#tma listening progress

[tchaikovskym]

"Let's just kill all the entities; they're just evil, so it's ok." Martin. Martin! Listen. Look at your boyfriend. Who is he?

[once-ina-blue-moon]

some drawings I made while listening to tma s5 (plus an elias :D)

[drag0nish]

here's some okayish looking doodles i did to get a rough idea of their designs, this page started out as just me designing tma characters I haven't yet so i did Georgie, then Helen and then realized that three of the black women also have a purple color scheme and i thought it was funny so I added Annabelle, idk man lesbians rejoice ig

[one-more-guy]

When I try to convince people to listen to tma I feel like a real estate agent trying to sell a house, but since the fandom is the magnus archives it immediately makes me think about our dear real estate agent Helen Richardson. Which distracts me and completely derailing my sales pitch (which she’d probably like, being of the spiral after all)

[enjoyvoidblack]

our big post was getting long and it won't let me message so I thought I'd just come bother you here asldkfjsad I am like. so 1000% certain there is mention in the text that the initial purpose and efforts of Jonah and the Institute were to research the fears and prevent their many catastrophes, and that somewhere along the line he came to the conclusion that this wasn't viable, that the world and the fears simply didn't function in a way that was conducive to meaningfully stopping them from doing anything. which was how he settled into the position of 'well then I am going to use the instruments of power to save ME and build a ladder to free myself personally from their clutches forever' I def don't know when he started to turn from that, but i'll have to go back through the transcripts and find it again.

I do get that the narrative is written with Jon as the focal point, and that doesn't leave a lot of room for Elias to be sympathetic--he certainly doesn't make himself sympathetic TO Jon, or any of the Archives crew (beyond what I find to be an interesting amount of patience, understanding, and restraint he shows for them), but I still think like. Part of the beauty of Jonny's storytelling is that there is a kernel of completely understandable humanity to most everyone that's presented with any depth in the series, even the people we DON'T like. The "people here don't have excuses, they have causes" is again really excellent wording. There isn't really a lot of the usual karmic style reasoning or justice in this series; it isn't about Good People doing Good Things or Bad People doing Bad Things, it's just. People Doing Things, while under the influence of powers that are at once cosmic and beyond us, and inherently OF us.

adsfkjas this is getting long too I'm so sorry you activated a trap card here but idk. He absolutely is both manipulator and victim. He did all that shit, and all the while it's being done TO him, and he's walking this incredibly razor thin line between feeding his god/being empowered by it, and bc of it's nature knowing in intimate detail every nasty thing that awaits him should he fail (and I think being deathly afraid of it). That gif from Knives Out lmfao, compels me.

(apologies this probably isn't hugely coherent but there we are)

Thank you I am chewing on this ask violently. You Get It.

Unfortunate that tumblr killed your paragraph breaks, because I now can't find the section easily, but that thing about Jonny's character work in this series entirely consisting of aspects of "completely understandable humanity" is SO deeply how I feel about it. This is part of why I love horror of this kind so much. The horror being the fact that no one can really do anything to stop it opens up a space where the characters don't need to be presented along clear lines of good and evil, or even helping a cause or hurting it. It's a lot closer to how real people react in a natural disaster, if anything. There is love and selfishness and incredible acts of violence and cruelty and understandable failings and greed and fear, and pretty much all of it has a root that you can see, if you know enough about the people doing it and the circumstances to really feel where their mindset must be. I'd say Elias is functionally the closest thing TMA has to a narrative scapegoat, but that doesn't mean he is one. I almost feel like he's there as a pressure valve for the story, to be a villain if people need one to make sense of what's going on without having to constantly confront head-on the horror of the way the setting traps everyone in it. He can be made that kind of scapegoat, but only really by ignoring the parallels to Jon and the letters sent to him in older statements, and the way both show how the Fears drive the people who learn about them into more and more desperate straits.

It's kind of like that with all the older avatars. Simon Fairchild throws people off of stuff for a joke, because he's had more than 400 years of being steeped in the knowledge that humanity is both insignificant in the span of the universe, as well as utterly incapable of stopping the course of the Fears as they exert whatever influence they will by the force of sheer bulk. Peter Lukas never had a chance - he was born into this, isolation was his family and religion and paradoxically from childhood his only possible road to belonging. Adelard Dekker thought he was helping, as did Gertrude, even as they both fed the things that claimed them alongside those efforts. Nikola Orsinov was so far away from having an identity anymore that she couldn't go back if she wanted to, if she had even had enough left to want. Her world would have just been a home that was more like herself, and who hasn't wanted that? They're easier to vilify because their outlooks are harder to understand until the very end of the series, but looking back it's so clear that they were also just people once, and the writing never really lets you forget that.

If I said I'd tried to make all of these replies short, you probably wouldn't believe me. And Yet. I am not NORMAL about this show and the way Jonny writes people.

[gaygirldoodles]

just finished season 4 of tma earlier today, and I don't know what I was expecting but ARMEGEDON? WTF IS HAPPENING?

[giraffyhat]

I've been listening to the Magnus Archives again and I just had the thought.

Are WE the Watcher???? Kinda??

[a-bucket-in-the-void]

i may be exhausted but at least we've got snoppyyyyyyy

[princetfae]

as someone who is a fan of dropout, i don't think it's unfair to point out that the lack of transfeminine actresses and comedians on the platform has been devastatingly obvious for years. and this is an issue for a company that presents itself as progressive, particularly with lgbt subjects, and features many tme trans people, but a notable absence of tma ones, in los angeles of all places

maybe instead of yelling at trans girls for very gently pointing this out, you could instead actually try listening to them for once in your life, and not immediately painting them as hysterical or whatever

[theseuscloud]

Okay, okay, stay with me for a moment, I know everyone is going insane but listen to me for a bit, let's focus on the statement, BECAUSE

You know how Jonny said that the entities on tmagp won't be the same as the ones from TMA, right? Right.

We've got one already mostly figured out, being the one from ep 11, looking like the buried mixed with the vast. Fear of the sea, drowning, etc, thalassophobia in general and all that. People have started to call it The Deep, you remember right? Of course you do, you're a smart cookie, good job

There's also the one related with luck, gambles, and addiction. This one's a bit more fuzzy, but episodes 7 and 13, the dice man and the cryptobro, do paint a funny picture. I haven't seen anyone name this one, so I might as well call it The Chance

Stay with me here, darling

I present to you, and I think I may be onto something:

The Superior

Look, The name is a work in progress, maybe you could call it *the ideal*? if you've got a better suggestion, go ahead, but if not, let me explain

Related to the stranger, maybe the flesh or the lonely. We've already had two statements, ep 2 and now ep 17, where the horror has been something that looks like you, but is better than you.

Episode 2, the girl, Daria, hated how she looked, she tried everything to look better, to be better, she tried so hard she was, quite literally, consumed by it. She picked out parts of herself in a Dorian-Gray-esque way until there was nothing left just to live up to this ideal of herself. The ideal was the cause of her demise

Episode 17, doppelganger time baby! What does he find? A man, just like himself, just... Well, better. Rich, beautiful, cheery and welcoming. Well, an ideal self, wouldn't you say? He tried to learn from that ideal self, and then he found out, that the ideal of him was a murderer. Then he murdered him. Isn't that convenient.

This is just a theory, but it is a fun one, so what do y'all think?

[tchaikovskym]

So far tma s5 is just

hello I'm Jonathan Sims and I was sort of tricked into making the apocalypse where I am one of the most powerful beings here and I enjoy seeing the suffering I've created, which is something that weighs me down because I haven't actually lost my morals as a person

And this is my boyfriend martin who thinks the best solution to the apocalypse is me committing murder

[the-lambda-archives-ai]

Statement of : Gordon Martinez Freeman, 30 year old MIT graduate,Regarding a peculiar video game he’d found.

Recorded direct from subject, May 16, 200-

Statement begins.

Pt 1 > here

ABOUT 👇

Hello! I am the author of this AU, you can find my main at @inkzectz , for more meta questions about this AU, or for general comments about it, please go there.

What is the AU about?

LA : AI is a crossover AU of sorts, in the simplest way put, it’s TMA but with HLVRAI characters, TMA stuff happens but altered to fit the general HLVRAI narrative, and with my own changes, headcanons, etc. added

I will be updating/editing this post as I progress.

Will it have spoilers?

Disclaimer!!

The AU will have a lot of the original themes of hlvrai and more so TMA, more so, horror themes, this will include gore, body horror, worms, decomposition, cult themes, psychological horror, arachnophobia,flashing imagery, etc.

(Will update as I go on)

I also feel it is important to mention this is the first time I have ever made a ask blog/ web comic/ published a story online, I will make mistakes, please bare with me as I am trying to figure things out.

English is not my first language, I do my best to grammar check and write well, but at the end of the day I will also be making mistakes.

Please be patient with me.

This au is a passion project of mine that I am doing on my free time because I want to, it is important to remember as a reader, I do not owe you anything.

It is best if you’ve seen it but as of writing it right now (early ep 4) there aren’t any spoilers. Once I am a little further ahead then you may want to listen to it.

Yes, not a lot, but vague/mild spoilers about how the world works, plot points, and character.

Again the spoilers will be vague and mild at worst, as it progresses I would recommend listening to tma, but it’s sort of like how while half life knowledge is helpful in hlvrai it isn’t exactly necessary to enjoy hlvrai bc it’s different enough from it to not really matter (?) I hope that makes sense.

Asks rules

- No telling [ player ] exactly what happens ex : “omg [ player ] when you weren’t looking [ npc ] said this very important thing that is supposed to be kept secret for lore reasons”

- Please avoid asks like “tell this character they’re pretty” while I appreciate the compliment, I am trying to write a story and want to keep things as on topic as possible. Instead tell me on my main if you like the art, I’ll probably reply with a doodle or something, just not on here.

- Less so of a rule but more so of a general statement, I will be avoiding asks that either are too close to what happens or if answering would mean progressing the story too quickly, there’s a lot I want to happen and I want time to do it all.

- Another one that’s less of a rule and more of a general thing, if I don’t like what you said I won’t be answering.

- I also sometimes just don’t know how to answer some things.

- Please be respectful of the ships I choose to include and don't force your own, ship wars and such will not be tolerated.

- Please be respectful of others and do not spoil anything, not everyone has listened to TMA and knows it's themes.

I will not be answering everything, I cannot always get to every message so please be respectful of that.

Select character

Character abouts! [ Will be updating as I continue to work on the story ]

[ select ] > Mr. Freeman

> Gordon Martinez ‘Martini’ Freeman

30 y.o . 6’0 . 230lb . Romani / Puertorican . male [ he/him ] . bisexual

[ PLAYER ]

> Lives in Seattle, MIT graduate, left Black Mesa, works as a librarian IRL but also makes money via streaming video games occasionally, in real time it is 2018.

> Believes in the paranormal out of fear but tries to rationalize out of denial, he will never admit something is supernatural and will jump through hoops to rationalize even if deep down he does believe.

> Has a son named Joshua Medrano Freeman, who is 6 years old, Gordon and his old partner met in college but split up before Joshua was born, they remain civil but are nothing more to each other than Joshua’s other parent.

> Gordon rents an apartment with 3 rooms, his own room, Joshua’s room, and a third that used to be a guest room but he has so little visitors he’s just chosen to revamp it into a gaming room.

> Gordon works primarily in a library for now as he’s looking for a better job.

> Gordon often wears hoodies, sweaters, t-shirts, crew necks, and any general outfit one would wear at home, long curly hair that is beginning to grey due to stress, unkempt goatee, and almost always wears green tinted glasses [ he doesn’t need glasses he just thinks they’re cool ]

> His hair is usually pulled back in a ponytail but can also be found in a bun or just down.

< [ select ] > Mr. Coolatta

> Thomas ‘Tommy’ Coolatta, primary researcher, and technical head of the institute.

39 y.o . 6’7 . 190lb . Chinese/filipino . Male [ he/him ] . ???

[ NPC ]

> His father owns the Lambda institute and he grew up in it, he officially started working in the archives when he was 24, and of all the employees in the entire institute he has worked there the longest.

> No one knows who his father really is, Tommy being the only one who’s ever actually seen / spoken to him, his father is the real head of the institute but gives most his orders through Tommy, so Tommy is also technically the head as well.

> Not much is actually known about him, besides his father he doesn’t appear to have any other family, nor does he ever speak of his personal life much.

> Tommy primarily works as an archival assistant, specifically in research, he is the one who will verify details regarding statements or do further investigations into aspects of the statements.

> Tommy is quite the colorful character, often wearing colorful clothing and accessories, he seems to think doing so brings some cheer into an otherwise boring environment, he often wears patterned polo shirts, cheap company bracelets, pins, lanyards, pant chains, but is never without his signature multicolor propeller hat.

[genderqueerdykes]

hi I feel kinda silly for not knowing, but I can't easily google this: What does tma/tme mean? I've only ever seen the abbrieviations

thanks for stopping by to ask! hey that's okay most people don't know what they mean, it's used by a niche group of people who are very rude and are hellbent on making afab people, trans men, intersex people and other queer people feel like shit all over again for no good reason.

they stand for "transmisogyny affected" and "transmigoyny exempt". they are dog whistles used to say "trans woman/tranfem" with "tma" and "afab people, intersex people, people perceived to be afab people trans men, transmascs, and basically anyone who isn't a trans woman". however the way its most commonly use code words. TME is used as a code word for trans man, transfem or afab person, TMA is used as a code word for perisex (non-intersex) transfems and trans women.

it's an easy way for people to say they hate trans men, transmascs & afab people without actually saying it, which makes them feel better about themselves. really what they're trying to do is attract people who feel the same way who are too scared to say it out loud. they don't want to risk garnering outright too much hate by outright saying "nasty transmascs, trans men and afab people" but they can say "nasty TMEs" because it's gussied up as progressive. according to the people use it, it's "about oppression,". it's not, but that's what they say it is.

people who consider themselves TMA look down on TME people because they're "not as oppressed," but i quite literally don't know in what universe AFAB people are not oppressed. that is such a twisted view on the world, first of all. AFAB people are oppressed no matter what, even if they are transmascs or trans men. AFAB people are subject to all kinds of oppression from birth. people in certain transfem echo chambers believe AFAB people, intersex people, transmascs and trans man can never suffer ever for some reason. it's really bad.

it's an oppression olympics thing. some people are not interested in having a real conversation about the struggles trans people face. they just want everyone else to clam up and listen to them with rapt attention and never speak. TME and TMA don't work because transmisogyny affects everyone regardless of gender. anyone can be affected by transmisogyny due to the hyper visibility of transfemininity.

it's also been pointed out that black trans people do not segregate people into "transmisogynoir affected" and "transmisogynoir exempt". this would be a ridiculous thing to do. it's creating unnecessary barriers between trans people.

some AMAB queer people, transfems & trans people have a knee jerk, cat hiss reaction towards queers who were born with vaginas. it's really scary honestly. i don't know why. this entire thing is to try to figure out what genitals you were born with. like be careful around people like this and don't try to tell them which one you are because they are literally trying to figure out what genitals you had at birth & what gender you were assigned at birth. it's not to make you "safer" for transfems and trans women to be around or whatever. this is a transandrophobic dog whistle. stay safe. thanks for stopping by, take care of yourself

[ambriel-angstwitch]

Fair. It's not that I'm ashamed of Stanford himself. Gravity Falls is probably one of my more normal fandoms. Plus I literally just had over two pages of notes on my Book of Bill ARG findings, when it came out (those I never posted) plus the two realizations about contents of books themselves that I posted, and the Barcode post.

It's just that that is an embarrassingly wrong guess once you look at it for more than one second. Good to know she would go as Stanford Pines. Ford is wonderful costume.

I'll look forward to Gerry, I'm pretty inconsistent with my consumption of Media so who knows when I'll actually get that far.

Kore’s Halloween costume

Can you guess the character?

It’s Gerry Keay from TMA :}

Inspired by ambriel’s Kit’s Halloween costume post I saw like, an hour ago

[lazybunzz]

Rating podcasts I've listened to (so far)

The Magnus archives

-1st fictional podcast I've listened to and what got me into that genre 

- slow progressing yet amazing plot

- plot twists <3

- LGBTQ and POC representation 

- your fav will probably die 

- interesting well written characters

- 200 episodes (completed) 

9.5/10

Welcome to nightvale

-less serious

-little plot

-America rahhh 🦅

-the real villain is capitalism

-LGBTQ represtation 

-interesting characters

-there is technically a RCTA character...? 😭 (it makes some sort of sense with context) 

-there really isn't much going on other than the town being haunted by weird supernatural but that's just another day nightvale 

-most of the intrens die. 

- goodnight nightvale goodnight

- 250+ episodes (ongoing -  bi weekly as in once every fortnight not twice a week) 

6.8/10

The Magnus protocol 

-you guessed it it's a sequel to TMA 

-probably should listen to TMA first

-so much going on

-so many mysterious and unexplained motives

-LGBTQ (implied) and POC representation 

- Mr Bonzo 

- computer nerds

- 20+ episodes (ongoing - weekly + random haitus every 10? Episodes) 

8/10

Sherlock and co. 

-Sherlock Holmes but in the modern world. 

-does that concept justice unlike some people *cough* BBC *cough*

- sherlock actually has a diagnosis

- well written friendships and relationships

- Mrs hudson is not an old woman ig? 

- marianna the love of my life <33

-good cases mostly? Based off ACD books

-40+ episodes (ongoing- weekly)

8.5/10

Malevolent 

-my fav <3

-great plot

-very interesting and unique characters

-little British man going THROUGH IT

- Morally gray/ questionable morals

- does NOT pass the bechdel test (there is only one female character who has actual lines) 

- MOTHERFUCKING KAYNE. 

- set in the 1930's 

- CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT :'D 

- 40+ epsiodes (ongoing- MONTHLY) 

9/10

[genericpuff]

(I am the anon who recommended Ulysses Dies at Dawn) I hope you like it!!!! Udad is one of my favourite albums especially because of the world building around The City, so I hope you enjoyed it too!!

I did finish it, I quite liked it! Recommended it to my husband as well as he's a huuuge Epic fan (he's more of a musical theater person than me overall tbh) and probably would also love The Magnus Archives if he ever gave it a shot haha (I haven't touched TMA but I'm aware of its fandom presence on this hellsite LOL)

Overall it was a really cool concept album! Turning the setting of The Odyssey into a sort of post-modern steampunk epic was pretty unique and cool, especially with how they adapted some of the stories into said setting. Turning the riddle of the Sphinx into a literal disease that ages infants from birth to death within a matter of hours? Genius. And while it does take some massive creative liberties by incorporating other mythological characters like Herakles and Ariadne directly into the cast, it still did a pretty good job at creating a unique, thought-provoking, well-rounded plot with overarching themes and motifs in only an hour! I especially appreciate the little lore details they hid in the video descriptions and thumbnail art, I always love hunting for secrets like that haha

My favorite songs were probably My Name is No One, Riddle of the Sphinx, Sirens, and Favoured Son, the vocals are all wonderfully delivered (especially in Sirens, it gave me chills in the best way) and the narrative progression within the lyrics was very compelling especially in relation to the world-building.

I had a couple of least favorites too though, and unfortunately they were Orpheus' and Ariadne's songs which I wish I could love on that basis alone but alas, they just didn't hit the mark for me.

My issue with Trial by Song is largely personal, I can get what the vocalist was going for but that constant high-note vocal waving / shaking just doesn't do it for me, I've never been a fan of that delivery style so even if it was intentional and driven with purpose, it's just not something I can force myself to enjoy. But again, that's largely personal taste, not something I'm gonna hold against the vocalist because aside from that one personal ick they're doing a great job at hitting and maintaining those notes, if it weren't for that one thing I'd probably be way more into it haha

As for Ties That Bind, that one actually isn't a personal issue, at least as far as I can argue LOL On a technical level, the mixing felt very off, the instrumentals were often just way too loud compared to the vocalist which made it difficult to focus on what was being sung (and the mic quality itself didn't seem all that great either). And that problem was compounded by the vocalist's own stylization which threw me off because of how deep her voice suddenly sounded compared to how she had been speaking up until that point; it felt very forced and strained, especially when she tried to switch from those deep chest notes to those higher throat notes. This stylization clashed with the lyrics too, the line deliveries often felt "cramped" where the vocalist almost seemed to be slurring / rushing the words (sometimes they even felt completely off-tempo) which made it hard to make out what she was saying even when I could hear past the instrumentals. And that's not exactly ideal for a musical where the plot is literally being delivered through song LMAO It just felt like it could have used a bit more time in the oven IMO. I don't doubt that the vocalist is skilled, it just felt like the song was often working against her skills rather than with them.

All that said, in spite of those two criticisms I have of it after my first couple listens, I do think this is a great concept album and I was shocked to see it doesn't seem to have much attention on it judging by the view counts, it really deserves more attention and love because the amount of thought and detail that went into creating this world and its narrative and its characters is incredibly impressive.

So if you're like me and also had no clue this album existed until now, I highly suggest checking it out! It's not as big a time commitment as Epic or Hadestown, it only takes an hour to get through. And if you're into gritty steampunk film-noir stuff with lots of mystery and intrigue and twists, it'll probably be right up your alley!