#<- mention and discuss ep 3 in enough depth that u should skip this post if u havent listened yet fyi

[saintbleeding]

i don't think those are the whole and intact jon, martin, or jonah* in there

here's why

so before i get into this i need to mention that the ideas im riffing on here came from a conversation with @bigmilkagenda who is smart and brilliant and beautiful.

but i was thinking, and what do the existing accounts we've heard have in common? obviously, there are different degrees to which and ways in which these ideas are engaged with between each account, but extremely broadly:

we have ideas of the irreversible alteration or corruption of the physical form, and how that does and does not correlate with personhood and the self. specifically, how do these physical changes intersect with identity, and at which point can someone be said not to be there, themselves, anymore?

"some of him"?

i think it's safe to assume that redcanary, inasmuch as they were a mischievous little urbex enthusiast, cannot and will not be returning in the form that they left, if indeed they return at all

daria, though they are willingly engaging in the process of change and transformation, also doesn't have full control over the process, nor the results, if their preference not to be seen on camera is any indication

dr webber... well. gestures vaguely at the all of that.

there's another common theme amongst these, to me: there are varying degrees of suggestion of a judgmental observer, or a more general but prominent idea of seeing and perception. the subject of the first case (who i'd heard fandom ppl calling harry but who the official and unofficial transcripts both refer to as harriet, but that's not my point rn, just a thing i noticed) obviously experiences the horror of what they go through because, mostly, of the visuals of it.

the fuckin magnus institute.

daria's experience both with ink5oul's assessment of them and the whole livestream experience (which is chilling tbqh)

the increasing suggestion thru dr webber's journal that maddie is very much there (to him) and overseeing what is happening to him, appraising, if not judging directly.

so we've got a joint idea of loss of one's physical structural integrity/questions of both mortality and identity, and we've got an idea of perception and sight.

here's where i need to make a logical leap, but essentially, this thematic focus is making me think that there is something Less Than JMJ in the system (ghosts in the machine as it were), but that, if and when that's examined, it will not lessen the impact and poignancy of what they're experiencing, what they're capable of thinking or feeling, etc.

*i think it's equally possible, at least at this juncture, that J.02 isn't necessarily Literally Jonah Magnus: the wiki says that james wright "died" in 1996, and although that doesn't correspond directly with the institute's fire in 1999, it's possible that things progressed differently in this universe, and maybe he was the director of the institute at the time. but also this is much more speculative than my other points, i just think it would be neat!!!