The creation of Slender Man is pretty fascinating, and it was surprising to read such a lengthy text about the origins and history of Slender Man. Much like Hatsune Miku, Slender Man was created by a collective with fans adding to the main image, giving the character a backstory and lore. With Slender Man people started going into different directions, often creating lore that doesn’t quite fit in together. I think it’s pretty interesting to see how concentrated the fandom of Slender Man was at first and then to see it leak into other subcultures like gaming. The amount of content creation surrounding this one little image on a forum has created this massive entity that has caused some serious and real-life damage. Although it started out without malicious intent -- just a simple image on a forum -- impressionable children and teenagers have really bought into the fandom to the extreme, and if I remember correctly have physically harmed or killed people in the name of Slender Man. Much like WWE, most are aware of the fictitiousness of the content and lore, but sometimes children can’t quite see past it while others continue to buy into it even when they are fully aware of the fantasy.
- Lilian