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Poll

The Ending Was:

Unbelievable
21%
 21%  [ 20 ]
Operational
47%
 47%  [ 44 ]
Forgettable
31%
 31%  [ 29 ]

Total Votes : 93
 

 Forum index » Chaotic Fiction » Marble Hornets
How Was the Ending?
Moderators: Giskard, JKatkina, Zarggg
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Xman
Decorated


Joined: 15 Mar 2011
Posts: 280
kralyk wrote:
I wonder why everyone calls this an open ending.

I don't think this can be called an open ending... This ending is not open, it's completely void. The Jessica twist seemed nice at first, but what good is it at the end of the day, if we have no clue what happened to her at the end of Tim talk? She might've been taken by TO right there. Or, for all we know, Tim might've killed her. We don't know anything. Same thing with Tim killing Alex - we don't know wether it was good or bad or what implications of that might be. What good is knowing that Tim killed Alex if we have no knowledge whatsoever what his part in the whole thing was??? Or anyone's part for that matter.

We have no idea how the story started, what was going on and how it ended. We've just seen a bunch of surreal videos and now we can devise a bunch of theories and interpretations one more elaborate than the other.

Sadly, none of them will fill the void that remains.

This is all so true. The fact that we don't know for sure what happened to Jessica at the end is stupid. What's the point? Like I've said in other threads, that part of the entry was so unnecessary. All it did was piss me off, honestly.

And you bring up a good point with Tim killing Alex. Okay, Tim killed someone that was probably going to kill him eventually, but that's all there is to it. All of the other mysteries with the Operator and TTA don't really mean anything in regards to that. It brings me back to one of the things that pisses me off most about this series: Alex's character and the confusing mess that he is.

I just hate how meaningless everything feels with this story now.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 30, 2014 10:42 pm
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TomCat
Boot


Joined: 28 Jan 2011
Posts: 40
Location: USA

 		It really upsets me that Hoody, a seemingly important character with various appearances throughout the second and third seasons and who had a hand in the main character's death, never has his motive explained. What was he? Why did he do what he did? Was it insanity? Maybe, and it would make sense, given the nature of the series. But why do I need to just infer that? Why can't I just know for sure? See, to me, that is one of the important questions -- why was Hoody active at all in the series? What purpose did he serve? And yet we were given nothing even close to concrete.

As Tim said in Entry #80, Hoody "set up" Jay's encounter with Alex in Benedict Hall, which led to his death. Why? Why the hell did he do that? Did he intend for that encounter to go the way it did, or did he have something else in mind? What was he trying to do? This question bugs the hell out of me, and it bothers me that we'll never actually know why one of the most influential characters in the series did any of the enigmatic things that he did. And let's not forget the vague and ambiguous totheark entries, which made up at least 70% of all totheark entries since the start of Season 2. Codes that translated to completely useless or repetitive "information", random words and questions posed to one of the many active characters with no clues as to which character exactly was being spoken at, and occasional hacks into Jay's YouTube account which often resulted in videos being posted that told us barely anything. Remember "this is your last birthday"? Yep, yet another empty threat.

Honestly, it's sad how disjointed this series was, and it feels like the creators just threw in whatever seemed cool at the time to make it seem like they had big plans for the series. The fact of the matter is that they just didn't. I put so much energy and excitement into this series, and it's an understatement to say that I am quite disappointed with how everything was "resolved."

PostPosted: Mon Jun 30, 2014 10:48 pm
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Xman
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Joined: 15 Mar 2011
Posts: 280
TomCat wrote:
And let's not forget the vague and ambiguous totheark entries, which made up at least 70% of all totheark entries since the start of Season 2. Codes that translated to completely useless or repetitive "information", random words and questions posed to one of the many active characters with no clues as to which character exactly was being spoken at, and occasional hacks into Jay's YouTube account which often resulted in videos being posted that told us barely anything. Remember "this is your last birthday"? Yep, yet another empty threat.

Reminds me of the totheark video "Classified". The code in the video translated to: "The twins do you know what he did." and then "I saw it." What was this about? The twins could refer to Masky and Hoody, but why is the sentence structured like that? It sounds like the sentence is addressing "the twins", and then asking them a question. And I guess the "he" is Alex and the thing he did was killing the guy in the tunnel?

I guess none of this matters now for the story, but it's always annoyed me. And aren't there more totheark videos that haven't been solved yet? Again, I guess it doesn't matter now. Even the creators implied that totheark isn't really significant, so whatever.

PostPosted: Tue Jul 01, 2014 12:08 am
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Lithp
I Have No Life


Joined: 04 Mar 2012
Posts: 2058
Quote:
So you feel that the ending invalidates the ENTIRE series? Surely you must have liked some PARTS of it? Rolling Eyes


What if I didn't? It's happened before, I get to the end of a series & realize that what seemed like "really good buildup" was actually a whole lot of nothing.

As it is, though, this is probably more accurate:

Quote:
Personally I really liked some of the entries. I'd say that, basically, MH is made of great parts which fail to fit together as a great whole. (I'm not complaining, it's just an opinion...)


That also presumes that the only problem is the ending. I've said before, this ending did not sneak up on me like it did for a lot of people. Back about halfway through Season 2, I got the sense that there wasn't really a lot going on in the Plot Development department, a suspicion which grew throughout Season 3.

Though I am a little impressed at just how little they managed to answer. Get people hooked on this question of what the Ark is & not even say, "It's X"? Introduce this concept of the "Operatorverse," but don't actually take the time to explore it? Retcon Jessica's death only to give her an ambiguous fate? I don't think I could troll that well if I tried.

There are some Entries here & there that I think were incredible, but a lot of it is just forgettable.

Also, I was satirizing how THAC kind of didn't deliver on a lot of their promises. They said the "major questions" would be answered, but we have whole characters whose motives don't make sense, they said that we'd "find out what happened to everyone," but we don't know what happened to Jessica, they said there wasn't going to be an endgame twist, which there was with Jessica, & they said they weren't going to fall into overused horror tropes, which they sort of did. Hell, you could change the "Everything is fine" at the end to "To be continued...?" & it wouldn't look out of place.

PostPosted: Tue Jul 01, 2014 12:22 am
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paladin181
Unfettered


Joined: 14 Nov 2011
Posts: 502

 		This has been my primary complaint through most of the series. Really good build up, foreshadowing, teasing big climactic confrontations and events, only to have them be let downs most of the time, or as anticlimactic as could be. I'm not saying I could do better, and everyone's a better fantasy booker (or whatever you'd call it in this medium, I just choose the pro wrestling term) than the guys actually putting up the stories for us to see, but there's some things you have to do. False finishes are fine, but if you're going to do them, the real payoff has to be worth the build. Otherwise your audience just gets blue balled and NO ONE is happy with the result.

You get fans that shit all over your product and that's sad. Especially when this product seemed so good at the time. It feels like they had huge plans for things, then were treading water for some reason, and eventually said "Fuck it, let's get it over with" without actually doing any of the grand things they planned. It leaves a lot of us saying... Well, what the fuck? This and that felt like they were going somewhere, and you just forgot about them. Same with this other thing over here. There was significant building of parts of the plot and they turned out to be forgotten by the end.

PostPosted: Tue Jul 01, 2014 10:14 am
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kurazaybo2
Boot

Joined: 26 Apr 2014
Posts: 11
Quote:
I get told all the time how I must be able to understand "deeper" movies or find "more meaning" to them just because I'm a cinema student. No, you moron, I just make concious all the things you don't realize are there, but are affected the same way. It's kind of unrelated, but as an example of how naive people are regarding to filmmaking in general.


Somehow comments like this from film student or writers always strike me as pretentious or at least not very useful. Filmmaking is not a divine ability beyond the comprehension of mere mortals. Most people may not have anything close to formal academic knowledge of it, but have seen hundreds or thousands of hours of filmed art and entertainment and can at least be aware of two things: if they are affected by a film and if it is somehow extraordinary compared to what they usually consume. And I mean extraordinary as in the most boring definition of the word, simply out of the norm.

A more subtle distinction that is not required as viewers but I'd argue is still present in most of them is the notion or feeling you get when you notice the mastery of the makers in a film, be it the actors, directors or writers. A scene or character may be masterfully portrayed in a seriously flawed film, for example. It's this mastery that makes some b movies so good and entertaining for me, a category in which MH definitely fits. And in MH I see an admirable determination to tell a chilling story and build an elaborate universe around it. It's the contradiction of such determination and dedication with the apparent failure to reach said goal that makes some fans feel disappointed.

And please notice I did not say I was personally disappointed or anything. I have not decided yet.

Quote:
Marble Hornets was like that girl who's your best friend but knows you're secretly attracted to her. She strings you along, throwing you a bone every once in awhile -- just enough to keep your interest going. You know she's just going to disappoint you in the end, but some part of you holds onto this delusional hope that things might work out if you hold in there long enough. And then it happens -- she disappoints you, and although you're upset about it, you're not all that surprised. That's basically what Marble Hornets was to me.


Friendzone comments aside, there is an interesting point here: expectations. It is true that unfulfilled expectations of answers may be amplified by fandom and and endless stream of theories, but at the same time, the whole premise of the series is Jay's quest for answers. You don't have to provide them, in the same way that a love story may be about a couple of lovers who are destined to never be together. But at least that story would be expected to connect with viewers on an emotional level. MH ending does have characters we love and makes us feel empathy, yet the ending feels cold and distant in many levels.

Quote:
I didn't like it much at first, but then I gave it some thought and realised what it implies, and now I think it's good.
I wish we saw more of the Dark Place, though.


Yeah, it's not an easy ending to take at first and it kinda grows on you, whether you like it or not. I would have liked to learn more about that dark place too.

Quote:
I'd love to have found Hoody's hideout. The one with all the batshit insane scribblings on the walls and his stash of video editing equipment. I'd also like to know why Brian/Hoody was granted amnesty by Alex. He wasn't pissed at Brian when he found him in the building. He just tells him to wipe that stupid grin off his face and tell him where to find Jay and Tim. That moment felt weak for two people who supposedly wanted to kill each other.


This. Such relationships and details don't feel explored at all. Where is hoody's camera and what secrets does his tape contain?

Quote:
Tim was so bland and unrelatable as the protagonist because he exhibited ZERO emotions about his friends, the show, or anything that was happening.


Tim does seem to have a secret plan and know much more about TO and slendersickness too; saving Jessica is revealed as part of it. But that's about all we know and it does not seem to serve any purpose.

Quote:
I love Tim and everything, and his acting is some of the best in the series, but to me, it doesn't make sense to kill off the main character before the climax has happened.


I cannot say if it makes sense or not but it is a common occurrence in this kind of tales. Both found footage and Lovecraftian horror usually feature main characters that are lost or presumed dead near or before the end. William Hope Hodgson's "House on the borderland", considered a big influence in both, follows the same pattern. The protagonist's log is found and considered a warning tale published by other characters that go on with their lives. Sounds familiar?

Quote:
But, maybe, Tim paying a last visit to Brian's shack only to find it burnt down by Alex, with only a single scrap of paper left saying 'Ark is..' or a corrupted tape beyond repair to the same effect might have been a lot more satisfying to the audience. The ark and the channel was mentionced back in season one and should have been more in play with the narrative, particularly in endgame then it was.


Hey, I couldn't have said it better! Maybe not something so explicit, something that provided insight into how two close friends like Brian and Tim became estranged and what was Brian trying to achieve.

Quote:
As far as I am concerned, the series is a window into the lives of a few people who were in the grip of a horror they couldn't understand and control. They tried to fight it, they tried to investigate it, and they all failed.
We never find out more than the main character, Jay, ever did.


... if you ignore the revelations in the last two entries.

Quote:
I was under the impression that they were trying to not be cliche. Guess I was wrong.


I know you say that in jest but in order to avoid cliches you have to know them. Most of Trosephim admit to never having watched the blair witch project, for example. And as I said, MH has many common points with the genres it falls into.

Did I like the ending? almost. For the most part I felt it was fair. Could it have been better? You bet.[/quote]

PostPosted: Wed Jul 02, 2014 12:43 pm
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Sidenote
Decorated

Joined: 24 Nov 2013
Posts: 240
Location: Scotland

 		https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_cGJF2iWjc

PostPosted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 12:58 pm
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Lithp
I Have No Life


Joined: 04 Mar 2012
Posts: 2058

 		Thought I'd check in now that some more time has passed since the ending, to the point that the trio have even started talking about it.

"The disease continues to spread...everything is fine."

Pretty clever.

It's weird. Initially, I thought there was going to be this huge shift to the negative end of the spectrum, but as the poll went on, it looked like there was going to be an even distribution & now I'm surprised that there's such a gulf between the people who loved & disliked this Entry.

Still not really surprised that it's in the favor of the dislikes, though.

Quote:
I know you say that in jest but in order to avoid cliches you have to know them. Most of Trosephim admit to never having watched the blair witch project, for example. And as I said, MH has many common points with the genres it falls into.


I've never seen that either, but there are a lot of horror tropes that are pretty common knowledge. As someone who doesn't really watch horror at all, jump scares, false jump scares, ambiguous endings, last boy or girl, nothing is scarier, scare chord, & everyone dies come to mind.

Quote:
Yeah, it's not an easy ending to take at first and it kinda grows on you, whether you like it or not


It seems like, while a couple of things have grown on me, most of it has actually shriveled & fallen away.

I now kind of like Hoody's death, but The Operator is practically a joke to me, Jessica & Brian were promising characters that were abysmally handled, the plot points have obviously lost their mystique...in fact, I would say that this is a great example of how not supplying answers doesn't really preserve a sense of awe.

PostPosted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 11:32 pm
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Blackout_2014
Veteran

Joined: 22 Jun 2014
Posts: 109
Lithp wrote:
Thought I'd check in now that some more time has passed since the ending, to the point that the trio have even started talking about it.

"The disease continues to spread...everything is fine."

Pretty clever.

It's weird. Initially, I thought there was going to be this huge shift to the negative end of the spectrum, but as the poll went on, it looked like there was going to be an even distribution & now I'm surprised that there's such a gulf between the people who loved & disliked this Entry.

Still not really surprised that it's in the favor of the dislikes, though.

Quote:
I know you say that in jest but in order to avoid cliches you have to know them. Most of Trosephim admit to never having watched the blair witch project, for example. And as I said, MH has many common points with the genres it falls into.


I've never seen that either, but there are a lot of horror tropes that are pretty common knowledge. As someone who doesn't really watch horror at all, jump scares, false jump scares, ambiguous endings, last boy or girl, nothing is scarier, scare chord, & everyone dies come to mind.

Quote:
Yeah, it's not an easy ending to take at first and it kinda grows on you, whether you like it or not


It seems like, while a couple of things have grown on me, most of it has actually shriveled & fallen away.

I now kind of like Hoody's death, but The Operator is practically a joke to me, Jessica & Brian were promising characters that were abysmally handled, the plot points have obviously lost their mystique...in fact, I would say that this is a great example of how not supplying answers doesn't really preserve a sense of awe.


Answers?

Don't you know that Marble Hornets was never about the answers?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:21 pm
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