#mag 62

[a-mag-meme-a-day]

meme for @a-mag-a-day Day 64

MAG 62 - First Edition

Mary Keay is unhinged at BEST. At worst? I don't think I want to know.

[artfulacrostic]

every time i listen to mag 62 first edition, i wonder how tf gerry turned out as well as he did. mary murdered someone for her first leitner with just a straight razor and her bare hands at age nine, and gdi it just went downhill from there. fuck the haters if there are any, gerry, you're doing GREAT

[cyanove]

Of the three episodes in relation to Gerry, and his parents…

This question particularly is interesting, due to the prevalence this family has on the storyline, not to mention Gerry basically being the person to spell out the entities to Jon. OR Eric being the reason Jon could help Melanie leave the archives! Mary’s episode is also just a good one.

It’s very interesting how they did a similar thing with the Daedalus ship and spreading the storyline out one episode at a time over the course of season’s 2/3/4. The Keay/Delano family is genuinely iconic.

Interested to see the results.

[burninginthegymplplinko]

MAG 62 - First Edition

doodle 62/200; days left 33/110

oh lord this one was creepy. what psychopatic child sees a magic murder book and goes "is for me? 👉👈 🥺" no- just- what the hell. i live in fear of mary keay

[themagnustournament]

Round Two Part Five - Match 38

Mary, with all her shitty parenting and Leitner collecting skills! But can she beat Albrecht von Closen's Archive (129)?

MAG 062 - First Edition | Spotify - Acast - YT | Wiki | Transcript

Statement of Mary Keay regarding her first Leitner.

MAG 023 - Schwartzwald | Spotify - Acast - YT | Wiki | Transcript

Statement of Albrecht von Closen, regarding a discovered tomb near his estate in the Black Forest.

[a-mag-a-day]

Okay CAN WE TALK ABOUT the paralleles between Jons and Mary's childhood fucked up of true books. This might be a stretch but HEAR ME OUT.

They both definitely were exposed to this shit way too early with very different outcomes. Please put your cursed books out of the reach of children...

We need to give them children friendly books.

[oaxleaf]

mag 62 - first edition

i had legit forgotten this statement existed, which is sad because it's so good! i love how fucked up the delano-keay family is, and this gives us a lot of background into future details, primarily ones giveen in mag 111 and mag 154 (which is one of my two favourite episodes in the entire podcast btw) so listening to this like it was the first time but with all the context was interesting

i particularly like how long of a line of fucked-up-ness the keays have. mary's mother worked for the institute, and despite how she seems to resent it to some degree she still bears pride in her heritage and long line of being part of this world. she's a hypocrite, in many ways quite similar to gertrude despite their distaste for each other

there is also the thing about how much pride she takes in being supposedly unaligned, yet she's actually pretty clearly eye. her entire family is, it seems, considering her mother, son, and husband all work at or closely to the institute. she herself comments on elias' reluctance to get involved in the dirt yet states than she prefers watching death rather than killing

i think mary also plays into tma's overall themes of power very well. she's attracted to the power and pride that comes with being involved with the fears. that might be why the skin book attracts her despite her lack of interest in the end. even after death she can still control, torture, and extort knowledge from these souls

also - eric mention! love him, looking forward to when we meet him in, like, ninety episodes

[libraryfag]

imagine getting cancelled for saying what Mary Keay did to Gertrude Robinson

[somanyfuckedupiftruebooks]

Mag 62

Mary Mary quite cuntrary.

Confirmation that Gertrude stopped recording statments to tape, other than the occasional live statement. Must have been one of many ways she kept herself as free from Beholding's grip as possible.

Mary's relationship with the Institute is interesting. It seems like it's been on the periphery of her entire life, but never something she was directly involved in. Maybe that's supposed to parallel her relationship with the Eye? It's something she interacts with regularly, but doesn't directly serve.

Also very amused by her claim that 'big things are coming'. She's about to skin herself alive so she can become a ghost that haunts a book. Revolutionary.

Confirmation that Leitner had nothing to do with the creation of the books! They pre-date him and people who know what they are doing were aware of them; he just collected them all. Feels like this should be news to Jon, but he doesn't comment on it.

Get rekt Leitner. Crusty old man.

Gertrude (lying about the man she is keeping hidden in her basement of many tunnels): ~I~ ~can't~ ~say~ ~we~ ~ever~ ~crossed~ ~paths~

Cool that she can also outright lie in statments. So far I think we only know for sure that Elias and the NotThem have been able to do this.

Love Mary and Gertrude subtly dragging each other.

Mary: All you do is sit here and take statements.

Gertrude: Only when idiots like you show up.

Desspite her open disdain for the Institute, Mary views them as being on the same side. I guess I interpret this as Mary considering herself allied to the Eye? But of course Elias would look down on that. He probably discounts everyone who even interacts with the Eye without being entirely under his thumb.

Here Mary says her father got himself killed, later she says he killed himself. I wonder what happened to him; I'm betting the full story is complicated.

I've always assumed the Institute paid their workers a decent wage. Mostly because Martin is able to afford to support his mother and also rent an apartment without a roommate. In fact, everyone in the Archives seems to be living alone, which I figure would be expensive in London?

Interesting that Mary was brought up with an education about the Entites and managed to spend her entire life without committing to any of them as a clear patron. She obviously favours the Eye, but she never truly dedicated herself to serving it (she has more in common with Gertrude than she thinks). Seems like she chose this path in spite of her mother's teachings, but Gerry probably followed in her footsteps.

Haha, get fucked. The spooky stuff in Aretefact Storage must be true crap if Mary thinks it's mediocre compared to her terrible skin and bone books. Also, when did she get into Artefact Storage? Shouldn't that be a restricted area? Did Eric let her in?

Cannot stress enough that the super cool and special dark arefact she eventually found was a disgusting skin book full of ghosts. Mary is insane, and she has terrible taste.

[bracefacefreak]

Thoughts on Mag 62

Oh, I’d totally forgotten this statement but IT IS SO GOOD!!! There is so much here, so much foreshadowing, so many little things you won’t get listening the first time round. It’s definitely worth a re-listen. 

Anyway, here are some of my thoughts/feelings/ideas about this episode. Please be warned there will be spoilers for other later episodes of TMA. 

Mary is such a little bitch towards Gertrude; her low key snark and clear disdain for what Gertrude does is palpable right from the start. And I love it. 

And we have Beholding Pun #1 - “ I know the Institute and me haven’t always seen eye-to-eye...” - Perfect. Flawless. Amazing. 

I love how Mary refers to what Leitner did as having “stamped them (the books) with his mark...”  I just adore how this parallels what Elias later says about Jon having been marked by the fears. It’s almost as if Leitner hoped that by marking the books he is able beat the fears at their own game. Well, look how that turned out...

Also love Mary opening up the question as to what happened to the books prior to Leitner - what adventures these terrible tomes got up to before they were found and placed in his library? Did others try and collect them? 

Interesting how Mary comments on Leitner being too slow, gentle and boring- you get the impression she did not feel he was worthy of having so many books within his possession. I like how it mirrors Gerry’s only interaction with Leitner, when he stopped beating him because he couldn’t believe such a pathetic man could be THE Jurgen Leitner. 

SO MUCH FORESHADOWING! - “ You… don’t really go out and look for yourself “ and “They don’t understand up there. They don’t know what this place is.”

 Mary’s attempts to get Gertrude to reveal how much she knows - “You do, though, don’t you?” And Gertrude’s answer is just to play completely dumb and act like she has no idea what Mary is talking about. Hahah. 

Also “We’re on the same side, really” creeps me out so much. Because in some ways Gertrude and Mary are really similar - strong, independent women, who know what they want and will do anything to get it, no matter what the cost. If Gertrude had rather focused on gaining control of her abilities and becoming “The Archivist” she could have very easily become something quite similar to Mary. On this note, interesting how Gerry finds an almost motherly figure in Gertrude. 

SHE WAS NINE YEARS OLD! WTF!? 

Mary talks about her mother’s poor pay - I hope Jonah has realised that you can’t pay people sixpence for a day’s work anymore! 

From the information we get here, it seems like was Mary’s mother who was from the von Closen line, rather than her father. Given the timeline, I’m going to say that Mary’s mother was also Mary (given in Mag 023 Jon states Mary Keay was born in 1924, when here it’s very clear this Mary was born in 1946.)

Just having fun imaging a young Mary creeping out all the local shopkeepers while looking for something strange and dark to catch her eye. 

“...Slavish devotion to you and your patron...” - Jon what on earth do you think she meant by this!? I love that he just ignores all these strange little comments, weren’t you a researcher before moving to the Archives?

People’s different relationships with the fears just fascinate me. We have those using them to gain Power (Elias/Jonah), those who worship them like Gods (The Lukas Family), those who just want to have some fun (Jude Perry), those who give themselves to a power to save themselves (Mike Crew), those who get dragged into it against their will (John, Jane, Oliver.) And then you have the Keay’s who believe these primal fear Gods are somehow watching over them. Also Mary what does that even mean

Jewish Keays anyone? 

“...a scent like wet dirt rolling through the building and settling in my chest..” - maybe grave dirt? 

I wonder, how Tellison obtained the books I wonder? And how did she learn how to use them? Mary, had some knowledge about the fears beforehand from her family, how did Tellison discover what the book did? Did she have any idea how the books fit into the bigger picture? 

Mary’s whole sense of superiority is chilling. 

“My inclinations, predictably, were more toward watching than doing the deed myself.” - hahaha. This is so fucking creepy and so clever.  

“After a lifetime, I know all its secrets, save one. And I have a pretty good idea about how to find that.” - Except she fucked it up 2 months later.

Also love how we get more hints that the fears are not just a British thing but rather seem to be present in diifferent cultures i.e. the mention that both books are written in Sanskrit. Seriously, where did this doctor get these damn books? 

“I could never truly serve it – I just don’t find death that interesting.  But I’ve always found a singular devotion far too restrictive.” - I know that Mary couldn’t complete the ritual fully cause of the blood loss but I do wonder if this didn’t have something to do with failure as well. 

“Just a bit of viscera” - Hahah. She’s so fucking dismissive. I definitely get the feeling that everyone else looks down on the Flesh as a lower rate entity. 

“...though it came back to me after the attack.” How!? 

“He’s not exactly big on action though, is he.” THE FUCKING FORESHADOWING! !

“....though, I do rather hate the smell of burning skin.” Funny how both Jon and I didn’t find this a strange thing for Gertrude to say. Definitely the words of a sweet old grandmotherly archivist who definitely does not go around blowing shit up and killing avatars. 

“...odd relationship with death is the least interesting part of it” Really John!? Really!? Like I know you’re paranoid but,,,REALLY!? 

“The Magnus Institute is not what it appears to be, and until I know what it is, and what it’s for..” - oh sweety! *proceeds to grossly sob*

No strange skin page. - I hope this means that Gertrude destroyed Eric’s page and let him rest. 

[roguecanoe]

Mag 62: First Edition

[fandomlockedfan]

Damn Carrie Cohen is an amazing VA.

[portuguesedisaster]

Mary Keay is unsettling. What in the hell is she doing? From “We are the same” thing with Gertrude to whatever she has with the Institute, she gives the serious creeps.

And I really hate that she is very much relacted to books.

[wonderfultoweird]

MAG 62: First Edition

GERTRUDE TAPE LETS GO

MARY KAEY???? SPEAKING?? oh this is gonna be good

'Jurgen Leitner was boring' this bitch throwing shade

oh wow Mary knows Elias??? how old is he??

MARY KAEY'S MOM WORKED FOR THE ARCHIVES?? interesting

they're both so passive aggressive and petty towards each other I'm living for it

Mary is Creepy

So this doctor is using one of the Leitners to?? heal people?

oh nooo it's to kill people I'm so surprised

😳👀 um okay so Mary is a sick psychopath who enjoys murder,,, greaaat

ANIMAL BONES,, well we both know what happened to that book

SHE RAISES THE DEAD TO GET WEALTHY???

lmfao Mary's got the right idea she's gonna take the book

AHAHA WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK NO SHE VERY MUCH HAS THE WRONG IDEA

she rlly said bye bitch *slits throat*

How does gertrude even stand to be around her...

THE Paper was made OF FLESH... ew

SECRET COMPARTMENT SECRET COMPARTMENT

[my-magnus-rabbithole]

Where’s Gerard? It’s been like twenty episodes since someone ran into the guy. And I’m starting to miss him.

[the-better-phoenix256]

Does anyone else do this, or am I the only one who, to avoid touching Magnus Archives content I genuinely get freaked out by, has created a playlist eliminating those episodes after the first listen through? Or do most of y'all just... Remember which one(s) actually get you?