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| “ | Jay, where are you? | „ |
| ~ The Operator mimicking Alex’s voice to taunt Jay. |
| “ | Yes. It is a disease. Finds a crack in your mind. It crawls inside and never lets go. A parasite. It will consume you bit by bit. Then swallows your empty shell into The ARK. | „ |
| ~ Skully on what The Operator does. |
| “ | Tim Wright: When I saw that footage that you got from him, and that person in the background or whatever it was, I couldn't help but think, y'know, what if that's what I was seeing when I was in here. Y'know, what if that wasn't a hallucination at all?
Jay Merrick: Wait, what are you trying to say? |
„ |
| ~ Tim realizing he's the reason the Operator began haunting them. |
The Operator is the overarching antagonist of the ARG horror web series Marble Hornets and the main antagonist of both its comic book series and Marble Hornets: Rosswood.
It is a mysterious parasitic entity that stalked the cast and crew of the independent film Marble Hornets, slowly driving them insane, particularly director Alex Kralie.
It was portrayed by an uncredited actor, as the creators felt that revealing who played it would "ruin the fun" though from interviews and behind the scenes footage, it seems that The Operator was at one point played by Joseph DeLage, the actor of Alex Kralie. In Rosswood, The Operator is played by Tony Vacation.
Description[]
- Main article: Slender Man (Creepypasta)
The Operator wears a grey or black suit and black tie and a white undershirt though sometimes it's shown with a white suit due to distortion. The Operator is tall compared to the average human, being around 7-10 foot tall. The Operator's most significant feature is it’s blank light-grey face though sometimes has a faint nose, eyeholes shapes. The Operator is bald. It appears to have a fair-light skin tone in some entries though officially, it seem to have light-grey skin.
The Operator at the Rosswood Tunnel.
The Operator is described as a living parasite, possibly meant to be literal, by Skully. Operator seems to reside within the Rosswood Forest, being responsible for several disappearances possibly since the Cold War. It's unclear what connection the Operator has to the forest though in the 1990s, the Operator would often haunt around the Rosswood Hospital to infect Tim Wright, a young boy who he had first encountered at his own home. Rosswood Forest is an important location with the Operator.
Personality[]
The Operator is an enigmatic entity that infects the minds of it’s victims, feeding off their bodies and minds before callously throwing them into the ARK once it’s done with them, using them as ways to spread it’s infection to get more and more victims. The Operator shows a special kind of sadism at times, using it’s teleportation on Tim, who he has been feeding off of for years when he was a child, when dragging him around, and in a specific moment in the comics, infected Jessica with the memory of Amy just to have it torn away, and mockingly tilted it's head at a dying Jay before dragging him to the ARK. The Operator showed some amount of protectiveness towards Alex, which Tim attributed to Operator using Alex to get more victims for Operator to use and feed off. For the most part, The Operator stands and teleports around and is in fact, mute though possibly communicates in other ways and so is more of a force than a character and usually has others do its work for it. The Operator has only been shown to more often than not use his mind abilities to attack his victims rather physically attacking them though there are cases of him attacking such as likely giving Alex a head injury leading to bleeding from the head and, in the Rosswood series, brutally murdering an alternate Alex and showing his body off to an alternate Jay.
The Operator appears to generally prefers watching it’s victims struggle to find a way to stop it and suffer from fear from it.[1]
Powers and Abilities[]
- Teleportation: The Operator has been shown to suddenly appear and disappear right after, usually scaring it’s targets. It can also teleport multiple people to different locations.
- Voice Repetition/Mimicry: In a few rare moments in entries, The Operator repeats words said by other people. In Rosswood, the Operator was able to fully mimic Alex's voice, not only repeating words but creating brand new sentences to lure Jay into a trap.
- High Intelligence: Though hard to tell as The Operator never overly shows it, It seems that The Operator not only knows how to properly manipulate people but to plan several decades ahead. The prime example of this is what The Operator does with Alex Kralie. In 1991, when Alex is a small child, about 5 or 6 years old, The Operator is seen glitched into a family video of Alex on his birthday. This means that The Operator was aware of Alex since he was a child and seemingly kept tabs or followed Alex from the background of his life as Alex doesn't seem to know of The Operator until Marble Hornets' filming. After a while, when Alex was older, The Operator would follow Alex during Marble Hornets' filming, leading him to a psychopathic hero role to kill everyone connected to Marble Hornets, including himself to stop The Operator which would lead to several murders that The Operator would feed the ARK and possibly himself with.
- Parasitic Mind Breaking: The Operator is described as a parasite and a diseases by Skully. From just it appearing alone, by unknown means, causes people to lose their sanity slowly and completely change as a person in several ways.
- Madness Inducement: The Operator has caused people to completely change from who they once were, becoming violent such as Alex Kralie and Adam Collins or completely changing their being such as Tim Wright and Brian Thomas.
- General Conditions: Operator can cause headaches and insomnia.
- Memory Wiping: Shown frequently in several entries, The Operator can cause a person to forget several days worth of events in moments. It seems that the memory issues occur when The Operator directly attacks a person.
- Temperature Confusion: In Entry #17, Jay complains about feeling cold despite Tim and Alex, the only other people in the room, claiming that the temperature of the room was comfortable. It's unknown how The Operator made Jay feel cold though it's possibly just another way The Operator can alter one's perception of reality via their mind.
- Technopathy: The Operator can cause cameras to glitch, distort, flicker, audio break-up, and other digital distortions. It appears that The Operator can control this and it's not just a natural effect of it’s presence as the glitching is not a constant by product of it’s appearance.
- Location Control: The Operator can seemingly pause and forward time at certain locations. In Entry #72, while Tim and Jay investigate Alex's old house, it goes from the middle of the day to night time in moments. This does not seem to be just simple time skipping as in Rosswood, it is shown that time still is passing, just the Rosswood Hospital, where Jay and Alex are stuck in, is stuck in the pitch black of the night. In Part 4 of Rosswood, Jay sees sunlight coming through a part of the Maintenace tunnels under the hospital, seemingly being a breach from the Operator's trap though the escape is quickly patched by the Operator, it returning to the night once more.
- Life Prolonging: In Rosswood, The Operator keeps an alternate version of Jay and Alex trapped in the Rosswood Hospital with no food or water though the two of them are able to survive just fine for 10 days with the only bodily issues the two have being apart of the Operator's Parasitic Mind Breaking and not from lack of food.
Weaknesses[]
Tim Wright's Medication: Tim takes anticonvulsants which seem to keep the Operator, or at least the effects he can have on a person, at bay for a short period of time. Jessica Locke takes the same prescription and seems to not be followed by The Operator for an unknown period of time. The name of the medication is not stated though it might be Preaxin, a prescription drug advertised by the ECKVA Network. The medications seems to not stop the Operator from appearing, stalking, or directly mind attacking someone though it seems to lessen the effects, making the Operator uninterested. The medication is not the most optimal option, with it having negative side effects for the person who takes them that are never truly explained in the series.
Relationships[]
Allies[]
- The ARK - Unknown relationship, assumed positive.
- Adam (Marble Hornets) - Fellow ARK Feeder
Enemies[]
- Alex Kralie † - Occasional accidental assistant.
- Tim "Masky" Wright
- Brian "Hoody" Thomas †
- Jay Merrick †
- Jessica Locke
- Skully
- Amy Walters †
- Totheark †?
- Seth Wilson †
- David †
- Rosswood Man
- Rosswood Man's Brother †?
- Rosswood Girls
- Bearded Man †
Quotes[]
| “ | The Operator: [Deep Laughing] Jay Merrick: Hello? |
„ |
| ~ The Operator, repeating words said by Jay, also some of his only "lines" in the series, Entry #23. |
| “ | Leave. Now. | „ |
| ~ The voice of Alex Kralie over the phone, possibly being the Operator mimicking Alex's voice, Entry #64. |
| “ | Jay Merrick: Alex! Where are you? Where'd you go? The Operator (Mimicking Alex's Voice): Where did you go? I was looking at one of these rooms and thought you were right behind me. Jay: In the tunnel! Where did you run? The Operator: I didn't run anywhere, I'm right where we were a second ago. Jay: You're outside the tunnel? The Operator: What tunnel? Jay: The one we were gonna go through to try to get out! The Operator: I don't know where that is. Can you meet me at the front please? Jay: Okay, I- (Cut off by "Alex") The Operator: Can you meet me at the front, please? |
„ |
| ~ The Operator mimicking Alex's voice to speak to Jay, Rosswood: Part 4. |
Related Quotes[]
| “ | That Thing is in there? | „ |
| ~ Alex talking to Jay after Jay encountering The Operator in Rosswood Forest. |
| “ | You kill The Operator. Then it will not matter. | „ |
| ~ Skully to Jessica Locke. |
| “ | No... Get away from it. Run... Turn around... As fast as you... ..wait... FIGHT... TAKE IT WITH YOU... | „ |
| ~ Hoody in the ARK trying to avoid The Operator. |
| “ | What do you want?! Leave us alone! | „ |
| ~ Jay Merrick to The Operator after attacking Jessica Locke. |
| “ | Angie, if you take a look behind me, this is the most relaxed we've seen this scene since we've been here. Uh, the original firefighters that were here have all left, and they've all been replaced by firefighters from all over. That's from as far away as [CENSORED]; we've seen some from [CENSORED] as well, but, um, the firefighters do think that everyone got out okay except for, of course, some pets. A few disabled residents were rescued by the [CENSORED] police chief and several other people who ran inside to pull them out. Um, Ken [CENSORED] is the name of the [CENSORED] police chief who, um, we're told rescued about three people on his own. He ran inside this burning building to bring the people out. This is home video, though, shot by a resident. At one point, you can see the flames coming out of a side bedroom, and it's believed that's where the fire started on the third floor. A woman heard fire crackling in her bedroom, and she tried to put it out with a towel, but it grew into this large fire. At one point, the roof collapsed, and that was a dangerous situation for firefighters. Once they started putting water on the flames, there was a lot of smoke, so you could definitely smell this fire before you could see it. Fire officials believe that this building is going to be a total loss. There were twelve apartments in this building, and the Red Cross is here to assist the people who have been displaced. | „ |
| ~ A news report on Jay's apartment being burned down, possibly caused by the Operator. |
| “ | I got home late tonight and I was taking Rocky for his walk about, uh, twenty minutes ago, so around midnight. This was near the set of Marble Hornets. A little bit farther down the road we saw this really tall guy standing in the middle of the street, just completely still. For whatever reason, this really set off Rocky, and, um… he g— he got really scared. He… wouldn't move and he kept on pulling on his leash to go back home. There was something about this guy that was just… it was strange. So, uh, we headed back home. I have a little bit of time left on this tape, and, um, I'm going to go see if he's still hanging around. In fact, I think this is the light he was standing under, so I'm going to go have a look here… Okay, you can't really see it well on the camera, but… I don't see… anyone around here, so I guess he's… moved on. Uh… But, yeah, there's just something about that that— | „ |
| ~ Alex in Entry #2, talking about a previous encounter with the Operator. |
| “ | fou
nd you forever |
„ |
| ~ Either a message from ToTheArk or The Operator itself. |
| “ | What makes you think I'm the only source? There could be hundreds of others! Thousands! You could be spreading it, too! It's just using you to get what it wants-! | „ |
| ~ Tim, trying to talk down Alex. |
| “ | I've done everything to keep this under control! Everyone is dead! Sarah, Seth, Jessica, Amy, Brian, Jay, and now you! | „ |
| ~ Alex's last main lines. |
Trivia[]
- The name "The Operator" has thus far never been used in the series (except once on a scribbled sheet drawn by Alex, and in several Totheark videos); the name was ascribed to the character in interviews by series creators Troy Wagner (who portrays Jay) and Joseph DeLage (who portrays Alex).
- The name is in fact canon in series, with him being referred by such in The Comics.
- In an interview, Troy and Joseph were questioned about who plays as the Operator. They did not give an answer, originally stating that they would wait until the series was over to reveal the method they used. However, they later decided not to explain as it would ruin the fear that the series induced into the audience.
- They later confirmed The Operator’s creation, stating The Operator was played using 3 different costumes. For the first part of the story, two different costumes were used in Season One alone. They used pantyhose for the mask and to make it look tall, they glued (or taped) together stacks of flip-flops, before switching to stilts. In Seasons 2 and 3, for the price of $300 dollars, a costume using stilts was used.[1]
- According to the creators of the series, no mannequin was ever used in the series due to them being expensive.[2]
- After the ending of Rosswood, it was quickly revealed who played the Operator, that being Tony Vacation who not only played the "Weird Guy" in the series' first episode, but is the author of the Marble Hornets book NO MORE TAPES: THE MAKING OF MARBLE HORNETS, the kickstarter to fund said book also funded the Rosswood series as a stretch goal.
- The Operator is the first villain seen in a Slenderverse web series.
- It should be noted, Marble Hornets isn't necessarily Slenderverse, not being canonically caught in the "web" of the several directly connected series and blogs, with an entirely different Tall Suited Monster being the main catalyst villain of that genre of series.
- It is worth noting that while The Operator and Slender Man may look similar to one another, they are actually two vastly different entities. In fact, the Operator is a mere inspiration of the Slender Man, rather than being the same entities. The depictions of The Operator has influenced the Slender Man mythos mostly as whole, as he was created before the contemporary mythos of the Slender Man started. The creators of Marble Hornets themselves have even stated that the two characters aren't the same beings.
- The ⦻ symbol, used by Alex represents Operator and the fact he has no face with the circle being his head and the X showing there is no face on his face.
- The Operator seems to be a metaphor for mental illness.
- The Operator likes fire.[2]
- The Operator's ideal date would be at old rustic buildings in the woods with no connection to the outside world.[2]
- In the original version of Entry #37, The Operator was meant to make his first "big appearance" of Season Two. In this appearance, while Jay was parked in a dark church parking lot, the Operator would appear behind his car, only visible by the car's rear lights as it would walk towards his car as the footage distorts. This was scrapped and retconned.[3]
- In Rosswood: Part 4, Alex jokingly says that people are going to think their footage was faked, imagining a hypothetical hate comment saying "that vampire chasing them looks so fake." This is likely a reference to one of the first ever comments left on a Marble Hornets video mistaking what the Operator was with a random user commenting: "a vampire?"
[]
 Villains
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Marble Hornets Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story Clear Lakes 44 ECKVA Marble Hornets Comic | ||
- ↑
Troy Wagner on his twitter. October 30th, 2017.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 WXCI Marble Hornets 2010 Radio Interview
- ↑ Marble Hornets Season 2 DVD Extras
