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Forum index » Chaotic Fiction » Slender Man Mythos

What do you want to see?/What are you sick of?
Moderators: ChildOfAtom, Cougar Draven, DavFlamerock, Dixie_Wolf, ndemeter

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Cyan507
Entrenched

Joined: 18 Jun 2012
Posts: 751
Location: Ireland

Lithp wrote:

Clairabel wrote:

Lithp wrote:

I'm not sure what you mean. I was referring to "proxies" in the context of "people who give away all of the plot answers & clues."

McGuffins on legs, basically.

I keep forgetting that it's used to mean both "the thing that does all of the weird & cryptic code shit" & "the thing that works for Slenderman."

This is one reason why I don't like the term "proxy" in general.

I don't hate proxies so much but the way many of the series have been using them isn't great, usually they just create a proxy character conveniently for the purpose of having an antagonistic force which can speak and provide exposition. But to be perfectly honest I'd much rather they create a crappy masky rip-off than have slenderman sit down and provide a "Severance" like meeting with a character. Like someone said above earlier, proxies are good way to exhibit the devastating effects slenderman can have on people's lives and personalities. But like everything else it needs to be done in moderation. Just having a random guy running around with a mask attacking people and then running away doesn't give him a character. Even if he has his face covered he needs a persona, something we can latch onto. With the seizure in Entry #18 and the feet dangling in #19 Masky has a three-dimensional character. If he just attacked Jay in the house and that was it there would be no character, it would just be a cheap jump scare. Even henchman need motive.

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 6:36 am

lonsumtravlr
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Joined: 23 Mar 2014
Posts: 1009
Location: The Great Continent of New England

Lithp wrote:

I keep forgetting that it's used to mean both "the thing that does all of the weird & cryptic code shit" & "the thing that works for Slenderman."

But the term as used by the fandom seems to conflate both, yes? Along with the very common usage of the term as someone or something ordained to serve to fill a function or stand in for someone (which really has an official, ritual, or cultic significance but is often improperly used in a way that suggests that Slendy doesn't like to get his appendages dirty in the actual taking of a life)?

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 1:52 pm

lonsumtravlr
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Joined: 23 Mar 2014
Posts: 1009
Location: The Great Continent of New England

Cyan507 wrote:

But to be perfectly honest I'd much rather they create a crappy masky rip-off than have slenderman sit down and provide a "Severance" like meeting with a character. Like someone said above earlier, proxies are good way to exhibit the devastating effects slenderman can have on people's lives and personalities. But like everything else it needs to be done in moderation. Just having a random guy running around with a mask attacking people and then running away doesn't give him a character. Even if he has his face covered he needs a persona, something we can latch onto. With the seizure in Entry #18 and the feet dangling in #19 Masky has a three-dimensional character. If he just attacked Jay in the house and that was it there would be no character, it would just be a cheap jump scare. Even henchman need motive.

A motive or a signature or some sort of characteristic that humanizes him or her or it, yes. Masky's seizure was well done and made the entry even more frightening, to me.

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 1:55 pm

Cyan507
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Joined: 18 Jun 2012
Posts: 751
Location: Ireland

lonsumtravlr wrote:

Cyan507 wrote:

A motive or a signature or some sort of characteristic that humanizes him or her or it, yes. Masky's seizure was well done and made the entry even more frightening, to me.

bang on. Humanizing an unknown force seconds after establishing it while maintaining the sense of mystery and immediate danger is something THAC did that I'm still trying to comprehend Very Happy

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:11 pm

lonsumtravlr
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Joined: 23 Mar 2014
Posts: 1009
Location: The Great Continent of New England

Cyan507 wrote:

lonsumtravlr wrote:

Cyan507 wrote:

A motive or a signature or some sort of characteristic that humanizes him or her or it, yes. Masky's seizure was well done and made the entry even more frightening, to me.

bang on. Humanizing an unknown force seconds after establishing it while maintaining the sense of mystery and immediate danger is something THAC did that I'm still trying to comprehend Very Happy

Well, humanizing Masky is totally fine. Humanizing TO beyond TO's attempt at verbal communication (which was apparently recording Jay's voice and playing his "Hello?" back at him in different registers) wouldn't be, I think. The "eldritch" part of the eldritch horror should be maintained. Masky's different.

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:51 pm

Cyan507
Entrenched

Joined: 18 Jun 2012
Posts: 751
Location: Ireland

lonsumtravlr wrote:

Cyan507 wrote:

lonsumtravlr wrote:

Cyan507 wrote:

A motive or a signature or some sort of characteristic that humanizes him or her or it, yes. Masky's seizure was well done and made the entry even more frightening, to me.

bang on. Humanizing an unknown force seconds after establishing it while maintaining the sense of mystery and immediate danger is something THAC did that I'm still trying to comprehend Very Happy

I know what you mean, I think it was fine that TO mimicked Jay in a lower register, but if he were to sit down and properly converse with Jay it wouldn't be cool. I hope we never truly discover what TO's motives are. I think it's simply better as a mysterious destructive force. Some creatures should just want to watch the world burn (or apartments/hospitals/houses in this case)

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 10:07 am

lonsumtravlr
Entrenched

Joined: 23 Mar 2014
Posts: 1009
Location: The Great Continent of New England

Cyan507 wrote:

It's the high one about a minute after the first low register that really freaked me out. (Listen to it again--TO shoots Jay's "Hello?" back at him three times. The second time--and the pacing is perfectly off--is in a much higher register.

When I first saw this I'd thought Jay was saying "Hello?" several times. Then I listened again and realized that TO was recording and replaying Jay. Oh my God.

I'm a bit desensitized to this entry only because it's one I rewatch frequently while waiting for the next damn one, and also just to watch it for the cinema craft. It's damn near flawless considering how even much more low budget it was in season one.

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:14 pm

Lithp
I Have No Life

Joined: 04 Mar 2012
Posts: 2058

I'm not opposed to having Slenderman communicate in some form, but it's tricky to do without making it cheesy. I wouldn't want him to just start going, "Oh Jay, you poor, poor fool" from his not-mouth, but would be fine if a series said that the nightmares it causes are messages. For example.

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 2:11 pm

Cyan507
Entrenched

Joined: 18 Jun 2012
Posts: 751
Location: Ireland

lonsumtravlr wrote:

Cyan507 wrote:

Don't remember that but re-watched and sure enough it was there, nightmare fuel Very Happy

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 4:47 am

lonsumtravlr
Entrenched

Joined: 23 Mar 2014
Posts: 1009
Location: The Great Continent of New England

Lithp wrote:

I'm not opposed to that either. If the distortion trope isn't already beaten to death, that could perhaps be used as a means of communication. But having Slenderman use perfectly human language when he's imperfectly [somewhat] humanoid (in appearance) and in so many interpretations of the myth doesn't have a mouth, that would just be stupid.

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 6:49 am

thisistheend
Veteran

Joined: 06 Mar 2013
Posts: 121

lonsumtravlr wrote:

Lithp wrote:

What about Slenderman communicating in Morse code through distortion?

Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 3:57 pm

Clairabel
Decorated

Joined: 13 Apr 2013
Posts: 177
Location: Birmingham, UK

Lithp wrote:

Your only problem there would be deciphering these dreams. You either do it well, or have someone have a 'eureka' moment where ALL OF A SUDDEN IT ALL MAKES SENSE. That's just lazy.

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Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 5:26 pm

Cyan507
Entrenched

Joined: 18 Jun 2012
Posts: 751
Location: Ireland

thisistheend wrote:

lonsumtravlr wrote:

Lithp wrote:

What about Slenderman communicating in Morse code through distortion?

Ehhh I'd avoid it. In my opinion slenderman shouldn't be able to be communicated. He's an unknown entity whose origins and goals are unknown. If you give him a voice and/or take away the mystery he becomes less scary.

Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 6:30 pm

Lithp
I Have No Life

Joined: 04 Mar 2012
Posts: 2058

Clairabel wrote:

Lithp wrote:

Your only problem there would be deciphering these dreams. You either do it well, or have someone have a 'eureka' moment where ALL OF A SUDDEN IT ALL MAKES SENSE. That's just lazy.

Well, an example of something that's done this would be Neon Genesis Evangelion. The "conversations with your younger self while on a train" sequences were confirmed to be the Angels trying to communicate. Of course, I don't think that anybody got that before it was stated by the writers, so that might not be a point in favor of clarity.

This WAS successfully implemented in EverymanHYBRID, albeit not with Slenderman himself. Alex stated that, after being visited by the Rake, he began having dreams that eventually came true, but he didn't realize that they were prophetic in time to say anything. At least 1 person on the forums pointed out that this was a reference to how the Rake gives prophetic dreams, from the oiriginal creepypasta. Which, obviously, is another example of the Trope being used successfully.

Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 6:33 pm

lonsumtravlr
Entrenched

Joined: 23 Mar 2014
Posts: 1009
Location: The Great Continent of New England

Cyan507 wrote:

thisistheend wrote:

What about Slenderman communicating in Morse code through distortion?

I think the poster was being facetious, but, yeah, Morse Code would be lame. even a highly alien code could be difficult, because it's too human an activity. You'd have either to be a damn good linguist to create an alien language or else to be able to fake it convincingly. But then you still run the risk of humanizing the far-from-human.

Dreams and visions are not lame, however, if done well. Can't agree with the one poster above who said this would be itself lame because it depended upon an epiphany. This needn't be lame, because epiphanies don't always last, and because dreams and visions are often presumed upon waking to be cryptic even when the seem straightforward during the experience of them.

Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 10:12 pm

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