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[OmegaX]

Something that's bugged me for so long...

[morscata12]

Here's why I think it was a popular theory, and why it seems like that has gone away for the most part:

The series doesn't give (seemingly) concrete answers very often. Entry 22 felt like Alex was trying to be direct/honest with the audience, and even if Alex wasn't currently in a state of mind where he could really assess what was happening to him, it felt like it contextualized why Alex was obsessed with filming himself. After all the crazy/impossible things happening in the series, it didn't seem too much of a leap to accept the idea that the tapes replaced Alex's mind for his memory (without the need to watch them).

That's not to say that its conclusion was correct, it just felt like a nice coming-together of all the unexplained questions at that point. (Why fill hundreds of tapes you'll never watch? Why did Jay not remember anything past the camera shutting off in Entry 18? Why did Alex freak out when the cameraman said "rolling"? Why did Alex want Jay to burn the tapes?)

Additionally, Entry 22 felt like a conclusion of sorts. (Jay discovers "Alex's last tape" after analyzing hundreds of tapes for clues. Alex makes his big confession and ties directly into the beginning of the Entries.) The more entries we got after that "conclusion", the easier it was to let go of the logic built from that conclusion.

If conclusions are illogical if they are not based in solid fact, then anything we think about the series is illogical - because nothing in this series is solid. People are fighting against teleportation because there's no solid proof that it's happening, but we also don't have proof that the Operator isn't just a prop. We don't have proof of anything: that Alex was ever in danger, or that Masky is going after Jay, or that totheark is Masky, or that Jessica was being honest, or that Jay's apartment really burned down, or that Jay was in a real hotel, or anything.

But not knowing is basically the point of the series. "You don't know for sure" should be the tagline for Marble Hornets. Everything we see in the entries can be taken multiple ways, and there's no such thing as being illogical when that's the case.

[Bingo Zero]

That kind of bugs me too. People placing so much importance on the physical tapes themselves. I mean, most likely, the original tapes have been burned down in Jay's apartment and furthermore most of the choice bits have been uploaded to the internet. So they're not all that special. I kind of look at the tapes as being the currency of MH.

[bobthecrusher]

completely throwing out the idea that the simplest solution will be correct, as there are obviously things at work here greater than a couple of college students. The fire in J's house could have been to cover someone taking tapes, or they wanted to make suer that J didn't return, or Alex was finally fulfilling his offer to destroy the tapes.

[Bingo Zero]

[Philosopher Xu]

Not to derail this line of discussion completely, but I would not be surprised to see more fires. The concept of "burning" the tapes appears as early as the introduction. We also have the fire in Brian's painting (foreshadowing?), the fire in J's apartment, and the burned out basement area. Another admittedly weak connection to fire is the fact Tim smokes (you don't film that unless its intentional), also racking coughs is a symptom of smoke inhalation.

[Cutboy]

[OmegaX]