#TMA Meta

[regainingparadise]

The most powerful weapon against The Spiral is punctuality

MAG 26

MAG 100

[agentlove]

something i love about tma is john's pattern of tossing and turning over his guilt to the point of constant self-sacrifice at every turn, but for all he tears himself up over the things outside his control, he's chronically allergic to fixing or changing the things in his control, and no matter how he dresses it up, he still has his s1 jerkass tendencies. in fact his position of even more tangible power in s5 makes them even more obvious

his tendency to look down on people he deems "crazy" in s1 has not actually left at all in s5. because dude what the hell was THIS

(and i also love how good tma is at getting us into his head, because we're so used to Knowing All The Lore(tm) that i can imagine we're meant to feel the same way john does here, at least as a knee-jerk reaction, instead of, "oh god is this woman okay?")

[martinblackwoodhaterfan]

Non-hateful Martin rant on the Martin hate account??? I bet yall didn't see this one coming. Under the cut for length

Martin, like literally every other TMA character, is morally grey. He thinks of himself as a "good guy", sure, but that's exactly why he isn't all that "good"- it means he will support everyone who agrees with him, and look down on people who, according to his perception of 'good' and 'evil', are on the "bad" side. This way of viewing things, that categorizing everything into "right" and "wrong" and putting himself on the "right" side no matter what, is in certain situations both a strength and a flaw of Martin's.

He has his moments: he's shown to be very helpful and caring, his uncomplicated way of viewing everything means he will fiercely protect his friends no matter what, just like he did when Jon was accused of murder and when he defended Jon's odd behaviour to Tim; but this simplistic way of thinking means he can be unintentionally cruel and harmful to those around him even when he has their best interest in mind: in season 5 him being very vocal and harsh in his hatred for avatars caused him to be also (subconsciously? Or purposefully?) cruel to Jon, whom he claimed he dearly loved.

But the vast majority of his fans don't allow him to be actually, consequentially fucked up. Most fan posts talking about him repeat a variation of "Martin is my fucked up pookie!" Why do you think that? "Cause he wants avatars to die haha! He's so sneaky, everyone thought he was a softie but he craves violence! He's such a cunning manipulator! Go my bloodthirsty king, he deserves a gun!"

First of all, that's not really what happenned, but I'm not here to quote canon to you. Second of all, this isn't at all what I had in mind when making this post. You see, all the things I mentioned in the previous paragraph are perfectly "excusable". It's fiction, so the severity of the character's actions do not matter, and on top of that the emotional aspect of fantasy murder and violence is foreign to the audience. You're not gonna be personally affected if your blorbo kills off a bunch of no-name characters in the story they're in. You know the act is theoretically "bad" and whatever, but it's not real, it's a reocurring event in this particular podcast, and the story itself treats it lightly, so why should you care?

My issue is that Martin has a lot of everyday-ish, human flaws that hit way closer to home, but are almost never acknowledged by his fanbase. I don't care that he wants to kill, that's really nothing new considering how all the other characters are. I care about his personality and canon characterization. I care about the ways in which his behaviour impacted other characters in the story, and I care about the fact that these effect were not always positive. Martin fans are eager to accept that he was okay with murder, but they never acknowledge him being passive-aggressive, or toxic, or selfish, or close-minded. Those characteristics aren't all he is, and they obviously aren't his defining traits, but they are a significant part of him as a whole. If you choose to ignore them, then all you're left with is a stereotypical "soft cute cinammon roll" with Martin's name and foggy aesthetics slapped on it. No connection to canon whatsoever. He's essentially become an empty shell.

His problem is that he chooses to ignore things that make him uncomfortable because he's scared of the responsibility that comes with acknowledging them. He feels like he should stand up for himself but he hates himself at the same time, so it results in him pushing away everyone he cares for and then blaming himself while not changing his behaviour, because he finds comfort in loneliness, because it's what he's familiar with. Because it's always been like this for him, and he doesn't have the strength to actually change something for once. It's easier for him to maintain surface level relationships with people and not let them get close enough to form an opinion on him other than "he's a nice guy who tries his best I guess".

He himself said that offering tea as a blanket solution for people's problems is easier than actually getting to the root of the issue. If he just makes that person some tea, technically it does nothing good but they can't blame him for not helping. The whole let-me-bring-you-some-tea thing was Martin avoiding serious conversations while maintaining his image as a kind and helpful guy.

He can sympathize but not empathize, he relates to things that he personally experienced before but can't really put himself in another person's shoes. He can be very hardworking and responsible, but he can also be childish and avoidant, especially when it would mean he has to take responsibility for something. He has a very strong sense of justice, but his morals are based on a very childish perception of the world around him - "cops are supposed to be good, avatars are supposed to be bad" - he separates the world into "good" and "bad" categories without accepting the possibility of exceptions to that rule - you're either with him or against him, you're either good or bad; he doesn't allow the possibility that it depends.

All of those biases and his childishness and his internal conflicts and his season 5 assholery make him equally interesting and unbearably annoying and that's highkey awesome. Even if I don't like the season 5 development and think it's shallow I can still acknowledge that it has potential. But you people focus only on his depression and self esteem issues and pity him like he's a little child. Baby that man can live on his own just fine lmao. Everyone in this podcast is depressed you just find his experience deserving more pity than all the others cause you relate to him as an introvert with a shitty parent. Let him be inexcusably messed up let him be awful let him be flawed in other ways than "poor depressed bean filled with self-hate aww". Jon isn't the only one who's fucked up. Martin didn't match his freak but he nearly surpassed him in personal problems and I'm sick and tired of people portraying him as Jon's selfless pure-hearted savior. Where's my canonical toxic codependence?????

[gammija]

nothing personal but this kind of comment rlly exemplifies to me a disconnect between canon and popular fanon jmart characterization because they almost literally had this conversation in canon - except, their lines are swapped!

jon, for all his scared grouchiness, is a secret romantic, while martin, for all his forced optimism, is at his core a pragmatist

[stompandhollar]

is the implication here that Jon would take one look at Web!Martin and say “okay so?” instead of being horrified?

Is the implication that Annabelle can’t turn Martin into a monster because it won’t have any effect on Jon?

That their bond is so strong that it doesn’t matter if Martin is full of spiders and barely human, he’s still Martin, and Jon won’t even flinch? bc if so i have to exchange some words with mr jonnywaistcoat

[madbard]

So. I just finished The Magnus Archives.

You’re telling me that Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, began his journey from such a place of uncertainty and desperation to prove himself worthy of the title, and ended as the embodiment of everything that tormented him?

You’re telling me that Martin Blackwood, who held so much love for the people around him, unintentionally paved the way for his lover’s desperate martyrdom?

You’re telling me Jon was marked for this from childhood, manipulated by forces older and greater than civilization to bring such harm upon the world that the only solution he could see was to end it?

You’re telling me there was no escape for them?

You’re telling me they could have lived happily together, but they could never have taken that path because it lies contrary to who they are?

You’re telling me Jon and Martin had everything and everyone slowly and agonizingly ripped away from them until they had nothing left but each other, until neither one could fathom surviving without the other?

You’re telling me that Martin and Jon kissed at the center of a collapsing reality, then Martin felt the life leave Jon’s body as he stabbed the only living person he loved?

You’re telling me there is a chance they are Somewhere Else, but that would mean they never escaped the Fears and never will?

You’RE TELLING ME-

[hezekiahwakely]

You know, I don't think we've discussed enough the fact that when all the worms broke through the wall and entered the archives, Jon froze. Sasha was pleading for him in the background to take charge and tell them all what to do, but it was Martin who took the reins and lead them to document storage where they would be safe. Martin is much better at making split-second decisions than Jon is--and while he'd probably argue it was only to protect them, he's better at leading than he gives himself credit for.

[nopaintjustpain]

Hey.

Do you ever think part of the reason Georgie stayed by Jon’s bedside through all 6 months of his coma but then abruptly walked out of his life when he woke up is because she was fully expecting to be a caregiver for him during a long, grueling post-coma recovery process?

Do you think part of the reason she was so spooked by him waking up (relatively) unscathed is because she had mentally, physically, and emotionally prepared herself to take him in? That her best case scenario — what she had planned and hoped for — was that he’d wake up with severe cognitive and/or physical deficits, as one would expect from someone who survived an explosion and six months in a coma? That he’d have to re-learn how to walk or talk or eat or hold a spoon on his own? That he would *need* someone, and even if it wasn’t what she wanted for herself or him, she had decided she would step up and be that person for him?

It can be so jarring when you build up a vision of your near future around one assumption, only for that assumption to be completely shattered by reality. Do you think she constructed a future for him in her head, and when he woke up “fine”, she was so startled by the breaking of her expectations that it felt almost like a betrayal? And the sheer uncanny impossibility of him waking up “fine” made her think that her friend was dead after all?

Do you think that after Martin stopped coming around and Georgie found herself alone at Jon’s bedside, she realized she was all he had left in the world? The only one who held onto hope that he would survive in some form? The only one who thought he could wake up, severely disabled by his experiences but free at last? The only one who thought he deserved the chance at a mundane life after all of this, even if that life would look radically different? Do you think she grappled with the reality that if she didn’t step up for him, no one would? Do you think she spent long hours coping with the fact that she was going to have to take on new responsibilities and make new sacrifices for him, but she was willing to do it for an old friend who deserved better than the hand he was dealt? Do you think she mourned her old vision of her future, before she reconstructed that vision around caring for him?

Do you think she started talking to Jon’s doctors about what she could expect if she brought him home after he woke up? What kinds of disabilities he would live with, and what the prognosis was? About his quality of life afterwards? His road to recovery? Do you think she made up her spare bedroom with a severely disabled person in mind, and then started looking into hiring a part time caregiver to come help her make sure Jon got the help (she assumed) he’d need? Do you think she did all kinds of research into brain injuries and their aftermath? Physical therapy for people with severe atrophy? NG tubes for re-feeding severely starved people? Occupational therapists?

Do you think part of the reason she was so upset when he woke up (relatively) unscathed, lucid and talking and breathing on his own, maybe a little physically weak but still much like his old self, is because she had realistic expectations of what his life would look like after his injuries? And seeing him suddenly defy all odds by waking up into a full cognitive and physical recovery — a completely unrealistic hope that she never even considered as part of the realm of possibility — only reinforced the idea that the old Jon was dead, and this new Jon wasn’t safe for her to be around?

Do you think it hurt when she realized she couldn’t bring him home?

I think about that.

[geodebiome]

i like tma meta because season 1-4 is just like well that magnus can archive i guess. and then mag 160 is like OH OKAY THAT MAGNUS CAN ARCHIVE. I GUESS. and then s5 is like How Do We Stop The Magnus From Archiving. and now protocol? seems to also ask the question How Do We Stop The Magnus From Archiving

[orchidbreezefc]

ok. years have passed and we've had some distance, so i'm finally gonna take the leap of faith that tma fandom is finally ready to hear me on this. let's talk about tannins.

161 was the first tma episode i heard on early release, and i felt the bit where martin declines wine and cites tannins was pretty obvious in its implications. cool, got it, say no more.

imagine my surprise when i was one of maybe three people i saw read between the lines there, in a fandom famous for red stringing--a fandom that immediately caught the much less obvious thread of ignition sources in the same episode. i'll spell it out: alcohol is an issue for martin.

maybe it just felt obvious because addiction is a pet issue for me--as it is for jonny, who has said everything he writes is filtered through a lens of addiction. i don't know if that's due to his own experience or a loved one's, and i won't speculate; i also don't know if martin personally struggled with drinking or just avoids it for fear he would, but alcohol would fit what we know of his family. his dad walking out and his mum spiralling into bitter wallowing and verbal abuse? i'd bet one or both of them drank, yeah.

on a basic level martin tries to decline alcohol, and that alone should have raised eyebrows given what we know of martin and, again, a fandom that dissects everything. we already knew martin "K" blackwood lied about his personal life and his family in particular, especially pre-canon, which is when this flashback took place. i was shocked that everyone took his flimsy excuse at face value with no further questions.

and the excuse is flimsy. martin turns down wine by--nervously--exclaiming tannins are "a proven headache trigger!" which sounds like trivia from a magazine cover and not the words of someone who actually has headaches--and it hasn't come up before or since. jon, confused, points out that tea, a drink martin consumes to a degree that is memetic both in- and out-of-universe, also contains tannins, and martin squawks a panicked, "what?!"

if tannins are enough of a concern for martin that he knew they're in wine and so avoids it, why didn't he know they're in his drink of choice? why does he still drink tea at the time of canon, and why doesn't he struggle with constant headaches from consuming 'a proven headache trigger' day in and day out? why, indeed, would someone avoid wine and not tea?

when sasha insists martin drink he caves and agrees to 'just a drop'. i imagine him pouring it in a plant, which admittedly he could have done if tannins really were the issue. i will say that i, for one, would be less likely to falsely agree to something that makes me physically ill than to a private issue that i'd rather not be pressed on any further. this scene also establishes martin's birthday was an ice cream party instead of the more traditional visit to a pub.

also, this scene was in the first episode of the final season, as one of three flashbacks that could have been to any pre-canon event in the archives. prime narrative real estate. not really time one would waste on establishing the important character context that martin has... headaches. which never comes up before or after, even regarding the week he spent in spiral town. but you know what is pretty crucial character background...?

it felt like a no-brainer, and yet all i saw was h/c fluff about jon attending to martin's headaches. and i hate feeling bitter about disability representation. i want folks with chronic headaches to feel seen and have fluffy escapist fantasies. i don't want to be mad about people portraying a character with a disability. but, guys? you got the wrong disability. jonny sent a clear message, and it went over fandom's head.

[cult-of-the-eye]

You hover your mouse over me and three dialogue options appear:

That happened in the Magnus archives once

Augh

Oh cool!

[regainingparadise]

Sometimes I think about how Mary brought young Gerry to her business meetings, and why. As a kid he may well have been obedient enough to reflect well on her, but as a general rule bringing a young child into business situations is dumb. 

Sure, she’s showing off her prize possession, her loyal little acolyte, her heir; and she’s immersing him in the supernatural world so that he can’t leave.

But Gerry tells us “we met with things that almost made me throw up, I was so afraid.” And I think that this fear is, itself, the point. She buys and sells books with avatars who feed on fear…and she throws a little complimentary meal into the deal.

[theendorisit]

Every time Jonny and Alex try and write a scary monster.

[helpmeimblorboing]

Does anyone else lose sleep over how Michael, poor, trusting, Michael - who trusted Gertrude so earnestly and deeply, trusted to the point of death - became the Distortion - the fear of gaslighting, of manipulation, of misjudging the intentions of a friend and being betrayed by those closest to you - or am I just mentally ill

[stompandhollar]

Martin is very internally in-tune and good at identifying exactly what he’s feeling and why. But he’s cagey with that information, and or at the very least, the truth/meat of those feelings. He’ll tell you, but he’ll leave the deeper meaning out, cards always close to his chest until he knows what you’re planning on doing with it. He could write a think piece on exactly what makes him tick, and he is absolutely not going to show it to you. You’ll get vulnerable Martin Blackwood, though, easy! He’ll have a deep heart to heart any day! You’ll just leave with next to nothing on him.

Meanwhile, Jon has absolutely no idea what any of his emotions mean or where they came from, but he also can’t stop himself from feeling them constantly all the time, and with no words for them, they’re just leaking all over the place. but he’s incapable of vocalizing anything, so he expresses instead through stubborn and fast actions with little to no thought or logic behind them, operating only on gut feeling, immediate reaction, and high emotionally charged choices when the chips are down. If you tried to have a heart to heart with Jon he would explode.

[avatarofthearchives]

The Corruption won when it attacked The Institute in Season 1.

Sure, Jane Prentiss and the worm's were destroyed, but the lingering effects of the attack causes toxicity between every relationship in The Institute.

Jon becomes paranoid in the way that strains his relationship with Martin, destroys his relationship with Tim, and fundamentally effects every relationship he has for the rest of the series.

Jon's paranoia also end's up breaking Tim and Martin's friendship, with Martin being being dismissive of Tim's feelings in favor of Jon's, and Tim being too caught up in his anger to prioritize the feelings of anyone else.

Sasha get's replaced and Not! Sasha end's up dealing the final blow to all the problem's the cast is already having. They add fuel to Jon's paranoia fire as he knows something is wrong but can't place it. They put Martin in a bad place by putting him in the middle of Jon and Tim's heightened emotion. And they start pulling away from Tim, and when their identity is revealed, that destroy Tim's trust in other's completely.

The events of the corruption attack on The Institute end up leaving things...well, corrupted. It breaks multiple relationships and changes Tim and Jon for the worst, while also causing a few of Martin's more negative traits to be on display. So while The Corruption may not have won the battle, it won the war, and it's honestly devastating that the first attack the character's go through is the one that end's up leaving behind the rot.