Something I think we don’t talk about a lot was that Gertrude was playing with the idea of sacrificing Gerard to stop the circus. That’s already a lot to take in, but something I think that’s important to what she says is the way she structures her sentence.
The first, and main, reason she lists to not sacrifice Gerard is his lack of strong connection to The Eye. The second reason she lists it that she’s grown fond of him. The “read between the lines” of it all is that she doesn’t want to sacrifice him, but the sentence is formatted in a way that makes it seem like her feelings aren’t a priority compared to the logical logistics of it all.
Now, I think could be read two ways with a character as complicated as Gertrude: You could read this as Gertrude putting her logic before her emotion and being willing to sacrifice Gerard if the cards fell that way. Which isn’t exactly a stretch when you think of everything that happened with Michael.
However, I think the second way you could read this is that Gertrude isn’t fully comfortable accepting that she doesn’t want to sacrifice him after a life of making hard calls and is therefore padding her real reason (affection) with logic because it makes it easier to swallow. I especially think this interpretation is interesting because Gertrude does admit that she knows Gerry has a connection to The Eye yet she doesn’t throw out the idea of strengthening it to help with ritual. In fact, she just drops the topic entirely which doesn’t seem like the norm for her.
This is super interesting dialogue considering how fast the series moves on from it, and while the series moved on from it, it’s been living in my mind rent free.
It’s so hot today that I made that I’m headcanoning The Magnus Archives characters favorite ice cream flavors:
Jon - Rum Raisin
Martin - Vanilla
Tim - Cookies And Cream
Sasha - Neapolitan
Melanie - Birthday Cake
Georgie - Cheesecake
Basira - Salted Caramel
Daisy - She doesn’t like ice cream but she really likes snow cones. The blue ones in specific.
Peter - Mango
Elias - Coffee
Gertrude - Cookie Dough
Gerard - Mint Chocolate Chip
Michael Shelley - Cotton Candy
The Magnus Archives theory I have that I think is the most true is: The reason Oliver dreamed of Gertrude at her desk instead in the tunnels is because her being at her desk is representative of how all the decisions she made as Archivist is really what ended up killing her.
What happened in the tunnels was due to Gertrude’s two biggest mistakes catching up to her. For one, she didn’t have anyone who could have helped her pull off her plan because all of her allies were dead or gone, mostly directly or indirectly by her hand. The other thing is that she had underestimated Elias for years despite knowing that he was Jonah Magnus. Both of these mistakes directly lead to her death, and both of these mistakes were made because she felt her role as an Archivist was to save the world above all else. Even if that meant using her friends as pawns or letting the Elias stuff go to focus on the rituals.
Gertrude died because she was The Archivist, and narratively I think that was the point Jon was supposed to take away from Oliver’s statement. That’s why her actual death and dream death doesn’t match up in a literal sense despite matching up in a symbolic sense.
(Also: Oliver’s dreams do tend to show the root cause of death instead the direct cause of death. In “Grifter’s Bone” he shows concern over a women’s ears, only for her later to die due to blunt force trauma that is driven by listening to a cursed band. So his dreams do seem to value overall cause instead of direct cause.)
In a world of fears that manifest into real monsters, people still probably have very mundane fears. So here are my headcanon’s on the more normal fears the TMA characters have that aren’t related to their day to day fear dealing.
Jon is terrified of public speaking. It’s a bit ironic considering how much he makes statements, but statements can be redone while mispronouncing a word or having a vocal crack at the wrong time can’t. At least in Jon’s mind. He wants people to take him seriously so the idea of having a flub in public is terrifying.
Peter Lucas is scared of frogs. He found one in his cabin bed one time right after boarding and it jumped at him. He hasn’t liked them since.
Melanie King is scared of vomit or vomiting. No “real” reason as to why, it’s just really gross.
Before the college incident happened Georgie was terrified of the concept of The Headless Horseman. It was one of the first scary stories she read as a kid and it stuck with her so deeply that just the sound of a horse walking around at night could freak her out a little.
Gerard Keay doesn’t like horses. He doesn’t like that something is that large and NOT a fear entity. Their eyes being on the side of their face freak him out too.
Martin is scared of thunder. He doesn’t like loud sudden noises and that’s basically the entire bit of what thunder is.
Michael Shelley was scared of empty rooms. Being in a new house would freak him out so bad because he hated not having furniture set up. It made the space look unnaturally wide and he didn’t like it.
Elias has a fear of germs. He’s very generous about giving people sick days because he’s being very honest when he says he doesn’t want anyone coming in if they have the flu or something.
Sasha is scared of large bodies of water. She likes knowing what’s going on around her at all times, and it’s hard to know what’s going on in a sea. The idea of a fish grazing against her foot while she swims is her worst nightmare.
Basira doesn’t do roller coasters. She hates the speed, the fast movements, and having to trust that it’s well built. Nothing about them is enjoyable to her.
Daisy doesn’t like dentists. She doesn’t do teeth stuff in general and she really doesn’t like the feeling of vulnerability that comes from someone poking around your mouth.
Tim is scared of geese. He got attacked by one in college and ever since then he sprints by geese whenever he see’s them. Sasha has so many videos of him in a dead sprint on her phone.
Gertrude has a fear of developing a phobia.
What I think The Magnus Archive character’s smell like:
Jon - Jon smells like old books that were left in a room with an air freshener all day, meaning that he smells like any library that’s existed for more than a decade. The way he smells is not helping the “Jon is old” allegations that his coworkers give him.
Martin - Martin smells a bit like tea, which isn’t a surprise to anyone considering how much he makes. But he also smells a lot like peppermint because of a hand lotion he uses. (Bonus headcanon that Jon used to not like the scent of mint, but by Season 4 he has a bowl of peppermints on his desk.)
Tim - Tim smells like a noticeable body spray that would be applied by frat boys and apparently Magnus Institute workers. Most people couldn’t pull the scent off, but there’s something about his general demur that makes the smell seem to suit him more than it should.
Sasha - Sasha smells like a coffee shop. She smells warm and sweet like hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls being served as a treat. The way she smells is very comfortable and welcoming.
Melanie - If you asked Melanie this question she would say that she doesn’t smell strong of anything. However, if you Georgie would say that smells faintly like coconut deodorant and hair dye. This is because Georgie likes women.
Georgie - Georgie smells like green apple because of the soap and shampoo she uses.
Basira - Basira smells like a mix of coffee and a room full of house plants combined into one. Being around her is like being around the physical embodiment of a sunroom.
Daisy - Daisy smells like a spring day. She smells like soil soaked by rain and a forest full of pine trees who’s cones are in bloom. She has this very natural smell about her that couldn’t be replicated by any cologne or shampoo.
Peter - Peter smells like saltwater. No matter where he goes he the the ocean follows him.
Elias - Elas somehow smells exactly like an eye doctor’s office. It’s not on purpose, he just achieves that uncomfortable clinical smell naturally.
Gertrude - Gertrude has smelt like the wick of a candle that was just went out ever since her ritual with The Desolation. Before that she had a slight orange smell that she expects clung to her clothes from her daily lunchtime snack, but that was a long time ago.
Gerard - Gerard’s clothes reek of smoke. Between his cigarette habit and his book burning he smells like a dirty chimney being lit most of the time, with the only expectation being late at night when he paints. He smells like watercolor and acrylic then. Though it’s always fleeting.
Michael Shelley - Michael smells soft like laundry that was just taken out of the dryer. When Distortion Michael has a smell he smells like laundry that was just taken out of the dryer but also tv static mixed with coffee cake and lilac. Maybe.
Helen Richardson - Helen Richardson smells like her favorite strawberry lotion and perfume. Distortion Helen smells like strong lemon cleaning products, making her smell like a sterile hotel lobby in a way that’s both familiar and distressing. She has a much more consistent scent than Distortion Michael since she’s a bit more stable. But it’s still unsettling.
