Characters / Marble Hornets

Characters of Marble Hornets.

Due to the nature of this series, spoilers are off! Read at your own discretion.

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Major Characters

Jay Merrick

Played by: Troy Wagner

"Looking through some surveillance footage. Not sure what I'll find. I feel like I just have [to] know one more time what's been going on."

A college friend of student filmmaker Alex Kralie, and possibly the last person Alex talked to before leaving town. Jay wound up in possession of the raw tapes for Marble Hornets, the original student film, but forgot about them until he read something online that reminded him of them.

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• Action Survivor: Anyone who manages to actually escape from the Operator like he did in Entry #60 deserves this title. And that was the third close encounter that Jay has survived.
• Always Save the Girl: This seems to be his driving motivation for the third season, as he constantly tells Tim that his goal is to find Jessica. In a twist to the trope, there is no romantic undertone to this, as the two barely knew each other when she went missing.
• Amateur Sleuth: Very amateur. He tries to piece together what led to Alex's increasingly erratic behaviour while filming and why he left town, but he is often burdened with the Idiot Ball.
• Bad Liar:
  • He gives Jessica about three incompatible reasons for him being in the hotel, to her understandable confusion. It doesn't help that he's amnesiac and doesn't know the real reason why he's there.
  • By season three, he's... exactly as bad at it as before. After hunting down Tim, he says "I wasn't, like, sitting outside waiting on you or anything - I was in the area, so..."
• Berserk Button: During the latter half of season 2, it's revealed to be threatening Jessica. He tries his best to protect her from Alex when he threatens to kill them, and when the Operator appears in her bedroom in Entry #52, Jay's resolve is so strong he charges straight at it.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Tries to be this to Jessica in Entry #52 when the Operator appears in her bedroom. It backfires horrendously.
  • Heads off to do it again after Entry #61 goes up and shows him that finding out Tim has turned back into Masky and has run off again. This time it's at least marginally less awful for both of them.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: In Entry #52. It's implied coming into contact with the Operator is what caused Jay's amnesia.
• Captain's Log: Jay's text commentary he often leaves before and/or after his videos. Justified in that Jay is talking to the viewers on Youtube as well as leaving a log for himself to avert the Laser-Guided Amnesia that afflicted him though season 2.
• Character Blog: His Twitter keeps the audience up to date with the latest entries and gives some extra information about what he's up to between entries.
• Character Development: Between Season 1 and 2, Jay went from being The Everyman who was essentially an audience proxy, to gaining his own distinct personality as someone who's rather awkward and not that bright, but learns from his mistakes.
• Classical Antihero: He's an overall pretty inept protagonist who more often than not fails to make a difference in anything. Of course, when you're a film student against something way over your head like the Operator, some ineptitude is expected.
• The Danza: an indirect example, but his initial posts were signed as simply "J", Troy Wagner's first name being James (Troy is his middle name). Some fans assumed it stood for "Jay", and it was thrown in.
• Determinator: As the end of Entry #52 shows, he's prepared to get to the bottom of this mystery or die trying... He does.
• Divergent Character Evolution: In Season 1, there was little difference between characterisations of Jay and Alex. This changed with Jay's Character Development and season 2's reveal that Alex is evil. The writers themselves said they wanted to flesh out the characters to give more of a distinction between them, and to help tell some more interesting stories.
• Doom Magnet: Tim accuses him of being one, at least; understandable, considering it seems the Operator didn't bother people much before Jay started looking into things.
• The Everyman: As stated above, he was very much an audience proxy in Season 1. He is just a guy who's trying to find out what happened to Alex.
• Genre Blindness:
  • Frequently a victim to it, especially in Entries #16 and #18 where he goes into unfamiliar, creepy abandoned buildings at night.
  • An interesting case in #40: he again investigates an unfamiliar area alone, but he shows some savviness when he sees the Operator, drops the camera and just runs.
  • And then goes back to being silly in Entry #46, when he sneaks into Alex's house while Alex takes out the trash, giving him a grand total of a minute and a half to investigate. Oh, and he drops his flashlight. Needless to say, he gets caught. Alex even calls him out on how stupid the idea is.
  • Jay himself and Alex lampshade his stupid decisions throughout the series in Entry #52.
  • He still has shades of this in Entry 59. "What's that, guy whom I have reason to believe is dangerously insane, and whom I strongly suspect is hiding stuff from me? You want me to meet you in an isolated parking lot, alone, in the middle of the night, to talk about something? What about? Oh, you're not going to tell me? That's fine. I'll be right over!" Fortunately for Jay, Tim just punches him once and then yells at him instead of trying to murder him.
  • His Genre Blindness is made even more painfully aware when he's paired up with Tim in Entry #64. Every time Tim wants to explore something for more clues, Jay feels it's too dangerous. The one time Tim suggests turning back, Jay wants to keep pressing on. Where does this happen? In the creepy sewer tunnel Alex murdered that guy in, where Jay knows the Operator is prone to appearing, after Alex himself calls them and warns them to turn back.
• He Knows Too Much: Alex's reason for threatening to kill Jay in Entry #52.
• He Who Fights Monsters:
  • Starting with Entry #46, Jay began to make a habit of stalking Alex, not at all unlike the Operator and Maskies.
  • One of the reasons Tim's What the Hell, Hero? in Entry #59 is so potent is because it makes the viewer (and probably Jay) realize how for all the accused stalking characters like Alex, ToTheArk and the Operator have been doing, Jay himself is just as bad - if not worse - because he posts the videos up on the internet without consent of the people in them, and doesn't really do anything to help them; if anything, he's leading the threats right to their doorstep.
  • Once Jay's Sanity Slippage begins during the second half of season 3, he begins to show signs that are eerily similar to Alex and Tim/Masky when they're under the Operator's influence, including paranoia, periods of vegetable-like mental states, his mere presence causing the camera to get static, and - most disturbingly - attacking people in fits of rage.
• The Hero Dies: Shot by Alex and has his body stolen by the Operator in Entry #80.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Developed a cough after getting involved with the whole escapade.
• The Insomniac: Develops a severe case of insomnia after going through the tapes.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia:
  • Season 2 shows that he lost his memory of all of the events between April 18th, 2010 (Entry #26) and November 23, 2010 (Entry #27). Also doesn't recall some parts of the original film project.
  • In Entry #71, Jay finds out Alex apparently attacked him when he gave him the original tapes. Jay explicitly states he remembers things very, very differently.
• Meaningful Name: It's quite funny how, given his reputation for doing things he obviously shouldn't, his name would be Jay, which can describe a simpleminded or gullible person.
• Mirror Character: In Season 3, Jay acts more like Alex than he would care to admit. He drags Tim into his personal mission to rescue a missing girl, leaves him in the dark, and grows progressively more unstable as time passes.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After watching the tape he took from Tim in Entry #75, he understands why Tim kept it from him and calls him in Entry #82 to apologize for attacking him. Unfortunately, later that same entry, the Operator Mind Rape s him, causing him to blame Tim for Jessica's disappearance, and to go to his house to attack him.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: In Entry #52, Jay brings his knife again in case Alex tries anything. Sadly, Alex has a gun.

• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Entry #52: Turns out Alex lied about finding Amy to Jessica so she wouldn't get involved in his problems. Jay, however, didn't realize this, and got Jessica caught up in his investigation, leading Alex to try to kill them both. Then there was her Mind Rape from the Operator, and later her abduction from the hotel. Yup, Jay well and truly ruined Jessica's life.
  • Tim points out in Entry #59 that his sickness only started again when he showed up. He also notes Alex and Jessica's lives only seemed to turn to crap when Jay showed up, leading to the unfortunate implication that Jay is indeed responsible for everything going on, albeit indirectly. However, it's later revealed that Tim was probably in denial about his own insecurities about his influence on everything, so he could have just been letting off steam.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • Jay becomes suspicious of Alex sometime between Entry #43 and Entry #46. Then in Entry #47, it turns out he was right: Alex had been telling conflicting stories about Amy to him and Jessica. Comes to a head in Entry #49, when Alex murders someone.
  • In Entry #50, as he's walking through Rosswood Park with Alex, he swears he can hear footsteps behind him. He did. He later catches Masky/Tim following him.
  • He starts showing signs of this in Entry #69, when he thinks he sees someone following him and Tim to the red tower. Turns out again, he's right. It happens again in Entry #72, and despite Tim calling Jay out on it, the next thing you know the Operator corners both of them in Alex's basement.
  • He seems almost uncharacteristically suspicious in Entry #75 as he keeps asking Tim if Tim knows of any other tapes they might have missed, pressing the question as though he does not believe Tim is being honest with him. It eventually culminates with him pinning Tim down and taking a tape off of him, a tape Tim knew was there and was deliberately hiding from Jay, saying that it would "ruin everything" if he saw it too soon.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Alex, Tim, and the entire Fandom give him crap for his Genre Blindness, though Tim gives him probably more crap for it than anyone else In-Universe. Tim's kind of earned that right, though.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue Oni to Alex's Red in Season 2. Jay's been shown to be more passive and less aggressive, though that hasn't stopped him from being assertive.
  • Becomes the Red to Tim's Blue during Season 3, as he is more willing to dive into situations without planning ahead, while Tim is the calmer and more intellectual of the two.
• Reset Button: After becoming moderately savvy during the events leading up to Alex trying to shoot him, Jay has to relearn all of those lessons after The Operator wipes out 7 months of memory.
• Rogue Protagonist: Has pretty much become this as of Entry #77, with Tim as the new protagonist.
• Sanity Slippage: One of the main plot developments in season 3 is Jay's growing inability to resist the Operator's influence. He starts to get traces of this since Entry #69, and by Entry #72 its become so bad Tim suggests he goes to get help. It only gets worse after their close encounter with the Operator, which leaves Jay in a semi-comatose state for weeks. When he awakes, he's still out of it, and in Entry #75 he violently attacks Tim after he lies about hiding a tape from Jay. Tim eventually has to take away his camera (taking over the Marble Hornets YouTube channel in the process) and tie Jay up because he does not know what else to do to help him.
  • Entry #82 suggests that Jay's sanity slippage is indeed Operator induced, as he appears in this entry mostly fine in the head and even apologizing to Tim for being mad at him. Sadly, the Operator gets to him, and then Entry #77 is the next event that happens chronologically.
• Seeker Archetype: Jay's core motivation is his desire for answers. Exactly what answers he's seeking evolves over the course of the series, but it's always the driving force behind the series and his character.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Gives this to Alex in Entry #47. Alex gives Jay a massive chewing out about how he's done nothing but make things worse since he showed up again. Jay counters by saying Alex has been far too secretive and has done little to solve their problems himself.
• So What Do We Do Now?: Spends a lot of Season 2 having these conversations with Alex. Comes to a head in Entry #47, where he's had enough of sitting around waiting for Alex to call him. It gets subverted in Entry #52, where we find out Alex was intentionally trying to keep Jay out of everything.
• Too Dumb to Live: Literally, as of Entry #80. Seriously, he's been known to make some pretty foolish decisions throughout the series, but what was he expecting when he was looking for a madman with a gun with nothing but a small folding knife?
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • His attempt to physically attack the Operator in Entry #52, even though he failed.
  • In Entry #60, he manages to escape from the Operator, while being chased down a small, confined corridor. That's a huge improvement from all those other times he got caught and had his mind wiped.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Inverted; he progressively becomes more and more intelligent on how to handle the situation he's in as the series progresses, even if he's prone to a couple of Idiot Ball moments.
  • Used in an interesting way during Season 2 and the early parts of Season 3. Jay spent seven months Level Grinding in Badass, but thanks to the Laser-Guided Amnesia, he has to relearn all of that.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Entry #82 reveals that sometime between Entry #76 and #77, Jay regained enough sanity to realize Tim had good intentions for hiding the tape and was more than willing to keep working with him. Sadly, the call never made it to Tim for some reason, and the Operator got to him again, causing him to go insane once more.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Not much, but he did snap at Tim for sharing his pills with him in hopes that it will help him recover in Entry #74, despite Tim's good intentions.
• Unreliable Narrator: We know that Jay has gaps in his memory, and it's unclear how honest Jay is being to us or to himself.
• Video Will: Jay gives a spoken monologue of his thoughts on all the events leading up to point at the start of Entry #52, just in case something happens when he follows Alex into Rosswood Park.
• Villain Protagonist: Briefly, from Entry #77 where he comes at Tim with a knife, and then begins stalking Tim to find Alex, up until Entry #80 where he dies at Alex's hand.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Gets a few of these, especially from Alex.
  • In Entry #42, Alex calls Jay out on going into the woods near Rosswood Park by himself.
  • Then in Entry #46, he's called out on breaking into Alex's house; not even so much the breaking in part, but the fact he did it while Alex was taking out the trash, giving him little to no time to actually find anything.
  • Then he gets called out on it again in Entry #47, though this time he dishes it back out to Alex.
  • Alex gives him a particularly spectacular one at gunpoint in Entry #52. This time he has a go at Jay for posting all the videos for the world to see. He also mentions how he lied to Jessica about finding Amy because he didn't want her to get hurt, and the only reason he's threatening to kill her now is because Jay got her involved.
  • There is also Tim's in Entry #59. While Jay's reluctance to tell Tim straight-up is understandable, Tim makes a very good point that Jay seems to be more interested in filming everyone than actually doing anything productive, and that everything bad that has happened to Alex, Jessica and himself only seemed to start when Jay showed up again.

Alex Kralie

Played by: Joseph DeLage

"I thought I would be safer here, by running away, but everything's just gotten worse. I'm going back to my home, and I'm burning these tapes. All of them."

A student filmmaker and friend of Jay. While making his first student film, Marble Hornets, in the summer of 2006, he rapidly grew stressed and paranoid. Eventually he outright dropped the project, due to "unworkable conditions" on the set, despite the fact that the set was largely in or around his home town. He soon after broke off contact with everyone and disappeared.

He was shown to be alive and well with his girlfriend Amy in Entry #26, and met with Jay over the seven month gap.

The Marble Hornets website provides some more information about him: "Alex Kralie, born April 4th 1986, has been into making films since his early childhood, when he would make short sketch comedy videos starring himself and his cousins with his parents camcorder. He would then show them at 'premiers' to his friends and family. That love has since remained with Alex, where he has been involved in many different capacities in various filmmaking communities. He is a double major in both filmmaking and photography, with a minor in theatre. He originally wrote Marble Hornets during high school and has continuously tweaked and polished it throughout his time at the university. He's very excited to finally see it all happening after years of work!"

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• Asshole Victim: Despite all the terrible things he does, Alex is as much a victim of the Operator as the others.
• Ax-Crazy: It's hinted in season 2 as early as Entry #35, and then confirmed over the course of the season. Not only does Alex kill an innocent man in Entry #49, but we find out he's been leading people to their deaths as early as the filming of Marble Hornets itself. And then he threatens to kill Jay.
• Bad "Bad Acting": If the mock trailer for his film is anything to go by, Alex was a really lousy actor. Although his ability to hide his true nature from Amy and later Jay, along with his manipulation of Jessica in Entry #76, suggests that he can actually be a fairly competent actor when the situation calls for it. Or in other words, he's a bad actor but a good liar.
• Beard of Evil: He has grown a beard as of Entry #66, and he is shown to be pursuing Tim and Jay with the intent to harm them.
• Bigger Stick: After he attacks Tim with a piece of rebar in Entry #57, Alex comes back looking for him with an even bigger pipe. Jay even points it out.
• Break the Cutie: His behavior near the beginning of the whole escapade (as seen in Entry #7, Entry #20 and Entry #54) is much more lighthearted and friendly. He's almost a completely different person than he is in season two. Particularly after watching Tim's production tapes in season 3, you can almost see the point at which Alex stops being nice. Mainly because in the later entries he tries to murder Tim.
• Captain Oblivious: A non-humorous example. In Entry #46, Alex doesn't seem to notice when the Operator appears right behind him. Jay points out in the end-of-video text that Alex had plenty of time to follow him as he fled, but didn't.
• Character Development: Compare Alex near the start◊ of the series to near the end◊.
• Divergent Character Evolution: The creators were worried that Alex and Jay were too similar, so season two uses some Character Development and revelations to make them distinct. Alex becomes more practical and savvy than Jay, as well as more morally ambiguous.
• Deadpan Snarker: As seen all throughout season 2. He even manages to do it while holding Jay at gunpoint in Entry #52.
  "Hey, Jay! You forgot your flashlight!"
• Destroy the Evidence: Hinted in hindsight to be the real reason Alex decided to burn all the tapes. Foolishly subverted, however, as he decided to keep one very critical tape which implicates him for Brian's murder/disappearance, and later Jay and Tim discover the place where Alex tried to bury the burnt tapes... with some of the tapes still functioning.
• Distressed Dude: A villainous example; Entry #75 suggests totheark finally got to him.
• The Dragon: Given the conclusion of season 2, evidence suggests he may be working for the Operator. It turns out he's working against the Operator by trying to kill everyone connected to him to save the rest of the world from him - but instead only ends up making him more powerful.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: A photo of Amy was found in Alex's attic in Entry #75, under his pillow. This would probably emphasize the emotion Alex had for Amy before everything went to hell.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Sure, he may be a murderous psychopath, but he cared enough to try and keep Jessica away from everything that was going on with the Operator. Sadly, Jay messed his plans up, so this got quickly subverted.
  • He also apparently had the decency to warn Tim and Jay to get the hell out of the tunnel in Entry #64. Unfortunately, they don't heed his warning fast enough.
• Evil All Along: It is unknown exactly when his Start of Darkness was, but he was clearly up to no good as far back as the filming of the original student film.
• Face Death with Dignity: When he gets his own gun pointed at him, he only glares.
• Face–Heel Turn: The key plot development of Season 2. Over the course of the season, we find he's been frequently interacting with the Operator, has lied to Jay, and worst of all, has either killed innocent people or otherwise led them to their deaths, since at least all the way back to the filming of Marble Hornets. This culminates in Alex attempting to kill Jay and Jessica for knowing too much. Jay states at the end of Season 2 that his new goal is to find Alex and stop him from hurting anyone else.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: As of season two's Character Development.
• Genre Blindness: Lampshades his own in Entry #52, saying how he had plenty of chances to off Jay earlier, and that he should have burned the tapes and never given them to Jay in the first place.
  • In Entry #69, we discover Alex kept some of the original tapes and indeed did try to burn them, namely the ones implicating him for his involvement in offing the cast of the student film. However, Jay manages to find them and make some of them work. It also puts into question why he decided to keep the tape from Entry #51 which overtly implicated him for Brian's disappearance.
  • In Entry #71, we find out Alex attacked Jay after he took the original tapes. However, he didn't take the original tapes back, thus leading to Jay discovering them again three years later. He also films the entire encounter.
  • In many ways, Alex giving Jay the original tapes was foolish on his own part for wrapping Jay up in the entire mess of events, as well as leading to Jay discovering Alex's own involvement with the Operator.
• Harassing Phone Call: Makes one to Jay in Entry #64, warning him not to go further into the sewer tunnel.
• He Knows Too Much: Alex's reason for holding Jay at gunpoint and threatening to kill him in Entry #52.
• He Who Fights Monsters: After he and Alex finally corner and unmask Tim, he decides the best way to prevent any further Masky attacks is to break his leg with a block of cement.
  • Judging by how he wanted Jay to get the knife Masky jabbed him with, he may have wanted to kill him outright at first.
  • In Entry #45, Alex swears to Masky and Hoodie that if he ever finds them, he'll kill them.
  • And then goes all the way in Entry #49, where he kills a seemingly-innocent man. Entry #51 shows that he's been fighting monsters for much longer than we thought.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: What seems to happen from the initial entries. Alex goes out of his way to seek the Operator after encountering him once, and then in turn ends up getting stalked by him.
  • In Entry #45, Alex finds Masky watching him outside his house. After a lengthy chase, Alex ends up getting ambushed by both him and Hoody, whereas the two gang up on him. Alex only survives because the Operator seems to show up and scare them off.
• Hypocrite: In Entry #9, he gets on Tim and Sarah's cases for their wooden acting, but the trailer for his movie shows that he has the worst performance of all.
• I Did What I Had to Do: His defense for breaking Masky/Tim's leg.
  • To a greater extent, his actions throughout the series. He believes he was protecting the world from the Operator by killing off the cast, since they would spread him like a virus.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Right through the neck with a shard as his ultimate punishment for all his killings. His death ends with the Operator dragging him away forever.
• Jerkass: First crops up in Entry #9 from the stress and paranoia of being stalked, but in Season 2 he pretty much plays this completely straight. Unless he was just more discreet about it before...
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Entry #85 shows us that the first time Alex noticed distortion effects on his camcorder was the night after the Marble Hornets auditions, where he met Tim for the first time. This lends A LOT of weight to Alex's argument that it's Tim's fault that The Operator started following Alex and the others, and that he is the source of The Operator "spreading.".
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Before the Operator started getting to him. He could be unpleasant and rather insufferable about his own talents, but his consideration for Tim (who had never acted before) in his production blog shows him to have been this:
  I've spent the past few days punching up the script now that I know the actors I have at my disposal. Most of what I've done centers around changing up a few lines of dialogue and action for the character of Tim. I'm mainly doing this because, upon further thought, I should make the character of Tim mesh better with the actor of Tim, who is also Tim. Two reasons I felt I should do this. One being the fact that I don't want Tim the actor to have to stretch himself too much more than the other actors, since he's not been in a film before. The second is that I want his first experience to be a good one!
• Jump Scare: Provides one in Entry #68. We see Totheark moving the camera around in a room in a paranoid manner, not seeing anything, only to turn around and see a very pissed-off Alex charging straight at him.
• Killed Off for Real: Has his throat slit by Tim in entry #86 and chokes on his own blood, though not before taunting Tim one final time.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Inflicted on him just before he makes his last "log".
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: One of the reasons he threatens to kill Jay in season 2 is because he finds out about the Youtube videos being posted on the internet for everyone to see.
  Alex: When I gave you those tapes, I told you never to mention them again. I thought that implied not sharing them with the world!
• Motive Rant: Gives one to Jay in Entry #52. While he's vague about his reasons for siding with the Operator, he makes it very clear why Jay himself has become a problem, as well as why he has to kill Jessica too. Gives one to Tim in Entry #85, blaming him for exposing him to the Operator and leading to the deaths of the rest of the cast. He seems to believe that killing Tim is the only way that it will all end. This continues into Entry #86, where he explains his belief that the Operator is a virus that needs to be stopped from spreading.
• Mr. Exposition: Provides Jay with some Back Story in one of the middle entries.
• Never My Fault: Comes off this way when he tries (and possibly succeeds) killing Jessica in Entry 76. He continues to insist "this is all Jay's fault", even though we know he was killing people in order to tie up loose ends.
  • In Entry #85, he turns this on Tim, though in this case he may be justified as it's been heavily implied Tim is the one who brought the Operator into the rest of the cast's lives.
• Never Say "Die": When talking about the cast, he seems to say they're 'gone' rather than plain dead. Subverted come Entry #86, where he says that the rest of the cast is indeed dead.
• One-Track-Minded Artist: As part of his Operator obsession, Alex spent a ton of time drawing nothing but Operator symbols, paper after paper, over and over again.
• Posthumous Character: Subverted in Entry #26, where he is shown to be alive and well, becoming a major recurring character in Season 2. Subverted yet again in Entry #64 after his fate was left ambiguous at the end of season 2.
• Prima Donna Director: Seems like one, but he's really just freaking out over being stalked.
• Properly Paranoid
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Jay's Blue in Season 2. Alex has been shown to be the one taking initiative and being more hot-tempered and violent than Jay.
• Room Full of Crazy: Pages and pages of scribbled messages and drawings. SEES ME. RUN.
• The Stoic: Becomes this more and more over time.
• Took a Level in Badass: As of Season 2. He's no longer as passive or scared as he was in the first season. He's also much more assertive/aggressive, though possibly to the point of Ax-Crazy, as seen when he breaks Tim's leg with a block of cement, which he does only after Jay refuses to give him a knife.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Subsequently, he's become ruder, more patronizing and more secretive towards Jay. Also ties in with the above examples of heightened aggression and violence.
• Unwitting Pawn: Entry #85 implies he's become this to the Operator, if his disdain towards Tim for 'causing' everything is anything to go by.
• Voice of the Legion: His voice audibly distorts at certain points throughout Season 2, usually when he's yelling and getting mad. Notable mentions include the end of Entry #45, his argument with Jay in Entry #47, the confrontation in Entry #52, when he threatens Hoodie/totheark in Entry #68, and when he's abusing Tim in Entry #85.
• Walking Spoiler: Starts at the end of season 1, and it only gets worse from there as more and more comes to light about him. By season 3, it's basically impossible to talk about the series from that point without mentioning that Alex met up with Jay in the seven-month gap, is working with the Operator, and seemingly murdered most of the cast of the student film.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: In Entry #86, he claims that he has to kill everyone who even knows about the Operator in order to keep it from spreading like a virus and taking even more lives. However, he's unaware that all of his actions thus far have been benefiting it.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Gets one in Entry #36 from Jay about breaking Masky/Tim's leg. Alex justifies it by saying he had no other choice.
  • In Entry #47, he gets one from Jay (which, being a response to Alex's own tirade, also counts as Shut Up, Hannibal!) due to their lack of progress and his suspicious behavior.
• Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: Eventually he does, but he takes his sweet time doing it between revealing his intentions and actually managing to cap Jay many, many months later.

Tim Wright

Played by: Tim Sutton

"I mean, it's several years ago and you're asking me about a guy in a suit, so..."

One of the actors of Marble Hornets. He met up with Jay in Entry #15 to discuss the circumstances surrounding Marble Hornets, but was under the impression that Jay would be continuing the project. According to the series website, Tim was also slated to be behind the film's score, "bringing in a unique analog style rarely heard in films these days." Started developing a sickness similar to Jay's towards the end of production. Known for his sideburns. He returns in season 3 as a prominent character whom Jay interacts with.

He was revealed to be the Masked Man in Entry #35, and then returns in Entry #53 seemingly back to his old self. Much of the third season revolves around Tim and finding out about his double-life as the Masked Man, as well as admitting that his history with the Operator most likely dates back to his childhood...

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• Action Survivor: Shown in season 3. First he got knocked out by Alex in an abandoned building, then spent the entire night hiding from the latter as both he and the Operator stalked the halls. And then in Entry #65, he was dragged away kicking and screaming by the Operator, presumably brought to its realm, and managed to survive to tell the tale with some actual footage.
• Anti-Hero: He's not the nicest guy, he can have a violent temper, and he's not above lying either. But he wants to stop The Operator and Alex and he's a far more capable investigator than Jay.
• Beard of Sorrow: Is understandably seen sporting one at the end of Entry #65.
• Berserk Button: His being responsible for Brian's death. Alex really shouldn't have pushed that button.
• Blood from the Mouth: In Entry #65 and Entry #86.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: This is what his Masky personality may be.
• Character Development: Much of season 3 has been spent fleshing out Tim's character. The creators have stated this was their intention, in the same way season 2 developed Jay and Alex.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Appears for the first time since Entry #20 acting normal at the end of Season 2. In season 3, he is pretty much the deuteragonist to Jay.
• Consummate Liar: A common recurring character trait of Tim's; even though he genuinely doesn't remember anything that happened as Masky, he has a habit of hiding important information that could help their investigation. The two big examples are when he reveals to Jay he was institutionalized for insanity at the burnt hospital when he was a kid, and the revelation that he knows what's on the tape from his house, but doesn't want Jay seeing it just yet because it will 'ruin everything they've worked towards'.
• The Danza: First name only at least. Entry #60 confirms his last name begins with a W.
• Deadpan Snarker: Moreso than Alex.
  Alex: If you got it right the first time, this wouldn't be an issue!
  Tim: Yeah, considering how much you're paying us and everything...
  Alex: Why would I be paying you for what you're giving me? I mean, really!
  Tim: Oh, thanks...
• Death Seeker: Seems to have become this in Entry #85.
• Despair Event Horizon: Has reached this in Entry #85 after everyone he knows and considered friends have been killed or otherwise disappeared during the events of the series.
• Determinator: In Entry #72, he marches straight up to the Operator, withstands its Brown Note attacks one after another even after they grow in intensity, nearly falls to his knees several times, and does not once fall comatose. All the way up until it finally leaves. He's even rather clear-headed afterwards, enough to guide Jay back to the car and drive them away.
• Driven to Suicide: His overdose attempt in Entry #65 after getting Mind Raped may be this. He survives and doesn't remember it.
• Demonic Possession: Possibly what's causing his Split Personality.
• Deuteragonist: With Jay as of Season 3.
• For Your Own Good/You Are Not Ready: His justification for hiding the tape from Jay in Entry #75.
• Freak Out: Entry #65 during and after the Mind Rape.
• Freudian Excuse: Tim blaming Jay in Entry #59 for everything that's happened is later revealed to be rather him in denial about feeling responsible for the same thing.
• Friendless Background: Spent his entire childhood in and out of a mental hospital (mostly in) with no opportunity to make friends, until he met Brian in college. It's implied Brian might have been his only friend until Marble Hornets.
• Hero Antagonist: By Entry #77. Tim continues to pursue both Alex and the Operator even as Jay becomes more and more unhinged, to the point of going after Tim himself. Then he reverts to the sole protagonist after Jay's death in Entry #80.
• Heroic BSoD: Has one in Entry #59 when he finds out he's Masky and that Jay had been posting all his exploits on YouTube without ever telling him.
  • He suffers a HUGE one in Entry #65. It's bad enough he's just been mind raped, but his state while he searches the abandoned hospital is equal parts disturbing, terrifying, and absolutely pitiable, especially when he starts crying and screaming at the walls.
  • In Entry #66, he contemplates the idea that everything that's happened has been his fault, and that everyone else's lives would have been normal if it wasn't for him. He also compares himself to Alex and wonders if Alex is now going through the same thing he did as a child.
• Heroic Resolve: Fights against the Operator's influence in Entry #72 to protect himself and Jay. Then in Entry #83, he presses on in spite of succumbing to his lack of medication.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted. In Entry #64, Tim tells Jay to run when the Operator shows up during his coughing fit. At first it appears the Operator successfully disposes of Tim... until Jay finds Tim sitting in his car outside Rosswood.
• Hidden Depths: According to the MH website, Tim is so knowledgeable in music that he was given the role of film scorer for the original Marble Hornets project.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Despite only joining Jay in the last third of the series, he picks up on everything that's going on super-quick, and comes up with ideas or notices things that Jay obviously misses. When Jay becomes incapacitated from the Operator's influence, Tim not only saves him, but then goes out of his way to look after him while he's recovering, and then later when Jay is killed, Tim takes up his mantle and becomes the lead protagonist for the series.
• Hypocrite: Though he does raise a lot of good points in Entry #59, he blames Jay for Jessica's disappearance after the latter claims Alex was behind it, saying he has no evidence to back that up. However, Tim in turn attributes all blame to his own actions as Masky to Alex as well, despite not having any real evidence on that either.
  • In Entry #65, he reveals he's also been keeping secrets from Jay.
  • In light of Entry #66, both of the above may be justified as it turns out that Tim blames himself for the mess everyone's lives are in.
  • And now in Entry #75, he was revealed to have hidden a tape under Jay's nose, possibly the entire time they worked together. Cut back to Entry #59, Tim went batshit over Jay was keeping secrets from him, and later when they agreed there'd be no more lies.
  • To sum it up, this quote from Entry #59 doesn't age well for Tim:
    Tim: You knew about for three years and you never said a thing!
• I Did What I Had to Do: How he justifies hogtieing an insane Jay and leaving him in the living room while he goes to investigate a lead.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: ...and to hold a steady job, and get a decent night's sleep, and not be stalked by a faceless monster...
• Idiot Ball: Tim's decision to upload Jay's location to YouTube after leaving him behind, tied up in Tim's house, even after it's been established that the characters in Marble Hornets know that other characters can watch the Entries on YouTube to track them, can only be explained by this.
• I Resemble That Remark!: "I'M NOT A PSYCHOPATH!" He says this in Entry #59 during his rants at Jay and not long after hitting him.
• It's All My Fault: He feels that he's the cause of the Operator's appearances, and tying up Jay, Alex, Brian, and everyone else into the mess.
• Jerkass: He made numerous snippy and sarcastic comments at the expense of Alex or Jay during filming. He also mentions that he wasn't particularly fond of Alex and was only in the film because Brian was a friend of his.
  • Season 3 has revealed him to be more of a Jerkass Woobie, as he has some very good reasons for acting the way he does.
• Kirk Summation: Gives one to Alex in Entry #86, in an attempt to save him from the Operator by pointing out how Tim overcame its influence himself.
• The Lancer: In Season 3.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: We find out in Entry #59 that he experiences this every time he turns into Masky. It's been so bad over the years that he's been unable to hold a steady job.
• Late to the Party: And how. He only just realizes the entire existence of the plot in season three, nearly three years since the channel was first created, and a full six years since the original MH shoot, which he was involved in.
  • Subverted in Entry #66. Turns out he very well may have been the one to actually throw the party in the first place.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: He finds out about Jay's exploits AND the truth about his amnesia by searching Marble Hornets on the internet and watching Jay's videos. He's not happy about it.
• Meta Guy: A very dark variant. Since he was so Late to the Party, he really hasn't had the time for all of the events to eat away at his mental state, unlike Jay and the rest of the cast, and found out about the events by ''watching the series on YouTube''. It sends him into a Heroic BSoD, and he very nearly Went Mad from the Revelation, but he also never lets Jay live it down.
• Mr. Exposition: In Entry #66, where he talks about his diagnosis, the Operator, and his meeting most of the cast in college among other things.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Feels that the events of the series are his fault, due to The Operator stalking him as a child, leading him to think that he led The Operator to Alex and Jay.
  • It hits him again when he reaizes that he killed Brian, his best friend.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Delivers one to Alex in Entry #67 while in his Masky persona.
• Only Sane Man: Played with; when he's not being controlled by a psychopathic Split Personality, he's quite possibly the most sane person in the whole series. He's constantly questioning why Jay's having him wander around abandoned buildings with him, is quicker to pick up on the fact that something weird is going on than any other cast member so far, and wonders why Jay's trying to finish a movie that was shitty even by college movie standards. All with a quite a bit of snark. This is sharply contrasted by the fact that the only reason he appears sane is because he keeps all of his crazy packed into his Split Personality that causes him to become amnesiac while being controlled by it, and despite having a very messed up child hood that is heavily suggested to have been influenced by the Operator.
• Sarcastic Devotee: After Alex became snippy and controlling, Tim made a lot of disparaging comments about his attitude, but never quit the project.
  • We see a friendlier version of this in Entry #54, and later there are shades of this in his dealings with Jay.
• Split Personality: All but confirmed in Entry #59. What's causing it has yet to be revealed, but he's admitted he had no idea it was happening until he watched Jay's videos.
  • Split-Personality Takeover: In Entry #61. It appears Tim's medication was the only thing keeping his Masky personality at bay. Sadly, totheark/Hoodie decides to make a move and steal his meds in the midst of a coughing fit, causing Tim to revert back. Subverted in Entry #62: as it turns out, Tim only becomes Masky temporarily without his meds, and when he wakes up he's perfectly normal.
• Take Up My Sword: Jay's death in Entry #80 leaves Tim as the only protagonist continuing the pursuit of the secrets surrounding the Operator and the Marble Hornets shoot.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky
• You Are in Command Now: Jay gives Tim access to the Twitter account before the events of Entry #72. Turns out to be a good idea; Jay becomes virtually incapacitated afterwards, leaving Tim to look after him and keep everyone else up to date, and then later, Jay is killed by Alex.

Jessica Locke

Played by: Jessica May

"I don't know how I got here. You're the only other person I've seen in this hotel other than the staff, and we have adjoining rooms. I don't even know you, you said it yourself, I'm a stranger!"

A girl who stayed in the hotel room next to Jay. Not much is known about her, only that she, like Jay, was a huge victim to Laser-Guided Amnesia, and disappeared after she revealed it to Jay. Has been confirmed to be taken by the Operator - possibly even dead - as of Entry #76.

As of Entry #87 we find her still alive, and apparently seeking the same treatment Tim was undergoing.

---

• Break the Cutie: She completely falls apart to Jay in Entry #32 when it's revealed that she is suffering huge bouts of amnesia and has no idea how she got to the hotel in the first place.
• Chekhov's Gunman: She first appears in Entry #27 as seemingly just a random passerby.
• The Danza: An unintentional case; her actress' name is Jessica May, but according to Word of God, the character was named before the actress was cast, so the similarity was completely unintentional but kept up the tradition of Danza-ing the non-main cast members anyway.
• Distaff Counterpart: To Jay.
• Girl Next Door: Seemingly so, and also literally so since she is first introduced as occupying the hotel room next to Jay.
• Hidden Depths: She hides it relatively well (well, better than Jay, at least) that she's suffering Mind Rape and severe amnesia.
• Innocent Bystander: In Entry #52, when Alex holds both Jay and Jessica at gunpoint, he says he was trying to protect Jessica and she wouldn't be at risk if it wasn't for Jay getting her involved.
  • Lampshaded by Jay, who's closing remarks in Entry #47 point out how her involvement is entirely his fault.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: As with everyone else who has been exposed to the Operator. Entry #76 reveals she has it pretty bad even by everyone else's standards; she can't even remember where she lives. Then in her return in Entry #87, she says she doesn't even remember meeting Jay. She only knows from Tim telling her about their exploits.

• Meaningful Name: Possibly accidental, given The Danza is a standard naming process in this show, but Jessica means 'one who sees' or 'one who looks out'.

• Never Say "Die": Though it's heavily implied she's dead, Jay simply says 'Jessica is gone', just like Alex did with the rest of the Marble Hornets cast (some of who later turned up alive). Ironically, Jessica is one of the few cast members who's unambiguously revealed to be still alive at the end of the series.
• Only Sane Man: Of the main four, she's by far the most normal, sane, rational and emotionally responsive. Played with in that she isn't totally sane, it's just part of The Slender Man Mythos and therefore there is no totally sane person.
• The Ophelia: To a degree. Saner example than most.
• Plucky Girl: At first.
• Protectorate: To both Jay and Alex, at least until Jay screws up and Alex decides that since she's gotten involved, she has to go. In season three, Jay's main motivation is finding out what happened to her.
• The Reveal: Entry #43 confirms that she was Amy's roommate. Entry #47 shows her first interaction with Jay, and her first real involvement with the plot. Entry #52 is her first on-screen appearance prior to Jay's amnesia, and confirms both how she ended up in the hotel and how she lost her memory.
  • Entry #76 reveals how she was taken from the hotel, and what happened afterwards.
• The Smurfette Principle: Of the main characters, the only woman. And also easily the sanest out of the bunch. Flawless Tokenism may be at work here.
• Took a Level in Badass: In Entry #76 after she gets abducted from the hotel. She manages to tackle and disarm Alex when he holds her at gunpoint, and then threatens him with his own gun. Also take into account this is after suffering her amnesia, meaning she's unaware she can't trust Alex and doesn't know what's going on.
• Voice of the Legion: The camera gets a light, but noticeable distortion whenever it pans on her or when she speaks, giving her voice this effect. Considering what camera distortion usually signifies elsewhere in the series...
• Unkempt Beauty: Though her wavy hair is virtually never brushed and her clothes are unstylish, she's still quite pretty. Jay even gets tongue tied around her.

Mysterious Figures

The Operator

A tall, faceless, humanoid creature that has been stalking the cast of Marble Hornets. Alex gradually became aware of it during filming, and went from curiosity to paranoia as it kept appearing. It can appear and disappear seemingly at will, sometimes covering great distances in an eyeblink.

Evidence from Entry #60.5 as well as the comments of Tim and Alex in later entries seem to confirm that The Operator's earliest known activities consisted of following Tim from an early age before eventually influencing the members of the Marble Hornets student film cast. Its mysterious attachment to Alex Kralie and the resulting consequences drive many of the events in the series' chronology.

---

• Badass in a Nice Suit: "Badass" in the sense that he's Creepy Awesome.
• Big Bad: He's the main cause of the conflict in the series.
• The Blank: His "face" appears completely featureless, although in some shots it looks like there's the impression of a face there. It's hard to tell.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Operator is like a force of nature — while he is a creature of malice, but his motives are far beyond human understanding — series co-creator Joseph DeLage likens the Operator's actions to "feeding", more than anything.
• Brown Note Being: Recordings of him are subject to hellish distortions, while people who stare at him suffer anything from coughing fits to blackouts. Oh, and buildings associated with him develop Alien Geometries, just to confirm his contempt for natural laws.
• The Corrupter: It drives people to madness, turning them into increasingly more paranoid and violent wrecks.
• Ghostly Chill: One possible side-effect of his presence.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: If it has any agenda beyond just being creepy.
• Humanoid Abomination: A reality-bending monster who looks like a man in a suit...stretched to inhuman proportions and with a featureless face.
• Invincible Villain:
  • He can Mind Rape people just by standing near them, and has no known weaknesses in this, or any, continuity. When Jay tries to attack him in Entry #52, the Operator reveals that he's not to be taken lightly (read: Jay attacking the Operator is what caused him to forget seven months of his life).
  • Granted, compared to the greater Slender Man Mythos, the Operator doesn't seem to have nearly as many weapons at his disposal. He is never depicted with Combat Tentacles, his ability to control people's minds is more limited to corruption and suggestion, relies on others to kill people. As shown by Tim, when someone actually stands up to him and resists the Mind Rape, he vanishes. While Jay lost a huge amount of memory attacking The Operator, he survived, and the Operator disappeared afterwards.
• Implacable Man: He'll just keep following you.
• Jump Scare: In Entry #46, when he vanishes from the window...only to appear a split second later standing right behind Alex. And again in Entry #60, in which he appears a good distance away from Jay...and then teleports right in front of the camera.
• Lean and Mean: Not quite as mean as you might expect, though.
• Meaningful Background Event: He is one.
• No Name Given:
  • His name was only provided by Word of God and has never been stated In-Universe. The one time he's been referred to directly, they just call him "that thing." Justified in that case, as Jay has no idea just what the hell the Operator is.
  • However, totheark seems to know the Operator's title - some of his videos feature a phone's operator key (zero) in a central role. "Indicator" is the most prominent of these.
  • In one entry, Alex is also shown scribbling the word "OPERATOR" under the recurring "crossed out zero" symbol.
• Noodle People: He's disturbingly tall and thin.
• Nothing Is Scarier: All he does is stand around. Menacingly.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: As mentioned above, no one ever calls him by his actual name.
• Offscreen Teleportation: You can see him actually walk (albeit in a slow, strange gait) in the early entries.^note He even runs at one point. By the later ones, he seems to be mimicking the Weeping Angels.
• Protective Charm / Weaksauce Weakness: It's being increasingly implied that the pills Tim (and as later revealed, Hoodie) takes help fight off the Operator's influence. Hoodie goes far out of his way to steal some when he runs out, and Tim speculates the only reason he was able to get so close to the Operator in Entry #72 is because he was doped up on meds.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Tim manages to get too close to him and withstand his psychic assault, he warps away.
• The Virus: The way Alex talks about it in Entry #86 implies he thinks it's a virus that spreads through mere knowledge of it, much like the greater Slender Man Mythos. His killing off the cast is his way of preventing it from spreading.

The Masked Man

A masked person that first appeared in Entry #18, who follows, stalks, and sometimes attacks Jay. He has some connection to the Operator; it's implied at some points that he's also a victim of it, and maybe even trying to fight it, but their exact dynamic is never clear.It is eventually revealed that "Masky" is Tim. It was originally implied that he was the owner of ToTheArk, as well; later development indicate the Hooded Man was the main voice behind it, but Masky might have still been involved.

---

• Ambiguously Evil: As of Entry #52, we have no idea who's side he's on. He's outright attacked Jay on numerous occasions, but has also been seen to be actively working against Alex and possibly the Operator. Combined with the revelation that Tim doesn't remember any of his actions as Masky, it's still anyone's guess as to what his true motives are.
• Bash Brothers: With Hoody in Entries #45 and #67.
• Big Damn Heroes: Saves Jay and Jessica from Alex in Entry #52.
• Brains and Brawn: Increasingly seems to be acting as muscle for Hoody.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Possibly. Masky is implied to exist because of the Operator.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: His sideburns and jacket gave Tim away long before the mask was removed.
• Cycle of Revenge: He didn't take kindly to Alex breaking his leg in Entry #35. So when they encounter each other for the first time since in Entry #45, Masky attempts to break Alex's skull with a block of cement.
  • Events in Entry #56 show that Alex may have indeed thrown the first stone (figuratively speaking), which would explain why Tim/Masky tries to attack him in Entry #36.
• Demonic Possession: Possibly what's causing his split personality...
• Dark Is Not Evil: Especially after Entry #52, it's becoming more and more commonly accepted that he is not actually against Jay. It's entirely possible that he's protecting Jay from Alex and The Operator. Many of his actions can be seen as helpful, i.e. his attack on Jay in Entry #33 drove him out of the Hell Hotel, and out of the house in #18. The jury is still out, however.
• Enigmatic Minion: Seems to be this to Hoodie/totheark.
• Heel–Face Turn: Saves Jay and Jessica from Alex in Entry #52. Possibly subverted in that we still don't know whose side he's on or what his agenda is, but this interaction is a lot less hostile than previous encounters with Jay.
• Malevolent Masked Man: Possibly subverted
• The Reveal: In Entry #35, we find out Masky is Tim. You know, for the people who hadn't figured it out already.
• Split Personality: Confirmed in Entry #59.
• Start of Darkness: In Entry #55, Jay speculates that Tim's history of paranoia, insomnia and sickness may have been the early stages of whatever made him become Masky.
  • The documents found in Entry #60 indicate that Tim has had these symptoms since he was a child...
• White Mask of Doom: The masked man’s... yknow, mask, is a white full-face mask.

The Hooded Masked Person/ToTheArk/Brian

A second masked person first seen in Entry #41. As his name states, he wears a hoodie, and what appears to be a black ski mask or balaclava.

Entry #61 confirms that he was totheark, or - if Jay's theory of there being multiple totheark users is true - at least one of the users of the account. "Hoody" died in Entry #83, when he fell headfirst several stories onto a concrete floor. He was revealed to be Brian at the end of Entry #84.

---

• Ambiguously Evil: His true goals are unclear, but he flip-flops between seemingly being a good guy and doing things that benefit Jay, to doing some very questionable things. He picks up Jay's camera and returns it to him in Entry #41 after he escapes the Operator, and in Entry #45 he helps lure out and attack Alex, who is later revealed to be in cahoots with the Operator. However, the revelation that he is totheark brings up a lot of questions as to the nature of his stalking and interference with events, and in Entry #61, he steals Tim's medication, causing him to revert back to his Masked Man personality. ^note  And even that is still ambiguous; his intervention led to Tim being able to work with Jay. And then he seems to be responsible for leading Jay to his death in Entry #80 by convincing him to visit Benedict Hall.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: We have no idea it's him holding the camera in Entry #41 until he sets it down and walks in front of Jay's car.
  • He takes over the channel from time to time in order to deliver cryptic messages to Jay, when doing so on the totheark account just isn't cutting it.
• Badass Boast: Delivers one in Entry #68.
  You are afraid. I am not.
• Bait-and-Switch: Hoodie lures Alex out into the open, where he gets attacked by Tim. Hoodie just stands there and watches as Tim tries to pummel Alex with a block of cement.
• Bash Brothers: Hoodie and Masky/Tim gang up on Alex in Entries #45 and #67.
• Big Damn Heroes: Appears to save Jessica from Alex in Entry #76.
• Brains and Brawn: The brains to Masky's brawn- see also Foil.
• The Chessmaster: Begins to show shades of this in season 3, as stated above in Totheark's tropes.
• Disney Villain Death: Possibly. He had his head bashed by Tim and fell a story down, but in a series like this, almost nothing is certain.
• Dramatic Entrance: In Entry #83, he approaches Tim while he's on his knees during a coughing fit, with the light from the windows behind shining into the camera and obscuring his silhouette.
• Foil: Visually to Masky. He seems to have an inversion of the previous Mask - cloth, black, apparently sad expression. Thematically as well, as Masky is more of an action man and a physical attacker, while Hoody watches from a distance and prefers to screw with people's minds.
  • Even shows up in their videos: Season 1's videos are most likely Masky's work considering Jay's comment about the difference in style, and are very indirect, cryptic, and fairly low-key. Hoody's work, in seasons 2 and 3, is comparatively more straightforward with its messages ("You are afraid. I am not." "This is your last birthday." etc.) and less minimalistic than Masky's videos.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In Entry #83, Tim attempts to attack him with what was very likely the same wrench he used to attack Jay in Entry #79.
  • Also in Entry #83, he taunts Tim by shaking a bottle of pills in his face during a coughing fit. Guess what the first thing Tim does after he incapacitates him?
• Incurable Cough of Death: He's revealed to have one in entry #73.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: What his ultimate role turns out to be. Despite his manipulations and penchant for grandiose cryptic messages, totheark is revealed to be just another one of the Operator's victims who, unlike Tim, was never able to fight his sickness and gave into it fully, devoting his life to destroying the man who destroyed his. He doesn't even get that far: after making hundreds of ultimately dud threats to Alex, he's killed by the guy who used to be his best friend before he could ever exact his revenge. The one redeeming thing he did was bring Jay and Tim together so Tim could eventually bring down Alex.
• In the Hood: He wears a body-concealing hoodie on top of the face mask to keep his identity secret.
• Killed Off for Real: Left ambiguous in Entry #83. He falls off a ledge in Benedict Hall, knocking him unconscious, but the kicker is that he appears in the Operator's dimension lying on the floor in the same way that the very-dead white-shirted man did. Confirmed dead in Entry #86, where his corpse (sans hood) is played with by Alex. It is the only time we see him unmasked, and he does NOT look good.
• Large Ham: A remarkable non-verbal version. We've never heard him speak or even make very much noise, but from his first appearance onward he clearly has a flair for the dramatic. The new seasons' TTA videos, strongly implied to be his work, are more intense and straightforward than Masky's work from Season 1.
• Malevolent Masked Men: Though the level of malevolence is ambiguous throughout.
• Manipulative Bastard: We don't know what his intentions are or whose side he's on. What we do know is this: he knows exactly how to get people to do what he wants when he wants.
• Mysterious Watcher: He picks up Jay's camera and returns it to his car in Entry #41. The previous totheark video seems to hint that it was this guy who was filming Jay in that video, lending further credence to the idea that he is totheark/one of the users of the totheark channel.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Possibly engineered Jessica's abduction in Entry #76. However, all it does is lead her to being found by Alex and the Operator.
• The Reveal: Entry #61 all but confirms that he's totheark, or at least part of it. Entry #84 reveals that he's Brian.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Seems to have this on Tim. He constantly steals Tim's pills and seems to push him towards going back towards his Masky persona. He also treats the Masky personality itself as a lackey, setting him on Alex to attack him whenever he shows up.
• The Unreveal:
  • In Entry #68 totheark removes his mask to drink some water, but the audience doesn't see his face.
  • There's a heavily-distorted frame◊ or two where you can see what appears to be Hoody's face, but it doesn't really reveal anything new.
  • It happens again in entry #73, where he takes off his mask during his coughing fit, but his hood still obscures his face from the angle we see.
  • Happens no less than three times in Entry #83. The first and third times, his face is obscured by distortion and Tim is teleported elsewhere. The second time, Tim is interrupted by the Operator.
• Smug Snake: Implied in Entry #68, when Alex tells him to 'wipe that stupid smile off your face'. His follow-up to Alex's threat definitely comes off as this too.
  • In Entry #83, he shakes a bottle of pills in Tim's face while he's incapacitated from a coughing fit, and then throws the Masky mask on the ground in front of him, as if goading him to put it on.

totheark

"From the start, it's been a game for us. Not anymore."

A mysterious YouTube channel that started responding to Jay's entries with videos of its own. Its first videos were cryptic messages full of symbolism and codes, but as they progressed, the owner (or owners) of totheark showed that they were a lot closer to Jay than was originally let on, and know a lot more about what is happening.

During Season 1, totheark provided a lot of footage that was missing from the original entries, as well as footage observing Jay on numerous occasions. Because of numerous hints and the way Masky was in many of these videos, many people (including Jay) believed totheark and Masky to be the same individual. However, given the growing inconsistency in tone of the channel's videos between Seasons 1 and 2, Jay started theorizing that the channel could be run by multiple people. It's since then been revealed that the Hooded Masked Person either runs the channel or (more likely) runs it along with Masky.

Totheark died in Entry #83, when he fell headfirst several stories onto a concrete floor. He was revealed to be Brian at the end of Entry #84.

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• Ax-Crazy: Some of the statements in these videos are downright malevolent.
• The Chessmaster: The videos are all quite manipulative; taunting Jay, luring him to certain places, and leaving cryptic clues, but as the series goes on we begin to see just how involved in events the channel's user (or users) really is, particularly in season 3 when Hoody takes away Tim's medication, which turns him back into Masky, and then lures Jay back to Rosswood by explicitly cluing off what's happened to Tim, with the (possibly intended) result of getting Jay and Tim working together again.
  • In Entry 80, Tim accuses him of being this, believing that he intentionally orchestrated Jay's murder and being taken.
• Collective Identity: Mid-season 2, Jay suggests the totheark Youtube channel may be run by multiple people.
• The Cracker: Whoever's running it seems to have no problem taking over Jay's Youtube and Twitter accounts and locking him out of them to fill them with horror. It's happened no less than three times now.
• Enigmatic Minion: Though evidence indicates TTA is not working for the Operator.
• The Ghost: While the user is most likely someone (or multiple someones) we've already seen, he has never been identified as such.
• Humans Are Bastards: when a fan messaged his channel to ask if Jay could be trusted, totheark replied "human, therefore no".
• Mind Screw: ToTheArk is this. Every video on the channel is laden with codes, cryptic symbols, eerie imagery, distorted audio and strange statements.
• Mysterious Watcher: The user or users have been watching Jay for quite some time now. Many of the videos have been footage Jay taken without him knowing, as far back as when Alex was producing the student film. It's heavily implied it was the Masked Man - a.k.a. Tim - taking the footage.
  • In season 2, however, it appears most of the 'stalker' footage is being done by the new hooded Masked Person. In Entry #39, he stood right over Jay's car, filming him, and in Entry #40, Jay apparently walked by him without even noticing that he was there. The only clue in the camera is the burst of distortion. In Entry 60.5, he provides a photo implying he was close by in Entry 59, as well.
• Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: A lot of the entries in Season 2 include terrifying drawings heavily implied to be done by Hoody . For what it's worth, the style appears different than that of Alex's drawings or what's been seen in the Season 1 TTA videos.
• Out of Character: Gets surprisingly straightforward in later videos (beginning with Forecast), which somehow makes those videos creepier. The inconsistency of the videos leads Jay to suspect that the account is run by multiple people.
• Stealth Pun: The videos totheark uploads tend to use The Operator's name this way.
  • "Sidetone" briefly shows the "0" key on a telephone, also known as the "operator" key (and the video description reads #000-0000).
  • This happens again for a few frames in "Indicator" where an image of the key is overlaid on the doll's eye.
  • "Sidenote" is later one for "Sidetone," being a rearrangement of two letters in the video title. Both address statements made by Alex.
  • In Entry #60.5, totheark/Hoody has drawn an Operator symbol on the "Brief Operative Progress Note."
• Username Drop: "And you will lead me... to the ark".

Minor Characters

Brian Thomas

Played by: Brian Haight

"What is this part supposed to mean?"

One of the actors in Marble Hornets. He was close friends with Alex and Tim and played the film's main character as well as helping him with production. He was the one who originally got Tim involved with the production in the first place. His current whereabouts are unknown. May have disappeared even before Alex dropped the project, going by an offhand comment in Entry #20 that he is "somewhere".

The Marble Hornets website provides more information about Brian: "Brian has been attending the university for three years, and is hoping to graduate after his next couple of semesters with a Bachelor's degree in psychology and a minor in video production. He originally met Alex in Dr. Warren's cinematography class where they collaborated on quite a few projects together."

Season two reveals that he was lured to an abandoned hospital by Alex, who left him to be "taken" by the Operator. He apparently survived the episode, but was permanently locked into the “Hoody” persona, eventually leading to his death in Entry #83.

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• A Day In The Lime Light: Entry #51 largely revolves around him.
• Back for the Dead: We knew something had happened to him, we just didn't know what. Then along came entry #51. Subverted with in Entry #54. Justified as it chronologically takes place before the incident in Entry #51.
  • He didn't die though. Somehow, he survived being taken and ended up becoming Hoody.
• The Danza:
  • The character he plays in Alex's film also happens to be named Brian, making him the Danza of a Danza.
• Genre Savvy: He has a pretty good sense that the abandoned building in Entry #51 isn't safe. Alex assures him there's nothing to worry about. Of course, Alex is also luring Brian to his death.
• Kill the Cutie: One of the most light hearted characters in the series, nearly always seen laughing and joking around on camera, ends up being lured by Alex into being taken by The Operator. Doubly so, now that he was killed for real in #83 (although after his actions during his years spent as Hoody, it's debatable whether he still qualified for the "cutie" part anymore.)
• Oh, Crap!: Has a subtle one in #54. Right before the Operator rushes into the room, the flashlight—held by Brian, and mainly focused on Alex—suddenly jerks towards the doorway.
• Posthumous Character: Implied by Entry #22 and 51, but it ultimately turns out he's been alive and heavily active as totheark throughout the series.
• Put on a Bus: Brian seemed to all but disappear from anything to do with the series after his only main appearance. He was mentioned in passing a few more times in season one, but never seen again.
  • The Bus Came Back: Brian returns to the series briefly in Entry #51 when Jay finds a tape with some footage from the student film, where we find out why/how disappeared. It's not pleasant.
  • And has now made another reappearance in entry #54 along with the rest of the original Marble Hornets male cast.
  • Ultimately entirely subverted, as he is the true identity of totheark and thus one of the most prominent and frequently recurring characters throughout the entire run of the series.

Amy Walters

Played by: Bethann Williams

"When did we get a camera?"

Alex's girlfriend, introduced in Entry #26. She was the one who found the camera Alex used during filming, inadvertently summoning the Operator. She has not been seen since.

In season 2, we find out Alex and Amy escaped the Operator's initial appearance, but soon afterwards Alex blacked out and Amy vanished. Since then, Alex has claims to have been looking for her...supposedly. Amy's ''true'' status is currently unknown to both Jay and the audience.

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• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Thought to be played straight until Entry #42 where Alex reveals that he has been looking for her and wants Jay's help.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Entry #43 mentions that she and Alex escaped from the Operator, but after that he forgot what happened to her... supposedly.
  • Showed up very, very briefly in Display...which was posted by ''totheark''.
• Curiosity Killed the Cast: She came across Alex's camera and decided to take a look despite Alex's warnings. Cue the Operator killing her.
• Damsel in Distress: Her disappearance and Alex's motivation to find her is the driving force behind the plot in season 2. Supposedly. We later find out Alex lied to both Jay and Jessica about Amy so they would stay out of his business, but we never get confirmation as to whether he was genuinely looking for her.
• The Bus Came Back: Sort of. Alex is seen talking to her on his cell phone in Entry #70 (though the events of this entry are set back during the original 2006 film shoot from Season 1), and Jay suspects that the reason Alex tried to burn this tape is because of her.

Seth Wilson

Played by: Seth McCay

"Have any of you seen Alex?"

The cameraman for Marble Hornets. He got into trouble with Alex in Entry #9 for not leaving the camera rolling, and later accompanied him to an abandoned house in the tape shown in Entry #22, where he is implied to have met an unpleasant fate.

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• The Bus Came Back: For Entry #54. Justified in that it takes place chronologically before Entry #22.
• Butt-Monkey:Not as major as most examples, but something unpleasant happens to him almost every time he appears, be it on or behind the camera.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Appeared this way for most of season 2. Now he's back in flashback form in season 3.

• Put on a Bus to Hell: As of 22.
• The Everyman: Apart from being a pretty easy going guy (Being completely unfazed by Alex yelling at him in Entry #9) he doesn't have all that much of a distinctive presence.
• Throw It In!: A rare example of an actor being thrown in. According to the DVD commentary, Seth wasn't in the original script for Entry #7. Mary Kathleen Bishop, who played Sarah, asked the night before filming if her boyfriend could come along. Troy Wagner and Joseph DeLage agreed and let him play the role of the camera man. This could also be a minor case of Ascended Extra, as Seth returned later in Entry #22 as the seemingly only survivor left from the student film.
• Unlucky Everydude: First appears when getting a major bollocking by Alex for leaving the camera running in Entry #9 and then is highly implied to have met an incredibly unpleasant fate in entry #22.Being taken by the operator can hardly be an enjoyable experience.

Sarah Reid

Played by: Mary Kathleen Bishop

"Who else is going to work with you, with this attitude?"

The only known female participant in the original film project. As well as being an actress in the film, she apparently did some camera work when Seth wasn't available. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

The Marble Hornets website has more info on her: "Sarah is an actor based in and around the university area. She has been involved in many productions both onstage and in front of the camera. She was most recently seen as Celia in the university's production of As You Like It."

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• The Bus Came Back: Appears in the mock, in-universe trailer for Marble Hornets.

• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Played straight for the duration of season 2. However, she has recently reappeared in the mock trailer for the actual "Marble Hornets" film Alex was trying to make. Coupled with Entry #54 reintroducing Seth and Brian, this could mean she may well return.
• The Smurfette Principle: In regards to the student film. Also rang true about the series until Entry #26 and #27, which introduced Amy and Jessica respectively.

White-Shirt Man

Played by: Chris Dominey

"Hey man, you okay? Need some help?"

A seemingly innocent bystander who appears in Entry #49. He gets murdered by Alex and his body is taken by the Operator.

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• Captain Oblivious: He's awfully carefree for a guy who stumbles upon someone acting suspicious in a sewer tunnel...and that guy is yelling at him like a psychopath...
• Early-Bird Cameo: Appears very briefly at the end on Entry #48. At the time, fans weren't sure what to make of his presence. His bloodied shirt also appeared in Entry #29.
• Establishing Character Moment: His only dialogue is about helping a stranger, solidifying his innocent bystander status.
  • Although, with this series' penchant for Hidden Depths (of madness in particular), there's no telling what the real story behind this guy is.
• Finally Found the Body: Tim finds Beardy's corpse in a mysterious dark location during his Operator-induced freak out in Entry #65. It's the first hint we see as to what the Operator does with his victims.
• Genre Blind: Clearly he didn't major in horror films, let alone the part which covered 'creepy guys crouching down in sewers'.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Played straight in Entry #49. Jay cuts the footage when Alex slams the rock down on Beardy's head. Subverted in Entry #65 when Tim finds the corpse. Tim turns it around off it's back revealing exactly how much blood is pouring from Beardy's head.
• Killed Off for Real: For a very long time, he had the distinction of being the only character in the series to be unambiguously confirmed dead. Especially after Entry #65.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He is murdered because he paused to ask a stranger if he was okay.
• Red Shirt: His only narrative purpose seems to be providing definitive proof that Kralie has indeed gone batshit insane. Made even worse when you think about Alex's line before killing him, which may signify that Alex was having a delusion that the man was Jay...which is even more disturbing when you realize that Jay had been following him only moments before.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He only appears in two entries, only speaks in one of them, doesn't even get a name drop, but he's there to show both Jay and the audience just how far Alex has fallen.

Comic Book Characters

Skully

Taylor

Adam Collins

David

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