I'm going to be honest...

I not really sure if this would belong to MH topic or the flame war topic but anyway.

I have to be honest here,this question was in my mind for the past couple of months but many people are saying that the operator and slenderman are not the one and the same.I always thought the operator was just a another name for the slenderman but people are saying that they are not related.

Many people try to back up that the operator is not slender man by saying that the operator has no tentacles and slenderman does,by their logic that also means EMH and DH are the operator too and TT is the only series to have the true slenderman in it. I really confused but would anyone try to explain it to me?

For me, they are all slenderman, people can make there arguments but for me this is something that is just rock solid. He is tall, in a business suit, and has no face, tentacles or not that is Slenderman. It would be like if Nickelodeon came out with a new show called Sp0ngeBob Squar3Pants and they claimed it wasn't Spongebob because he had one less hole on his ass. It is just stupid. It is CLEARLY slendy. Even in interviews people will say to Troy and Joseph, "How did you do your SLENDERMAN" and they don't say, "It's actually the operator" they just go with it. So thus I prove my point, Slenderman and The Operator ARE THE SAME.

ShadowTurtleInc wrote:

For me, they are all slenderman, people can make there arguments but for me this is something that is just rock solid. He is tall, in a business suit, and has no face, tentacles or not that is Slenderman. It would be like if Nickelodeon came out with a new show called Sp0ngeBob Squar3Pants and they claimed it wasn't Spongebob because he had one less hole on his ass. It is just stupid. It is CLEARLY slendy. Even in interviews people will say to Troy and Joseph, "How did you do your SLENDERMAN" and they don't say, "It's actually the operator" they just go with it. So thus I prove my point, Slenderman and The Operator ARE THE SAME.

I have to agree but I still don't so why they say that the operator is not the slender man,is it the name? If that's the case then in TT's slender man isn't slender man but that assh*le.

The reason people say it's "Not the same Slenderman" or, "They are totallt different," is because The Operator doesn't fit their headcannon of Slenderman. My opinion, they are the same thing, it's just a different name for him.

The Operator from Marble Hornets is stated to be separate from the slender man because the slender man can do, in almost all stories, things that the Operator can't (read: has shown no sign of being able to do within the context of the narrative). This includes having tentacles and directly attacking (the Operator does, however, seem to clean up bodies and interact with people dependently on what Alex would want it to).

The Operator seems more an eldritch extension of Alex's will than a fleshed out independent character, whereas the slender man generally is treated as a specific creature, usually one that has the narrative's focus.

Finally, to try to put it in simpler terms, "the slender man" as a whole is a concept, not a single definitive creature. The Operator is an interpretation of this concept. There are many ways to write the slender man; the Operator is the one belonging to Marble Hornets.

DJay32 wrote:

Finally, to try to put it in simpler terms, "the slender man" as a whole is a concept, not a single definitive creature. The Operator is an interpretation of this concept. There are many ways to write the slender man; the Operator is the one belonging to Marble Hornets.

This statement, to me, is completely wrong. The Slender Man is not a concept, by any means. He is a creature that was given form in the Victor Surge images. What you perceive as interpretation is merely the fans giving him their own spin, which there is nothing wrong with that in the slightest, I might add. My point is: The Slender Man, while not flushed out completely in the Surge images and text, is still an immutable creature. People just use headcanons for his abilities and traits, prime example being The Operator. He's a headcanon of the MH crew. 

Idk, call me a purist when it comes to this, I guess. 

So, yes. My two cents hhave been thrown in, and I await more debate!

The Doctor wrote:

DJay32 wrote:

Finally, to try to put it in simpler terms, "the slender man" as a whole is a concept, not a single definitive creature. The Operator is an interpretation of this concept. There are many ways to write the slender man; the Operator is the one belonging to Marble Hornets.

This statement, to me, is completely wrong. The Slender Man is not a concept, by any means. He is a creature that was given form in the Victor Surge images. What you perceive as interpretation is merely the fans giving him their own spin, which there is nothing wrong with that in the slightest, I might add. My point is: The Slender Man, while not flushed out completely in the Surge images and text, is still an immutable creature. People just use headcanons for his abilities and traits, prime example being The Operator. He's a headcanon of the MH crew. 

Idk, call me a purist when it comes to this, I guess. 

So, yes. My two cents hhave been thrown in, and I await more debate!

Ah, but what we have here is essentially a difference in philosophy, so I don't think my statement would be wrong as in absolute, even by your standards. My point was that the Operator is one "form" of the slender man, one small "part" of the overall "whole." The Operator cannot do all the "whole" can do, but the "whole" can do all the "part" can do. If you agree with that, then we ultimately agree when it comes to answering the topic's question; we just come to the answer through different ways. Which is interesting, wouldn't you say?

I always thought Slendy and Operator were the same, but MH used a different name because they make money off the DVD sales and Benevolent Overlord Surge doesn't like that.

DJay32 wrote:

The Doctor wrote:

DJay32 wrote:

Finally, to try to put it in simpler terms, "the slender man" as a whole is a concept, not a single definitive creature. The Operator is an interpretation of this concept. There are many ways to write the slender man; the Operator is the one belonging to Marble Hornets.

This statement, to me, is completely wrong. The Slender Man is not a concept, by any means. He is a creature that was given form in the Victor Surge images. What you perceive as interpretation is merely the fans giving him their own spin, which there is nothing wrong with that in the slightest, I might add. My point is: The Slender Man, while not flushed out completely in the Surge images and text, is still an immutable creature. People just use headcanons for his abilities and traits, prime example being The Operator. He's a headcanon of the MH crew. 

Idk, call me a purist when it comes to this, I guess. 

So, yes. My two cents hhave been thrown in, and I await more debate!

Ah, but what we have here is essentially a difference in philosophy, so I don't think my statement would be wrong as in absolute, even by your standards. My point was that the Operator is one "form" of the slender man, one small "part" of the overall "whole." The Operator cannot do all the "whole" can do, but the "whole" can do all the "part" can do. If you agree with that, then we ultimately agree when it comes to answering the topic's question; we just come to the answer through different ways. Which is interesting, wouldn't you say?

It would seem a difference in philosophy is indeed what we have here, lol. While I believe that The Slender Man by any other name is just as terrifying, I have to stick with my guns and say that it's just one entity, not a facet of many.

It's really just with regards to answering the question at hand, y'know? We want a simple explanation that sums it up.

I mean, if you want me to really explain my own approach to this, The Operator is not one facet of many but the one and only monster in its fictional universe (or at least, we've been shown no evidence otherwise within the context of the narrative). And when you get right down to it, there is no singular definitive appearance/headcanon/interpretation of the slender man, so that's why I refer to the overall thing as a concept-- it's a concept in the same vein that a vampire is a concept or a demon is a concept. Sure, they're all creatures too, but there are so many different ways to write the creatures that the only way of documenting them singularly that makes sense to me is to look at them all as concepts. So The Operator is basically analogous to... a demon from the Bible. Demons did not come from the Bible, just as the Operator did not come from Marble Hornets. The demons in the Bible are not the only way demons have ever been written, just as the Operator is not the only way the slender man has been written. But nontheless the Operator is just as much the slender man as those demons are demons; it's all just within the context of their own narratives.

.....and also yes, practically speaking the Operator was probably named differently so they could easily distinguish it from the slender man without any murky legal ramifications. That's very fair to bring up.

Maybe I'm talking too much by now, though.

DJay32 wrote:

It's really just with regards to answering the question at hand, y'know? We want a simple explanation that sums it up.

I mean, if you want me to really explain my own approach to this, The Operator is not one facet of many but the one and only monster in its fictional universe (or at least, we've been shown no evidence otherwise within the context of the narrative). And when you get right down to it, there is no singular definitive appearance/headcanon/interpretation of the slender man, so that's why I refer to the overall thing as a concept-- it's a concept in the same vein that a vampire is a concept or a demon is a concept. Sure, they're all creatures too, but there are so many different ways to write the creatures that the only way of documenting them singularly that makes sense to me is to look at them all as concepts. So The Operator is basically analogous to... a demon from the Bible. Demons did not come from the Bible, just as the Operator did not come from Marble Hornets. The demons in the Bible are not the only way demons have ever been written, just as the Operator is not the only way the slender man has been written. But nontheless the Operator is just as much the slender man as those demons are demons; it's all just within the context of their own narratives.

.....and also yes, practically speaking the Operator was probably named differently so they could easily distinguish it from the slender man without any murky legal ramifications. That's very fair to bring up.

Maybe I'm talking too much by now, though.

Lol, I do like the explanation given here! Let me see if I can explain my side:

With regards to the original Surge Mythos, The Slender Man has a definitive appearance: No facial features, business suit, thin, and really tall. I can see where you're coming from with saying that The Operator is a facet. Though, truth be told, I think that the MH guys used the name Operator so they could circumvent any and all copyright problems they might have had in the future. As for IG, I find that saying it's The Slender Man in a vlog isn't done kind of like why the word Zombie isn't said in most zombie flicks. It's just something you don't do, lol. You want your own creative wiggle room with the character or creature, which is admirable and has produced a ton of great content. 

I guess I'm trying to say that The Slender Man is in every vlog and blog. It's just a different canon. The Surge Mythos was the first and, I know this sounds pompous I think, the true Slender Man. Not to say that anything else isn't amazing and more than worthy, just that it's all based off of the first, as all headcanon is.

ShadowTurtleInc wrote:

For me, they are all slenderman, people can make there arguments but for me this is something that is just rock solid. He is tall, in a business suit, and has no face, tentacles or not that is Slenderman. It would be like if Nickelodeon came out with a new show called Sp0ngeBob Squar3Pants and they claimed it wasn't Spongebob because he had one less hole on his ass. It is just stupid. It is CLEARLY slendy. Even in interviews people will say to Troy and Joseph, "How did you do your SLENDERMAN" and they don't say, "It's actually the operator" they just go with it. So thus I prove my point, Slenderman and The Operator ARE THE SAME.

I pretty much completely agree with this. IMO, Slenderman and the Operator are the same being, but that's not to say that the same being (for sure) is in all the other vlogs (atleast the main five). It seems the Operator is one being, so Marble Hornets only has one Slenderman with that being the Operator. But it's possible across the universe of DarkHarvest, EverymanHYBRID, and TribeTwelve that each series has a "separate Slenderman" following those series protagonists and they just happen to have different species of the same creature following them. EverymanHYBRID seems to have the most plain Slenderman who doesn't move and just stands, TribeTwelve has tentacles, and Gor'rylahotep walks and uses his hands to grab and move things while specifically being worshiped by the Order.

It's also possible that Slenderman is a concept, but I suppose in a different way than what is being said here. It seems many of the top five vlogs don't have Slendy as being the main focus anymore (except for MLAnderson). Marble Hornets seems to be trying to find a way to stop Alex (even though they're running most of the time which IMO is kinda stupid), EverymanHYBRID focuses a hell of a lot on HABIT, Dark Harvest is trying to stop the Order, and I suppose TribeTwelve is trying to stop the Collective who is just lead by Slendy. I guess Slendy has often become a McGuffin to deal with either larger or more current threats. This might be able to be attributed to how mysterious Slenderman is so creators try to use creations that are more concrete

I see the Slenderman as an Entity which is in that particular universe not yet discovered and by so they give it their own name: Operator,Der Ritter,Mr Slim

Many people say that the MH creators said that slender man and the operator is different beings but they don't prove any links of them saying it.I still don't understand!?

The Operator and Slender Man are the same thing, in my opinion. My reasoning for the difference in names would be the fact that the MH crew didn't like the name Slender Man. I don't blame them, it's a rather boring name when you really think about it. This, and to be able to sell their DVDs and such without getting permission from Surge. Also, it's been noted many times that MH doesn't intermingle with other Vlogs, and thus, the Operator is their own entity, not the slender man you see in the other series', but they are the same myth. That's from an ARG perspective.

According to the Slender Man Wiki's entry on The Operator, "...the MH producers have stated The Operator is a completely separate entity from Slender Man, since the two do not use the same methods or have the same goals."

I recall listening to an audio interview with Joseph and Troy where they said something similar, but I don't have a link handy.

We might want to make a distinction between whether we're discussing this on a  the fictional level (treating all the various slender stories as a shared universe/multiverse) or OOG, talking about the real world statements and actions of the creators.

Clearly, Slendy is a concept, a character and not a creature, in the OOG frame.

Well, the glory of Slendy is that anyone can do anything they want with him.

MH has made a new entity strongly inspired by Slenderman and they call him The Operator.

But... so what? I don't mean to come off mean but, who cares if it's the Operator or Slendy?

The people at slender man wiki are always referencing this interview but they don't actually post the link to this "interview". Only until somebody actually posts the link to this interview then I would consider that the operator and the slender man are different entities.

How it seems to me is that there's no doubt that shortly after Victor Surge posted the original Slender Man posts in Something Awful in 2009, Troy jumped on the chance immediately to post his own story. It very much is the same conceptual entity, but to separate their universe from any exterior universes, the Operator is not the same in accordance of Marble Hornets. Regardless of a naming issue, it's still that "I'm not sure if it was there, or was it just a flash, omg it looks like a tall lanky human" type of fear. I much prefer the Operator to Slender Man or Slendy (or worse Slender). Slender Man sounds like a super hero, Slendy sounds like an incredibly skinny person posting on craigslist casual encounters, and Slender just makes people sound like their only encounter with it is the Slender beta, not being sure why they should be scared, and only freaking out over jumpscare purposes. Separating the Operator from even Mr. Slim, or Gorr'Rylaehotep, or The old stick in the mudd, or der Grossman, is simply the best decision. Weighing a series down with external references, and other occurances (which isn't necessarily a bad choice) takes away from that kind of "lonely middle of nowhere" feeling that Marble Hornets tends to portray. It's less of saying "the Operator is not Slender Man" and more that calling it something that we've come to understand like Slender Man, and posting that on Marble Hornets's twitter and such, tends to ruin emersion.

xyzombie wrote:

Slender Man sounds like a super hero.

Slender man,slender man,can do a slender man can.

xyzombie wrote:

How it seems to me is that there's no doubt that shortly after Victor Surge posted the original Slender Man posts in Something Awful in 2009, Troy jumped on the chance immediately to post his own story. It very much is the same conceptual entity, but to separate their universe from any exterior universes, the Operator is not the same in accordance of Marble Hornets. Regardless of a naming issue, it's still that "I'm not sure if it was there, or was it just a flash, omg it looks like a tall lanky human" type of fear. I much prefer the Operator to Slender Man or Slendy (or worse Slender). Slender Man sounds like a super hero, Slendy sounds like an incredibly skinny person posting on craigslist casual encounters, and Slender just makes people sound like their only encounter with it is the Slender beta, not being sure why they should be scared, and only freaking out over jumpscare purposes. Separating the Operator from even Mr. Slim, or Gorr'Rylaehotep, or The old stick in the mudd, or der Grossman, is simply the best decision. Weighing a series down with external references, and other occurances (which isn't necessarily a bad choice) takes away from that kind of "lonely middle of nowhere" feeling that Marble Hornets tends to portray. It's less of saying "the Operator is not Slender Man" and more that calling it something that we've come to understand like Slender Man, and posting that on Marble Hornets's twitter and such, tends to ruin emersion.

Well put. Although it is just a name I think that it contributes greatly to the fear of the viewers. Last year I cosplayed as The Operator and I could not stand to hear people call me Slendy. I was almost tempted to not take a picture with these fanboys and girls.

HawkBFF wrote:

Well put. Although it is just a name I think that it contributes greatly to the fear of the viewers. Last year I cosplayed as The Operator and I could not stand to hear people call me Slendy. I was almost tempted to not take a picture with these fanboys and girls.

Maybe they were calling you slendy because the operator and slender man look exactly the same.

Chieftain1 wrote:

HawkBFF wrote:

Well put. Although it is just a name I think that it contributes greatly to the fear of the viewers. Last year I cosplayed as The Operator and I could not stand to hear people call me Slendy. I was almost tempted to not take a picture with these fanboys and girls.

Maybe they were calling you slendy because the operator and slender man look exactly the same.

I mean unless you have a Marble Hornets cosplay posse with you, there's no way people wouldn't call you "Slender Man". Did you have some sort of sign that would point out which of the two you were? If not, don't get mad, chill out that they liked your costume and just call it a day. Most people at cons more than likely are not part of Slendernation. This is like me saying "I'm mad they didn't call me Gorr'Rylaehotep? I look nothing like Der Grossman or Slendy or the Operator!" It just makes you sound pretentious.

How I think of it is that they're just kind of making their own universe. Basically, there are countless alternate universes out there. There's another me in an alternate universe, but the name is Sally instead of Rachel or something like that. In my head, in the MH universe, The Operator is what we know as Slender Man. There are many other vlogs that use this alternate universe theory, i.e. The Angel's Game.
That's my headcanon, yo.