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 Forum index » Chaotic Fiction » Marble Hornets
Theory- The Role of Paranoia
Moderators: Giskard, JKatkina, Zarggg
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masterpog
Greenhorn

Joined: 03 Jan 2012
Posts: 3

 		Theory- The Role of Paranoia
possible spoilers
So I've just finished watching both seasons and I think I know what the operator is. He's paranoia. Or the manifestation/spirit/god of paranoia. Some sort of entity that feeds or draws power from paranoia. This would explain a great deal.

First of all, it explains why it never actually attacks or seems to deliberately try to harm anyone. He wants them to be afraid, to constantly look over their shoulder, not to die. He certainly has this effect on Alex and Jay, who can both be seen going slowly insane because they are so paranoid.

Second, it explains the distortions in the tapes. Anyone who watches can clearly tell that whenever the sound and visuals mess up The Operator is about to show up. You begin scanning the screen, looking for his silhouette, absolutely certain that he is going to be there, watching. In other words whoever watches becomes paranoid when these occur. In Jay's case this led him to investigate the operator and has led him down a path of confusion and fear.

Thirdly(this may be a bit of a stretch I know) it explains the masked men. They(he, whatever) are people who, like Alex, have become so paranoid that their paranoia has taken total control of them. If the Operator is paranoia then HE has control of them. We know he can do this, as evidenced by the trance that Alex falls into when he sees the Operator in Rosswood. It is likely that after coming out of these trances, the victim would have no memory of what they had done(furthering the paranoia and thus continuing the operators control). So why take control of them? To make others paranoid and give him more to feed on of course! The masked men are a perfect way of making the operators victims feel like they can't trust anyone and that anyone could be out to get them, because they can't be identified.

In turn this would explain TTA who seems pretty clearly to be connected to the masked men(I don't believe the theory that it is Alex because Alex is too paranoid to try to help Jay or give him any info). The videos all seem to be mocking Jay, showing how easily they can spy on him and giving him hints that he can't trust Alex. I don't know what the Ark references.

Part of the reason I came to this conclusion is that early on the operator is seen only vaguely and far in the background(in his earliest appearance at Alex's birthday his is barely an after image on the camera) but becomes much more solid and visible as the filming continues and Alex and Jay grow more afraid of him.

To me this would unify a lot of the elements of the story without getting too science fictiony or explaining things to death. Plus it's f-ing creepy.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 7:22 pm
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Tharol
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 02 Oct 2011
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Location: Muncie, Indiana

 		Could the pills caused Alex to flip out from view of video. Let us hope Jay is liking not paranoid but he checks Tim for distance in video.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 8:15 pm
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pravado
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Joined: 22 Apr 2011
Posts: 1833

 		=it sounds like you're saying the distortion comes from the person video taping becoming worried. i hate to break it to you but humans don't let off microwaves that would do that sort of thing lol. if you want more proof that that can't be true, entry 46's ending will show you how the person doesn't cause the distortion.

the operator clearly doesn't have influence over the maskys seen by entry 45, and doesn't have influence over TTA seen by return and admission. not to rain on your parade, but there's no way they're going to have jay ask alex what slendy is and have alex reply with "he's the personification of paranoia"

PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 8:41 pm
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masterpog
Greenhorn

Joined: 03 Jan 2012
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 		No the operator is the one distorting the images, so that anyone who watches it later will be afraid. Also who said anything about microwaves

I don't see why the operator can't be controlling them all. Yeah, he shows up in those videos, that doesn't mean anything. The masked men could be running away because he doesn't want them to kill Alex and was displeased with them.

Personally I hope that they never have a scene where they explain what the operator is. It would ruin the horror.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 9:00 pm
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Tharol
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

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 		Check the people most likely not explain the Operator they have like hinted theories in other vlogs but not like this for video.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 9:31 pm
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punxtr
Die Hard Try Hard


Joined: 17 Jul 2010
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pravado wrote:
the operator clearly doesn't have influence over the maskys seen by entry 45, and doesn't have influence over TTA seen by return and admission. not to rain on your parade, but there's no way they're going to have jay ask alex what slendy is and have alex reply with "he's the personification of paranoia"


This simply isn't fact. The Operator has a very clear influence on everyone involved. As for the last bit, I agree, as it would be too technical and too unlike Alex's personality that I've seen so far.
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 9:42 pm
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onetruepurple
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Joined: 07 Jan 2011
Posts: 570
Quote:
clearly

I've grown to hate this word.

PostPosted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 9:13 am
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Strontium
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Joined: 31 Mar 2011
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Location: California
onetruepurple wrote:
Quote:
clearly

I've grown to hate this word.

clearly, you can't handle the word clearly. hehehe.


Also, if the Operator is an embodiment of paranoia, what explains Slendy Sickness? paranoia usually isn't linked to coughing.

PostPosted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 4:23 pm
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Luno
Decorated

Joined: 20 Aug 2011
Posts: 154
Location: Behind the lens

 		Having a bad day, onetruepurple?

masterpog wrote:
Personally I hope that they never have a scene where they explain what the operator is. It would ruin the horror.


Absolutely - I can't second this enough. There are many, many questions I want answers to in this series, but what the Operator actually is isn't one of them.

As for the maskies, it seems that the Operator does have some physical influence on them, in the form of slendersickness (assuming it's actually TO that's causing the coughing, retching, possible mental derangement etc), but whether he's actually mind-controlling them or not is up to interpretation. IMO, I think they are basically operating (hah) under their own free-will, and are working against TO, and always have been, but due to the aforesaid lack of answers in this series, there's no definitive proof one way or the other.

As for the original point of this thread, I like the idea that Slendy's a physical manifestation born of paranoia, but if that is what Troseph had in mind, I would still prefer not to know, because it's the mystery itself that makes this series. That and the jump scares. Wink

PostPosted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 4:40 pm
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Tharol
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 02 Oct 2011
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Location: Muncie, Indiana

 		Check this because the people fear Slenderman becomes more powerful.

PostPosted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 8:41 pm
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morscata12
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Joined: 03 Sep 2009
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 		I think a similar line of questioning is how much the Operator can be defined as a memetic effect (see http://www.scp-wiki.net/understanding-memetics). He definitely seems to cause a lot of mental change in those around him. So how much of the Operator's effect is memetic (passive) vs active?

The original post reminds me of a description of the monster from Stephen King's It. It was a creature that was mostly memetic. It caused psychological horror, fear, madness, paranoia, and illusions in his victims, and It fed from that. But It also actively caused physical damage to many people. If It didn't directly assault his victims, It could be described as having a fully memetic (passive) effect.

What makes memetics interesting in this case is that it doesn't place a morality on the Operator either way. As he is not vocalizing why he is doing things (unlike It), we can only tell what his intentions are by his direct actions. Who knows, he might be an innocent creature that causes horrific mental damage to those nearby...he might also be a malevolent creature that purposefully sews and reaps paranoia in his victims.

Does the Operator actively assault/transport his victims? I don't think the series has directly stated that yet, so it's hard to say. Alex did wake up with a bloody gash on his head, but it's not clear if that was actively caused by the Operator. Jay and ToTheArk seem to be undergoing teleportation, but we do not know if the Operator is actively teleporting them. Any direct physical effect would make it easier to determine his moral alignment, but since nothing has been confirmed in-series, I can't fully say either way.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 8:22 pm
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pravado
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Joined: 22 Apr 2011
Posts: 1833

 		i think 52 solidified the fact that the operator makes people teleport actively. this can be backed up with 49, and 51 clues in on it.

the thing that throws me off is that we see teleportation when jay goes into brians house (was it ever confirmed to be brians house or are we just assuming that?), he teleports in both space and time (exiting one room leads to a new area / teleports to the closet / changes from day to night when he exits one room)

i think it's safe to assume that the video fuckup (not distortion, the little bar that overlaps an image somewhat, it's in entry 1) signifies that slendy or masky has teleported nearby. i've gone through the series and every time that bar appears, teleportation into the area is plausible. entry 51 makes this abundantly clear, and entry 33 kind of does too. i'm assuming that masky has the power to teleport, or to make people teleport, seen by the way he led jay around in "brians" house

what i hate is that we don't know what's canon anymore because a lot of the stuff from season one could be things they aren't using anymore (such as alex's bloody head)

PostPosted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 8:44 pm
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masterpog
Greenhorn

Joined: 03 Jan 2012
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morscata12 wrote:
Does the Operator actively assault/transport his victims? I don't think the series has directly stated that yet, so it's hard to say. Alex did wake up with a bloody gash on his head, but it's not clear if that was actively caused by the Operator. Jay and ToTheArk seem to be undergoing teleportation, but we do not know if the Operator is actively teleporting them. Any direct physical effect would make it easier to determine his moral alignment, but since nothing has been confirmed in-series, I can't fully say either way.


I don't think he ever ASSAULTS his victims, though he is teleporting them as far as I can tell.

My brother had an idea I thought was interesting. When victims lose their memories it is actually The Operator wiping them and then feeding off of the psychic energy left where the memories should be. A bit too sci-fi for my taste but it does raise the question of why they are losing their memories.

PostPosted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 3:12 am
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pravado
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Joined: 22 Apr 2011
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 		that would be either too hard to explain and make it sound believable, or would just be too easy and cheap of an explanation. i'm assuming that alex/tim will be the one to reveal what the mind wipe is, but even then, do you really think that they would just have them come out and say "he eats my memories and grows stronger from them" - on top of that how would the character even know that lol

PostPosted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 1:34 pm
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baseballfuries08
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Joined: 14 Nov 2011
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Location: I'm lost, let's ask that bald, tall, faceless guy in a business suit.
pravado wrote:

what i hate is that we don't know what's canon anymore because a lot of the stuff from season one could be things they aren't using anymore (such as alex's bloody head)


I actually love that. It's like we can't be sure of anything. Say, obviously it would be great to just figure the whole plot away if they were clear about everything. But I personally love the balance between the two; we do can take some things for granted, but only as far of "very possible", and other theories are based on that granted theory, so I'm really hoping Troseph will show some of this base theories are nothing but red herrings, and we'll get a full new view on Marble Hornets.

PostPosted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 3:35 pm
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