I just realized the show really contributed to the idea of being an avatar to mean just having a cool power by not having martin suffer the consequences of being one or be changed by it or even being hungry. he can just vanish. no don't worry he is a good person and a human <3 he doesn't need to feed on fear to vanish into the fog <3 don't you worry about it

death isn't a requirement because technically avatar isn't really a thing. but Jon was one already even pre Unknowing and him dying, he was already dependent on statements and compelling him. I don't think it was a requirement for Desolation either and the self-immolation being the cult thing and they were brought back to life like Jon was. they were already avatars pre dying

I think the requirement is causing harm in a particular manner. so it makes the martin thing more confusing. how can he vanish without feeding ie causing harm to others? literally doesn't make sense

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God I still wish theyd done something with the line implying Martin was literally cut off from his emotions early s5.

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Original Poster

I see it a conflict in writing Martin as his own character vs writing him as Jon's boyfriend. if he is Jon's anchor/humanity etc etc then you can't really focus on him having lost his own. it would be interesting for them to navigate that together, as a couple, with them both remembering the other as a human when they themselves don't remember (tho that does feel less impactful already solely because they didn't actually know each other when Jon was fully human but I digress). but this is not exactly the route they went with, choosing to give Martin the moral high ground in almost every situation. Jon is the monster. Martin is the human. but all that it does is ignores Martin's arc in s4. I feel like they wrote themselves in the corner by making it a little too similar to what Jon has. they want him to be The Human character (which let's be real, that's Basira) but also an avatar, giving him his own domain and all. and I don't think it works the way they wanted it to work

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...you might've just put in words something that has been bothering me for a while

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you got me thinking and it's kind of another piece of this ridiculous plot armour he has, like the fact he wasn't smitten when he hit Jon in Web theatre