So, after watching my brother and some friends get scared out of their minds playing Slender, and reading some horror comics on the internet, I am thoroughly fed up with people getting scared at paranormal crap and saying that it can't be stopped. Allow me to explain why you shouldn't be afraid of ol' Slendy or any other supernatural entity with the following thought experiment.

Say you come across Slenderman, what's the first thing you notice? You may answer the fact that he's tall, faceless, or wearing a rather tasteful suit coat and tie, and those are all correct, but on a subconscious level, the first thing you notice is that he's visible. Your retinas are receiving photons of light being emitted/reflected by Slendy, which translates them into nerve signals which your brain can recognize and construct into a picture of the thing in front of you.

Why is this significant you may ask?

Because light is generated by the agitation of electrons (there are other factors too, but let's keep this simple). As electrons change from one orbital around an atom to another, they give off a certain wavelength of light depending on how much energy they have. This is called a photon. Again, you ask, why does this matter? Well, we've established that Slenderman is visible in our spectrum of light, and that light is generated by the agitation of electrons, therefore, Slenderman is made of matter, and more importantly, is made up of atoms. While this seems to be an obvious 'no duh' sort of thing, this all leads up to the conclusion I am working towards, namely that Slendy can be killed. We know that he's made of matter that is stable on our planet, (otherwise I'd be less worried about him killing someone and more worried about the catastrophic environmental damage he'd cause by his mere presence) that he must have atoms in order to be visible to us, and by the same leap of logic, those atoms have electrons.

Now to bring this ramble to a conclusion, atoms come together to form compounds by sharing or stealing electrons. This is called covalent or ionic bonding respectively. These bonds can be disrupted or severed by a significant application of energy, say from a 120 mm Discarding Sabot Anti-Tank round. This is why substances melt; they take on so much thermal energy that their bonds weaken to the point where they can no longer remain so rigidly locked together. Because of this universal fact, Slenderman or indeed any creature; real, supernatural, or otherwise, can be thoroughly blown to pieces.

So what if its supernatural or not? What matters are the immutable laws of physics which say that if it's visible, it is reflecting or emitting light, and if that is the case, then it is made of atoms. And since it's made of atoms, humanity can destroy it. This has been a caffeine-fueled rant from a military sci-fi junkie.

What if "Slenderman" (or some other such mysterious apparation) was not, in fact, a physical being made of matter; perhaps he's an immaterial will with the ability to interact with matter as it chooses? Sometimes he chooses to be seen, sometimes not. Or, as what you "see" is actually within your mind (usually informed by light interpreted by your eyes, but not always so), perhaps his appearance is merely the tweakings of such a being tripping electrons in your brain. Pictures of it could simply be the result of such supernatural interference on the camera's sensor, or any of the wiring, or perhaps directly on the memory card.

Perhaps he would be amicable to being blown apart on occasion, but maybe not the day you try. I'd say take your chances... but perhaps Slenderman does not play dice.

If its affecting electrons in your brain, or in your camera, it must do so by some means. Either by generating a curent directly, or more likely by inducing one using electro magnitism. In either case, GH's argument stands. While kinetic energy may prove inefective, large amounts of magnetic, radio, or microwave radiation will most likely fry whatever means said supernatural beastie uses to manipulate its suroundings if its lucky. If its unlucky, the damage will spread to whatever it uses to think with. Everything has a brain, even if we can't recognise it as such. Fry it, and its all over but the twitching.

Or maybe Slenderman is some kind of otherworldly force not bound by our petty mortal physics and it pretends to hold itself to our laws out of mere mockery? It's horror. It's not suppose to make logical sense. It's supposed to hit you in the primal core of your base instincts where logical thought holds no sway. Where your first instinct is to go in swinging or run like hell.

Some people just like being scared. That's why cheap horror thrills like that exist.

You see, that's not me. Most people see something like Freddy Krueger or Slenderman and think 'dear God, that's terrifying'. I look at them and think: 'in what ways could I most efficiently eradicate these things from the face of the planet?' In case you're curious, it's trap Freddy in Limbo and detonate a tactical nuke right on top of Slendy, it's the only way to be sure.

I much prefer to be the thing that goes bump in the night.

If you're making noise, then you're doing it wrong.

Hell, I'm scaring people all the time and I'm not even trying. I've been told I should wear a bell or something, many times.

Still...haven't had anyone die from a heart attack yet.

You're just not giving yourself in to Willing Suspension of Disbelief. You go in knowing that these are fictional beings. That they can't really hurt you. It's not real. You know it, so it doesn't strike you the same way it would if some otherworldly, physics defying tentacular horror just starts tearing it's way after you.

In the end, it all boils down to one fact: It's just fiction. I don't much care for this type of stuff either, but a lot of people genuinely enjoy the shock factor that goes with it. There's a feral, adrenaline thrill that comes with coming close to death and then coming out unscathed. It's like riding a roller coaster or going dirt bike riding on unbeaten paths in the wilderness. Harmless fun. No logic to it at all, just the disbelief in a situation being willingly suspended for the evening.

For me, the scariest thing I can think of is losing my mind, yet still having enough of my faculties to recognize that it's happening. In that scenario, Slendy doesn't have to even exist to scare you.

For the longest time, I personally could never understand/stomach the whole phenomenon behind 'Slenderman' or HAUNTED CARTRIDGE FOR [VIDEO GAME]... and I've hung out in 4chan and Something Awful for quite some time... heck I may have contributed to some of these memes at one point or another.

When the Spookeelings tells me that he's afraid of Slenderman/Spengbob/Any BS internet Meme developed by Something Awful or /x/... I respond thuswise:

"If you want to be afraid of something that someone has made up, you're acknowledging that someone inconsequential to your existence has power over how you feel. That's your choice and, while I believe it is a ridiculous choice, you're entitled to it. Personally, I would rather be afraid of something that I know exists and has the capability of ending my life."

Also, I tend to (in one case literally) scare the s**t out of people. When they express that, I respond with, "I have that effect on people."

I could name things which are visible, but don't consist of atoms. (Shadows, for a start). I can name things which are dangerous, not made of matter, and pretty near impossible to destroy. (Ideas). I could name things that, if they turned up in your backyard, you would be dead and I don't think that any amount of preperation would really help, aside from moving to a different planet well in advance. (Black holes).

But that's not really the point. As far as I can see it, the point of a horror story is that there is something that doesn't play by the rules. Something that no-one understands, that seems to ignore some or all of the laws of physics, as and when it wants.

Of course, if something like that did exist, it would mean that physics as we know it is incomplete. That's nothing new, it's never really been complete... but it would mean that physics is substantially less complete than many people think.

Just because the thing can be killed, doesn't mean that you will kill it before it kills you. I would be quite logical to fear a psychopathic commando-trained armed killer because my chances of besting him in a fight would be pretty slim. Knowing me, I'd probably fire the rocket launcher backwards.

Since there really is no Slenderman canon, we don't know enough about him to definitly say what works against him.

An other possibility that i think has not been mentioned here, is that his physical form is not actually himself but more some drone.

That said fearing something, that is known to be fictional is a bit weird. But then also with threats that actually exist in real life, how much people fear it is often not in relation to how likely it is going to happen, and how dangerous it actually is. And not always do the countermeasures they take make sense.

I know one thing that will always work:

Hmmm. How about if seeing Slenderman DOESN'T mean that any light is hitting your retinas? Because Slendy is made up of weakly interacting dark matter and has the ability, either through advanced Slenderman technology or innately, to manipulate magnetic fields with such precision that he can induce currents in your brain and make you see whatever he wants? And howsabout if Slendy is sitting nice and and comfy INSIDE YOUR BRAIN while he's doing all this?


Killing him may be a problem.