#basira i dont remember much??

[cinnabeat]

im not really into tma anymore but still incredibly upset over what happened to tim and sasha

[forbidden-me]

On MAG108, and I swear I got more whiplash from Peter Lukas than a damn roller coaster. Never knew what was coming. All I know is Elias is gonna get a bonk on the head... like the little wet cat he is-

[thehermitavatar]

Hi! i dont know if you maybe posted about it before but what’s your reasoning behind being the martin hate club founder (in your bio)? i mean this genuinely because afaik i’ve actually never seen anyone actively dislike or hate martin (except for maybe a little in s4-5?) so i’m just a bit curious!

I've never explained it over here, but I'll keep it as short as possible.

I found him to be very annoying, and it was clear to me as a writer that Jonny *really* wanted the viewer to like him. The whole thing about him manipulating people by being sweet and clueless just feels like it was shoved in.

I also thought that his arc in season five was TOO MUCH of a focus and took the spotlight from Basira, who should've gotten more screen time.

There's also that scene in mag 161 where he calls Jonah Elias and gets irritated when corrected and comments on how difficult it is to remember (that one especially ticked me off as a transperson).

He's a toxic partner. Yes, I know Jon is too, but I feel like both the narrative and fandom tend to gloss over his part too much for my liking.

Any remaining liking I've had for the character was burnt out by his whole coup of just die-hard fans... they tend to be the most annoying in the fandom.

... Also I kin him.

[go-to-the-mirror]

howdy, howdy, howdy @a-mag-a-day and co. it's 148 time! That's lovely! :3

also uhm. 7de Laan (South African soap opera) spoilers ahead? apparently?

look idk what to do for a funny intro today

JONATHAN SIMS Rusty Quill presents: The Magnus Archives. Episode one hundred and forty-eight. Extended Surveillance.

For some reason, my brain immediatly went "the French magnus archives" and it would be like uh... cent et quarante-huit (?). I don't know why I wanted to translate it? Also, the most French I've done was like... grade 9 Canadian French which I've promptly forgotten. I don't know why I thought this.

Le Magnus (in a french accent) Archives? Look, I speak Afrikaans, but as someone who's learned it from 7de Laan and yk, just being in a family with one Afrkaaner who sometimes uses Afrikaans slang and words and cannot spell apple, so a lot of the Afrikaans I speak is just english words in an Afrikaans accent. I mean like that's basically what Afrikaans is so-

Y'all should watch 7de Laan, it's really fun. Idk what button they've discovered now, but I remember back when Mariaan killed... Ben I want to say, and they discovered the voice over button. And then there was the Orange is the New Black rip off season, and then I remember when they discovered the really bad greenscreen button and things started happening outside and it looked awful.

No one watches soap operas for the height of cinematography.

ELIAS Good evening, Detec— [Basira punches Elias.] BASIRA Useless, scheming piece of shit. ELIAS Detective, this is quite unnecess— [Basira continues to hurt Elias.] BASIRA I’m sorry, was that unnecessary? [Basira hits Elias once more.] BASIRA (Cont.) Because this is the most helpful you’ve been so far, unless you’ve got another crisis for me?

tbh absolutely deserved. god i love the scenes where elias has an awful time <3 it needs to happen more often.

BASIRA You always call me Detective. Is that supposed to mean something? ELIAS Honestly? I just like the way it sounds.

WHY IS HE LIKABLE? WHY IS THIS FUNNY TO ME? I JUST DONT LIKE BASIRA OR ELIAS AND THEY'RE JUST GIVING EACH OTHER MUTUAL TERRIBLE TIMES

ELIAS Will you? You’re not police anymore. You’ve done them some favours, but they’ve done you some as well, and I think you’ll find that the information that I’ve been giving to them has been far more consistently useful. You want to issue them an ultimatum? Go right ahead. I’m just not sure it’ll go quite how you hope. … And, um, no more violence, Detective, or I may have to call in the guards.

God, I hate how he turns it around, just manages to scrape himself an edge, prick. Like even in episode 200 (my beloved) he tries to get Jon to back down. It doesn't work, of course, but like, there was an attempt, there's always an attempt, I hate how he takes things in stride and always manages to come out on top, I hate that so much. Really hateable villain, he deserves to be drowned in a bucket /ref.

ARCHIVIST Can’t believe you’ve been seeing him all this time. BASIRA Oh yeah, that’s the terrible secret sabotaging the trust between us.

Ok, like, to be fair, talking with Elias did help end the world so...

BASIRA Yeah. John, we’ve been over this. The key is to not force people to feed you their trauma. You know, just don’t do it. ARCHIVIST It’s not that simple. BASIRA No, it is. Or I put you down.

Oh!

Look I was trying to find my original reaction to this, but I didn't talk about it to my partner (ily) or on my story (I believe the next one we're really digging into there is 154, because I was in fucking shambles), but I mean, I don't know exactly what I was feeling but it was probably like... shit.

Shit.

Like, I get Basira's perspective, right, but also you can't just. That's hardly proportionate and yet... isn't it? Gertrude would have done it, Adelard Dekkar would have done it, and when they do that sort of thing to monsters we hardly bat an eye, but... well, it's different, right, we know Jon.

It's like that post, about how the "monsters" were treated differently across the seasons, in season 1, Jane Prentiss is the entity formerly known as Jane Prentiss, in season 2... can't really remember, I mean they were seen as more... sentient, but still evil to their very nature. In season 3 we get a separation, Jon isn't like the other monsters, Mike Crew and Jude Perry were bad people, even though they were people. And then in season 4... well, come Scrutiny, we've realized that oh fuck, there is no separation, and we can view all the monsters as irredeemable and bad but... Jon's not irredeemable, he tries. So, what about all those other monsters. And in 152 we get it, how different is Jon from Jane Prentiss? Not really different at all. The season 5 comes along and none of the characters we're following are on the watched/human/victim side of the line, and the line wasn't really real back then.

Podded cast <3

ARCHIVIST (Mutters) I mean, that’s hardly… BASIRA Daisy’s been managing. ARCHIVIST Daisy is… Yeah, she’s managing.

Wow, why's Daisy managing better than Jon, it's not like she has the support of Basira, Jon, and presumably Daisy to help her, no it's just that she's fundamentally better /s.

Like, you can't expect someone to change for the better if you're only getting angry at them, if you treat someone like a monster, like they're going to fuck up all the time, then they're going to fuck up all the time.

ARCHIVIST Haven’t really been trying. Doing that sort of thing consciously … makes me hungry. BASIRA Oh, well then, find a statement to your tastes and read it. ARCHIVIST Yes, yes, I know. Thank you.

I had a little conversation with Japleeejay a while back so I'm just gonna put that here, inc his reactions in brackets because they're funny.

Also, I'm thinking about jon tma (🤯) And yk about my interpretation of his character which is the only correct one /hj (💙) And about how it's like his self esteem is shit, but that's when he's alone right? He's going to stand up for himself when other people are talking shit about him, but he's also going to internalize it and ruminate on it when he's alone? (‼️) Like uhh. He's obviously really guilty about what he's doing to his victims, but when they confront him about it, and in MAG 141 and MAG 148, he's defensive about it It's like it's not a binary thing right And if I may just like bring myself into it for a second because half of my jon thoughts are actual analysis and the other half is projection But like uhh the whole thing i had going on with the adhd, like I was fiercely proud of being adhd, and like i'd get angry at people for being ableist and stuff, but i also sort of... believed them? it's like, you can have contradictory feelings and emotions (‼️) And it's like it's different if you're saying it to yourself and someone [is] saying it to you? Like at least my immediate reaction to someone getting angry at me whether justified or not is to get angry back, and then yk i calm down and either don't think they're right or do, right? And it's like, Jon gets angry when people get angry at him, he gets defensive, and then he dwells on it a lot, right? Basicallly Um - Fanfic authors are doing it wrong i'm the only one doing it right - he's not. he's not like. yeah sometimes sure he's like that. he'll take it lying down sometimes - ^ especially when helen's saying something to him because she knows how to get under their skin - but like it's not a constant thing - hhhh idk how to describe it (💙)

(27 January, 2023)

ARCHIVIST I've been meaning to ask. The tape, the one of the, uh… my victim. You said Martin gave it to you? BASIRA Yeah. ARCHIVIST How was he? H-how did he look? Was he, uh…? BASIRA I don’t know. I didn’t see him. He just left it on my desk with a note. ARCHIVIST Oh, right. BASIRA Yeah. ARCHIVIST Can I ask what it said? BASIRA Um, yeah. It said, “Talk to him.” (The Archivist laughs bitterly.)

GOD THE PINING JUST GOUGE YOUR EYES OUT AND MAKE OUT FOR CHRISTS SAKE HHHH

I can't take this, I can't take 12 more episodes of this I can't.

Statement of Sunil Maraj, regarding their work as a security guard and the disappearance of their co-worker Samson Stiller.

OH YAY! They use he/they, that's lovely! I think I may have pointed this out a while back.

Someone had even put their name in the front, like they were afraid people were going to steal their manky instruction book.

Oh No

tbh i dont think i really paid attention much on my first listen but just like-

Oh No. it's a leitner.

Cos I saw some of the pages over his shoulder, and on one of them, there was … There was a picture of me, like a black and white photo of my face.

OH SPOOKY!

It was one of the old CRT sets, big and bulky, and the picture on it was never that clear, but for a moment, it looked like it was me on there, staring right back at myself as the screens slowly went black, getting closer and closer. The face on the monitor looked absolutely terrified, and I was starting to feel it myself. So, I just tried to smile, told him not to worry about it, and I headed out as quick as I could. My legs were shaking so hard I almost fell on the way out.

Don't know what to say just... spooky.

One time, when no-one in the store was looking, I threw a can of deodorant at one of them, hit it square on. Samson wore sunglasses for the next two days, and when I caught a glimpse of him without them, there was a crack, right down the centre of his eye.

Ohhh that's such a cool image also so spooky!!

I wanted to know why Samson hadn’t signed out of the building before he disappeared, why no matter who tried to reset the system, it always logged back in as him. Or why, whenever I was watching the monitors alone, I’d see him on that old CRT screen, staring right back at me, quietly calling for me to join him.

OH WOW THAT'S-

wow

Does reading a statement of the Ceaseless Watcher count as a sort of auto-cannibalism, I wonder?

He's started calling in the Ceaseless Watcher, not The Eye anymore.

Hmm. Feels more... reverential? In a way? I dunno. Need to compile a list of what people call the fears. I know Jon used to call it The Eye or The Beholding, I thought he switched to calling it the Ceaseless Watcher in season 4, but apparently not.

I honestly don’t care if Mr Maraj was chased down and consumed by his voyeuristic former friend, or if he has forgotten the whole affair, living in blissful ignorance. I just find my mind already wandering to the next statement, and the hopes that it won’t be quite as stale.

Is that a turning point? It feels like a turning point, but then again it just feels like he's already crossed that line, and there was no turning point, just an unstoppable march forwards.

Hm.

[corens-relisten]

MAG 61 Hard Shoulder

Statement of Detective Alice "Daisy" Tonner, regarding the traffic stop of a delivery van on the M6 near Preston on the afternoon of 24th July 2002

PFF just suddenly telling him that they thought he killed Gertrude lmao. dude i love daisy so much shes so silly

spoilers

- if you dont mind me asking, how long have you been sectioned-

- I do mind.

14 years.

why would she answer if she minded? why would she make a statement to someone she dislikes so much. HE ALREADY HAS ARCHIVIST POWERS at least i think

and aaauughh she wanted the people to hit her so she could hit back harder, more brutally BC SHE IS THE HUNT'S AAAAA

spoilers overr!

her voice is so pretty omg (also im going to cry i had forgotten what she sounded like)

big rain, slow car, oki

BREEKON AND HOPE DELIVERIES im going to yell hihi <3

oh wait its tom? oh nvm there they are and hihi tom looks so normal she cant remember himm

YAAA THE RETURN OF THE MOANING COFFIN!! WOO

sooo he puts in the key and the chains just. snapped back. and the coffin opens on its own. coooool okay... AND YAA. STAIRS. WOO.

oh pff she hit breekon/hope and huh. he felt like straight wood. no wonder she hurt her arm but huh...

HIHII aaaaa not her partner going down the mystery impossible stairs. oh? he doesnt seem to have the choice huh? just walking down, almost relaxed, almost asleep... no matter how much daisy yelled.

hihi jon sounds so excited about it :3

ooh the cops deal with vampires huh? they have a procedure and then daisy goes and burns them TT

awwe daisy wants to protect basira <33 ofc shes aggressive about it but still

aaa jon is hurt by basiras intentions ;-;

well he didnt say anything very stupid or paranoid and hes going to rest! im proud >:3

have a good day (:

[disastergenius]

Finished S2 on my relisten

Onto Season 2! I remember thinking that the plot started dragging a little, since we start out strong with the initial exploration of the tunnels and then go back to the Monster of the Week format, and I was now invested in the mystery solving. But it works significantly better for the story and it was the right choice, and it definitely is more fun in retrospect to be able to put all the pieces together.  

E42: Grifter’s Bone freaks me out because the idea of listening to something by choice or unwittingly and then permanently being affected. i mean, that’s just how music works in a way, but now its Sinister. 

E43: Section 31 big fan of early Basira and Frank Voss, their voice is so nice

E44: ooh set up to the Unknowing; every single Circus statement just has such a terrifying undertone before they get really bad

I think I’m in the minority of Magnus fans that isn’t obsessed with Michael? Like I understand that he is fascinating but also I don’t really like him?? I don’t know why???

i think i don’t enjoy any statements to do with Robert Smirke and his weird architecture? I dont know why but i lose focus during them. maybe because i hate buildings that don’t make sense because i have quite a tendency to get lost, so this almost annoys me more than it scares me

E52: Exceptional Risk full confession is that I am really bad at remembering when statements have names that are the same, so I don’t always get it when they are connected immediately but once i do realize, they make good statements and good linking for the story

E57: Personal Space I love this statement so much even though it terrifies me

E59: Recluse always enjoy a Hill Top Road statement, there’s so much that goes on and i really want more of the various happenings there

E61: Hard Shoulder i hate Daisy so much sometimes but her statements are good and her voice is really nice (thank you Fay Roberts!)

E62: First Edition love the dynamic here it’s so fun

E65: Binary freaked me out the first time and still freaks me out now, something about the imagery of the broken computer and the shards and pain 

E67: Burning Desire first mystery episode i really got into that has good payoff

E68: The Tale of a Field Hospital i did not appreciate this statement the first time i heard it, thought it was weird and did not enjoy. on the relisten it is incredible at reimagining things that are Just Slightly Off

E69: Thought for the Day first Annabelle Cane statement! it’s wild and i hated it the first time i listened to it but its such a good statement

E70: Book of the Dead is such a good concept, terrifying thank you

E72: Takeaway I hate every single Flesh statement related to the Hans because 1. creepy 2. imagery is the worst in my head 3. somewhat racist and i hate it (sorry for the discourse but god it’s so bad)

E72: Police Lights maybe one of my favorite small details between the Callum Brodie connection to learning about both his parents and then later his own fear domain

E74: Fatigue too relatable

all the Not!Them statements are scary to me because the idea that a monster can just slip in and recreate reality without anyone knowing is so awful and scary to me because you would just have to question everything but you would never know to even start

my favorite theory ive seen is that the Not!Them keeps the witness as someone who is close to having a connection to that person, so close but maybe not quite, and that’s what makes you question it more, because it’s a memory of what you could have had all the time but you don’t know why

E80: The Librarian *insert Jurgen Leitner rant* 

[extended sounds of brutal pipe murder] 

Whoo ready for Season 3! 

[bare1ythere]

if its any consolation once i dreamed i was seeing/was martin after the end of the world and everything was fine except jon had died horribly and no one remembered him. I woke up with actual tears in my eyes. this is how prepared i am for the finale

Oh my gosh?? I guess both of us are so worried about the finale that it’s leaking into our dreams LMAO

This isn’t even my first TMA dream, though it is my first TMA dream from the perspective of Jon rather than Martin. One of the other dreams I can remember clearly even had some Martin jealously in it (even though it was a bit Sad iirc)

[gerrydelano]

do you have any jongerry fic refs? i love yours :-)

recs* not refs lol!

no problem! i got you, no worries 😊 list under the cut!

i generally do not read fic because i’m too focused on trying to write mine and when i do, i only read stuff by my friends or given to me by them since i know they wouldn’t pass it on if it wasn’t safe or genuinely good. 

so! i went ahead and asked aster @ofdreamsanddoodles​ for some recs for you since not only does he read a lot of fic but he ALSO wrote one of THE best jongerry fics i’ve ever read that Really stuck with me. thus, the list begins with:

MANDATORY READ: I’ve Got His Number From The Great Beyond by verboseDescription

one of my absolute favorite fics in this fandom, period, and one of the only jongerry fics i’ve personally read that actually feels RIGHT for them. i’m very picky about them kdjhfd. 

it’s an AU where gerry’s ghost ends up bound to a burner phone, and jon is trying to get him a new body! made me laugh and cry back to back in rapid succession could not rec this enough

and now for all the ones that he linked me when i asked!

01.  The World Will Turn by FullyRealized (WitchHobi)

“gerry & jon meet when jons in uni, & they start becoming friends, but you can see theres kind of like... an echo effect going on.” 

i’ll not spoil it, but apparently the worldbuilding has a lot of thought put into it, fun characterization, and it’s a comfortable read re: pacing and word count!

02. For Wondrous Ends by lyres

“basically jon asks gerry to de curse him & the curse is like. tied to martin in a way?”

jongerrymartin, which is not my personal cup of tea At All but i hear it’s got fun worldbuilding, too! which IS my cup of tea, and if you can make me believe something in the context of the world it’s in, then i’m down.

03. Jonathan Sims and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Archivist Job by arsonhtml

“theres only one chapter so far & its short, so i cant get a good read on the contents other than it is pretty funny. jon gets asked to be archivist and immediately asks gerry for help, bc clearly he knows what the position entails.” 

nice. i love when gerry tells the archives crew what’s up in like any context tbh.

04. the one thing in the galaxy god didn’t have his eyes on by disasterdrow

“short oneshot of jon talking to gerry after getting out of court for his moms trial” 

ow ow ow sounds like i should read this one too because Demon Emoji,,, the title is grabbing me by the bones

05. reverse nighthawks by androdyke 

“outsider pov oneshot bc sasha is a nosy bitch. gerry isnt in this much, its just her & tim trying to find out who jons in love with but its funny”

okay i love that concept LMFAO get his ass! thinking “gerry dawson” thoughts and laughing on the floor

06. the body is a temple, follower of aphrodite by toxinspired

“oneshot just about being v in love. i think someone in the gtcu chat made this? v sweet” 

yes, elijah was briefly in the gtcu chat! it was lovely to have em around, and this was soooo sweet 10/10

07. agony quiets to pain by bluejayblueskies

“gerry in the hispital after his burns”

oh no my actual weakness jhvbkjn *bookmarks*

08. fool me, fool me by androdyke 

group chat fic! this one was recommended by Two people, it’s SO good that aster said, “you have to read it. you HAVE to” and well! you heard him!

09. I'll try to talk refined by acetheticallyy (judesstfrancis) 

“gerry haunts jons workplace so jon brings him home w him. dont remember it super well but its VERY good”

well you know me i love a good haunting 

10. Secure by TalkingAnimals

“basira: why on earth would you put up with a roommate who keeps blasting metal at weird hours  jon: i like knowing hes here”

love that concept this is so cute

11. etched in lines and shading by bluejayblueskies

tattoo artist gerry! i LOVE a good tattoo artist gerry here we GO

12. carry it with you if you want to survive by freudiancascade

jon and gerry go leitner hunting! and it goes very awry! i love that concept

hope you like these, anon!

[steves-strapcollection]

On Tragedy vs. Bad Endings

[Image ID: user @frostyfrogz​ replied to your post “my mag171 #thots: I fully agree with. I love jonmartin I want nothing but the best for them. I know my answer today was an obvious twisting of dialogue but its just frustrating sometimes because it seems like people dont understand some sort of tragedy will indeed happen. I have never and will never suggest that something will happen to Jon and Martin’s relationship I’ve just been saying the shows not going to end well no matter what.]

So I have a lot of thoughts about this very subject, and too much for the replies on my post, so allow me to try to articulate what I mean, and what a lot of us mean when we say “it does not make sense for either Jon or Martin to turn evil in the end,” even in a show that has been advertised from day one as a tragedy.

First of all, no one thinks this is going to end happy. The few who do are usually unaware that this show is billed as a tragedy, and are quick to be corrected. I didn’t know it was a tragedy until I was on season 3 and someone told me. It’s overall just best to assume that the OP knows it’s not going to be a happy ending, because “reminding” people or “explaining” to people that the ending is going to be sad is a fast way from people to get annoyed and defensive.

Anyway! It appears, above all, that people have either fundamentally different ideas of what a tragedy is or accomplishes, or that people have a fundamentally flawed understanding of tragedy and it’s place as a narrative device/theme.

My thoughts are that tragedies hurt, and tragedies can be devastating, but they have to have a message and they should not be cruel to the audience.

A cruel ending would involve leading the audience to believe one thing for the entire book, show, movie, podcast, what have you, just to rip it away at the last minute like a big “fuck you” to the audience. Those sorts of endings are inherently mocking of the audience, and ultimately disrespectful. The only people in the audience that “benefit” from this sort of writing are the cynics who spent the entire show talking down to everyone for seeing the silver lining in the impending tragedy, even if, up until the finale, the silver lining was always part of the narrative. Like it took actual twisting and outright ignoring of the narrative as it’s written to be cynical and sceptical all the way until the end.

That is, plain and simple, bad writing. Jonny Sims is not a bad writer.

Now tragedies often have “happy endings,” they just also have an element of sadness colouring that ending. A good, tragic ending should, in my opinion, feel bittersweet. We should see it coming, we should know it will hurt, but it should be for the greater good and should further the narrative that has been told from the beginning.

I said a few weeks ago that a tragic ending without a silver lining is just torture porn, and I stand by it.

Now, if Jon or Martin are revealed to be Actually Evil in the end, where is the silver lining in that? What narrative has even possibly hinted at this outcome, without putting on cynic glasses?

Every single plot point and plot “twist” in TMA has been clearly detailed, never relegated to pure subtext that you would have to comb through a single interraction and analyzing the tone in which it was said (which could easily be actor shortcomings or error). They have always been obvious, at least in hindsight. This is why, for a while, I subscribed to the Web!Martin theory, but due to recent episodes I’m more inclined to believe those “obvious things” were red herrings.

Throughout The Magnus Archives, the common theme in every. Single. Season finale is that “we are stronger together.” What do I mean by that? Well, here’s the general idea:

Season 1: The one time someone gets separated by the group for any significant length of time, like I mean the main group, she gets killed by the NotThem and replaced.

Season 2: Jon is alone, due to his intense paranoia and his reluctance to reach out for help. This leads to a disastrous series of events that leaves him a suspect of murder, and his friends even more doubtful of his character.

Season 3: In the episode just before they deal with the Unknowing, Jon literally says that isolation was his downfall, and he was going to work on trusting his friends more. When they got separated during the Unknowing, things went to shit. When they found each other again, they were able to rally and they “succeeded.” Conversely, they are also teamed up with Melanie and Martin who hung back to bring down Elias. They were successful, working as teams on separate objectives, etc.

Season 4: This is, by far, their most “successful” feats while simultaneously their least. The whole season was again showing the downfalls of isolation. In the season finale, Jon has Basira and Daisy’s help, and while bolstering himself with their strength, and the strength in his conviction to save Martin to be with Martin, Jon was successful in stopping Peter Lukas and saving Martin. Conversely, Martin and Jon’s isolation in Scotland could be, theoretically, implicated in how Jonah Magnus was able to succeed in the end like that.

Now evidence of this same train of thought in season 5? Jon literally says it: Gertrude would not have done well in this post-apocalyptic world, because she had no friendships, no anchors, no reason to stay human. And then Jon says “you are my reason” to Martin.

It is in the text of the story that the only way to succeed, or win, or survive, is through trust, friendship, and love. One of the main factors in so many of the statements, on why the statement givers succumbed to the fear in their story, for even a moment, had to do with very little personal ties to anyone else. Many of the statements feature isolation and, as Jon put it, “lack of corroboration.” On the flipside, many of the statements that ended with the statement giver escaping successfully, and surviving long enough to be reached out to for follow-up questions, involved them having close personal ties to someone else that kept them safe, somehow. Like the girl from Italy; remembering her mom saved her from the Lonely. Or, more ridiculously, the guy and his dog that escaped the spiral because he was so distracted by his dog and had to be home for dinner. In MAG170, it was Martin’s love for Jon, and his trust in the love from Jon and his friends, that saved him from the Lonely again. Jon’s incredible amount of love, and respect, and trust in his friends is what’s kept him from becoming another Jared Hopworth or Jude Perry. In MAG155, Cost of Living, he expresses open disgust in how that particular avatar of The End justified her actions, killing and killing and killing again because she viewed herself as more worthy of life than that person. In that same episode, he talks of not blinding himself because he hopes to use his powers to protect his friends, that without them they’re too vulnerable. Honestly, this is the same reason Peter Lukas is unsuccessful, because Martin only helped him at all to protect his friends. The fact that he didn’t see his failure coming was hilarious.

Gerry said in Family Business that there is no “entities of love”, and that might be true, but love and trust is literally what saves you from fear. How many of us deal with things that are scary in our lives, if only because we have some level of trust in the people or things around us. How many of us have been brought out of a panic attack by someone we love and trust?

So all of this has been presented to us, over and over and over again, which is what I, and others, mean when we say “it does not make sense for one of them to be evil.” That’s what we mean when we say “it would be Bad Writing to make one of them evil in the end.” The entire show has driven home the message that we need love, we need personal connections to survive fear. To rip that away from the main characters at the last minute and call it “tragedy” would be a spit in the face of every single listener who took the story at face value, without picking it apart and reading lines out of context. And Jonny Sims and Alex J. Newall have both said they hate lazy writing.

Now, none of the JonMartin fans I follow are deluding themselves to think this show will have a happy ending outside of very self-indulgent fix-it au fanfics.

The way I see this going down is that Jon and Martin will figure out how to put the world back to the way it was, but Jon will not be able to be part of the new world with Martin. That’s the tragedy; that the world gets saved, and Jon helps save it, but he doesn’t get to benefit from his efforts in any way. The tragedy is Jon loves Martin so much, and they deserve their happy ending, but they don’t get it. But, they still saved the world so others can have their happy endings.

Idk about you, but between the “Jon turns evil in the end” and “Jon stays good and sacrifices himself to save the world” endings, only one of them has me in tears right now as I type this out, and it’s not the former.

I’m not against sad endings,I’m against bad endings that punish the audience for having even a bittersweet hope. I’m against sad endings that are just sad for the sake of being sad, with zero pay-off or reason to happen, especially when those endings throw out 5 years of hard work.

And hey, I might just be forced to eat my words in the end, but not before I fly all the way to England and make Jonny Sims eat a knuckle sandwich.

This was a lot longer than I meant for it to be, but I just have a lot of feelings.

[kriber]

ok well since im Thinking about it now lemme just make a huge ass masterpost of my tmavrai au bc im stupid lmao (also i wanna get into using this blog for more than art since this is my main)

buckle up cowboys this is gonna be lengthy

ok so to start off, it’s a kind of fusion au. some tma characters are replaced with hlvrai characters, and some just exist on their own. for example, elias is replaced with gman, but jon and gordon both coexist together

speaking of jon and gordon, they’re both eye avatars and co-archivists of the magnus archives. gman fucked up a little bit while filing shit but its fine, its fine. they’re both fit for the job.

tommy, darnold, and coomer work at the institute in various departments, along with tim, martin, and barney. tim and tommy have been best friends for years and live together as roommates, and darnold’s another one of their closest friends. coomer and martin just chill there, and barney likes to talk to gordon a lot. tommy brings sunkist over a lot, who everyone loves

since his dad is basically the head avatar of the eye, tommy asked him one time how to make a dog and gman, because that’s his little boy, told him how. now there’s an immortal entity soup dog that’s way too big to be normal. but that just means she has more love in her :)

jon and gordon kinda tolerate each other at first, being forced to record in the same area, but they tend to... tune into each other a lot. they sometimes read statements in unison, even if one of them isn’t looking at the statement. they take turns speaking in dialogue parts if need be, and they dont really notice it.

eventually prentiss attacks and gordon notices something... off about their coworker benrey. wait- wasn’t his name barney? no, he was probably remembering wrong. but something about benrey is just... weird. he cant put his finger on it, and jon has no input. 

so yea benrey is a not-them and a stranger entity, and they just kinda chill in the archives and check ppls passports at the door. its also pretty fun harrassing feetman, especially when they can just pop in and out of michael’s doors bc they’re friends with the spiral. unknowing goes well, as you can assume ;w;

after they find gertrude’s body in the tunnels, several cops get called in. basira and daisy come over, supplying jon with tapes, but daisy brings her old high school/college friend forzen, who’s in the military. and yea they’re both hunt avatars. it was simple and obvious don’t blame me. he hunts ppl down by having beyblade competitions then shooting them. standard stuff.

tommy had gotten claimed by the slaughter years back, but now its really starting to take effect. coomer, local end avatar, isn’t much help, as he doesn’t exactly view death as a problematic thing and even compliments tommy on his kills. during jon and gordon’s comas, forzen goes rogue (instead of burying himself like daisy) and tommy goes after him, trying to mercy kill any victims he has his sights set on. its a body count contest at that point

bubby takes the place of agnes montegue, but still alive and not as hostile to the main cast. obv bc coomer’s there and i love me some gay grampas. yea bubby’s kinda forsaking his desolation cult thing but he’s fine. he just goes and chills at the archives a lot to get with coomer

after the unknowing, things go to shit. martin and benrey close themselves off, both allying themselves with peter lukas, to defend the institute and its workers. tommy and darnold are heartbroken after tim’s death, and tommy, unable to deal with living alone without tim or living in his dad’s house (who’s in prison now), moves in with darnold. its angst central babeyyy

darnold, basira, alyx, georgie, and melanie start a group chat called “babysitting the avatars squad” since they’re the only humans left allied to the institute or its workers. they vent about shit their avatars do bc good lord they can do some weird shit sometimes. oh also alyx and georgie are cousins here bc i feel like its funny that both gordon’s and jon’s childhood friends are related and no one knew dfgshgfgsfghgfrsbfsxg

for the last thing im gonna cover bc im tired and i dont want to type anymore is that joshua definitely exists and oh boy it gets fun in the apocalypse. he runs around and plays around with all the domains with tommy and benrey and the other three are way too tired to deal with this. he just wants to give daddy a flower! ignore the eyeball, it’s just a normal flower! how... sweet.

[brregh]

i cant believe i dare put this on tumblr but

here are my (mainly unpopular) tma headcannons

GUYS im sorry i have to break it to you but jon is taller </3 or him and martin are similar heights

bold opinion but elias is TALL and he has long blond hair

when originally listening i always imagined georgie white and melanie black but yk i really dont mind the fannon appearances for them, theyre so cute

jons hair never goes past his shoulders, it would be too inconvenient as he is a man ON THE GO, no time for elastics and such. also jon needed glasses in the first two seasons, but during his time at georgies he realized that he had somehow developed perfect 20/20 vision. huh how strange

heehee i really like the idea of nikola looking like a little plastic clown doll with puffy puffy pants. i like that very much

the reason that daisy is The Way That She Is is because 1) shes short and 2) shes a fire sign. in this essay i will,

i LOVE LOVE LOVE the headcannon that this jon is ALSO in the mechs. god its so funny whenever i think about that man in steampunk

i know its not neccesarily unpopular but i really do believe that tim and sasha were just good friends, but maybe im just biased towards mlm and wlw friendship dynamics.

whenever i read a trans!martin fic i genuinely well up. trans!martin is everything to me

yes the magnus archives hosts holiday parties every year and i genuinely believe the FUNNIEST and most fucked up shit happens at these parties. one time a blunt was being passed around and elias got so fucking high that he called everyone “mom” for the rest of the night. one time they found worms in the boxed wine that no one remembers buying. one time tim and sasha were sent to the hospital after a freak accident that occured during a heated break dancing competition. if jons drunk enough, he does karaoke but he takes it very seriously and usually is crying by the end of his performance (bonus: he sings hello by adele every single fucking time and its way to emotional to be funny). i digress

martin gets jon into trash tv. jon watched documentaries exclusively until martin showed him an episode of catfish and the rest was history

tim streams minecraft. sasha streamed animal crossing and stardew valley. they would have joint streams where they would just fuck around bc theyre baddies. daisy would be fucking fantastic at among us (imposter ofc), and basira would play really long winded and plot heavy indie games. martin is VERY good at mariokart and jon only plays candy crush.

i think that basira’s fashion game is SUPER strong. once shes “hired” at the institute, she just goes all out on the dark academic looks and both jon and martin covertly ask her for fashion tips

OK AM I CRAZY FOR ALWAYS IMAGINING THE TUNNELS AS LIKE. HUGE ROUND BUG TUNNELS??? some people describe them as PAVED and i always think “but i thought they were in the dirt!!!! with da bugs”

ok i may add more later but thats enought for one night

[smallestclowninthecircus]

Season 3 notes popping off

due to my desire to not completely fail all my classes this year i made myself slow down significantly while listening to this season, and the fact that the other person i'm listening along with had to catch up. We've managed to convert several other people to start listening and its pretty great.

ep 81: what does it even mean to be chosen by one of them? And if he was chosen by the eye. we know Gertrude wasnt? Because she cut the eyes out of the magazines?

ep 82: elias lmao. I understand why people like him so much bahshdhdk i thought he was gonna snitch on Jon but he didnt so he's fine. Ok but how do we think he knew all that stuff. Idk probably just institute connections. I love the fact that the recorder just wants to record stuff randomly bjahsjdhd. Elias feels a lot like Michael in the sense that he knows more than he should and talks in a way that implies he just wants to wait and see how things play out for his own benefit. I understand him knowing the things that happened but his description of her emotions implies something paranormal. Maybe he's connected to one of the entities. Which one I cannot guess.

ep 83: did a file get delivered randomly to the place he's staying at? Probably elias lmao. He thinks the mannequin is related to the stranger. Idk I would believe it.

ep 84: worms? I know he says earth worms but idk. Again? Is she making gordon golems out of trash? Martin popping off. You can tell the statements get to him more that they get to Jon. How come martin is so mad about it? I want to assume he just doesnt want her to get stuck there but idk. Jude Perry. The calliope organ. Jon heard a circus in one of the last episodes

ep 89: he's talking to perry? Like jude Perry? He says ... God? Is that what it is? Lmao. The Desolation. Jon is tired of ppl being vague and not telling him stuff lmao. Oh God Jon is so confused. Compel her? Is she assuming he has some kind of power? Does he have powers? Hmm. im agreeing with jon here please jesus christ why does everyone have to be so cryptic. Just say what you mean. "maybe you get an itchy eye" bahasjkdfklsjdf girl what. Agnes saved her? Oh this is the girl from the cafe story? So theres the Cult of the Lightless Flame? They worship whatever entity this is? The Desolation? Why do they all seem like they sorta worship her then? Is Gretchen gonna die oh god. fuckin michael. a different michael aaah. i see. dont do it shes gonna burn you. sir. please. sir dont you dare do- WHAT DID I SAY what did you think was gonna happen hhh.

ep 90: try to make it less obvious you're trying to get fired big T. Elias that doesnt sound like the most healthy thing to do. oh dear is this gonna be triggering for me. uuuuuh. uuuuuuuuuh. doesnt seem like it ok gonna keep listening. Jared. hmmmmm. Ok we've seen Keay and hotner or whatever his name was.

ep 91: Michael Crew. Oh is this the lightning scar guy. Mister jon sir did you just die. No? God everyone is so fuckin cryptic. Say normal things please. They all just like to go on about pain and agony and j e s u s c h r i s t we get it you got hurted by whatever thing. So theyre avatars? question mark? Jude Perry is an avatar of The Desolation? hhhh fractals. thats a spiral thing innit. Yup. messing with your perceptions. God they all talk about feeding their god and feeding that which feeds them and. hh what does that meann. Leave big J. please. uh oh. is it daisy? how come he has the web lighter still? the tape recorder just turns on sometimes you know how it is. So he can compel people? not that he knows it obviously but. a bit wack. powers go brr i guess? If the eye just wants knowledge i guess he feeds it by getting the statements? b/c i doubt it wants him to murder ppl or whatever.

ep 92: elias you all knowing fuck what do you know. (i guess all given what i just said) Lukas. Heard of them before. Mordecai Lukas. Loneliness. The lonely even. Jonah Magnus. Elias ur sounding like a bit of a dickhead rn. lmao jon's just like "i dont care" elias what is ur deal. Why does he want to tie her in. ohh i see. lmao theyre all just like "elias why" The Unknowing lol seems very much like something the eye wouldnt like. lol elias is gettin all philosophical. what does it really mean to be human. this still doesnt answer why gertrude wanted to destroy the archives tho.

ep 93: bahsjdfh he seems so dead inside rip. awww admiral. i love him already. ghh breacon and hope. purple mold. doesnt sound like anything we've seen so far. I think the funniest explanation for breacon and hope is that they dont actually serve the stranger they just kinda happen to be a random neutral party that cart around random spooky entity related stuff. ooooh. when we hear the slight static of the tape recorder it's cuz he's compelling ppl.

ep 94: the end! listen man they were all just grayed up for 4/13.

ep 95: the end also? death but also savagery/ animalistic shit. aww martin. lmao becerra. she's just been chillin in the corner.

ep 96: return to sender. haha minecraft go brr. prediction: breacon and hope? yup there we go. jon why is there an echo. are you in a stairwell? is he gonna eat it- yup. how did i call it. unsure abt what theyre talking about but ok. they kidnapped someone? Sarah Baldwin. ooooh that guy.

ok im just putting this here so i have notes for when nicholas gets to this part. It seems like (from jon's conversation with jude perry) that the desolation and the eye are kinda at odds with eachother? like i guess not directly but it seems like they dont really vibe? so how could be with both. Cuz if he has the heat powers and shit then we know he's an avatar of the desolation. but then why does he have so much eye imagery. also he got burned intentionally? like jude did when she went on her monologue about the feeling of burning? but then why did he wear the eye pendant. it stops him from being burned all the way which seems like he's not fully accepting the fire or whatever.

Nooooo I lost like a bunch of my notes rip. I keep forgetting to save.

Ep 104: tim gives a coherent statement without jon even being there. Ugh. Fucking robert smirk. Dont like him. Joey. Dont recognize the name. The show must go on. Clown. The spooky circus?

ep 105: total war... shogun 2? jon is just understanding languages again. "if i understood mandarin or cantonese" are you sure you dont big man?

ep 106: havent we heard this one already? mans in space? oh no this is just another episode in space. fairchild... uuuh. cant remember. oh! this is related to that! this is one of the ppl from the other side. sounds like a Vast thing. oh he's the one that the dude saw? but that guy didnt have a face... she's sorta like jon. wanting to dismiss the statements. lmao i love the workplace gossip. ace jon for the win! oh cmon elias dont be a dick. sunny meadows or whatever. thats the place we heard about.

ep 107: oh great is it jude perry again. Third Degree. bahahsdkfj she was arrested. sorry but imagining this old british lady getting arrested is funny. she was trying to resurrect him. using the skin book. he's not feeling well. jon take a nap. i wonder if this is what happens when he uses his powers too much. He gets into The Zone when he reads statements lol. didn't we have a burning train car in anothre statement? is it julia fairchild? bahahahs "kidnapped. Again." poor jon honestly. julia... about her dad. daughter of the murder shed guy? hunting like your dad liked to hunt or normal people hunting. oh hunting vampires!

ep 108: melanie has been suffering. poor martin peter lukas why do you have to be like this. can he not just use the front door? does he have to bother the ppl doing statements?

ep 109: how come he cut her off? kinda rude tbh. its either jon's influence or there was smth he didnt want her saying. is it gerard on the table? this sounds kinda like smth from one of the university episodes. is it the closed eye on the hand? yup. he's like one of the students! if the thing listening in is elias then... he can do that without the tape recorder yknow. plus who's to say it wont just turn itself on again

110: who wants to bet its a leitner?

111: Lukas related to The Lonely. I used to not like Gerard that much but i like him more now. but i thought there were 15? ohhh thats right isnt flesh newer? gerry for the win honestly. finally telling jon things.

112: lol "again" no one ever tells any of these ppl anything. tim and basira are just out of the loop constantly. music, like the war episodes. The hunt or the slaughter? probably the hunt. so Daisy is related to the hunt right? basira likes the reading, she's doing fine at the institute. daisy's getting worried...

113: it just turned on randomly. what is it lol. explossives! oh boy. why do they always assume he turned it on intentionally. melanie youre not making me like you that much. which entity is this about i cant tell. lol he was disappointed it was just the end. The title Breathing Room made me think it was gonna be about the buried but i guess not. So many of these entities deal with death but the end is one that deals in just death. it has no need for fancy deaths, just death is enough

114: more hilltop road statements? the tree. oh boy. ok the tree has 8 arms obviously theres the spider parallels. was she taken into an alternate universe? oh no. jon tries to phrase things so he's not asking questions. thats honestly good. "sometimes i was kidnapped" oh dear. they got gertrude. daisy ur so odd lmao. who wants to bet they dont know the tape recorder's running?

115: silaca? or whatever? antique man? meat grinder... related to the meat is meat episode? oh wow. they buy antiques from him. maybe dont antagonize this creature which can kill you?

116: lol theyre all just so done with elias. music? is it like the one band that if you hear them you die or wtvr. oh its chess? i am very much confused. mmm stranger go brr. gorilla skin? oh shit the dance. woah. this is so good. this is so gender. the words are wonderful. "you can just say tim" lmao trying to fool elias never feels like a good idea.

117: except elias lmaoo. oh shit. leitner getting some use for once idk. bruuh poor melanie she has been thru so much shit. martin you can just say youre worried about jon. lol he's so accurate in his jon impression. lol who was that. was that daisy? lmaoo. oop hi tim. oh god i hope tim doesnt die. i feel like i wouldve heard about that? but im not sure. destroying the source of knowledge is gonna be hard for jon. yay jon! you did a good thing. let him rest.

118: go off martin lmao. awww poor martin. oh god the tape gets that squealy quality and its awful.

119: woah. lots of things happening. uhh. POP OFF TIM!!

120: lmao elias giving a statement about jon's dreams lol. damn jon doesnt even get his own dreams? has to stay Watching even when he's asleep? f in the chat this man goes thru so much shit. oh boy its peter. lol martin my beloved. idk i dont trust peter.

[ninegirl]

Everything I Know About TMA From All My Mutuals Slowly Turning Into TMA Fans

ok so i dont know much about a lot of characters so i’ll do this by season:

Season One:

this is the one where you think it’s just a nice old horror anthology podcast

and then it’s not

ok so we’ve got:

jonathan sims, aka jon, aka jarchivist (i cannot believe you people can say this in any sort of serious context like. guys. jean archivist)

he’s the head arhcivist, but not anymore, presumeabl

he’s described as ‘pedantic’ and he’s younger than he looks

he’s like 28, which??? compared to the one single other podcast i’ve listened to? baby.

avatar of the Eye, continuing the Podcast Eye Symbolism.

his voice actor, who is also the writer, is also named jonathan sims. jonathan sims the real one once claimed that jon’s name was spelled with an h to make it easier to differentiate. he is wrong. 

i personally am not over the fact that there is a real life man in real life with the name jonathan sims, which sounds far too much like, well, someone from a horror podcast to actually exist

he’s got a thing with tape recorders

bi ace. good for him

there is also: martin

he’s lonely.

he was in love with jon for a long time, and now he still is but now they’re dating. ship name: jonmartin. this fandom sucks at ship names. seriously. to be fair, jon and martin are hard to make into a ship name, but also, i just came up with this one: marchavist. bam. martin+ archivist.

anyways, he writes bad poetry

monsterfucker

also there is: 

elias. he’s a crusty old man, but he’s played by this fellow named ben meredith, making him far too sexy for his own good

peter: i only remember him cause his name is peter. anyways he’s like this foggy old ship captain and he and elias were married but then they got divorced, but then they got married but then.... you get the point

daisy: i thought she was just a funky little lesbian but turns out shes a bad cop? and not a lesbian cause shes a cop? sad.

jared hopworth: is homophobic

tim: very cool. dead? a lot of these people are dead. 

basira: i got her on a ‘which tma character are you’ quiz. is this a good thing?

gertrude: badass eye grandma

jurgen lietner: stupid idiot motherfucking jurgen lietner. godamn clown laughed out of the circus, avatar of the whore, has fucked up if true books. i use the jurgen lietner monlouge when trying out new voice

also featured: michael, michael, michael, georgie?, helen?, oliver banks?? micahel,

at the end of season one john gets eaten by worms? or is that some other time

season two:

i have no idea about this one. actually

Season three: 

same here? wtf happens? i dunno

i think jon does something bad at the end that leaves him in a coma

season four

jon’s not in some of this one instead we have:

martin! he’s lonely and sad and in love with jon. 

but then he and jon get together? i think? 

season five:

ooHHHKAY.

see i’ve been watching this one. 

meaning every thursday i see things on my tumblr dash, including

cabin fever! jon trying not to behold! why the fuck is this so relevant to the current pandemic situation? more points to jonathan sims the person being an actual eldritch monster

the apocolypse

not sasha is dead. why? ‘ceaseless watcher, rest your gaze upon this wretched thing’

martin is not lonely!!!! he’s in love!!!!

there’s this guy who was/is an avatar of the end? oliver? he’s just vibing

helen? helen is happy for the happy couple

carousel. jon used to ride on the carousel.

*fabric rustle*

there’s this angry lesbian lady? jane? jane prentiss? is that someone else? everyone in this podcast has the same names

so jared has this flesh garden and he was like ‘hahah bro is that your boyfriend???’ and jon said, ahem, ‘yes, actually’ the fandom thinks this is very important

[ehlihr]

I would love to hear more about the teen TMA au!! I'm losing my mind about it your art for it was amazing!! Do you have any cool ideas in particular about it??

okay ive gotten a few of these so i will Try To Type Out Some Ideas, which are going to be under a cut cause theres a lot

starts in 2000, but its sort of a fusion between them being aged down fifteen years and the timeline starting way earlier, SO

2000-most of season 1 (jon-13, martin/sasha/tim-14, georgie/melanie-15, basira-17, daisy/gerry19)

2001-most of season 2 (jon-14, martin/sasha/tim-15, etc)

2002-most of season 3 (jon-15, martin/sasha/tim-16, etc) --> jon hits his growth spurt over the summer because thats literally the funniest shit.

2003-most of season 4 (jon-16, martin/sasha/tim-17, etc)

gertrude and jons grandmother are both still alive, as well as gerry and maybe some other characters

in terms of vibe - jon definitely is becoming a monster, and theres still trauma and the fears and no love entities, but i think the stakes being as high as they are and them being kids means that. the punishments for fucking up (in order to maintain the pjo/artemis fowl vibe) are like. kind of lower? but not much? i just feel bad about being like. yeah tim fully explodes when he’s 17 lmfao but then i remember that ethan nakamura fully fell off the empire state building so! it be like that i guess for them

in terms of how everything happens. tl;dr - jon is five years out from mr spider, and in my mind he would be like absolutely fixated on it. 

some changes to canon, maybe elias figures gertrude out way earlier, actually looks into her head, and is like fuck me i gotta get a new archivist. and then he runs into jon somehow and is like Oh A Gift From The Web (like an idiot) and is like :) hey kid would you like to know more about mr spider and jon is like uh yeah of course?

and then he starts sending (feeding) jon statements that implicate gertrude as a compatriot of leitner’s. so jon believes gertrude to be like the bbg wrongly.

maybe theres a confrontation!!! maybe gertrude seriously contemplates just Getting Rid Of This Kid!!! Who Knows!!!!

obviously im doing a lot of timeline shifting and bending just to make this all work bc. i do what i want. also they’re all in london bc. i do what i want.

i think everyone is friends. maybe people get mad at jon but like. he’s not their boss man, he’s just a kid. so yeah tim gets a bit mad but they’re still friends.

ah the unknowing. maybe it goes down exactly as og. maybe not. in the maybe not, jon tells everyone he uses his knowing powers (theyre kids man imagine how stoked theyd be to learn their friend has powers) and lies and says the threat is actually outside, so they all leave. he knows he’s not quite... right. detonates, coma, but tim is still alive. so there’s that!

daisy is still a hunter but she and basira aren’t cops. daisy is the oldest at 19 (other than 30-40yo elias, 50ishyo gertrude, and jons teta), gerry a close second also at 19, and basira is 17. daisy maybe has some weird vigilante monster hunting thing kind of like canon, maybe she still tries to Get Jon, but after the buried (do i really wanna make 16yo jon go into the buried. Yeah) they have like a very sibling like relationship!!! ;;

also gerry!!! older brother vibe gerry!!! yeeeaaaahhhhh!!!!

georgie isnt jons ex but they ARE childhood friends maybe jon had little a crush on him :’0

martin and jon i think would have a better start, but jon would still be a really snarky kid and martin would have an even worse starting self esteem. i think he would just be really hard to get in touch with bc of his home life but he still does retcon and b&e for the squad dksjfhdskjh anyway same timeline as canon

obviously the adults have a more malicious presence when they interact with straight up kids. i dont know how i feel about that but i havent thought about it extensively

most of this came from excessive amv choreography to mob psycho 100s OP sdkjfhdskjhf. theres more but thats a solid bedrock i think!

[corens-relisten]

MAG 50 Foundations

Statement of Sampson Kempthorne, regarding the workhouse architecture of George Gilbert Scott. Original statement given June 12th, 1841.

ooh an old one! nice (: ooohh its a letter to jonah! so he had a sort of business it seems? theyre implying that jonah had this whole big collection of supernatural statements through letters... interesting (:

OMG ROBERT SMIRKE MENTIONED hihi OH? AND WE GET SM INFO ABOUT HIMM

spoilers...

hmm george is really interesting. gives me slightly Spiral vibes? i think thats just bc hes a little weird tho. but his floor plans are very Buried.

oki yup for sure the Buried (:

spoilers over

hearing someone in the hall but no one came in omg that feeling is fucking terrifying and difficult to describe nd (: idk much what to say other than aaaaa (can you tell this isnt fit for public viewing? its just my opinions on a site for some reason lmao)

i love how jon can write these statements in old formal writing as well as rude annoyed junkie language and how well he uses those nuances. its fascinating (:

i dont remember robert smirke being mentioned this much actually, but hes already had a few name drops by now

hihi its basira <33 i love how tim was just immediately on board with jon and her dating lmao hes the best bisexual disaster wingman

oki thats all for this statement! have a nice day

[ghostbustermelanieking]

a messy, messy commentary on tma characters and morality (made up mostly of my own misconceptions)

i've had some very interesting misconceptions while mentally trying to calculate which tma characters have killed people (answer: almost all of them) and which haven't (this was meant to be in the vein of my "how many episodes characters appear in" post but it spiraled in the opposite direction, which was my own fault cause i didn't check the wiki until now)

some assorted thoughts in this process:

considering only major characters? literally almost all of them have killed people like obviously: jonahlias, daisy, gertrude robinson, jurgen leitner, basira, helen, etc. and jon.

also tim. i suppose this could be debated, since it falls under the realm of "were these avatars of the strangers human?" (no but also jon has only killed avatars, and so if jon counts, than tim killing nikola and the other dancer whatevers certainly counts.) but even if you dont count that! a) i am almost certain there were like skinned human things in the unknowing that jon said couldn't be saved, who certainly died in the explosion if they weren't already dead. they couldn't be saved, of course, but they still probably died. and b) considering your views on the coma, tim killed jon. considering jon was too human to emerge from that coma unscathed, and was pretty much entirely dead, it could be said that jon died because tim pressed the detonator.

so by my (original, wrong) count, i thought that melanie, martin, and sasha are the only characters in this podcast to never directly kill anyone. and considering that melanie spent most of a season trying to off elias and martin has repeatedly goaded jon into killing avatars/even picked some out specifically, it may not be entirely fair to say they've never ever been involved in killing anyone?

in the midst of drafting a post musing on these three characters who have not killed anyone + isnt it weird that sasha probably only avoided killing someone because she died immediately, i remembered something and said "GEORGIE" out loud while mentally cursing myself for not thinking of that

georgie, to our knowledge, has not killed anyone yet, despite being marked by the literal godly embodiment of death. however the podcast is not over and there are plenty of episodes left

in the midst of considering this new georgie development, i then realized that sasha DID in fact kill someone -- timothy hodge in season 1! in season 1. i'm actually surprised this isn't talked about more. perhaps because i have not looked at it this way before.

in the middle of drafting THIS post, i remembered that melanie does in fact kill things, at least if i'm interpreting the accounts of the flesh attack right. (basira says they "took them out.") so i am very very dumb.

soooooo by my count, if we count martin helping jon kill avatars in season 5, than georgie barker is the only major character in this podcast who has never killed anyone. (if you don't, then it's martin and georgie, but that's debatable.) and again... we still have many episodes left for georgie and martin to kill people

so yeah. originally the point of this long rambly post was supposed to be musing on the morally grey tones of ALL the characters, even those who have the best of intentions in mind, and how complex this sort of character development is, and how well it fits into horror. but it ended up being a recount of the many many ways that i have misremembered this podcast and the character histories of like everyone. the relisten i am planning over hiatus should be very useful lol