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A fun theory

In this brilliant post, op shows how Jane Prentiss encounters and mentions all 14 Fears, describing them as though she deeply understands them all from within her corrupted lens. Op calls it an early hint in the narrative to the Fears and their role in the world but I want to posit an in-world theory.

I think that part of the reason the Web sent a spider to cause Jon to break the wall and lead Jane to act earlier than she wanted was because Jane's rudimentary ritual to bring the Corruption to the world (through the circle of worms which Tim later found) would have actually worked in bringing all the Fears because Jane was already marked by all of them and was now in a place of power (the tunnels under the institute) and ready to incubate and create a corruption-based apocalypse.

This is something that the Web did not plan for and would not be able to control, because, as Jon said in episode 152, "what did Elias call it? – Filth. I don’t think it really plans much. It just starts to grow wherever it can get a foothold, and, if no one stamps it out in time… game over." The Web has no control over a thing that doesn't plan and had to "stamp it out" before it caused a "game over" by derailing all its schemes of a controlled eyepocalypse, ruled by its puppets (Jon and Jonah).

#tma#the magnus archives#mag 152#mag 32#jane prentiss#mag 39#tma meta#tma entities#thank you shinyhappygoth for helping find epsiode 152 <3#1k
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@ashes-in-a-jar

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Web: hatching a whole long term plan to extend ourselves towards nearly endless resources of fear outside this one measly world. And all you brainless Fears will help me with this.

End: endless you say? *Proceeds to create a prophet avatar to warn the Archivist, a fearless avatar to protect the Archivist (yes I'm speculating that Georgie becoming fearless was fully intentional on the End's part), helps the web mark the Archivist so the apocalypse will arrive and accelerate the End then combines that with a coroner's report to hint the Archivist at the potential solution against the Web's ultimate plans.

Is the End trying halfheartedly to prevent they Fears' longevity? All of its actions just make it seem like it was trying to gamble against the plan to postpone the end but halfway through it was like 'ah it doesn't really matter, I'll just go back to sleep and hope my extremely vague hints are enough for these humans to interpret.

Or was its ultimate plan just to catch that ever elusive Jonah who kept managing to escape it and once that was done was like 'all right, finally checked that off my list, I'm now ready to be yeeted with the rest of y'all'.

A thought: none of the Fears really wanted to get rid of the Magnus Institute. Why? Unlike your average fear-enhanced establishment/person/book (including the Eye ones) the Magnus Institute, specifically the Archivist, serves as a fear amplifier.

You came in telling a statement about an experience with the Buried? Regaled your run in with the bone dude? Described how you fell for an unnaturally long time? Congrats it's now going to appear every night in your dreams as if you're experiencing it all over again, with a bonus of an Eye monster watching you to make you feel even more afraid and isolated in your fear.

Jess Terrell in 142 describes to Martin how she finally managed to get her trauma under control, the fear becoming more manageable. Only to regress after meeting Jon and retelling the story. Her phobia of enclosed spaces amplified, more panic attacks and instability. These people who come to the institute come out only to experience their fear of the event for longer and more potently than if they allowed themselves to recover naturally. The institute sucks them in to tell their story, not only feeding the Eye but also amplifying the other Fear they came in with.

There are attacks on the institute over time by the other Fears but remember! The attacks happen when the cult following the Fear, not the Fear itself, feel that their impending ritual is being threatened. We almost only ever hear about specifically ritual related attacks. Either way the institute always somehow manages to weather these attacks and come out more or less fine on the other side. Additionally, during Jon's time, plenty of attacks happened when Jonah and the Web started the whole marking the Archivist business. It is not a place that is attacked because the Fears want it. Hell, even the Hunt collaborates with it more often than not.

Jon survives endless encounters with other avatars and I want to say that it's also partially because they acknowledge, even if subconsciously, his importance to the fear ecosystem as the Archivist.

The other Fears allow the institute to continue because, unlike what it seems on the surface, it doesn't leach off of their fear. It stengethens it.

So the tma world is adjacent to ours, practically the same save for the fact that the Fears exist in that world.

And it got me wondering about the horror culture there. I'm trying to picture how rumors of real supernatural horror would create a culture with much more focus on horror movies, horror stories and the likes.

Fear being a much more developed feeling in their world because of those elements subconsciously influencing society to feed them.

I like to imagine people are much more familiar with horror pop culture. Many more movies and stories created by people who really want to understand the nuance of fear. YouTube channels like Melanie's and podcasts like Georgie's have a much larger viewing than they would if they had been in our world.

If places like the Magnus Institute exist and have a well known reputation, who's to say that cinema and literature are not the exact same? Even stories in other genres like comedy and romance and Sci fi will always have the element of fear woven into them in some way.

I'm gonna be thinking more about this concept...

Tma avatars working in the thing that is opposite of their nature but it somehow works in their favor, a comprehensive list:

Jude Perry, pool lifeguard

Jared Hopworth, flight instructor

Simon Fairchild, archeologist

Mike Crew, politician

Jonah Magnus, gardener

What (in your opinion) is the most compelling mark Jon recieved from the Fears
3. Corruption- Jane Prentiss' worms
5. Desolation- Jude Perry's handshake
6. Vast- Mike's terminal velocity chair
7. Hunt- Daisy's kidnapping
9. End- dying and Oliver's choice
10. Slaughter- Melanie's surgery
11. Flesh- Jared taking out his ribs
12. Buried- going into the coffin
13. Dark- looking into the dark sun
14. Lonely- Peter's domain

do you guys think the aliens got fearpocalypse'd too

i think we vastly underutilize jon’s scars/marks, like, as a concept to explore. 

please consider;

  • the mark from the desolation heals, but it still burns, the skin is hot to the touch, he starts shaking hands with his left.
  • he can still feel the worms, but not only that, he can hear their songs when it gets quiet. 
  • the mark from the hunt still bleeds, occasionally. it pulses like a heartbeat, faster and faster, driving him to give chase after his prey, lest he become the hunted again. 
  • the slaughter’s mark also bleeds, and it sits stiffly in his shoulder, and when he pulls on the knotted skin, the pain is laced with something vicious and mindlessly violent, and just a little of what melanie had be feeling, on top of everything.

    • The Magnus Archives' avatars concept is literally like what if people could be in a parasocial relationship with their negative emotions

    Tma AU where everything is the same except the Archive has a Roomba and its Jane Prentiss' worst enemy

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