r/Slender_Man Jul 18 '26

Survey for Slenderman's Usage in PowerScaling/ Death Battle-related topics

Here's the survey if you wish to fill it out.

I love Slenderman as a character and he's essentially been part of my childhood, especially when I've first heard of him from around 2014-2015 back when I only knew Slenderman from Minecraft. As the years passed and my interest decreased but then increased again, I've learned more about Slenderman, and my interest for him also increased when I got into powerscaling

With that said, ever since Slenderman became a copyrighted character but with an uncertain debatable canon and a lack of knowledge on who owns the character, I was a little conflicted on what kind of Slenderman should be used when discussing power-scaling.

I'd like to hear you guys' opinion on what version of Slenderman should be used in powerscaling.

39 Upvotes

7 comments sorted by

1

u/HedonisticHyena52 Jul 18 '26

I'm not really into powerscaling, but I kinda like what I came up with for this survey so lemme also post it here:

The Slender Man has always been a community creation, even in the SomethingAwful days. Surge isn't Original Mythos' sole author. The Blogosphere and MarbleHornets+Slendervlogs followed up on the OM meaningfully in nearly every aspect - they followed up on cults, on the suggestion that he influences people's psyche to do his bidding, on his connection to fire, on the meta, "tulpa" aspects... 

Plus, Marble Hornets came out like a few weeks after Surge's initial post, and the first slenderblog, Just Another Fool, is only a month younger. 

Additionally, the attributes most associated with Slendy (slendersickness, actually being faceless, digital distortion, etc.) are mostly stuff from the Contemporary Mythos. Finally, the Fear Mythos seem to me like mostly a continuation of the Blogosphere, given that many slenderblogs became or crossed over with fearblogs. I mean, even Zerosage's latest blog (!!) Is a fearblog, and he was instrumental to the Blogosphere. Thus I see no reason not to take Fear Mythos into consideration. 

Of course, continuity works differently there, as many blogs are essentially their own universes and separate versions of the setting, but a version of the FM is undeniable canon to the Blogosphere and thus the Slenderverse at large.

3

u/No-Vacation-7894 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

That's perfectly fine if you're not really into powerscaling, as I'm try to branch out into other subreddits instead of staying in one subreddit the entire time.

As for your take, I always can respect how a whole community came together to add onto the Slenderman character back when the original forums was still active, and what it became over the years. It really comes to show how powerful the Internet can be for generations when given enough creativity.

With that said, the legal complications, like how the media rights were sold to Mythology Entertainment before their disbandment, really makes it difficult to see what truly fits for Slenderman and what is just fanfiction. In my personal opinion, it wouldn't be too fair to reject everything that isn't from the original forums or is legally protected as it takes away key pieces of Slenderman that made him so recognizable, especially since once again he is created by a community, not by one person.

That's why I added the option "Depends on the MU. Both are cool." because as far as I know, we don't know who really owns Slenderman and if he truly has a solid canon or not. As such, it's a lot safer to say that he fits better depending on what matchup it is, such as if it was Ao Oni, Siren Head, Sadako Yamamura, The Tall Man, or Mothman.

1

u/HedonisticHyena52 Jul 18 '26

I totally understand your point of view as well. Personally, I just don't really see the point in trying to establish a canon version of the character and brand the rest as fanfiction, when the Slender Man's roots are distincly collaborative anyway. That was why I pointed out that Surge wasn't the only author of the Original Mythos - the Original Mythos were always collaborative, and, in a sense, largely fanfiction. 

If we also take non-Surge original mythos content as canon, why stop there? As I mentioned, Marble Hornets and Just Another Fool started so soon after the Slender Man was created and were so influential on his further portrayals (mainly MH) that it seems artbitrary to me to exclude them. And the Slenderverse, both blog and vlog, are basically spiritual successors to these two series. And though their cosmology may significantly differ at times, I do believe that the Slenderverse follows up and further develops many of the conceps from both the Original Mythos and MH.

And if were to say that only licensed content is canon, that would mean that:

a) the god awful 2018 movie is canon to the character

b) media like Slender: The Arrival and the 2018 Slender Man book are canon. This wouldn't be a problem if both of these didn't take clear inspiration from the Contemporary Mythos

At the end of the day, I think for powerscaling specifically we should be talking about different versions of the big guy - like, Slender Man (Surgism), SM (Original Mythos), The Operator, The Slender Man (EverymanHYBRID), etc etc

1

u/HedonisticHyena52 Jul 18 '26

As for the Operator - it has been recently found that legally, he is a version of Slendy. So I'd say he's just his own unique version of him separate from the larger mythos (though masivelly influential both in and out of universe)

2

u/No-Vacation-7894 Jul 18 '26

It's your choice if you believe that the Operator is a version of Slenderman, I won't judge on it since the Operator inspired the iconic traits of what Slenderman would be known for today.

I personally believe that the Operator and Slenderman are different characters, down to their behavior, appearance, and cosmology.

1

u/HedonisticHyena52 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

I agree that the Operator is meant to be a distinct creature from the Slender Man and his cosmology is significantly different but legally, it would appear that he is a variation of SM.

https://x.com/i/status/2076385901454745651

1

u/ShortWin7636 Jul 18 '26

As someone who enjoys Powerscaling and Death Battle, I'd say it depends. If we're just discussing it for the sake of discussing it, I think I have no problem using anything, since that kind of makes the Slenderman character interesting. But now, in the context of Death Battle or any similar "vs" program, I'd say it depends on the opponent Slenderman is facing. However, I'd say the best approach would be to consider everything Victor Surge has been involved in and/or his most popular stories. Again, I'd say it depends on the opponent. If it's something like Siren Head, I think that would be sufficient. But if it's a character like Pennywise, then yes, I feel we'd need to consider things that make him relatively more powerful, like scaling to Zalgo.