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[The Condor]

[TheOperator]

[Zarggg]

Timehop reminded me the other day that when I started binge-watching both Tribe Twelve and EverymanHYBRID (since I was stuck in Florida for a few days after Christmas when a blizzard in the north-east closed all my local airports), I had commented that TT seemed like a shameless plagiary of Marble Hornets.

Thankfully I grew out of that opinion and I think even Nimbus has admitted that's how it started.

[lonsumtravlr]

[The Condor]

[Zarggg]

Oh, don't get me wrong. The series definitely took on a life of its own over time.

[lonsumtravlr]

[TheJoker]

[The Totem]

In my opinion, TribeTwelve (and EverymanHYBRID) have things that Marble Hornets doesn't and vice versa. Marble Hornets pulled us in because of the way they capture the fear of the unknown and hopelessness, but TT and EMH managed to counteract those things with a rich (and convoluted *cough*Iteration Theory*cough*) backstory and the introduction of characters that seem to be trying everything in their power to make sure the protagonists can win.

Now, looking at the humor from all three series, they are all varying. Marble Hornets covers that subtle humor that comes from irony and awkward situations, due to the characters always being so stoic. Meanwhile, TribeTwelve focuses on how the average human may exaggerate their feelings and babble on about nonsense. EverymanHYBRID's comedy is based on sarcasm. It all depends on what kind of genre you like best. I personally can't pick.

[The Condor]

I think Marble Hornets is the thing that balances everything perfectly. While other ARGs excell at some things above MH, they also lack in things that MH does.

Think of it this way:

MH: 5+5=10
other ARGs: 7+3 =10

[Chronologo]

TT has improved over the time and Noah is doing an excellent work all by himself. That being said MH is better though I like both. EMH is another story I bailed out of it because the quantity of resources you had to follow to keep with the story was overwhelming.

[The7kproductions]

Marble Hornets started off kind of boring, then became interesting and finished strong.

Tribe Twelve started off shitty, then became less shitty with a glimmer of promise, then it did nothing but filler for the majority of the first season, then did a pointless but interesting plot twist, then it showed promise again, and NOW it wants me to find fortune cookies, melodramatic bullshit, and obviously computer generated effects to be scary (also apparently Adam Rosner thinks constantly popping shit in front of your face with static noises in an obnoxious manner counts as having hidden shit, not realizing that hidden imply's that you actually have to look for it not just pausing at the right moment)

There is no debate, Tribe Twelve is disappointingly shitty and Marble Hornets is well written, well paced,well directed,compelling,and has the capability to be taken seriously.

I remember early on, people would say that TT is only good because of it's good effects, and guess what that doesn't even hold up now! TT's effects are impressive sure, but are also obviously fake like in fortunes when he randomly decided to ad a green screen effect then just slid an image of SM at the screen at the board walk, that look SOOO fake it looked like something from a SciFi original, except worse.

TL;DR: Tribe Twelve, PFFT more like, Tribe Smellve , MH is were it's really at!

[Bishmanrock]

TT is something I've tried to get into repeatedly - to no avail. I dunno what it is, every time I try my interest whittles away after only a few videos.

[lonsumtravlr]

[DHawk314]

I actually find myself pretty frustrated with Tribe Twelve. I can forgive the older videos, they're not actually that badly done for what they are (they're supposed to be like a Marble Hornets homage, then it spun out of control and became its own thing.) If anything, and I know no one really agrees with me, but it's the later videos that bother me.

I think the series lacks in subtlety, which by the way is if anything the opposite of Marble Hornets' problem, but I like that about Marble Hornets at some levels. I surely understand Adam's motivation with making Noah swear all the time, and it's true, I would swear more than the Marble Hornets guys do if I were them. But it's unsubtle in Tribe Twelve; he just curses the whole video. Even if it's realistic it's distracting, and I'm not convinced it's totally realistic. Maybe it's not even the amount of the swearing, it's just the fact that it feels forced. Like whenever it happens I can't help but be like "Oh okay, Adam's swearing now cause that's 'realistic'" which is the opposite of the point of being realistic anyway.

EMH, for instance, has significant cursing, but it's never taken me out of the moment or seem forced. But then, EMH excels in the acting/character writing department, and TT, uh...meh. Adam's a pretty bad actor. I know it sounds mean, and maybe if I was bigger fan in general I would see the growth that other people see...but, even with that, it's still not that like...good. And the writing it a little pretentious. I'm okay with the Collective in general, he did a good job distancing them from totheark, but you can only have a character say "YOU CANNOT COMPREHEND HOW THIS WORKS (AND THAT'S WHY IT MAKES NO SENSE)" so many times before it's like "Okay, I get the point, you like Lovecraft, neat."

The time travel stuff comes off a little like that too, after a while. It's like, okay, Firebrand is you from the future, so...now what? Like it's sort of a clever idea, but I haven't seen see it go anywhere, so it just makes it seem like the idea almost thinks it's clever but without much actual substance.

EMH is almost more disappointing because for all intents and purposes it is amazing. Honestly, the writing and the acting is art. But the plot lost track of itself. I say that, by the by, as someone who has read the whole wiki and understands the story at least an above average amount, among people who have even attempted to watch it that is. Honestly, it's not the understanding that's the problem, it's the lack of focus. Let me put it to you this way: Each individual plot point is beautiful, and the each individual video is executed well. There are even aspects of EMH that are pretty psychedelic, which I have a personal appreciation of. But there's too much of it, and somehow the format doesn't lend itself to borderline Homestuck levels of plot complexity. It has one similarity to Tribe Twelve; I feel I spend too much time wondering "where is this going?"

Of course that could be, ya know, a symptom of the whole release date thing. I think it's interesting that people bitched way more about Marble Hornets not coming out when it came out a few magnitudes times more than either of these series. Honestly I have a slight suspicion, although I'm not totally sure of this, that people implicitly, and perhaps unconsciously, hold Marble Hornets to a higher standard when they make this judgement.

I agree with Condor, Marble Hornets has shortcomings that EMH and TT are better at, but Marble Hornets is more balanced. However in my opinion, the unbalanced aspect makes Marble Hornets the best, if anything by default. Although I have to say I personally liked Marble Hornets. A really obvious counterpoint against me would be to say that you spend a lot of time in Marble Hornets asking "where is this going" and that it never really goes anywhere, but I never expected it to go in the directions people thought it would. I think this was a projected expectation by the viewership which we were never promised.

I think this a symptom of the general mysterious atmosphere in the series, which is used to create a sense of horror. People projected this sense onto certain plot points which were much simpler than people wanted to admit. But to me, everything was explained fairly well, and the difference between Marble Hornets and EMH is that the plot actually isn't that complex. It's just mysterious, until the end, at which point it isn't. Jessica's fate is a loose end, but I don't think that damages the structure of the rest of the story. It's just one final mystery in a fairly simple story with a very mysterious atmosphere. So yeah I think Marble Hornets is the best, all the way.