Something I feel we Marble Hornets fans often forget is just how exactly the passage of time changes/develops over the series.
That being said, there's about a month between Entry 72, when Jay has his seizure, and Entry 74.
When we see Tim again, he has a bit of a beard to show that time has passed and he hasn't necessarily been taking care of himself, yet by contrast, Jay is clean shaven.
Now maybe he just has trouble growing facial hair, but I want to propose another possibility.
Do you think while taking care of Jay for that month, even while he ignored his own health, Tim shaved his face for him? He did his best to keep him comfortable and healthy because he would often be disoriented when he wasn't a vegetable, and Tim didn't want him trying to shave and hurting himself? Do you think he helped him with baths too? Do you think it made Tim feel bad, even as he thought it was necessary, because he is aware how losing your autonomy to someone can feel, due to his time in the hospital.
Tim telling Jay to stay still as he holds and shaves his face, and he looks in the other's eyes and his heart breaks a little because they're so faraway. He hopes they'll come back soon but when they don't and days become weeks he gets desperate.
Do you think even as he gave Jay his medication, he felt guilty? Because of how this very same thing had happened to him before? He never imagined he would be on the other side of it.
I think the main difference between the Operator in MH and in RW, is that this Operator, the Rosswood/Reel World one, probably isn't struggling for food like the Operator in Marble Hornets. Like, think about it, the MH Operator was taking people as soon as they died and had much more limited powers, probably due to Skully literally taking its food for who knows how long while actively being fought against by Brian before then. (Brian literally saved Jessica from it, it's not too unlikely he genuinely caused problems for it.)
This Operator by contrast is almost playful, a cat with a mouse. Its also just much more powerful, being able to mimic voices and bringing people into the Ark without needing the tunnel, keeping them there to torment and tease endlessly, not even letting them die.
This is how the Operator behaves when it is well fed.
Something interesting about Marble Hornets that I think is really noticeable when you start watching some other slenderverse series, is how there are no moments of signage on screen.
That might sound stupid but I am serious.
We never see a CVS or Gas Station's brand, or as far as I know a town sign. The closest we get is, I think Benedict Hall? But despite all the time they spend in motels, we never see a names, we never see even really see anything identifiable.
I am sure this is just so they can choose locations as they please and go, "this is down the road," without there being an inconsistency, but I find is fascinating. It all lends to this really dream-like quality. There's no people, no signs, just our characters playing life out on an empty set, with the only people we see being them or plot devices. It is a hauntingly isolated nightmare.
Hey so, a lot of folks in the Marble Hornets fandom are varying shades of new to it, and so didn't experience it coming out unfortunately, but apparently there used to be a marblehornets website that has been down since 2016, and I actually didn't know about it but my friend (@straycalamities) did and found it on the Wayback Machine.
I bring this up because while the images on the website are mostly broken now, it actually holds some really fascinating information on the characters that I have never seen talked about, like some of their majors in college!!
I am going to post snippets (as screenshots would get fucked up on mobile) and talk about them a little, but check it out here if you're curious.
Starting from the top and most passionate, we have Alex Kralie's description.
Director / Writer / Editor / Actor
Alex Kralie, born April 4th 1986, has been into making films since his early childhood, when he would make short sketch comedy videos starring himself and his cousins with his parents camcorder. He would then show them at “premieres” to his friends and family. That love has since remained with Alex, where he has been involved in many different capacities in various filmmaking communities. He is a double major in both filmmaking and photography, with a minor in theatre. He originally wrote Marble Hornets during high school and has continuously tweaked and polished it throughout his time at the university. He’s very excited to finally see it all happening after years of work!
Likes: Film, Directing, Art, my dog rocky.
Dislikes: Fakery, creative bankruptcy, passionless people, 9 to 5 jobs, unambitiousness, bad movies and film.
Wow, ain't that a breath of fresh air? A BIRTH YEAR! In a slenderverse series! In a youtube horror series, honestly! You never see it.
Alex's description is by far the longest and most passionate, a fact which kind of kills me knowing what he becomes. Working on a project he started in highschool, if there is anything Alex is, I suppose it is dedicated, all devoted to idea he gets in his head which he just can't seem to shake, huh?
Finally though we have a major for our tragedian! Two majors! And a minor! Sorry but I am genuinely so enthused about this. This paragraph really knocks home what I have always said about how Alex thinks, with his confidence and slight pretentious nature with a genuine passion and undertone of insecurity—and through the lens of him talking about himself! Wow.
But moving on to the lead, Brian Thomas!
Actor
Brian has been attending the university for three years, and is hoping to graduate after his next couple of semesters with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in video production. He originally met Alex in Dr. Warren’s cinematography class where they collaborated on quite a few projects together. He’s very happy to be making his acting debut in Marble Hornets!
Depending on who you think wrote these, this description could be really funny. BUT WOW A CANONIZED WAY THESE CHARACTERS MET. I feel like I have won the lottery. Anyone else?
That is a really fascinating combination of major and minor too, [WHICH WE NOW HAVE FOR HIM, WOAH,] it really makes you wonder what Brian is doing though, and where his direction in life is, if he even knows. Its such a short and sweet and direct description, it is equal parts charming while hiding something under its surface you can't quite place and might even slip from your attention, which feels very emblematic of this character.
I'll leave you to read Sarah Reid and Tim Wright's bios on your own, but I want to point out that at the bottom of the page, there are two people who don't have them.
Both Seth Wilson and Jay Merrick are marked with a "coming soon" notice, with Seth listed as Camera/Co-Editor and Jay listened as... nothing. He is just slapped on there because. Why?
Probably because Alex wanted him there because he is his friend, but it is interesting to point out. Jay as I said before is a passive (though not meek) character, especially at the start of the series, and this just reminds me of that. He is here, but quiet and observing, not helping really as he trails after Alex because he is his friend, because they have a connection, because Alex can't imagine not having him here.
Hey so I realized something during my Marble Hornets rewatch, because like, ok I will admit one of my least favorite headcanons is that any of the Marble Hornets lads are from outside of Alabama, as the story and the Operator itself feel so contained there. Usually though this headcanon is given to Brian though rather than anyone else I feel, as Alex and Tim especially are so connected to Alabama and The Operator.
But during my favorite entry, "Entry #38," aka Alex Kralie's story hour, a line suddenly jumped out at me.
[1:10] Alex: "When I first moved here, [...]"
Holy shit.
Alex Kralie is an out-of-stater.
Of all of them, it is Tim Wright's foil which is an Out-of-Stater.
His foil who made a student film about being homesick but struggling when you do go back? And feeling like the world has grown up without you? Hello?
Now I will add, I don't think this point discounts the "Alex Kralie was infected by the Operator as a kid" theory at all, because the story Alex proceeds to tell after this line feels very, immature kids on a playground trying to smash together whatever words they can to make a scary story.
(Especially since it sorta ends with "oh and then a kid disappeared and he showed up DISMEMBERED and STRUNG UP." That's so elementary playground scary story, not even mentioning Alex's obvious connection to the Rosswood playground. He definitely moved here as a kid.)
Seth in Marble Hornets is a character of such little substance, only "appearing" in three entries, and only being mentioned really in three. But I want to bring up a detail I find interesting about our mysterious and absentee camera man, one that is driving me up the wall.
Intentionally or not, Seth is a foil to Jay.
Jay is a character who, whenever we see him on screen in the college era is quiet and subdued, almost becoming a fly on the wall.⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾ He has moments where he talks to people of course, but he also avoids them, only really choosing to make a connection with Alex as his "script supervisor," but otherwise avoids it.⁽³⁾ The only reason we as the audience know there's more depth to him, is because he is our protagonist, consuming so much of the time on the screen in the series, letting us in on his worldview, explaining his thought process to us and why he does the things he does. In doing so, he becomes known.
Seth by contrast though is, nothing. We literally know nothing about him, I would argue even less than we know about Sarah because we at least see her getting fed up with Alex, there's a personality there. But Seth? He has a dog, but what else? Let's just look at the entries he debatably is in, because in the ones he is mentioned in he is a brief forgettable remark but what about the others?
Seth Wilson shows up in Entries #9, possibly #20, #22 and briefly #54.
In Entry #9, he is the camera man, and subdued and quiet even when Alex is yelling at him, requiring Tim and Sarah to come to his defense as he is berated by Alex.⁽⁴⁾ Seth himself barely says anything though by contrast, besides remarking that he just "forgot for a second," about Alex's filming rule around [1:56]. He does try to briefly defend his decision at around [2:15], but ultimately capitulates and apologizes to Alex at the end, and while we see at least that Sarah and Tim don't like the treatment of their camera man, he is rather quiet himself.
Meanwhile, in Entry #22 and #20, while both are presumably entries where Seth is filming, in the latter due to him being the sole cameraman mentioned for Marble Hornets⁽⁵⁾ and the former because of Alex saying his name, we never hear Seth himself talk, as he is instead a silent, living breathing camera stand. He gives no thoughts or pushback or opinions, but rather just breathes and holds his camera at the ready, letting us forget he is there.
And then, in Entry #54, at [2:55,] we see Seth, Tim and Jay all run through the rain, and they talk briefly, but only before both Jay and Seth just, separately and very quickly leave, while Tim goes to hangout with Alex and Brian.
Yet, despite all this lack of personhood, we do have Seth do something that hints at a personality, something strange that I can't make sense of. Because, for some reason after all, in Entry #22, Seth follows Alex into a dark scary basement at night, and barely raises an objection we can hear, while Alex seemingly describes... some sort of violent event, which is almost impossible to parse through the corruption.
But here's the thing, maybe Seth is secretly judgmental, maybe he is apathetic, maybe he is also in love with Alex Kralie, maybe he doesn't care about any of the cast. The simple matter of the fact is we don't know, but this absence is exactly what fascinates me, because despite it, we see him doing exactly what Jay does, and it is just that Seth obviously never edited to then uploaded these tapes so we don't know him in the same way we do Jay. He is a blank slate, while we know too much and too well of Jay's awful habits and behaviors. (Such as, you know, breaking and entering, his lying, his shitty attempts to manipulate people, his unending and often problematic thirst for knowledge.)
Jay is our friend throughout the series, the person to drip feeds us information and continuously drags us into his worldview, but Seth is such a nobody that Jay forgets him.⁽⁶⁾ Yet both are listed next to each other on the "Marble Hornets" website, both with [coming soon] as their bio.⁽⁷⁾ Both are cameramen with a habit of fading into the background. Both are foolish enough to follow Alex Kralie into abandoned buildings under the most bizarre of pretenses.
But who are you, Seth Wilson?
---
Citations
1) In Entry #17, Jay is there but kinda quiet and awkward, ultimately fulfilling a rather quiet role. He barely talks outside of reading the lined and more so is just there to do stuff for Alex.
2) In Entry #5, it is much of the same, with them location scouting and Jay just dutifully following Alex around. We see bits of his curiosity and nosiness, but is ultimately just an extra pair of hands for Alex, he isn't as opinionated as we know him to be.
3) In Entry #54, at 3:25, after it seemingly unexpectedly comes down pouring during a shoot, Jay, Tim and Seth run for cover, with Seth leaving right before Jay says: "Well, I guess I don’t really have a reason to be here anymore either since I guess we’re done."
Tim says a bit before that Alex will be back in a "little bit," but Jay does not stick around to greet him or help or whatever, even though Tim says "we are just going to be wrapping up" right after, instead turning tail.
He could've easily stayed to help with at least the filming aspect, and spent time with Tim and Brian too by proxy, but he avoids this entirely.
4) In Entry #9, tensions are high from the beginning as Sarah and Tim commiserate, but it is Sarah who initially gets Tim and Alex to stop fighting when they start, where at [1:32] she agrees "Let's just do [the take] again" as Tim and Alex both start to raise their voices.
It is also initially Sarah who comes to Seth's defense though at [2:33] where she says "Guys, calm down," when Alex starts yelling, followed by "It was just a mistake!" about Seth turning off the camera to preserve tape when Alex continues to.
Even before then though I would argue she tries to defuse the situation by asking for a script, trying to distract from the mistake. And Tim joins in on her defending Seth and arguing with Alex, but I would argue that more comes from spite/dislike for Alex than anything. I don't know, there is something between Seth and Sarah even if they're just friends, but we will never know what probably.
I put a foot note here though because I just wanted to point that out.
5 and 7) There was an [old website for Marble Hornets] (Alex Kralie's student film) that no longer exists but on it listed the members of the film and their roles. I made a post about it [here] and you can read more about what I found on it there.
6) Ok technically he mentions him in the sense he shows a clip of Alex saying "Seth is Gone" after, but its so funny to me that in Entry #51 he only mentions Brian and Tim by name at [8:12] when he writes, "Did Alex lead everyone to a place like this and leave them there like he did with Brian, and possibly Tim?"
He just assumes Alex let Tim there. No Seth mention, who we saw actually being led somewhere weird and suspicious. No Sarah mention either.
