy, like him ripping out organs and stuffing them into bags. I wonder if anyone tries to use the whole "everyone sees him differently" thing.
**** Yeah, I've worked on a couple of Slenderblogs, too, and they're always very--as Encyclopedia Slenderia would say--generation one.
** I'm pretty new to this whole Slender Man thing and I've ''really'' been turned off by all this too. I love the basic idea, but I think it works better if each author isn't expected to keep it all consistent with each other. It's basically a modern day folk tale, albeit a really scary one. As such, it ''should'' be able to take any shape each author wants instead of the fanbase getting all insistent about it fitting in with all these extra guidelines. Who or what is the Slender Man? That should be up to each individual storyteller (assuming they try to answer that question at all). Also, a lot of the appeal lied in the simplicity. Trying to canonize it just makes everything unappealingly convoluted.
** In relation, the author of "Peering In From The Outside". I only recently found out about them, through being told that they are quitting, and I'm just ''incredibly'' annoyed by them. "Oh, things aren't going the way ''I'' want them to! I must quit now because the Mythos is [[RuinedFOREVER RUINED FOREVER!!]]". I'm not sure about how the other blogs are going to recover (I really only tend to read a few), but I'm sure they can, despite the fact that PIFTO was clearly hoping to wreck them because of her little hissy fit.
*** Wherein you have [[CompletelyMissingThePoint missed the point entirely]]. The writer was voicing ''her'' complaints with the latest round of blogs, the rampant gamejacking, and the blogs that lost track entirely of the mythos and instead turned it, to borrow the writer's words, into an action movie. Being upset because something isn't going the way you want them to, and being upset because you are constantly dealing with people trying to railroad your plot and watching them try to debunk other blogs in a hamfisted attempt to gain credibility are different things. As she posted in reply to your comment on her blog--[[WriterRevolt ruined for her]] and RuinedFOREVER are not the same thing.
*** Speaking as one of the bloggers that she was crossed over with, I have to concur with the above poster. The author's concerns were absolutely legitimate and I and the other bloggers she was crossed over with completely supported her decision to end her blog when the aforementioned gamejackers and railroaders had turned writing her blog into a chore that she no longer got any enjoyment from. The author had no intention of wrecking our stories. She made an OOG post expressing her wish to discontinue our blog. The post doesn't exist in-game; how could she ruin our stories? Seriously, before you go jumping to my defense, you might want to check whether or not I'm on the same side as the person you're defending me from. That booming noise you just heard? That was the point going over your head at supersonic speeds and breaking the sound barrier.
**** OP: Okay, maybe I ''did'' miss the point slightly (not to the extent you both claim I did, but I digress), but that still doesn't mean that I'm not ''entirely'' wrong. My point of "don't like, don't read/watch" still stands. I also find it hilarious that the first response to my JBM is clearly PIFTO's author, yet you try to hide it. And, also, I wasn't jumping to your defence. I was merely saying that I believe you can work something out in regards to where to go now that she's not continuing her blog. Basically, you don't like something from the Mythos? Don't include it in your story. As someone on this page has said, the Slender Man Mythos is a rarity in that you can disregard anything and everything about it for your entry into it. And incidentally, I wasn't defending the gamejacking (although you ''could'' just make it so that comments are moderated). I was defending the right for someone to make a story the way ''they'' want it, and that you can just ignore it if you dislike it.
*** This is the guy who collaborates with PIFTO again. First of all, the point is that the incessant gamejacking and railroading was impossible to ignore without not allowing comments on the blog at all. Blogger doesn't allow comment moderation, it's either "Allow" or "Don't allow". It was so relentless that it took all the fun out of blogging for her. Second of all, the hypocrisy of you defending other people's right to make their story the way they want to while also attacking PIFTO's author for ending hers the way she wanted is just as delicious as that guy who tattooed Leviticus to his arm. Finally, PIFTO's author is female and the first response to your post came from a '''male''' troper. Try and confirm your assumptions before making accusations like that.
*** OP: Okay, I yield to all points but one. I fail to see how I'm being hypocritical. Is she allowed to end her blog? Of course. That's perfectly within her right to do so. But she's outright attacking other blogs when, again, she can simply ignore them (as is the beauty of the Slender Man Mythos). I'll admit, the gamejacking is certainly annoying and I am in no way defending those who try to gamejack, but it's not particularly fair to blame a few people doing something that ''she'' doesn't like for "ruining the Mythos". To sum it up, I would understand her stopping because of gamejackers, but ''not'' because of something like people doing blogs that she doesn't agree with. But, let's just leave it. I'm not gonna convince you to come round to my way of thinking, and you're not going to convince me to come round to your way of thinking.
*** This Slenderblogging troper just wants to say, you totally can moderate comments on Blogger before they go up. I do on my blog, and have either deterred or intercepted comments I don't want without them ever going up. It's in the options menu.

* Where did the joke that Slender Man just wants $20 come from?
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acBnEHT-fBo From this vid.]]

* Anyone know how MarbleHornets, Everyman Hybrid, etc. have been filming their Slendermen? I'm trying to come up with some kind of possibility that doesn't involve a manniquin, because I am poor and it wouldn't fit in a dorm. This is really bugging me. How the heck did they do it? Especially when Slender Man walks and peers through the window in Marble Hornets. How...?
** EverymanHybrid seems to use a costume at least a couple times, and in TribeTwelve he looks like he's added in digitally. MarbleHornets seems to be a mix of the two plus a big prop.
** IMO, putting someone that knows how to walk on stilts in a costume would work. [[AwesomeButImpractical Probably expensive and impractical]], but it might look pretty cool, especially since the gait of stiltwalkers looks sort of otherworldly anyway. Isn't that how NeilCicierega did it in the Splendor Man vid, more or less?

* Anyone else getting kind of tired of people coming back from the dead constantly?

* Aside from MarbleHornets and TribeTwelve, does anyone know of any blogs that don't end up weaving themselves in with about half a dozen other blogs? I'd like to find one, just ONE, that doesn't necessitate one following other blogs to know what's going on. What happened to the self-contained blogs like DreamsInDarkness and JustAnotherFool? I know it's fun to play around with everyone else, but aren't there any out there that, if necessary, could exist in vacuums free from the influence of the other blogs? Nothing against the others, of course; some of the blogs I follow are interconnected with each other. But still... one of the reasons (imho) the aforementioned blogs are so good and so well-known is that you DON'T have to be following six other blogs to understand them. If anyone can recommend some like them, I'd be extremely grateful.

** PROTIP: Pop culture references do not belong in a Slenderman blog.

** The problem with H(a)unting is the creator's giant homoerotic tendencies toward a troll called iraged.

** The reason that he's referred to as "The Operator" in MH is because MH is made by SA Goons, who really don't like to be associated with stuff they think is getting stupid. Basically, MH was originally just a thing to entertain fellow goons and when it became so popular that hundreds of lesser quality(sometimes horrible quality) Slenderstories started to pop up they wanted to differentiate themselves from it. "This isn't The Slender Man or Slenderman, it's The Operator, something else that was only originally based on The Slender Man." is the general idea behind it.

** Maybe he is an android implanting microchips in their brains. It would actually explain a lot.