unforum

[Jingleman]

But distortion and teleportation (if that stuff is teleportation) are associated with Operator victims (like Jessica) just as often as apparent Operator allies (like Alex). They only indicate a connection to the Operator, which is something everybody in the series has, one way or another. Even if TTA or his minions (like Masky in 19), are capable of teleporting at will, why does that mean that they work with the Operator? Regardless of what side he's on, TTA has always seemed to know more than anybody else about the supernatural stuff.

Granted, I think that "Return" is some of the strongest evidence that TTA works with the Operator, or at least, that he's cool with being in the same hallway with TO. On the other hand, what do you do with 45, where Hoody and Masky attack Alex (TO's apparent minion) and something (probably the Operator) scares them away?

[DaturaStramonium]

[Stanislav]

Nah, no tripod could do the camerawork in Return on its own. All that panning, and the two separate shots in the scene. I'm betting that TTA is anti-Operator, but the Operator doesn't chase him off or anything, except in cases like #45 where the two were directly harming and threatening Alex.

[DaturaStramonium]

[Jingleman]

I like to think that in "Return," Hoody or a minion of his like Masky was there with Jay already, either having brought him to that place or having followed him there. Then, he senses (hears, sees, whatever) the Operator coming, and starts backing away from Jay. Around the corner comes the Operator, and the cameraman hangs in there for a moment or two, then the clip cuts off as he gets the heck out of Dodge, a la "Entry #45."

At least, that's how I rationalize the the video, but I'm not sure that I can come up with a satisfactory interpretation of "found you/forever." Still, I think that the rest of the series implies that TTA opposes TO, including "Isolation."

[Lithp]

[Jingleman]

Of course it's possible that if TTA has knowledge of the supernatural that allows him to wield power like teleportation or electronic distortion or an otherworldly level of crypticism, then he got it through an alliance with the Operator. It's possible.

However, I think that there's a simpler theory: that TTA knows so much because he has been dealing with the Operator for the longest time, and has continued to survive against all odds. Maybe he's a survivor of a previous climactic battle, or he's been stalked since childhood and rather than blocking it out like Tim, he's been accumulating experience and knowledge along the way.

The reason I think this is simpler is that the alternative requires some sort of communication with the Operator, and I think that implies a level of comprehension of an eldrich horror that we've not seen in the entries. If no such alliance took place, then the only requirement is that TTA is very intelligent or clever, or that his exposure has left him with some kind of supernatural sixth sense. That is, if his knowledge doesn't require the active participation or consent of the Operator, then that's simpler.

I suppose it illustrates how Occam's Razor is a less-than-ideal tool in the humanities. It's designed to guide us when we have to choose between a complicated theory and a simple one, all else being equal. In the humanities especially, the definition of "simple" is up for debate. What's the measure of "simplicity" in fiction? Is it the fewest number of moving parts or steps in a plot? The involvement of the fewest characters? Is it the degree of correlation to real life? The fulfillment of foreshadowing? The most in line with established character traits? Requiring the fewest logical inferences from the audience? Even in the hard sciences, it can be difficult to establish standards for simplicity or efficiency. In the humanities it's well-nigh impossible.

You're quite right in that we should make as few assumptions as possible, but I'm just not sure Occam's Razor itself is very helpful here.

Finally, we're very much in agreement that TTA's motives are completely mysterious. I think he generally opposes the Operator, but otherwise I've got nothing.

[Lithp]

[Jingleman]

[paladin181]

This video unfortunately is still too ambiguous for me as far as establishing Hoody's motives. He says "follow all." and shows a pic of him next to the Operator. That means to me that both he and the operator stalk people. Not necessarily together, and not with the same purpose. All it means to me is that he equates his own "watching" with that of the Operator. That's not the only interpretation, but it was the first impression I got.

[PlayerMann]

Does anyone here have an idea of what Hoodie's referring to in the video?

Sorry, I'm a bit late to the party.

[Animal]

I was just re-watching entry 19 and in the video Jay says he watched TTA's response to 18 messages and then shows a video he found during his paranoia filming of masky appearing in his room and then taking him out of bed. After the video, Jay says "ToTheArk, who I suspect is the person wearing the mask, knows where I live."

So that explains who was controlling the camera during Return, and this also explains how Tim was making the TTA videos in the beginning, and the change of style is probably credited to the switch from masky to hoody. Which explains why hoody has been so dominant in the videos and masky doesn't appear to be involved or at least directly anymore. Hoody took it over.

Perhaps masky was alligned with the operator, but either masky changed his alliance for some reason to team up with hoody (probably because of alex?) or hoody just took over TTA completely and has different motives from masky

[Jingleman]

It doesn't really explain who shot "Return." This is an example of Jay being wrong. He was mistaken either way. If you believe that TTA is a group of people, then Jay was wrong here, because he assumed that TTA was the [singular] person in the mask. If, on the other hand, TTA is a single person, then Masky was merely a minion, as he appears to be now. Either way, Jay's wrong here. The only way he wasn't wrong is if TTA is an entirely different person now than it was in the beginning, who became (part of) TTA after 19.

We've been around and around on this one, but I still think that Masky's always been what he is now: a minion. A victimized pawn in Hoody's game.

Now, it is quite possible that Masky was the cameraman in "Return." But given what we now know, Jay didn't have enough information at the time for that comment in 19 to be helpful.

As far as a change in style goes, I still don't see it. TTA seems to jump from style to style depending on the message, as he always has. A lot of people have been commenting about how different this recent video is - a calm, bright departure in style for TTA. From a storytelling perspective, I don't see the effectiveness of having characters switching alliances willy nilly before we even know who they are or what anyone's goal is or who was on what side in the first place. Until I see something more explicit on the point, I'm going to go with the idea that the rules haven't changed while we weren't looking. There's a more detailed debate on this subject in the "Who is TTA?" thread (and in the twitter thread, come to think of it).

[Animal]

[Lithp]