unforum

[Marble Hornets]

I figured out pretty early on season 3 that the ultimate goal was to kill everyone off, even made a topic about it. I wish it just ended with Tim lying dead on the stairs of the college. Too bad they can't turn back time.

[The Totem]

It's funny. I actually saw a comment on Quadrant that said "Someone should just pull up their tighty-whities and kill everyone then themself"

[lonsumtravlr]

[ReverendJ]

I wonder if the ending was changed for the sake of the movie's plot.

[ledzepfilm]

Nah, they wouldn't sacrifice the series for the movie.

[Dacad]

How ambiguous was the ending, though? Alex was trying to do what CR from Slender the Arrival wanted to do: kill everybody associated with Slendy, then commit suicide. Tim killed Alex, then collapsed. He survived that event to post 87, and it was revealed that Jessica survived Entry 76. What happened after Entry 86 is ambiguous, but we have a basic plot outline.

[HK-47 Assassination Droid]

[adaminator1]

[RiftTraveler]

IF TROSPEHIM REALLY ARED ABOUT THEUY FANS THEY WOUDL O TAND SK EVYR SINSGLE PERSON WHAT THEY WANTE DHT ENEDING TO BE AND SHOOT A PEROSNALIZED ENDING FOR EVERYONE BECAUSE THT WOULD BE THE BEST WYA TO END IT BECAUSE THEY SNEED TO MAKE E4VEYRONE HAPPY AND NT DO WHAT THEY WANT BECAUSE ITS FOR US NOT THEM THOSE STOOPID KIDS

[420Goku]

[Austin N2]

This is my first post, and might be my last. But after watching the ending and reading others reactions to it, I feel like sharing my thoughts.

First, let me give a little background to my experience with the Marble Hornets series. I started watching midway through the first season. I thought it was a pretty neat series. I was thrown off by the seven month gap between seasons 1 and 2, because I didn't even realize this series was separated into seasons. But at some point through season 2, I lost interest in the series. I apperciate mystery, but I felt like the series was dragging. I took a two year break from the series, and reaquainted myself with the series in the summer of last year. But even though I didn't have to wait between entries, and even though I skipped the totheark videos, I found myself getting bored partway through season 3. The series was being too stingy with answers, and I thought it was becoming repetitive. It seemed like the characters were exploring the same locations over and over again. I think by that point, the novelty of the series had worn off. I still kept up with the series, sometimes checking the channel several times a week, sometimes checking it once a month. But eventually, I stopped getting any enjoyment out of watching the series. It's not because I hated it, but because I stopped caring. I only kept up because I figured the series was relatively close to the end, and I wanted to see how such an acclaimed series was going to conclude.

I always knew there was a chance the Operator wouldn't be properly explained. I understand it's a risk in horror. If you explain too much, then it may stop being scary or interesting. But if you explain to little, then people might find it unsatisfying. It's a risk either way. But when a story has gone on for over five years, I think the watchers are due some answers. Maybe they didn't have to explain exactly what the Operator was, but I think they at least should've explained what it wanted. As I mentioned, there is a risk of the answers making things less scary, but I ask myself "Am I really supposed to believe that it's impossible for a writer to explain things AND keep things interesting?" Marble Hornets was a series that was lauded for it's creativity. Even Roger Ebert gave a positive review of the first season. I think the creators should've taken the risk. They should've bit the bullet, told us what the monster was all about and hope for the best. Maybe people would've been disappointed with the answers, but at least they would've tried. That's my problem with this ending. It doesn't feel like they tried. This is one ambiguous ending where it doesn't feel to me like they were ambiguous because they thought it was what best fit the story, it just feels like they took the safe way out.

I figured there was going to be some unanswered questions. Perhaps because the writers forgot about them or because they never had an idea in the first place, but my ideal ending for Marble Hornets would've at least answered all the big questions. The Operator and the Ark in particular. If the Ark was meant to be death, than I have to say that's a pretty weak explanation. I'm sure there are other big mysteries I'm forgetting about, but due to my disinterest in the series, I tended to forget exactly what happened as soon as I finished the video. On the rare times I read a discussion on this board, I found myself saying "Oh yeah. That DID happen, didn't it?" I even would've been happier if Entry 86 was the ending. It still left stuff ambiguous, but it had a better sense of finality to it. It would make viewers ask "Is Tim dead? If he is, then was Alex right? Is the Operator stopped? If Tim is dead...then who uploaded the video?" Assuming Tim died would've made things feel resolved, while still leaving a touch of interesting ambiguity.

I think Xicon's post on page 8 of this thread is dead on, and one of the most insightful posts here. Marble Hornets was a series that was about the mystery first, and the characters second. And it didn't do a great job of resolving the characters either, especially Brian. I will say that I think the ending would've been much more acceptable if the series had been several years shorter. And I think that's my main issue with Marble Hornets. It's a great series, but it went on for far longer than it needed to.

[HK-47 Assassination Droid]

Statement: TL;DR, But still, He has a point.

[Viden]

[Lithp]

Well, that post on Page 8 raises an interesting point. If this was allegedly about the characters, were the characters any good?

Let's start with Seth, Amy, & Sarah: It's not very good when I can summarize many of the Big Names right off of the bat in 7 words: We. Do. Not. Know. Shit. About. Them. There was no possible way for me to care about what happened to these people besides curiosity. That's a really strange decision if they wanted it to be "about the characters, not the answers."

The Operator: I've previously commented on why The Operator obviously is not "just a force of nature." Basically, it has just enough traits so that we know that it is conscious. Unfortunately, it has nothing else besides that. Just because it's not human & can't talk, that doesn't mean it's impossible to give a sense of what this thing is about. It would be better, in a way, if it were just a black mass, or something, because then that excuse would hold water. Okay, The Operator isn't really what Joseph meant when he talked about "flawed characters," but it's still an important character, so it's still worth noting how it fell flat.

Jay: I didn't understand this guy at all. He made really stupid decisions which might have had something to do with The Operator? He wanted to find Jessica so bad because I guess he felt guilty?

Tim: Actually a surprisingly strong character, able to step right into the protagonist's shoes &, dare I say, be even more interesting. But Tim's problem is exactly what frustrates me about the Unreliable Narrator plot device. You can't trust anything that the plot is telling you, so if you want canon information, you're no better off than if you were reading a fan fiction. Which leads to, again, I don't really know shit about Tim. Does he really have gaps in his memory? Is Masky really a separate entity? Did he kill Brian in cold blood? The world may never know.

Alex: Probably the strongest character. We know his motive, his actions mostly make sense in light of it, & we really see him develop. Of course, there are still holes even there, like why he called Tim & Jay if he wanted to kill them.

Brian: Almost forgot him, because Hoody never did anything besides being a weird & creepy "magic hobo." The greatest thing that he ever did for the plot was drop dead. And that's a damn shame, because there was a lot of potential in seeing how Brian became "a shell of a person. That's actually not a bad concept. But you have to show us what, exactly, Brian became so obsessed with. I feel kind of bad for Brian (actor), because he seems to be really talented, & most of what he's been doing is playing a lineless & completely interchangeable character, to the point where some would argue that nothing about the actor matters, not even the sex.

Jessica: I was writing the conclusion statement before I remembered her, so that's even worse. This was a character with a really strong start, because even though she only appeared for a bit of Season 2, a lot of people, myself included, think she's the most relatable. But then she just kind of disappears. Totheark & Jay seem interested in her, but that's never really followed up on besides a few "we haven't forgotten her" statements. She gets a really great apparent death scene...& then she just kind of disappears. Being dead doesn't mean the plot has to forget about you. Jay's death really hung over Tim & even really minor characters like Bruce & Amy kind of lingered around like ghosts. Then there's that sort of out of left field twist that she's actually still alive...& then she just kind of disappears. And now we don't even know as much about her status as we did before.

So, yeah, I think it's safe to say that Marble Hornets didn't handle its characters very well, especially considering they were allegedly supposed to be the driving force of the plot. They aren't unlikeable, they're just underdeveloped. Part of this is because it's sort of naive to say that a story is "about the characters" or "about the plot" like these things aren't intimately connected. But, even separating them to the extent that you can, a lot of the characters still fall flat.

Now, remember all of those Entries that I called filler? Why weren't they spent having Tim & Jay catch up? I know the situation between them was supposed to be tense, but you could still have still let some things slip by that would have given Jay's death more of an impact. Jessica's "death," for instance, was tragic because she only got involved to find out what happened to her friend & just when she finally confronts Jay & is about to discover what's happening that's causing her physical & mental health to decline, she runs into a monster that she had no way of knowing about, & "dies."

[420Goku]