The Magnus Protocol Speculation (spoilers for TMAGP episodes 1 and 2 and general themes from TMA):
I've seen a few posts about how Protocol's introduction seems thematically opposite of TMA's introduction. Naturally I can't find them now, but the ideas that stuck out were:
-the notes from Protocol's theme music being an inversion of Archive's theme
-MAG 1's Anglerfish luring someone in, vs. the case of RedCanary, where something is decidedly trying to keep people out.
-Alice's firm stance that Sam needs to stop digging and mentally dump everything he hears from a case might indicate a connection to The Dark
(if anyone can find the posts I'm talking about, I'll happily edit them in. Tumblr's search is AWFUL)
All of this has me thinking about how the mission of The Magnus Institute and the mission of the OIAR could be complete opposites. The public-facing service the Institute provides, is this: if something inexplicable happens to you, you can come to the Institute, tell us about it, and we will investigate. The Institute will send a team (even if that team is just Martin with a flashlight), they'll try to figure it out, and you (the public) can be at ease.
From what we've seen so far, the OIAR inverts everything: if something inexplicable happens to you, the obscure OIAR will find out, regardless of how private that information should be. The OIAR will take that information, and send it to… well, Alice seem to think "no one". It gets labelled and filed away to never be seen or acted upon. The people doing the labeling can be at ease - it's no longer in their hands, they don't need to worry about it. In fact, those who do worry about it and think too hard - Sam and Gwen - face backlash from the other workers. Someone Else Is Handling It.
MAG 01 sees a new boss charged with cleaning up and organizing the old boss's mess to bring order. TMAGP 01 sees a new grunt worker being told to tiptoe around the mess and embrace chaos.
I don't subscribe to the idea that Smirke's 14 will be the same and relevant to Protocol. But if they were, I wouldn't be so quick to align the OIAR with the Dark alone. I see some high concept elements of the Buried here. Information isn't being concealed the way I'd expect with the Dark; it's being given a neatly informative headstone in the form of a DPHW index code and put Forever Deep Below.
constantly thinking about how Ace is framed as a "better" or "ideal" version of Rimmer but it's a version of him that is ultimately doomed to sacrifice his life over and over again, like the universe had decided that the best thing he can do is die for other people instead of getting to live his life
ALSO!!!! "hand me my shovel, i'm going in!"?????? heLLO? love that 🫶
okay this one is SO MUCH FUN once I've gotten through at least one Big WIP (either gravity or cheerscoops fake dating) I'm definitely coming back to focus on this one. The title comes from the song of the same name by Will Wood and the Tapeworms!
The concept for this AU is that Hawkins (circa 1986) is under attack from a local serial killer, but they have absolutely no idea. Why not? Because Eddie Munson, local necromancer, keeps resurrecting the victims before they're found and reported as dead. This is staying under wraps for now, as all the victims are people generally ignored by society; people from the trailer park, the local drunks, the disenfranchised. People who, post-revival, will generally chalk the whole thing up to a hallucination or a bad dream, but even if they did tell someone it's not like anyone would believe them.
Eddie, meanwhile, is growing increasingly frustrated with the fact no one he revives can remember anything about who did this to them. They remember enough to know it was a violent death (although Eddie already knows that from the state he finds their bodies in), but their memories are too fuzzy to know who did it - and memories of dying and being brought back fade pretty quickly, as a general rule. Eddie doesn't make any headway on figuring out who the culprit is until he brings back the killer's latest victim: Steve Harrington.
Upon being revived, Steve's immediate reaction is "why the fuck is Eddie Munson here, what the fuck is going on and also I'm pretty sure I died for a second there?" in that order. Upon explaining the situation, Steve agrees to help Eddie find who's responsible for these killings and do something about it.
This is kind of an S4 replacement/canon divergence in that Upside Down Shit has been happening since '83, but also it's very much not in that the Upside Down works differently here and things happened differently to how they did in canon (there's almost no government presence in this AU, for example). It's essentially purgatory/the halfway dimension between our world and the afterlife, so Will and El both have their own magical bullshit going on. Think of it as them being sorcerers (innate aptitude for magic) and Eddie being a wizard (learned magical abilities), yknow?
Took me very long in life to realize that when an article about anxiety or whatever says "listening to relaxing music helps :)" it means music that's relaxing to YOU. Not just the usual slow and calm and soft relaxation music. This whole time I was wondering why listening to those didn't do anything, it's because they're not what I personally find relaxing!!
Turns out, if your favorite musician screaming moaning and crying in your ears is what you find relaxing, that's what you should listen to when panicking.
If I ever have any children (unlikely tbh) I'll feel bad for needing to subject them to the time-honored tradition of "hearing songs your parents grew up with"
"Oh my gosh sweetie, I loved this song when I was your age!"
MY HEART WAS STOLEN BY A BLIND PICKPOCKET IN THE SUMMER OF 2012 AND I NEVER EVEN SAW HER FACE-
anyone else ever get that feeling where you're listening to a song you like and maybe you've liked for years and then you realize the meaning like the actual meaning or it has a new meaning for you personally and it just clicks and you feel a wee bit silly for not getting it sooner but that's kinda not the point because holy shit the meaning behind that song