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the finder icon is so handsome. But also its absolutely two guys kissing who fused into an eternal embrace inside the code of every Mac. They found each other and now they help find things for you how sweet

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hear me out

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See, I don't think John canonically wears glasses. In fact, I believe that it's implied in canon that avatars of the Eye have unusually good eyesight (something Leitner said).

Since everyone imagines him as a glasses-wearer, though, I very much headcanon that he only wears glasses for the aesthetics.

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These aren't organized or entirely coherent, but here are my thoughts on the statement itself for TMAGP 18.

Initially, I was getting Web and Spiral vibes, but as it went on, it was definitely more Lonely. I do wonder if including a very brief reference to spiders in an otherwise unrelated statement was an attempt to steer listeners away from focusing on the surface-level imagery of the fears instead of what they actually represent. (Alternatively... the Web is pretty subtle, and the house reminded me of Hilltop, so... so... foreshadowing?)

I do think it's interesting exactly HOW Lonely-coded (and particularly Martin-coded) this statement was. We have... direct references to being alone, the presence of fog, poetry that the speaker related to strongly but that was ridiculed by others, required literature for class that showed up in the physical place associated with the Lonely (the Wuthering Heights cover for Martin and the "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" daffodils for Violet Parker), and potentially a weird relationship with the speaker's mother. I know I just said that maybe they want us to not look at surface-level connections, but... whatever.

Also, specifically that it's a house. I mean, I get that empty houses are just a staple of horror and VERY good at making people feel lonely, but... I guess the setting and style of the statement overall really remind me of Martin in the Lonely/the Lonely's domain.

LIKE... specifically, "With my mother’s help I had built the house anew! Not on Church Street, but inside me." Martin could say that. Martin could 100% have said that. I may be misremembering 170 (or the other Lonely!Martin Talking To Himself one), but I had the impression that the house he was in looked like his mother's house.

"Where no-one would find me or ever think to look." Do we think the specific reference to looking is relevant? This is also reminding me of how John couldn't see Martin in the Lonely.

The element of amnesia is also very MAG 170.

"Someone has brought me here. But who? Some figure, reaching, asking questions in an alley? It doesn’t matter. They’re not here now. No-one’s here now. No-one ever will be. [...] [I k]eep screaming, hoping someone might hear me through all that cloying fog. But no-one is coming to help me." MAG 170??? John??? I don't even know how to explain it, it just reminds me so much of Martin forgetting about John just a bit and not being sure if he was coming back for him or not...

"Because I broke my promise. I went in the house on Church Street, and I’m still here." Hear me out... Hear me out. Do you remember how in MAG 191, Martin promised that he wouldn't doom the world to save John? You know how John wanted to stay in the panopticon in order to keep the fears from moving on to other worlds?

Also! The end of the statement... "I wander, lonely." I am looking at the transcript of MAG 170, and you know how many times Martin said "wander" or "wandering"? 5. That's kind of a lot. In my opinion. ALSO. From MAG 170: "I – found someone else, wandering around. They were all – thin and grey. Faded. Like they’d been here for ages. I think they’d been – crying, but it’s so hard to tell through the fog." Thin? Grey? Like... Violet Parker?

I don't know, man!!! I just feel like this episode is insanely Martin-coded, and not necessarily just because of the Lonely. I feel like Violet could be some alternate universe Martin. How? I don't know. Maybe it wasn't Violet talking about their own death, but Martin's ghost or something? If they were trapped in the Lonely for a long time in the TMA universe, maybe some remnant of Martin got stuck in them via the Lonely???

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something that makes someone die to their greatest fear and then recite their story after they die.... WHY was my first thought some fucked up version of Jon. I mean. it's probably not but it would make sense for him to be involved with all fears now and the forcing people to recite their story is definitely on brand. if it is though he would be the farthest from human he's ever been

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A VICTIM MARKED BY ALL THE TMA FEARS???

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ok now I'm convinced that ERROR is the Archivist in this universe and it followed Sam and Alice back to London and is now feeding on dead people by forcing them to give their statements

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spiders? spider like Hilltop Road? and rotten wood like in the Magnus Institute? and too many rooms and passageways and doors like the Spiral? the Distortion?? my babygirl???

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okay okay so lena calling jack “it” and not knowing his name could just be her not being the best boss/person BUT it could go deeper imo. is he truly human or is he like agnes??? is he a future external??

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Sam fumbled Gwen’s Bonzo reveal… but he’d been primed to do so

I suspect that there's going to be a LOT of conversation around Sam after this episode, and since this episode was so good that I couldn't think of a meme or shitpost, I decided I'd throw my hat into the ring and do some character analysis instead. CW: Spoilers for The Magnus Protocol episode 18, "Solo Work" under the cut.

Episode 18 finally gave us the Sam and Gwen interaction I (and I think a lot of others) have been so desperate to finally see, and boy oh boy do I have Thoughts… none of which are new per se, but Sam’s reaction to Gwen dropping the Bonzo Bomb seems to have reinforced  the way I’ve been reading (and projecting in fanfiction oops) Sam, his personality, and his motivations.

Out of everyone new we’ve been introduced to so far, Sam has by far gotten the most explicit development and conversation around his personality. Even before episode 1, folks who participated in the ARG got a preview of our favorite baby shrimp’s personality through access to the child database spreadsheet that was, presumably, used to document the results of the experiments run on children participating in The Magnus Institute’s “gifted and talented program.” From this spreadsheet, we can gather that Baby Sam is logical, empathetic, works towards the benefit of others (prosocial), and fair… but also a rule follower and highly willing to follow the lead of an authority figure, even if it is in conflict with his personal views. The picture this information paints is an interesting one, but when taken in a vacuum leaves us with an impression of Sam as someone who is kind but lacking in backbone.

This idea of Sam as “kind but lacking in backbone” is further reinforced in canon, as Alice of multiple occasions rags on him for being “noodly” and “ickle fawn” and a “baby shrimp,” all seeming to highlight that Sam has the sort of helplessness about him typically ascribed to sopping wet kittens and baby birds. And I think that if we view Sam’s outburst when Gwen brings up Bonzo through this lens alone, it’s going to seem WAY out of character for him and a downright cruel response.

Now while I do believe that Sam is empathetic and fair and, sometimes, a little helpless, I’ve been inclined to believe from early on that much of Sam’s affable self-deprecation is a way to cover or soften what can be, at times, a tendency to be hard-headed, temperamental, a little manipulative, and petty (and I’m totally not just saying that as a people-pleaser-and-gifted-kid-in-recovery who has been projecting hard on Sam since Day 1). And it’s this second batch of personality traits, the ones that make Sam so real and interesting to me, that I think set up the disaster of a conversation between Sam and Gwen.

We have definitely seen hints of Sam’s hard-headedness and manipulative leanings in previous episodes: it comes out most often around Alice, showing his stubbornness in the form of refusing to give up his lines of questioning and curiosity about what is happening in the cases and at the OIAR; and revealing his willingness to manipulate a situation the form of subtly redirecting Alice’s focus away from prying into his crush on Celia and during the mocha incident (I have, of course, already explored Sam’s manipulative tendencies in my totally comprehensive shitpost).

And we’ve even been shown at times before episode 18 where Sam can be petty, his buzzed insistence that Alice try and keep things “professional” at work after his date with Celia being at the top of the list. The case headers filed for “Putting Down Roots” and “Pet Project” also suggest to me Sam’s ability to be stubborn and petty: in both instances, Alice and Gwen suggest a different classification than the one that Sam ultimately files. In the case of Gwen in “Pet Project,” she’s dismissive of him when he tries to ask if she’s all right.

While there’s no way to know for sure, I interpret this interaction as part of the reason why Sam ultimately disregarded Gwen’s suggestion for how to file the case—she shut him down and shut him out, and the petty part of his heart couldn’t resist ignoring her recommendation out of spite. This scene also begins to lay the foundations for Sam and Gwen’s interactions in episode 18 and, I suspect, the rest of the season.

So with all of this in mind, let’s look at episode 18. When Gwen emerges from Lena’s office, Alice has just finished shutting Sam down, again. Throughout most of this season, Sam has been desperate for some validation that the cases they are listening to are real, that whatever happened to him at The Magnus Institute was real, and that him pursuing this line of questioning and wanting to find answers isn’t a waste of his time. Alice has, of course, been not-so-gently nudging him away from this line of thinking for most of the season, while Gwen has been icing him out about it up until this point. Just about the only one who has given his questioning any air has been Celia who is, conveniently, not there. Even after Alice has her very own supernatural experience that is reaffirmed in the case Sam receives, she strongly pushes back on his idea that they should investigate and pursue this further. He understands why she doesn’t want to learn more, but it’s clear that he’s still frustrated at the end of the conversation.

Enter Gwen. Here, for the first time, it seems like she’s opening up about what is going on at the OIAR, and Sam is immediately hooked, even dropping his softer and sympathetic side when Alice tries to redirect with one of her classic barbs.

After being shut down time and time again, Sam is so eager for confirmation that there is more to all of this than meets the eye. And then Gwen says the B-word, and Sam loses it.

Sam is laughing here, but honestly? I think he’s angry, and his reaction is one of complete disbelief that Gwen would set him up like this just to, in his mind, take the piss out of him. He thinks that, at best, Gwen is having a breakdown and he’s once again being shut out or, at worst, Gwen is making a joke at his expense. Now, he’s used to being the butt of a joke thanks to being friends with Alice, but despite that we’ve never heard him call her an asshole the way he does Gwen. Temperamental and petty, turning around his hurt and anger over being stonewalled again and again to lash out at Gwen with his joke.

And honestly, can you blame him? (I can’t.)

Of course this wasn’t the ideal reaction. I have been waiting for Sam and Gwen to have a serious heart-to-heart about what’s going on forever, and Sam pretty much blew that chance without even realizing it. And I would be surprised if we get an apology out of him anytime soon, not only because this interaction is likely to push Gwen away from wanting to even be around Sam, but also because he’s not going to believe that Gwen wasn’t making fun of him or that Gwen isn’t having a delusional breakdown until he sees Mr. Bonzo with his own two eyes.

I also think this conversation would have gone very differently had Celia been there instead of Alice. Sam’s slew of psychological testing suggests he’s willing to follow the leader, and in this case he doesn’t seem immune to Alice’s general dismissiveness of Gwen. He may have even been primed to lash out at Gwen in this moment because Alice is constantly ragging on her; chameleon-like, he’ll take on the shade of the strongest personality when he’s on uncertain or dangerous footing. It’s almost a guarantee that Celia would have taken Gwen seriously, not only because she’s likely from or connected to the TMA-verse of horrors, but also because it was Celia who received the first Mr. Bonzo case. And had Celia been there to temper the disbelief, Sam would have absolutely been ready to hear Gwen out in full. I honestly cannot wait for Celia to be back in office; she’s going to walk in to these new, rancid office vibes like Troy from Community walking into the whole room on fire while casually carrying the pizza.

So, what do I think this means for the rest of the season? Well, the title of this episode seems telling: Solo Work. Gwen and Sam’s respective desires for their experiences to be validated and their goals to be taken seriously paired with the seeming dismissiveness of those around them are going to push them along their separate paths, dangerously alone. And I suspect that it is only going to be Celia or, more likely, an encounter with Bonzo, that is going to put them back on the same path—if it happens at all. Good luck, babes!

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Haha... Alice, that'd be crazy, wouldn't it? That would be so unbelievable... Killing someone with their deepest fear? Compelling them to make a statement tell the story of their death? Haha...

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I am starting to actually do daily vocal training practice for voice masculinization, and my go-to Test Phrase is now the ritual from MAG 160.

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(13 of) The 15 Fears As Lemon Demon Songs

In order of confidence/how well the songs fit/also just preferred fears.

The Eye - Touch Tone Telephone

The Extinction - Cabinet Man

The Lonely - Amnesia Was Her Name

The Spiral - Sundial

The Web - Spiral of Ants

The Stranger - Nightmare Fuel

The Buried - I Earn My Life

The Flesh - Modify

The Dark - Ancient Aliens(?)

The Hunt - Jaws(?)

The Slaughter - Knife Fight(?)

The Vast - The Ocean(?)

The Desolation - Action Movie Hero Boy(?)

I literally could not find any that fit The End or The Corruption. Explanations and some rambling beneath the cut.

I wanted to do this because I had ideas for a few of them, mainly The Extinction, Eye, Lonely, Spiral, Stranger, and Web. Then I kind of struggled to do the rest. I also typically only listen to Spirit Phone and View Monster, so I was mainly drawing from those two.

The Eye

Touch Tone Telephone - I don't have a good reason for this one. It fits John better than it fits The Eye, but I think you can argue that it fits the need for knowledge and loss of self in that search.

The Extinction

Cabinet Man - I don't think I need to explain this one! Cabinet Man is so similar to Binary, when that guy ate his computer.

Samuel and Rosella - I think this one is a sub-flavor of The Extinction. It's like... ah yes, these old people are convinced that the world is ending. Because of Kids These Days. Not climate change...

Fine - Speaking of climate change! This one is climate change denial, but I think it still fits The Extinction.

The Lonely

I had so many ideas for this one. Not all of them will make it here.

Amnesia Was Her Name - It reminded me a lot of Martin getting stuck in The Lonely in Season 5 and forgetting his name. It's got that sense of disconnection from other people.

It Can Get Lonely In My Mansion - This one fits pretty straightforwardly, because it is... about a guy who is in a huge empty space and feels lonely. The reason I didn't put it as my Final Choice was that it is more Capitalism Horror than Lonely Horror, in my opinion. I do think it fits The Lonely Making You Think That You Are Superior To Others And You Not Hanging Out With Them (I think that came up in Peter Lukas' statement?).

Soft Fuzzy Man - Again, being very literal with this one, it fits well. Some of the ocean vibes in the lyrics (ie. "cold and windy / dark and stormy") remind me of The Lonely's fogginess and Peter Lukas' sailor thing. I'm just going to start listing off lyircs: "can't you see me? / why can't you see me?" "I need to feel like I exist / so please, baby, please, baby, step into the mist." Going off of the lyrics, it fits well, but it just seemed a little too literal.

You're At the Party - I really wanted to use this for The Lonely, but then I decided it fit The Stranger better, but then I found other things that fit The Stranger. This song reminds me of when you are in a very busy/crowded place but feel completely invisible, out of place, and separate from everyone.

A Mask of My Own Face - This is another Lonely/Stranger one to me. You can take it as being around other people but still separating yourself from them, again in the Peter Lukas way.

Stuck - Doesn't really fit, but there is a line about forgetting your name and not having a clear personality.

The Spiral

Sundial - It's a silly nonsense song! The Spiral is the silly nonsense fear (ish). Sundial is a personal favorite Lemon Demon song, so I suppose I also wanted to assign it to a fan-favorite fear.

Eighth Wonder - Honestly, this one might fit better than Sundial, because it is an entity that is actually dangerous that comes off as very silly and playful, much like certain door people.

The Web

Spiral of Ants - I feel like someone is going to kill me for putting this here and not The Corruption or The Spiral, but it is... it is not really Bugs Gross nor is it about going crazy (that much). I think it fits The Web, because it discusses a loss of control over your own life, a lack of awareness over that loss of control, and the sense that you are just acting as a part of a collective as opposed to an individual with free will.

Redesign Your Logo - This was what I initially had for The Web. Going off of the literal words, it does have the repeating "everything's connected," which is pretty Web-y. I also think the general idea of manipulating and controlling people via advertising fits that pretty well.

Stuck - I feel that realizing that you are a character with no free will is pretty Web-related.

The Stranger

Nightmare Fuel - Once again, I feel that I don't need to explain this one. We have creepy clowns, puppets with human hands, mannequins that move, robots with human eyes, monsters made of clay, and a direct mention of the uncanny valley.

You're At The Party - This one is very Something Is Off But You Don't Know What to me and is personally very strongly associated with derealizing, which basically gives everything an uncanny valley feeling.

A Mask of My Own Face - I think this only works if you go by the imagery of someone wearing a mask made of human skin.

The Buried

I Earn My Life - I was initially going to use this for The Web, but then one of the Q&As mentioned that tax offices would totally be places of The Buried, and I figured this fit. Obviously, it fits more with the metaphorical sense of being stuck and having a lot of pressure on you than it does with literally being buried.

The Flesh

All of these seemed like slight stretches, so I had a hard time deciding between them.

Modify - This just felt like the most Body Horror song that I could find, even though it dealt less with the Ew Squishy Meat element of body horror than it did the Meat That Can Be Damaged element of body horror.

Lifetime Achievement Award - This was my initial choice for The Flesh, mainly because of the "even as we speak we're synthesizing blood and organs" in the chorus. It really doesn't fit that well, but that line tends to hit me with the sudden awareness that I am just a bunch of cells making more cells and such. Fleshy.

Nothing Worth Loving Isn't Askew - This one fits because of the "you are muscle, flesh, and bone," at the beginning and the themes of dysmorphia and insecurity about one's body. I just didn't find it particularly horrifying, I suppose. I kind of found it wholesome.

The Dark

We are now getting to fears where I feel that my song choices really didn't fit.

Ancient Aliens - I thought it fit mostly because of the sense of not knowing and the fear of the unknown. Also, the mention of darkness. Also, the mention of eye damage, I guess. Weirdly, a lot of Lemon Demon songs mention eye damage or specifically gouging out your eyes.

The Hunt

Jaws - Look. Spooky shark hunts people. People hunt shark. Shark hunts and eats people. People hunt shark more. Shark is dead. Hurrah!

The Slaughter

Knife Fight - Senseless violence! We'll ignore the tickle fight at the end.

The Vast

The Ocean - I did just pick a song that mentioned the ocean. In my defense, it also mentions not being able to see the horizon and watching the stars, which has been associated with The Vast a bit. By the way, there is another song called Deep In The Ocean, which also doesn't fit that well, though I suppose you could interpret it as being about how insignificant humans are in the grand scheme of things (time-wise).

The Desolation

Action Movie Hero Boy - I think you could argue this for The Slaughter, because both feature senseless violence, but this one touched a bit more on the romanticization of violence/destruction, in my opinion. Fire and explosives. Desolation. Woo.

Angry People - I think this one might fit better with The Slaughter or even The Extinction thematically, but it reminded me of baby Agnes. That was the main reason I picked it. Plus, I feel like The Desolation's people tend to be very passionate about things, and the mention of having sex angrily and eating angrily kind of had that vibe to me.

Others

When He Died - This really fits a good amount of them. I'm getting Stranger, because of the random skulls, Laughing Record, and clown; Lonely, because nobody mourned him and his wife's "voice began to fade to nothing;" Desolation, because of the house fire; and End, because of the foreseen death thing. There is also an apocalypse mention, so... Extinction + The Watcher's Crown.

Man-Made Object - It may or may not have reminded me a little bit of Jonah Magnus.

Pizza Heroes - This has got to be the Breekon and Hope theme song. They always deliver. :)

No Eyed Girl - This one! Thinking about this one in the context of The Magnus Archives actually made me cry. Like. Okay. Hear me out. Let me just straight up post the lyrics, actually. I will ramble and then I will straight up post the lyrics. I am not a huge fan of JohnMartin, however... Like. This song. This song in the context of Episode 200. Especially since the song is about someone falling in love with like... an unknowable being. In the song, the no-eyed girl and the unknowable being are two separate people, but like... this song if Martin was the no-eyed person and John was the being.

Oh, knowing what we know, knowing what we don't know  This is gonna change our world  Feeling how I feel, I'll accept the unreal  If you'd be my no-eyed girl From nowhere mankind can go  There's too much light, blinding white  Your matter tells mine to scatter  It's alright, it's alright From the moment that we met  I've been awake like I've never been awake in all my life  If I spoke your language, I could tell you how I feel  But your language isn't real In every myth, there's a little bit of truth  But I cannot say a thing  I cannot say a thing  Without proof, oh, no Knowing what we know, knowing what we do not know  This is gonna change our world  I might go insane if I learn your full name  If you'd be my no-eyed girl From nowhere mankind can go  There's too much light, blinding white  Emotions, human implosions  It's alright, it's alright Right before the kiss, I noticed something in the air  Molecules existed when there should have been none there  Chemical reactions with the surface of your skin  Some will say my actions let the no-eyed people in And I'd do it all again  And I'd do it all again  And I'd do it all again

I'm still rambling about this song. Like. Hello???

"Knowing what we know, knowing what we don't know. / This is gonna change our world." Like... HELLO? Knowing what they know about the Fears and the Archive and everything about alternate worlds? Not knowing exactly what would happen if they died or attempted to fix the world? But knowing pretty damn well that it sure would change?

Even the idea of being blinded by knowing too much... Jonah Magnus much? Everything going wrong as they kiss? Also just... how sad the last verse sounds...

Help!

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young jonah magnus is if dorian gray in a different font

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And at last, the Archivist looks up.

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my dead goth son and his friendly neighborhood personified concept of insanity

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Where are his eyes?

Exactly where they’ve always been, Martin. Watching over my Institute.