->''The woods are lovely, dark and deep,\\
But I have promises to keep,\\
And miles to go before I sleep''
-->-- "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", Creator/RobertFrost

''Trial of Leaves'' is an ongoing Website/YouTube series set within Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos.

Having started at the beginning of 2013, this series continually chronicles the lives of three young survivalists and their struggles to protect those they care about. While hiking in their free time, the boys become wrapped up in a much larger design, with the appearance of a familiar symbol. Not letting that bother them, they decide to keep entertaining us, and ignoring it.

Once they decide to gather their weapons and pull a BigDamnHeroes they get beaten. Badly. What follows is nothing less than the crushing of man in every way... emotionally, spiritually, physically, and of course, mentally.

At this time they discover a world parallel to our own, and under the jurisdiction of their stalkers. This Path of Blackened Leaves becomes both a haven and a hell for the protagonists, as their true Trial begins.

From here on in, a tale of CosmicHorror and plenty of BreakTheCutie moments and a helluva lot of {{Woobie}}s and WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds with just a sliver of hope that they can break free without losing all they care about.

[[https://www.youtube.com/user/TrialofLeaves The Trial of Leaves YouTube]], [[https://twitter.com/trail_of_leaves its Twitter]], [[http://www.formspring.me/follow/stream Formspring]], [[http://www.ustream.tv/user/TrailofLeaves and its Ustream]]

Season 1 has ended... with plans for Season 2 underway.
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!! This show provides examples of:
* AlienGeometries: The premise of the series, revolving around a Path they keep getting pulled to, no matter their location.
* BadassBoast: Justin's "Well I do hike alone...".
* BadassNormal: Justin takes a blast to the chest from Slender Man and manages to recover fairly quickly.
* BreatherEpisode: Hike #2, aside from the ending. Josiah's Party.
* CliffHanger: If the latest episode "Nothing Helps" (wherin Slender Man invades Nathan's house) and the three month break in uploads isn't this, I don't know what is.
** Additionally, the boys were concerned that the showing of a gun at the end of the first episode would be this.
* EldritchAbomination: Slender Man, of course. His proxies. All the supernatural things that pop up get close to this.
* EnvironmentalSymbolism: In the first video, when deciding on a higher path covered in leaves and a lower path bereft of them, they choose the leave-less path... but eventually hit leaves anyway.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Literally the entire first episode is this. Justin's sickness at the end of Hike # 2.
** Including finding the name MOLLY written on a dirt mound. This hasn't come up since, but it's a Slender Man series so...
** Talking about the range of the Bolo/Machete and how easy it would be to take someone out; followed by the introduction to Josiah's Grandfather's knife.
** Several moments in "Josiah's Birthday" appear to be this.
** EVERY story in "Camping".
* HopelessWithTech: Nathan starts off like this (as evidenced by the beginning of "Survival Tip #2) but it seems he's gotten more used to using the camera.
* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: There's a moment in "Survival Tip 1" where Josiah sees where Nathan is pointing the pistol nonchalantly, and the two play it off comedically.
* ImportantHaircut: Josiah sports a very short haircut for the Survival Tip video regarding Knives.
* MacheteMayhem: The boys have quite a few blades...
* MeaningfulName: For some reason the Website/YouTube account itself is called Trial of Leaves but all their other channels say its name as ''Trail'' of Leaves. Probably just a coincidence.
** The name Trial of Leaves evokes ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves''.
* MistakenNationality: The very first video has Nathan confusing Chinese and Japanese cultural points.
* ShoutOut: Nathan's hair greatly resembles the [[Series/DoctorWho Tenth Doctor's]] at several points.
** Josiah says "[[WebVideo/PhelousIGotAShotgun]]" during a game of VideoGame/GoldenEye1997 in "Josiah's Birthday". And later, during [[VideoGame/SoulSeries SoulCaliber]] says [[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing "I don't need your pity or your mercy, I have no use for it!"]]
** The first video has the crew talking about [[WebVideo/EverymanHYBRID HABIT's and Hybrids.]]
** "[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings That's the elvish word for enemy]]".
** A tarp with Theatre/TheFantasticks written on it is visible in Survival Tip 1 and 2.
** Josiah has a shirt on in "Survival Tip #2" that says WWKD? ([[Franchise/StarTrek What Would Kirk Do?)]] Later in the same video, Josiah imitates [[Film/TheDarkKnight The Joker]] when drawing a switchblade and compares the (less effective) tactic of stabbing to [[Franchise/{{Halloween}} Michael Myers]].
** Mentioning Series/{{Dexter}} and Film/TheHungerGames in the Camping video.
** "Research and Fresh Air" has Nathan bringing up [[Creator/HPLovecraft Cthulhu]].
* TakeThat: The first video has Josiah saying "it'll create the biggest mystery since... well... ''Series/{{LOST}}'' never made sense since the beginning."
* WhamEpisode: "Camping". Starts with showing the aftermath...and after some heavy distortion and creepy stories...we are treated to the explosive entrance of good ol' Slendy.
** "Deliverance". Where to start? Nathan and Justin [[spoiler: raid Slendy's realm and find Josiah, but he's gone babbling mad. Just as they talk him into coming, the masked Proxy shoots him with an arrow and disappears. Then [[Literature/TheRake the Rake]] shows up and starts chasing the trio. When they finally escape, the Proxy appears again and [[KilledOffForReal shoots Nathan dead]], and Josiah and Justin kill the Proxy in return. [[OhCrap And then Slendy shows up and takes Nathan's body away.]]]] Goddamn.
* WholeEpisodeFlashback: "Old Hike" is a recording of one of Justin's older solo hikes and reveals that he had seen a [[WebVideo/MarbleHornets certain symbol before]].