unforum

[DHawk314]

[aidansean]

[Zarggg]

I'm starting to think we have it backwards. Thy symbol is neither a ward against the Operator nor is it used to summon him.

The Operator's presence causes the symbol to appear. Or rather, it causes someone to draw it.

Essentially, paranormal graffiti.

[Ithilwen22]

[Starkley]

[Flame Reaper 734]

The Operator might only cause certain people to draw it. Possibly people he's 'working with'. That or Jay might be immune-ish.

[YouWillLeadUs]

I always felt like it was something of a "Slenderman Crossing" sign. Shows that he's been known to lurk in a certain place and may come back.

[Toadbert]

It's funny cause it looks like a Railroad Crossing sign too.

[Kimren]

They need to give us some more hints to figure it out. I want to run around, rampantly drawing it all over campus, but if it is supposed to be a summoning circle, or The Operator's "eyes", then I want nothing to do with it.

[liber]

looks like Agrippa's Seal of Jupiter to me...

[pravado]

"minus centroid" is still our biggest clue imo

the center where the x crosses is the centroid.

i still hold a theory that the 4 quadrants of the symbol represents a member of the faction (totheark, tim, hoody, jay / or seth, tim, brian, and jay) that once existed before jay had his memory wiped. the first picture is of jay, then the other 3 come. the "who are you" symbolizes jay not knowing who any of them were anymore bc of the mind wipe he went through.

Think about it, if jay didn't get wiped he would remember certain things like entry 20. But he doesn't. At some point Alex found out about this faction and started taking them out one by one. The term "minus centroid" simply means "one of our quadrants is missing so there can be no center" or "the brains of our operation, jay, is no longer with us"

thats just my theory

[Kimren]

[pravado]

I disagree. I see it as courage rather than stupidity.

[Jingleman]

First post, but I've been lurking for a long time. Finally decided to join in the discussion.

I think there are really two distinct questions with regard to the Operator Symbol. First, what does it represent in a direct, literal sense (that is, why is it a circle with an "X" through it)? Second, what is it used for, or what is its purpose? I think that distinction may help focus discussion on this topic.

That said, I would answer both questions by drawing an analogy to religious symbols. With regard to the first, I hold with those who see the Operator Symbol simply as a representation of the Operator's lack of a face, just as the Christian cross is a direct representation of the Roman cross upon which Jesus Christ was crucified.

That has little to do, however, with what the symbol is for. Like religious symbols, I don't think it is limited to just one use or purpose. Think of the different uses of the Christian cross, for example. It's used to mark places of worship, to convey one's religious beliefs (which sometimes, relevantly, means recognizing and establishing commonality with others who hold similar beliefs), to mark graves, for ceremonies, on religious documents and books, and many other things.

While I don't mean to imply that we should read anything so structured as a religion into the Marble Hornets universe, it makes sense to me that the symbol might be used in as many ways as real-world symbols that represent supernatural things.

I think that most of the time we see the symbol in the entries, it's either a "TO was here" kind of thing, or else "The person who drew this knows about TO (if you do, too, maybe you should react accordingly at this time)." It still might be used in certain practical "ceremonies" or "incantations" like summoning or teleportation, but I'm not yet convinced.

TL;DR - We need to distinguish between what the symbol represents and what it does; like real-world religious symbols, it needn't be limited to one use.

[Lude]