tmagp 21 relisten notes
happy end of hiatus! beware of tmagp 21 and light tma spoilers below the cut!!
scene:
this is a continuation of the night of episode 20! so all of the events occurring in this episode are happening directly after the events of episode 20 with very little skipping forward
celia:
- we open with her trying to cheer sam up after their intervention of sorts in ep 20. shes concerned that hes upset over her and alice not wanting to be involved with his investigations and reacting poorly to him bringing up quitting
- she suggests that sam can stay at the OIAR while trying to make change from the inside
- when sam asks her about whats been bothering her, she says she has a "complicated immigration status" and this would stop her from taking jack with her.
- ive taken it as canon that celia is from the tma universe, but this is another clue towards that conclusion. this also implies that shes discovered a way to take her back to her original dimension, or at least knows enough about that process to decide she cant take jack back with her. but staying with him (in this universe) means she has some complicated decisions to make (im assuming this is partially about her struggles with teleporting)
sam:
- hes worried that alice is right about the morality of them working for the OIAR -> he can accept that the organization is evil, but he cant let himself go on knowingly administering evil
- his main motivation to stay instead of seeking out a different (less prestigious) job is his desire to not disappoint his parents (i think a lot of sam's motivations will be centered around him meeting expectations, getting attention, and proving people wrong)
- he maintains that he will quit once/if he gets enough information to convince him to leave. this is a pretty interesting thing for him to say, considering hes only been drug deeper into the job the more info he gets.
- sam volunteers to help celia and jack with "anything" -> im willing to bet this will come back to bite him on the ass in the future, and i wonder what favor celia will be asking him to complete. i wonder if shes willing to take him up on the offer even if it puts him in danger
alice:
- though the incident is read from sam's desk, alice is the one who found it and started it up. im betting that she was poking around his cases to see if there were any corresponding to TMI or their conversations
- "You bastard. You wanted him to read this, didn’t you? Just slipped it into his caseload, all subtle like and waited for him to hear it. Well not this time [...] Colin was right about you. What do you want? Hmmm? Who’s in there?" this is a huge reveal in terms of what alice believes in. in ep 20, she shoots down sam and colin trying to explain that the computers are listening and communicating with them, but now it sounds like she fully believes in it after all
- i think that she either pretended to not believe in it to encourage sam and colin to drop it, or that she really did think they were crazy and took to investigating sam's workload to see if he was right. either way, she seems fully convinced now, and has gone so far as to attribute this behavior to fully sentient people, seeing as how she asked who was in there.
lena:
- she's suspicious of alice using sam's computer, and doesn't believe that theres been more technology issues. according to her, the system has worked better in colin's absence, so he was likely trying to sabotage jmj
- she's worried about gwen being late from her assignment, but pretends to not be concerned around alice
gwen:
- right as ink5oul traps her, she is compelled to begin a statement (which sounds to be corruption-aligned). she was claimed by error and ink5oul allowed her to run away. we can assume gwen was able to escape them both, but i wonder if her attachment to error will cause problems with future externals (will it stop her from interacting with them or will this provide her with the protection shes been wanting?)
ink5oul:
- not only can they tattoo people with ink created by their own skin/blood, they can also manipulate the tattoos of others! very cool character/monster design
- once interrupted by error, they originally try to fight over who is 'claiming' gwen, but they back off and let error take her. the way they interact with error implies that theyve seen other avatars before
error:
- the tape recorder click seems to be an indication of them entering the scene, and of things shifting to follow tma world building conventions
- they compel gwen to begin a statement, and warn ink5oul from touching her, claiming her as theirs
- "they are all mine", i think this is referring to the OIAR as a whole, especially considering alice has already had an encounter with one of error's potential victims
incident:
narrated by chester at sam's terminal, about the magnus institute (TMI)
- the incident is in the form of a letter/email sent from the co-treasurer of TMI to other members of the institute.
- TMI was planning on having an exhibit at a dome built to instigate a grand ritual in the year 2000. this ritual was based in the hopes of using the transmutative powers of the dome to harness the power of the turn of the millennium.
- mr. leonardo argues that the date (2000) and location of the dome and ritual are ineffective. he believes that the date shouldn't be decided based on cultural significance, it needs to be decided based on astrological significance. since the concept of the new year and turning of the millennium depends on the calendar used, its subjective and less stable than using a date determined by the movement of the stars, which every culture holds as a constant.
- he also believes that the dome will not be a secure location to bring about this ritual for universal transmutation because it will not have a balance between optimism and fear. he thinks that the dome would sponsor more energy for fear than optimism, due to socio-political changes and public interpretation of the dome.
- on top of the dome not supporting balance, mr. leonardo also proposes that the ground its built on is impure. he found the site to have a horrible smell and the workers to be uninterested, dirty, and ill (much of this part of the incident lends itself to the corruption)
- the foreman of the site said he wasnt sure how long the structure was expected to stay up, that it could stand the test of time or fall apart within a year.
- during his investigation of the site, mr. leonardo also witnessed a man's doppelgänger be pushed from the earth of the construction site. the new man was older (symbolizing the future), and looked sickly. the younger man tried to scream, but was taken into the earth by his copy.
- this case as a whole is interesting because mr. leonardo is not supporting the dome for its power leaning toward fear over optimism. he seems to genuinely want balance between these powers, so the purpose of the TMI ritual was not to pull through one power. the focus is on successfully attainting a universal transmutation
glitches/lies:
- "yeah/yes" alice, lying about sam consenting to her using his computer
- "ill let him know when he gets back" alice
- "only about your caseload" lena, lying about not being worried about gwen
extra comments:
- im unsure if this is just a personal interpretation or maybe unintentional from the sound editors, but it really did sound like chester was significantly less robotic in tone as that incident ended
- the water sound effects as gwen was chased by ink5oul were really well done, all of the sound design done this episode was just so incredible!! the chase scene was so clear and i loved the added background music/instrumentals
- once gwen drops her phone into the water, our next audio-on is the tape recorder click!
- the tape recorder physically biting ink5oul was very funny, i think its fun to introduce them as kinda sentient/physical beings, but it also rides the line to comedy a bit too much to be scary here
- im unsure of when the police report from episode 18 took place, and that will be a major decider in this theory being relevant, but i think error is the entity that has been influencing corpses to talk. it's victims are compelled to share stories in tma's statement format, and the elements of their stories are pretty aligned with the tma fears as well. it seems to be targeting the OIAR staff, since one of its statements has been in their caseloads, alice met one of the victims, and now its stopped gwen from getting ink5ouled. Im unsure why or how it knows the OIAR is important if its from the tma universe. it could be sensing celia, whos also from its dimension, or maybe it still holds a connection to jmj (who are definitely sentient)
- this incident also explains why the protocol was used against TMI! the fire that destroyed the institute happened right before they would have been able to execute the ritual for transmutation
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was tagged by @podcastingpineapple for a “9 people I'd like to know better” thing! hi hello!👋 i don’t think im one of the cool people but i like doing these sooooo (runs away and hides and comes back hours later) (ive decided i have nothing to lose so im just gonna give honest answers)
last song: super star spectacle (karen and hikari’s song from the revue starlight movie)(was listening in honor of yuri day)
currently watching: ummm seasonal anime mostly: skip to loafer, gundam witch, oshi no ko. also star wars rebels for amca podcast (but i accidentally got carried away and am a season ahead already)
currently reading: i’m rereading shimanami tasogare/ our dreams at dusk by kamatani yuhki. ive started to do this every summer, it always hits home around this time of the year. i am also reading a number of enstars stories at once (i guess sudden death would be the most noteworthy here). i know neither of these is like reading reading but this is where i’m at!
(i’m adding a secret bonus category of currently listening to just to say that i’ve been enjoying my archive 81 relisten~)
current obsession: uuuuuuu. well it’s enstars. theres just so many characters and so many things to know about them my brain feels like it’s jumping up and down on a trampoline (positive), plus theres the rhythm game aspect. it is so much fun. im having so much fun right now
plus the new palisade episode dropping is my favorite time of the week! and amca every two weeks.
okayyy tagging people… no pressure though!!
@umilily @cryptidm0ths @perfectpinkprincess @shionkaida @starswallowingsea @no-myers-briggs @shlnji @alicesalias @asbestieos
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