The Personalities of Marble Hornets

Today I have for you a typing that is particularly special to me.  Not only is Marble Hornets my very favorite webseries ever, but it is in fact one of my favorite things to watch ever.  I have to say right now, I’ve never liked horror before in my life.  Why is Marble Hornets different?  It’s all about personality.

If you’ve spent much time on the meme end of the internet in the last couple of years, it’s likely that you’ve come across Slenderman, even if you were unaware of it (yay unintentional jokes!  ~Shiver~).  Who… or what, is Slenderman?

Well, while the long answer is the subject of quite a few webseries, memes and video games; the short answer is that he’s a modern-day oral legend, the kind that used to take decades or centuries to be passed down through generations until they became more about the emotion they evoked than about the details themselves.  Except, while the Slender-tale sounds like it was passed down by German grandmothers who wanted to teach naughty children a lesson, in truth it was created by a bunch of people on a thread who were playing with photoshop and having fun freaking themselves out.  What makes this awesome is that Slenderman was the one that caught on initially, because of certain emotions he evokes (more on this when I type *him* below) and was honed even further into all our fears, right on the internet.  My INFJ, who introduced me to the series, loves to geek about how cool this is, myths of the potency that would usually take generations to form can now be created in weeks or months just because so many of us can be gathered together in one place!  Yay internets!!! 😀

But while Marble Hornets isn’t the only show in town, it is hands-down the best.  It has a beautifully intimate feel that makes you both relate to the fantastic characters (which we’ll get to) and means you can’t help wondering if maybe someone is looking in your windows.  And yet, there’s both a grandeur and a simplicity to the thing.  It makes you feel like maybe all of what makes humanity matter, swings in the balance between a being with no face, some men in masks and a guy with a camera just trying to figure the whole thing out.  I hated it until I loved it.

So once again, when Slenderman is all the kewl online, what makes Marble Hornets so powerful?  Why when other versions add details and explanations to the Slender-legend that end up taking the wind out of him instead of making him feel the like personification of evil itself, MH is able to hit a home-run every time?  Well, I give that credit to its creators, especially Troy Wagner, who also plays its protagonist, Jay.  Though the series is expertly written by Troy Wagner, Joseph DeLage, Tim Sutton and Kirill Baru, follow the series and the behind-the-scenes for a little while and it becomes pretty evident this is Troy’s baby and he *really* cares about where the plot is going.  His story’s not going to be half-A.

INFJ is the principles-master.  They loooove anything numinous, of universal significance or… some other synonym for stuff that stretches the mind toward infinity.  This makes them absolutely splendiferous at writing themes, seeing the end from the beginning and, especially important with Slenderman, or “The Operator” as MH coined, they are excellent at writing villains that live up to expectations because they *understand* real evil and what makes it dark.  IMHO, the entire success of the Marble Hornets series hinges on the fact that Troy *gets* it!

He understands what makes Slenderman scary.  He understands that fear comes from what it represents rather than “well, this sounds cool” details.  Just as any story says “I believe the world is this way,” a villain is the author telling the audience, “everything this guy represents is not only untrue, but just as dangerous as he is.”  Sell your villain short and you end up saying maybe his ideas weren’t so bad; make your villain legendary, and he’ll not only leave them satisfied, but carry your theme home with haunting recall.

Every time we watch any MH, my INFJ will repeatedly say variations on, “They keep doing everything right!  You expect it to fall flat and then it just doesn’t!” and frequent geekery about how the a/v distortion perfectly makes you feel like there’s an evil force closing in on you and what about the Operator’s form makes him so scary.  His excited tangents make watching the episodes take longer, but it’s in exchange for him holding my hand whenever there is distortion, so I don’t mind too much.  Plus geekery makes me squee.  And seriously, I’ve rarely seen him geek over anything more.

Here’s the introduction (just intriguing exposition, so you can try it on even if you’re too scared to watch the good stuff).

And here’s a trailer for the whole series; the amazing music video was made by YouTube user LadyTubbington and my INFJ added the text to make it into a trailer.  Also check out LadyTubbington’s “This is War” MH music video, because it’s hard-core.  I wanted to embed the trailer, but with copyright bs, it’s not like that was going to happen.

***WARNING!!  Spoilers Ahoy!!!!!***  If you want to start watching from the beginning, check out Entry #1 and the in-character Twitter feed (but close your eyes and scroll all the way down!!).  You’re in for epicness.

{This post was posted between Entries #74 and #75, with an update after Entry #84.}

Like the show’s creator, the protagonist Jay is a J!  Haha!  Okay, bad joke.

He may not be the most action-based or genre savvy hero out there (and I love the idea of Troy writing his own character making stupid decisions on the fly), but Jay cares.  In typical INFJ fashion, he thinks that if he doesn’t do something about the Operator, no one else will… which in his case is probably true.  Jay’s journey to stop the Operator starts with mere curiosity, accidentally stumbling onto him in his friend Alex Kralie’s old film project tapes, but as Jay realizes just how dire the whole scenario is, it becomes his self-driven mission to see the whole thing through to its end.   Even when he has to go it alone, Jay stays focused on finding answers for the good of even those who don’t want to be saved.  He’s chivalrous, not only toward Jessica, one of the few girls in the series (I ship <3!), but in the way he tries to save both Alex and Tim at different times, to less than appreciation.  His biggest mistakes, as IJ’s tend to be, are character judgments, and trusting the wrong person nearly costs him his life on multiple occasions.

Though sometimes his only plan is his end goal, i.e. “Find Alex,” “Find Jessica,” or “Get the heck out of here,” Jay knows intuitively which direction to go in and that “hunch” lets him know which step is next… even if he has no clue which step is after that.  Sometimes he has to wait for weeks or even months before another breadcrumb will arrive, but when he sees it, he knows it.  He doesn’t always believe it will turn out okay, but he knows he’s got to try.

We see over and over throughout the series that Jay’s biggest fear is that he’s not making any difference at all, or worse, that he’s causing the damage in the lives around him.  Alex, Tim and totheark even suggest this on different occasions and even as Jay defends himself against their claims, we can tell he fears they’re right.  What if he should have just let things lie?  What if he should have just gone about his business like everyone else and ignored the things he’d seen?  This fear is nearly universal in INFJ’s that fight for what they know is right despite their Hercules Syndrome.  But as an audience, we can tell there is more to this picture; instinctively we know that Jay is right not to quit.  Even if we don’t know how everything is going to turn out, we can see it’s valor, not idle curiosity or over-idealism driving Jay to see this through.

It’s interesting to me that with all the characters, though the Operator changes the way they act, even to the point that their actions are entirely not their own, even then the characters are still the same people.  There’s a major theme in MH that you may not be you, but you still determine who you are when you’re not you… does that make any sense?  This is something to remember with Alex Kralie (and also comes in again below).  Though Alex starts out in Part One as the victim of the series, just a guy who wanted to make a crappy indie film, terrified to find this “Thing” stalking him and changing his behavior; he comes back in Part Two as a guy in charge, action-hardened and in control… though more than meets the eye.  But all throughout the series, be it in the early filming of “Marble Hornets,” the film within the film, or in later, darker times, Alex is such a to-the-point INTJ.

His interactions with Jay, especially have a “Do what I say, no questions” attitude to them that, while neither exclusive nor necessarily an INTJ trait, often follows INTJ’s who are afraid of losing control.  When they feel they don’t have the freedom to work *with* people, INTJ’s may work at or around others… which honestly may be necessary sometimes.  People can be more moronic than we give them credit for; INTJ’s are often keenly aware of this.  For Jay, who is doing his best, Alex’s authoritarian approach gets old fast; though Alex has a point sometimes about Jay’s approach too.  One of everyone’s favorite exchanges of the series:

Alex:  “What were you doing a couple miles in the woods?”
Jay:  “I don’t know. I was tired of waiting on you because you didn’t tell me what time you were gonna be here.  Then, you know, I thought I’d take a look around while I was waiting, and I got kinda lost I guess.”
Alex:  [Sardonically] “You got lost in woods you’ve never been in.”
Jay:  “Yes.”

or this one:

Alex: “Jay, I’m only going to ask you this once.”
Jay: “What?”
Alex:  “Did you take anything from my apartment other than the tape?”
Jay:  “What do you mean?”
Alex:  “I mean, did you *successfully* steal something from me?”

I love watching clips of Alex from the time when they were making the student film, because he’s such a normal INTJ.  It’s still his movie and he still has a vision for the whole thing (albeit, maybe not the best vision in the world), but he’s just a regular guy having fun with his friends and mucking around.  It’s this human/inhuman dichotomy that makes Alex such a complex character and makes us love him in a similar way to how everyone loves Loki from The Avengers (also INTJ as it happens).  This makes it all the more tragic as we realize how far he’s come from being himself.

Since I was a little girl, my biggest fear has been not being in control of my mind, decisions or emotions; of not being me.  This manifested in different fears from my hate of Spy Kids because I was terrified of the idea of being turned into something and not being able to turn back, my “Black Bug” dream, where my friends were being taken over by a bug that would turn their faces ashen and get them to attack me, until finally at the end of the dream I felt my own limbs leaving my control, to the many narratives I wrote, that on review all included the phrase “she hated crying.”

I bring these memories up as a way to help the other types understand that as ENTP’s, our entire lives center and specialize around becoming who we want to be.  The thing we bring to the table in a way no other type can is seeing individual potential; i.e., we know exactly what we can be, given our intentions which we are more consciously and decisively aware of than any other type.  To have those intentions robbed from us, out of our control so we’re not even ourselves anymore is like losing our own personal war and all that made our lives matter.  So you see why losing huge chunks of memory and finding out you did frightening things you had no control over during those blank patches, may truly be the biggest nightmare an ENTP could ever encounter.  Story of Tim’s life.

Tim, at first glance, may not even look like an ENTP; he’s gotten the crap end of the ‘Verse-stick, and it shows.  But that’s part of what makes Tim such a compelling character, I think.  ENTP’s vulnerable side is often obscured by the personas we’re so incredibly proud of, and while we *love* experiencing people, observing their emotions and making them squirm, we feel a lot safer experiencing others’ emotions than our own.  In MH, we get to see the complex inner battle going on inside the character Tim, a battle he probably wouldn’t show us, given a choice.  I swear, seeing a strong guy break down and cry has to be one of the most moving, heartbreaking sights ever.  But in writing this, I realize, it’s something I need to let myself do more often.  But like I said, “she hated crying.”

Tim has desperately longed for ages, as ENTP’s do, for his actions to reflect what he knows deep down he really is… extra hard when you’re being mind-controlled by an Eldritch Abomination.  But after getting over his “be a good little Tim and move on” stage, he really comes into himself as one of the heroes of the series.  There comes a time, as there does with Jay, that Tim decides he’s not just going on the defence anymore; he’s going to fight this thing that’s ruined most of his life.  It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t make it out alive; he’s done being a pawn.  He’s going to be Tim, no matter what.

Though pretty much everyone in MH starts out as an innocent civilian, Jessica really exemplifies that role.  The poor thing just cared about her missing roommate and ended up being almost murdered, losing seven months of memory and is currently lost… somewhere.

She breaks down the fourth wall and reminds us just how weird Jay seems if you’re not in on what’s happened to him the past several years.  Also, being an E, she’s not quite as much in her own head as Jay, so she thinks ahead about coming up with an alibi for why she’s staying in a hotel she doesn’t remember checking into.  Her EJ also helps her notice the implications of Jay’s actions, like why he’s bringing groceries into a hotel (just picked up on the line “Are you like some kind of hotel hermit?”) or the fact that he’s changed his own alibi three times.

Jessica:  “First you tell me some stupid thing about a hotel documentary and then you tell me your house is being renovated?  But *then* you told me your job was being relocated! What is going on?!”

Yeah, good job, Jay.

Though she doesn’t have much screentime, Jessica gives a greater sense of reality to the whole story (just like Tim being able to Google the series) and her girl-next-door (literally, in fact 😉 ) demeanor helps us apply the fear of the whole scenario afresh to ourselves.  She also gives Jay something else to fight for as his resistance is growing thin.  As Part Three begins, Jay has to go on, even under the fear that it’s his fault Jessica is missing, because he knows it’s not just himself he’s defending.

Named for his anonymous apparel, “Hoody,” is fearless, adaptive as water, totally unnerving, and yet somehow playfully charming.

He may act more like The Joker, an INTP who can pull silent strings, happy to mock and ready to change tactics at the first whisper of need, but it seems in purpose, he’s really a Dark Knight.  Hoody is the kind of hero that nobody wants but everyone needs.  He moves behind the scenes, always watching, ready to be there to stand in the Operator’s way; thankless and alone.  In a lot of ways, Hoody seems like the only person who really knows what’s going on, somehow able to keep a hold of himself and act against the Operator at the same time.

But who is this masked vigilante?  Well, since we saw Masky unmasked in Part Two, it’s hardly a leap in logic to think maybe Hoody could be someone we’ve already seen.  That’s pretty much confirmed in Entry #68, when Alex was obviously unsurprised to see him without his mask on.

As a sidenote, theories that Hoody is one of the girls are hugely prevalent.  While those theories make me giggle, I think a basic anatomy lesson can teach us that this is not how a woman walks:

 

I mean seriously, not even if we *try.*  There are like hips and crap going on, people!  Not to mention there’d have to be some well-bound business up top.  Just… no.  And if I’m wrong about that part, I’ll give you $20.
( 😉 had to mention it somewhere, right?)

Having that narrowed down for us, it’s really between Brian and Seth.  While Unfiction really seems to <3 Brian in the matter, I really think it’s Seth.  Even though we only see Seth’s face twice in the series thus far, his personality really seems like an INTP.  We can tell in Entry #9 how much he resents Alex telling him off for not leaving the camera on.   The glare he gives the camera (a very T look) is classic, but he keeps his annoyance to himself in a very IP way.  In Entry #22, when Seth gets taken, this image appears on the tape.  It looks an awful lot like Hoody’s frowny face to me.

It also seems the series is written in a very subtle way; important clues are mentioned, but just once or twice.  In story in general, the best plot-twists are things that serve their own purpose and yet don’t draw attention to themselves, so when their importance is revealed your brain makes the connections and everything just clicks.  Seth just being mentioned here and there and barely shown seems like one of those subtle hints.

My heart goes out to Hoody who, as of entry #73, seems to be losing it and in dire need of help.  As we ramp up toward the finale, the stakes are getting higher.  Hoody is sure to be a major part of how the rest goes down.

{After Entry #84 Spoiler Update:

Well, darn.  I got that one wrong 😉  It’s also looking likely that I got my Jay theory from the TTA section wrong as well, but it was a cool idea anyway.  Granted, with the number of snack-breaks Brian took in flashbacks, we probably should have known.  Fwiw, we facial-typed Brian as an INFP, not an ISFP as I previously thought, which makes the “Fs going into T battle-mode” principle I talk about in the TTA section apply to Brian when in Hoody-mode.  So there you go 😉

Oh, and he’s not a woman.

<3 Calise

Spoiler finished!  Well… post #84 Spoiler over 😉}

So once upon a time, a guy named Jay starts posting these videos of his friend being stalked by the Operator on YouTube, most of which, at that time, were taken during the filming of the student film “Marble Hornets.”

One day, he posts Entry #9, which shows cast members Tim, Sarah and Seth for the first time, along with Alex, who is acting really weird and being a butt.  Shortly after these characters are introduced, a YouTube account called totheark starts posting responses (starting with one suspiciously named “Regards”) that seem like somebody was on acid while making them.  As terrifying as Jay’s entries get, it’s the totheark vids that I refuse to watch at night.  Seriously O_o.  But as you watch, it seems maybe there’s more going on in these videos than someone not-so-right in the head… though that’s certainly the case too.

Okay, theory-time!  Spoilericious and questionable… but having to do with personality types, so I’d consider it fairly informed.  If you’re not caught up on the series, this section may make absolutely no sense whatsoever (besides the aforementioned spoilers), so skip to The Operator section if any of that bothers you.

Why aren’t Hoody and totheark under the same heading by this point?  Well Jay himself said it seems like multiple people are making the totheark videos.  And as the screenshots to the right show, there are yet others to be unmasked.

Screenshot compilation compliments of Unfiction user Serum, the Tim addict who coined the phrase “Tim = Sex,” an ENTP’s life ambition.

So who is totheark?  Well, a fairly popular theory is that TTA is the members of the “Marble Hornets” film cast.  A less popular theory, which I just *love*, brings out factors that are often overlooked.  It’s clear early on that at times Masky is filming, then later we see Hoody filming; but we’ve seen five different masks.  Before we even assign them, let’s count:  Brian, Tim, Seth, Sarah… it doesn’t make sense to be Alex, so who does that leave?  Jay.

Often, when a TTA entry goes up, and usually whenever Jay’s accounts get hacked, Jay mentions beforehand things like feeling sick, not sleeping and having bad dreams, the same kind of symptoms Tim mentioned to his doctor.  Tim even says in Entry #72 that what Jay is experiencing is “the way it started for [him].”  Jay has been shown to be a less than reliable narrator, not on purpose, but because *huge* chunks of his memory go missing.  There are lots of times filming “Marble Hornets” he’s seemed to forget; he only remembers the first half of Entry #71, and at time of writing, we’ve just seen Jay totally lose even his own identity for weeks.  I’m not for a moment saying Jay is the only “member” of TTA.  That just wouldn’t line up with the history of the series or the TTA videos.

Though the early entries would suggest that Jay was barely involved with the student film, the clips from back then show him a lot, he says in Entry #20 that he’s the script supervisor, he’s in the trailer for the student film and we find out he doesn’t even remember a lot of time spent on the film.  In Entry #22, after Seth is taken, Alex states that they were the last two left and specifically mentions Jay as one of the ones who is “gone.”  After seeing what happens to Jay in Entry #71, is it a difficult jump to make that Jay was involved with the whole Operator situation, long before he remembers?  TTA’s video “Attention” just seems to point to Jay’s involvement all the more, telling him “Return to us” and “Wake up,” in the same font he usually uses for the entries.  Jay says he doesn’t like the term “us,” and the creators don’t usually point specific things out like that unless they’re important.  TTA is calling him back to battle.

The thing is, the masks convey personality in and of themselves.  The second mask above, the Masky mask, screams ENTP; as scary as it is in context, the big, dark lips, the eye shape and the raised, retrospectively goofy eyebrows really fit with Tim Sutton’s personality.

 

Hoody’s big, ironic-looking frowny face fits with his mocking, adaptive INTP actions… and also fits with the short period of time you see Seth.  The top mask seems to fit with Brian’s quietly adaptive go-with-the-flow ISFP personality with the smaller mouth shape and angle of the eyebrows (and seems to fit his body-type better than Hoody).  The third looks feminine and its soft, haunted quality would really fit with a battle-beaten version of Sarah who I’m fairly sure is ESFJ.

One of Troy’s drawings. His drawing style really matches Skully’s teeth, especially here. Interestingly enough, this face is pasted over a character he voiced.

But then that leaves the last mask, the skull or “Skully” as a lot of the fans call it.  If I were to pick which mask an INFJ who draws strange and O_o doodles all the time would have designed for himself… yeah I’d have to go with the bottom one.  I like to picture the three creators sitting at a table with masks and sharpies and Tim, who is in love with his eyebrows, making grapefruit sounds while drawing his mask and Troy thinking, “Hey, who needs lips?  Big skeleton teeth, that’s the way to go.”  The fact that the last mask’s eyes look wider-set, may or may not be a factor…

Just like I talked about in the Alex section, there’s a major theme here of *still* being the same person, even under the Operator’s influence.  In some ways that makes the Operator so much scarier, because it’s like you’re there enough to be aware of how it’s twisting you, but you’re not yourself enough to do anything about it.

TTA seems like the members of “Marble Hornets” who were enough under the influence of the Operator to become disassociated with their own personalities, to be seriously messed in the head and not remember later what they’d been doing, but are enough themselves to be able to fight the Operator’s influence and do something about him.  (Some of the time–not like when Masky attacks Jay; that seems pretty Operator influenced.)

TTA as a whole acts like an INTJ; the plan of action regardless of others’ actions, which IJ’s excel at, abstract to the point of what-the-crap, and interpreting the world based on facts and objects, rather than people, in a T sort of way.  But it makes sense to me for the leader of TTA to be an INFJ who has disassociated his personality enough that he acts like a T, as is common for especially IF’s to do in times of duress.  Although TTA is cold, harsh and unyielding in a T sort of way, he/they keeps bringing things back to principles (discussed more in the Operator section); an INFJ’s bread and butter.  And *someone* at TTA inc. was directing Masky and Hoody to do things in some of the TTA videos.  Somehow the idea of it being disassociated Jay just fits.

Until recent entries, Jay seemed remarkably resistant to the Operator.  But after years of trying to fight its influence, his Frodo-eque struggle (also INFJ) is not only understandable but archetypal.  Sometimes an INFJ has to carry the burden, fighting alone, long enough to find a friend who will carry them when they just can’t carry themselves anymore.  But I believe that Jay will have the strength within him, not alone of course, to throw off the Operator’s influence and be himself in the end.

So what it comes down to: why is a tall guy dressed in a suit with no face so very scary anyway?  I mean, sure there’s the whole mind-controlling, distorting, stalking, teleporting, changing time type things he does.  But why not a giant octopus that does those things?  Or a naked tall man with no face?  I mean something that white coming toward you would be pretty dang freaky, right?  What does Slenderman represent in our psyches that keeps his myth ongoing?  What’s special about Marble Hornets‘ Operator that makes him stick out from the crowd?

Well, I want to start with the suit.  There’s the obvious; the subtle sophistication and a suit implying intelligence… and control.  totheark’s videos are filled with images of children in black-and-white being towered over by disapproving adults, making the watcher feel small and helpless.  They hearken back to an authoritarian mindset that is so dangerous in its desire to control at the expense of choice, and the humanity behind choice.  Free will is messy.  Men in suits come when you’ve been “bad”; they come whether you want them to or not.  But who are you to say they’re wrong?  You’re just a child and they’ve always been there, towering over you, ready to take the thing that is you away.

Which brings us to the faceless factor.  Along with the Operator’s personal lack of facial features, his symbol is a huge factor in the series.  Best described as an O with an X through it, the Operator Symbol isn’t just used to show where he’s been etc., it’s used repeatedly as a symbol of losing one’s self.  In TTA vids, the symbol crosses out eyes and faces over and over, crossing out circles like it’s slowly taking over everyone, making them all faceless shells like the Operator.

And what makes the Operator different from other versions of Slenderman?  Well, for one, the Operator is so understated.  He doesn’t even resort to tentacles, the way most versions do, to get across the power and creepiness of Slenderman.  He doesn’t even need a pantheon of slaves or cultists to get his bidding done.  He can just appear, stand there, tilt his head to one side, and you’ll crap bricks.  His not needing sidekicks or obvious methods of fighting (other than mind-screw) makes him seem so apart from mankind, looking down on humanity like little ants that he can play with.

But why ISTJ?  How can you tell a character’s type when they don’t even say anything?  Well, the easiest part to tell is IJ, as IJ’s are the ones that act and set their plans in motion without needing any external feedback.  The idea of the Operator needing to consult with others before going into motion seems preposterous, and totally against his all-seeing, dominating nature.

It’s clear that the Operator sees people for the use he can put them to, rather than their meaning, in the way that T’s utilize things situationally and not primarily in reference to the big-picture.  His expressionless visage is just a symbol of how calculating and emotionless he acts, in a way only ITJ’s can cloak their emotions and separate their actions from feeling, so completely.  That’s the number one reason that ITJ’s are waaaay over-represented as villains; their ability to act and not care, or at least conceal any appearance of caring, about how their actions affect others’ emotions.  Like I’ve said before, this can be a strength if there is something that needs standing up for… or it can make a villain who will stop at nothing to reach their objective, refusing to react to their victims’ pitiful cries.

The unhealthy version of any type always has the same unhealthy trademarks.  A trademark of unhealthy ISTJ’s is protecting dangerously unhealthy worldviews in the name of justice, instead of protecting what’s actually good about the world, as healthy ISTJ’s excel at doing, making unhealthy ISTJ’s the archetype of bad authority.  While an unhealthy INTJ may push an unhealthy world vision on others, it’s the unhealthy ISTJ’s that excel at making you feel like their worldview was always there, like it spans all time and existence and yet that that means you as yourself have absolutely no place in that world and must forgo control for the greater good.

This is not just a fictional problem.  It speaks to us because it’s an archetype.  No matter what your belief system, chances are this mentality is trying to slither in amongst the ideals you hold dear, so that you’ll protect it with your life.  Humans are the best foot-soldiers of dehumanization.  It’s just as scary to stand up against real life dehumanization as it would be to stand up to a faceless being who has the power to take away who you are.  It’s so tempting to just look the other way, pretend that dehumanization isn’t stalking you and convince yourself that you’re the only one who sees it.

But we see it everywhere now. It’s in the little things; the fake smiles and the shaken fingers; the way people feel like their boss owns them and like our government is not our own. It’s in the way we fear, anywhere and everywhere, to say what we really think and believe because all people listen to anymore are buzzwords, advertising and crap politics.  And yet, even though we *all* see these problems (and you’d have to be really oblivious not to), so few of us feel like we can do anything about it.  We feel like we might as well be a child in the woods with a tall, faceless man leaning over us and nowhere to run, as if our little legs could carry us as fast as his long reach could stretch.

But the answer is simple.  Be a little more human.  Be a little more genuine; let yourself be weak and let things be real.  Because in the end, the fight to be yourself is the only one you stand a chance of winning.  And it’s no coincidence that that is the only thing that can win against a status-quo that pretends it has been there forever and like there is no puny little human that could ever take it down.  Because in the end, an ITJ villain’s greatest weakness is not taking into account just what power one little human can hold.

I, for one, hope that the series is going to a positive conclusion.  It seems like the entire thesis of the series is that the only way to really fight evil is by keeping a hold of who you are, no matter what happens, like that’s the only battlefield that really counts.  If the ending says you can’t really do that, that no matter how hard you try evil wins, it would seem to say Jay was wrong for even trying, like he should have been a good boy and taken his Youtube channel down, left Tim alone and stopped looking harder.  It would say that humanity isn’t really worth the fight.  While that may be a good enough ending for a crappy student film, I don’t think it’s good enough for the true Marble Hornets.

troyhasacamera

Troy Wagner, Joseph DeLage and Tim Sutton; quintessential facial expressions of an INFJ, ENFP and ENTP respectively.

I have another “once upon a time.”  Once there were three best friends whose bromance would be legendary.  Troy Wagner, Joseph DeLage and Tim Sutton; together they would form the mighty Trosephim!  One day, Troy said to Joseph, “Hey Joseph, I’m bored.  Want to make a movie… want to make a movie in the park?  We could do it in abandoned buildings.  We could get arrested.”  And Marble Hornets was born.  But on the other days, Troy still had a camera and sometimes the funniest people are the ones who understand meaning; so, the thing to behold that is troyhasacamera was born.

Including classics like “Troy Shaves His Face,” “Joseph Listens to Jazz,” and “Tim Opens a Present,” the channel is an entirely different duck than Marble Hornets, may ruin your immersion and isn’t for the faint of heart.  But bringing us gems like “Troy Moves Out,” seen above, it’s really a necessary part of the Marble Hornets experience.

I keep saying over and over on this blog that INFJ’s are one of the most misunderstood types.  If that wasn’t the case, I don’t think my INFJ – The Paladin post would have over twice the views of the next most popular Type Heroes post.  People really want to understand INFJ and I’m just not going to be modest or polite when I say most sites suck at understanding INFJ’s… and I don’t. 🙂  I bring that up because most people (including the kind of people who write personality websites), don’t expect INFJ’s to have the kind of hilariously goofy, “what did I just watch?!” sense of humor that Troy Wagner displays in troyhasacamera, as well as his twitter and other times OOG (outside Marble Hornets).

His humor is the funniest in the way it gets to the core of things and is able to find the kernel of truth behind any given scenario.  With Craig Digsby, for example, his parody of PBS educational show hosts, his body language communicates so much about what an outdoorsman the character *thinks* he is and how smart and on top of things he *thinks* he looks.  Even at their most ridiculous, the things Troy writes and draws always have an underlying element of bringing things back to why something is true or funny.  I love INFJ humor for how much it’s always able to surprise me.  They can look so serious or unassuming on the surface and yet when they open their mouths, something totally insightful and wonderfully strange comes out of it. 🙂

Troy is a great example of how being Introverted doesn’t mean being quiet or passive.  He can really own a room, even when he’s not saying anything.  He tends to lead from behind, smoothly and subtly maneuvering the conversation so the right overall picture comes across.  The other two tend to defer to him about the vision behind projects (both the serious and the goofy) and they clearly trust and appreciate his special INFJ understanding of the overarching meaning in the world.

There are often loooong breaks between entries that Troy keeps apologizing for, and saying, “Okay, now I’ll get them out sooner… Okay, *now.*”  But the poor guy, as much as he wants to please other people, his intuition keeps getting in the way, telling him there are more important things to work on in the meantime.  INFJ’s should really trust that and not shove thumb-tacks in their eyes every time they “let someone down.”  Likewise, INFJ’s have such a tendency to cloak in normalcy, trying to say “Hey, I’m just like you; please don’t hate me!”  Troy has such a handle on principles, a vision of what he’s doing and such an understanding of meaning, but yet seems too afraid to own it and say “Shut-up, I know what I’m doing.”  He seems like a super-healthy INFJ, and yet his Hercules Syndrome still seems alive and strong.  Though, believe me, I understand.

Joseph DeLage is incredibly different from his character Alex… and yet not.  Joseph has an openness that’s much braver in a way than Alex.  Even at his goofiest, it’s hard to envision Alex Kralie making that ^ face.

Joseph is the picture of an ENFP Standard-Bearer, aimed to find individuals to rally around what could bring them meaning in their lives.  His twitter is the most PR-oriented of the three and even its description aims to get new people involved in the series, more so than Troy or Tim’s.  In interviews, Joseph seems completely in his element, enjoying connecting with the interviewers and his audience by being highly open and essentially saying “This is what we are; don’t you want this?  It’s open for anyone if you want to join in the experience.”  All the same, there is to-the-point maneuvering in everything Joseph says.  His openness, while genuine, is a calculated tactic to get desired results.

With INTJ being ENFP’s Paradoxitype, it makes sense that Joseph enjoys playing an INTJ so much.  It’s his hard-angled inside coming out and “speaking fist.”  I think ENFP’s are often underestimated for the complex thinkers they are.  While they love to bring people together on the same page and offer fantastic warmth and meaning to people, projects and causes, they really understand the conceptual and are great at making it happen when it’s something they care about.  When an ENFP understands their unique power and role in a group, they really can’t be stopped from applying their understanding of actions in general, to specific action and knowing exactly what to do.

It’s tempting for an ENFP to either require themselves to be some other type, like the INFJ’s they get along so well with, who put the meaning they love in such a concise way, or the hard-edged ENTP’s who have a slightly more cynical, practically over-confident version of the same bright bombasticism ENFP’s do.  But ENFP’s who try to be the other types sell themselves short in the areas in which they excel, and can end up looking foolish and forced, trying to be somebody else.  Likewise, the other extreme is for ENFP’s, very aware of their own tremendous self-worth, to require outside validation about everything they are.  It’s essential for an ENFP to learn not to need that, to have their own self-confidence be enough validation.  If an ENFP doesn’t know themselves, no external validation will ever be enough.

It’s tempting for a Standard-Bearer, whose focus is rallying everyone around the other types, specializing in understanding the tremendous meaning and significance behind all individuals, to want to be those individuals instead being themselves.  But Joseph doesn’t seem to do that.  He seems remarkably comfortable in his own skin, happy to be himself while supporting Troy and Tim in being themselves.

ENFP’s don’t need to feel pressured into being someone else, as much as they can appreciate others.  They can recognize that the way they enjoy and interact with the world is a unique and needed role that only they can fulfill.  They don’t have to do it someone else’s way.  Joseph is an original and we wouldn’t want him any other way.

 

Tim Sutton, like all healthy ENTP’s, is charming, suave and crazy.  And that’s the way we like it. 😉  Spend any time reading YouTube comments or Unfiction at all, and it quickly becomes apparent that Tim is a fan favorite.  Men bow and women swoon… it gets to be a little intense actually.  From a “Tim’s Too Sexy” response video and the Sutton Style version of “Troy Moves Out” (which is *very* fun and addictive to watch, btw), to the “Church of Suttonism” and him getting marriage proposals on twitter, it’s clear everyone loves Tim.

I think it’s in the uninhibited way he’s not afraid to turn everything up to eleven, and how he just owns whatever strange thing he’s doing at any given moment.  Of Tim’s “creative process,” Troy and Joseph have said the following:
Troy: It’s all very strange.
Joseph: It’s… very surreal.

He’s also living proof, along with these other fine ENTP gentlemen, that if I were a man I’d have epic sideburns.  It’s now fact.  Science!

 

The closest I’ve come was this beard in college.  I worked hard on those sideburns!  (I also had to walk home from class with a beard on my face in order to get pictures.)

Of course, if you think about the in-your-face, bold, “notice me!” effect huge chops have, I think being well-endowed has a fairly one-to-one ratio, right?  Though, then it would stand to reason that if ENTP men with epic sideburns were women… Okay, Calise, moving on now.  There will be other posts to discuss the inherent interest ENTP’s tend to have in *those* sorts of things.

 

I’ve read people compare goofy Tim Sutton to MH Tim, in a way that made them seem quite different.  People don’t see how the guy in pink roller-skates could be similar to the one having a breakdown in his bedroom or the one who feels like everything is his fault, and while I genuinely hope that’s *not* the way Tim feels irl, you can tell that beneath the splendiferous sideburns and grapefruit laugh, there’s a guy that cares deeply about real life stuff.  The kind of guy that would come up with a complex cleric character for his first D&D game for the joy of roleplaying it and then be bummed when heavy armor and complicated spells didn’t really fit the hack-and-slash gameplay (I very much relate as my first D&D game, I had this awesome mistress of disguise character who had to stand in the back and be lame when everything was made of zombie -_-).

Tim, as intensely over-the-top as he is in the comedy shorts or on his tumblr, in interviews he tends to be a lot more quiet, letting the other two lead the conversation and only adding the occasional precision-strike comment.  This is obviously not because he’s shy or because he isn’t thinking about anything (you can tell the wheels are always turning).  My guess is it’s divided between a P contentedness to just be there and be taking everything in, and a TP cynicism that has learned that unless they’ll be really appreciated, you keep your comments inside your own head where you know they’ll be understood and enjoyed.  Just because EP’s say a lot, doesn’t mean we say everything.

 

The truth is, while we love to be awesome and hilarious and alluring, for ENTP’s all that keeps us safe; a concept that may seem weird to a lot of the other types.  Not that it’s fake; it’s not.  It’s just that when we feel like everything we think, like and explore is bad, sometimes the only thing to do is embrace our Megamind Complex and do it all the more.  Even if we’re bad, we do it in style.  There’s a lot more to us than meets the eye, sideburns included.

Troy, Joseph and Tim have a fantastic dynamic that they seem to naturally fall into.  They don’t have to say, “Tim, be sexy wacky now;” the three of them just settle in comfortably to the place they want to be.  It’s this dynamic, in conjunction with Troy’s understanding of principles and the different sides of writing that I’m sure all three of them bring to the table, that makes Marble Hornets so powerful.  We care about the characters because *they* care about the characters.  We enjoy the journey because Troy, Joseph and Tim so obviously love making Marble Hornets.

The conclusion is sure to be epic.  And while it means I can no longer hang my white sun-hat on the back of my closet door, because in semi-darkness it looks like a large blank face leaning around a corner, the trip has been worth every jump, heart-attack and tingle down my spine.  At the end of the day, it’s all about people, and it’s a beautiful ride.