The Leakage

These leaked videos seem to be a response to a horror movie competition, though they could possibly fit into the canonical storyline of the series. There has been much dispute as to the validity of these videos, and whether they should be counted as part of the series, so much debate in fact that it led the team to create Canon?, which teased and taunted the viewers with a shocking scene, though not one that is too wild to fit into the series. The first of the videos is Slender Man.

Slender Man

This video starts off with Evan and Vince shopping for snacks for a night in playing video games. The video then cuts back to the typical basement backdrop, and Evan is wearing his knife on his hip, which Vince promptly takes and asks as to why he is wearing it. Evan goes on about how amazing the knife is, showing his love for knifes, and gets quite serious about having it back. Then we get into the serious stuff.

The Evan speech. The scene that cements the Evan/HABIT theory for me. There is a video in the series where Evan is talking to himself at a table, and this appears to be what he actually said. This is the part where you can really see how far gone Evan is, and that it is highly likely that he has multiple personalities and one of them could be HABIT.

Firstly he says about repeated sightings of slendy, then how he is being told to do horrible things to people that he loves, and that slendy makes him want to do it. When the opposite side of the conversation speaks, the video distorts and he hear whispering.

The video then cuts back to the typical happy scenes of Evan and Vince playing video games.

Only not everything is well. Vince dies, in the game anyway, and Evan walks across the screen, knife drawn. He turns smiling to Vince and promptly knocks him down, while the trademark sirens and children sounds of the slenderman are heard. A struggle ensues and Vince is knocked down again, Evan goes in with the knife, Vince holds back and flees with the camera, free at last. But no, ascending the stairs leads to the slenderman, and turning back only shows Evan gleefully wielding his knife, ready to strike. The video cuts to black before we see the slenderman in the doorway again.

While this video is not likely to be entirely canon, there are many events and scenes that cannot be ignored, the whole conversation Evan has is shown in the canon series, and I highly believe that Evan will eventually try to harm Vince and Jeff (hence the handcuffs he wears in the final Morse video). This video is too notable to ignore, and while it can be difficult to completely link it to the series, there are many hallmarks that I think will make it back. The lack of Jeff is notable, as with the lack of any other characters, though it purely seems that Evan is under the influence of slenderman, and not HABIT. Or slenderman brings out the HABIT side in him. This video takes a lot of pondering.

Welcome To The ARK

this video starts with the underwater fight footage we seem to see a lot of, it seems to be the crew trying to drown Evan from what I can see, most likely due to the events preceding the attempt, and the way Evan is becoming more of a homicidal tool of both HABIT and slenderman.

Anyway, this episode takes place in the candleverse.

Now, this takes some explaining.

Firstly, according to the iteration theory, the avatars or ultimate forms of the characters exist in a single state, and they manifest themselves to live out the eternal struggle amongst themselves. Basically, the events we see will happen again, and have happened before. In some moments, possibly when taken by slendy, or between iterations, the crew are taken to what is referred to as the candleverse, mainly due to its links to the candle cove creepypasta, and the use of candles. In this candleverse, time seems to flow differently, and the inhabitants of the verse are directed by the time of day and light. This is quite complicated here.

Anyway, the video starts with Jeff looking over the EMH videos, looking for hidden or missed clues.

The video then shows Vince, hand on head, thinking. The video cuts to the final scenes of Slender Man and we can guess that the last iteration ended because Evan lost to slenderman and killed everyone, resetting them back to the candleverse, awaiting the next cycle. Evan is then shown to have bandages and purple tape on his neck, indicating a previous attack. Midway through the videos Jeff is watching, the laptop shuts down. Jeff then indicates that they are in a different realm, and that there is no one on the streets “and where did the doctor go man?” obviously referring to Corenthal. “he was with us an hour ago-” “was it an hour ago? The sun hasn’t been out in 3 days” the team are definitely trapped in this verse, whether it be the ARK referenced in so many videos, or the candle verse, they are trapped. Time does not flow properly here. The video cuts to a lightning storm and cuts back. We then see that Jeff’s hand is bandaged with purple tape as well, and the video cuts to the hand clawing along the ground, which I had previously believed to be Evan's, though I was wrong. A frame of slenderman is shown, and the sounds of the rake are heard. The lights begin to dim, the crew are unnerved and scared, and we see what could be the rake. Someone says “its back!” though I cant determine who, though it does refer to the rake. They must get to the lights, as if to protect themselves. We then also see purple tape on Vince's leg. Clips of the rake from cops checked, no body, flash up. The crew are frantic about getting to the light, Jeff makes it. Almost. He then falls and is pulled away by the shrieking rake. The video ends.

There is a lot to take in from this video, and it can be hard to really understand what has happened. My thoughts are that when the crew go missing from time and places, they are taken here. Maybe this happened in the past, or in the future and it has been sent back, but each time they visit this place, they have no recollection of it IF they return. There is no concrete way to determine whether these events occurred in the canonical storyline, as we do not have enough details from either side to confirm or dis-confirm this.

I’ll be honest, im not entirely sure what to make of this, this is something that is purely based on opinion. You want answers then just ask me, but its hard to explain.

Canon?

I kinda love this video, a little clichéd but only a tiny, tiny bit. The slow motion visuals with the music is perfect, and the fight is both horrifying and beautiful. Anyway, it begins with Evan bursting through the doors, pursued by Jeff, the duo are fighting. Inter spaced with the whole video are clips of Vince holding a shotgun, slowly making his way down to the pair.

Evan tries to block Jeff’s path, but he runs on. Jeff pulls out a small knife, and Evan desperately swing a guitar at him. A beautiful shot from the barrel of the gun follows. The fight seems very desperate and frantic, even barbaric at times, adding to the macabre overtones.

The barrel view raises and we see Evan beating Jeff with the guitar. The clip cuts to Evan's shoes, he falls sideways from the blast. Evan's blank, deceased face comes next, along with the falling shell. A view from Jeff’s eye line shows him getting up ans seeing the shotgun wielding Vince, who passively and peacefully lets him stand. Jeff makes a grab for the barrel of the gun, and a blast slams into his gut.

Jeff is on the floor, crouched over in pain from the blast. He tried to crawl away, but the calm Vince toys with him. He slowly lowers the barrel to Jeff’s head, and Jeff realises its the end. He pauses, stares out, waiting, almost in disbelief.

The screen cuts to black. Our two fallen victims gone. Vince reloads the gun.

He turns to welcome Jeff, they enjoy a laugh and Jeff pulls on a hat. Jeff retrieves something and they both walk off left. They both welcome Evan, all of them smiling. Evan walks towards the death area. And only now do I realise something.

While the video is most like a teaser by the cast, showing something to radical and devastating that it cannot be canon. But. What if it was?

The iteration theory supports the point that after death, each avatar is recycled, reset, like a video game. Meaning that even though they were killed, they were reset, they came back again. They began a new iteration. Vince could have sensed the fight coming, and planned for a fresh start. The fighting pair seem happy of this upon their return. Evan even goes off to look at, what could very well still be his and Jeff’s old, dead bodies. This is something that only occurred to me now, having the iteration theory running around my head.

Another topic I have just thought of, having just watched the video a 5^th time I think, about a week after finishing this post, is that Jeff is chasing Evan. Simple action, but it didn't occur to me to think why. Why would Jeff be so angry at Evan? What could Evan have done? Well, Jeff could have found out that Evan/HABIT killed JessA. Jeff would easily go into a rage if this was the case, there would be no question about it. Maybe this is the case. Maybe Jeff found out, and now seeks his revenge on Evan. Vince has flipped or has found out something we don't know, and decides to kill them. Fresh start....

Or, on the other hand, it could just be a fun video teasing the questioning of the canonosity (yeah I made that word up) of various videos. But which one is more fun, more interesting? I have my answer.