unforum

[det slanke mannen]

[Zebez]

[evilblackbunny]

[Tim's Suttonchops]

[aboynamedsam]

I'm going to make an assumption here: Most of you were indoctrinated to the Slender Man mythos much earlier than I was. This may be swaying your line of thinking due to the fact that you are already under the impression that it is an evil manifestation.

I'd like to quote, if I could, from http://marblehornets.wikidot.com/theories:
"The Operator is a force that is loosely based on the Slenderman of the Something Awful forums, though he doesn't bear all of the same hallmarks and so for this series, can be assumed to be an original creature."

If it is safe to assume that he is, in fact, an original creature based on the Slender Man creature, we can also assume that the motivations and agenda and, by proxy, the very nature (good or evil) of the Observer can be called into question.

[Vzombie]

If I remember correctly, in the radio interview on troyhasacamera Troy explicitly states that the Operator is a threat. He said that they didn't really sell that he was dangerous and an immediate threat, but he is.

[Randoman96]

[Cutboy]

The question I have is how on earth did in-game alex come up with "OPERATOR"? like where does that come from? did he do research or did the possesive qualities that the operator has like jam that name into his mind? did he just coin the name "OPERATOR" off the top of his head when he saw him? Did he just look like the kind of person to operate?!?

[Randoman96]

Simmer down boy. It probably has to do with the plot. Once we know what The Operator is actually doing and why, we'll surely know why that is his name.

[MorbidPuppies]

Maybe we'll get a scene where everyone figures it out like this.

[BranRainey]

Although "Operator" appears a few times in season 1, no one on Unfiction (and I assume everywhere else on the internet) ever actually called him the Operator until Troy and Joseph explicitly stated that that is his name in the first interview they did (right after Entry #26). Prior to that, people called the (X) symbol "the operator symbol" but no one ever linked it to the actual creature (though in retrospect it seems really obvious). I was around the forum back then, so I remember this clearly.

In defence of his weird name, I'm not sure whether the theoretical audience is actually supposed to figure out what "operator" refers to until it's explained in the story. With no outside sources taken into consideration, there aren't really any clear indicators of what it means. Even Entry #44 isn't very conclusive. Right now "operator" is more like a recurring phrase that exists to build up suspense (same as "ark"), but in the real world everyone already knows who it refers to so the only suspense left for us is why it refers to that.

On the topic of the Operator being similar to Slender Man, it's worth noting that quite a few of Slender Man's traits actually originate FROM Marble Hornets. They invented the video distortion and the sickness from proximity, I'm pretty sure. J's post on Something Awful wasn't made very long after the original invention of Slender Man by Victor Surge, and Slender Man wasn't very defined back then at all.

Also, nitpick on terminology: "antagonist" is a literary term that applies to the Operator regardless of whether or not he is a "villain". There's a 0% chance of him not being the antagonist, since we're more than half way through the story and he's been the primary source of conflict for the entire thing. Doesn't matter if he's actually evil or intentionally doing anything.

[Spacechicken]

As far as the Operator's name goes...
op·er·a·tor - noun
1. a person who operates a machine, apparatus, or the like: a telegraph operator.
2. a person who operates a telephone switchboard, especially for a telephone company.
3. a person who manages a working or industrial establishment, enterprise, or system: the operators of a mine.
4. a person who trades in securities, especially speculatively or on a large scale.
5. a person who performs a surgical operation; a surgeon.

Okay, none of those really make that much sense but I think of the name "Operator" as meaning that like a telephone operator is in control of the phone connections the Operator is in control and has the power to make humans do what he needs. Or something like that. The surgeon definition could make sense if you think that all his stalking/teleporting/mind-wiping is somehow part of some large, precise operation that he is performing to achieve some goal.

[SecretPerson]

There was a picture of the OPER button on a telephone at the beginning of one of TTA's vids, so the Operator's "definition" would probably be either the telephone or the telegraph.

[BranRainey]

That's Sidetone that has a shot of the 0 key at the beginning. Indicator also has the 0 key melted into the baby's eye. I don't know if I'd assume that these are indicative of the reasoning behind the name, though. They could easily just be TTA being creepy. Sidetone is literally about a phone call so the shot of the keypad makes sense, and burning the 0 key into the baby's eye is just the creepiest way possible to communicate the "operator in your head" message. Good chance there's no deeper meaning behind it.

Actually, now that I think of it, there are quite a few TTA entries with 0s scattered all over the place (Classified and Inquiry spring to mind). That probably means that the 0 stuff IS important. Or it could just be TTA shorthand or something. Fuck knows.

[aboynamedsam]

From the OP