Slender Thoughts

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The footage starts with some slow picture rolling. This seems different from the visual distortion seen before, more subtle and slower then the splitting that's previously been observed. There's no audio distortion to be heard. The scene shows the door to Alex's bedroom, with the hallway light beyond the door lit, but the bedroom itself in darkness.

This is different from the other times that Alex has filmed himself while asleep, when he previously had the camera trained on himself. Why has he changed? Why is he filming the doorway? Perhaps he's started to notice his door being left open and he's trying to catch who's doing it.

A few moments later we see a hand push the door open and a tall figure duck under the door frame to enter. The hand appears to be unusual, almost as if it has no fingers and is just the idea of what a hand looks like...

Something wakes Alex up after the figure (presumably Slender Man/The Operator) enters the room, but nothing is there or at least he doesn't react to anything. Another thing to mention is that when Alex closes the door, it creaks, but when Slender Man pushes it open, there is no sound at all. Is this just because it pushes the door slowly or is Slender Man capable of dampening sound?

Why would Slender Man be entering Alex's room and why would he then vanish? My first thought was that he'd somehow "entered" Alex, but for what reason? Why enter the room only to disappear? Perhaps Slender Man can hide from people's sight when it chooses, but can't hide from video?

It’s also interesting to note that Alex appears to be sleeping fully (or at least partially) dressed in combat shorts and white t-shirt.  Perhaps the camera was pointing at the door because Alex hadn’t planned on sleeping?

So, why does Alex have blood running down his face? There’s no clear explanation at this stage, but what’s interesting is that Alex apparently had blood on his face at the start of this video. You can see it when he gets up from the bed after Slenderman’s entrance.

Unfortunately there is 32 minutes of footage (which Jay mentions in his caption) that we don’t get to see, and we only have the last 17 seconds before an alarm goes off and Alex stops the camera, presumably to change the video cassette.

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At first glance this is a very straight forward entry, with very little of the puzzle elements which totheark has put into their recent video entries.

Firstly we have the rapidly displayed words;

They make no sense if you try to assemble them as a simple sentence, but the letters can be rearranged in the style of an anagram;

RAT  ORE  HE  TOP  =  THE OPERATOR

This is a word we've seen come up several times since Jay started posting the footage, not only in the totheark video replies (in the title of entry "Operator" and also at the end of entry "Impurity") but it is also written on one the scrawled drawings which Alex has stuck to the wall above his bed in Entry #11.

As yet we have no clear indication what THE OPERATOR could mean. It could be a reference to Slender Man himself, giving him a title in this series, or it could be referencing the originator of the totheark videos themselves. Alternatively, it could mean something else entirely...

The next part of the video is footage showing someone filming Jay going to Alex's car. This is obviously in relation to the conversation between Alex & Jay in Entry #13, where Alex asks Jay to fetch some more video tapes from his car. This puts a clear time frame on this video, and shows that it takes place simultaneously with the events in Entry #13.

This does raise the question as to why someone is waiting in secret to film Alex, or anyone else who goes to Alex's car? If we assume that the chronology discussed in the analysis of Entry #13 is correct and that entry records the first face-to-face encounter with Slender Man, then whoever is filming may have nothing to do with Slender Man at all and this could be totally unrelated.

Alternatively, the person filming could have been the one to place the symbol at the sports field. But why? Why would this person be so interested in filming Alex? Could it be someone who is already in thrall to Slender Man, and they're hoping to bring Alex to him? Is the symbol a way to "call and bind" Slender Man to a person and that's why it starts to follow Alex? Is it just another film student who's playing a trick and gets caught up in all this entirely by accident?

The last frame is another enigma. WHEREIS THEARK

There is no question mark, so is it truly a question? If it is a question, then we would first have to know, WHAT is the ark?

From Free Dictionary, it defines ark as;

1. often Ark Bible The chest containing the Ten Commandments written on stone tablets, carried by the Hebrews during their desert wanderings. Also called Ark of the Covenant.

2. often Ark Judaism The Holy Ark.

3. Bible The boat built by Noah for survival during the Flood.

4. Nautical A large, commodious boat.

5. A shelter or refuge.

Also it comes from [Middle English, from Old English arc, from Germanic *arka, from Latin arca, chest.]

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It seems reasonable to assume that this footage continues on from Entry #5, with Alex and Jay continuing to scout for locations in the woods. Although Alex is behind the camera this time, we do catch a brief glimpse of his shorts and sneakers, which seem to be the same as in Entry #5.We do get a clear look at what Jay is wearing, but as he was behind the camera in Entry #5, we have nothing to compare this to;

However, this assumptions seems to be borne out by the comment Alex makes at the beginning of the footage about the tape in his camera almost being out. This would make sense if they'd already been filming scouting shots that day, and Jay is then sent off to retrieve some more film from Alex's car.

Alex is now left to wander on alone through the woods. The footage then cuts from Alex walking through the woods to filming the sky through the tree tops, and finally to uncovering a scratched symbol on a slabbed path. The cuts prove how early this footage was made, as one of Alex's main obsessions later on is about having his camera filming constantly. The fact he is willing to stop and start recording almost randomly shows quite clearly that his strange behaviour has yet to manifest itself.

The symbol he uncovers on the path is very similar to that which we see Alex drawing in later entries, that is the circle with an "X" crossing it;

The meaning of this symbol and its use here is open to interpretation and arguement. Given what comes afterwards in this entry, it might be a seen as a warning or a notification that Slender Man is here; a way of marking out the places he stalks. Perhaps it should actually be percieved as a sign to ward the creature off, and that is why Alex puts it above his bed (as seen in Entry #11) as a way to keep Slender Man away?

This path leads to (what appears to be) an abandoned building next to a sports field. We can tell it's a sports field by the yard markers and concrete stands that Alex films;

There doesn't appear to be anything remarkable about the sports field or the structure itself, but when Alex is filming the stands there is some audio disturbance, followed by a loss of sound from the footage. It is worth mentioning that there is no noticeable visual distortion in this footage, which might suggest that the visual and audio distortions mean different things when encountered seperately. Perhaps Slender Man causes the visual distortion when he appears at a location, but the audio distortion is more connected with proximity?

Alex walks around the building, filming the walls and textures, before suddenly encountering Slender Man;

The footage ends soon after, as Alex quickly turns away. Whether he escapes or not, we don't see, but given that there are entries after this one it's safe to assume that Alex survives!

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I'll take analysis of this one a stage at a time, as there are several "scenes" to look at and decypher. First up, are the words "begin";

The word flashes before it disappears. It is on for one long period and then flashes four times quickly in succession. In morse code this might appear as  _  .  .  .  which is equivalent to the number 6.

Next up to appear is this sequence is zeros. There are 26 in the row, which could be a reference to the number of letters in the alphabet.

The next scene is the above sequence of zeros. If we assume that the first row of zeros in the previous scene was the code key (being a reference to the alphabet), then each of these rows might be a letter.

The first row has 26 zeroes = Z The second row has 5 = E The third row has 18 = R And the fourth & final row has 15 = O Spelling ZERO...

The next scene has more zeroes arranged in rows. If we use the same process as before then we get the following;

First row has 15 = O Second row has 18 = R Third Row has 31 = [no letter] Fourth Row has 31 = [no letter] Fifth row has 18 = R Sixth row has 15 = O

This obviously doesn't make as much sense. Perhaps the code is a red herring?

The next scene is simply a screen full of zeroes. There is nothing hidden here and nothing to decypher.

The zeroes are now replaced by the video of a rainstorm. Treetops are visible, along with lightning flashes, heavy rain and three power lines crossing the scene. The soundtrack also seems to match the scene, with sounds of falling rain and thunder rolling, except for a pervasive tone that runs through the whole thing.

At about 0:20, there is a flickering on the video footage. Not a full-on visual distortion as on Alex's videos, but a flickering of the brightness or contrast which momentarily affects the quality. Perhaps this herald's the arrival of Slender Man somewhere outside the window and amongst the trees?

The word "operator" then fades into view at the bottom corner of the video. We've seen the word "operator" used previously as the title to the second of totheark's videos, but it was also one of the words scrawled on a piece of paper above Alex's bed in Entry #11.

Is this totheark highlighting the fact that the distortion that was caught in tape really is Slender Man's herald, but refering to him as "operator"? Was this an innocent video of a rainstorm, but the accidentally captured distortion meant it became something more for whoever videoed it?

The final scene shows a screen full of zeroes, with letters interspaced among them. The letters are T H E R E W A S M R E. This comes close to spelling "THERE WAS MORE", but there is a missing "O". We can use one of the zeroes as a replacement, but this could be breaking a hidden rule.

It is also worth noting that the first totheark video, "Regards", had a similar problem. The code seemed to spell out "LOOK CLOSELY", but one of the O's in "LOOK" was missing and was spelled "LOK". Why would totheark be deliberately missing out a single letter O from the words they are being so careful to hide?

"O" is the 15th letter of the alphabet. Perhaps the number has some significance?

In addition to the above, I also extracted the audio track from the video and analysed it. As with the previous totheark video, it was a stereo soundtrack with seperate left & right tracks. However, despite listening to it forwards, backwards, on LEFT channel and RIGHT channel, there was nothing to find.

If the message in this "THERE WAS MORE", then it could be refering to either the rainstorm video as shared in the entry or to the "Operator" entry that totheark has previously posted (the use of the word "operator" in the video being a clue).

It is possible that this rainstorm footage is only part of a longer video, similar to Alex's footage, from someone who has previous dealings with Slender Man and is trying to warn or inform Jay. Perhaps totheark is frustrated that something has been missed (THERE WAS MORE to find) in his "Operator" entry and is instructing Jay (and us) to go back and look again.

Regardless, I think I will go back and look again at the "Operator" video. Maybe there is something on the audio, seeing as I didn't analyse that last time.

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This footage is only 1 minute long, but personally I think it's very interesting and has a lot to say about the Marble Hornets take on the Slender Man mythos.

During the video we see three men (Alex, Brian & one other) and hear the voice of a woman (named by Alex as being Steph Sara) who appears to be behind the camera.

Brian walks past the camera

Alex gives direction to un-named guy

The very first thing we hear is Alex saying, "I don't know... he'll move. Let's go ahead and get this shot."

The reference to "he'll move" could be to the figure we later see standing near the tree line, seemingly watching them. However, Alex's comment is made at 0:09 secs, but we don't get visual and audio distortion until 0:28 secs. If Alex is already talking about Slender Man being there, then why does the distortion not occur on the film until later? Perhaps my theory about the distortion being caused by Slender Man's arrival at a location is wrong, and it's caused by something else?

At 0:49, someone mentions "here's Tim". Although we don't see Tim, we can only assume that he is there, but that his presence is off camera.

At 0:50, Brian says "Alright..umm...okay, let's get him off the set... I hope he's not angry with us." Steph Sara then asks retorically "What is he doing?", as Tim walks towards Slender Man, shouting "Hey buddy!", at which point the footage ends.

Alex confronts Slender Man

What I find particularly interesting about this entry is how many people can SEE Slender Man. Only Steph Sara is looking through the camera, and yet we have comments from both Brian and Alex which show they can see him. There has been a lot of fan speculation since Marble Hornets started that Slender Man can only be seen through a video camera,which is something this entry directly contradicts.

The other contradiction seems to be with my own theory that the distortions herald Slender Man's arrival. If Alex's comment of "he'll move" is directed towards Slender Man, then my theory is totally wrong! However, if my theory is correct, then the comment needs to have been directed towards someone else before Slender Man's appearance.

But who?

Several of the pictures seem to show a stick figure, trees and the "X in circle" symbol seen previously. The words and phrases on the papers can be seen as;

KILLS... (other word/s obscured)

SEES ME

DON'T RUN

RUN AWAY

OPERATOR (This is the first time this word is seen in Marble Hornets, after the totheark "Operator" video)

There is another picture on the far right which seems to have a word beginning with S, written above a dark shape, but to me it's unreadable.