maggles42

[maggles42]

alice actually knows she's in an urban fantasy drama but has mistaken the subgenre for supernatural occult instead of transhumanist cosmic horror, and thus she is trying to speedrun getting to what she believes to be the inevitable final season arc of defeating the devil

[maggles42]

there's so much in TMAGP about lying, concealing, prying things open that should remain closed, etc.

Listeners of TMA were always kind of like the Eye - voyeuristic, pathologically determined to Figure Out the series, fascinated by the horror, etc. For TMAGP, they seem to be playing more on the idea of audience's desires/wishes rather than their fears?

I feel like Johnny and Alex tend to drag the listeners in and get meta - the theme of "careful what you wish for" consistent so far, I'm really curious to see how they're going to turn that back on us.

the most terrifying thing to me about the magnus protocol is that it feels like we’re not supposed to be listening in. the audio editing makes the dialogue sound more distant, the characters keep secrets constantly, the “statements” are not necessarily intended to be heard, no one’s turning on tape recorders every episode. in tma the eye/web wanted us to be listening. jon wanted us to be a witness to everything he went through. what are the Horrors in tmagp that we aren’t meant to know about???

[maggles42]

okay so my brain is working really hard but stay with me:

FIRST, The Beer:

Luke and Alice order Doom Bar Beer, which is named for a sandbank responsible for destroying 600+ ships. Wikipedia states:

"According to local folklore, the Doom Bar was created by the Mermaid of Padstow as a dying curse after being shot... a Padstow local, Tristram Bird, bought a new gun and wanted to shoot something worthy of it. He went hunting seals at Hawker's Cove but found a young woman sitting on a rock brushing her hair. Entranced by her beauty, he offered to marry her and when she refused he shot her in retaliation, only realizing afterwards that she was a mermaid. As she died she cursed the harbour with a "bar of doom", from Hawker's Cove to Trebetherick Bay. A terrible gale blew up that night and when it finally subsided there was the sandbar, "covered with wrecks of ships and bodies of drowned men".

The ballad, 'The Mermaid of Padstow,' tells a similar story of a... mermaid [who] met a local man and fell in love with him. When she could no longer bear living without him, she tried to lure him beneath the waves but he escaped by shooting her. In her rage she threw a handful of sand towards Padstow, around which the sandbank grew. In other versions of the tale, the mermaid sings from the rocks and a youth shoots at her with a crossbow, or a greedy man shoots her with a longbow. Mermaids were believed to sing to their victims so that they could lure adulterers to their death."

there's a lot to unpack there, so I will circle back to it.

SECOND, Lady Mowbray:

I've seen some stuff on here about the Desire Theory and it definitely plays into Lady Mowbray's character. The power dynamics between her and others is very much about Desire // Consumption // Expensive Tastes. Her desire for power is also a desire for consuming prey, for dominance and for decisive victory. She meets her desires through a combination of irresistible authority and a shit ton of money.

Her relationship with prey feels similar to, but different than aspects of the Hunt as we've seen it in TMA. It's kinda jumbled up with the Slaughter and the Flesh.

however

Lady Mowbray has SO MUCH in common with the TMA vampires: her ability to enthrall, the element of compulsion/suggestion, the association with the hunt, etc. ALL of this is done with her words alone:

“at this level you don’t get to tell the client ‘no,’ just how much extra it will cost”

“she reeked of power and authority in every sense of the word, and when she spoke they all listened.”

“I couldn’t even think of disobeying her, the words just – died in my throat.”

Notable: Lady Mowbray orders the caterer to hunt/run, and her wish is his command. Meanwhile at the O.I.A.R, she is careful not to order anyone except her dogs - everything else is implied.

So while she is clearly a Hunter, she is not mindless or animalistic in the way TMA vampires are. It doesn't feel like she hunts because she needs to, but that she wants to. She enjoys the sport.

THIRD AND IN CONCLUSION:

Okay so we have the compulsion/the hunt, drowning/wells, and wishing/wanting. There's also a bit of a double entendre in the title:

“well” as a single thought refers to the Deep/Vast elements, but it could be another reference to wishing wells

“run” obviously refers to the Hunt elements, but can also refer to a stream of water, or a short trip while sailing (hehe ships again)

"Well-run" while a direct reference to Lady Mowbry’s comment, it can also be contrasting the themes of shipwrecking, drowning, or wishes gone wrong. When a ship is well-run or has a good "run," then it will/has arrived at port safely. In short, everything went well.

Anyways, there's a lot going on but it all overlaps:

Common themes between Doom Bar Folklore and "Well Run”:

sirens/vampires: creatures that use compulsion to satisfy their appetites

hunting/pursuing (hunting with voice vs. hunting with gun?)

denied desires = bloodshed (applies to both the denied man and the denied mermaid/siren)

undeniable desires = the inability to keep from being consumed at someone else's wish, or being destroyed in the pursuit of your own

additional themes of shipwrecking, treacherous waters, and drowning (dashed hopes, perhaps?)

When is hunting a necessary harm and when is it a cruel fulfillment of violent desire? Your desires/what you're hunting can be just as destructive and violent as the desires of what is hunting you.

So Luke is in one band named "Dredgerman" and another named "Penny for the Well." One hauling things up from the deep, and another casting down small offerings into the deep in exchange for a wish or good luck. And it sure seems to be working, with packed houses and extra tour stops. Awesome! All the bargains we've heard made on this show have worked out SO WELL.

And then of course, immediately after attending Luke's most recent...offering?... Alice lands something hauled up from some kind of deep. 🤔

Or two somethings, given the tape recorder. Maybe throwing them back will work, Alice. Maybe it'll be fine.