Watch the Footage archive

Ok, I'm back with the intention of putting the EC WMG to good use. I've filtered Time Lords and whatnot from the list, and, according to the hivemind, Mr. A is:

• Fast Eddie (going meta, they are clearly different people)
• Anonymous
• The Advertisement Server
• Troper hivemind (The other theory is that it's the Man Behind The Man)
• Tom from the future. He is trying to get himself to make better vlogs, causing a Stable Time Loop.
• Zack from the future. He's trying to use the vlogs to get Present-Zack out from under his father's thumb. (Unlikely, considering that now he's trying to get him back)

If I were to bet, I'd bet on #4.
(And then John was Mr. Administrator )

If I were to bet, I'd bet on #4.
(And then John was Mr. Administrator )

Number four seems most likely to me, too. Who was it here that had the idea that maybe Mister A was some kind of manifestation, or even personification, of TV tropes, gained sentience and free will, and deciding to push his boundaries? Terry Pratchett goes on all the time about how people think you need gods to have belief in them, but that in fact it's the other way around(not that he's a god, but he's certainly powerful whoever he is.)

Although, my gut is also saying Tom has something to do with it. I'm afraid I have nothing substantial to say regards to that, it's just this feeling, something about the way the guy acts... And Zack is clearly involved some way, knowingly or otherwise.

Once again, things would be a whole tonne easier if all the folks pulling the strings here were better informed/more honest with us.

If you think about it, an entity formed from the collective minds of tropers probably would want to experiment with the fourth wall and toy with the nature of fiction and reality, while also being deeply concerned about the consequences. It could also explain why different instantiations can have such radically different personalities--there are entirely too many factions of tropers for our hivemind to be uniform.

AAaaand IRL Echo Chamber was made on assignment from TV Tropes admin. In Echo Chamber, Echo Chamber was made on assignment from Mr. Administrator. Considering that "Mr. A = Fast Eddie" theory is too boring, I'd say Mr. Administrator is, in some form, TV Tropes.

...but wait, he is the administrator of The Other Wiki, too.
Maybe he's just the manifestation of hivemind? In that case, Anonymous theory is sort of correct.

...but wait, he is the administrator of The Other Wiki, too.
Maybe he's just the manifestation of hivemind? In that case, Anonymous theory is sort of correct.

That makes sense, or perhaps the manifestation of wikis in general? The personification of people being able to edit and manipulate the content of things in reality, according to their own individual understanding of how things are.

I mean, look at religious texts - they've been rewritten and manipulated quite a bit, but that kind of transformation occured across centuries.:Tthe internet has allowed vastly larger explorations, adaptations and evolutions of information sharing - and it's done so in thirty years, give or take. The last century has been a total information boom, and we interact with both reality and fiction quite differently to how we used to.

...I've sort of forgotten where I was going with that.

There is some sort of contradiction here.
We know for sure that Mr. Administrator's task is studying fiction and reality - that's pretty much Word Of God. Him being a manifestation of all the wikis would make his aim much more broad and unclear, and I'd better not even speak of how he would behave if he included Anonymous in general. Plot-wise, it would be logical for him to be tied to TV Tropes, but that damn Other Wiki spoils everything.

By the way. After Mr. A's last update, I've been thinking about how we treat Mr. A. The fun is, since the beginning of the ARG, he has never actually lied to us. He may ignore or sidestep the question, but that means that we are stepping outside of the ARG's plot.

I can't believe I'm saying that, but
I BELIEVE YOU, MR. ADMINISTRATOR. YOUR REASONING IS INFINITE.
Help me I'm mind-controlled

My current theory: Mr. A is an embodiment of humanity's desire to understand reality, fiction, and their separation. He lives in the void between the two. He created both TVTropes and The Other Wiki in order to further his understanding. My guess is that he wanted to have a means of exploring reality (The Other Wiki) and a means of exploring fiction (TVTropes) and that, after he had learned all he could from the two wikis on their own, he commissioned [citation needed] and Echo Chamber in order to bring the fiction and reality together and explore the relationship between them.

Of course, this is WMG.

Hey, you actually have a point! The Other Wiki is the reality part, TV Tropes are the fiction part. It makes sense now!
How would I call them shorter now...
Curiosity?

Dryunya wrote:By the way. After Mr. A's last update, I've been thinking about how we treat Mr. A. The fun is, since the beginning of the ARG, he has never actually lied to us. He may ignore or sidestep the question, but that means that we are stepping outside of the ARG's plot.

I can't believe I'm saying that, but
I BELIEVE YOU, MR. ADMINISTRATOR. YOUR REASONING IS INFINITE.
Help me I'm mind-controlled

That's not enough for me to trust him. Motive's and 'lying' can be separate. A guy can tell the truth with twisted motives in mind. Also, I mean, look at him, he's just begging for people to be suspicious of him.

Adell wrote:

Dryunya wrote:By the way. After Mr. A's last update, I've been thinking about how we treat Mr. A. The fun is, since the beginning of the ARG, he has never actually lied to us. He may ignore or sidestep the question, but that means that we are stepping outside of the ARG's plot.

I can't believe I'm saying that, but
I BELIEVE YOU, MR. ADMINISTRATOR. YOUR REASONING IS INFINITE.
Help me I'm mind-controlled

That's not enough for me to trust him. Motive's and 'lying' can be separate. A guy can tell the truth with twisted motives in mind. Also, I mean, look at him, he's just begging for people to be suspicious of him.

Also we've been told by a few people not to trust him.

Not that I'm that protective of Mr. A, but those "few people" (who was actually one guy) were kind of an asshole.

Dryunya wrote:Not that I'm that protective of Mr. A, but those "few people" (who was actually one guy) were kind of an asshole.

Meh, I thought I remebered others. Despite his obvious asshole... ness, he can't be that bad he genuinely seemed to care for Zack.

I would argue whether Beloved Smothers really do love the ones they smother. It may be just a compensation of their Freudian Excuse. And Mark is still an asshole.
(Oh hey, I finally saw the Google Bot.)

Dryunya wrote:I would argue whether Beloved Smothers really do love the ones they smother. It may be just a compensation of their Freudian Excuse. And Mark is still an asshole.
(Oh hey, I finally saw the Google Bot.)

I was thinking more of the penultimate episode where he seems upset when he shouts "What do you want with my son?"

I think that Mr. Cake's father IS important at this, but we just don't know how.
EDIT: Because of Law of Conservation of Detail, the relationship between he and Mr. Cake must be important. What do you think?

At least one instantiation has referred to A-Prime as "father". Zack may have been interacting with some reluctant instantiation - as we've seen, they have some distinctive characters.

Maybe not all instantiations agree with A-Primes plans, but because he can erase them they must go along with it.

Exactly.

That's not enough for me to trust him. Motive's and 'lying' can be separate. A guy can tell the truth with twisted motives in mind. Also, I mean, look at him, he's just begging for people to be suspicious of him.

Hm, he really is being crazy-obvious about it. I mean the not showing his face, the ominous voice overs, the prophecies of destruction, the fact that he won't give anyone a straight answer... he might as well just start wearing a dark, hooded cloak and cackling into a crystal ball. I guess that kind of points to him being a manifestation of tropes: he's using almost every supsicious villain trope in the book.

So... maybe that's DELIBERATE on his part? Maybe he doesn't WANT us to go around trusting people, himself included, because trust in one person or another can cloud one's judgement of the overall facts? He wants us to, essentially, work all this out on our own, and come to our solutions and conclusions based on our own judgement.

I dunno, I still don't know if he has good motives in mind, and you can tell a lot about a guy by how he treats his inferiors, so...

Scarab wrote:

That's not enough for me to trust him. Motive's and 'lying' can be separate. A guy can tell the truth with twisted motives in mind. Also, I mean, look at him, he's just begging for people to be suspicious of him.

Hm, he really is being crazy-obvious about it. I mean the not showing his face, the ominous voice overs, the prophecies of destruction, the fact that he won't give anyone a straight answer... he might as well just start wearing a dark, hooded cloak and cackling into a crystal ball. I guess that kind of points to him being a manifestation of tropes: he's using almost every supsicious villain trope in the book.

So... maybe that's DELIBERATE on his part? Maybe he doesn't WANT us to go around trusting people, himself included, because trust in one person or another can cloud one's judgement of the overall facts? He wants us to, essentially, work all this out on our own, and come to our solutions and conclusions based on our own judgement.

I dunno, I still don't know if he has good motives in mind, and you can tell a lot about a guy by how he treats his inferiors, so...

So that would make him a good Well Intentioned Extremist (not so extremist, but I think that the parallel can be traced)?

narrativedilettante wrote:If you think about it, an entity formed from the collective minds of tropers probably would want to experiment with the fourth wall and toy with the nature of fiction and reality, while also being deeply concerned about the consequences. It could also explain why different instantiations can have such radically different personalities--there are entirely too many factions of tropers for our hivemind to be uniform.

By the time I got to this post, my mind was firmly entrenched in MGS2 territory. Something tells me that by the time the Administrators' minds start to really break down (they're going crazy, right?), they're gonna be spouting something along the lines of "I need scissors! 61!"

I don't think that the "Mr. A is going crazy" theory is confirmed by anything. It was based on a couple of sulking posts, an out-of-character moment, and a smile. The latter is dismissed by EC - he did show emotions. The former is still not enough. And he has been pretty sane as of lately.

I don't think that the "Mr. A is going crazy" theory is confirmed by anything. It was based on a couple of sulking posts, an out-of-character moment, and a smile. The latter is dismissed by EC - he did show emotions. The former is still not enough. And he has been pretty sane as of lately.

Mm, and we're not even sure the out of character moment was HIM. Didn't somebody mention the cut seemed rather abrupt?

I mean we at least know he's coherent enough to both state his sanity, and to concur that he would assert his sanity even if he WEREN'T sane. Which... well it's enough for me right now. He's very invested in what's going down, though. I do wish we had more specific information...

I hope he's not hypersane or anything. Like if total raving foaming at the mouty is insanity, then... hypersanity is at the opposite end of that scale? Possibly just as dangerous.

"Hypersanity"?
What's that? Sounds kind of like a good thing, you know.