In the second submission, Noah asks Milo how Alabama was... And doesn't Slender Man stalk another guy from Alabama?Proximity sucks.
So it's been established that Noah Maxwell is, with a fewexceptions, The Determinator personified. Now, what's Firebrand's secondary name again? Oh, yeah: the Stubborn.
It's better than that: the word "Firebrand" itself means "one that causes unrest or strife; an agitator".
...And it's starting to look even more fitting, now that he has caused at least one other Collective member (possibly two) to defect from the group.
It's a little jarring to see Firebrand calling Noah an 'ungrateful fuck', when up to that point no member of the Collective had ever used that kind of language. Noah, however, absolutely would.
It's no wonder the Observer hates Firebrand so much: not only did he defect from the Collective and ruin their plans, but he's the walking embodiment of the very same trait the Observer despises most: defiance.
Slender Man's reaction to Firebrand Flipping the Bird at him in DEUS EX MACHINA might be utterly hilarious, but you gotta wonder: why does he react in that way to Firebrand doing something so vulgar? Well, if you take into account that Slender Man is an Eldritch Abomination who isn't from this world, chances are that he has no idea what flipping the bird even means in the first place. So it'd be natural for Slendy to be a little thrown off if he's expecting Firebrand to retaliate against him in some dramatic way, only for him to just hold up a finger.
It's revealed in Milo's journal that Milo has been using very strong swear words such as "asshole", "fuck", and "bastard" ever since he was seven years old. It seems very jarring to read at first, and one wonders where he learned it from. Then it hits you: his mother. Considering how well she raises him, it wouldn't be surprising if he overheard her dropping a Cluster F-Bomb from time to time out of pure carelessness...
Why does Mary Asher's appearance in Milo's Tape look so drastically different from the newspaper photo in Obituary? Well, if one takes into account that she's been on the run from state to state ever since Milo's death, chances are she's gone through serious attempts to make her as unrecognizable as possible to evade the police.
In HAPPYBIRTHDAY, we are given a shot looking straight at a mirror with The Observer in the mirror. However, the Observer has his hands to his sides in this shot. So, that brings up the question: who was holding the camera? Could this mean that the Observer's videos aren't actual footage, but rather his memories?
In Thanksgiving Footage Day 2, Noah is covered in blood after his encounter with the Observer. The only other people in the house he was in were the girl he was staying with and her father. Whose blood was that?
When the Observer hacked Noah's Formspring, he/it said that the blood was Noah's own.
The Observer has hacked Noah's Formspring again, on 11/11, and he said that not all of the blood was Noah's.
At one point during "Unknown Caller" (around the 3:40 mark), the Observer's nasty snickering becomes a choking sound and he gasps out "Sorry...sorry...sorry...so...sorry, help..." before segueing into his trademark Evil Laugh. On its own, it's creepy and bizarre; in light of the note Noah receives on November 9th, it becomes downright horrific: that was Kevin, Fighting from the Inside. And failing.
It's all a game. This entire conflict between Noah and the Collective is just one huge game to them. If they wanted to, they could take him at any time. It's not as if locked wooden doors has ever been an obstacle to beings who are God-like Reality Warper s, capable of turning back time and altering the dimensions between the walls of Noah's house. They're not really taking things seriously; they've been playing with him this whole time. But now that Noah and Firebrand have effectively pissed the Observer off and destroyed his plans, who knows what he'll do to him now?
Haunt his nightmares and sever the connections to any friends and family he has, apparently.
In one of the Observer's answers to a fan on Formspring, he says that he uses his "previous self" as a vessel for carrying out Slender Man's actions. With the reveal that the Observer's vessel is Noah and Milo's friend Kevin Haas, one just has to wonder: what did Slender Man do to Kevin in the future that made him into such a submissive and horrifying monster in the first place?
In the video "DEUS EX MACHINA", the recently-freed Firebrand gives a message to Noah, one that's very hopeful and heartwarming. Partway through it, he says "I sacrifice myself for you, Noah. For Us. For All of Us." As he says this last part, footage of a bustling city with pedestrians scurrying to-and-fro appears behind him. This implies that Firebrand not only intends to try and save Noah, but also the human race as a whole. Fridge horror kicks in when you realize that this also implies that the entire human race is in jeopardy, and that it all hinges on the survival of a few confused people (of increasingly-dubious sanity and flagging will to live) going up against multiple Eldritch Abominations with pretty much zero knowledge on how to fight the things or what they even are. Oh, Crap!. The human race is probably fucking doomed!
According the the Can You See the Words blog, featured prevalently in Everyman HYBRID, HABIT has somewhat of a Historical Rap Sheet, where he's possessed the likes of Albert Fish, Vlad the Impaler, and Jack the Ripper while they committed their awful crimes. It Severance, HABIT reveals that he happened to work with Sebastian Kraus on a "little project" sometime during World War II. Who did HABIT possess during that time? Dr. Josef Mengele. Sebastian must've seen some nasty things during his time as a Nazi soldier...
Noah receives on November 9th, it becomes downright horrific: that was Kevin, Fighting from the Inside. And failing.