YMMV / The Slender Man Mythos

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • A fair number of fan theories involve Slendy himself not being evil or malevolent. Either he's a lonely figure who unintentionally curses those he comes into contact with in his efforts to make friends, a harbinger of doom, or even an incompetent guardian trying (and failing) to save people.
  • This Creepypasta interprets him as having once been a child who was Driven to Suicide. It's absolutely heartbreaking.
• Archive Binge: There's been a lot written about the Slender Man, and it can be tempting to do this. Just remember, the more you know about him, the more likely he is to hunt you. An all-too-common way of doing this is watching all the entries in one go, usually at night. The first entries are creepy but intriguing. And by the time you get to the juicy stuff, you are too curious to stop and too terrified to go to bed.
• Broken Base: There is some elitism among members of the fandom.
  • Many think Marble Hornets is the greatest Slender Man story and everything else is crap.
  • Likewise, many believe that Marble Hornets has overstayed its welcome, preferring newer vlogs instead.
  • And don't even start on blogs vs. vlogs...
  • If YouTube is anything to go by some find Slender Man a scary and refreshing presence while others consider him annoying due to overexposure.
• Complete Monster: See here; and here.
• Condemned by History: Slender Man was an early innovator of the creepypasta, and his mythos spread far and wide across the internet like wildfire not long after his creation. Works such as Marble Hornets became viral sensations, making the character a popular boogeyman and a hit with horror fans. Not long after his introduction, though, the character became massively overexposed. He appeared in video games, fanfics, and was shoehorned into works that didn't need him. But what really sealed Slender Man's fate was a 2014 incident in which two adolescent girls stabbed one of their friends multiple times and left her for dead as an attempted Human Sacrifice to Slender Man. This incident, among others, badly damaged Slender Man's relevance and public perception. A 2018 movie based on Slender Man was widely panned as being in poor taste due to the incident. While the character still has his fans, the overexposure and bad publicity of Slender Man has all but assured that he will never be as popular as he once was, and certainly not taken seriously anymore.
• Continuity Lockout: Starting to get there, what with the increasing number and interconnectedness of the various works. Marble Hornets, the major codifier of the Mythos, is a notable exception, as it tells its story in a minimalist manner without referencing any other sources.
• Epileptic Trees: Just what is Slender Man, and what is his purpose? Is he a humanoid tree? An alien? A fairy? A demon? Was he human once? A being from the future? The past? A being from another dimension? Is he the harbinger of doom himself? Or is he just a messenger for some far greater evil? What makes Slender Man such a unique case is that, because there is no definite "God" whose Word is the final say on all this, the answers to all of these questions rest entirely with us.
• Follow the Leader:
  • If there's a video blog series that features a project being abandoned because Slender Man got involved, you can thank Marble Hornets for that. If there's a written blog that gradually takes on a more insane tone after Slendy gets involved, culminating in the current blogging character being replaced by a friend who is not so deeply entrenched in the madness, you can thank Just Another Fool for that.
  • Also from Marble Hornets: Video distortion occurring whenever Slendy or one of his agents is close at hand, sometimes going as far as happening whenever he comes into frame (it's a useful tool since distortion can be used to hide many of the obviously fake aspects of whatever prop or costume is being used in that series).
  • The Operator Symbol, once again originating from Marble Hornets, which has become a central symbol in the mythos.
  • Slendersickness: Warning, prolonged exposure to Tall Dark and Faceless can lead to chronic respiratory problems and related symptoms.
  • Some mysterious (often masked) yet apparently human figure related to Slender Man in some way (whether or not he is an actual agent of Slendy is debatable since Marble Hornets never explicitly states that this is the case). Extra points if the series is a vlog and the figure in question creates a separate Youtube account for posting video responses.
  • Unsure if this was worked out beforehand, but when Nessa of Enter Light was taken by proxies and eventually turned into a slenderpuppet, several other bloggers immediately began posting about being attacked.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The Slender Man's original status as a child kidnapper/murderer has taken a pretty nasty turn after two girls attempted to kill their friend by repeatedly stabbing her to "appease him." Fortunately the victim didn't die and the perpetrators have been committed to mental institutions, but it does cast a very bad light on the character.
  • Slender Man's notorious relationship with children is even more uncomfortable to look at from 2020 onwards, after Adam Rosner, creator of one of the "big three" Slender Man related webseries was exposed as being a pedophile in early September of that year.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: After the aforementioned stabbing victim survived, the Creepypasta Wiki set up a fund to help pay for the girl's hospital bills. Awww.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Now that a certain famous Decepticon has recieved the "silent, faceless, scary" treatment...
• Hype Backlash: A result of overexposure. Slender is almost an exercise in how quickly something genuinely interesting becomes cliche and predictable with its fans hyping how scary it is. Nowadays when the Man is bought up, it'll be regarded as a joke more often than not.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Because let's face it, some of the stories can be downright boring without Slender Man in the picture.
• Memetic Molester: Slendy apparently likes to hang out around children, as the earliest photoshops show. A common theory suggests that any adults Slender targets are simply children he didn't get to finish off. Make of that what you will.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Slender Man first showed up in a "make normal photos paranormal!" photoshop thread. After the first few Slender Man pics, he took over the thread. Appropriately enough.
  • The whole project is basically a deliberate manufacture and study of how Memetic Mutation becomes an Urban Legend.
  • There is an ongoing joke that Slender Man is stalking Alex and Jay because he wants their $20 and that he would go away if only they gave him the money. Word of Gods state that they are sick of that particular joke.
  • Slender Man the home invader^Explanation A series of videos by Butchy Kid Videos that portrays Slender Man as a Memetic Loser and a Sitcom Arch-Nemesis to the first-person main character, who often finds him in his house uninvited stealing his food, magazines, or using his place for one-night stands. What really made them stand out was the main character's rants often Rhymes on a Dime.
    • MF Doom vs Slender Man^Explanation An AI parody of the first segment above, with MF DOOM rapping about his encounter with the Slender Man to the instrumental of "One beer".
• Moment of Awesome: After years of being considered not notorious enough, The Other Wiki finally has a page dedicated to him.
• Moral Event Horizon: The bloggers get quite angry when Slendy starts using children as proxies.
• Narm: The blog No Escape From Reality (now deleted) started out as this, but then became infamous in the Unfiction forums after the author tried to turn his blog into part of the Everyman HYBRID series. Apparently, the author is still on Unfiction, and considers it an Old Shame of his.
• Nightmare Retardant:
  • Slendy is frequently mistaken for Jack Skellington by those unfamiliar with the mythos.
    • And need we forget: DOCTOR OCTAGONAPUS -BLAAAAAA!!!!!- ^note He's another character who is known for appearing out of nowhere to cause havoc and having tentacle arms, as he is a deliberate pastiche of Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man, and predates Slendy by about three years.
  • Slendy does not tolerate wifin' in da club, but will ignore your offense if you give him twenny dollaz.
  • The idea of him being the one writing notes and signs can be this, which is why in most blogs/videos he at least has proxies do it for him.
  • Even the nickname "Slendy" can make the guy seem less unapproachable and frightening.
  • Apparently, he's a pretty mean tap-dancer.
  • He was also college roommates with Bakura.
  • The more anxious you are, the more likely it is he'll come for you. This has lead to such anti-Slender Man tactics as listing to yackysacks, or looking at lolcats to keep yourself from panicking.
  • You'll never take him seriously again.
  • We have discovered his true purpose. To teach humans how to do... The Slendy-dance.
  • In the pictures, looking for Slendy can be more like reading a Where's Waldo? book than a Creepypasta
  • How to make Slender not scary
  • Who would be afraid of the Friendly Neighborhood Sp... umm... Slender Man anyway? (This is one of those Alternative Character Interpretations and manages to not only humanize him but make him cute.)
  • The mere fact that Slendy was the subject of a copyright dispute manages to make him less scary (if not act as undeniable proof that he's a fictional character).
• Obscure Popularity: The stories are popular online, especially with tweens and young teens, but are almost unknown otherwise. Most adults only know of Slenderman because of the real life stabbing related to him.
• Older Than They Think: The Slender Man is nearly identical to various "Shadow People" sightings, including the gentlemanly clothes and malevolent nature.
  • A very similar character was featured in Patrick McEown's comic Luna Park in the April 1999 issue of Disney Adventures, where he could be seen in the background of several panels as he ominously followed the comic's main characters.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: The Slender Man stabbing, in which two girls attempted to kill their friend by repeatedly stabbing her to "appease him.", cast a very bad light on the character and contributed to him falling out of favour.
• Recurring Fanon Character: Splendorman is an Original Character depicted as Slender Man’s friendlier brother who wants to spread happiness rather than suffering. He is part of the genre “Happypasta,” a parody of Creepypasta that contains Lighter and Softer versions of Creepypasta characters. He gained a lot of popularity due to his friendly design and contrast with his brother. His popularity led to the creation of other parody relatives of Slender Man, including Trenderman and Sexual Offenderman.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: If it's a video-based series, and Slendy has Combat Tentacles, you know this is going to be the scariest thing you'll ever see on video. Examples include: Tribe Twelve and the unfortunately deleted AKoolStick, which had the unique scene that is jumping Slender Man.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Slenderman is most popular with young audiences despite not originally being aimed at them.