Which Role The Magnus Archive Characters Would Have In A Murder Mystery

Gertrude - Gertrude is the detective who’s taken it on herself to investigate the case. She won’t stop until it’s solved.

Gerard - Gerard is the detective’s assistant who’s helping Gertrude investigate the crime. He is mostly there to be witty but he will point out something that rolled under a bed/couch/chair at some point and a say “What’s that?” while Gertrude goes to pick it up.

Elias - Elias is the culprit of this case. He really just can’t help himself.

Peter - Peter is the one who Elias tries to frame for the crime. After Elias lost one too many bets to him, he decided the only way to get him back was to frame him for murder. It almost worked too. If it weren’t for those meddling Institute workers.

Michael Shelley - Michael is the victim. He is doomed by the narrative even in a Tumblr post. He was killed because he walked in on Elias trying to steal a Leitner tome from Gertrude’s purse.

Georgie - Georgie is the party host. She didn’t want to be involved with a murder. She just wanted to have her friends over and eat a cheese board, which is far too much to ask for when you’re in the middle of the murder mystery genre.

Jon - Jon is the red-herring that everyone is initially suspicious of. The last time anyone saw him before the murder he was going to look for Michael to ask him for help clarifying something about a statement. Which made him the prime suspect for a period of time.

Sasha - Sasha is the vital eye-witness. She see’s Jon on the porch at the time of the time crime (he decided to smoke a cigarette before talking to Michael) and therefore she’s able to clear his name.

Basira and Daisy - Basira and Daisy are the cops that show up near the end with extremely relevant information about the past that is somehow very relevant to the present case. In this AU let’s say they’ve confronted Elias before on suspicion of stealing a Leitner, but nothing ever came of it.

Melanie King - Melanie is the one who saves the day. She tapes Elias giving a heated confession to Gertrude and that end’s up being the prime evidence of the case. Or she just like…jumps him. IDK go with your preferred interpretation.

Martin - Martin is a house party version of the butler. He just wanted to bring everyone tea and snacks and he ends up wrapped up in a murder mystery. This time the butler didn’t do it.

Tim - Tim personality guest. He is just there to be entertaining and fill in a chair, but then he gets super into it and ends up having a pretty good moment where he confronts the killer.

I think the most mundane thing that will tell you so much about a person is who they play in Mario Kart. So here’s me applying that thought to the Magnus Archive characters:

Gerard Keay plays as Dry Bones.

Jonathan Sims plays as Daisy.

Basira Hussain plays as Metal Mario.

Peter Lucas plays as Ice Mario.

Elias Bouchard plays as King Boo.

Daisy Tonner plays as Baby Peach. (Small Elaboration: Much how she enjoys the irony of her nickname, she also enjoys the irony of absolutely wiping the floor with her coworkers while playing as a baby.)

Tim Stoker plays as Funky Kong.

Michael Shelley plays as Lakitu.

Sasha James plays as Lugi.

Martin Blackwood plays as Toad.

Melanie King plays as Roy.

Gertrude Robinson plays as Cat Toad.

Georgie Barker plays as Yoshi.

“Even now I can’t fully bring myself to regret that part of the events that led me here, and had we reached the Valley as planned, I believe we would have been far happier than most.” Is a line that’s extremely relevant line to The Magnus Archives as a whole. So much of the series is things going wrong in every way they could go wrong up until the apocalypse happens. And yet…it’s so hard to imagine any of the cast fully regretting all of the parts that lead to the end of TMA 200.

I can’t imagine that Melanie regretted getting to know Georgie more in her search for the truth about the supernatural, and I can’t imagine that Georgie regretting falling for Melanie…even though it meant she became a cult leader and got involved with The Institute at the end. I can’t imagine that Basira regretted every moment with Daisy. At the least, not the long car rides where they would listen to “The Archers.” I doubt Daisy regretted that part either, even as she grew to rightfully regret every other path she walked on.

I can’t imagine that Tim would have regretted growing up with a brother, or knowing Sasha, and the friendship they shared. I can’t imagine that Sasha would have regretted joking around with Tim in The Archives, even if she knew their words foreshadowed their fates. I can’t imagine Martin regretting that he doesn’t have to be alone anymore, and that he can finally be seen. I can’t imagine that Jon fully regrets getting the answers that plagued him, even if he does regret where they ended up leading.

And of course, all of this doesn’t mean they don’t have ANY regrets. I’m completely sure all of them wish things would have turned out very differently. But…if they could have reached the valley as they planned, and lived the better lives they wanted with the people they cared about, then they could have been happier than most. And that’s such a hard thing to completely regret.

There’s something so cruel about Not-Sasha’s “boyfriend” being named Tom.

His name is so close to Tim’s. It’s like the universe is taunting him with what almost was, with Tim nearly getting to hear his name every time Sasha talks about her new partner. But not quite.

It’s the perfect manifestation of the Stranger, but it’s likely not a manifestation at all. Someone who was probably Tom introduces himself with that name to Daisy YEARS before The Not-Sasha stuff happens.

So that means the Tom/Tim parallel is probably just a coincidence by the universe instead of a direct manifestation…which almost makes it hurt more to imagine Tim’s thought process when “Sasha” told him that she had given up on their “will they, won’t they,” story to date a guy that almost has his name.

Tim and Sasha are doomed in such a parallel line way. They always seem to run along each other somehow, but they’re never able to intersect.