Gerard Keay is the most LGBT character of all time because he had ten minutes worth of screentime and the fandom collectively said “I think I met that guy at pride once.”

The Magnus Archives But It’s Just Pride Shirts I Want The Cast To Wear:

Jon -

More Undercut

Martin -

Tim -

Sasha -

Melanie -

Georgie -

Basira -

Daisy -

Peter -

Elias -

Gertrude -

Gerard -

Michael Shelley -

Since Jon and Gertrude use a tape recorder to store their knowledge, I headcanon that other people connected to The Eye keep track of what they know in different ways.

Sasha James made a video diary once a week about memorable events that happened to her. Sometimes she talked about important things like Martin’s encounter’s with Jane Prentiss, but most the time she just talked about the thing’s she saw in general, like the cafe near her house being busier than usual, or the cool old car that drove down her street. She fed The Eye in the most mundane way…or maybe The Eye was just that entangled with her day to day.

Gerard Keay carried a sketchbook and doodled the small things as they happen, then made full drawing’s of the big events as soon as he got the chance.

Eric Delano carried around a journal and jotted down his thought’s and feeling’s on everything he experienced. It was just meant to untangle his messy thought’s about The Institute, Gertrude, Mary and everything in between, but it ended up feeding The Eye pretty well.

Michael Shelley carried around a camcorder outside of work and would film things some times. He said it was because he had a hobby for film, which was partially true, but he also carried it so he could capture proof if he stumbled across anything like the door that took his friend…

Fiona Law had a photography hobby. She started it as a way to take picture’s of nature, but it quickly escalated into her taking picture’s of anything that felt drawn too. Including: Building’s, animal’s, people, and sometimes even the strange.

Emma Harvey kept a day planner where she would document the results of her “experiments” on her coworker’s day by day. She had a system to write innocuously enough to not draw suspension, like jolting down “Had trouble sleeping,” if Fiona lasted longer than usual before fainting.

Sarah Carpenter would just steal thing’s she thought they were important or interesting. She would keep them in her apartment where they could always be seen under her gaze, feeding The Eye through her occasionally sticky fingers.

Real footage of Jon learning that Georgie has a girlfriend and Georgie learning that Jon has a boyfriend: (They were both bi the whole time.)

I was thinking about Season 5 “murder cheerleader” Martin Blackwood today, and I want to talk about it because I think it’s a really interesting aspect of his character that can basically be summed up by what Anabelle Cane tells him in “The Worms”.

“He’s (Jon’s) more powerful here than he’s ever been, isn’t he? And you’re not sure what that means for you. Does he even need you at all?”

Jon is powerful in the apocalypse. So powerful, that he doesn’t need Martin to make it to London from a physical standpoint. He can just waltz through the fears, smiting all the way, and I think that’s why Martin leans so far into their revenge quest that he even pushes it when Jon starts to get cold feet.

Because from his standpoint: By encouraging the smiting he’s showing Jon, and himself, that he can be powerful too. He can be someone with a strong resolve who Jon needs to complete his quest. And when Jon starts to push back from it, it feel’s like a rejection of the one thing Martin think’s he’s good for.

What he doesn’t realize is that Jon’s revenge quest has nothing to do with him because Jon isn’t doubting Martin’s place by his side. While Jon could technically get through the apocalypse unscathed, he needs an anchor. He needs a reason to get up and keep going, and like he tells Martin in “Curiosity,” Martin is that reason. It doesn’t matter to Jon if he’s strong, or powerful, or useful. Jon just need’s someone that will tie him to his humanity.

And Martin does that without even trying.

Which Magnus Archives character do you think is most likely to know the extended “Supernatural” lore?

My vote is on Melanie, Georgie, and Jon. Melanie actually enjoys the show, Georgie kind of enjoyed the show but spends a lot of time on Tumblr, and then Jon doesn’t even know how he knows so much about it, but he does. (It’s not from his eye powers.)

The craziest things in TMA that gets looked over a lot is Jon saying that it’s crazy he’s not a vegetarian yet considering all the meat statements, but that he’ll take the small pleasures in life (like eating a hamburge) where he can, even if it delights a meat God.

Not only is crazy for Jon to say “c’est la vie” to serving The Flesh, but the implication that everyone who has ever eaten meat in The Magnus Archive universe, and our universe considering the end of the series, has canonically served The Flesh, is also insane.

As someone who had a chicken sandwich for lunch, I don’t know how I feel about that.

I’m just saying, Dipper and Mabel Pines could handle the events of The Magnus Archives, but Jonathan Sims could never handle the events of Weirdmageddon.

The thing about Gerard Keay is that I don’t know if it would be sadder if he looked like his Mother, looked like his Father, or looked like a mixture of both his parents.

If he looks like his Mother, then he’s always carrying her ghost on his face. Even after her pages are burned she stays in his mirror, and let’s herself by seen in puddles on the ground, and reflects in the eyes of everyone who look’s at him.

But if he looks like his Father, then he’s carrying the ghost of what his life could have been. His face is a reminder of someone he never got the chance to know because they loved him like a son and not like an heir.

If he looks like a mix of them, then both concept’s are true. He can never escape either of their faces because he carries them with him, both as legacy and baggage.

Jon saying “That would be our Gerard” kills me every time because it’s probably the first time in Gerry’s life that he’s been claimed with affection instead of possession.

The Magnus Archives is such a good series on a second listen.

It’s good series on a first listen too of course, but on the first listen you’re watching a mystery and trying to put all pieces together. On a second listen you’re watching a bomb tick down with the knowledge of exactly which events are speeding up its explosion and the buildup is SO good. All the character moments hit a little harder, and it’s super fun to relisten to the series with a new understanding of the plot points.

Anyways, this post is just “you should listen to TMA again” propaganda.

Something that really elevates the Not! Them’s creepiness level for me is what Gertrude says in “The Kind Mother.”

“I have destroyed the tape Ms. Cooper provided us as a precaution. I have no interest in attracting this thing’s attention.”

Gertrude Robinson is old women in a career where most people die young. She’s stopped multiple mass ritual’s and has survived a ritual herself when she was almost burned alive accidentally connecting herself to Agnes. She’s easily the toughest person in the series.

Yet, she has so little interest in attracting the Not! Them’s attention that she destroys knowledge just to stay under it’s radar. That’s not a small deal for someone attached to The Eye, or for someone who’s usually up for taking down a fear.

I think her reluctance speaks volumes for how dangerous The Stranger’s powers of replacement are. If it replaced someone in The Institute even Gertrude would have no way of knowing. And if it replaced her, then it would have free rein of The Archives.

Neither of those scenarios would be good and Gertrude understands that enough to turn a blind eye to the knowledge she’s given in the gift of a tape. That makes the Not! Them creature so much scarier for me, and it’s already a pretty horrifying concept.

The Magnus Archive But It’s Just Piercings I Think Some Of The Character’s Would Have

Jon - Jon got his ears pierced in college to look cool, and then immediately regretted them and let them grow up. However, he did look really cool for a second there.

Martin - Martin doesn’t have any piercings and he doesn’t want any. He doesn’t have an issue with them or anything, it’s just that the thought of a needle going through his skin freaks him out a little.

Tim - Tim has a tongue piercing in Season 1. Then he has a tongue piercing and a bridge piercing in Season 3.

Sasha - Sasha doesn’t have a piercing yet, but if she did she’d want it in a unique spot like her wrist or her hip. Probably her wrist, but she could go for many places.

Melanie and Georgie - Melanie wanted a septum piercing her entire life but she wasn’t sure what her pain tolerance would be for that type of thing so she ended up bringing Georgie to her appointment for support. Melanie did get the septum piercing. Georgie somehow ended up walking out with a philtrum piercing

Basira - Basira has a small nostril piercing that’s kind of hard of notice but looks really good if you do.

Daisy - Daisy has canine bites that she wears in her off time because they make her look intimidating. She doesn’t wear them post coffin.

Peter - Peter has a bellybutton piercing as a consequence of losing a bet with Elias.

Jonah/Elias - Gauges. Jonah didn’t originally have piercings, but Elias did and the holes in his ears were so big that they didn’t shrink back to a normal size once Jonah took over. So, Jonah just embraced the look.

Gertrude - Gertrude had an eyebrow piercing when she first joined The Institute, but it grew up eventually as her focus started zeroing in on the fears and her personal style kind of fell to the side in it all.

Gerard - Gerard has snake bite piercings and a stacked lobe. He wants more but hasn’t gotten around to it yet.

Michael Shelley - Michael has a snug ear piercing, but he keeps it hidden by covering his ears with his hair. He worries that he’ll get in trouble at work for having it, (Even despite Elias’s ears) but Elias and Gertrude could care less as long as he’s doing his job.

Melanie King Headcanon’s

A: Melanie first got into the paranormal as a young teen. She used to explore abandoned places for fun, and one day she decided to cheek out, ironically, an abandoned hospital. Inside she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched, and she would’ve sworn that she kept seeing shadows out of the corner of her eyes. She didn’t have any “real” experiences that day, but the paranoia she felt stuck with her so much that it kick started an interest in the paranormal. It’s a shame she didn’t notice all the spiderwebs….

B: Speaking of Melanie’s younger years: She skateboarded a lot as a teen, and even won a few pretty big competitions for her skills. She doesn’t skateboard a lot as an adult because her interest waned for other things, but she did show Georgie her skills once, shortly after they first met, actually.

C: Melanie has a new hair color almost every time she appears in the series. She dyes her hair all the time, usually in unnatural colors, but sometimes she’ll go brunette or blonde just to do something off from the usual blue or purple or pink. (Her natural hair color is black.)

D: Melanie loves snakes and rats. She’s had pet rat’s all throughout her childhood, and after the apocalypse she rewards herself for making it through by adopting a milk snake. Her name is Kitty and she’s kept far away from the actual cat.

E: She went to college to get a degree in video production but ended up dropping out when “Ghost Hunt UK” took off.

F: She’s so bad about leaning back in chairs. It makes people very anxious (Especially Georgie) when she sits in rolly chairs around them because there’s at least a 20% chance that’s going to tilt over.

G: She’s short. She’s 5'5 with very large combat boots on. She’s 5'3 without them.

H: If you don’t count Jon’s cheating eye powers then she speaks the most languages out of the cast. She speaks: English, French, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish. She really likes to travel and wants to have as many national languages in her toolbelt as she can so she can communicate easily when she goes. She, admittedly, does not have the patience for translator apps that are often wrong.

I: Her cane has a cat design on it, and many of the cats look like The Admiral. Georgie helped her pick it out.

J: She listened to “Evil Friends” by Portugal The Man a LOT after joining The Institute.

I want to learn more about Danny Stoker because multiple things we learn about him sets off my “something might be weird here” alarm.

The first thing that stand’s out to me is Nikola stating that she is only Grimaldi for special occasion’s, like when she killed Danny.

So that leaves the question: Why was Danny special enough to be Grimaldi for? While that’s not answered in the series, personally I think there are some implications that Danny might have been more involved with fears than Tim was aware of. My “proof” of this idea is that’s a lot of weird circumstantial evidence that just seems…off. For example:

A: Tim says that Danny was the face of a gym for a few month’s. The only other time a gym is mentioned in the series is when a women gives her statement about a gym run by Jared Hopworth.

B: There’s a weird amount of parallel’s between Tim and Danny’s story, and the story of the Mother who watched her son be eaten by the sky. For example: In both episode’s, Tim/The Mother says that their relative would go a long time without talking to them directly, but that they would always keep them up to date on their latest obsessions. In that same episode there’s also the parallel of Tim/The Mother having their relative randomly show up at their doorstep after having a traumatic experience.

C: One of Danny’s interests were sailing. Which, isn’t weird on it’s own, but this is TMA we’re talking about. Sailing could easily corelate with The Vast. What makes this idea even more interesting is that, like I said above, Tim’s statement about Danny parallel’s a statement about a son being eaten by the sky.

D: Danny had an interest in ghost buildings and said they were “crumbling pieces of history desperately clinging onto existence.“ That…seems like a concept that could possibly be linked to The Extinction. Tim points out that The Covent Garden Theatre had been destroyed by a fire twice. That could be linked to The Desolation. Danny going UNDER the theater could also be linked to The Buried.

E: Tim says that Danny said the name "Joey” when he showed up in his living room. Joey is one of the few names we don’t see in the series, but Joey could easily be a nickname for “Joseph.” Like, for example…Joseph Grimaldi. I think it’s interesting that Danny might have mentioned Joseph by first name considering he’s mentioned by last name for most of the series.

F: There’s also the fact that Danny even wanted to check out a building made by Smirke in the first place. While it could be a coincidence, it is something to think about considering everything else I’ve mentioned. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but maybe he had an interest in his work for a reason.

G: Danny’s skin being pulled off is described as “It was like an impressionist painting of a dancer, all colors and shapes that made you feel movement you couldn’t see. Silently, imperceptibly, moving from one position to another. The music had stopped and the dance was silent.” It doesn’t seem right that Danny’s death is compared to a dance considering we know a dance is linked to The Stranger’s ritual. There’s also the fact that Tim doesn’t remember anything after that other than walking out of the theater, he’s disoriented in the same way we saw that The Stranger’s ritual makes someone disoriented.

Now, admittedly, I know all my proof for this idea is circumstantial. But I would like to raise this point: Is anything in this series really a coincidence? Because in my opinion it seems like TMA is full of thread’s that all seem to lead somewhere one way or the other, and that’s why I think the idea of Danny being entangled with fears can’t be ruled out. Plus, I just find the idea interesting because it adds a lot to Tim’s story as whole. There’s a certain tragedy in him spending so much of his life trying to avenge a brother he might not have even known.

Oh Gertrude Robinson. They could never make me form a solid opinion on you.

Everyday I mourn the Jane Prentiss fanart I can’t fully enjoy because I apparently have trypophobia.

The statement’s are my favorite part of TMA because sometimes they’re about a homophobic vase or a large pig and then sometimes they contain sentences like “"I faced my demon, and there was nothing there,” or “The moment you die will feel the same as this one.”

I just love the contrast between either getting a story about a deadly Scooby Doo villain or a psychological horror that makes you think about the human condition. Personally that’s really what I’m looking for when I listen to a Podcast.

“My Goodbye” from Epic The Musical but with Gertrude and Gerard having some kind of falling out.

The Corruption won when it attacked The Institute in Season 1.

Sure, Jane Prentiss and the worm’s were destroyed, but the lingering effects of the attack causes toxicity between every relationship in The Institute.

Jon becomes paranoid in the way that strains his relationship with Martin, destroys his relationship with Tim, and fundamentally effects every relationship he has for the rest of the series.

Jon’s paranoia also end’s up breaking Tim and Martin’s friendship, with Martin being being dismissive of Tim’s feelings in favor of Jon’s, and Tim being too caught up in his anger to prioritize the feelings of anyone else.

Sasha get’s replaced and Not! Sasha end’s up dealing the final blow to all the problem’s the cast is already having. They add fuel to Jon’s paranoia fire as he knows something is wrong but can’t place it. They put Martin in a bad place by putting him in the middle of Jon and Tim’s heightened emotion. And they start pulling away from Tim, and when their identity is revealed, that destroy Tim’s trust in other’s completely.

The events of the corruption attack on The Institute end up leaving things…well, corrupted. It breaks multiple relationships and changes Tim and Jon for the worst, while also causing a few of Martin’s more negative traits to be on display. So while The Corruption may not have won the battle, it won the war, and it’s honestly devastating that the first attack the character’s go through is the one that end’s up leaving behind the rot.

Could you imagine the kind of theories Jon Sims would come up with while watching a show/movie or reading a book?

Worse: Could you imagine the kind of theories Jon Sims would come up with if he were watching his own series that he is the main character of? I genuinely think he’d start to theorize that Martin was a puppet made of spiders at some point.

In my opinion, one of the biggest moments that shows why The Eye picks Jon over Elias happens in Season 3. And it’s when Tim insists that he gets to help take down the circus.

Elias, who’s main goal is kickstarting the apocalypse, doesn’t want Tim to go because he see’s him as a rouge element to his plans. If he goes off the rails then it might hinder Jon’s ability to go up against The Stranger and get marked. That’s just not worth it in his opinion.

Jon however, wants Tim to go, because as he says himself, “I would rather have you were I can see you.” Jon KNOWS that Tim is spiraling. It’s very obvious to anyone around him and it’s easy to draw the conclusion that his unstable behavior is going to lead to him lashing out at some point. But, Jon is willing to risk that so he can keep his eye on Tim and see what he does when faced with the thing that took so much from him.

Jon truly and utterly serves The Eye, while Elias spends a lot of his time serving the concept of the apocalypse. What happens with Tim is a great example of that because Elias favors his plans instead of the knowledge of what Tim will do when unleashed on the circus, and that’s exactly why The Eye favors Jon as it’s pupil.

Doorkeay but Gerard Keay is banned from their local grocery store for being vaguely unsettling while somehow Distortion Michael is not.

Were you born gay or did a British horror podcast make you that way?

Me while actively having a horrible bout of insomnia: “Haha this is just like that one episode of The Magnus Archives!”

Elias, Martin, Gertrude, Sasha, Basira, and Daisy, are characters that were made to be in a serious horror podcast.

Jon, Gerard, Tim, Georgie, and Melanie were all made to be in an episode of Scooby Doo and are tormented greatly by the fact that they’re characters in a serious horror podcast.

From Tim’s perspective, the worst thing about everything is that he doesn’t have any real allies in his corner. While he’s drowning in his rage, Elias is trying to hold him under, Martin is in a lifeboat, and Jon is drowning with him, but pulling away every time Tim tries to reach out for his hand. There is no one coming to save him and knows it.

Then Tim’s put in a situation where, even if someone would dive in with him and offer to help pull him out, he couldn’t trust the hand that reached for him anymore than a sailor could trust a siren.

He knows that he can’t take anyone at face value now, and he goes from longing for a connection and starting constant confrontation because he’s not getting one, to avoiding everyone with the tunnels because even if he got that connection, he couldn’t trust it.

Tim Stoker is just such a sad character and seeing this two paragraph’s side by side with each other gave me psychological damage so I decided to make it everyone’s problem.

I’m super curious about how people’s opinions on TMA character’s changed on a second listen because I had a lot of shifting opinions on my second watch.

A big one is in regards to Jon. The second time I listened to TMA I genuinely had to force myself to be more critical of him because I loved his character too much on the first watch. I was in full “I could fix him.” Yeah? Well I could accept him as he is,“ mode. Which…is not great for character analysis.

That’s why was interesting to rewatch the series with Jon being The Archivist in mind. It was a lot easier to see the million times Jon was given the choice not to push the plot further and decided against it. Which was fascinating from a fan perspective because it made me realize how often I didn’t clock Jon’s mistakes because I wanted the plot to develop just as bad as he did.

I think when you’re watching the series for the first time it’s almost a natural instinct to think "No, Georgie, you don’t get it. Stop telling him to leave it alone because I want to know what’s going on with the weird circus.” And then that’s why a second listen is so fun because when you know how everything end’s up it’s easier to go “Oh. Yeah. Georgie’s right. Jon really should have backed off his investigating as much as he could after Leitner and his lack of willingness do so does contribute to the events of Season 5.”

And that’s not to say I don’t like Jon after a second listen. If anything I like him more now because I think he’s a fantastically written stand in for the audience and their feelings towards the plot, but I can also say that about other character’s BECAUSE I was more critical of Jon on a second watch.

I liked Tim, Melanie, and Georgie so much more on a second listen. Tim and Georgie SO valid 90% of the time, and Melanie lashes out in the wrong place a lot, but I still think rewatching her interactions with Jon knowing how everything was going to turn out gave me a lot more context towards her feelings. Because like…Yeah, Jon was pretty hostile to her from the moment they met, and the one time they have a positive interaction, it ends with Melanie thinking that Jon was gaslighting her over Sasha. It makes way more sense why she’s so on guard with him throughout the entire series when you’re reading their interactions with the hindsight that they never really fully get along.

Anyways. This was a lot of talking to say “TMA is a really good series.”

I made a headcanon that Gerard Keay likes marine biology because the name Gerard means “brave spearman,” and now it’s gone too far and I have this universe in my head where Gerard is a huge fish nerd and I keep forgetting that that’s not even slightly a thing in canon.