Will Something Better Than Slender Man Ever Happen?

We all know the story. People got together and made a new icon of internet horror on a forum, the Slender Man, passed around for years. Well, one guy had the idea, and people kicked it around and backed it up. You know what I mean.
The legend instills different fears or scary things:

• A gaunt face (or lack thereof)
  
• Looks human, but not quite. (Classic Uncanny Valley stuff right there)
  
• Abnormal height, weight, and limb length
  
• Hides in the dark places where humans used to fear (The woods, where tales were made to make sure children never went in so they wouldn't get eaten by bears or something, saying they'll get eaten by monsters instead.)
  
• Looks and instills the fear of stranger danger
  
• Stalkers
  
• That feeling when someone in Hide n' Seek gets you. The fear of just sort of being gotten.
  

It spread for a long time, and is now as easily recognizable as any other meme. I heard there are blow up Halloween lawn decorations now.
But that can't be it, can it?

When will the thing die out for good? Probably almost never, because now millions of videos, blogs, and other medias has his face (or lack thereof).
But will something better rise up at some point? What could be scarier or as equally frightening as the stalking, faceless, hide-n-seek-playing, maybe-radioactive stranger, that stands at the edge of the woods?

What could spark up another era of nights up late, series, blogs, vlogs, books, merchandise, blow up decorations, costumes, memes, pictures, short stories that they swear are true, and those weird ships and fanfictions we all get annoyed at?

Hmmmmmm, I'd have to say that it's a very solid maybe. Time can only tell really. As far as the character dying out, hell no.

What I am interested in though, is what combination could be scarier than what I listed up there? That's something that could take a while to figure out.

I maintain that if nothing in the mythos ever restores the same mystique that it once had, then at the very least it will have a spiritual successor of some kind. I'm not sure what that would entail, except that it would probably involve the same kind of experimental formatting and urban legend appeal. The mythos is pretty exceptional at its best, but maybe something else as unique could one day happen.

I would hope so, and I'm trying to find out anything that could surface. The question I'm asking though, is what parts could there be, to put together and make a new legend? What different fears it could instill, the stories it could create.
I may or may not be talking about making a monster.

(Wait, darn it, I should have posted this in the Slender Man Mythos discussion thread. :/ )

In my opinion, there are already things that are "better" than Slender Man. (Though "better" is subjective, but I digress...)
Just about everything in The Fear Mythos is better in my opinion. Heck, the whole thing is better. But...that's a long, long story and a lot of explaining.

I can see what you mean, but I meant what Slender man became and stuff. A stand alone figure that became known everywhere, a single thing.

Oh, yeah, it'll happen eventually. Something gets bastardized and forced into the limelight everyday. Slender Man is like the Kim Kardashian of the modern horror genre. xD

God, basically.

Nah, Slender Man is more like the rock 'n roll sensation that was revolutionary once but that everyone accuses of selling out or fading away after its initial success. I guess that would make me the Greatest Hits station who insists that it will never die if we just keep playing the good ones over and over again.

Really though, I think anything groundbreaking enough to replace the Slender Man mythos in people's eyes would probably happen on accident, because in many ways I could write an entire essay about, the Slender Man mythos is just a really awesome accident. I don't think anything like it could be made deliberately, without all that chaos. I guess that, more than anything, it would have to be an ARG or something else that plays with the viewer's perception of reality, because that's really the most important, effective, and tragically forgotten part about the Slender Man mythos.

I see what you mean. Wasn't Slender Man created for a monster creation contest? And everyone grabbed onto it because it was cool. I've always loved the parts of series that messes with reality, Slender man giving people hallucinations, teleporting them everywhere.

To me, right now, there's nothing really better than Slender Man. The Fear Mythos look great, but I find it really hard to get immersed into them. Eventually, something bigger will come. And Slender Man IS dying away. All the hype is kinda gone right now, but even in his twilight years, Slendy's still got it. All he lacks now is the scare factor he used to have once.

Man, I remember when I first learned about Slender Man, I was legitimately scared. Now, not so much. Hopefully, something new can come quickly.

If there ever is a spiritual successor to the Slender Man mythos, I'd want it to be something that works really well on its own but could eventually tie the Slender Man mythos into itself (rather than it being a part of the Slender Man mythos) without the Slender Man feeling watered down from his original appeal in any way. Like how when Slender Man started out, people shaped the mythos out of real events and pre-existing urban legends, and then Everyman HYBRID made a concrete connection to the Rake and implied connections to Candle Cove and House of Leaves. Those things were great on their own, but their connections to the Slender Man mythos were made so naturally that they were only made better. If anything is to do that with the Slender Man mythos, its first priority should be making something concrete enough to hold up on its own, and then it can focus on enhancing the Slender Man mythos. And whatever this spiritual successor ends up being, we probably won't know it when we see it.

I don't know what happened to JustAcquaintances, but that series is like an offshoot of the Slenderverse, and is pretty awesome.

Something so influential and such a massive internet meme? I doubt it. I mean, we're too cynical now. I find things no long scare me as they did when I was younger. Public speaking doesn't agitate me now even. My nerves are deadened by all-nighters filled with creepypastas and the darker parts of the internet. 

Man, that makes me sound like a tired old man...

I miss when Slenderman and Creepypasta was scary. Those two things influenced my early teenage years and they made me a better person. It sounds odd, yes, but they made me value life more than I did before. I became a nicer and better person. I realized how easy life could be taken away and in turn I valued living.

Slenderman was a wonderful influence on me. I wouldn't change what I did in 2011 or 2012 for the world. Slenderman let you alter him, he let you add to him, he let you put him in any scenario possible. He was something for everyone to share and that game Slender ruined it for us all. But that will never change the happiness I used to feel when someone even referenced Slenderman, never ever. I spent hours reading the stories, learning the lore, memorizing the fan-made songs, watching Concrete Giraffes, joking about periwinkle blue, writing letters to Slenderman believing that he existed, crying when I realized that he didn't exist.

I miss it, I miss the old days. Nothing will replace it.
I regret ever wishing for Slenderman to get popular.

If it helps any, I've seen many people say that they had that same cynical attitude towards finding anything scary again until they discovered Slender Man and Creepypasta. If nothing as influential comes up, then at the very least we can try to make sure the mythos is remembered the way it should be.

Similar thing happened to Silent Hill, until Kojima and del Toro stepped in and now we have a masterpiece that is P.T.

A lot of territory for the Slenderverse has been covered, we have to acknowledge that. The thing is what can we use? What can we explore? The best path is to try something abstract, and that's the hard part.

I am believer that something better will happen. Humans are always making new things to improve upon past successes... and while there is going to be a lot of shit to come... it is impossible for there to not be something... one day... more influential and scary as the SlenderMan... however that's my opinion of course. The drive of creativity seems to die with an attitude of, "well we've already reached our limits... I guess we're done here..." and scares someone like me who loves to make films and characters and whatnot... I'd rather hear things like, "Damn Slenderman sure freaked a lot of people out... but why? Why was it scary? Why did it inspire so many people...? How can I take these elements and make something new and original... but also successful?"

The brilliant thing about a creature like the Slender Man is that there are an infinite number of stories that can be told about him. I wouldn't be surprised if in a hundred years time, we'd still be telling stories about him. Cthulhu debuted in 1928, and we're still talking about that guy. 

The problem, as always, is both overhype and lack of originality as of late. It's like Nicolas Cage movies; there's a lot of crap (and BEES!) out there, but every once in a while, there is something truly spectacular. (Yes, I am a Cage fan. Don't kill me.)

What needs to happen is that someone has to come at this at a new angle. We've had one hundred million gazillion Marble Hornets ripoffs in the past several years, and only one or two really original things.

I still think that if we keep an open mind, the next amazing Slendervlog will show itself. If not...there will always be something new. That, I believe.

If Silent Hill can restore itself, I think the Slenderverse can.