I have already talked about Elias calling Jon the Archivists exclusively and how it does not make sense here but I want to talk about what it means narratively for Elias to continuously call Jon by his name and not Archivist.

First, there is very strong theme of 'us' vs 'them' in the podcast, humans vs monsters/avatars, which is the underlying cause of the conflict between Jon and the Archival staff (something that deserves its own post). But Jon himself has that separation, most clearly expressed via what name is used to refer to him. The Archival staff calls him Jon, the avatars say Archivist. Thus Elias puts himself firmly in the former by only calling Jon by his name, which has a bigger impact in s3, than say s4, when Jon is still confused about his role and what it means. Jon has certain association with what name people use for him, considering the context of the previous times he had been called Archivist. Something Elias takes advantage of, putting himself in the category of 'us'.

This is supported by the fact that those only instances where Elias calls Jon Archivist are in the end of s3, after s3 when he no longer needs this kind of relationship to influence Jon. And the first/last time he does that is very early on, when Jon knows even less.

You could, of course, argue that he could call Jon Archivist for the sake of reminding him of his role and further dehumanising him. But he already does so successfully, without further needing to alienate Jon. And he does do that, kind of, but not with Jon. He does it to Martin, in mag 139, when he says "our dear Archivist", reminding Martin of who, or what, Jon is.

However. I am a firm believer that Elias does view Jon as a person first and the Archivist being what he does/who he serves. In part, it's because he sees and acknowledges their similarities. Elias always views himself as a person, existing outside of the Eye, and thus has the same view when it comes to Jon, who is most similar to him.

The biggest support of this is mag 160 and mag 200. In the entirety of his letter he doesn't call Jon 'Archivist', in the beginning he says "Hello, John" at a point where there is no reason for him to create that sense of closeness. He has won, if he viewed Jon solely as the Archivist, now there is no point to concealing him. Yet he continuously calls him by his name. Same in mag 200, when Jon drags him out of his place as the pupil. He says "John? I-I-Is that you? Uh, I, I was having the most wonderful dream….". And while him using Jon's name later could be seen as his way of appealing to Jon's humanity and pity out of fear for his life, at that exact moment he is disoriented and has no reason to fear for his life just yet. He is sharing his thoughts openly (perhaps for the first time in a long time) and at the moment he calls Jon by his name.

114 notes
Avatar

OP I love you

More like this

One of my favorite things about Elias is how comfortable he is being underestimated. I think a lot of people tend to write him as prideful and intolerant of disrespect, but he's really not?

His employees call him by his first name. The very first time we hear his voice it's Jon talking back and being snippy with him, and Elias barely admonishes him for his mistake in the first place. It was under Elias's supervision that Gertrude "let" the Archives fall apart, and Jon + his assistants are obviously aware of that.

He stole the body and identity of a weed-smoking failson that was too young for the position he was in and only joined the Institute a few years prior. The Institute itself is kind of a laughingstock, openly mocked by academics and dismissed as "crackpots" that will accept literally anything.

Elias comes off as borderline incompetent until episode 80. He dismisses Jon's concerns about Prentiss, "admits" that he ran away like a coward and abandoned Sasha during the attack, and then apologizes because he couldn't figure out how to work the fire suppression system fast enough.

Even in Season 3 he still comes off like a dolt sometimes. He conveniently can't find Jon after he's been kidnapped, and then this whole conversation happens:

My first time operating CCTV cameras I was handed control over what was essentially 50 independently moving eyes that collectively covered an area about the size of a football field and from that experience I now know that

  • Suddenly having 50 moving eyes can make you disoriented and barfy and the adjustment period sucks ass
  • It takes both more and less time than you’d think to figure out what the structure as a whole looks like and where those eyes ARE
  • After you get used to it the entirety of the structure itself and all of the eyes you can see from feels like an extension of your nervous system in a very bizarre way. Like I have dreams now from the perspective of A Building and I’m not sure how to describe that.
  • Once you are aware of an unreachable blind spot it nags at you constantly and you can feel it like a hard little lump under your skin you need to poke and scratch at and it’s ardghgguychgghhbhhhbhhh
  • I should lock the fuck in *half an hour passes* I should lock the fuck in *half an hour passes* I should lock the fuck in *half an hour passes* I should-

    pain :(

    Even if Jonah were involved with someone, he would never pick out his body according to their tastes. He has never once in the entire show given an indication that he cares about others' preferences or that he'd modify his choices in the slightest to accommodate anybody else.

    The thing is, I'm not saying I'm particularly against Jonah being rich, because seeing all the people he frequented in the 1800s, he must have been -- and I also assume that when you're opening an Institute at that time to study the paranormal and your friends only treat it as your little Special Jonah Excentricity, you must have enough money that you'll only get teased and not fully judged for it.

    It's just that, unless my memory is severely failing me, it's also obvious that Jonah was all-in when it came to the Institute; that his friends were also telling him to chill a bit and to relax and not work as much. And I feel it's so much more interesting to have him be an academic losing himself to the study of fear (being enough of a recluse that his friends want to coax him out, and yet still good enough at the social game that he HAS friends coaxing him out to begin with) than just a... random Rich Son owning Mills who Just So happen on the Side to have the Institute.

    (And I'm not even against Jonah, as a rule, being a snob about social classes either? Like. I don't buy it fully, but being from a higher social statut WOULD, at least early on, give him so biases which: fair enough I guess, even if it's not really... visible in text at least in TMA for me.)

    Also like, actually, erasing all of TMA from memory, it's also kinda weird even if we just consider the Protocol World? I KNOW they didn't say it was Jonah's diary when we had the episode, but like, please???? This was so much like Jonah it would be absurd to invent a whole other character for it. So i've got to assume that whatever "official" information Georgie found on the Institute and its founders are just like. what it is. an "official", easy story to digest, that does not reflect the truth whatsover of what happened to Jonah. If anything, STILL not knowing the full truth about him WOULD be the one consistent thing we get about Jonah. Like who knows. Maybe he had a cousin with the same name. Maybe trans Jonah is real, Jonah Magnus was the first born son who died and Jonah was like "stealing the name for me btw".

    Anyhow. Whatever. Fanfiction of fanfiction. i need to stop thinking about this.

    Masochist dom Jonah Magnus. Is this anything.

    Ok i understand that, as a fandom person, you're going to analyse much more about a character and in depth and for so long you might get wrapped into specific feelings about them. And especially if the canon didnt give you that much about them you're going to build a lot from those incessant thoughts until you have your whole entire story in your head.

    But even so, trying as hard as possible not to be influenced by my own thing, how are the writers having such a different view of jonah magnus as i end up with?

    Im just kinda baffled because if... you wanted to write the character you seem to believe he is now, you.... didnt at the start. This is not the character on the page. Yes hes evil yes he wants power yes he relishes in suffering yes he used Jon yes in the old days he let his friends die no just because you were a rich guy in the 1800s doesnt mean you...have to have been a caricature of a rich guy in the 1800s?? Am i insane??

    Anyway. All this fanfiction and Georgie and Celia dont even get a proper angsty thing out of it.

    it does bother me when people call elias a twink cause thats not what that word means

    Sponsored