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Jonah is so hard to write because he conceals so much of himself. you can deduce a lot from what he doesn't say but to what extent is his behaviour an act? does he genuinely like cake or is it an act to fit the image of slightly incompetent, personally impersonal boss? he plays up the evil villain act when confronted but also he has such a tight grasp on his emotions. even in a stressful situation like with Leitner or Martin burning his old statements and personal letters (I do like how obvious was his struggle to collect himself, to not outwardly react, up until he started mind torturing Martin). but we know so little of him and his thoughts and struggles and what made him choose this

in addition he is very... inert (?) in his interactions with others. I have already talked about how he is metaphorically in the Panopticon but there is always a certain distance between Jonah and every other character. the closest person to him is, of course, Jon. and even he is kept at arm's length (he dismisses Jon in mag 92 and is not exactly responsive to Jon's show of vulnerability despite him opening up previously to his past a way to put them on the same level which is apart from others)

#tma spoilers#tma#the magnus archives#jonah magnus#elias bouchard#jonathan sims#tma meta
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thetoadking1

I get frustrated by this too- in a podcast in which he is the main villain, the person the titular archives is named after we really don't get a whole lot from him. We have the letters, his statement/ ritual, and a few offhand comments. The only real concrete thread (as far as anything is concrete in his character when he gets so little airtime) is his relationship with isolation- how he keeps everyone at an arms length to watch and eventually discard and admired Gertrude for it. Which in a later episode was revealed to be her being close to the Lonely. Stepping away from cannon into pre-cannon though... There are a lot of dots that can be connected regarding Robert Smirke's timeline (That weren't addressed in podcast but he's a real person so I argue they count)

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@kairos-polaris

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What we Know about Jonah Magnus (1816-1867)

So I decided to compile everything we know about Jonah Magnus' backstory. My sources are a blend of cannon and historical sources, given that two of his letter writing associates are actual historical architects and Millbank prison is a real place. I will try to stay away from any unfounded headcannons (Though if you've read my fic about Jonah in this time period you may see where I drew events from)

I shall list chronologically first what we know from cannon and then what we know from Smirke and Millbank's historical records.

In 1816 we know he has made an association (left vague- the relationship is clearly pleasant but the nature is unclear) with a German man named Albrecht von Closen. At this point Jonah has developed a "fascination for the macabre and strange" Closen tells Jonah of the tomb full of books and the eyeless (ghost?) of Würtemburg. At this point we know Jonah Magnus is likely an adult, putting his birthday at some point prior to 1798.

In 1818, Jonah Magnus establishes the Magnus Institute. It is unclear if he serves the Eye yet at this time.

In 1824 Jonah Magnus let Barnabas Bennett succumb to the Lonely. (Whether or not you subscribe to the "they were dating" is up to you, I personally don't). By this point we know Jonah has (is about to) begin serving the Eye. We also know that he knows Mordechai Lukas and is on "good terms" with him.

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ELIAS’ NAME IS LITERALLY “ALIAS” IM SO FUCKING STUPID HOW DID I NOT CLOCK THAT SOONER???

People can say whatever they want about Elias "Jonah Magnus" Bouchard but at the end of the day, he won. He did very much succeed for the first time in their world to get a true proper apocalypse. He was even having the most wonderful dream through all of it.

Yeah, you could argue that it was the Web all along, but you could also say Elias chose to work with the Web and was pleased the Web was with him on it. They shared custody of Jon. I feel saying "the Web did everything" (so Elias sucks/was useless) is like. 1. Playing into the Web narrative. 2. Oh?? Oh?? The guy who's made to be a watcher spent more time watching and waiting and using opportunities as they came along rather than being proactive all the time?? IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE WEIRD or bad?? Elias is an immortal guy. He's literally the most Eye guy to ever Eye before Jon (and even, I argue, after Jon. Love Jon with all my heart, but Jon is an eye/web baby, fight me). So it's not SURPRISING that it was his tactique. Plus he already knew he'd picked the perfect guy for it all, he didn't need to go the extra mile most times.

Like. I don't even know why i'm getting worked up over this I haven't seen anyone saying this about Elias in forever fkdksd but. He won. He did it. He got his apocalypse. Frankly it's even more amusing to me if he made the Web work for it more than he did, just being like "oh splendid" when a new opportunity to mark Jon came by.

Literally the only point you could argue was "wtf, Elias?" was the Jared thing. Why send letters to Jared specifically, Elias. Surely Angela could have helped you a little??? Or some other flesh avatars out there. But then again he's the universe's favourite villain so it worked in his favour anyway in the end, I suppose. Maybe Jon might have been too intimidated to go bother an old lady who might make him think of his grandma, if he'd written a polite letter to Angela instead.

we don’t talk enough about how gertrude stopped the ritual of the lonely by getting peter lukas cancelled

[the magnus archives if they were mice] apollo cheese for the deception but i had to make sure you started reading

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