Bang's Blogs: Sadako vs Slenderman

 

“The supernatural is the natural not yet understood.” -Elbert Hubbard

Sadako Yamamura, the vengeful and unforgiving Onryō.

The Slenderman, the urban legend and stalker of the forest. 

Sometimes the monsters that lurk in the shadows or under our beds, from our own understanding, escape out of sight, and out of mind, based on an unbelief in their existence. But, they are out there; they seem human, but are something beyond our understanding. Specters that can bend the human mind. Torture the soul. Kill by a mere gaze. When the TV static flickers, you may want to watch your back, because they may already have their sights set on you… and nowhere but death is safe.

But what happens when the targets they creep up on fight back? When the inflicter meets the inflicted? Will Sadako enact vengeance on the wretched world and cleanse the forest of a monster, or will Slenderman blur out the smudge on the TV screen? Ring in the arrival of the icons of Japanese and online horror in this DEATH BATTLE!

Before We Start…

Bang here, I know the million dollar question for most people reading this blog is what will we include for the two of them? Sadako and Slenderman are two horror icons who appear across a vast array of media; from movies, to manga, to video games, to webseries. Ultimately, we want to set the record straight however that regardless of what we included and excluded, that there was a lot of time and consideration from every blog member about what we would bring to the table, but we are subject to error as well, so we may have gotten a thing or two, or more, or maybe we missed something, which will be specified later as far as any lost media. You can’t really slap a ‘composite’ on either of them without running into some thorns and thistles on the way, but it's an equally daunting task to try and explain everything in one sitting, so for now, we’re gonna focus this section on what we will include, and leave the ‘Before the Verdicts’ to more in-depth explain what we aren’t including. So we’re gonna do our absolute very best to explain what we will be including for both;

For Sadako, right off the bat we are going to include the novels. While other blogs or respect threads don’t really account for the novels, upon reading them, the evidence that the “novels heavily contradict the movies'' was largely inconclusive other then a couple of concepts not being introduced in the movies, but that’s relatively normal for franchises where the movies aren’t 100% frame-by-frame similar to the movies. In the novels, Sadako is still a vengeful spirit, thrown down a well by her father and wanting to punish humanity with a cursed videotape. The differences can likely be found with the inclusion of the LOOP, a cyberspace where the MHC Virus originated from, but all that would really do would give us different types of world building for both, but the premise of the novels is relatively the same as the movies in terms of the overall plot; a story about a curse on a videotape, unleashed by Sadako Yamamura, being shared with other people, ultimately creating…a Ring. 

 Now when it comes to the movies, things get a little more complex. While initially there was supposed to be a single timeline, starting with 1998’s The Ring, then the sequel called Rasen came. However, Rasen was not very well received by critics and fans, and was essentially ignored by the producers, bringing back the original director, Hideo Nakata, to make The Ring 2, in 2005 and of course, we also received the prequel, Ring 0: Birthday in 2000. The series then went on a pause so the author of The Ring novel series, Koji Suzuki, could write another book, so the new movie and its sequel to be released could fit more closely to the Rasen movie. In the years 2012 and 2013, we then received these two movies, Sadako 3D, and Sadako 3D 2. Then in 2019, we get the final movie to date, Sadako. So in essence, there are two timelines for Sadako: 

The Nakata Timeline: Ring 0: Birthday → The Ring  → Ring 2  →  Sadako (2019) 

The Rasen Timeline: The Ring  → Rasen  → Sadako 3D  → Sadako 3D 2  → Sadako DX

There is also The Ring Kanzenban, which is the 1995 TV Movie release of The Ring, so consider the 1998 version to be the remade version of it. 

Next up, are two more Ring series; the Korean and American versions. The Korean version is known as The Ring Virus and is the only movie in its canon, and the American series which consists of three films and a short film; The Ring (2002), The Ring Two (2005), and Rings (2017). The Korean version is a teeny bit complicated, as it is stated to be adapted from the novels, but other than that there is no other information given on it, but it doesn’t seem to be tailored to the two timelines mentioned so it will not be regarded for this blog. The American films are easier to figure out, instead of Sadako Yamamura, the Onryō is instead Samara Morgan, so they will also be disregarded in this blog, as while Samara is an interpretation of Sadako, she is a fundamentally different character with a very different backstory and personality.

Back to the Nakata/Rasen timelines, ultimately we have decided that everything from The Ring, all the way to Sadako DX will be considered and included as far as the movies. This is because that although there are separate timelines, both of them deviate from The Ring movie, with the Rasen timeline especially trying to follow as close to the novel series as possible, thus it would be hard to argue why you should only include one and not the other, when both of them at large give us Sadako. And despite Sadako in the novels seemingly being a whole different character to what is portrayed in the movies, ultimately they are the original source material, however Sadako’s backstory will be based on the original movie series instead of the original novels, due to this being the far more mainstream and well known Sadako version, but information from the novels will indeed be considered. This means by extension that the Ring manga (1, 2 and Ransen, not Birthday as we could not actually find it anywhere, like it borders lost media) will also be included, as they are manga adaptations of the films. And I mean, how can you not include the novels when this is one of the lines in it:

"While viewing the extinction of the human race from the top of a hill, I would dig a hole in the earth and ejaculate into it over and over."

There are also four “Vs” films Sadako has surprisingly, them being Sadako vs Kayako and Bunshinsaba vs Sadako 1, 2,  & Bunshinsaba: Hoichi The Earless. While all four of these films are considered non-canon, Slenderman will be getting crossover “Vs” media himself, and there isn’t a whole lot of deviation from the original source material compared to the Korean and American films, (these films would coincide with the Nakata timeline were they to be made canon) so we will be including these as well. 

The only “Vs” film we aren’t including is Hikiko-san Vs Sadako due to it being an exploitation film based on the real world Sadako Sasaki who died due to radiation after the nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan.

The last piece of media that is considered contentious to include is the mainstream video game Sadako is a part of, Dead by Daylight. For those unaware, Dead by Daylight is an asymmetrical horror game that pits four survivors (four players) against a killer (one player) in a trial, and across the map are generators that the survivors have to work together to repair so they can open the exit gates and escape the trial. While the majority of the killer roster is characters made by Behavior Interactive such as the Trapper or the Hillbilly, they have gone out of their way to gain licensed killers to put on the roster as killers, such as all-time icons like Michael Myers and Leatherface. And this includes Sadako! But by nature of the series, Dead by Daylight does not wholly follow what the original IP has in terms of lore, as evidenced by the design of Leatherface being different from the original, and having to make an entirely new Ghostface named Danny Johnson. Very few times do the original IPs try and establish if the lores are intertwined, as most of the time they merely say they were plucked from a climatic scene in their respective films/games. But for Sadako, it’s a little different. Due to the popularity of Dead by Daylight in Japan, Kadokawa Corporation were very interested in doing a collaboration with the game, having helped with designing Sadako’s powerset and viability to ensure she fit into the game. They also helped closely in designing Sadako’s appearance, and how Yoichi should be handled, approving the idea of aging him up 30 years, and kept the lore in mind very much while making her character overall. Overall, they tried very hard to stay true to what Sadako is along with fitting DbD into the lore, so similarly to the crossover Vs movies we are giving Sadako, we find it perfectly fine to include her Dead by Daylight information. 

There is also a radio broadcast from 2015 and two games from 2000, one on the Dreamcast and one on the WonderSwan, all of which will also be included due to being supplementary info that are largely in line with the franchise as a whole, and based on our logic with Dead by Daylight. 

Final thing we need to point out is unfortunately there was some lost media when reading up on Sadako, namely the 5th and 6th novels, S and Tide, along with the 4th and 5th issues of the manga. While Tide is moreso a lack of translation, we were unable to get our hands on the rest.

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Moving onto Slenderman, the big thing to realize is…there is no canon. The absolute closest thing, and certainly is still off by many miles, is a belief known as Surgism, derived from Victor Surge, the creator of Slenderman, claiming that the Slenderman mythos has strayed from its original intention beyond the original creepypastas, such as the webseries or video games. Which to some extent is true, Slenderman as an entity is either bound by certain rules or not, most commonly in his writings and ARGs beyond the original source material, and as a result, we are left with lots of different versions of Slenderman. Sometimes he truly is just a tall, pale man with tentacles and a suit, other times he’s… a businessman who drives a limousine and curses all the time? Despite constant searching throughout the internet, the results were largely inconclusive on any rules regarding Slenderman’s canon, so what we include and exclude for Slenderman, similar to Sadako, was in our hands. Unfortunately, it is hard to gauge the media of someone who has no attempt at a canon, so while some things may be missed, we are confident that the majority of what we found is applicable to Slenderman as a character, so, we’re gonna explain what we included and why, and also by extension try to explain the attempts made at Slenderman canon by some of its writers:

Creepypastas: These are the OG writings. The very first images and web stories about the Slenderman, from the Slender blog, to the Tall Man, to the archives. All of these will be considered for the blog. 

The Creepypasta Collection: An old series of actual books that reinterprets various Creepypasta characters, including Slenderman (or as they call him, The White King)

Slenderverse: The Slenderverse is a genre of horror most commonly made in the form of vlogs on YouTube, trying to explain the paranormal encounters they are experiencing, often housing types of stories such as ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) that include the protagonists dealing with more fictitious situations. The big requirement to be a Slenderverse story maker is to include, well…Slenderman. The Slenderverse would include web-series such as TwelveTribe, EverymanHYBRID, MLAnderson0, DarkHarvest00, Stan Frederick, and CaughtNotSleeping. More information on it is explained here.

The Jeff the Killer Saga: Another old series of Creepypasta audio dramas on YouTube, which also reinterprets various characters such as Slenderman.

Optional Divisions: The pieces of Slenderman media that continue to look into the mythos in more mainstream ways, such as the various video games like Slender: The Eight Pages, Slender: The Arrival, Slender Rising 1 & 2, Roblox, and Slender’s Woods, along with the two films, Slender (2016) and Slenderman (2018). All video games and movies are considered and included for this blog. 

There are two specific versions of Slenderman that we chose not to include, see Before the Verdict for the information. We are also discounting the more satirical content like Pastamonsters and 101 Amazing Slenderman Facts, as those don’t really contribute to the debate in any meaningful way. 

Hopefully this all puts into perspective the kind of fight we are dealing with here, one that no matter what versions you include or exclude, it's hard to please everyone. Is compositing both of them messy? Yes. Do some versions somewhat contradict each other? Moreso for Slenderman but it's 50/50. Would limiting them to one version be just as messy? Yes. Again, you can’t please everyone. Some will stick to one version and others will want to see it go hog wild. Ultimately, all of the team members for this blog did their absolute very best to make this blog as stellar as can be, and what to include and consider, so we hope you can enjoy the end result. 

Background

Sadako

In Japanese mythology, there exist beautiful stories of gods and goddesses, magical creatures, cornerstones for traditions, all portrayed in the form of art and creative writing, heavily accounted for in these tales spanning the Japanese archipelago.. There exists many spirits, but among all of them, only one holds the title of a “vengeful ghost”: the Onryō. The Onryō were thought to be the souls of people, particularly women, who died in states of extreme hatred and revenge, driven to live on in the real world as specters of fury, never being able to rest. For something to be this powerful to go on with rings of fury beyond the grave, something devastating must have happened in their mortal probation to warrant the birth of an Onryō. Such is the case for Sadako Yamamura. 

Born in 1947 on Sashikiji, Oshima Island to the psychic Shizuko Yamamura and, supposedly, Dr Heihachiro Ikuma, a very well respected doctor, who was having a secret affair with Shizuko. However, this was not the true case. Unlike in the original novels, Sadako’s true father is not Dr Ikuma, instead being an unnamed Sea Demon, whom Shizuko would have intercourse with in a cave by the beach where unwanted children were placed to die via being swallowed into the sea. (Echo here, little fan theory that the unnamed Sea Demon is actually supposed to be En no Ozunu - “The Master of Gods and Demons”, as he is who Sadako and her mother derive their powers from in the novels, so it is likely that the Nakata timeline just decided not to name Ozunu rather than actually swap him out with some random new demon) One day whilst heavily pregnant, Shizuko would leave her house, go down to the cave, and supposedly gave birth as she came back no longer pregnant, however with no baby to show for it. The next day however, she went back down to the cave and came back with Sadako. Sadako was born inheriting far greater psychic abilities than her mother, and would try to live a peaceful childhood. However, this hope was soon dashed when Shizuko successfully predicted the eruption of Mount Mihara, gaining media attention after Shizuko’s brother, Takashi, decided to tell the media of her prediction for money.

Seeing this rise to fame and mysterious power, Dr Ikuma decided to take Shizuko and Sadako on a trip to Tokyo, where he would attempt to scientifically prove the existence of ESP to a group of journalists. In order to do this, he would have Shizuko use clairvoyance, writing down what others had written down without looking at their paper. Unfortunately for Shizuko, the journalists were skeptical of the legitimacy of her feat, and called her out then and there for being a fraud. Seeing this, Sadako would kill a journalist, known as Miyaji, in a fit of rage for calling her mother a fraud. The rest of the crowd saw Miyaji die and were convinced that it must have been Shizuko.

The stress of being accused of being a fraud and a murderer was too much for Shizuko, descending into madness, who would then kill herself by throwing herself into Mount Mihara, the same volcano that brought her this unwanted fame in the first place. Seemingly, the despair of her mother’s death forced Sadako to split into two, physically, as in she became a pair of actual twins. One of the twins was a representation of the good in Sadako, taking after her mother, the other a representation of the evil within Sadako, taking after her true father. Dr Ikuma then decided to move to Izu with Sadako, hoping to keep her under control and harmless.

The Good Sadako would end up growing up to be a nineteen year old woman, joining an acting troupe. Meanwhile, the Evil Sadako would be kept hidden by Dr Ikuma, drugged so she could not grow. Whilst in the acting troupe, Good Sadako would even find love in the form of a boy known as Hiroshi Toyama, the troupe sound director, however tragedy would soon strike. Most members of the acting troupe were having nightmares about a mysterious well and long haired girl, which had only started happening once Sadako had joined the troupe. Then, the lead actress in the play, Aiko Hazuki, whose relationship with the acting director, Yusaku Shigemori, sours due to the latter’s newfound favor for Sadako. Later, Aiko is found dead, murdered by a figure in white, meaning Shigemori would put Sadako in place of Aiko as the lead actress.

Meanwhile, the fiance of Miyaji, the journalist Sadako killed so many years ago, Akiko, was trying to investigate Sadako. She managed to track her down to the acting troupe and started taking photographs of Sadako. Feeling uncomfortable with her photo being taken, Sadako telekinetically breaks their camera, but not before they notice a mysterious figure in white in the photographs, confirming to Akiko her theory of there being two Sadakos.

However, it wasn’t just Akiko who noticed the camera breaking, Yusaku Shigemori, the troupe director also figured it out, and obsessed over the idea of controlling Sadako and her powers. So he decided to threaten Sadako, telling her that he would kill her by revealing her secret if she tried to kill him. So Sadako didn’t try to kill him, instead Toyama, Sadako's love interest, overhears this conversation and tries to fight Shigemori, accidentally killing Shigemori in the fight. Scared for what this might mean for them, they decide to hide Shigemori’s body for now, with Toyama deciding he will confess once the play is finished to save the blame falling to Sadako.

When the play starts, Shigemori’s body is discovered and Toyama is tricked into leaving the sound booth by another member of the acting team. The member then played the audio of the journalists calling Sadako’s mother a fraud, a recording which contained the original curse of Sadako, a high pitch frequency which would curse anyone who heard it. So the entire crowd watching the play, as well as the actors would all be cursed by this tape, meanwhile Sadako would fail her performance due to having a mental breakdown from hearing this tape, and started seeing visions of her mother and reliving the original experience, resulting in her killing her psychologist in front of everyone, who had went on the stage to help calm Sadako down.

Now all the townspeople who had been watching this play have figured out Sadako’s ESP abilities, as well as the fact that they have been cursed to die soon, so they crowd Sadako and beat her to death. Led by Akiko, the journalist who figured out there were two Sadakos, the crowd rush to Dr Ikuma’s house, where they think the second Sadako is being held, in order to kill her in order to ensure that the curse on them is dispelled.

However, it would not pan out that way, as the good Sadako who just got beaten to death would revive herself and make a break for it. She ended up finding her twin, the Evil Sadako inside the forest she had escaped into, and merged back together with her. Now being controlled by Evil Sadako, she would immediately kill Toyama, her love interest, as she believed that he had been the one to play that traumatizing tape due to him being the sound director of the troupe (even though we know that it was actually a different member of the troupe who played it). Sadako would then set on killing all of the townspeople who had come to kill her, making short work of all of them, with Akiko and the troupe member who played the tape killing themselves before they let Sadako get to them.

Once Sadako had calmed down, she was found by Dr Ikuma. Seeing the devastation Sadako had delivered, and fearing for her new powers now she had merged back together, Dr Ikuma would poison Sadako, slice her in the head with a knife, then dump her into a well, promising that he would kill himself after. Dr Ikuma would then seal the well, despite the fact that Sadako didn’t actually die when she was dumped in there. Instead, Sadako would be left alone in that well, feeling nothing but hatred for the next thirty years, building her powers even further…

After years of sitting in darkness, endlessly attempting to crawl out to the point that her fingernails were peeled off, she made her resolve: for all existence to know what it’s like to be Sadako Yamamura. 

Slenderman

Audio Log Note #132

Found within house of Agent ****** Smith

Agent Smith of the Paranormal Department reporting in. I don’t know how much longer I’ll have left before it comes. I saw it outside my window for the first time; it’s long spindly appendages, black suit and a blank face…

Sorry, I should probably explain what I’m doing here. I have been tasked with researching a particular assailant, it’s quite different from the average spirit or cryptid we are tasked with. We don’t particularly know its origin or just how old this thing is, we have evidence of it existing as long as, if not longer than, humanity. It’s made appearances basically everywhere, North America, Europe and even Asia. The oldest story we know of relating to this demon is that of Prometheus and his thievery of the Flame of Knowledge.

In an attempt to hinder the progress of Humanity Nyx, goddess of the night and her brother Erebus, god of the dark silence decided to unleash a monster upon us, a creature with no sense of mercy or morality. This incestious offspring was destined to live inside of and survive upon the innate fear of humanity. We all assumed we were born with two innate fears, great heights and loud noises, but it seems we were wrong. So, so wrong… It’s a fear so deeply ingrained within our psyche that by the time we can fully grasp what it is we are afraid of… Well, it is already too late. Whether or not this interpretation is true does not matter, all we can do is hope something can bring this monster down and save us all from its damnation.

This will be my final note, I was able to identify the creature's name… at least our contemporary understanding of it. While we may have speculated numerous different titles for the monster throughout history (Fear Dubh, Der Grossman) I have finally landed on the true name for this being and now that I have remembered it…. I think it’s over for me, I just heard a loud crash downstairs and the distinct taps of feet on my ceiling, this is all I can do. Its name is… Slenderman…

Audio abruptly cuts to static for the remaining 15 minutes.

Search for Agent ****** Smith is still ongoing.

Throughout the early 2010’s, Creepypastas were at their peak in terms of popularity. Spawning thousands of stories, web series, and fans alike, with an extremely dedicated community still making creations to this day. However, among the crowd of characters that you could see in these stories, one was truly unparalleled in terms of fame. A character so recognizable, that it’s long since cemented itself as not only an internet legend, but a massive part of horror in general. That character of course being… Slenderman. A name that we’re all too familiar with.

Originating from the Something Awful forums, the first images of Slenderman were created by a user known as “Victor Surge”, as part of a photoshop contest. Surge added captions to these images as part of his submission, describing the tall figure in the background as a sort of supernatural entity with cryptic origins, known for its unnatural appearance and tendency to abduct children. Soon, other users began to add their own contributions to the character’s lore and mannerisms, until the Slenderman quite literally blew up in terms of popularity.

People seemed to be infatuated with the concept of Slenderman, and thus numerous works were formed around the character. With some early examples being games, fanart, cosplays, web-series, and of course Creepypasta. However, the Slenderman’s popularity grew so big, to the point where an entirely separate series was created for him, known as the Slenderverse. Which is a myriad of stories written by multiple different authors, all contributing to one overarching mythos.

Now with all this considered, what even IS the true origin of the Slenderman? In-verse I mean. And surprisingly, this question is fairly simple to answer.

Because of all the stories surrounding the character, there isn’t one true backstory for him. That would entirely rely on what works you do and don’t use for him. In some stories, he’s just a tall, pale man with tentacles, in others he’s a guardian of the multiverse meant to protect us from an otherworldly virus… You get the idea. 

However, a fairly popular interpretation of the character (originating from Something Awful), is that the Slenderman was created in an attempt to hinder the progress of Nyx and Erebus, meant to live off of the innate fear in all of humanity. Meaning that Slenderman is technically a Greek god. Which is… pretty badass tbh.

Experience & Skill

Sadako

While Sadako may not have been around for long or demonstrate martial arts skill, she is an incredibly versatile psychic with power precise enough to damage the human body in ways that induce devastating effects such as causing heart failure or in Dead by Daylight, breaking the survivor’s right arm and left leg with her telekinesis. She has also been in a variety of fights against multiple horror icons like Kayako, Bunshinsaba and Jaronna, typically winning each fight she has been in.

She has also utilized her precognitive and psychic powers to sustain and continue her existence, and prepare for future events. And when it comes to exacting her revenge, Sadako has shown that she is quite tactical and genius in manipulation and outsmarting opponents. She successfully mislead Ando into falling in love with her, having an affair in order to gain access to all his documents on her, enacting her to reveal that she has mixed smallpox and her DNA and put that on a tape and anyone who watches it now gets the Ring virus, making Ando subject to her whim. She’s even misled the entire police force by pretending to write up Asakawa’s notes on her, as Asakawa was trying to figure out what Sadako was, and after mind controlling him, forced him to fake his notes to trick the police force. As it is meant that people who read the notes would then also be infected by the Ring virus, as the virus spreads via information transfer, not traditional matter transfer.

She’s also good at making a house of cards.

Slenderman

Not much is known about the mind or motive of the Slenderman, but it is implied that Slenderman has been around since the dawn of humanity taking the appearance of other classic folklore creatures such as British faires or the Germanic Der Grossman (Tall Man). He even has had sightings in the far east presumably in the form of the yokai, noppera-bō, a faceless being that induces fright in all that look at it. As an antagonist, Slenderman has shown he is incredibly cunning, using his powers in advantageous ways such as trapping the main characters in buildings for him to set on fire, or as a guide for his proxies to find more victims. 

As far as being a killer, Slenderman has been described as cold and calculated, and in many unfortunate cases is able to kill someone without leaving a trace. The victims of his murders are commonly children, but even adults and teenagers have been in his crossfire, including entire teams of police officers and crews of underwater ships. He implores a number of tactics such as psychological manipulation in order to cause his victims to perform heinous acts. Slenderman has incredible knowledge of human anatomy as a staple of his murders was precisely dissecting bodies, removing organs and relocating them back into the body while placed in clear bags.

Equipment

Sadako

The Tape and The Virus

Sadako's infamous tape... is very, very strange. Sadako’s tape is of course known for cursing anyone who watches it, meaning that they will die seven days later unless they copy the tape and show it to someone else. However… This is only the very tip of the iceberg when it comes to the tape. You know how it's said that you see your life flash before your eyes when you’re about to die? Essentially, the tape is the life Sadako saw flash before her eyes right before she died.

Sadako’s tape doesn’t just magically curse you, it also infects you with the Ring virus, a mix of smallpox and Sadako’s DNA, which will kill you in seven days unless you show a copy of the tape to someone else (The virus is the original idea, the curse was used instead in the Nakata timeline). This is because Sadako psychically burned her genetic information into the tape, and therefore the virus can leave the tape whenever someone watches it. So the true purpose of the tape is to spread the Ring virus, that much is clear, but the Ring virus has a tendency to mutate, and with it the medium it mutates through.

So to say that you need to watch the Tape to be infected by the virus would not be correct, as Sadako is always changing what you need to have seen to be infected by it. She has gone from Youtube videos and livestreams, to specific frequencies of sound, to simply descriptions about the imagery seen on the tape. Hell, sometimes simply seeing Sadako is enough to transfer it to you! The medium evolves like a virus, always trying to match whatever will allow the greatest number of people to be infected by the virus. The virus itself is spread via information transfer, not via a normal matter transfer of bacteria for example. 

The virus also allows for Sadako to impregnate any ovulating woman who is infected by it, going through the entire pregnancy cycle within seven days and giving birth to a clone of Sadako. Sadako herself works as a hivemind among her clones, controlling all of them simultaneously, as well as gaining full control over the mother over the course of the seven days. However, she can also control anyone infected by the Ring virus, regardless of being impregnated by it or not. The virus itself is also not limited to just infecting humans, as it is capable of infecting all life, including plants and animals, replacing their DNA with her own, eventually culling all life by replacing it with herself. Making her the “Next stage of evolution”. 

Only those infected with the virus can see, feel, and experience the virus before they die.

Slenderman

Eight Pages

The Pages are eight pieces of paper with crude Slenderman drawings, presumably placed in the forest by Slenderman himself in Slender: The Eight Pages, and it is up to the player to collect all eight pages. The more pages are collected, the more aggressive Slenderman becomes in pursuing the player, inflicting various effects on them, such as Slenderman lingering in the mind, loud ambient noises, and thunderous footsteps despite not a soul in sight. Once all eight pages are collected, Slenderman has you right where he wants you, and even with survival guaranteed, you won’t walk away without a complete obsession with Slenderman, frantically drawing him and getting anxious the more you think about him, slowly turning you into a proxy of his very own.

Abilities

Sadako

Ringu

Curse Manipulation

(Ring manga (1996) - Ch1 page 65)

One of Sadako’s most iconic abilities. Anyone who watches her video tape, or any copy of her video tape, will receive a phone call, unlike the American version, there is no voice telling them how long they have left, instead simple silence, cursing them to die seven days later. The only possible cure for this curse is to instead show someone else a copy of the video tape, who will then have to bear the curse instead. This means that people must forever be showing each other the video tape, creating a “ring”. A side effect of her curses is their ability to affect those who have watched it with a high frequency sound that can hurt the eardrums.

(Ring manga (1996) - Ch 9 page 92)

This curse also has a side effect of making any pictures someone may appear in while affected by the curse to become distorted.

(Ring manga (1996) - Ch1 page 47)

In the movie Ring 0:Birthday, it is revealed that Sadako originally put the curse on a specific frequency, and that anyone who heard this frequency would be cursed. This phenomenon is known as "Spirit Photography". 

As the Ringu franchise has developed, the curse has grown far beyond a simple videotape. Even just seeing Sadako, a person can contract the curse, and showing the tape to someone else doesn’t actually remove the curse either.

Death Manipulation

(Ring (1998) (1:27:30))

Sadako is infamous for her powerful death manipulation. She can call death onto anyone by “thinking”, with the death incurred leaving no trace as to how it happened. This death is sometimes shown to be via forcefully ripping the soul out of someone, and other times to be someone simply having their heart stop, or simply causing people to drop dead. Either way, it is consistent that Sadako projecting horrifying images into their minds is the key attribute which kills them.

(Ring manga (1996) - Ch8 Page 14)

Sadako can call death on someone, regardless of if they have seen her tape or not. She has killed people who haven’t seen her tape for a variety of reasons, like one journalist known as Miyaji, who was insulting her mother by calling her a fraud, causing him to vomit blood until he died.

(Ring manga (1996) - Ch8 pages 11-12)

Madness Manipulation

(Ring manga (1996) - Ch1 page 42)

One of Sadako’s most famous abilities is her inflicting madness onto those who witness her. She can inflict this madness onto people even if they have not witnessed her video tape, simply being near someone who has reached the end of their seven day time limit is enough for Sadako to inflict a devastating madness onto you. This madness has been described as enough to hospitalize people, as well as induce them to become mute, like she did to Yoichi Asakawa for a time. Even powerful psychics like Ms. Horyu have fallen victim to her deadly abilities. She can even make people insane enough to peel away their own skin and eyes until nothing remains.

(Ring manga (1996) Ch1 page 14)

Sadako’s mere presence has been shown to cause immense dread and panic in her victims, making them terrified. Her simply approaching one of her would-be attackers in Ring 0:Birthday was enough for them to choose to kill themself instead of getting killed by Sadako.

Dream Manipulation

(Ring manga (1996) - Ch4 pages 16-18)

Sadako has showcased the ability to forcibly influence the dreams of her victims, showing them horrifying images and even showcasing her prior victims to her future victims, such as tormenting Reiko Asakawa with images of her niece Tomoko Oishi, who was recently killed by Sadako, in this scene.

Sadako also manipulated the dreams of everyone in her acting troupe in Ring 0:Birthday, showing them images of the well and terrifying all of them. Most terrifyingly, any damage Sadako does to a person in their dream comes to life when they wake up.

Nightmare Inducement

Sadako was able to put Fuko in an endless nightmare until she was forcibly woken up. This type of nightmare is seemingly like a nightmare within a nightmare within a nightmare. People will imagine themselves waking up only to realize that they’re in fact still stuck in the nightmare.

Hair Manipulation

Sadako’s hair is primarily used for restraining victims, or attempting to pull them into the TV screen with her, which has successfully worked on a few occasions. When pulled into the TV you are taken to her personal pocket dimension, in which she is significantly stronger. Her hair can also put people within entire illusory worlds, in which they cannot move to escape Sadako and she can easily kill them. Her hair could  also work as straight attacks, like when she gouged out Kayako’s eye with her hair.

Sleep Manipulation

Sadako’s psychic powers allow her to put others to sleep. She does not need to be near or touch people to do this, and can pretty much just send people to sleep whenever she so desires while still within her pocket dimension.

Weather Manipulation

Sadako was capable of making a large typhoon that covered the entire island of Oshima, which is about 35 square miles, as well as the surrounding waters, for over a day, canceling all flights into the island. In other instances, she’s caused storms over entire cities.

Flight

Self-explanatory, Sadako is capable of flying around at high speeds and levitating. It is likely that this is hypersonic speed levels of flying, with similar spirits Bunshinsaba and Jaronna making loud crashing sounds every time they clashed flying at this speed.

Astral Projection

Despite Sadako’s body being in the hospital, she was able to spiritually appear to someone else on an island far away. This spirit is capable of all of Sadako’s other abilities. 

Clairvoyance

 

(Ring manga (1996) - Ch8 page 8)

Sadako has been stated (many, many times) to be a far more powerful psychic than her mother, Shizuko Yamamura, who could use clairvoyance in order to determine what kanji was written on a card without looking at the card itself. 

Future Prediction

(Ring (1998) (45:35))

Sadako could correctly predict the eruption of Mount Mihara, an unforeseen event. Sadako herself correctly predicted that her classmates would drown if they went swimming in the sea in Ring 0: Birthday, only for them to do it anyway, with fourteen of them drowning. Sadako’s future prediction has also been said to be completely infallible, and is seemingly always active, like when she was watching a movie with Ando and was quoting lines before they even came up. She should also be able to see at least a year into the future via upscaling from the old lady seen within her videotape who predicted that Sadako would have children within the next year, despite her intersexual nature making such a feat biologically impossible until the Ring virus’s creation. However, her future prediction could go even beyond a year, as she should upscale her daughter in Ring 3D 2, who could see the future all the way to people’s deaths.

Self-Sustenance

(Ring manga (1996) - Ch9 page 54)

Sadako managed to survive inside of the well she was cruelly thrown into for over thirty years, with no food or clean water given to her (the water of the well, while originally clean, is later shown to be contaminated). Not only did Sadako survive down here by feeding on pure hatred, but she had enough strength to attempt to claw her way out “thousands of times”, eventually ripping out all of her fingernails, showcasing supernatural willpower.

Technology Manipulation

Sadako’s technology manipulation is easily one of her most famous abilities. Not only does she crawl out of TVs, but she can even crawl out of smaller screens like computer monitors and phone screens. Sadako has also shown abilities like hacking websites and even retroactively appearing in YouTube videos (Youtube is a surprisingly common occurrence within the Ring franchise, funnily enough), being able to prevent videos from being stopped. Sadako can make it impossible to pause or end her videos, as well as manipulate other technological facets like lights and cameras. She can hack websites or even make advanced technology explode. 

Mind Control

Sadako has showcased the ability to telepathically speak in others minds, saying anything she desires, such as forcing a man to walk into traffic and kill himself with her telepathy, or mind controlling Keiko into killing herself.

Telekinesis

Sadako is able to telekinetically move objects or people with her mind, although it isn’t used as much in the series as people would think. There are a few instances of it, such as breaking a lock with telekinesis, or causing small tornadoes to appear out of a sandbox. In more powerful instances, she can shake an entire room or bring down a house.

    Healing and Resurrection

Sadako’s healing abilities extend beyond just her own body. She has shown the ability to heal even paralysis of people with debilitating injuries, showing how her healing abilities can act in a more selfless way than one may anticipate for Sadako. She can even resurrect other people, so long as she has some form of their DNA, by rebirthing them. As in, she will absorb their DNA’s information then impregnate herself with their DNA, and within seven days give birth to whoever’s DNA she had, with them growing to the age they died at within seven days as well.

        Regeneration

Sadako’s regeneration is busted. Pre-well, she was capable of regenerating from minor wounds like blunt force trauma attacks by hammer, and straight up death. However, after she got dumped into the well her power of regeneration grew exponentially. Now, Sadako can regenerate from being straight up turned into dust by Akane’s screams in an instant, as well as regenerating her body through her forcing ovulating women whom have been infected by the Ring virus to bear her as a baby, not only taking over the woman’s body and mind during the process, but also the fetus inside the woman simultaneously. The baby then born from this process would grow to be an exact clone of Sadako within seven days of birth, allowing Sadako to live once more. The baby Sadako’s can function on their own, cutting the umbilical cord from the placenta and simply walking out like nothing happened. Even powerful psychics like Akane could merely stall Sadako before she simply impregnated Akane with a new Sadako. Originally it was thought that in order to stop Sadako you have to kill the next baby, then she evolved into being able to reproduce sexually without needing a body to impregnate, but now? Now she can also just make new bodies out of nothing, simply summoning them from out of nowhere, seemingly instantly. 

Invisibility

Sadako has the ability to render herself invisible, very selectively for who can and cannot see her, only showing herself to those infected by the Ring virus. This can extend to her technology control as well, being able to only be seen through the lens of a phone, or when she and Bunshinsaba were fighting, they were only able to be seen fighting through the flashes of the soul steal camera. Essentially, you’ll only be able to see Sadako if she wants you to see her.

Teleportation

Sadako can teleport almost out of nowhere at close range. Her teleportation can cross through dimensions, like leaving her pocket dimension in the Demonic Abyss via teleporting in an instant, and is so fast not even other spirits like Bunshinsaba can see it. Sadako relying on crawling out of TVs is really just not the case.

Portal Creation

In SCP-108 fashion, Sadako can seemingly create portals whether she desires in order to pursue her targets, as well as turn large bodies of water into interdimensional portals (likely linked to her pocket dimension in the Demonic Abyss), which she can drag people into and send her clones out of. It’s worth remembering however that Sadako does not need the portals to teleport, nor to send her clones out, nor to drag people into her realm, it's more just an option she has to do all three. Her portal extension seems to be able to extend to non-technological places, being able to go through paintings, mirrors, and…toilets? What the fuck?

Shapeshifting

Sadako has showcased the ability to do some pretty interesting shapeshifting. She can take the form of whoever people care for most, even if this is information she should have been impossible for Sadako to know. She can also transform her body into a more physical battle ready form, gaining horrific mutations in order to gain more physical strength. She then can also transform into a horde of insects in order to avoid attacks, as well as transforming into water in order to teleport through some types of portal she creates, as wet patches are often seen from wherever the portal was from.

Size Manipulation

After absorbing someones soul, Sadako became powerful enough to grow over an entire house and its surrounding trees. She can also seemingly get somewhat smaller, as it would be needed in order to crawl out of phone screens like she has been shown to do.

Illusions

Another common ability as a psychic, Sadako can induce illusions on her victims, sometimes appearing and disappearing before the eye, or projecting herself on a giant billboard, or spawning her well, and it seems she can be selective over who experiences her illusions. She can make entire illusory worlds in which people are unable to act, or drag people into wells which seem to hold an endlessly stretching amount of water at the bottom. She can even create entire illusory worlds, in which people are unable to act as Sadako kills them.

Spirit Ward Creation

Sadako summons a number of ghost children in front of her, and can even throw the spirits of her previous victims at her enemies, like she did against Bunshinsaba.

Duplication

Sadako is able to produce clones of herself, seemingly as many as she chooses. These clones are all controlled by Sadako simultaneously (we know this via how Sadako was simultaneously Takano Mai and the fetus inside Takano Mai), and can be made from absolutely nothing, appearing anywhere she so desires. Each clone possesses the same abilities as the main Sadako. She can also create her clones from impregnating ovulating women to give birth to a new her within seven days. 

Plant Manipulation

Sadako has shown the ability to manipulate and control plant life, making it move and bloom according to her will.

Possession

Sadako can possess people, forcing them to do what she commands and even using them as vessels to speak through, like using a student to lure Akane into a trap, or even possessing Akane herself, who is a powerful psychic. She was able to possess a priest to make him kill himself via supernatural strength.

Body Puppetry

Sadako was able to take direct control of Lisa’s body in order to try and throw her off the roof, and has also took control of a woman to make her stab herself in the eye, and made an officer shoot himself, which shows how she can use her body puppet someone even if they’re dead.

Insect Control

Sadako was able to control a flood of insects from her well to attack Akane. 

Pocket Dimension

(Echo here for a disclaimer: Sadako’s pocket dimension is never properly explained well, the explanation here is simply my best theory as to what exactly it is). Sadako’s soul seems to reside within a pocket dimension of her own creation. Within this pocket dimension, her powers are far greater than the powers she displays outside of it, like how Akane was standing her ground against a horde of mutated Sadako clones until Sadako pulled her into her dimension and easily overpowered and possessed her, even being able to control Takanori and nearly make him kill himself. In weirder instances when she is fighting inside objects like paintings, Sadako displays some weird pseudo-reality warping abilities. My best guess is that this pocket dimension is a type of sub-dimension of the Demonic Abyss, the realm of the evil spirits. This dimension will be explored further in the Ring cosmology section later in the blog (because of course the Ring needs a cosmology section).

Force-Fields

Sadako showed the ability to make psychic force-fields in her fight against Bunshinsaba.

Absorption

Sadako began to absorb Bunshinsaba’s magnetic energy and her being, who is a being primarily made of smoke, into herself. It’s also worth keeping in mind that Bunshinsaba typically has the ability to teleport into the Demonic Abyss to avoid attacks, but did not do that while restrained, implying that Sadako’s hair somehow prevents such methods of escape.

Soul Manipulation

Sadako is stated to thrive on the souls of children, and in the past has absorbed souls as a way to get stronger and even grow larger in size. Sadako was also able to take Zhixia’s soul into the Demonic Abyss, and it is implied again with other victims that Sadako can send souls there despite not even touching them. A type of soul BFR you could say.

Time Travel

(Sadako Taxi Service!) 

Essentially, Sadako resides within the Crack in Time, a realm which allows for its residents to freely travel through all time and space in an infinite amount of parallel universes (expanded upon in the Cosmology Section), and can easily track other time travelers, like how Jaronna tracked Bunshinsaba in the Crack in Time.

The True Nature of Sadako

So essentially… Sadako is incredibly strange. So Sadako is an intersexual spirit made of “Pure Hertzian Energy”, meaning that you have to be on the same wavelength as her to even interact with her. Due to her intersexual nature, she can impregnate herself to create even more clones if needed, or bring others back to life by impregnating herself with their DNA. She resides within the Demonic Abyss, a separate dimension, and is meant to replace humanity as its next evolution, by replacing all DNA with her own by means of the Ring virus. This would allow for the immortality, even if stagnation, of all life. Her powers also derive from the same place as her mother’s, “The Master of Gods and Demons, En No Ozunu”, a real life god of Shugendo, which is really really… strange.

Dead by Daylight Powers

Deluge of Fear

“Capable of condemning Survivors to death through a powerful cursed videotape, Sadako’s wrath is inevitable. Her presence conjures several televisions, through which she can teleport and emerge with malevolent purpose. The fleeting glimpse of her approach ensures that a chilling fate is not far behind.”

In Dead by Daylight, Sadako’s power is called Deluge of Fear. The first part of the power is Demanifestation, meaning she starts the trial with the Undetectable Status Effect, which means her Terror Radius cannot be heard when she is nearby. However, she is still somewhat visible to survivors within 24 meters of her, but completely invisible to anyone farther than that. In this state, Sadako cannot attack the survivors or interact with them, but she also cannot be stunned by pallets. In order to attack survivors she must activate the second part of her power, Manifest. Sadko manifests into material form to attack the survivors with her Rings of Fury, psychic symbols that contain the kanji for “curse”, representing her flooding rage and desire for vengeance. Sadako can manifest and unmanifest at any time. 

Special Ability: Projection

 

Another way Sadako can manifest is by projecting herself through a TV. In Dead by Daylight, there are various TVs across the map, in buildings and near generators most commonly, and just by looking at one of them allows her to teleport to that TV and crawl out of it, giving her a temporary speed boost of 6.9 ms/ for roughly two seconds, along with shutting off the TV for 45 seconds. 

Special Affliction: Condemned

Any survivor who interacts with Sadako’s power gains a Stack of Condemned, and reaching up to seven stacks puts them in mortal danger. By using her Projection with a full Power Gauge, all survivors within 16 meters gain +1 Stack of Condemned. Furthermore, she can lock in more stacks by hooking survivors. A first time hook locks in all current Condemned for up to +3 Stacks, and a second time can lock it up to +6 Stacks. 

Special Ability: Inexorable Stare

Once a survivor is fully Condemned, they have their auras revealed for six seconds through Killer Instinct, and can be killed with the Inexorable Stare when put in the Dying State, killing you with a stare due to being haunted by the VHS Tape. 

Sadako’s Unique Perks

As a playable killer in Dead by Daylight, Sadako has three unique perks that take up three slots, but is capable of using and learning other perks, allowing her to have a fourth slot open to use during the trials. These perks can be leveled up with the Prestige system, granting access to these perks for all other killers on the roster and for their higher tier versions to spawn in the Bloodweb. Prestiging Sadako’s perks three times will give them Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III status for both Sadako and other killers. Sadako’s perks are as followed:

Call of Brine: Your psychic abilities influence technology in devastating ways. After performing the Damage Generator Action on a Generator, Call of Brine activates for 60 seconds.

• The damaged Generator regresses 115/120/125% of the normal Regression speed and its Aura is highlighted to you in yellow. 

• Receive a Loud Noise Notification each time a Survivor hits a Good Skill Check on the affected Generator.

Merciless Storm: Your horrible trauma is felt by everyone.

• When a Generator is repaired to 90%, Survivors repairing it are faced with continuous Skill Checks.

• If they miss one or stop repairing, the Generator becomes blocked for 16/18/20  seconds. 

Merciless Storm can only trigger once per Generator per Trial.

Scourge Hook: Floods of Rage: You form a psychic connection with the Entity and alter the rules of the Trial. At the start of the Trial, 4 random hooks are changed into Scourge Hooks:

• The Auras of Scourge Hooks are revealed to you in white. 

Each time a Survivor is unhooked from a Scourge Hook, the following effects apply:

• The Auras of all other Survivors are revealed for 5/6/7 seconds.

General Killer Perks

As mentioned before, Sadako is able to tap into the other perks of the other killers, as they are considered learnable due to the Prestige system, becoming available to her. However, there are approximately 105 killer perks to talk about, and that would be a massive wall-of-text, so if you are curious about the other perks Sadako can tap into, see the Dead by Daylight wiki for more. We will however mention a few important ones:

Unrelenting: Reduces cooldown of missed attacks by 30%.
Sloppy Butcher: Wounds inflicted from Basic Attacks cause his victim to suffer from the Hemorrhage and Mangled Status Effects. Bleeding frequency is increased by 100% and healing regression caused by Hemorrhage is increased by 25%. Hemorrhage causes the victim to lose 7% of healing progress per second if they are not being healed. Mangled slows down healing speed by 20%.

Mindbreaker: All Survivors repairing a Generator suffer from the following afflictions:

• Incurs the Blindness and Exhausted Status Effects for the duration of the Repair action.

• If a Survivor was already suffering from Exhausted prior to Mindbreaker affecting them, the Status Effect's timer will be paused and not recover for the duration of the Repair action.

• Both Status Effects linger for another 3/4/5 seconds after a Survivor stops repairing.

Insidious: Grants the Undetectable Status Effect after standing still for 4/3/2 seconds. This effect lasts until you start moving again.

Overwhelming Presence: Survivors within your Terror Radius suffer from inefficiency:

• When using an Item, its Depletion rate is increased by 80/90/100%.

Deluge of Fear Add-Ons

Sadako’s power, Deluge of Fear, can be altered or adjusted with 20 Add-Ons available. They are single use only in the trials, and used to enhance the killer in various ways, able to equip two at once in her Loadout. They come in the form of an object from Sadako’s past in order to boost her power, with some of them being able to stack onto each other if they boost the same power. Here are all of Sadako’s add-ons, in order from Common to Iridescent:

Cabin Sign: Reduces the time it takes for a TV to turn on after Projection by -12 seconds.

Mother’s Mirror: Increases the duration of the intermittent visibility phase after Manifesting by +2 seconds.

Old Newspaper: Increases the invisibility duration after Manifesting by +33 %.

Videotape Copy: Extends the radius around TVs within which Survivors gain Condemned from Projection by +2 meters.

Clump of Hair: Reduces the threshold for full Invisibility while Demanifested by -4 meters.

Reiko’s Watch: Increases the duration of your full Invisibility while Demanifested by +25 %.

Sea-Soaked Cloth: Survivors suffer from the Blindness Status Effect when within 8 meters of powered TVs. This effect lingers for 7 seconds after turning off a TV.

Well Stone: Reduces the time it takes for TVs to turn back on after Projection by -7 seconds.

Yoichi’s Fishing Net: Survivors suffer from the Blindness Status Effect after acquiring at least 4 Stacks of Condemned.

Bloody Fingernails: Increases the Speed Boost duration after Projection by +50 %.

Mother’s Comb: Highlights the Auras of all turned-off TVs in yellow; Causes TVs being turned off to trigger a Loud Noise Notification.

Rickety Pinwheel: Survivors suffer from the Oblivious Status Effect when within 8 meters of powered TVs. This effect lingers for 7 seconds after turning off a TV.

Ring Drawing: Hooking a Survivor carrying a VHS Tape causes all other Survivors to gain +1 Stack of Condemned.

Well Water: Increases the duration of the Undetectable Status Effect by +2 seconds after Manifesting by any means.

Distorted Photo: Causes all Survivors within 16 meters of your location who witness your Manifestation to scream and reveal their Auras for 4 seconds.

Tape Editing Deck: Causes all Survivors start the Trial with a VHS Tape. All Survivors must bring their VHS Tape to the TV  that is farthest from their current location. The Auras of Survivors inserting a VHS Tape into a TV are revealed to you for 6 seconds.

Telephone: Survivors suffer from a -3 % Hindered Status Effect for 3 seconds when Manifesting within 7 meters of them.

VCR: Causes all TVs to play the Projection Effects when using Projection.

Iridescent Videotape: Projection no longer turns off TVs, but also no longer applies any Condemned. Increases the time required for TVs to turn back on after having been turned off by Survivors by +20 %.

Remote Control: The Auras of all Survivors within 12 meters of powered TVs are revealed to you for 7 seconds after using Projection.

Resistances

Death Manipulation: Sadako has been able to persist and come back from Akane’s body-shattering psychic screams, which have been shown to induce death on humans.

Sealing & Soul Destruction: The soul steal camera can seal and destroy souls if they’re caught in a picture taken by the camera, and Sadako completely no-sells it the first time. The second time, even though she was captured, was still able to escape. The ending of Sadako vs Bunshinsaba 2 also implies Sadako eventually broke out of being sealed by Bunshinsaba.

Soul Removal: Sadako no-sells the soul gun, which forces the soul out of the body, twice.

Mind Control: The fact that neither Kayako, Bunshinsaba or Jaronna attempted to mind control Sadako seems to imply that she would resist any type of mind control.

Power Nullification: Due to all humans in the Ring technically being psychics, when all humans in Japan were preying on the downfall of Shizuko (Sadako’s mother), she was unable to perform her abilities. However, it was noted that such energy had left Sadako completely unphased.

Light Manipulation: Via the Lightborn perk in Dead by Daylight, Sadako can resist being blinded by a flashlight or being stunned by a flashbang. 

Slenderman

Slenderman Physiology

Donning a snazzy suit and an eerie blank face, Slenderman has an incredibly malleable body being able to bend and move akin to snakes while being as sharp as swords. Slenderman is also capable of transforming his body to fit into whatever era he is currently living in, for example he was able to trade in his suit for a suit of armor as a disguise during the Feudal Age. His body has also been described as being made up of shadows, smoke and “the things that drive men to madness”, suggesting some form of nonexistent physiology.

Of course his most iconic feature is his many black tendrils. Slenderman can seem to make as many appear as he wants, and are commonly used to grab or embrace his victims, or stab them, which can induce a burning sting and feeling of numbness that poisons the body, or cause someone to start seeing illusions, and it is one of his most common methods of capturing and killing. They are also prone to shapeshifting, being malleable enough to slide under doors.

The most common and popular theory surrounding Slenderman’s physiology is that of the Tulpa Theory, the theory that Slenderman was created and powered through people’s thoughts and perceptions. This has led to the belief that Slenderman exists as “dark energy” and was created outside our multiverse, and instead in an infinitely more complex set of multiverses, meaning he does not abide by our laws of space nor time.

Teleportation/Slender Walking

An iconic ability of Slenderman. Slender has shown the ability to teleport (fan dubbed “Slender-Walking”) seemingly anywhere. He also has the ability to take others with him as he teleports. The most common, popular and seemingly oldest theory surrounding the inner-workings of Slender-Walking are that of quantum theory. The idea that Slenderman exists at all points of spacetime at once until he chooses to manifest in a singular location. This allows him to freely move around space as well as time travel (more on this will be covered later on in the blog). While this begs the question of whether or not he can teleport while being observed, numerous slender media have shown the opposite, such as Dreams In Darkness.

Slender Sickness

An unidentifiable illness seemingly spread upon Slenderman's victims. This sickness often grows worse, depending on how long Slenderman stalks the victim. The symptoms of the illness vary but can range from a simple nose bleed or coughing to signs of radiation exposure, or even sudden vomiting. A theory suggests this is what happens to our body when it comes into contact with beings “not of this reality”

Slender Sap

Slenderman seems to be able to emit/manipulate a black gooey substance that is compared to black maple sap on the trees. He has used it to kill a gym teacher by clogging up some of his organs to the point where his lungs were filled with sap, and his clothes and other organs were all ripped apart. 

Transmutation

With a single touch, Slenderman can turn a human into fog, it is even implied that the fog he summons upon arrival could be other former living people…

Madness Manipulation

Slenderman is able to induce intense madness and trauma in those that see him. People suffering under Slender’s madness can suffer from multiple different effects, from general loss of motor skills, screaming fits and increased anxiety, depression and suicidal tendencies. In one instance a famous manga artist witnessed Slenderman brutally murder his sister at a young age causing him to be unable to draw anything without the Slenderman in them. 

Death Manipulation 

Slender has shown the ability to kill living things seemingly by just being around them. He can also utilize this ability physically, thanks to his tendrils.

Nightmare Inducement

Slenderman has shown the ability to either infiltrate the dreams of people or induce nightmares of himself. Either way it’ll be hard to get to sleep when he stalks you.

Emotion Manipulation

(Where it all began…)

Slender Man has the ability to invoke intense emotions of fear and strangely comfort in people. He’s also able to inhibit emotions in his victims, or make people…fall in love?

Memory Manipulation

After brutally murdering someone Slender was able to wipe the memory of survivors to not only forget the events of the incident but also their comprehension of the identities of people present at the time. Patients of the Slenderman have also been documented to experience gaps in their memory, and via his tendrils, can access the memories of those he stabs, unlocking their psyche and ripping through their emotions. While under the control of Slenderman by means of mind control (essentially becoming a proxy) Slender can share and implant memories of his own.

Mind Reading

Slender has shown the ability to read the minds of his proxies, allowing him to anticipate every situation.

Telekinesis

Slenderman has demonstrated psychic abilities before, and that has extended to telekinesis, as he is able to make objects levitate. 

Body Puppetry

Slender has the ability to puppet another person's body. A quite unfortunate scenario was when he forced a man to brutally murder his wife against his will.

Damage Redirection

Slenderman seemingly redirected the damage of a pistol onto the person firing at him, piercing their lung.

Illusions

Slender’s very presence can induce hallucinations and illusions such as filling a victim's view up with static and blackness, or filling their minds with visions of children screaming. Most terrifyingly, he can use illusions on those who have survived encounters with the creature, bombarding their minds with visions of unfamiliar places and raging fires, causing them to go mad. Slender has also used illusions as warnings to unfortunate proxies. 

Fog Creation

Slender Man has consistently shown the ability to summon strong fog, especially when victims collect his pages. This fog has been described as inducing anxiety in victims, and he can cause fog for days on end without stopping, with a range big enough to fill an entire town quickly.

Darkness Manipulation

Further adding to his already impressive stealth, Slender has showcased the ability to manipulate darkness to hide himself even further. His ability to summon darkness is more than likely a gift from his mother Nyx.

Weather Manipulation 

Slenderman has potentially shown the ability to summon large thunderstorms, some lasting for days at a time.

Invisibility

(Stop it Slender 2 my beloved)

Slenderman is capable of rendering himself unseen to the naked eye, though it is unknown if it is by way of illusions or how he interacts with light. He can be selective about who he is visible to but is fully capable of attacking in this state. While invisible, Slender can be revealed through camera pictures. 

                Intangibility

After hearing strange noises coming from outside his room, Noah decides to grab his pistol and search the house. When he’s finally met face-to-face with the Slenderman, he opens fire, with little to no avail. Later on, Noah finds bullet holes in the wall where Slendy was previously standing. Meaning that these bullets had phased through him somehow. 

Shapeshifting

Slenderman has showcased the ability to shapeshift his body in… pretty gross ways. One example of this is when he grew spider-legs (in the gif above), and later on just straight up turned into a spider to chase down Noah.

Biological Manipulation

Slender not only has insane control over his own body's biology but also those of his victims. Able to induce unexplainable heart attacks, strokes and seizures onto people no matter how healthy they may be. Even causing Noah Maxwell to black-out for a week straight. He also has shown the odd ability to prolong the life of proxies, essentially turning them immortal.

Fire Manipulation

The arrival of Slenderman often comes along with unexplainable fires that can burn down buildings and forests. As spoken about in an ancient fairy tale he is also able to appear from flames. Near the end of Slender: The Arrival, an entire forest is being burnt down, presumably caused by the man himself. The range of his fire seems to extend even further, being able to burn multiple cities in the United States of America at once. Interestingly, Slender seemingly has control over how hot he can make the fire, showcasing the ability to manipulate blue flames. He can also set people on fire if he wishes.

Cold Manipulation

Slenderman apparently was gifted the ability to summon the cold of the underworld from his mother Nyx (yes the greek goddess). He has used this power to drop the temperature “below” freezing without being in the room.

Sound Mimicry

Slenderman has the ability to mimic a child’s cry, presumably to scare or deceive his victims.

Size Manipulation

Slender has showcased his ability to change his size at will. Typically appearing larger than most trees and able to peer into two story houses, Slender has also been photographed sometimes no taller than a human (ironic).

Stealth

Stealth has long been one of the Slenderman’s most iconic skills, often being able to sneak up on completely unaware victims without any problems. Even being able to tail someone speed walking up a hill without making a noise in the dead of night.

Duplication

As theorized by a high class Organization member, Slender seemingly has the ability to duplicate himself to appear anywhere around the world at once. To add credence to this theory, he was photographed at two places almost simultaneously.

Possession

Slender has seemingly been able to possess people who have seen him.

Self-Sustenance
Slender isn’t one to eat his victims or….anything for that matter! Nor does he feel the need to breathe or sleep. This allows him to travel far distances without fatigue and survive underwater (described as possibly being amphibious).

Technology Manipulation

The presence of Slenderman is usually followed by any nearby technology being tampered with. This is shown when nearby cameras are overrun with his static, flashlights and lanterns seem to shut down, light switches turn on and off, etc. Not only this, but Slenderman has also shown manipulation over weaponry, causing a gun to seemingly jam. In Seeking Truth he has even been compared to an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse).

 Plant Manipulation

Slenderman is able to manipulate the trees of the forest at times, using branches to grab his victims and even disguising as a tree to drag a victim into it and absorb them.

Sound Manipulation

Slender has showcased the odd ability to project his voice out to multiple places at once. As a gift from his father Erebus, the Greek god of darkness, he can stifle all sound around him.

Atmosphere Manipulation

Slender has shown a minor control over the atmosphere being able to apparently remove oxygen from it and even increase static electricity, or alter the properties of the air into liquid. 

Time Manipulation

Slender has shown the ability to alter another being's time by slowing down a dog as if it were a record player.

Life Draining

Slenderman’s tendrils seem to have an ability to drain someone of their strength, weakening them and in the process causing numbness, pain that is felt going down the spine and up again. 

Regeneration 

Slenderman has showcased mild regenerative properties such as instantly growing his cut off arm instantly. 

Reality Warping

When Slenderman is empowered by the knowledge of his existence from humans, he has shown a wide array of powers, extending his psychic abilities into warping the very environment, such as forming the sky into a mouth of sharp teeth with slime and tendrils coming from it. It can even affect people, such as when he temporarily removed a girl’s face.

Dimensional Travel

On occasions when Slenderman has a tremendous hold of power from humans, he has been able to break through the fabric of reality and appear before someone, if he is somehow unable to find them. 

Dimensional Bleeding

According to the Angel’s Game, dimensional bleeding is an ability the Slenderman can use and one that has implications of being used across the Slenderverse as a whole when it comes to vlog crossovers and other inconsistencies in events taking place on numerous universes. In essence, dimensional bleeding is the collision of entire universes, creating Rifts between them that have both positive and negative effects; positive effects like interdimensional travel between said universes, and the negative effects being that cracks and tears in the fabric of reality occur.

The Slenderman’s True Nature

“This blog will be the death of me”- TheRealGnomeChompski

It’s time we delve into the Slenderman’s true nature.

 

You may have came into this blog expecting a simple cryptid story about a big scary man who kills children and hangs them from trees, and for the most part you would be right… until we start digging into what exactly the Slenderman is with help from our friends at the long dead Slenderbloggins! In a specific page titled “Slender Science” we are given an in depth theory utilizing the popular Tulpa theory (which you may remember from the physiology section), essentially the idea that Slenderman is a thoughtform created by the collective internet. This allows people to warp the perception of Slenderman and grant him new powers and weaknesses. While this is already a terrifying idea, we are given even more information about his creation and his existence thanks to the aforementioned page.

Within the theory we are given the explanation that, because of our thoughts of a separate reality and universe, we created a Slenderman made out of dark energy created from an infinite multiverse that is infinitely more complex than ours. Yes really. Because of this he follows rules beyond what our feeble little universe can comprehend, basically allowing him to exist at all points in spacetime. It doesn’t end there sadly. 

Slenderman has been described as using time in ways we cannot comprehend, embodying the fear of repeating events in time over and over again in a similar manner to the Grandfather Paradox. Because of this and the repeating nature of time itself (a theory presented by Novikov that claims that time is repetitive and consistent), it has been theorized that Slenderman is so deeply interconnected within our timeline that we are all sub-consciously aware and fearful of him representing the idea of reliving events eternally. Basically, because of his constant re-appearances throughout time, he has become a “temporal fear” in all of us that will never end.

And the final theory presented by Slender Science is that of his presence throughout all of our time. Because of his repeating appearances and the constantly repeating nature of time itself, Slenderman has knowledge of everything that can, has and will happen and will use this to his benefit. The only way to overcome this is to exist within a multiverse that follows similar rules or exist beyond conventional timelines.

Now that we have covered these three theories, let’s discuss what powers this grant's old Slendy in the end.

Dark Energy Manipulation

Due to being made up of this energy, Slenderman’s touch should damage anything made up of normal matter.

Sigma Radiation

In the EverymanHYBRID webseries, Slenderman emits something called Sigma Radiation, a form of energy present in the blood of the main cast and a piece of Slenderman’s clothes. The presence of this radiation is unclear, but is theorized to induce fear when in the bloodstream.

Time Travel

Thanks to Slenderman existing at all points of spacetime at once he should have the ability to freely travel time at will. He can also force other people through involuntary time travel, with a side effect of memory loss as well.

The Path of Black Leaves

In many stories of the Slenderverse, there is a mention of a place known as the Path of Black Leaves. For Slenderman and his proxies, it is a dimension, a nexus that is used for means of interdimensional travel, something they can easily access for things as simple as dodging attacks if necessary. Within the Path, lots of strange creatures can be found, with points of interest such as the Bleeding Tree, a sentient tree that can infect victims or cause hallucinations.

Omniscience

Exactly what it says above. Slenderman’s non-temporal existence allows him to know pretty much everything that can and will happen. However it is theorized that this can be bypassed if he “hasn’t crossed your timeline” most likely meaning beings who also exist beyond time. This theory is more so proven in the Slenderverse, where Slenderman is confirmed to have omniscience.

Conceptual Immortality

Considering Slenderman’s existence revolves around human thought, he should naturally always exist as long as someone is aware and fearful of him. The Observer notes that he and the Slenderman do not abide by the concept of aging, and that Slenderman has existed long before Jesus of Nazareth did. When asked about if Slenderman can even die, the Observer states that Slenderman is neither alive nor dead, that they “just are”. In some cases, it's been described that humans who believe in him more than seeing him as a passing thought empower Slenderman, and make it harder to kill him. Sadly for us, he is an innate fear in all of humanity throughout all of time.  

Fate Manipulation

When asked about Slenderman’s process of selecting its victims, the reply is met with the Observer stating that Slenderman…is fate. And that he can manipulate it. Slenderman does select his victims, but they are also chosen by fate, because Slenderman is fate. So both possibilities suggested in the question are correct, hence why the Observer replies "yes".

Causality Manipulation

When asked about Slenderman’s ability to traverse time as humans see it, bringing up the cause and effect damage, the Observer says “omnipotence prevents this”, as if to say Slenderman’s power allows him to travel freely through time without consequence, as he can decides what happens and what doesn’t, though its likely more systemic then specific.

Mind Control

Unsurprisingly, this ability is very common in many of Slenderman’s stories. Ranging from children to entire groups of people, Slenderman can on occasion use his victims, or people who seem to acknowledge his existence beyond fear, to do his bidding. He’s used this ability in a number of ways, such as forcing people to take their own life, making them cause harm to others, and more importantly, turning people into his proxies. Speaking of…

Proxies

Being Slenderman seems like quite the grueling task. Sometimes, mentally traumatizing children or impaling people onto trees gets tiring for the man. So how does he manage all of this? Well, I’m glad you asked, because this is exactly where proxies come into play. If you don't know what a proxy is, they’re essentially humans that have been mind-controlled or influenced by the Slenderman to do his bidding. Often doing the more “physical” work for him, such as destroying evidence, leaving behind cryptic messages, killing anyone who may get in his way, stuff like that. Sometimes, they even make for a good tag team. Have a proxy chase your victim around, and cut off the poor guy when he least expects it. Proxies are categorized by a ranking system, ranging from mindless puppets, all the way to literal super-soldiers with special powers granted to them by the man himself. The amount of proxies that the Slenderman has is… quite a lot. However, for obvious reasons we can’t exactly cover every single one of them, so we’ll instead be focusing on the more noteworthy members. Starting with…

Kate Milens, “The Chaser”

“Close all the doors and windows. Just… Don’t let him in.”

One of Slenderman’s most well known proxies, Kate is featured in Slender: The Arrival. Before being turned into a mindless drone, she was a seemingly ordinary girl, and best friend of the protagonist, Lauren. After discovering the eight pages however, the Slenderman would haunt her for several years. During these years, she experienced an extreme decline in her mental health, with her last appearance as a human showing her mindlessly drawing pictures of the man who had been stalking her. Eventually, she would be abducted by the Slenderman, and turned into the monster that she is today.

Kate is a very deadly proxy, often lunging at the player in-game, and slashing at your face when she finally gets her hands on you. And while she is very good at her job, her personality and mind appear to be far gone. She seems to be very animalistic, only communicating in screams or growls. Her eyes also seem to be very sensitive towards light, seeing as when Lauren focuses her flashlight beam onto her, she’s stunned in place for a few seconds. However, that doesn’t stop her from attacking you if you get too close.

Charlie Matheson Jr.

“I still hear him sometimes, that cute little laugh. But… He’s been gone for 9 years.”

Also featured in Slender: The Arrival, Charlie is one of many proxies under the Slenderman’s control. Not much is known about his past. However, it’s revealed in a flashback that he was enjoying a picnic with his family before being lured into the woods by the Slenderman, where he would be forced to do his bidding for the rest of his life.

Despite looking like he’s literally about to die of starvation, Charlie is actually a very capable proxy. Being one of the first, he’s presumably claimed a vast number of lives throughout the 9 years that he’s been missing. He’s capable of overpowering Lauren many times in their encounters, and is capable of chasing grown men off of his family farm. He suffers the same problems as Kate however, not being able to think for himself, and being very animalistic in nature.

Tobias Erin Rogers, “Ticci Toby”

(Art by DragonfruitEither126)

“It appeared to be wearing a dark black suit, and its face was completely blank. It towered over Toby’s small frame as it looked down on him. Tendrils reached out from its back. Before Toby knew it, his vision was blurred and he heard the sound of ringing in his ears. Everything went blank.”

Come on, you know we had to include him. Tobias Erin Rogers, otherwise known as Ticci Toby, originates from the creepypasta story of the same name. Being born with several mental disorders, Tobias was often picked on and found it difficult to fit in with other kids. As a result, he would be switched to homeschooling early on in his life. It’s safe to say that Tobias was already a troubled kid, however, at the age of 17 he would be involved in a fatal car accident, killing his older sister in the process. After the incident, it seemed as if Tobias was ready to snap at any given moment. And with his symptoms growing worse, anxiety increasing by the minute, and his father becoming abusive due to drugs and alcohol, he did just that. One night, Tobias murdered his father, and afterwards entered the garage to grab two hatchets, a box of matches, and gasoline. After setting his neighborhood on fire, Tobias would be surrounded, ready to give into his own death. However, the Slenderman managed to save him just before he blacked out. After waking up, Tobias would have no memory of his past life, and soon became one of the Slenderman’s proxies.

Tobias often wields two hatchets in order to take down his enemies, and while he doesn’t possess any supernatural powers, he isn’t totally mindless like lower-ranking proxies. His sanity seems to have improved after he was saved, and is very intelligent, even being capable of creating deadly weapons from scratch. After becoming a proxy, he’s shown to be very talented when it comes to forming plans, as well as gaining a good amount of combat experience. One of his disorders actually lets him be extremely numb to physical pain, making his endurance far greater than other proxies. However, Tobias is still very mentally unstable, which can often fuck him up at the worst times.

The Collective

“Come to the boardwalk, Noah. We promise we won’t jump you.”

Alright, just bear with me for a moment. You know how the proxies you’ve seen so far are pretty much average humans? Well… The Collective is the exact opposite of that. Instead, they’re essentially entities who reside in a dimension unbound by time and space, capable of possessing human vessels in order to interact with our world. The exact number of members is unknown, however there are a few notable ones, such as The Observer. Not only are they stronger than your average proxies, but they also have special powers granted by the man himself. Some of their abilities include:

• Reality Warping: This ability is commonly used to torment the life of Noah Maxwell. Whether it’s making stairways loop upon themselves, turning the sun into a giant eye, or sending him back to fixed points in time, they’re more than capable of making his existence a living hell.

• Mind Control: One night, when Noah was staying over at his friend Sarah’s house, he wakes up in the middle of the night and kills her friend before leaving. Later on, Noah says that he had no memory of this ever happening, and when he does finally remember, he stated that he’d been controlled somehow, meaning that The Collective likely manipulated him into doing this.

• Illusion Creation: The Collective is capable of creating realistic illusions, such as when they created an almost perfect replica of Noah’s house. Noah himself even stated that they got the exact details right.

• Precognition: During his phone call with Mary Asher, it was revealed to Noah that The Observer is capable of viewing future events.

• Dream Manipulation: Noah, in one of his videos, stated that The Collective has been giving him nightmares. Presumably because of them growing impatient with him.
   

• Technology Manipulation: Much like the Slenderman, there are many instances of these guys (mostly The Observer) meddling with nearby technology. 

• Immortality: Due to their true forms residing in an entirely separate dimension from ours, simply taking out one of their human vessels won’t permanently kill any of them.

• Possession: The Collective can possess humans in order to use them as living hosts. In the case of Noah Maxwell, he stated that he’s experienced multiple instances of “sleepwalking”, which is likely Firebrand's doing.
  
  

• Gun: The Observer has a gun
  
  

• Resistance to Space-Time Manipulation: During a Q&A, Noah asked The Observer why time and space don’t apply to him. In response, The Observer stated that the realm they reside in does not obey said laws.

Resistances

• Fire/Heat Manipulation: Slenderman has shown the ability to appear from fire and remain unscathed while being burned by it.

• Space-Time Manipulation: Should possess the same resistances as The Collective.

Feats

Sadako

Overall

• Surpassed her mother Shizuko as a psychic

• Has killed many victims with her cursed videotapes, spreading the virus throughout the world

• Wiped out all of life within the Loop and made it cancerous

• Defeated the Grudge Kayako, Bunshinsaba, and Jaronna (more of a stalemate though)

• Has bested human psychics such as Akane

• One of the most iconic characters of Japanese horror

Power 

• Easily rips open metal doors with her bare hands

• As a psychic, stated to be capable of killing a person with just a thought, and is a stronger psychic then her mother

• Before her Sadako transformation, could easily tear through a wall

• Went on a train killing spree

• Ripped out Mr. Koiso’s throat

• Smashes Changhao’s face into a computer monitor

• Grabs a girl through the phone screen and throws her out of a window

• Made someone splatter their skull while possessing them

• Caused Kayako to explode by stuffing hair into her eyes

• The fight between Sadako and Bunshinsaba was going to "tear down the house" 

• Stated that if she wasn’t stopped, Sadako would eliminate all humans

• Sadako can control the world more after death then when alive

• Described as an absolute darkness that continues forever

• Has an “insane amount of energy”

• Can create storms over entire cities (2.5 megatons of TNT)

• Is a resident of the Demonic Abyss, a realm that intersects an infinite amount of parallel universes (see Cosmology Section for more information)

Speed

• Telekinetically stops an arrow in front of her face

• Easily caught up to a car

• Dodges bullets from Meg Rainman

• Can fly at hypersonic speeds

• Able to freely move throughout the Demonic Abyss and it’s intersecting universe with space-time powers 

Durability

• Survived being stabbed by a katana

• Bunshinsaba shot a bunch of nails into Sadako and simply disappeared

• After getting beat to death, she just gets back up Michael Myers style.

Slenderman

Overall

• Has murdered countless victims unfortunate enough to venture into the Slender Woods

• Manipulated several young teenagers into becoming his Proxies

• Killed a medieval knight in a sword fight, starting the legend of the Tall Man

• Fought Jeff the Killer and Zalgo

• Is worshiped as a god of death by the Egyptians known as Gorr'Rylaehotep

• Exists in numerous mythologies throughout time, such as the “Tall Man” in Roman Mythology and the “Tree Man” in English Mythology

• Caused the Dimensional Bleeding, an event that creates rifts between universes

• One of the most iconic monsters of Creepypasta and online horror

Power

(Art by MyHatIsBlue)

• Able to crush a human head and break bones with his tendrils

• Tossed Jeff so hard at a tombstone that it exploded

• Tore about multiple Humvees

• Cut through rock

• Ripped a door off its hinges

• Can cause a car crash

• Broke through a bathyscaphe, a vehicle designed to go over 10,000 meters into the deep sea

• Can turn his victims into dust (6.68 Megajoules)

• Tore down a brick wall (0.0945 Tons of TNT)

• Implied to have sent a flood across an entire town

• Quickly spread fire and burnt down a forest (402.95 Kilotons of TNT)

• Burned multiple entire cities in the United States (3 Megatons of TNT - 180 Megatons of TNT)

• Potentially sustain a storm for 2 days straight (12 Gigatons of TNT - 53.24 Gigatons of TNT)

• Caused the Dimensional Bleeding, which collided entire universes into each other

• Can fight Zalgo, who destroyed a dimension

• Described as a multiversal constant that poses a threat to the multiverse itself and its infinite timelines

• Upscales the Collective and gives them power, who reside in a realm above the multiverse (more information in Cosmology Section)

Speed

• His tendrils can move faster than a person can blink

• Described as being able to speed up “inhumanly” and “supernaturally”

• In a short timespan, spread his tentacles throughout large parts of the forest

• Disappeared before Jeff in a “matter of milliseconds”

• Reacted to a lamp being thrown at him

• Can travel across buildings in seconds (15.26 m/s)

• Slenderman spread his tentacles across a forest (Mach 30.54 - Mach 305.46)

• Under the Quantum Theory, can appear everywhere at once until locked into a specific location when he sees someone

                Durability

• Absorbed and survived a storm of bullets from a trained WW2 team

• Survived deep-sea pressure, attacking a bathyscaphe, which can venture to depths of 10,916 meters

• Unfazed by Nazi Artillery Fire

• Knives go right through his hilt

• Seemingly survived being inside a burning hotel that exploded

• Tanked hits from Jeffrey Keaton

• Unaffected by the Dimensional Bleeding

Scaling

Sadako

Misc. Psychics

Sadako is comparable to the psychics in the Ringu franchise, able to match them in psychic power and even in physical confrontations for the more ghostly apparitions 

• Bunshinsaba can lift a boulder

• Sadako was directly compared to Jaronna, the evil spirit from Bunshinsaba: Hoichi the Earless.

• Jaronna is stated to have “unmeasurable power” and could pursue You Mei throughout the crack in time

• Akane’s psychic screams can induce death on people

• Kayako can rip off a person’s jaw and break Dr. Sullivan’s neck

Dead by Daylight

Being one of the more supernatural killers in the roster, Sadako should upscale from the feats shown in Dead by Daylight from the roster of their original killers, due to being capable of the same things they are as a killer in the game.

• All killers can break pallets, wooden doors, damage generators, and damage survivors hard enough to leave them on the ground.

• Before becoming the Wraith, Philip Ojomo ripped out his bosses’ spine from his head, which would require 101-102 tons of force.

• The Oni “dashed skulls” with his kanabo club and fragmented a small door with two punches (258,322.12 joules)

• Before becoming Spirit, Rin Yamaoka survived being stabbed by a katana and was able to still overpower her father.

• Was able to strike her opponent in a practice kendo match “faster than thought”. 

• Blight as a human, while enhanced by his Pustula serum, beat the Trapper in a fight, sending him through a brick wall with a kick

• The Trapper was stated to be able to shred walls into splinters

• The Huntress slaughtered an entire group of Russian soldiers on her own, decapitating them and slicing them into pieces.

• The Deathslinger shrugged off a bullet to the jaw during a gunfight and his weapon, the Redeemer, can shoot through a human chest.

• The Dredge can shatter metal latches with a single strike.

• The Hag can tear out a survivor’s organs and eat them.

• The Singularity has ten times the strength of a normal human and can tear out a human heart.

Slenderman

Jeff the Killer

Slenderman has crossed paths with fellow Creepypasta icon Jeff the Killer, with the two fighting in a full-blown story, matching each other somewhat physically before the fight is interrupted. In other versions such as the Jeff the Killer Saga, Slenderman is confident he will kill Jeff by ripping him apart.

• Survived being thrown into a tombstone so hard that part of it broke (240.693 kilojoules)

• Ripped a towel rack off the wall and knocked out a preteen with it

• Scales to the main protagonist of his series, who could potentially break down a door

• Broke the protagonist’s spine with his knife

Cosmology Section

The LOOP

So… the Ring has cosmology. In fact, it has TWO cosmologies… 

The first cosmology from the Ring is in the original novels and the 2000 Dreamcast game, is the LOOP cosmology. So essentially, the Ring universe is set inside of a highly advanced virtual world, this world is noted to actually be real and exists in three dimensions. It was created by people in the “real world”, who created the LOOP in order to run simulations to trace the path of evolution, therefore, the LOOP’s time is running at six times as fast as the real world in order to see the results. People living in the “real world” are noted to “appear as Gods” to those inside the LOOP. The LOOP itself is noted to contain a space which would “Seem to be infinite to those inside of it”, and Sadako was capable of turning the entire thing “cancerous”, and even infecting the real world with a mutated version of her virus called the MHC virus, a type of cancer. 

Then it's also worth mentioning that in the Ring, the real world also isn’t really the real world, as the real world is also just a virtual reality to someone else, on an even higher plain of reality. This plain of reality would then be a virtual reality to someone even higher and so on. This means that the Ring has an infinitely stacking amount of realities, each viewing the lower realities as mere virtual realities, with normal people in these realities appearing as gods to those below. 

The Demonic Abyss/The Crack in Time

So… Cosmology two.

Essentially, all evil spirits within the Ring cosmology live within the Demonic Abyss, also known as the Crack in Time. This realm intersects with an infinite amount of parallel universes, containing pocket dimensions like the one in which Sadako resides, and allows for beings inside of it to freely travel throughout all of time and space (Like going back in time to witness different deaths seen throughout the movie, Bunshinsaba’s wedding, or watching Sadako’s mother brush her hair). People are unable to physically enter this dimension, instead only being able to send their consciousness there for short periods of time. However, evil spirits like Sadako can enter it physically and leave it whenever she so desires, as well as drag others to this plain whenever she pleases. People inside of this realm cannot be seen or interacted with by those outside of it, unless they happen to also be a resident of it.

This means that the Demonic Abyss likely works as an infinite 5D structure, with Sadako being a resident of it making her 5D.

Why Not Cross Scale Cosmologies?

Essentially, cross scaling these cosmologies would not really make sense due to how the LOOP is described. It would not make sense for the LOOP to contain parallel universes, let alone an infinite number of them, and the LOOP itself is never mentioned in any Ring movie, meaning its hard to justify saying that these cosmologies are actually in existence simultaneously, instead it seems that they exist independently of one another. We will be considering both cosmologies however, and the powers it grants Sadako, however either of them make Sadako 5D, so it is not too hugely important as to which one is used.

The Collective’s Realm

In the webseries known as the TribeTwelve, there is referenced many times a place beyond the world of humans, often viewed as the place where the Collective and Slenderman dwell, described by the creator of TT as a plane beyond our reality, where Slenderman uses the proxies to affect the timeline with their linear time-transcendent abilities. It is mostly referred to as the Collective’s Realm. This realm is aspatial (absence of space) and atemporal (absence of time), making time and space inapplicable to them, and its view on the lower planes of existence is a unique one. It is akin to the World of Forms, with the people in the realm free from all the concepts that govern the human world and can perceive the true nature of reality. How is this possible? The Observer makes reference to the Allegory of the Cave. When talking to the protagonist Noah Maxwell, he states humans are "prisoners, bound in a cave and staring at a blank wall in which they can only perceive shadows, a brain connected to eyes and nothing more", not only referencing the Myth of the Cave but saying that the Collective (and by extension Slenderman) are freed from the cave and can see what projects the shadow. 

There are many supporting statements from the Observer that this is the case, existing in a realm of Platonic Ideals. For those who do not understand the concept of Platonic Ideals, in essence they are perfected versions of everything in our world, from even the simplest of objects to even more complex forces like dimensions and even concepts like space and time. All of these extensions in a Platonic Form transcend their imitations. As for the cave: Plato mentions that all regular humans are alike to mindless prisoners staring at a cave wall in which they only see shadows. These shadows are cast by something we can't perceive, and we give names to these shadows. To the prisoners, these shadows represent reality. But they aren't actually. They're fake. The shadows represent the fragment of reality that we can normally perceive through our senses, while the objects under the Sun represent the true forms of objects that we can only perceive through reason (i.e. Platonic Forms). In other words, the Sun is supposed to represent the Form of the Good, and the objects outside the cave are Platonic Forms.

We find this referenced a lot in the Formsprings from the Observer, that where he resides is a place where these types of concepts are more refined and primordial than in normal time and space. Concepts such as good and evil, reason, and purpose are only seen by the Collective and Slenderman as concepts invented by humans, and he keeps stating that explaining them or other concepts would be too complex or advanced for the human mind to comprehend. They all dwell within their own aspatial, atemporal domain akin to the World of Forms, free from all the concepts that govern the human world and able to perceive the true nature of reality. 

The Collective’s Realm is a place where Slenderman can drag people, as evidenced by when he warped Noah to that location in the Crawlspace, and attacked him while there.

So what else is in the Slenderverse multiverse? Another higher dimensional location referenced is the Boardwalk. Throughout the series of TribeTwelve, there are many instances of Victor Park, or otherwise known as The Boardwalk being talked about. And when Noah is finally forced to enter this place, it seems like his suspicions were true after all. During a talk with his future self, Noah learns that The Collective has been using this place as their domain, being able to warp or alter it however they see fit. In the same talk, he also learns about The Boardwalk’s true nature, being a ”3-Dimensional shadow cast by our 4-Dimensional space-time.” 

So in summary, the Slenderverse is home to many universes, and timelines, of which there are an infinite amount of according to Slenderbloggins, with higher dimensional locations such as the Boardwalk, a location on our plane used by the Collective, and the Collective’s Realm, where the Collective and Slenderman reside, observing humanity and their puny imitations of abstract concepts like reality and meaning.

Weaknesses

Sadako

While Sadako doesn’t have any direct or notable weaknesses, clean water acts as an absorber of Nensha powers, which can make Sadako unable to use her psychic powers, although this weakness is less grave because…Sadako can control water. As a being of spirit energy, sealing at times has worked on her, such as Akane sealing her within her own body due to being a psychic, and Bunshinsaba sealing Sadako at the end of vs. Bunshinsaba 2, although holding her for long is unlikely, as seen in the after credits scene, implying she broke the seal.

Slenderman

As all powerful as the Slender Man may seem, he is not without his own fair share of weaknesses. 

Slender seems to have an issue with being watched while Slender-Walking (Don’t we all), seemingly being stunted or completely unable to teleport while this happens. This however has been shown to not work 100% of the time, with Slenderman being able to teleport before people’s very eyes. The operator symbol has been shown to ward off or induce intense pain in the Slenderman. This however, is also not foolproof. A quite humorous weakness of Slender is his inability to visualize humans taller than him or on a higher elevation, this however is (say it with me now) not consistent.  Due to applying a Tulpa Effect, it is theorized that Slenderman can be weakened by believing him to be weak, and even furthermore, humans are his main source of belief, and if every human on Earth fails to believe in him, then Slenderman will become weaker, and be unable to return from the dead if he is killed.

Before The Verdicts…

Licensed DbD Character Scaling?

Thicc Grimes here, I thought I'd take it upon myself to explain this piece of the debate. Dead by Daylight is notoriously called the "Horror Hall of Fame'', Sadako just being one of many iconic horror characters to enter the realm. The question here is should Sadako scale to their home canon feats? It's a little complicated at first glance but no, she should not. While characters like Ash Williams have a clearly similar backstory, this does not automatically mean he's the exact Ash from the movies or has accomplished the same physical feats. Dead by Daylight itself establishes that there are actually multiple versions of each character within the realm as well, as seen in this bit of tome lore about Claudette and Haddie. In other cases like Chucky, he's specifically plucked during the climax of Child's Play 2, contradicting his canon (along with the presence of Tiffany in her doll form). Similar can be said about Michael Myers, Laurie Strode, Leatherface, Leon Kennedy etc. All being picked by the Entity in earlier points in their history, making it very difficult to justify arguing that anyone in Dead by Daylight should scale to their physical feats in their own media as this contradicts their canon. It also doesn't help that, in some cases, like Ellen Ripley or Quintin Smith, they physically look nothing like they do in their main canon. Further adding to the point that these are likely just alternative universe counterparts with similar backstories and scaling should be kept to only what they are shown to do within Dead by Daylight itself.

The Exclusion of Marble Hornets

 

Hey there, Shark here to give my explanation on a particular web-series that we left out. Now, when you think of web-series relating to Slenderman, the first thing you think of is probably Marble Hornets, and for good reason. The series has garnered thousands of followers and fan theories, and is still a major part of the character’s legacy even today. So by now, you’re probably wondering... why wasn’t included? Well to put it simply, Marble Hornets IS canon to the Slenderman mythos, however, the Slender-like figure is… not actually Slenderman. That tall, faceless, suit-wearing monster you see in Marble Hornets? That’s an entirely separate being known as The Operator. And while it is stated that he’s based on Slenderman, the two are considered separate entities. The Operator also has several differences from Slendy himself, such as having no tendrils, drawing power from victims with poor mental health, never physically interacting with his victims, etc. You may have also noticed that the “proxies'' present in Marble Hornets weren’t mentioned either. Those being Tim Wright and Brian Thomas, or more commonly known as “Masky'' and "Hoodie ". Despite these two being associated with Slenderman as well, that is entirely fanon. They’re never considered actual proxies in the ARG, and seem to keep their sentience and sanity, unlike confirmed lower-ranking proxies such as Kate or Charlie. For these reasons, we came to the conclusion that Marble Hornets would not be considered in the research for Slenderman. (Still a good series though, highly recommend)

The Exclusion of Fear Mythos

The answer for why we aren’t considering Fear Mythos for this blog for Slenderman is found in the intentions of the Fear Mythos itself; a community that once you read the rules, you can pretty much create any sort of story you want, from a creepypasta to an audio file. Anyone can make a story or self-contained franchise in their own little bubble across various websites or wikis, so long as they follow the guidelines of the Fear Mythos. Because of this, we are not including any Fear Mythos information for Slenderman, such as his form known as the New God, or his ability to absorb someones’ essence/concept. You may be wondering “Well how is this any different from Slenderverse or Creepypasta??? They have different writers and interpretations!” 

While this may be true, the efforts for other Slenderman media have a lot more of a conscious effort in collaborative and interlinking efforts, hence the name of Slenderverse, being a collaboration of writers and vlog makers, with the goal of making interconnected media, working towards a shared franchise even if the ideas are different from creator to creator. Even the Creepypastas tend to feel grouped together, spawning the Surgism belief, and the video games and movies all sticking somewhat close to how a Slenderman should be portrayed. In Fear Mythos, everything is more lenient, and prone to be used as a writing tool. In fact, a former Slenderverse writer talked about the Fear Mythos pretty much verifying that there’s no canon, and everything takes places in its own universe, which would apply to Slenderman’s inclusion in it. Collaborative online fiction can tend to get messy as is, but the issue Fear Mythos runs into primarily is either it can become part of the Fear Mythos as a whole, or just be its own self-contained story with no decentralized purpose or canon, which is a bit shaky to use compared to most of the Slenderman media we are using.

Zalgo Scaling?

(Art by Koesama)

You may have noticed there was no section for the deadliest entity in Creepypasta, Zalgo. When it comes to ‘high tier Slenderman’ arguments, more often than not the name Zalgo appears somewhere. So what's the big deal? Why did he only get a single bulletin rather than a whole section?

The answer is that Zalgo and Slenderman did fight…but the versions of both are not the versions we’re more used to. Slenderman and Zalgo fought in the Jeff the Killer Saga, much different versions then anything we’ve seen from their Creepypasta or Slenderverse counterparts. Have they been in other stories together before? Yes. Both Slenderman and Zalgo appear in the story known as One Bad Dream, an ARG that is a part of the Slenderverse. You can read it on archive.org here (we almost thought it was lost media!). The plot of the story is that Zalgo is attempting to destroy the world, as a corruptive hivemind that eats away at a person’s soul, and Slenderman’s role in the story is a bit weirder, using the main characters Rob and Dalton to try and stop Zalgo from ending the world. 

Which brings us back to the question of why can’t JTKS Zalgo scale to Creepypasta Zalgo? It’s because both JTKS Zalgo and Slenderverse Zalgo are not the same entity as Creepypasta Zalgo, the one with the multiversal destruction feats and such. While Slenderman is in Jeff the Killer Saga, Slenderverse and Creepypasta, there is no reason to scale either version of Zalgo to Creepypasta Zalgo, as they are all blatantly separate entities, with one existing in one story, One Bad Dream, having a centered plot around Zalgo being locked in a dimension until his release, and Jeff the Killer Saga is much different from the Creepypasta Zalgo where the origins are less clear, and the stories are more numerous. Even when compositing Slenderman, it would make no sense to scale Slenderman to a Zalgo he does not interact with in the Creepypasta stories, much less so if the basis is both of them appearing in two separate stories.

Verdicts

Stats

Sadako and Slenderman are quite the pair of scare. Their powers are other-wordly, unexplained, and terrifying for us puny humans to even comprehend. It isn’t hard to imagine even at a basic level that a confrontation with them would not go well for any normal person, but just how dangerous are they potentially? To some degree in both of their worlds, they stand at the top, as the one to beat, or the one to kill, often with power that will continue to grow into something far worse than we can imagine. But just how powerful are they? Among the museum of horror, these two are easily some of the most mysterious and the answers have been some of the toughest cases to crack. So let’s get crackalackin!

Starting off with Sadako, it seems that her powers as an Onryō grants her a wide variety of capabilities, full of energy and power from her psychic abilities, strong enough to affect life and death despite being dead herself. Although Sadako herself is not one for physical combat, whenever things do get physical, blood is indeed shed. Sadako is capable of overpowering humans, ripping them apart and inflicting death to them in some form or fashion with brute force, and that’s only with physical strength. Her abilities such as telekinesis can bring down an entire house, and her potential is so grave that if Sadako isn’t stopped, it's suggested that she will eventually wipe out all humans, as the most threatening being on the planet. She’s also stated to be able to cause storms over entire cities, requiring a power output of 2.5 megatons of TNT. Most dangerous however, is what Sadako herself really is beyond a spirit with a cursed videotape. In truth, Sadako is a being made of pure energy, empowered by a god of Shugendo, capable of manipulating space-time to travel through the Crack in Time, otherwise known as the Demonic Abyss, and all of its intersecting parallel universes, of which there are an infinite amount of. It is a bit abstract, but one can argue through this that Sadako would be a 5D being, since the Crack in Time was so inaccessible to humans despite using a space-time gun to try and reach it, needing to send their consciousness to it, and Sadako herself is a resident so she can operate in this structure with no issue. This makes Sadako incredibly powerful, with an unnatural ability to travel freely through time due to her being a resident of the Crack in Time, and empowering herself with the souls she takes to the Demonic Abyss. In the novels, her virus is so dangerous that it made the LOOP, an entire universe with its own space and time, cancerous, eliminating the genetic biodiversity of the creatures there, before coming into the real world. The LOOP is lower dimensional planes that can be viewed by the real world, and time there operates six times faster then in the real world, thus it being able to spread across an entire universe that fast. So physically, Sadako’s attack potency is around small city with her storms, with her other powers likely functioning at a universal AoE like her virus, and her telekinesis capable of bringing down a house. 

Moving onto Slenderman, lots of his power comes from what he is as a character and what he is made of. Slenderman is easily capable of ripping humans limb from limb with his tentacles, breaking substances like stone and crushing brick walls and cars. Physically, you’re not able to do much against the Slenderman by any means. He’s even torn through the bathyscaphe, an underwater vessel designed to withstand 10,000 meters worth of oceanic water pressure without issue. Slenderman’s control over elements seem to suggest that he is capable of laying waste to far more than just a street or a car, such as sending a flood through an entire town, or spreading a forest fire fast enough to burn a forest to a crisp, which requires a power output of about 402.95 Kilotons of TNT. But the bigger picture seems to say that all of this is nothing compared to what Slenderman actually is. The Slenderverse media in particular paints the picture of Slenderman being a multiversal deity, an anomaly that is a threat to us and our universe. Supplementary material from other franchises seems to agree, such as Slenderman beating Zalgo, who destroyed an entire reality. Slenderman himself has such capabilities, such as the Dimensional Bleeding, a collision between entire universes caused by Slenderman himself, causing rips in the fabric of reality until they are one. Slenderman himself has been theorized to be a threat to entire timelines, which in the Slenderverse, exist in an infinite amount, as there are an infinite amount of multiversal sets, with their own multiversal laws that act as dimensions, ranging from 3D-7D. But even beyond all of this, Slenderman is an abstract being from the Collective’s Realm, a place where everything in their form are flawless and perfect, seeing everything below it as a mere imitation or flawed version, being unbound by time and space entirely, and having the power to sustain such a realm that holds up the World of Forms, with the Collective being branches of the Slenderman’s power. A terrifying being to comprehend. So at worst, Slenderman is capable of rampaging across entire towns, and at best, causes events that tear apart universes, and at his max potential threatens an entire infinite multiverse held together by dimensional structure, being from a realm that sees it all as a shadow of a perfect world. 

In terms of speed, despite them being best known for standing and watching you, sometimes they’re easy to miss. Sadako is capable of reacting to bullets and arrows, and flying fast enough to appear as blurs and move at supersonic speeds when fighting enemies such as Bunshinsaba, another vengeful spirit, and even keep up with fast moving cars. At her peak though, Sadako is capable of freely traversing the Crack in Time, moving through universes with ease with her time travel powers. 

For Slenderman, everything about him moves fast. His tendrils can move before a person can blink, he himself is described as having superhuman speed, and his teleportation allowed him to disappear from Jeff the Killer within a matter of milliseconds. His tendrils have rapidly spread throughout a forest fire, a fear ranging from Mach 30.547 to 305.466. Similar to Sadako, Slenderman’s time travel means he can also move fast enough to traverse space and time altogether, and the Quantum Theory suggests that Slenderman is everywhere at once until his eyes are set on a target. 

So Slenderman will not only be coming out as much stronger and more durable than Sadako (by virtue of also having more durability feats), but more than likely able to keep up with her hypersonic movement and own time travel capabilities, while also having the faster teleportation by much more. Overall, stats seem to favor the Slenderman.

Arsenal & Abilities

Sadako and Slenderman’s abilities are objectively, all over the place. In many versions they stick to the more core mechanics of the character, but sometimes in a movie or a story, you’re almost wondering if they’ve been replaced with an imposter with godlike powers. Yet somehow, a lot of their abilities line up more than you’d think, so it won’t be as complicated as it should be. 

Sadako’s powers are a lot more coherent and easier to figure out, due to her being a psychic being. Psychics are beings with advanced mental abilities, such as reading the mind, moving objects with the mind, mind control, seeing and predicting the future, and even weirder powers like invading memories or dreams or sending your psyche outside the body, and into another, like possession. Sadako’s more terrifying abilities are surrounded by the deadly curse and virus that she carries, through herself and the cursed videotape. With a single look, she can kill you, stop your heart, prevent your body from moving (or take control of it if she wants), drive a person mad to the brink of insanity, and drive them into nightmares and illusions that continue to torment the soul. This control over life itself extends to controlling other forces from her god-given powers, like manipulating the weather, traversing technology through TVs and the internet, portals that can go through any surface like paintings, teleporting from one place to another, or being able to heal another being. Sadako also has much control over herself, being able to use her hair to cause illusory worlds and tear people apart, shapeshift into bugs, grow larger than a house, clone herself, go invisible, generate force-fields, and even come back from total annihilation. Sadako’s cloning is dangerous enough to make bodies that are entirely like the original Sadako, with her own physiology and abilities, an ability that has been established since she was using the videotape to impregnate women with more Sadako’s, being able to function as a human despite just being born. In terms of more esoteric abilities, Sadako can absorb others, particularly souls, to make herself stronger, put you to sleep, and even travel through time through the Crack in Time freely due to residing in the Demonic Abyss. And lastly, Sadako has her own pocket dimension she can take, where she primarily battles psychics such as Akane, where she is far more powerful.

Slenderman’s abilities are far less clear, and don’t stem from any one power source or set of powers. Indeed, he just has a lot of powers and abilities. Perhaps his most iconic ability is the Slender Walking, or teleportation he has. With this, he can be anywhere he wants to be, allowing him to be at all points in space and time, effectively time traveling if he so pleases. Slenderman’s physiology is also very malleable, and he can change his form into smoke and darkness, shapeshift into giant spiders, go intangible at will to avoid bullets, and use his tendrils in a variety ways, like burning someone or just ripping them apart. He has his own set of diseases like slender sap and slender sickness, and even weirder ones like sigma radiation, all of which can cause a varying degree of effects, ranging from vomiting to sudden fear and paranoia. He has many of the same abilities that Sadako has such as controlling the weather, puppeting or possessing a body, manipulating/wiping memories, control minds, telekinesis, inducing death, causing madness and nightmares, going invisible, absorbing life, manipulating plants, growing larger than a house, and even being able to travel through time. In terms of abilities unique to him, Slenderman can manipulate fire to an absurd degree, manipulate the atmosphere and its temperature, being able to turn a room frozen solid, can turn people into fog, manipulate biology, warping reality, stopping time, causing fog and darkness, and simply redirecting damage. As far as more esoteric and dangerous abilities, Slenderman can manipulate dark energies from beyond the multiverse, is all-knowing through his omniscience, is stated to be fate itself when it comes to selecting his victims, and is able to manipulate causality itself. And most similar to Sadako, Slenderman cannot die. No matter what you do to kill him, Slenderman is immortalized through the very concept of Slenderman being present in humanity, empowering his very being and allowing him to simply materialize in front of you again. As long as humanity subconsciously knows of the Slenderman, it is going to be a nightmare attempting to put him down. Slenderman also has his own dimension known as the Path of the Black Leaves; a mysterious black and white forest where Slenderman and his proxies travel through, as a nexus between universes, used by the Proxies to avoid attacks, and used by Slenderman as a place of power and a weakness for an opponent. 

Lots of the debate comes down to these crazy abilities and potent hax, and it's hard to find a place to start, so we’re going to use a method that acts as process of elimination for what cancels out, what gets countered, what just doesn’t work period, and what isn’t directly resisted. There are also some powers that just wouldn’t matter, like Slenderman’s sound mimicry or Sadako’s astral projection, and most of the non-combat applicable in general don’t need a mention.

Cancels Out:
Both Sadako and Slenderman have death manipulation, madness manipulation, mind control, dream invasion/nightmare inducement, self-sustenance, control over technology, can go invisible and attack while invisible, both can shapeshift, manipulate their size, possess others, puppet bodies, and travel through time through their own respective domains. 

The tendrils and tentacles as physical attacks are pretty similar in practice, and Sadako’s portals are similar enough to Slenderman’s dimensional travel. 

As far as a sneak attack, given both of these characters can appear out of nowhere, Slenderman with his natural stealth and fog/darkness creation and Sadako with her various perks in Dead by Daylight that grant the Undetectable status effect, along with her already innate ability to enter a phase mode that removes her terror radius and makes her hard to see. 

Their illusions also cancel out. While Sadako is able to make an illusory world, Slenderman can similarly make hallucinations that seem like another place, and the effects are just as deadly, so either trying this on the other wouldn’t do much.

Both of them also have their own diseases and viruses to use on the other, and while Slenderman’s are more numerous then Sadako’s one virus, ultimately if both are infected, their bodies fall and new ones rise due to their already inhuman physiology. 

While it may seem like an iffy method to suggest all of this simply cancels out, it should be pointed out here that both of these characters are more often than not considered the strongest characters in their franchise; thus no real competition, and not a whole lot of powers or abilities to resist in the first place, all of which even still hardly matter due to their insane resurrection capabilities.

Countered:

In terms of abilities that are directly countered by another or a resistance, there’s quite a few. For Sadako, her resistance to Akane’s death-inducing scream would mean that Slenderman’s attempt at using death hax would most likely fail, and her shapeshifting capabilities would resist Slenderman’s transmutation (since she’s already a fog/energy being most of the time), and his biological manipulation and dark energy manipulation, due to the fact that its complexity from another multiverse is what harms humans, one can argue Sadako’s unique energy physiology being from the Crack in Time sorta sidesteps this due to being from another place beyond time and space, and her force-fields could likely repel most of Slenderman’s physical attacks. 

Slenderman’s counters are the dimensional bleeding likely being able to crash through the pocket dimension, and potentially cause power imbalance on Sadako’s end, or just eradicate it completely under his own power, and Sadako’s telekinesis would be ineffective since Slenderman can either go intangible, use the Path of the Black Leaves to avoid it, or redirect it back at Sadako. 

One Power > The Other:

One thing Sadako has over Slenderman is she is able to, well…fly. Slenderman weirdly doesn’t fly, but I think a flying Slenderman is equally cursed. Sadako also has much better and more established telekinesis then Slenderman, and her duplication gives her a far greater numbers advantage that's potentially infinite, as opposed to Slenderman only theorized to be capable of making one other duplicate. 

Slenderman’s teleportation should be outright better then Sadako’s, due to specializing in it more and it being faster and covering a greater range. Slenderman’s plant manipulation has been able to absorb people in trees, much greater than the more vague abilities Sadako demonstrated with it. And Slenderman’s omniscience is gonna be far more useful than Sadako’s precognition or clairvoyance, despite its impressive coverage of a year into the future, and the omniscience gives Slenderman far more to work with then Sadako. 

Unique Powers + Not Resisted:

Sadako would unlikely resist some of Slendermans more unique powers. Slenderman should be more than capable of setting her body ablaze, or freezing it solid, and warping reality can likely be problematic for Sadako, whose psychic powers don’t operate as far into forces of nature. Time manipulation is also something that could stop her and give Slenderman an advantage.

On the contrary, Slenderman can’t really resist just being put to sleep, given he still at the very least would have a mind/body. Yes, you can argue self-sustenance means he doesn’t need sleep, but Sadako’s is by force, so it could do something to Slenderman. Sadako’s absorption could also be problematic for him, as Sadako has absorbed beings made up of a similar physiology to Slenderman like Bunshinsaba, so you can argue Sadako can absorb Slenderman. 

Ultimately however, none of these still matter. They can absorb each other, burn each other, mutilate each other, and they’ll just keep coming back. So…how do they kill each other? There has to be a way, right?

This is where the debate, and all of its weirdest parts get funneled into the only question that matters.

First we should reestablish how their immortalities work. For Sadako, even before becoming an Onryō, she was capable of simply coming back to life, and as an Onryō, her duplication is pretty much her way of ensuring that if one body dies, the next one will still carry on as Sadako, with all of her plans to screw over humanity and all. This has been established since the novels, with the entire impregnation ability being based around more Sadakos being made to act as stand-ins if Sadako herself was to die somehow, and by extension flood the world with Sadakos. She can keep making bodies to no avail, and her physiology as an energy being just means that in most instances, she’ll respawn, whether in the Crack in Time, or in the womb of a poor unfortunate woman. 

Slenderman’s immortality is centered around a couple things, the first primarily being his influence over humanity as the entity that he is. Slenderman sees humans as ‘belief batteries’, who give him power by acknowledging his very existence. If humanity saw Slenderman as weak, or did not believe in him, Slenderman would get weak and begin to cease to exist altogether. This is loosely tied to his status as an abstract being, residing in a realm of perfect forms of everything that makes up the Slenderverse multiverse. Which is a good interjection to what else needs to be reestablished, the cosmology.

The LOOP for Sadako is pretty much another contingency option that benefits her in terms of resurrection. Her cancerous invasion of the LOOP has made it so the MHC Virus will continue to spread to those who watch the cursed videotape, especially a fertile woman, so it is just one way for Sadako to come back to life, since her virus evolved from lower dimensional planes and could enter the real world with or without the cursed videotape.

The Crack in Time is a little weirder. Sadako is a 5D being residing in the Crack in Time, another dimension that needs special space-time technology to be perceived/viewed by humans, intersecting an infinite amount of parallel universes. Sadako has free reign over this 5D structure, being able to travel through time as a result and manifest anywhere, take souls to the Demonic Abyss, and stave off damage by just disappearing back to it. 

The Collective’s Realm for Slenderman is pretty much what you need to reach in order to fully stop him. The conceptual immortality implies that you need a good degree of conceptual abilities yourself to even have a chance of permanently stopping an abstract being like the Slenderman, which is suggested in the EverymanHYBRID is possible with weapons that inflict conceptual death, although it was never used on Slenderman himself so it's uncertain if Slenderman can resist conceptual attacks. Either way though, Sadako has no such ability. She cannot control or destroy concepts, and certainly not at a level as to affect a being that transcends time and space. 

So how does Sadako win? And how does Slenderman win? For this next part, think of it as a…choose your own adventure moment. Two endings. Or in other words, two conclusions reached. Because ultimately, the debate all comes down to this very hyper specific situation.

Slenderman Wins

So, how is Slenderman able to kill a godly 5D being that can keep respawning bodies? First off, Slenderman has a much more dangerous AP advantage, and at his peak is an outerversal entity, or one that can affect a dangerous amount of multiverses and dimensions under his own power. It's implied he is the creator of the Collective’s Realm, which transcends time and space, and is a world of Platonic Forms, but an argument that can arise is; is it a Pennywise situation where he can’t really interact with the lower dimensional planes? Is he stuck in the Collective’s Realm? Well…yes and no.

While we’ve never seen this abstract being leave the realm, he can still operate in lower planes with vessels and forms, still full of power and being a threat to the Slenderverse as a whole, even before the knowledge of the realm or Boardwalk’s existence. The counterargument would be that the tier you are at means that your AP would be that tier, so Slenderman having outerversal as a tier would mean he has outerversal AP, and thus should simply wipe out Sadako…kinda. Sadako herself is a 5D being, one with dangerous resurrection abilities. If you disregard the tier = AP argument, how can Slenderman win? 

To be blunt, Slenderman has to nuke Sadako.

One of Slenderman’s potential wincons is time travel, going back in time and stopping the LOOP from ever being made, as its implied the LOOP would cease to exist if the LOOP Project was thwarted, thus stopping the MHC Virus and Sadako as a whole from spreading the virus and causing the Ring. But Sadako still has her leg-up with the Demonic Abyss, so she can time travel just as freely and attack Slenderman there if he tried anything, and in most cases, Sadako just doesn’t have the power to prevent Slenderman from getting off his win-cons. Even if you argued Sadako’s time travel means she could do something similar or use her hax to stop Slenderman then and there, Slenderman’s sheer power advantage means he has an easier time to achieve what he needs to do. If the Crack in Time is destroyed, then Sadako loses her ability to travel through time, as she uses the structure itself during the Vs Bunshinsaba movies, nowhere else in the franchise. Then comes the question of can Slenderman pull this off?

Even if you argue his outerversal form cannot interact with the lower planes of existence, and that it's in the hands of a Slenderman emanation, Slenderman is still able to do some damage. In the same blog Slenderman was referred to as a threat to all timelines with destruction, it describes the multiverse and its timelines and sets of multiverses as infinite, having their own sets of dimensions that act as multiversal laws, each with differing numbers from 3D-7D. So who is to say that we’re not already looking at a 5D structure? In fairness, one can see the arguments against it. For starters, Slenderbloggins is incredibly vague, and lots of the abilities and presentation of Slenerman is presented in the form of theories or ideas of what he is. But isn’t Sadako a similar case? The humans having to spell out the cosmology according to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity? Then this becomes a simple case of, do you believe the theories or do you not? Because it would be weird to accept one but not the other, since both of the cosmologies run on lots of theories and applied sciences that can seem a little silly. Bottom line, if you do agree with what is being presented, and see it as lined up with their other portrayals, then Slenderman can eradicate a 5D multiverse. 

But it's not as simple as that right? Surely Sadako can still come back from this? Both of these characters have a blatant lack of resistances due to almost no real competition in terms of power, except a couple of humans trying their very best. And although Sadako can generate an infinite amount of bodies, what happens when all those bodies are within Slenderman’s firing range? When the Crack in Time is obliterated, there isn’t really a space there anymore. Destruction at that level is also something we haven't really seen Sadako come back from, as there is no proof her body has regenerated from complete physical destruction, or that her clones spawn instantaneously, as evidenced with Akane using a psychic shout to shatter her body into dust, only for her to come back much later. While it is a bit out there to suggest Slenderman would resort to nuking her that fast, there are many ways for him to figure out what Sadako is to eventually reach this option, especially with his omnipresence and all-knowing nature, so long as he can be in a place where his omnipresence has a reach, which should not be far given Sadako's multiverse doesn't really follow any special dimensional order or unique flow of time. But being in places like the LOOP or Sadako's own pocket dimension might be out of his reach of all-knowing, but he himself has domains he can take Sadako to, such as the Path of Black Leaves or just straight up up the Collector' Realm, if people are really worried about the omnipresence wincon.

Another method is time travel, if he truly realizes Sadako is as unkillable as she is. Due to Slenderman's ability to manipulate causality, time traveling and ending Sadako before she can become the monster she truly is without damaging the timeline is a great option for ending the fight, especially if Slenderman has already taken measures to prevent Sadako from also time traveling via the Crack in Time, but given the immense stats between the two, there won't be much Sadako can do to stop him before he eventually succeeds.

Overall, Slenderman has the power to simply eradicate Sadako by eradicating the Crack in Time, removing her ability to travel through time no matter where you argue he starts, and denying Sadako a place to respawn in the first place, along with taking out the LOOP and all that stores it due to every universe with the Crack in Time being eradicated. Slenderman can figure this out in many ways, even by something as simple as noticing Sadako has time travel and advanced duplication, and given his own experience with traveling through time and dimensions, it's not hard to figure out he's fighting someone like him, and that he’s gonna need eradication at a far greater level to deal with an opponent such as Sadako, which will eventually lead to him truly destroying the Ring.

Stalemate?!?!?!

Didn’t see this coming did you?

Well Sadako bros, we tried. But unfortunately there does not seem to be a good way for Sadako to deal with the Collective’s Realm in order to put Slender down for good. However, this does not mean that Slender can easily kill Sadako either. Sadako can match up with Slender in most of the different important haxes, like time travel, mind control, intangibility and invisibility. Sadako has a fair few hax that could put Slender down for a while, like her absorption and her stare, but nothing that could properly keep him down.

But the reason for the stalemate is the really really really broken regeneration on Sadako’s part. Sadako can make new bodies from quite literally nothing, seemingly instantly. Furthermore, she can come back to life via the impregnation hax, even if she was completely 100% dead beforehand. There is also a potential for Sadako’s MHC virus outside of the LOOP to eventually mutate into the Ring virus once more, allowing Sadako to be reborn in a higher level of reality.

This means that Slender’s main win condition is nuking the entire Ring Cosmology, Demonic Abyss, infinite parallel universes and all. However, the issue is, we’re still not really sure if Sadako would actually stay dead from such an attack. (This is an issue in both characters' vagueness). Sadako can seemingly always just make more bodies, infinitely making more and more clones, and as Sadako’s powers are not based on the Demonic Abyss itself, instead stemming from the real world God En No Ozunu (known as the Master of Gods and Demons), it would seem unlikely that Slender can simply nullify her powers of regeneration via destroying her realm. Furthermore, we know that Sadako has enough energy to at least turn the entire LOOP cancerous, meaning that it’s unlikely she will lose stamina and need to stop making clones at any point.

Oh and in terms of Slenderman’s Proxies, all of them except the Collective would get absolutely murdered by Sadako, with most of them being unfortunate human victims with their minds warped. The Collective are the only real threat, as they exist in the same realm as Slenderman and are given dangerous powers such as reality warping, and could be a good source of support in stopping Sadako. 

This would mean that an endless stalemate between the two characters seems likely, fitting for the character trying to make an endless Ring.

Tertiary Factors

Well that was quite a lot to read eh? Thankfully this next section is a lot shorter and simpler, since there isn’t a lot going on behind the hair or the face. 

Sadako, in comparison to Slenderman, is much more skilled and experienced when it comes to actually fighting other evil spirits such as Bushinsaba. Slenderman is used to being the top dog of his verse and this can lead to him underestimating or playing with his victims like in the case of Jeff the Killer who was able to keep up with him because of this. This can potentially lead to Sadako catching Slenderman off guard and dealing some critical damage (even if it’s ultimately futile). Overall thanks to Sadako’s extensive history in combat she has developed and utilized techniques that are much more refined as opposed to Slender’s abilities which seem tailored made for torture on poor humans.

Slenderman’s general knowledge and experience should trump Sadako in all other aspects however, thanks in part to his insane longevity, being a multiversal constant since potentially the beginning of time. This on top of his incredibly potent omniscience continually feeding him information about everything that has, will and can happen basically means he will be actively aware of Sadako and any of her gimmicks. There is an argument to make that since Sadako is also disconnected from time herself Slenderman shouldn’t be able to use his omniscience on her to see what she will do. 

Overall, while Sadako is no doubt more battle hardened and skilled with her individual abilities, Slenderman’s omniscience and lifespan has given him everything he needs to know about dimensional traveling and time hopping entities like Sadako.

Sadako

“Why is it only you were saved?”

Advantages:

• Matches Slenderman in speed with Crack in Time traversal

• Abilities are more tailored for combat than Slenderman

• Has easier ways to empower herself such as the pocket dimension and absorbing souls

• Cancels out with lots of Slenderman’s abilities like mind control and time travel

• Far more potent death manipulation then Slenderman, and would resist his own death manipulation

• Telekinesis and force-fields can keep Slenderman at bay and repel most of his physical attacks

• Duplication grants far higher numbers advantage 

• Physiology as an energy being makes her unaffected by things like transmutation or biological manipulation

• More mobility with flight

• Absorption could work on a being like Slenderman

• Can potentially put Slenderman to sleep

• Most, if not all of Slenderman’s powers have no way of putting down Sadako

• The MHC Virus is another means of Sadako being able to resurrect herself

• More experience battling other beings like her

• Crack in Time would be outside of Slenderman’s omniscience range due to being another timeline

• Easily kills most of Slenderman’s Proxies

• Has a banging YouTube channel

• Is the reason Nicholas Cage is in Dead by Daylight

• Can throw a pretty good baseball (like with the amount of hair in her face? That’s impressive)

Disadvantages: 

• Inferior to Slenderman in strength and durability, even with her being a 5D being

• Unable to affect the abstract form of Slenderman or reach his realm

• Videotape are useless

• Dimensional Bleeding would be problematic for Sadako’s pocket dimension, provided it also doesn’t reside in the Crack in Time

• Slenderman’s teleportation is more potent than Sadako’s

• Clairvoyance and precognition are nothing to Slenderman’s omniscience

• Slenderman’s intangibility or damage redirection could stop Sadako’s telekinesis

• Vulnerable to being set on fire or frozen solid

• No real answer to reality warping or time stopping

• Can also potentially be drained of life

• Equally as hard to kill, if not even harder due to his conceptual immortality, and Sadako has no form of conceptual attacks

• The Collective are a dangerous support for Slenderman and just as all-powerful

• Skibidi Toilet

• Most of these movies are just not that great guys…

Slenderman

“So often are we guided by our devotion, our love, our affection. A bond that pulls us down paths not bargained for. And when you find yourself alone as HE casts out that bedeviling gaze…How far will it carry you?”

Advantages:

• Far stronger and more durable, with or without taking into account Slenderman’s abstract form

• Matches in speed with his teleportation and time travel, faster with more finite ends

• Cancels out almost all of Sadako’s abilities such as viruses/disease and invisibility 

• Dimensional Bleeding could shut down Sadako’s pocket dimension

• Omniscience is a greater trump card then precognition or clairvoyance

• More experienced due to how long he has lived

• Far more dangerous teleportation abilities

• Path of Black Leaves or intangibility can negate or avoid Sadako’s physical attacks

• Can affect Sadako’s body in ways like setting her on fire or freezing her solid

• Reality warping and time stopping can affect Sadako

• Technology manipulation can potentially shut down Sadako’s ability to travel through technology

• Far harder to kill with his conceptual immortality, and less accessible due to the Collective’s Realm being far beyond the Crack in Time in terms of cosmology

• His power advantage means he can destroy the Crack in Time and stop Sadako and the LOOP from resurrecting or making new bodies

• The Collective are a strong support in the fight against Sadako

• The Slenderman Twitter account

Disadvantages:

• Less experience in fighting any being like him, or with a wide enough array of powers

• Way worse telekinetic abilities then Sadako

• Eight Pages are useless

• Potentially can be put to sleep

• His physiology makes him vulnerable to being absorbed by Sadako

• Way less mobile

• Inferior duplication abilities, as its two vs infinite amount

• Sadako’s resurrection makes her incredibly hard to put down with any of his abilities

• Arguable if Slenderman’s abstract form can meaningfully interact with Sadako

• Absorption via trees easily fails and Sadako can break out

• Omniscience would fail to detect important clues like Sadako’s time travel or the LOOP due to the Crack in Time being another multiverse not reached by Slenderman yet

• Is not in Dead by Daylight (yet…)

• Got snuffed out of a Game Theory video by Five Nights at Freddy's 

• Slenderman 2018

Conclusion

Despite the sheer amount of abilities at both of their disposal, the overlap of resistances between Sadako and Slenderman leads to both of them simply walking off their respective abilities. A quick glance at each other’s abilities list no doubt paints a clear picture here. They do a lot of the same shit. Invisibility, mental attacks, possession and even manipulating plants (which is a HUGE coincidence). Due to this, it wouldn’t make sense to say one is better than the other, especially when factoring neither have shown layered versions of these abilities, such as the illusions for instance, both are able to put someone in an illusory world so it's pretty much just going to cancel out. Basically most of their arsenal won’t work outside of some sick animation potential. In some cases both characters have a direct counter to each other's abilities such as, Slenderman’s dimensional bleeding potentially allowing him to merge Sadako’s pocket dimension and Sadako’s shapeshifting bypassing Slenderman’s transfiguration. On the rare occasion there will be an overlap of abilities where one combatant is very clearly superior. Sadako has shown ten times more potent telekinesis that Slenderman has never encountered or demonstrated while also showing off her way more impressive feats of duplication. In the other corner, Slenderman’s teleportation is second to none in this debate, being able to simply walk to separate dimensions and timelines is much more impressive than Sadako’s methods of traveling which are much simpler in comparison. And finally there comes the abilities which neither have answers too and this is when Slenderman really shows off his strengths. While Sadako’s sleep manipulation and absorption are potent no doubt, they pale in comparison to Slenderman’s uncounterable techniques such as slowing down Sadako with time manipulation, destroying her with elemental attacks and warping reality around him to benefit him. So there we go, after covering both of their abilities in depth we should be able to come to a conclusion on who wins based on these right? Well, if it was that simple we wouldn’t have needed a 5 hour long voice chat debating such. As in the end all of these pale in comparison to the most important part of this debate, their respective immortalities.

Once again let’s talk immortality, the bread and butter of this matchup. Sadako can produce infinite bodies from seemingly nothing, on top of this being able to utilize her impregnation hax for further survivability. There’s also the potential of the MHC virus mutating into the Ring virus allowing Sadako to be reborn into higher planes of reality. Slenderman’s existence as a thoughtform that is powered by human thought allows him to manifest at anyone's location as long as they are aware of him, this is benefited by humanity's temporal fear of Slenderman that makes them sub-consciously aware of him to some degree. Essentially this grants him a level of conceptual immortality that is nigh impossible to overcome as he can simply time travel to another point in time or jump dimensions to basically “refresh” the amount of people he can manifest from. On top of that, Slenderman also has an abstract form that exists as an outerversal being in a reality called the Collective’s Realm. Just comparing the two types of immortality on display here obviously paints Slenderman as more impressive as he has multiple methods of reviving on top of a higher dimensional form, although Sadako’s is also quite impressive with her seemingly being able to revive from anything with multiple bodies and even the potential to turn the loop cancerous, giving her infinite stamina and an even higher surplus of clones. So. What happens? For some members of the blog the debate ends here with a stalemate. Sadako has no means of harming such a powerful higher dimensional being and Slenderman can’t permanently erase Sadako, who’s clones can revive from nothing. But for others, there is a chance…

In almost a stroke of luck, Slenderman has the perfect and only solution to this problem in ascending above the loop and crack in time via the Collective’s realm and proceeding to nuke the Ring cosmology. While this may sound far-fetched at first, the Slenderverse cosmology is built in such a way that it is entirely in reason that a higher dimensional being like Slenderman (who has been quoted as “a threat to the infinite multiverse”) could perform such a feat. Slenderverse multiverses work in a disturbingly similar manner to the Ring in that both include infinite timelines, it’s not too out there to suggest that these similar cosmological structures, of which Slenderman is already a threat too, can be destroyed in similar ways. This would wipe out all of Sadako’s infinite clones at once and leave no space for her to revive as she is unable to ascend to any higher planes unlike Slenderman. To summarize, this level of destruction is not something Sadako can reasonably recover from leading this to favor Slenderman in an extremely hard fought victory that would require him to think outside of the box.  

All in all, this is an incredibly layered and complex debate with many different factors to keep in mind with these two nigh unkillable horror powerhouses and while Sadako’s more vs tailored abilities, infinite amount of clones and busted immortality will no doubt keep her in the game for a good while, she simply doesn’t have the tools to permanently end the Slenderman. On the contrary, Slenderman has a single (albeit elaborate) wincon of nuking Sadako’s cosmology. Would this be his first choice? Far, far from it. He would most likely be at this timeline threatening war of attrition against Sadako until the end of time before he decides to pull an act such as this. Sadako’s general fighting experience means she can comfortably run circles around the Slenderman for a good while, especially when factoring in Slender’s tendency to play with his victims and status of top dog in his Slenderverse means he will fall for many of Sadako’s tricks and gimmicks… This is until Slenderman decides to pull the ultimate trump card. Do not let the stats confuse you. This is an intense battle and an extreme hard fought victory for the Slenderman.

The battle between Sadako vs Slenderman certainly put us in a LOOP, a real page-turner, a good ol’ ring-around-the-rosey, but in the end, Sadako had a slender chance of winning.

The winner is the Slenderman. 

Final Tally

Sadako (0) - sniffs

Slenderman (6) - Bang, GnomeChompski, ThiccGrimes, TheBiteRaptor, iceking, and KirbyKid9

Stalemate (2) - Echo and Shark

Next Time…

Special thanks to Cabbage for making both of the ‘Background’ images for these two creeps!