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[Magyk]

Going to mostly copy/paste my post from the "ending" thread. Like I said in that topic, the series length was fine - good even - and it got us very attached to certain characters and their personalities/beliefs.

The series stumbled greatly by not capitalizing on Jay's death.

The series really fell off when Jay died - not because killing that character was a bad idea, but because it was poorly executed. The series had so much potential to use that death to achieve a really emotional payoff, but it never did. In fact, I'm not even sure from the time of Jay's death to the final "epilogue" entry Jay was even mentioned. We're talking about a character we spent YEARS getting to know. This series has the perfect opportunity to tug at our heart strings with his death, make us WANT to see Alex taken down, and make the payoff of seeing Alex offed so much better. I expected to at least feel like Jay's death was avenged when Tim killed Alex, but I didn't. I didn't feel anything at all. Not because of lack of attachment to Jay, but because of poor execution of how his death was played out. And that's a shame, because it greatly effected the last handful of entries.

[LBfly]

I just watched Marble Hornets from Introdution to #87 in two days. There's notably a change in the pace Season 3 is developed, way too slow if compared to the rest of the series, and the main plot twists are concentrated at the end, making the entries that preceded them kind of boring and unnecessary if you think about it after watching them all. However, in my opinion, character development (such as Tim's backstory, Alex's transformation to a cold killing machine, Jay's decay into madness and Hoody's powers and limitations) and, even more important, place development (the hospital, the college, we had to localize ourselves in the entries in order to understand what was going on) couldnt have done in less than 35 long lenght entries. If all these developments we had in S3 were made in less than the time it actually took im pretty sure it would have felt like the last 5 entries: totally rushed and unsatisfatory for the majority of the viewers.
5 years because of OOG reasons, this could have been easily 4 years but well. Things happen. The trio have another priorities in their lifes as well.

[Lithp]

I don't actually think the ending felt rushed.

[awakeasaurusrex]

A while back I did a binge-watch of the whole series up to that point, and I found that seasons 2 and 3 actually hold up much better when watched that way. I suspect I'll feel the same when I do my big watch-through of the blu-ray. I think in terms of the actual content the guys got it about right, but I admit that the release schedule was a problem.

Hopefully the funding they got from the Kickstarter will allow them to take a more professional, full-time approach with the next series. (Are they still in college or have they graduated?)

[awakeasaurusrex]

Oh, and one other thing: I think a lot of the stuff in season 2 and 3 which was written off as "filler" was actually necessary to ensure the later entries would have the impact they did. All those long explorations of Rosswood and the hospital and other such locations were important to make sure they were instantly recognisable to us, so that when the teleportation craziness happened later on we could follow what was going on.

[Xman]

I don't think it went on for too long, they just didn't use that long amount of time wisely. The series was doing pretty damn alright for itself until I realized aspects of the series no longer had meaning and questions were never going to be answered.

[Lithp]

Both of those points have been raised before. I have watched Marble Hornets in both binges & when the episodes are released & perceive no difference. A lot of people would disagree with that, but I'm simply saying, that is not everyone's problem.

On the other hand, people do seem to share the sentiment that, when all of the teleportation happens, we still don't know what's going on sometimes. Also, we could recognize Benedict Hall, despite only seeing it for the least amount of time. So, no, they certainly did not need to show off the hospital & Rosswood as much as they did in order for us to recognize it.

Overall, I think the defense that they would cash in on what seemed, at the time, like filler ultimately fell flat. A lot of it simply was filler. Now, some people are going to remain adamant that all of this stuff was plot important. However, now that the series is finally over, more people seem to be coming around to the idea that a lot of this stuff really went nowhere.

As to the other thing, I didn't have a problem with killing off Jay & having Tim take over as the protagonist, except maybe that Jay, incompetent though he was, had a much better track record with giving us actual answers. Tim, by contrast, "is a liar," so it's okay for him not to tell us stuff. That may make sense in-context, but that may just mean that he's not the best character to use to advance to the story.

[Vesryn]

[Blackout_2014]

[Zarggg]

I do agree with Magyk's Jay post to the extent that Jay's death should have been much more significant.

On the other hand, none of the deaths in the series really played out as a big deal if you think about it. And we've spent months debating on whether some of those people were dead or not.

[CityMusic]

[Blackout_2014]

[Xman]

[Darkly_Quill]

[ReverendJ]