unforum

[Mattwan]

[RatheadSyndicate]

*counts self in Mattwan's camp*

It's not a matter of "cosmic inevitability." The only real unmovable canon of the Slenderman mythos is that it is scary. All alterations to SM's MO must follow the simple dictum: IS THIS SCARY? If the answer is no, then it's a bad idea.

Aliens, ghosts, powerful psychics, etc. are knowable. And I don't find that scary.

(By the way, referring to those with whom you disagree as "people like you" ain't gonna win you any friends, partner. If your definition of "killing creativity" is the desire that a story you find interesting not fall back on predictable, recognizable tropes like the ones you mentioned, then count me as a murderer of all things imaginative.)

[ChildOfAtom]

[RatheadSyndicate]

I think nearly a century of Lovecraftian fiction would disagree with the assessment that cosmic fear is limited in the stories it can tell. Because, no matter how unchanging the unknown is, the people exposed to it are not limited in their means of reaction. We have not explored all possible combinations of characters + SM, and we never will. It's an inexhaustible well.

[ChildOfAtom]

Even Lovecraft pinned explanations on his monsters though. Ancient gods, embodiments of original sins, trapped demons, the gods of the gods, overthrown cult heads or entombed black magic users... I sometimes think that the readers have made more interconnections between his stories and fleshed out his pantheon more than Lovecraft himself did, but the point is that he created a framework, which is what I want as a reader.

So far most of the SM writers have come to the point in their stories where they needed to say what he is... they simply shrug and say "He is" as if that's enough, and leaves me cold to the story.

[RatheadSyndicate]

Well, maybe you're right. It couldn't hurt for one story to provide some framework, some context, for Slenderman, and there's no saying that whatever context is devised need necessarily be canon for future tellings, but my fear is that the character will become an easily recognized cliche (aliens, psychics, vengeful ghosts, etc.) and will lose his otherness. For someone to provide a working backstory, they'd have to be awfully shrewd and subtle. I'd love to see it done right, but I'd rather not see it done at all than see it done poorly.

[evilblackbunny]

[Darxbloop]

[grieck]

@evilblackbunny.

It's "Slipping", a horrible bastardization of it.

[NoMoreGaems]

Yeah, the "you people" thing was needlessly aggressive, sorry, was running on 2 hours of sleep and was steeped in rancid brain juices.
My point, now that I'm feeling more articulate, is that the cosmic horror interpretation of Slenderman disregards much of the mythos, because it seem too pedestrian (for example, the whole dissection angle) or something. I understand it's not usually visited in the video series, due to being an expensive effect (although EMH found a neat way around), but that was one of the facets that really left me shivering when I was first investigating the whole thing.

And, thinking about it, Darxbloop's idea sounds really interesting, wouldn't mind seeing that. Hell, it even seems to describe this thread we're having

[RatheadSyndicate]

Oh, I agree, NMG, that elements like the vivisection of victims, etc., are lost treasures of the mythos and should be brought back. I wouldn't say something like that isn't compatible with cosmic horror.

[Fissioninferno]

[jarnaez]

I think a lot of the burnout is happening just because you have a lot of people who found out about it and went "I want to do that too" and use the preceding works as a guideline as opposed to inspiration.

I would like to see the audio distortion lessened since when it's popped up in other series it honestly gets overused. While MH had some long spots I've seen it take up essentially half of the videos in others. The scare chord isn't scary when it's a given.

As for those wanting more slendy action that's a double edged sword. It would be neat for him to be a more active threat rather than the still stalker that pops up in most but that can also tank the image. The more we see and the closer we get the easier it is to see it's just a guy in a suit with mask over their face as opposed to the creature. unless someone has some real resources to put toward it I think that would hurt more than help. Kind of applies to the tentacles as well. In a drawing or photo you can make them look real good but when trying to get the same effect in real life it can really fall apart.

[Mira]

[SolDL]

I have a feeling that Slendy stories are getting dry, not because people are sticking to the conventions of the cosmic horror genre, but because they're only sticking to the aspects of Slenderman they've found in MarbleHornets. Slendy has a LOT of information on him down at the SomethingAwful "Create Paranormal Images" board, which I'd love to work into some stories sometime, but the Slendermen that I've been seeing in most of these stories have been, well; The Operator and nothing but. It's like drawing a sketch of a sketch of a reality; you just lose detail the further down you go. (On a sidenote; I'd love to see the content contained within that board sifted from the non-Slendy stuff and the out of character observations. I got a little bored of sifting through it after the first couple of million pages.)

I think EMH is a particular subversion of this; they use a lot of the Operator's conventions, but they also took the effort to go with the garbage bags in the trees, the relationship with children...And they added elements of their own to the Mythos, while still preserving the sense of mystery that surrounds him. TribeTwelve, I think the German grandfather made that for me; that clever reference to Slendy's origins worked for me.

I'd like to make the SomethingAwful "Paranormal Images" thread required reading before attempting a Slendy story. If you're making a story "Inspired by MarbleHornets" as opposed to by Victor Surge, then I'm not sure how entertaining I'll find it.