#okay maybe 'almost canonical' is pushing it but you can't say i dont have a point

[completely-real-and-normal-human]

Tim has a filing kink..... maybe I should actually relisten to the earlier seasons....

okay so. the first clue we get is when jon mentions tim flirting with filing clerks for access to classified records. the second clue is when elias suggests that tim do some 'mindless filing' to help calm him down. the third clue is that tim is, completely and irrevocably, a weird little freak

[convexers]

I saw that in your anon you said you have thoughts about why you think Grian doesn’t fit the eye. I completely agree, I think most people are attributing him to the eye because of the watcher! Headcannons they have from the Evo days. I find that so interesting since isn’t the point of most watcher fics is that Grian doesn’t want to be/doesn’t fit as a watcher? It’s almost like defeating the point of that.

Anyways this is just a long winded way of asking why you think the eye doesn’t fit? -V

thank you for the ask! i am going to preface this by saying there might be some Light Shade when it comes to fanon and fanon characterizations. that being said, people are entitled to interpret canon however they want and i'm just a fool on the internet who has her own opinions.

most of what we consider "watcher lore" is majority fanon; the watchers are never stated to be outright malicious and yet we characterize the watchers as purely evil beings... hm. this is used for griangst which wouldn't be a problem if the watchers weren't very ooc and people didn't push watcher!grian onto everything. this kinda thing becomes annoying as hell when it's affecting how people interpret canon characterizations (think familial sbi type beat).

now before we get to the next part i'm going to explain what the eye is as a fear. it is the fear of being watched, of your secrets being known. but it also manifests as the need to know, to learn, even if it destroys you. notice how interference isn't mentioned? because they watch, they do not interfere.

mkay lets get to the actual tma part of this. because of the name "watchers" and their role as the audience your immediate reaction is to go "oh! they must be eye aligned then!" but really the case is that audience stand-ins are hardly ever eye aligned. i said once "i dont think ive ever consumed a piece of media where the audience stand-in has been strictly the eye. maybe the muppets." i've also said "if anything. audience stand-ins tend to be desolation imo. like. we LOVE causing chaos."

i believe that the watchers are more extinction aligned. if you want a more in-depth explanation of the watchers as a extension of the extinction my siblings, solar arc, made this wonderful post! [link]

before we get to why i think grian doesn't fit with the eye and does with the desolation i'm going to explain the desolation! the desolation is the fear of mindless destruction, of pain and loss. jude perry (an avatar of the desolation) describes it as "the light with the comfort of fire stripped from it, leaving nothing but the terror of its approach." my friend @rocnix says, "the fear of a change for the worse, but you don't see it's a change for the worse because it's destroying you and you're enjoying the destruction too much to notice it's yourself being destroyed" that's a bit paraphrased but it was on a vc and i can't remember their exact words.

okay now to the actual grian part (finally)! you're right when you say that fanon grian almost never wants to stay as a watcher! he's always in the middle of it all, spurring conflict on. that is not what avatars of the eye do. avatars of the eye watch and record what they see, they hardly ever interfere. (i do not count s5 of the eye, i feel like it is ooc for the rules established in earlier seasons for the eye. you can also ask me about this if you want.)

it makes much more sense for grian to be an avatar of the desolation, it fits with his canon characterization. he was there in the civil war, the s7 elections, the turf war, the shopping shenanigans of s8, even the diamond tower conflict from our current season! he does not watch, it's no fun to just watch!

this is super long winded my apologies, i really love this kind of analysis of fandom and then... fixing it LMAO. again i'd like to mention, absolutely no hate to people who enjoy watcher/eye!grian. i've been known to enjoy a good eye!grian from time to time :) <3