unforum

[JaHawk2009]

[chaos_angel]

[Chest Cam Avenger]

[JaHawk2009]

[chaos_angel]

[pepsikola963]

Maybe the Operator is an ancient monster discovered by early pilgrim settlers, and Alex and Jay's families are the sole adversaries to him. At one point Jay's ancestors left the land, leaving Alex's ancestors to deal with the operator themselves. Eventually the kraile's were defeated and forced to join the operator. Then when Jay's ancestor's returned, the kraile's secretly led them to the operator until TTA stopped them. Then for some reason, years later, the 10th generation of Alex and Jay's families awakened the operator. So now Jay must find the way to defeat the operator with the help of TTA. But maybe TTA doesn't feel like trying to save Alex...

Or some shit mightve just walked out of area 51

[JaHawk2009]

[Tipttt]

[Xicon]

(long time lurker first time poster etc. etc. etc.)

The thing that has been eating away at my mind lately is the name.

Why is he called "The Operator"? Is it a literal name in that he operates something, and if so, what? Does he operate in the sense of machinery or in the sense of completing operations (ie, something like a military operation)? Is it a figurative name, and if so what is the significance?

And most importantly - other than a few TTA clues, why exactly have we assumed that this is his proper name?

I think the name can tell us a lot that we have potentially overlooked.

[JaHawk2009]

@Xicon
I believe we call him the operator because that's what Troy referred to him at some point? I'm not too sure though...

[Xicon]

[Raj39]

I've thought since Entry 38 that the Operator was a conglomeration of all the criminals hung in the area of "the trials." Not a legion of ghosts or spirits but something of a more subhuman nature. Assuming there is no afterlife in the Marble Hornets universe, human beings and animals shed a very basic consciousness after death. In the case of the Slender Man, these entities receive pleasure from the same things their living counterparts did: killing, stalking, children, etc. The Operator is who it is, not because of any overarching plan or purpose, but because it is naturally drawn to the sorts of things that the criminals enjoyed doing. The anomaly in the forest gave all this anger, suffering, and perversion a physical manifestation resembling the distorted corpses, via a mechanism that will never be explained in the series because it can't be explained. (Sort of like a glitch in the natural world?)

Oh, and the reason time gets warped around him is the same reason the trees grow faster. The trial area (possibly the ark?) is a wrinkle in the fabric of spacetime.

(I need to get out more.)

[12th]

[Randoman96]

There have been several TTA referances to "operator", most recently in several videos with a 0-OPER phone key, although none directly naming The Operator as such.

[12th]

I keep forgetting about the freaking telephone references, so yeah. Rando knows more than I do.

EDIT:
You know, now that I'm reminded of the telephone references. Perhaps El Hombre Alto is actually more of some kind of spiritual "operator" in the telephonic sense: someone to assists or intermediates in remote communication between two entities.

While the Operator doesn't seem to be "assisting" anyone to do anything (besides going crazy), within the lens of magical thinking - there are several mystical traditions which suggest that intermediaries between the terrestrial and the spiritual are also guardians and gatekeepers that require some kind of toll, riddle, or quest in order to prove one's worthiness to communicate or interact with the beyond.

Actually, nothing in MH suggests that level of mystical thinking though. Maybe if one of the characters had some interest in the occult or religion or anything like that, but right now I don't see anyone even leaning in that direction. Well, nice to talk myself out of a theory