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[TheOperator]

[Zarggg]

Honestly, from a story standpoint it makes more sense to me for Hoody to be Brian.

There has been a lot of focus on him during this season and the "hidden" tapes from last season. Seth only appeared for a single cameo after the first season, so I don't see the same amount of plot time dedicated to him. If I'm mistaken, please point out what I might have missed.

[Lithp]

The biggest threat to that interpretation is that Hoody is obviously meant to be a surprise reveal. So, while we expect who it is to make sense, we also expect it to be someone that we've kind of forgotten about.

[Zarggg]

That would actually be horrible storytelling. If an audience has forgotten about a character by the time their reveal happens, then that character was not given enough development.

If Hoody was meant to be Seth, then Seth should have been given more focus in the narrative than he has gotten so far. Even Jessica would be a more likely candidate than him.

[Lithp]

Uh. No. On several fronts.

First of all, it isn't "out of nowhere." Seth has been given focus. He was shown to have worked with Alex & had access to the tapes. What we've seen of Brian essentially consists of him acting like a tool for Alex's script & being attacked. We don't really have true "development" from either of them.

Second of all, if the character is constantly featured, then people expect him to play a larger role, & the reveal can't work. An audience forgets about something not because it received poor development, but because of the duration of time since that development.

Lastly, Jessica has gotten a lot of focus, but that does not de facto make her a good candidate. The characters with the most focus given to them--Jay, Alex, & Tim--are the least likely to be Hoody, because we've seen Hoody interact with them. Jessica is improbable for several reasons, which makes her a fairly bad candidate, regardless of how much attention she gets.

I don't see how you can think that's objectively worse than "the reveal is this guy we all expected." Especially when this is a well established plot device--the Chekhov's Gun. In fact, I'd wager there's never been a successful reveal--in that it both surprised & impressed the audience--that didn't use this method.

[TheOperator]

Seth isn't just someone who one might not expect though. He's someone who is difficult to even remember exists, if somebody's only watched through once. He has barely any focus. Choosing a tertiary character nobody remembers for your big reveal isn't clever, it actually feels a little cheap. Brian would be obvious, extremely obvious the moment anyone even begins to speculate about who Hoody could be. With Brian though, he's at least someone who feels relevant. So while it would be pretty cringe-worthy if Hoody were to be unmasked and Jay exclaimed "Brian!? Impossible!", it's better than Hoody being unmasked and Jay(and all the casual watchers) asking "...who are you again?".

This is one of the reasons I think it's Jessica. Brian's extremely obvious, Seth is far too minor, same for Sarah. Whereas Jessica is both somebody the audience remembers and somebody who is not extremely obvious. What are your "several reasons" that she's improbable? The only one I recall is that you wouldn't be able to buy that somebody masculine-looking like Hoody was actually a woman.

[McGregor]

Seth has been in three entries and has been mentioned in a few others. For someone who only worked behind the scenes of the Marble Hornets film, that's a good amount of screen time. And I'm not sure who that "nobody" is that you're referring to, but a lot of people remember him, especially since he's been brought up several times this season.

[Xman]

[Lithp]

Everyone, do try to chill out. I said that I think it's Brian. But I'm objective enough to realize that Seth has some good merits, too. There's no need to call my statement dumb or make absurd generalizations about "bad writing.

[McGregor]

Incase you thought I was, I wasn't referring to you in any way Lithp.

[Lithp]

I see. It's cool, I'm not angry either way, & now I see that my comment was more provocative than I would have liked. I do stand by the thing about "bad writing," though, that phrase gets thrown around way too much.

For perspective, back before I joined the forum, I was blindsided by the Tim reveal. Take that as you will.

[Yathil]

Hello Unfiction, former lurker as of Season One's latter half here. Forgive me if I'm n00bish(like this post. I dun know where on the FAQs I'm supposed to know if "reply" or "new topic" is what I want).

Here's what it all comes down to for me: If TTA is a single person, it is Seth. If TTA is multiple people, it is Brian.

These theories exclude TiMasky, since we already know who he is(plus he and Hoody have a rocky relationship). I'm assuming that Tim's trying to solve the Survelliance code also would have been simpler if TTA was one person and Masky happened to be that person. I think as of 68 we can all agree for sure that Hoody is at least a guy, unless we have a girl similar in height and with identical clothes running around without a camera to film them(aside from that, body size is too difficult. It seems to vary). Aside from that, my two main theories all depend on ToTheArk's "membership".

I'm all for Seth being important. He's the cameraman, meaning not only is he good with cameras and film, but he's a low-profile individual. No one would notice too much if he disappeared, and all the better if he's trying to get back at Alex for possibly bringing him to TO. In some TTA videos (and a few actual Entries, if I remember) there's a watermark that looks like a stylized-but-warped S, which could serve as a hint to Jay of the presence of others from the Marble Hornets filming. Regardless of whether TTA is single or a group, I believe Seth plays a big role at least as far as videos go. For a single TTA mastermind, Seth makes sense due to all the resources we assume he is acquainted with. Also, he filmed Entry 22, probably the last of Alex's filming sacrifices. The big setback I see is that we do not have substantial footage of Seth outside of his own filming, so it could be a stretch to even say that Seth knows how to work cameras; Alex could have taught him those skills for all we know… but that's for a TTA thread.

If TTA is a group, it makes more sense for Brian to be Hoody. As I said, Seth seems more behind-the-scenes. If there's a group going on, I can see Seth easily wanting to fade completely out behind a username on youtube and contacting Jay and others that way, rather than stalking, attacking, running, or taking people's meds. We already know that Hoody and Masky are foils to each other in a few ways: Masky seems to be the main brawler, while Hoody runs or skulks about for the most part; Masky hides the whole truth while Hoody practically shouts to spill it all. It's also interesting that each time TiMasky has attacked Alex, he's been lured/ambushed by Hoody, who just watches the violence. Likewise from what we've been able to see of Brian, he's less hotheaded than Tim.

Either way, there's so much other stuff that counts into identities. I have a few theories on the entire storyline, relationships, and how TO fits in. Here's hoping we get Hoody's identity soon.

[Ztakk]

[TheOperator]