#idk if it's just me but gaining a surface level understanding of the plot of tmagp is taking twice as long as it did with tma

[vvanillavveins]

Neurodivergent podcast-fan culture is being able to wax poetic for hours about the most miniscule of details in any given episode of The Magnus Archives, whilst also having to rely on transcripts to tell me what the sounds i'm hearing in The Magnus Protocol are actually supposed to be and then retrospectively working out what the fuck just happened on my 2nd or 3rd listen

[lovinggreeniehours]

HEY! you should tell me about your dungeon meshi s/i and the connections to your f/os :3 im starving waiting for season 2 as an anime only..

mission accepted!!!!! 🫡 (FOR REAL THOUGH,,i miss the sillies :( i miss them a lot)

for a little surface level spoiler-free introduction: this is red :)

he's a mage(?) that the rest of the party meets on level 2 of the dungeon. due to his unique magic skills, and uncanny knowledge about the dungeon and its floors, the party accept him as a guide of sorts to aid in falin's rescue!

what they have not realized is that red isn't even human. instead, a seemingly one-of-his-kind special kind of monster leading them into the dungeons for his own amusement. what red didn't expect though is that. um. they ate the monsters actually. well damn

now he has to follow them!

(but oh nooo,,, what's this,,,, he's starting to CARE about them???? no,,, impossible,,,,,, now he's afraid they'll hate him forever if they find out about his secret,,,, whatever shall he do D:)

:)

so relationships!

laios is his closest relationship! he was red's first real friend in a very long time, and despite red's best efforts, the funny tallman ended up worming his way into his heart very very easily. he's very honest, and sees the world from a very different lens that most other adventures he's encountered, which red finds fascinating. and his intrigue, in turn, makes him more tolerant and encouraging of laios's silliness and unorthodox methods compared to the other party members. they are so ride or die with each other it's insane (and they get together later on at the end but sshh irrelevant)

red respects senshi a lot. he's watched senshi for a while, but never approached him. maybe helping from the sidelines once in a while. but he was there the whole time senshi was alone in the dungeon. red's seen how he lives with it and takes care of it, and seeing as red feels his own connection to the dungeon, it touches him. not that he'd admit it

he has to be cautious with chilchuck. he's the most suspicious of them. but at the same time, red finds it really funny to mess with him. he's lowkey so mean and annoying to him 😭 so chilchuck dishes that energy back, until it eventually falls into routine. and boom. that's their friendship

but marcille makes him very curious. she seems the most well put together of them all, and yet there's something very off. he can't really pinpoint what

he meets falin very little times in the plot, which is a shame 🥹 they get along quite swimmingly i think,,

he treats izutsumi largely like the rest of the party does. little girlie that scritches sometimes. he is way more careful than them though 😭 seeing as he isn't human and can't revive, her scratches have the possibility of really harming him. but he understands her (he can't tell her that though. as usual). she reminds him of his younger self when he was first going around the dungeons

bonus for kabru because that man is funny. these two are hilarious because their approaches are so similar. acting all friendly and charming to catch people off guard and gain their trust. but it's like 😭 they're both observant. kabru INSTANTLY knows something is going on with red. and he's going to prove it. WATCH HIM (you can't bc red knows that he knows and he's making a game out of it. he's been doing this for years. good luck little guy) they quarrel in that lowkey fruity anime way that makes you question why they're not making out instead. making out would've fixed them ngl

bonus bonus for mithrun. he tries to kill red many times. for obvious reasons. it's just funny to me idk. i kin that guy hdshgsghj

i think that should be about it for basic information? i hope this was understandable or comprehensive enough :) and that whoever reading this had fun while reading jdsjgdh thank youu

warning for manga spoilers now! i read all of it, and red's lore uses a lot of story beats from it as well so✨️ i thought i'd leave all the spoilery bits at the bottom at least so everything is complete

red's backstory is very long 😭 i will try and summarize

red is a human-made monster formed from magic and grief (and demon. yes the lion/goat/that kind. you know the bitch). he is over 900 years old at least, so his conception was forever ago

the body he inhabits is that of a powerful mage's dead child. the mage brought him into what would be later known as the dungeons and opened a rift to access the "infinity" that the demons possess

red's soul, so to speak, is a portion of that infinity forcibly cut off, turning him finite in a sense. but not human

the mage dies immediately after his success, leaving a little growing red to wander the underground space for centuries

so technically speaking. his body is of an elf's. his soul (technically) is "demon" in a way. the only certainty is that he is an anomaly. he was never supposed to exist, and yet he does. now he has to grapple with the consequences of his own life :) i love dramatic themes

red has been close to other adventurers before as a child, but they ended up the reason why red stopped trusting humans at all 😭 the adventuring party sent to search for the mage that brought red to life. they took him in briefly, and promised to take him back to civilization with them. until esper started growing his horns and tail. until they connected the dots and realized red's influence on their journey in the dungeon, keeping them alive. they could only conclude that he must've been a monster of some kind, got afraid, and left him

we're not talking about the lion. we hate the lion. laios should've eaten me instead 🙄 /hj

[pochapal]

To be clear what they are alluding is a more direct allusion to Higurashi's VN. Not in the thematic sense, just a cute reference. The question I suspect is less "we want to explain the thematic meaning" and more "we want to explain why that line is funny".

(to be clear, your understanding on how Umineko ties to Higurashi is pretty right and many of the connections is themes, concepts and shit. It is just the end of EP1 has some more direct and simple references)

so based on what people have told me this thing seems like it's a surface level silly little callback but if you understand anything about what the callback means then you gain a massive upper hand in understanding the deeper themes in the story. i guess then to reiterate what i said in the previous post you can say "this funny line is the higurashi reference" and try your best to explain it in line with my current understanding.

this is kind of skirting my own spoiler policy so i don't expect an answer but. if this thematic narrative framework/conceit/whatever it is that higurashi and umineko share is also revealed at the end of episode 1 and i've seen/understood what this thing is then maybe then it can be talked about???? idk since i'm nowhere near this point but if something super silly or some kind of wild plot twist happens and i see that for what it is then i guess it's safe to tell me a little about the higurashi stuff.