Gabriel vs The Operator (Mandela Catalogue vs Marble Hornets) Blog REMASTERED



TNs by Raphalonk



“In the social jungle of human experience, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity.”
- Erik Erikson

Gabriel, the deceiver of mankind and ruler of the Alternates from Mandela Catalogue

The Operator, the infectious parasite and the one who is not there from Marble Hornets

The mind is a very… bizarre place. It twists and turns in ways that we cannot fathom. But one thing is for certain. It contains something intrinsic to us. Our identity. Whether it be through hobbies, religion, talents, etc, we have an identity within ourselves. But what if…something lurked within the background, slowly morphing our brain into something sickly, dead, and cold. We are deceived and broken beyond repair. We lose what made us…us. These two cruel puppet masters of humanity’s psyche have tormented many while sitting back and watching in curiosity as we slowly lose every shred of ourselves. And they are DEFINITELY not alone.

For their media, this is REALLY simple. For Gabriel, we will obviously use the series he originally comes from: the Mandela Catalogue. Along with this, we will also give him Mystifying Oracle, as it is now a canon spinoff of Mandela Catalogue and was made by the same creator. For the Operator, we will be utilizing Marble Hornets (obviously), along with the canon comics that follow after the end of the series. Now, for the more dubious things, we will be giving the Operator the Always Watching Movie, in which it was stated by the creator that the movie takes place in the same universe as Marble Hornets. Along with this, we will also give it the Rosswood series. While this does take place in an alternate universe, the Operator’s characteristics remain the same, and some theories point to the fact that this is the same Operator.

Sources Used:

Other Sources Used:


Background

Gabriel

2 Corinthians 11:14: “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light”.

It is the time of joy! The Archangel Gabriel descended from the Heavens above to tell the great news! Jesus Christ, our lord and savior, was born in Bethlehem in Judea! Rejoice! Except, the Gabriel that you just saw..is NOT Gabriel. The message he has been bringing isn’t meant to spread joy. As a matter of fact, now he’s declaring himself as the True Savior; the one who knows everything about what makes us human; the one who knows what we love, and the one who knows what we dread.

Ever since biblical times, Gabriel has been manipulating events behind the scenes to only benefit himself. For instance, he created the Tree of Knowledge, gave rise to the Alternates even after the great flood, and orchestrated events to sabotage Jesus’s birth from coming to fruition, allowing Gabriel to become the True Savior. Fast forward to the 20th-21st century, Gabriel now mostly stays in the background, while his alternate army continues running amok. Counties in Wisconsin have been falling victim to the Alternates luring people to their deaths, with the Alternates using psychological warfare and inducing them with Metaphysical Awareness Disorder (M.A.D), causing the people’s mental stability to completely collapse, which results in suicide. So lock all your doors, keep a firearm with you, for the False Shepherd is here, and you will soon wonder, “Who have I been praying to all this time?”

The Operator

“I’ve been seeing this man…he’s following me…”

So let’s rewind the clocks back to 2009. A group of college students banded together with the skills and technology they had to create a student film called Marble Hornets. These college students were Alex Kralie, Jay Merrick, Tim Wright, and Brian Thomas. There are two ways that could have happened from there. Scenario 1 is where the filming process goes unfinished due to “unworkable conditions,” and Alex and Jay get handed the tapes and asked to “burn them,” which Jay silently refuses and instead views the tapes himself, or the film gets finished entirely, and Jay and Alex stay friends and now work on a new series called “Kralie in the Reel World”. However, either way, there is something in the distance. Something that has been silently stalking the crew, distorting their health and memories due to its insatiable need to spread its sickness to everyone that encounters it. This thing was The Operator.

Throughout the Marble Hornets universe, the Operator is not necessarily a physical being who wants to hunt down its prey and kill it. Rather, it uses its power to break them down mentally and physically. Additionally, it has been spreading its sickness to other people, and having them infect others through interactions to keep the sickness spreading. Many have fallen victim to the sickness, such as the Marble Hornets crew, a small town news team, other filmmakers, and even regular people just trying to live their lives. Its goals and motives are unknown, other than to sustain itself by feeding its victims to the Ark. So beware of what you see, whether it be in the forest or on videotapes. Keep your medications with you, and always remember to remind yourself, “Everything is Fine.”


Experience and Intelligence

Gabriel

Gabriel has existed since the birth of the universe, or maybe even before it. As such, he wields extraordinary levels of intelligence that no regular human mind can comprehend. While Gabriel clearly has a motive to deceive all of humanity and conquer it to be shaped in his image, Gabriel is no physical conqueror with an iron fist. The reality is far more terrifying, as he’s been spreading the word of the true nature of reality to the weakest of minds, while using his army of alternates to replace humankind to spread it even further. In short, what Gabriel lacks in physical weaponry and raw power, he makes up for it in deception and identity replacement.

The Operator

While we don’t know when the Operator came to be, it was first discovered in the early 2000s, when it started its first set of victims, preying on the Marble Hornets Crew. While we don’t know this thing’s level of intelligence, we do know that it is a conniving being with knowledge on how to stalk without being spotted. It also seems to study its prey from afar, before soon confronting them to distort their mental senses to exploit their weaknesses. Finally, it seems to be more willing to get its hands dirty whenever necessary.


Powers/Abilities

Gabriel

“Angel” Physiology
Gabriel and his Alternates possess some strange physiologies. They have a true form that is present within the 4th dimension. They create avatars to project down onto our plane of reality so that they can interact with us and the world. Their avatars are REALLY durable, as Alternates can tank gunfire! (Explained more in Before the Verdict)

Metaphysical Awareness Disorder (M.A.D.)
Metaphysical Awareness Disorder is a mental illness transmitted verbally by Gabriel and his Alternates. This is their main ability used to make people take their own lives. How it works is that if you are heavily religious or believe in philosophical implications. Those who experience M.A.D. have a 97% chance of offing themselves. However, there is a 3% chance that they won’t.

Shapeshifting
One of Gabriel and the Alternates’ main abilities is to shapeshift. That is how he took form as an angel in the first place. He can also become the serpent from the Garden of Eden.

Voice Mimicry
In order to have good disguises, you also gotta have a good impression! Gabriel can mimic the voices of others. The only one we have heard thus far is him mimicking O’Brien.

Flight / Teleportation
Shocker. The angel can fly. Also, he can teleport!

Light / Darkness Manipulation
Gabriel can manipulate light, such as making the skies brighter or draining the colors of cartoons. It also lines up with what is stated in Vol 5, which is “...and all the color was drained from the world.” He can darken areas as well, like the sky.

Telepathy
He can talk via the mind, such as when he imposed as Thatcher’s intuition.

Telekinesis
This is seemingly one of the main ways he attacks. He used this to make Dave’s eyes and brain explode.

Summoning / Creation
Gabriel is the creator of the Alternates due to being their leader and being established as the first. He also made a “creature” to kill Noah in the Ark, which is likely an Alternate.

BFR to The Sandy Tomb
It is HEAVILY implied that Gabriel trapped Jesus within some kind of dimension filled with an infinite amount of sand. To back this up, in Vol 5, he sends a shepherd to that same realm, which it matches the description as in Overthrone, with the sand and the chains.

Chain Creation
Along with being able to BFR those into the Sandy Tomb, it seems that he can just make chains come out of nowhere. Chains were stated to be on the captured person’s ankles, and the Shepherd in Vol 5 also has the same chains, although they are attached to a steel ball.

Dream Manipulation
Due to him creating the Alternates, he should have their abilities as his own. Alternates were able to make a man have the same dream over and over again in the description of M.A.D

Technology Manipulation
Alternates can mess with electronics, tapes, and affect cartoons. Gabriel also seemingly affects a TV in Vol 5.

Hivemind

Gabriel is the creator of the Alternates. The FIRST Alternate. They are all connected in a hivemind, as stated in his vinyl figure.

The Operator

Influential Existence

Whenever the Operator interacts with someone's mind, it crawls in like a parasite. By doing this, the Operator can spread its disease (which is the influence) to other people. The way you contract this disease, seemingly, is if you know of the Operator’s existence, more specifically, if you try to look into the Operator or have an obsession with it. This is NOT to say that just casually knowing about him will give you the sickness. This is shown with Jay in the main Marble Hornets story, and further backed up in the Always Watching movie. Soon, it would then slowly consume its target bit by bit until it becomes an empty shell, in which it takes them to the Ark and consumes them, and stays alive as a result. As a double-edged sword, killing everyone associated with the disease would be able to weaken it, although it would be very hard if the Operator were to spread its influence onto YOU.

Also, as seen in Always Watching, its range can be spread through multiple states. As a major plot point of the movie is that the main cast is trying to find out about the mystery of the Whitlocks, and once they knew of the Operator’s existence, it managed to spread its disease onto them, even though they were several states away. Even when traversing states to get away, it always found them.

Mind / Empathic / Madness Manipulation

The Operator’s main ability. Throughout the series, it has messed with the minds of its victims, doing things like increasing stress, violent tendencies, paranoia, etc. It can even use mind control to comply with its orders.

Memory Manipulation

Another one of its main abilities is to affect memories. Usually, erasing them. For example, it wiped SEVEN MONTHS from Jay’s memories, caused Jessica and Tim to have amnesia, and more.

Fear Manipulation

It seems the Operator can instill fear within victims, such as when Alex’s dog named Rocky, started getting scared when confronting the Operator, as shown above.

Voice Mimicry

In Rosswood, the Operator has shown abilities of mimicking people's voices, in which it was able to mimic Alex's voice to get Jay out of hiding, and later on, continuously mimicked Alex's voice again to mess with Jay.

Telekinesis

It seemed to cause swings and seesaws on a playground to start moving on their own without touching them. It also has moved doors and seemingly dragged Tim without touching him, and did the same to the camera within Rosswood.

Technology Manipulation

The Operator is capable of affecting technology, such as causing distortions in audio and video recordings, preventing a voicemail from being sent, causing a camera to run out of battery, shutting off a projector without any interaction, etc.

Passive Effects

Passively, the Operator can cause many things to happen to its victims. Things like amnesia, sleepiness, and minor diseases. Along with this, it can infect the person, causing violent coughing, headaches, seizures, or unconsciousness. If the target is around the Operator for too long, it can intensify headaches, seizures, amnesia, and other health issues.

Power Bestowal

It seems that some victims exposed to the Operator have shown technopathic abilities similar to the Operator itself. Additionally, when fully controlled by the Operator, those controlled by him seemingly gain a physical strength and durability buff.

Space-Time Manipulation

The Operator can warp space like changing rooms of a house, making a structure disappear and reappear somewhere else, and warping Rosswood Park to cause the characters to appear in different places. In Rosswood, it can seemingly manipulate special areas like the abandoned hospital so that characters who try to escape get sent back to where they started, or possibly be sent to dimensional areas. Along with this, it can warp time by sending victims forward in time, multiple times.

Perception Manipulation

It can change the perception of people, or things, like causing a camera not to spot door movement, or causing Jessica to see other people as shadows.

Illusion Creation

The Operator was able to create a bunch of illusions to throw Jessica off. It also utilizes these illusions throughout the comics.

Selective Invisibility

The Operator can seemingly make itself invisible to certain people, so that they can only see it through a camera lens. However, it seems that it is visible to animals like dogs.

Clairvoyance

The Operator always seems to know where its victims are. For example, it immediately knew where Alex’s new spot was.

Sleep / Dream Manipulation

Due to its presence, it can cause targets to faint or suffer from insomnia and narcolepsy. Along with this, it can manipulate dreams, such as when Jessica kept having dreams of being watched by the Operator, or how Adam had dreams about the Operator.

Darkness Manipulation

The Operator can seemingly make the area around it dark, like when it darkened Alex’s room, when in Rosswood, it kept the abandoned hospital that Jay and Alex were at dark for several days on end, and in the Always Watching movie, when it cut off Milo’s lights, presumably.

Teleportation

It can teleport itself and others across long distances (Even across the country). And it teleports people forward in time.

BFR to the Ark
The Operator can send people to the Ark, which is seemingly a separate universe that contains a maw. Inside the Ark, the Operator can warp reality anywhere within it and is intangible. Hoodie stated that “everything is distorted,” in which, through his journey within it, it created a large hole in which he fell in out of nowhere (which showed code) when he was traversing on solid ground, made a large body of water within (which is similar to what happened to Tim in Entry #65), and manipulated the water to spit him back out to the beginning. Along with this, it can pull you to the ground and make you stuck. When people are on the verge of dying or slowly becoming a hollow shell, they get dragged closer and closer to the maw, in which they will eventually fall. Once fallen inside, you seemingly get erased from reality. This feeds the Operator and sustains it, increasing its power. It feeds on broken victims within or even corpses.

There is a way to escape, however. If you have enough mental stability, you can leave. Buuuuut the Operator can send you right back just as easily.

Elasticity / Body Control / Size Manipulation

It can modify and stretch its limbs to longer distances, and can grow its whole body (in this particular image, 40.35 ft. Jesus.). Along with this, it can bend its limbs really weirdly.

⦻ Marks

The Operator can leave weird ⦻ marks on the skin (similar to the irl Ringworm) without any physical contact. It also seems it can cause instant death within victims marked with this symbol.

Sustenance Manipulation

In Rosswood, despite Alex and Jay being stuck in the abandoned hospital for 10 days, they haven't starved or dehydrated, which means the Operator can manipulate their sustenance.

Necromancy

It seemingly can bring back people from the dead to do its bidding. Like when it reanimated Milo’s corpse after he committed die.

Support

Gabriel

Alternates
Gabriel has a lot of Alternates on his side, but they’re not all the same. As a whole, the Alternates have many otherworldly abilities. Some of them are categorized into different types with their unique traits. As such, we’ll list them all and share what they’re equally capable of.

Type 1: Doppelgänger
Perfect, identical copies of someone. As such, they’re practically impossible to differentiate from a regular human being
  • Special Abilities: None Notable
    • Examples:
      • T.H.I.N.K Principle Alternates
      • Cesar's Alternate
      • Adam
Type 3: Flawed Inpersonators / Overdriven Assimilations
Exaggerated features like overly long hands, stretched out faces, half of a face, or going completely upside down. (This is the literal definition of uncanny ngl like wtf)
  • Special Abilities: None Notable
    • Examples:
      • N
      • The Preacher
      • Faceless Man
      • Faceless Girl
Type 4: Tulpas
They emerge from the mind of individuals. It’s unknown whether they have to manifest specifically when the circumstance is right, such as when the Might of the Subconscious is on.
  • Special Abilities: Flight, Intangibility, TV/Mind/Reflection Manifestation
    • Examples
      • Vol 333 Alternate
      • TV Alternate

The Intruder (aka 6)
Originally was thought to be a tulpa alternate, but now it is clear he isn’t an alternate at all. Appearing as a hooded man or a creepy police sketch of a man, the Intruder was the one responsible for the disappearance of 3,426 children across the 4 counties. He has the power to emerge from TVs and disguise himself as Stanley while also changing his voice to appeal to a younger audience. He also has other powers like…
  • Technology Manipulation: Along with appearing on TV screens, he can also affect other technology like monitors or GPS trackers.

Mystifying Oracle Demon
While it could simply be known as the “Ouija Board Demon,” this entity was the one terrorizing Joel Hayas when he bought the board to make videos on it. Due to the fact its a demon, it should be an Alternate, and thus be part of Gabriel’s army. In terms of powers…

The Operator

Brainwashed Humans

Now, there are some complications with putting these people within the Operator’s team. For starters, the brainwashed humans in the original series, in particular, don’t listen to the Operator often, with Masky actively going against it and Hoodie trying to find a way to stop the Operator. But, because it can affect the mind and control their bodies, as shown in Always Watching, it should be fine that they should be part of its team.

  • Masky: Previously Tim Wright, Masky is pretty much a normal guy who possesses a camera and a knife. Due to the Operator’s influence, he can manipulate technology.
  • Hoodie: Previously Brian Thomas, Hoodie (just like Masky), is a normal human who possesses a metal pipe and a handgun. Due to the Operator’s influence, he can manipulate technology.
  • Totheark: This character is kinda debatable if it's even part of the Operator’s team, but it is implied that it is one of the cast members of Marble Hornets. And also runs the Totheark channel. They are the smartest of the 3, being able to hack, program, video edit, and code.
  • Miscellaneous People: These are just normal people who have the Operator’s disease. When the Operator has a full grasp on their mind, it can just mind control them and control their bodies. This also makes it so that these people have the same strength and durability as the Operator. ONLY when getting controlled, however.

Feats

Gabriel

Overall
  • Deception
    • Made Adam eat the forbidden fruit
    • Put another “creature” into the boat to eliminate Noah when he disobeyed Gabriel
    • Interferred with Jesus’s birth by going after Joseph, Mary, and Jesus himself
    • Fooled the shepherds into believing he was the True Savior
    • Deceived the Mandela Prophet (Dave Lee) to use the technology available from MandelaTech for his own purposes to keep up the alternate spread
  • Legacy
    • Gave rise to a new, unique depiction of demonology and the Devil
    • Although it wasn’t the first, it gave rise to the fake humans trope that’s become stale in the Analog Horror space as of today (Like bro Analog Horror IS NOT Among Us!! NOT EVERY FUCKING ANALOG HORROR HAS TO HAVE IMPOSTERS ROAMING AMONG US!)
    • Became the source of the  J E R M A   F A C E  analog horror trope (like seriously not every analog horror should just be “SMILEY FACE SO SCARYYY” like bro come up with new material)

Power

Speed
  • N O T H I N G (is worth the risk lol)

The Operator

Overall

  • Control
    • Spread its influence onto the Marble Hornets cast
    • Caused said cast to go insane and murder each other
    • Successfully spread its influence onto another cast of characters
    • Consumed multiple people
    • Brainwashed multiple humans to do its bidding
  • Legacy
    • Influenced the silent stalking Slenderman trope (which is now pretty much overdone)
    • Unintentionally created the concept of proxies (BIGGEST FUCKING IRONY LMAOOO)
    • Created the whole Slender Sickness thingy (Which now is just metaphysical covid-19, like we got people coughing over some dude with 999 ping lmao)
    • Coined the Operator symbol as Slenderman’s own symbol (Even though they’re separate characters, but who are we kidding, nobody’s gonna care, and they’ll just think the Operator and Slenderman are the same character anyway, so what’s the point trying to educate them lol)
    • Influenced the video distortion trope associated with Slenderman (Which, hey, nothing wrong with that! Good for the crew! Except…….yea nothing else to say)
    • One of the best Slenderman interpretations
    • Straight up influenced Slender: The Eight Pages (Made by the same creators, too! And hey! We grew up seeing SEVERAL content creators scream and shit their pants seeing the tall dude!)

Power

Speed


Scaling

Gabriel

Alternates
Because Gabriel is described as a Hivemind Leader among the rest of the Alternates, it's safe to assume that he upscales them, as he most likely is the strongest one.
  • The Murray Alternate was able to shrug off bullets
  • Cesar’s Alternate shrugged off bullets from Mark’s gun
  • Murray Alternate killed Ruth Weaver silently and efficiently
  • Cesar’s Alternate stood outside Mark’s room for several days (Superhuman Stamina)

Normal Humans
Should this really be a question? They neg-diffed Mandela County and other counties around it so hard that they made population numbers go into the 100s. Also, they have been shown to tear through humans easily, so scaling to them is TOTALLY reasonable. And when we say scaling to them, we mean one person.

The Operator

Brainwashed Humans + Skully

Since these humans are under the Operator’s control and are shown to be inferior to it, the Operator should upscale these two. Skully is interesting as he’s not really a corporeal being like the Operator. However, due to the fact that the Operator is both considered superior and physically stronger than him, it should scale to anything Skully does (Which isn’t a lot)

Normal Humans

Due to the Operator clearly showing that it is superior to normal human beings, it should reasonably upscale them.

Weaknesses

Gabriel
While Gabriel and his army of Alternates seem unstoppable, there are a few weaknesses to take into account. First off, M.A.D isn’t a 100% guaranteed death. Keep in mind that 97% of people get affected by M.A.D, but the remaining 3% matter a lot. Because of this, there is a chance you can resist it and come back alive. For that to happen, religious and philosophical practices will have to be ignored, and you must always keep the memories of your loved ones close to your heart.

Additionally, Gabriel at his core is very prideful. He is very arrogant to the point where he has made some slip-ups. An instance where his manipulation didn’t work is when Noah still created his ark despite Gabriel’s wishes, angering the “angel,” and having Noah’s ark be inhabited by another creature. That creature is most likely an Alternate.

The Operator

Despite its mysterious nature and numerous powers, the Operator has a few weaknesses. First, the Operator’s effects on people can be lessened with certain anti-seizure medication. Second, it could be made vulnerable by destroying every individual who had something to do with it or its victims, with the Operator eventually starving to death should it not receive nourishment. Third, even while invisible, you can still see it with a camera. Also, while the Operator's reality warping abilities are impressive and frankly terrifying, it's something that it can't do off-rip. It HAS to take you to the Ark in order to use said abilities. Finally, while the Operator does have an army of mind-controlled humans (or can make more depending on the situation), they’re not really obedient. Sometimes they can resist the Operator or not do what it says, and Tim, one of the Operator’s proxies, is literally working AGAINST the Operator.

Before the Verdict

IMPORTANT: How the feats for these series will be handled

Before we begin, we just want to say there is quite a bit of a problem with the way the feats are handled for both series. Mandela Catalogue’s feats are more implied and symbolic, so it’s a pretty iffy zone to take in. The thing with the Mandela Catalogue is that because it’s focused on the horror aspect to the point where everything is implied, it makes it hard to see what feats can actually be used! If we use purely on-screen feats, it would be unfair to Gabriel when Alex Kister most likely wrote Gabriel to be an all-powerful figure on Mandela Catalogue, even if it’s more grounded in reality, where the horror lies in how little the people know. On the other hand, taking EVERYTHING on Mandela Catalogue literally would basically glaze Gabriel to the core to the point where he is presented as OP without anything to truly back it up. At that point, it is no wonder people think he’s a fraud!

Marble Hornets’s feats, however, are more grounded and easier to calculate since it is shown on-screen. We’ve seen consistent instances of the Operator using his powers to affect the characters around him. The problem is that the only ball game we have to go off of the Operator is his victims, which are only humans and a dog. We’ve never seen the Operator actually go up against anything that isn’t human or exists differently compared to the usual flesh and blood that humans have. The Operator operates (hehe) as a parasite rather than an actual combatant that fights with throwing hands or using dark magic, so there’s also that to consider. Here’s another thing to consider as well:

THESE CHARACTERS AREN’T MEANT TO BE FIGHTING PHYSICALLY HEAD-ON. THIS BATTLE WILL BE PURELY A FIGHT BASED ON INFLUENCE AND WHO CAN OUTLAST THE OTHER.

For how we had to handle the feats, let’s consider this. On-screen feats will be DEFINITELY used to measure how powerful these characters are. However, thematic implications and assumptions along with potential symbolisms will also have to be included, ONLY IF they are the only things available to add into this blog that would fit what the creators of both series intended these characters to be. For example, we can’t just assume that Gabriel is only wall-level or maybe town-level based purely from on-screen feats. Why? Because if Gabriel really was that weak, the people of the four counties, or even outside of them, would’ve eventually figured it out and just bombed all 4 towns or gunned Gabriel down right from the get-go with military weapons. However, that’s not the case if Alex’s statements and the implications we’ve gotten so far place Gabriel much higher. If implications and vague scenes are the only thing we have to go off of, which Mandela Catalogue is known for doing, we’ll just have to adapt and make do with what we have. Just because a scene could be symbolic doesn’t mean it could also be literal. Sometimes, a scene can be taken both ways (figuratively AND literally), which is what we will use when gauging Gabriel’s power.

So with that out of the way, let’s discuss what we’ll be using before discussing the verdict.

Gabriel

Should the Devil from the Bible be used for Gabriel?
When we take into account how Mandela Catalogue centers around how biblical events are real and play out nearly the same way (except when Gabriel starts meddling), you might think it's best to factor it in if we are to gauge Gabriel’s power, since he is essentially the devil in the disguise of an Angel. The religious themes, parallels, and symbolism of the Mandela Catalogue make it really difficult, if not impossible, to just ignore what the real Bible has to offer. It could offer some extra context on where the devil’s power extends to if we don’t see them in the Mandela Catalogue, right? Nope.

The thing is, the Devil from the Bible and the Alt. Gabriel acts very differently from one another. For example, the Devil and the Alt. Gabriel has very different abilities, such as the Devil only being described as having powers that God permits, and doesn’t have omniscient knowledge, as opposed to Gabriel having vast amounts of knowledge beyond the universe, and can distribute them via M.A.D. Another thing to bring up is that Gabriel has the power to replace people with Alternates, while the Devil can possess, inhabit, or influence human beings. They are just too different to be used in this case. That being said, though, we will acknowledge the similarities and the lore implications.

Is Gabriel 4th-Dimensional?

Just a hold up before we discuss things. While we usually don’t use biblical scaling, as the Bible itself doesn’t really have scaling to begin with, Mandela Catalogue takes place where the events that happened are real, and we have to keep in mind that the possibility of Gabriel being 4D has to be supported in a way that makes sense in the narrative of Mandela Catalogue. Once again, if implications are all we have to go off of, we’ll just have to make do.

This is a question that we believe is very important, as it can determine where Gabriel truly scales, given everything we do know about him in Alex Kister’s works. At the same time, you could say no because while there was a statement Alex Kister made TWICE in a podcast, one when referring to the Intruder, in which he stated he projects himself onto visual media, hinting at some sort of avatar creation, even stating that “he’s not really as much as a physical person”, and two, where he refers to Alternates as 4th dimensional beings, as well as the narrator’s voice in Vol 6, that suggests that the Alternates are 4th dimensional, there’s seemingly no evidence to support this. However, when you truly read between the lines and see the full scale of everything that lines up from the story itself to the themes and symbolism, the idea of Gabriel being 4th-dimensional starts to make more and more sense. Let’s look at all the implications we do have in the Mandela Catalogue.

M.A.D is our first clue. M.A.D is short for Metaphysical Awareness Disorder. It’s not just where people tell you to kill yourself low-tier God-style, and you just magically do it. It puts the Forbidden Knowledge about reality into your head that is just too incomprehensible to process, making you end your life. We all know Gabriel and his Alternates are the ones who created M.A.D in the first place, as they have knowledge that extends to an incomprehensible degree. Where do you think they’d be able to have this knowledge in the first place, unless Gabriel and his Alternates actually come from a plane of existence too incomprehensible for us, like the 4th Dimension?

Here’s another thing to consider: The Real Archangel Gabriel. The Archangel Gabriel, upon further research, is described as The Herald of Visions, The Messenger of God, and one of the higher-ranked Angels alongside Michael, Raphael, and other higher-ranked Angels who serve God. His role as the Angel of the Annunciation makes him the Holy Patron Saint, bringing the messages from God to the people. In that case, it’s really safe to assume that the Archangel Gabriel is a being that exists beyond our own comprehension, hence why he says, “Don’t Be Afraid;” the mere presence of him or the other archangels would be TERRIFYING to us humans.

For the Alt. Gabriel being able to somehow get rid of him effectively and impersonate him to deceive the masses and prevent Jesus’s birth, further strengthens the point of where Alt. Gabriel scales to. What the implications tell us is that Alt. Gabriel has actively been meddling in the structure of the 7 Heavenly Virtue Angels and SOMEHOW got away with it undetected all the way up to the 20th-21st century. In a way, it would make sense for the Archangel Gabriel to be the ideal shape to be used. The Devil is heavily associated with the temptation to sin, while the Archangel Gabriel carries out messages. With that form, Gabriel can essentially use manipulation with his words to the fullest, deceiving the masses. With that said, let’s get this out of the way. Gabriel’s feat of overthrowing God will still not be taken into account. The problem with that feat, even when taking implications into account, is simply too big of a stretch. The most we’ve seen from Gabriel throughout the series is just sabotaging biblical events in subtle ways that benefit him specifically. There’s nothing to suggest that Gabriel has literally destroyed God and taken his place, and the only implication possible that does have support is how he got rid of the real Archangel Gabriel to take his place, since the Gabriel that appeared at the beginning of the video, Overthrone, is in fact the real Archangel Gabriel. Additionally, even with 4-D scaling, attack potency (AP) will not be factored, because while it is possible that Gabriel could directly attack and it would be effective due to the 4-D scaling allowing him to ignore the resistances that are bound to lower-dimensional beings, Gabriel has never fought anyone directly before and is more of a puppet-master type of entity. It just doesn’t make sense because Gabriel, and many angels in general in the bible, are primarily just divine messengers to the people. Additionally, Mandela Catalogue, while it does have some religious themes, is generally more grounded in reality. Because of this, the overthrowing of God implications and the 4-D AP scaling will not be considered.

TLDR: The implications, along with the statements, all point towards it. Here are reasons why:

  • Origin of Incomprehensible Knowledge (M.A.D) has to come from an Incomprehensible plane of existence (4th Dimension).
  • Implications point toward him being able to get rid of and replace the real Archangel Gabriel, who says “Don’t be afraid,” due to his presence being too much for humans, and is one of the Archangels who serve God, with Gabriel as the messenger. As such, Gabriel should be able to scale up to him (although that in itself is shaky since we don’t know how powerful the Archangels are to begin with, so take this with a grain of salt)

Why is the Alternate spread only local to Mandela County?
(Do note that for this section, we dive further into topics like Christianity, in which we do that to further gauge Gabriel. Also, due to the fact that the Mandela Catalogue is VERY religion-focused, this is why. You have been warned.)

Okay, so if Gabriel and his alternates are supposed to be 4th-dimensional, why is it that his Alternate spread is only local to Mandela County, with the max being about 4 counties? Why can’t Gabriel just blow up the entire universe, or at least have the Alternates be worldwide? Well, here’s a theory that we do have that would potentially make sense in a religious and narrative sense: The Alternates aren’t just mindless zombies that Gabriel created that just attack humans. They specifically deliver M.A.D to their victims, mostly verbally, to drive their victims to self-deletion before they get replaced by alternates. Does this sound familiar, at least in the verbal-spreading sense? Yes, because it’s basically Christianity.

The concept of Christianity is that through the belief in Jesus Christ as our savior from our sins, we can reconcile with God and be welcomed into everlasting life. Jesus Christ, in Christianity, is our savior. Those who have a deep relationship with the Lord become Christians, and they spread the word of the Gospel to other people, reminding them of their place as people who can be saved as long as they believe and accept the fact that Jesus died for our sins. Christians spread the Gospel to people, converting them into Christians to further spread the word of God.

So how does this connect to Gabriel and his Alternates? They’re basically doing the same thing, but in a twisted and horrifying manner. Gabriel is presented as the “True Savior,” and those who hear his word are deceived and replaced with Alternates. From there, those same Alternates spread M.A.D to people to deceive them, too, getting them replaced by Alternates as well, further spreading Gabriel’s word. It’s a complete mirror contrast. This fits in a way, as the Devil is meant to be the mirror opposite of God. God has the 7 Heavenly Virtues, while the Devil’s twisted version is the 7 Deadly Sins. The number 333 represents the Holy Trinity: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, while the Devil has his own number, 666, representing the mark of the Beast; the Devil himself. In this case, Gabriel is essentially flipping the concept of Christianity; instead of saving the people, he’s deceiving them.

This all leads to why the Alternates are all only local to Mandela County. It’s because the government is actively silencing that message and making sure nobody hears it, preventing the Alternates from spreading. It’s why we see tapes of the police being told to actively lie and let those people die when encountering an Alternate. It’s why the Government is deleting any sense of self-deletion in Vol. 6. They don’t want any mention of Alternates because people will start to believe in them. When they believe in Alternates, it helps them spread even more with the Tulpa Alternates manifesting through the imagination of children. It’s also why there was the order of having all TVs be destroyed; it’s to prevent more Alternates from emerging from the screens. It’s also the main reason the tapes tell you to avoid any religious or philosophical practices; anything religious could potentially lead to people being deceived, and the government doesn’t want that. This is why the Alternates are only county-wide; they only exist if more believe in them and the existence of Gabriel.

TLDR: The Alternate spread is basically a twisted form of Christianity. They spread more and more through the belief of Gabriel and his words, especially with the tulpa Alternates, just like Christianity does with how they spread the word of God. They’re restricted to the 4 counties and can’t spread any further because the Government is basically silencing them, so the word of the False Shepherd is nullified.

How can Alternates physically interact if they’re “4th Dimensional”?
One final thing to address is how the Alternates are 4th-dimensional if they can be physically interacted with. After all, in volume 333, we’ve seen Thatcher fire at the floating Alternate thing, and it clearly showed some level of pushback, and it didn’t just phase through him. Here’s the thing: if Gabriel and his alternates are 4th-dimensional, they can’t fully be contained in the 3D universe, so as such, they’re not going to be there fully if that makes sense. As for how this can be made possible, there are two ways: projection or distortion. If Gabriel and his Alternates fully enter the 3D universe, distortions are going to occur, which wouldn’t work well in the reality they are a part of. The other way, which is the more likely option, is them projecting into the 3D universe as avatars so they can safely blend in the 3D universe.

As a matter of fact, the projection method is the most likely option. In volume 333, Stanley (Intruder) notes how he can make friends (Alternates) appear out of thin air, and alternates themselves are described as entities that can manifest in and out of reality (in the captions, btw). In that case, the physical Alternates are essentially manifestations, or projections. They’re not fully there in the flesh since they're 4th Dimensional, but they can project themselves into the 3D universe to physically interact with the humans, all the while they stay peaking through their 4th Dimensional windows.

There was an argument that could be made that Gabriel and his alternates could just cram into the 3D space since they can’t interact with humankind in the 4D spectrum. The problem with this is that for that to happen, Gabriel and his Alternates would have to be physically bound by the rules of 3D reality, which we know they don’t obey. Some types of Alternates have biologically impossible characters, while others can turn intangible or fly without any wings. While you might not believe it, Mandela Catalogue is a grounded universe, featuring only the supernatural. Because of that, an entity that has biologically impossible characteristics or can do things like flying without wings or turning intangible would imply that they don’t obey the laws of physics. This is why the angle to have Alternates project avatars of themselves so they can interact with the world around them would fit better.

TLDR: They project avatars in order to interact with our plane of existence, sort of like Darkseid and Pennywise.

The Operator

So this is one of the main confusions with the Operator. Isn’t it just Slenderman? I mean, it does look like him…right? Well, not exactly. While yes, the Operator is canon to the Slenderman mythos, in which canonically, Marble Hornets is a series made by a victim of Slenderman to spread its influence. The Operator is CANONICALLY just fictional within the mythos. But for starters, just by looking at their appearances, they show some differences. Notice the absence of tendrils on the Operator and the difference in some of its abilities. And in terms of how they behave, they act differently from each other, and do different things. The Operator doesn’t physically interact with its victims like Slenderman, usually just drawing power from their mental state. Along with this, Masky and Hoodie show some differences from Slenderman’s usual proxies (they also aren’t even called proxies), being able to keep their sanity and can resist the Operator sometimes, unlike some of Slenderman’s proxies. There are just too many differences to consider these two the same entity, so in conclusion, the Operator is not Slenderman, and none of Slenderman’s feats and abilities will be used from the main canon. So no 7D - 11D Operator or pregnancy hax!

TLDR: Although both the Operator and Slenderman look very similar and the Operator is canon to the Slenderman mythos, the Operator doesn’t have tendrils and behaves more like a parasite than a monster.

Can the Operator control the Ark + How big is the Ark?

Alrighty, so first question. What is the Ark? The Ark is essentially a pocket reality where the Operator can send its victims to either trap them for a time or to use it to consume them. The Ark, as shown in Marble Hornets and in the comics, is this REALLY DARK area, with a light in the middle shining down onto a hole that potentially could be the Operator's mouth, as it is HEAVILY implied that is what it is. With this in mind, it could allude to the fact that this dimension might be PART OF the Operator. And as discussed before in its abilities, the Operator can manipulate this dimension however it desires. Now that we know that the Operator can control the Ark, this leads us to our second question.

How big is the Ark? This is a very difficult question, as we don't really get an actual statement on how big this place is. We do get a statement from Hoodie that implies he has escaped this world many times before, and as shown before in abilities, Jessica and others were going to escape if they had a stable mental state. It’s just that…WE STILL DON’T KNOW HOW BIG IT IS. As of right now, due to its nature of being a pocket dimension or being a separate area of reality (in which we will talk about in a second), we can just assume it is baseline universal. Nothing to back it up the fact that it is infinite in size, but nothing to back up the fact that it is only the size of a building.

TLDR: The Operator can control the Ark due to most likely being linked to it, and we see him doing so, and while we don’t have an idea of the full scope of the Ark’s size, we can just assume its baseline universal, due to its properties of being a pocket dimension and possibly being a separate area of reality.

How is the Ark connected to the Operator?
So we all know that the Ark is connected to the Operator. However, other series created by the same creators as Marble Hornets seem to show more things about the Ark and its relationship with the Operator. In the ARG named “Louse” (Which is tied into other series like Clear Lakes 44 and ECKVA, in which the former is not canon anymore), there is a place, or being called “The Rot.” This seems to be a large hole in a desolate place that calls and pulls people in to consume them. Sound familiar? The Rot also has beings that help collect bodies for it. Similar to the Operator.

This is where it gets REALLY confusing. ECKVA is supposedly in the same universe as Marble Hornets. Why is that important? Well, in ECKVA, we see another entity seemingly infect someone with a thing called “The Blot,” which brings those infected to the Rot. With this and the inclusion of Rouse, it seems that the Ark itself is its own universe, or a place within a different plane of reality, with the Operator merely being one of its creations. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…what does this mean? Well, the Ark isn’t THE OPERATOR’S pocket reality. The Ark is its own universe. However, specifics are kind of vague, as we don’t know how big it is yet, or if it's on a higher dimension. This could also bring up the theory that the Operator is an avatar, but let’s just say it's one of its own sentient creations. Even if ECKVA isn’t canon, this still provides evidence that the Ark is its own reality.

TLDR: In other canon material like ECKVA and Louse, the Ark is heavily implied to be a separate universe that created the Operator to bring bodies to it, which further sustains its existence.

Should Rosswood be used?

Ah, Rosswood, the spin-off that perfectly encapsulated the vibes of Marble Hornets! For those who don't know, Rosswood is a spin-off of Marble Hornets, as I said just now. This takes place in an "alternate universe," where Alex completed the Marble Hornets film and never came in contact with the Operator, with him and Jay living normal lives, trying to work on movies. Tim is also seemingly missing in this movie, although it is speculated in the fandom that Tim was the child who ran away in the old hospital in the woods. But to make a long story short, Alex and Jay go to this abandoned hospital to make a documentary on Marble Hornets, in which they get trapped there, forced to stay at the hospital for many days or weeks on end without starving or getting thirsty. Any attempt at escaping brings them back to the Hospital somehow, with them slowly becoming insane and both dying at the hands of the Operator. Now, how does this tie in with the mainline Marble Hornets? Obviously, this was officially stated to be an alternate universe to the mainline story, so how does the Operator scale to this version of it?

Well, starting off, a theory suggests that this alternate universe could very well be a type of purgatory for Alex and Jay from the mainline universe, as there are many things pointing to that, since they are the only two from the main story that died and were the two main people driving the story. Along with this, due to the Operator's nature of distorting space and time, and even controlling the Ark, it doesn't seem too far-fetched that Rosswood could very well be its type of hell for both of them. Hell, even in Rosswood, when Jay finds his way to the tunnel, he seems to have stumbled into some potential dimensional area, as either he ran into another version of himself in time or from a different reality, or something grabbed his camera. Just due to how the scene is shown, I lean towards the former. The Operator in this universe even contains THE SAME ABILITIES as the Operator we know, so it backs it up even more. And if we go with the assumption that the Ark creates entities to bring people to it, this could again be the same Operator, maybe even hopping universes to feast upon more victims.

We know this seems kind of a stretch, but even including Rosswood, it doesn't really give the Operator much besides one ability and one feat, which doesn't even do much. So, in my opinion, Rosswood should be okay to add to the Operator's abilities and feats.

TLDR: Y E S.


Art
Track Art by A_Defective_Dragon
Track Arts by Raphalonk
Meme Art by Raphalonk

Verdict

Physical Stats

While yes, we did say that this fight wasn’t going to be a physical one, we decided to cover this section for the sake of doing so, and in case someone was curious as to who has better stats. Gabriel can scale to Alternates who can easily kill humans, and he has shown that he can kill Dave by exploding his eyeballs or brain, putting him within the street tier levels of power. But how does that compare to the Operator? Well, the Operator can scale to his brainwashed humans, who can do things like knock others unconscious or kill them straight up. However, it has shown MANY strength feats itself compared to Gabriel’s one feat. It can brutalize people, pound down locked doors, and when in a giant state, can break trees and move at such force that it reaches the wall levels of power. Stronger than anything Gabriel or his Alternates have done. But what about speed? Well, Gabriel…doesn’t have any speed feats. Neither his Alternates. The most we can compare them to are the normal walking speeds of humans. Meanwhile, while the Operator doesn’t have any speed feats on its own, outside of regular walking speed, it can move at subsonic speeds while in a giant form. At least it's something! With that, the Operator easily takes physical stats.

Tertiary Factors

We decided to handle this category before the others since it’s one that would have the least impact in regard to the debate.

Starting off with Experience, this one is an easy Gabriel W, as he has existed for thousands of years, extending all the way back to biblical times, if not before that. While we don’t know how long Operator has existed for, the earliest we’ve seen the Operator is during Alex Kralie’s birthday when he was a child, which would only make his presence a few years at most. WAAAAAAAAAAAY less than Gabriel.

Moving on to Intelligence, this one is another Gabriel sweep, as he is a mass manipulator, while we have never seen any intelligence feats for Operator. For further context, Gabriel was implied to be the one manipulating biblical events to benefit only himself. He was able to fool Adam into eating the Forbidden Fruit, turning him into an Alternate. He put another animal into Noah’s ark, which most likely is an alternate. Gabriel was also able to prevent Jesus’s birth, allowing Gabriel to take place as the True Savior. Even in modern times in Mandela Catalogue, Gabriel has been manipulating things to benefit him, such as fooling Dave into keeping up his tech company, MandelaTECH, so his products would become a vessel for the alternate invasion. The Operator, in this case, has only been seen stalking his victims and always being there in the background. While he does appear from time to time, distorting the camera and making the Marble Hornets crew and others start coughing and going insane, there’s not much to go on from there, although he has controlled the crew in the Always Watching movie.

Finally, there is skill, which is something the Operator should take. Even though neither fights directly, Operator is a more confrontational opponent and does get directly involved in comparison to tormenting its victims, while controlling victims, has shown skill in killing humans very precisely, like beating them to death, or snapping necks. In comparison, Gabriel normally sits back and lets his Alternates do the tormenting and killing for him. While you could make the argument that the False Gabriel had to get rid of the real Archangel Gabriel to impersonate him, as well as getting rid of Jesus to take his place as the True Savior, those showings are more implied, and could not have been a straight physical brawl. Compared to the Operator’s more on-screen feats that are shown more often, the Operator will be taking this as the safer option.

To make a long story short, Gabriel takes Experience and Intelligence, while Operator takes Skill.

Abilities

Let’s take this to their abilities, which will be a long one. Going off of what we know from both series, the Operator clearly has the edge. While both Gabriel and the Operator have the ability to warp reality in their own ways, hijack technology, and kill their victims without even touching them, the Operator’s showings are simply more effective. Gabriel’s showings of hijacking technology revolve around him, using it to communicate with his victims and manipulate them. These include him impersonating David’s friend, O’Brien, to lure him into the church to kill him, or possibly communicating on Jonah’s GPS in his car to directly talk to him. However, on the Operator’s side, it was able to warp the layout of a house, continuously keep the lighting dark to trap Jay and Alex inside, wipe people’s memories clean, control people directly when it chooses to, and distort their cameras to the point that it is barely viewable, and the audio distortion is unbearable.

With this in mind, it's unlikely that either of the abilities would actually be effective against the other. M.A.D wouldn’t work on the Operator because its mind isn’t human, and it doesn’t resemble any human qualities for Gabriel to break. The Operator’s passive effects wouldn’t work because the physiology of Gabriel and his alternates simply doesn’t function the same way, because they’re not fully there in the flesh. Additionally, the Operator ringworm symbol has only worked once and hasn’t been shown to happen anywhere else. Even if it did work consistently, the Operator symbol still wouldn’t work because there’s no evidence to suggest that it has affected higher-dimensional beings. On the other hand, if we were to apply this to how they fight on an influential level, the Operator could prevent Gabriel’s M.A.D from taking effect, or silence the message entirely, isolating Gabriel’s victims so he can’t reach them before the Operator can. To clear up confusion, the Operator has the abilities that would be perfect in disrupting the influence of Gabriel, while Gabriel’s abilities are more narrow and have less variety and scale, since their purpose is manipulation.

The Operator takes Abilities.

Numbers

When we say numbers, we’re talking about which side has a bigger army/more support, which is a pretty easy Gabriel wash. While we don’t know the exact number of Alternates that Gabriel has created, we do know that he has been doing this for a long time and should most likely have more than three Alternates in comparison to the three main humans that Operator has. While Gabriel can make more Alternates and Operator can brainwash more people, due to how we don’t know the rate of how long it takes for said Alternates and Brainwashed People to be created, it would essentially be a non-factor, in which we’d focus on the numerical advantage in Gabriel’s favor.

Influence

When talking about influence, we’ll be talking about which character has better control over their subordinates. The Operator’s humans are brainwashed, yet still sometimes don’t obey it. Masky is the primary example of a rebellious subordinate in this case. Comparing this to Gabriel, his control is far better. It is stated that Gabriel is a hivemind leader, meaning that he and his alternates share a mind together, making it far easier to command and control what the Alternates do. Unlike the Operator’s humans, Gabriel’s alternates aren’t rebellious and do as they’re commanded. Applying this to the fight, the Operator’s humans would be useless as they can’t be controlled as easily as Gabriel’s Alternates, who all share a hivemind…

…That is, until the Operator takes control of their minds and bodies, essentially turning them into zombies that do whatever it commands them to do. With this, the Operator can pretty much match the level of control Gabriel has over his Alternates.

As such, this category is a tie.

Immortality

Finally, we get into the final, and most important category, their immortality and how hard they are to kill. Both characters have an immortality that you can’t get around with brute force (Gabriel being able to manifest more avatars and Operator always existing as long as the Ark is fed), so even if the fight were a physical one (which it isn’t), Operator’s stat advantage would be completely useless here.

So, with that out of the way, we will cover one character and see whether or not they can get around the other’s immortality, and then do the same with the other in order to determine who has the better immortality.

Gabriel’s Immortality vs. Operator:

In this section, it all comes down to this important question: Does the Operator have the means to break or erase Gabriel’s 4D existence?

Let’s break this down by reminding you what the Ark and the sickness do. Skully has already described the Ark as a place where people’s minds are slowly broken until they become empty shells to be consumed by the Ark. The sickness begins when someone actively seeks the Operator out. From there, the Operator can latch onto them and find them no matter where they go, and torment their body and mind as it slowly breaks them down. Afterwards, they’re thrown into the Ark. However, there is a problem here: Can it break the mind of an alternate, let alone Gabriel? The answer to that is… No. The thing is, the people who have been consumed weren’t mentally at their best. Tim Sutton came from a mental hospital and had to take pills to help him function normally. Alex Kralie and Jay Merrick slowly lost their minds trying to hunt down and document the Operator. Jessica Locke has suffered from headaches, difficulty sleeping, and coughing fits. Now compare that kind of brain to Gabriel and his Alternates! Gabriel and his alternates have knowledge beyond comprehension, such as the 4th dimension, since they’re the ones who created M.A.D in the first place, are smart enough to break the human mind themselves and torment them psychologically, and are generally a lot more mentally put-together than the Marble Hornets crew. As such, it would be a lot harder to break their minds, if at all.

However, let’s scrap all of that and just ask if just throwing Gabriel into the maw of the Ark can erase him! The answer to that is….well…that also has problems. We’ve already established in our research that the Ark Dimension is essentially a pocket dimension, which is where the Operator is at his strongest. With that said, however, we need to stress that pocket dimensions are different parallel universes that exist differently than the real world, at least depending on the context. The problem is, Gabriel’s existence is in the 4th dimension, meaning he exists in a plane of existence that is beyond our own. With that logic, even if the Operator were a complete deity in the Ark Dimension, Gabriel’s existence transcends it entirely. To put that in perspective, that’s like having a 3D person seeing a 2D shadow with godlike powers. It can affect and hurt the person, but they can only hurt and destroy what is perceivable to them, while the person is watching them from an axis imperceivable to the 2D shadow’s vision. Now, with that said, the Operator’s ark could erase an avatar of Gabriel, and it would be a win if, assuming it takes too long for another avatar of Gabriel to manifest, to keep fighting the Operator like bro might as well just respawn after dying.

Operator’s Immortality vs. Gabriel:

In this section, it all comes down to this important question: Does Gabriel have the means to overthrow the Operator and its sickness?

Before we begin, we must know that the influential existence that the Operator has is what keeps the Operator going. As long as someone has the sickness, the Operator will stay strong. In that case, Gabriel actually has the method to weaken the Operator: replacing those who have been infected with Alternates. He’d have to target the Marble Hornets crew, the small town news team, and other humans to use his deception to lure them in to inflict them with M.A.D, before replacing them with Alternates, effectively harming the Operator and eventually starving it to death. Would Gabriel figure this out-YES…..On paper… In practice…No. When he hears about Alex Kralie’s plan to kill the Operator by killing anyone who has the sickness, Gabriel would try that method and start replacing the infected if M.A.D won’t work on the Operator, taking advantage of people’s mental states for his benefit. Now, you could make the argument that the Operator can go beyond Alabama and into other states like Colorado, while Gabriel and his Alternates are only present in the 4 counties of Wisconsin, meaning the Operator wouldn’t have to worry about Gabriel potentially nullifying his immortality. However, this is assuming that Gabriel and his Alternates literally are restricted to the 4 counties. Just because the Alternate has spread has been documented to be around 4 counties, it doesn’t mean that they’re restricted to those 4 counties. They only mean that those 4 counties are where the government knows for a fact that the Alternates are most commonplace, meaning that the Alternates could be blending in anywhere at any time, and the other states have no way of knowing. Additionally, even if we go by the logic that the alternates are restricted to the 4 counties, the Alternates have been shown to use the Internet to spread M.A.D, with the primary example being wi_birdlover. This means that people who aren’t in Wisconsin are still vulnerable and could get M.A.D from an Alternate manipulating them with pure text.

Here’s the thing, though, can the Operator sickness just transfer to Gabriel and his Alternates, keeping its immortality? Well, here’s the thing with that: they’d have to be obsessed with the Operator and be tunnel-visioned to prioritize him. With that in mind, it’s just unlikely. Gabriel’s style of spreading his disease is more indirect, with his alternates doing it all for him, which wouldn’t fit the quota of someone who would feel vulnerable to get the sickness, as he wouldn’t see the Operator as an equal due to his pride. Heck! Gabriel could just adapt and manipulate the Operator into unwittingly doing his work by letting him keep breaking down the victims just to swoop in to “save” them. However, let’s scrap LITERALLY EVERYTHING and just assume somehow it can! It still won’t work because Gabriel and his Alternates use avatars to interact with the 3D world, and once they just manifest out of reality, there wouldn’t be a mind or body to crack at that point.

That being said, though, even if we were to assume Gabriel would go on with his plan, the Operator could just feast on corpses in order to get sustenance, and even then, we don’t know how long it would take for the Operator to starve to death. And again, even after everything, the Operator could just consume dead bodies to stay alive, so Gabriel’s methods to try to destroy the Operator won’t work as effectively as he’d hoped. In order for one to truly have the advantage over the other in the Immortality section, one character must be able to completely kill the other and bypass their immortality. Because there’s no clear victor in this category, it’ll have to be a stalemate.  

Immortality will be a stalemate, as there’s no clear winner on who can truly bypass the other’s immortality and kill them.  

Conclusion

Gabriel

“Oh, David. You have already done all of my bidding for me!”

Advantages:

  • Smarter in manipulating events
  • MUCH more experienced in meddling with otherworldly beings, such as the other Archangels
  • Far greater numbers with the alternate hivemind
  • More put-together than the Operator’s victims, making him more difficult to break.

Equal:

  • Capable of breaking the minds of humans
  • Doesn’t need to physically kill them
  • Distorts technology for his own benefit
  • Appears human but is NOT human at all.
  • T A L L (3 meters / 10 feet)
  • Complete control over their victims when they choose to control them
  • The spread is based on the knowledge of their existence (Belief in Gabriel as the true savior / Tulpa Alternates can manifest from the mind)
  • Not completely restricted by their state domain (Alternates could potentially blend into other places, and others could even use the Internet to manipulate their victims and spread M.A.D instead of luring them away in person)
  • Lacks a way to get rid of the opponent

Disadvantages:

  • Not as skilled in a direct confrontation (although implications could suggest otherwise, but on-screen feats are more solid.)
  • A narrower array of abilities
  • More indirect approach (would rather let his Alternates do the work for him instead)
  • M.A.D will not work on the Operator, due to its lack of belief in religion

The Operator

“Jay!!! Where are you?!?!”

Advantages:

  • Physically outclasses Gabriel and his Alternates
  • More direct approach/ more willing for confrontation against its victims.
  • Way more abilities in general that could disrupt the deception and influence of Gabriel
  • Won’t be affected by M.A.D because it isn’t religious

Equal:

  • Capable of breaking the minds of humans
  • Doesn’t need to physically kill them
  • Distorts technology for its own benefit
  • Appears human but is NOT human at all.
  • T A L L (8-15 feet)
  • Complete control over their victims when they choose to control them
  • The spread is based on the knowledge of their existence (Having an obsession with the Operator and looking deep into him could give someone the sickness)
  • Not completely restricted by their state domain (Could infect people with the sickness outside of Alabama as long as they became obsessed with the mystery like watching the Entries or tapes)
  • Lacks a way to get rid of the opponent

Disadvantages:

  • Way less experienced
  • Much less intelligent
  • The usual tricks wouldn’t meaningfully damage Gabriel
  • Slower spread of its sickness

As crazy as it is to say, there might not be a clear winner at all. You could make the argument that the Operator can just spread to the Alternates and Gabriel himself, or even force Gabriel into the maw of the Ark. You could also make the argument that Gabriel’s alternates would outpace the Operator sickness, replacing everyone who has the sickness with Alternates, killing the Operator, and that the sickness would not be effective at all, and Gabriel’s 4th dimensional existence would make him be able to resist the Operator’s attacks. Both arguments are valid, but, taking into account that this battle has to end with an OBJECTIVE winner in a matchup like this, we end up running into many, MANY issues like what-ifs, whatabouts, and they-coulds. For example, here are the questions we were hit by when considering who would win.

Gabriel Wincon Questions:

  • Could Gabriel send the Operator into the Endless Desert, trapping it forever? Could the Operator break out of it?
  • Is the alternate spread truly confined to just 4 counties, or could there be a possibility of alternates blending in other places in the world completely undetected, and the 4 counties are where the alternate threat is most prevalent?
  • Could Alternates use the Internet to spread M.A.D more effectively instead of going in person?
  • How fast can Gabriel and his alternates actually manifest after their avatars are destroyed?
  • Does Gabriel have any powers of his own if he were to fight more directly?
  • Does Gabriel’s feat of replacing the real Archangel Gabriel mean he is as powerful, if not more powerful, than the real Archangel Gabriel?
  • Is the Endless Desert a metaphor or is it actually literal?
  • Does Gabriel have control over the Endless Desert?
  • Could Gabriel make an Alternate of the Operator?
  • What is the core physiology and anatomy of Alternates?
  • How does the mind of Gabriel and his Alternates work?
  • How exactly is Gabriel supposed to be in our real world if he’s 4th-dimensional?
  • Are Alternates really a hivemind of independent creatures that share a brain with Gabriel, or are they all just extensions of Gabriel himself?
  • Did Gabriel ACTUALLY overthrow God, or is it more metaphorical or symbolic?
  • Could Gabriel potentially cause a huge worldwide event like the flood?
  • How powerful is the real Archangel Gabriel?
  • Is it valid to use the Bible to help scale Gabriel?

Operator Wincon Questions:

  • Does the Operator CHOOSE who dies from the Operator ringworm symbol?
  • Does the Operator CHOOSE who gets infected with the Operator sickness?
  • How fast would the Operator be able to raise more armies from the dead?
  • Can the Operator’s EE (Existence Erasure) affect Gabriel’s 4D existence?
  • Can the Operator's sickness actually affect Gabriel and his alternates?
  • Is the Ark dimension higher-dimensional like Gabriel?
  • If the Ark is in a different universe than what Gabriel can reach, could Gabriel lose control of his avatar if taken there?
  • Does the Operator have the range to infect anyone outside of Gabriel’s reach with the Operator sickness (and thus make sure Gabriel can’t shut down the Operator’s immortality)?
  • Can the Operator's sickness actually feed on Alternates?
  • Can’t the Operator just drag the Alternates and Gabriel into the Ark straight up?
  • Can the Ark just make another Operator avatar/body, or should the previous one be destroyed or forever trapped in the Endless Desert? How long would that take?
  • Would Alternates be a source of nourishment for the Ark, infected (somehow) or otherwise?
  • How long would it take for the Operator to starve to death should it not receive nourishment?

It’s questions like these that make it hard to determine a clear winner. We could argue back and forth on the wincons we think fit both Gabriel and the Operator, and they’d come with so many questions for both sides that neither side is definitive. Many people have believed that Gabriel could win just because he “overthrew God” or that he is “the Devil himself,” while many people believe that the Operator wins because of the “ringworm symbol = instakill” wincon. The truth is, it is SO much more complicated than that. Given that Marble Hornets and Mandela Catalogue are both Internet horror series that focus more on the horror aspect and the character development of the cast, instead of big clashing battles with on-screen feats, it shouldn’t really be that surprising. We simply don’t know the limit of where these characters can really go when they’re pushed to their absolute limit, and that has its ups and downs.

But if we are to entertain the idea that an actual end does happen, the absolute endgame that could be argued for is that it would end with ALL of humanity dead as a bunch of corpses of humans and Alternates are thrown into the Ark, and a bunch of people are deceived and replaced with Alternates. The Operator might end up starving to death, while Gabriel's status as the True Savior might as well be gone. At that point, both sides lose, with neither one having anyone on their side who can be properly used, since their power comes from the knowledge that people have. However, considering how slow the spread for both sides is, with thousands of people being born every minute, the true fight would be an endless cycle that doesn’t end for many, many centuries.

The lack of showings from both sides, with how little screen time the Operator gets and the heavy symbolism shown on Gabriel’s side, is what makes these characters so iconic and memorable on the Internet. Stakes like these are built on the more internal and mental struggles of the characters, which give way to a more compelling horror story, instead of questions like, “How do we beat down the big bad guy?” which fit for a different kind of story altogether. If they appear too much and show too much of their power, the horror aspect is lost completely, and they become more “understandable.” This would fit for a Death Battle as they can be analyzed and properly calculated. However, in a situation like this, where the genre just doesn’t fit shonen anime-style fighting, it just does not work when you’re trying to tell a proper horror story with deeper themes. In conclusion, there’s no real winner in this matchup, and there might never be a winner, unless more stuff comes out about both of these series.

Even if everything is fine, nothing is worth the risk.

The winner is…███████


Final Tally

Gabriel (0) - Well, at least he isn’t a fraud FRAUD anymore…

The Operator (0) - Temu Slenderman tbh……………… /j

Stalemate (3) - MegaGojiraGX, SHY HRO, Raphalonk


Note

Hey everyone, Mega here! Thank you for reading this blog! Once again, I prove my status as “Blog-Switcherupper Man.” But anyways, I wanted to tackle this blog since firstly, the blog I did on this matchup originally was EXTREMELY outdated, with me finding new stuff for Gabriel and the Operator (Gabriel’s 4th dimensional existence stuff and Issue 5 of Marble Hornets and ECKVA), and because I was particularly hyped due to the deeper connections this matchup presented thanks to my friend Raphalonk, who helped on this blog. Speaking of which, I wanna thank SHY HRO for helping me write and edit this blog, and overall assisting in solving this debate. And thanks to Raphalonk for getting me onto this matchup again, helping with graphics, images, writing, and organization for this blog!

For those waiting for Dimentio vs Shadow Milk Cookie, don’t worry, it’s still being worked on. It mainly got pushed back a bit due to the recent Cookie Run Kingdom update called Timeline of Fate, which gave SMC A LOT more things, and later updates will also help out with more scaling and such. So please be patient, we are working hard on it.

Again, thank you for reading, and see you next time. Buuuuuuuuuuut, before I go, I wanna hand over the mic to Raphalonk, who will further talk about the thematics and connections of this matchup. So break a leg, buddy!


Deeper Meaning and Themes

Since we were on the topic of deeper themes when discussing the verdict, let’s put power scaling and fights aside, and dig deeper into these characters and what they can bring on a thematic level. Both Gabriel and the Operator, when we look at the thematic sides of their characters, are very deeply connected by a very real, very terrifying topic: The Deconstruction of IDENTITY

Gabriel uses psychological warfare, specifically reminding people about the nature of reality and where they stand on an incomprehensible scale, which breaks the mind and causes the person to kill themselves, unable to handle the Forbidden Knowledge. All the while, they get replaced by Alternates, stealing their identities to use as they please. As for the survivors who pray for help from their lord but aren’t answered, they end up wondering:

“Who have I been praying to all this time?”

The Operator, in contrast, is a parasite that latches onto people, draining their minds slowly while breaking them mentally and physically to the point that they cannot function in society. This comes to the point where they lose sight of time and who they were as a person, until it ends with them becoming a shell of who they once were, while they get consumed in The Ark. All the while, as you slowly lose everything about yourself, you constantly try to tell yourself:

“Everything is fine.”

This battle is a clash of two types of Identity Crises:

 False Philosophy and Twisted Psychology

or

Identity Replacement and Identity Loss

A character study that opens up the question:

Is it worse to live a life with a False Meaning, where your entire life and system of beliefs was a complete lie, destroying your hope for a deeper purpose?

…or live a life that is completely Meaningless, as you slowly lose everything that made you who you are in life, while you’re slowly consumed in the darkness?

The scariest part of it all is that they are, in a way, based on real-life cases. We live in a world where people suffer silently as they get through the day. Some have questioned their entire existence and faith, or have suffered mentally from it for reasons I won’t make a call on, and others have mentally deteriorated silently behind closed doors, where their own home is their prison, and yet they’re forced to act like they’re fine, while their cries for help are never heard.

Gabriel and the Operator are representations of such questions when they are taken to the absolute extreme. In Mandela Catalogue, we watch as people in many counties have suffered under the threat where the alternates take the form of their friends and families. They all have to suffer as they’re faced with an enemy that can look exactly like their loved ones. To make it worse, the religion that was supposed to help them was actually the source of it all, making it all completely hopeless in the eyes of those still living. In Marble Hornets, we watch as film crew members are slowly driven into madness by an entity that is stalking them and slowly breaking their sanity. They all struggle to live their lives without being driven into madness. Some of them can’t even be financially stable because they can lose track of time and are unable to keep a job. Others end up succumbing to that darkness, becoming the monsters themselves, disillusioned in their minds into thinking that they’re doing something good.

While it all seems hopeless to everyone, despite the threats these two characters pose and the reality of it all that they’re based on, there is still hope. We as a society are social creatures down to the core, and we should all accept that and learn to embrace others who are suffering so that we can find a way to help ourselves. We won’t have to face these types of crises in our lives alone, whether it be what awaits us after death or the inner demons trying to bring us down mentally, as we all have to go through in life. It all can be possible as long as you cherish and hold onto the people that care about you, and embrace the reality that no matter what, we all still have a purpose in life, and we matter to everyone, even if it’s by a small amount. We all have our stories of salvation and deliverance from past mistakes, and it's up to us to decide how we will film it and bring it to life as we grow up and meet more and more people every day.

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