Just found these videos the other day and was so excited to see the shoutout to the TMA wiki, I'm the person who made all the entity pages there, and it means a lot to me whenever my work is recognised. Looking forward to the rest of the series!

A personal theory of mine as to why the Slaughter interrupted the Unknowing ritual is that a world without identity would destroy the Slaughter. Sure a little madness can get the blood flowing, but the horrors of senseless violence need cognizant witnesses. How can the trauma of bludgeoning a man to death with a pipe be felt when it is indistinguishable from slapping a chair with your toes?

I remember reading the wiki page on the slaughter and getting to the part about how they ended the first unkowning with a cannon and i pretty much lost it. can you imagine organizing this beautiful and terrifying dance routine to bring the end of the world, and someone just barges in with a naval cannon and obliterates your main dancer ruining years of prepartions while probably yelling "Tally ho, lads" shits goofy as hell

Interesting thought as to how the Slaughter came to exist as an independent entity: In one of the episodes on Hilltop Road in season 5, Annabelle mentions that one of the earliest Avatars to find the gap in the world might have been an Avatar of the Slaughter, or possibly the Corruption, or maybe that at the time, the two were the same. I'd propose that they may have both originated from a fear of the destruction of society, not in a way that ends the world completely like the Extinction, but a way that reduces life to a chaotic struggle for survival where nobody can be trusted. If we look back to the early medieval period, then in times of sickness or warfare, lands would be ravaged by plague or raiding in such a way that power structures collapse, communities can no longer support themselves or each other, and violent mistrust and hatred becomes a necessity for survival. If that destruction itself is the fear, then it makes sense that rather than war and sickness being separate fears, they're both seen under the collective banner of "things that come into your community and tear it apart". As society developed further, I imagine that the Slaughter could've perhaps split off as nations formed, nationalism became a driving force, and war spread onto a larger scale, where "us" and "them" are concepts larger than your immediate circle, while the Corruption in its modern form might've developed alongside modern notions of hygeine - when people started to see filth and squalour as things to be disgusted by, rather than just how their living standards were.

To me, the main distinction between the Slaughter and the Hunt is that the Hunt comes from instinct, whereas the Slaughter comes from when fear evolves into hatred. A good example of this could be the Trenches, where the enemy is given some sort of animal counterpart (similar to how military regimes begin their fear mongering campaigns)

Ngl that one avatar with the cannon shooting the Stranger ritual single handily made me invested into TMA. Going from about 6 episodes per week to 2 episodes per day.

I'm wondering if you could go into the possible branching off of the fears at some point, like how the Hunt is supposedly the most ancient of the Fears before they all split off, or how the Flesh was the new kid on the block before the Extinction began to emerge. Do you think there's a possibility of a speculative family tree of sorts regarding the Fears?

One could argue that the slaughter and strangers antagonism has something to do with the psychological mechanisms of warfare itself. Generally, soldiers are required to depersonalize from a conflict and dehumanize the other combatants. So the stranger would be the perfect prey for the slaughter, the stranger is Already Depersonalized and perfect for killing in mindless violence.

The Slaughter is easily my favorite of the lesser utilized entities. I'm surprised you're covering it this early rather than, say, The Desolation or The Vast.

Great analysis as always!!! It is quite the shame the Slaughter didn't get as much screentime.

Great video as always! I really liked how you compared the Slaughter to antagonistic forces in stories, and to the concept of "evil for the sake of being evil." I'm kind of sad that the Music Makes You Lose Control fear didn't get very much time in the spotlight, but hey! At least we have the Hunt.

I've been looking for FOREVER for some good video essay analyses on the fears. This series definitely has my attention and goes in depth with the details in a very interesting way! Genuinely fantastic, thank you for making these

Just binged this whole series and am looking forward to the rest I do think The Eye and The Web would be man-made, but far more ancient than The Slaughter Man-made since they require a sufficiently complex society with enough language for lies, paranoia and manipulation to happen So they could be 10s of 1000s of years old, from back when there were only hunter-gatherers and maybe even when other species of homo were still around But The Slaughter needs a proper War to be separate, which would require larger tribes clashing, maybe even settled agricultural society to generate the size needed to have clashes drench the ground in blood, making it definitely younger than 7000 years and even then the Wars and Battles were brutal, but (at least in written records) glorified, so it may be even younger than that

Oh this is going to be good one of the least expanded on entities I am only saying this for lack of episodes but it’s cool

And also, second comment here I always imagined that The Slaughter got multiple domains, just like the other entities, but the thing is that they are all next to each other. so instead of multiple different domains with multiple different aspects its just 1 very large domain of endless violence and slaughter.

My headcanon for the slaughter change world is a good ol war. Like... a constant battle between the entities and their forces

A little late, but i figured that The Trenches were the only seen domain because they were the only major/primarily Slaughter domain. Its one of the most singular Fears, with most of its overlap being "is it the chase or the catch thats the fear" or "is it the fighting or the aftermath" for Hunt/Desolation, making it so its hard to integrate into others easily without overtaking them, while the Trenches covering war entirely kinda has it majorly fed. There might be other Trenches, but I think its like theres other Night Streets: the same domain doing the same thing across the globe

I do have to agree with the conflict analogy...it can also be said that as the saying goes "conflict is an art form" which makes sense with the music... And yes I do agree that the slaughter is very human...I mean there is nothing more human than warfare

When it comes to fears and their more animalistic parts I find the topic very interesting so here are some of my thoughts. Firstly, I think the Stranger and Lonely do have more basic primal parts to them. I think similar to how the Hunt and Flesh can affect humans despite primarily being based off the fears of animals it would not be completely absurd to suspect that the opposite could be true. For example, we see ants that are avatars of the Corruption in that one domain during the change. So the powers can and do reach out to animals. I think animals can feel the fears associated with the powers it probably just usually isn't as complex or existential. For example, a cat getting stuck in a tree and is absolutely so scared it can't come (yeah, the Vast is probably eating that shit up). Your dog freaking out on a plane flight because you have to put it in a small and cramped cage (yeah, the Buried probably feels that). As for the Lonely it probably depends on the animal. But I think animals like dogs and stuff can definitely be hit by it. I have a puppy who absolutely freaks out when he's alone and an older dog who used to do the same when she was a puppy and even though she's more comfortable will still often follow people around or will go to a room or place with people near/in it before going to bed. The Stranger is ultimately the fear of the unknown and I think anyone with a dog or pet that either freaks out when someone its never seen before or might even run away when it hears a loud strange noise can attest to the idea that animals generally prefer things, they are familiar with. I would argue similar to the other powers, the Slaughter is mostly based around humans and war but probably could have some sort of relationship with animals. I mean there are a lot of animals in nature they will inflict pain or violence upon you for, what seems to the victim, like little to no reason even though they aren't hunting you. The first thing that comes to mind for me is wasps and bees. Some people are disgusted by them in a way the Corruption likes but many are more afraid of the pain and injury they can inflict. Animals in general are also just afraid of pain and violence(which is why bees and wasps have things like stingers in the first place). Like you said there is a connection between the Hunt and Slaughter to be found. You could also bring up animals that have been mentally scarred from physical abuse and will freak out if anything reminds them of it. Unfortunately, there's only so much we can talk and postulate about because TMA has a very biased perspective due to the fact that we don't really see statements from the perspective of animals. We have like what the ants and the worms(who were once people anyway)? Since the main characters of TMA are all humans, or human adjacent, and the people making all the statements are humans, or human adjacent, that is the perspective we are usually getting. For example, despite the fact that the Hunt and Flesh are primarily based around animals we usually see it when it is also affecting people or when it is only affecting people because of the constraints of both the story and language/communication.

Your vids are great! Love listening to them through my day, keep doing what you're doing

got here a bit late but I always find these filling up the TMA void, thank you!

Love your video's i wish more people knew about your content.

I’m trying to do a Magnus game in the WoD system and these videos along with the wiki have been infinitely helpful, thank you

I would actually propose that the Prison holds an element of the Slaughter, due to it being about the sudden unexplained cruelty of oppression and prejudice via the corrupt criminal justice system.

is intraspecies competition (e.g. for mates) comparable to human fighting? I initially wanted to say "comparable to slaughter" but that would definitely feel wrong. so yeah, how closely tied is slaughter with competition? is there a other fear for that that I forgot?

12:26 I mean there are dozens if not hundreds we just don't get to see.

What did Melanie use to poke her eyes out with??? I wanna look it up please

being autistic has led me to watch all of these videos.