Old MH Site Bio
Brian Thomas
[Actor]
Brian has been attending the university for three years, and is hoping to graduate after his next couple of semesters with a Bachelor's degree in psychology and a minor in video production. He originally met Alex in Dr. Warren's cinematography class where they collaborated on quite a few projects together. He's very happy to be making his acting debut in Marble Hornets!
Personal Notes
Sure, I could say this about every single character in this series, but Brian is one of my favorite characters of all time I think. He is a fascinating example in contradictions, a masterclass in ugly, messy emotionality, over-the-top dramatics, and fatal flaws. I want to study him under a magnifying glass like a particularly interesting beetle -- perhaps a Ceratocanthus aeneus. Anyway!!
There's this seemingly constant warring impulse in Brian to Help People VS Hurting Them, not with any one character in particular, but with all of them. The way Brian interacts with Jay and Tim and even Alex is a constant unsteady dance in warring impulses -- saying one thing but doing another; it's interesting. It makes me wonder if the constant working behind the scenes attempting to manipulate people is an expression of this -- the idea that Brian can't trust himself to interface directly with other people, so instead he's forced to push everyone else into the same location and just hope everything works out (not that it ever does, of course).
In the same vein, the way Brian communicates is equally broken. User @creepiefarm on tumblr has a post about the Inquiry upload where they comment, "It’s not Hoody wondering if he should help or kill Jay, bc he never had Any intent to kill anyone but Alex….but rather thinking it’s him wondering if he’s helping at all or just leading the others to their deaths" that opens up a lot of interesting possibilities regarding the intention of that particular video. Rather than being a commentary on the way other characters are behaving, it is a very real option that Brian made the Inquiry upload about himself. The way this video uses an arrow to indicate the parts of the brain purportedly responsible for handling speech and communication has me wondering if this video was, in part, an attempted apology or explanation for why totheark is unable to express anything clearly, why they use exclusively cryptic videos to try communicating really important information.
"You are you, but who are you" being less of a call-out for the others and more of a sentiment closer to "I know who I am/what my intentions are, but how much does that really mean when my actions have to be filtered through an outsider's interpretation when I know they'll never be able to understand me?". The notion that prolonged exposure to the Operator and the Ark has severely impacted his ability to communicate clealry, and he's doing the best that he can and is still aware that it's not enough.
Something followed through in a way via the much later Quandrant upload -- a largely incomprehensible video that ultimately turns out to be a desperate plea for Jay to back off and remain out of harm's way, that ends with the statement "i cannot help", because Brian is aware that he's not communicating in a way that Jay will be able to understand in time, but he can't do anything to change it.
Brian seems aware of his own shortcomings in a way that the others don't necessarily seem to be, he knows exactly what his fatal flaw is, but the tragedy of Brian's character is that the Knowing is not enough to save him. He's ultimately a narrative parallel of Jay -- the ghost of Jay's future come back to warn him where his current path is leading; trying to help, but not being able to succeed. It's devastating in a beautifully compelling way, but to describe it with a tumblr post:
Archived Material
No one ever seems to acknowledge that this entire series could have focused more on how Alex and Brian are manipulating the others to their own goals. Tim and Jay are and always were pieces Brian moved to do the brunt work of tracking down and killing Alex. People seem to act like Alex and Jay are the big rivalry when like. Literally Brian states through TTA that Jay is just a means to an end. That’s the case with Tim as well, although that’s to a lesser degree due to Brian being closer to him than he is Jay. I could talk in depth about Brian’s feelings on Tim throughout the series, and the Masked Man as well but like, but regardless he STILL sees Tim/The Masked Man as a means to an end. We see in his final entry, Brian implies that he’s giving Tim 2 choices; Put on the mask and be a hound for him, being the muscle and sniffing nose to finally lead him to Alex- Or die without his medication. Like,,, Jay and Tim are LITERALLY just Brian’s hunting hounds, even though they were once his friends. Marble Hornets is, at it’s core, a Brian vs Alex story and I cant believe more people havent picked up on this more because its SUCH an interesting way of doing the story. (X)
do you ever think about brian before, though?? brian thomas, a handsome, nice, goofy young man who was finally going to college to pursue his dream career. brian thomas, upon meeting tim, who was alone and troubled and having a hard time fitting in, went out of his way to befriend him. brian thomas, one of the only people to audition for marble hornets just to help out a friend. brian thomas, who started to notice changes in himself, started getting sicker and losing track of time, but showing up for filming anyway. brian thomas, a person who had his own hopes and dreams, became nothing but a shell of a man. (X)
Suddenly Speaking: In Entry #73, Hoody mutters "Oh shit" when he hears Alex coming. (X)
Unreliable Narrator: totheark has frequently threatened, mocked, and stalked Jay and Alex (to say nothing of the masked men physically attacking them both). However, the fact that he keeps dropping clues and warnings about the events suggests that totheark might be trying to help or protect Jay. (X)
But Brian Does still have something in him. He has the burning Need to save others, to protect his friends...and the care he feels for Tim, his buddy. The fact that Tim escapes the fate of the Ark is the only thing that allows Brian to let go of his hatred/need for revenge. It's the only thing that makes him know all his efforts weren't for nothing, that there's Hope. Which means these two things, the love he feels for his friends, and the desire to protect and save others are so intrinsic to who he is the Ark can't strip these away from him. And he can't shed them to escape either. Even as a shell of a person these aspects of Brian remain and i just. OUGH. brian loved and cared so so much and if u don't remember that you've lost who he is completely. (X)
thinking about these lines from Richard Siken’s Snow and Dirty Rain in regards to the way both Alex and Brian never seemed able to Really hurt or kill the other : “Explaining will get us nowhere. I was away, I don’t know where, lying on the floor, pretending I was dead. I wanted to hurt you; but the victory is that I could not stomach it.”. like Hoody was always waiting for Masky or Tim or Jay to finish off Alex for him, and Alex had so many chances to kill Brian but didn’t - whichever way you take it, they cared for each other and even after everything couldn’t stomach the idea of really killing the other, no matter how much they wanted to. (X)