2024-05-26 6:14:25 ¶ ● ⬀ ⬈

runningwithcoffee:

> douglysium:

> > # In Defense of Smirke’s 14

> > This is an exerbt from a larger article discussing episode 13 of TMAGP. So if you want to understand the full context you can do so here- https://docs.google.com/document/d/12_bKOpD_Ffic1yTDNEJGb2UlN2oUnSQn5lLKKnDCtMU/edit#heading=h.uwedvf2nuk5c

> > ## Why Smirke’s 14?

> > I’ve seen more and more people asking why people such as myself have been deferring to, or even adamant about, Smirke’s 14 still being applicable, and to be honest I don’t think I’ve done the best job actually sitting down and explaining all the logic in a cohesive way. Considering Lena mentioned balance and opposing forces in episode 13, and how that rings similar to Smirke’s original philosophy of balance among the Entities, I figured now was a good time to mention it.

> > Keep reading

> Reblogging because this is really excellent and I am somewhat in awe of the effort that went into it. Also makes the point that Smirke’s 14 fears categorisation works in any universe where recognisable humans evolved.

> I think that since the Extinction has its own domain, it had emerged as a 15th Fear, which would make sense given that it’s the fear that not only will you personally die, everything you’ve ever cared about, everything that gave your life meaning will be destroyed and you will leave NOTHING behind. Given the period of history it emerged in, that does make sense.

> Also, Sam is basically, Jon, isn’t he? He cannot see a dangerous supernatural sitaution without wanting to fling himself headlong towards it.

I’m a bit of an Extinction truther (so much so I even wrote an entire article on what it might be like to have Extinction avatars(Tumblr- https://www.tumblr.com/douglysium/717929126195003392/what-would-avatars-of-the-extinction-be-like-a?source=share / Google Docs- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GZlbU2q6ww5FO56E_vamorE8bmSsGBUXHB5EhaEP3z8/edit?usp=sharing)) but whether The Extinction actually existed in the way characters thought it did is pretty vague.

This is probably going to be longer than it should but let’s start with defining The Extinction. The Web isn’t just the fear of webs and The Eye isn’t just the fear of eyes. Likewise, the Extinction isn’t just the fear of going extinct or everything dying but of catastrophic change. In MAG 134, “Time of Revelation,” Adelard Dekker explains his theory about the power “But now the fear is not of a rapture or a revelation. It is of catastrophic change. Mankind will warp the world so much it kills us all, and leaves only a thousand years of plastic behind. Technology will strip us of what it means to be human, and leave us something alien and cold. We will press a button that in a moment will destroy everything we have ever been. Animals are witnessing the end of their entire species within a single generation.” So if The End is all the bees dying The Extinction is what the world would look like after all the bees have died (it would probably be worse off).

Then there’s the domains themselves. The Domains themselves can belong to a single power but at the same time they can easily belong to multiple Powers (such as Martin’s Domain being tied to The Eye and Lonely) and Domains can get super super personal. For example, in MAG 176 (Blood Ties) Jon and Martin come across a Domain of the Hunt that feeds on the fear of your pack turning on you. Which is odd because the fear of betrayal is usually something associated with the Spiral. It is important to mention the fact that what we are seeing here is the idea that your pack could turn on you and begin to hunt you at any moment as well as fear of witch-hunts or people otherwise trying to get you, so the concept isn’t completely divorced from the Hunt and all the Fears have overlaps including fears like the Spiral and Hunt. So some fears would end up looking quite similar even if they are connected to different Entities depending on the fear(s) in question. Martin also says “Besides, I thought the Hunt was meant to make you go faster,” to which Jon says “Depends on the type of pursuit. (exhale) Besides, the chase isn’t really the point of this particular place,” and “Because this place focuses on that worry, that fear of your own pack turning their claws on you.” Martin then asks “Is that… really a Hunt thing?” to which Jon replies “Can be. The old divisions don’t mean as much these days. Maybe they never did. The domains are… smaller, more – personal than the powers. They don’t just feed on the worst fears of the people trapped there; they’re shaped by them, too. It’s enough to fear the domain itself, if not the entire power behind it.” So basically part of the reason Domains can get kind of weird is because they can actively adjust in real time to the fears of the people within it. So Domains aren’t necessarily tied to Entities in the same way an artifact or person might be. They can sort of spiral out into their own thing. Martin also jokes “(somewhat begrudgingly) You should get that on a mug. ‘You don’t have to fear the Hunt to be trapped here…’”

In MAG 175 (Epoch) Jon says “Of course it was real – A-At least in the sense that – it was a thing people feared. Whether it was strong enough in its own right to be considered at a level with Smirke’s Fourteen, or – whether it was on its way to getting there, I – maybe. This sort of thing is always muddy.” So he’s admitting that he doesn’t know how far along The Extinction was before the change and he also says “To a degree. But – mostly he was just like anyone else who tried to take the scope of human terror and – (small inhale) package it neatly into little theories. All this talk of Emergence and – birthing a new power – it’s just people being scared.” and along with “Martin, I have the whole scope of human knowledge available to me, and – (small inhale, sharp exhale) I’d struggle to give you a simple answer to most of this stuff. And even if I am omniscient, I’m starting to realize that… doesn’t mean objective.” after Martin asks “What, so no one had any idea?”

This does tell us some important things. Jon’s near omniscience only works for the present. He only knows all the information that exists at that moment and he cannot see into the past or the future (he does state he can’t see the future) even if he can make predictions or put pieces together. This means Jon doesn’t actually know what The Extinction was like before The Change. He also doesn’t seem to go over it when he becomes the pupil of the Eye but as mentioned previously the categories can be subjective.

So there’s a couple of ways to interpret what’s happening with Epoch.

1. Yes, the domain feeds on the fears that The Extinction was composed of (catastrophic change) but it’s a more personal domain as opposed to one meant to feed an Entity. There’s probably a domain for basically every kind of fear, even the incredibly niche ones.

2. The Extinction was on its way to emerging and being on par with the other Powers but the Mass Ritual went off before it could fully emerge. This of course brings up the question of what would happen to the emerging Power. It’s possible that The Extinction was somehow sent back to square one BUT the Change created a lot of fear. Not only that but The Extinction is the fear of catastrophic change and having your world thrust into an apocalyptic hellscape or realizing that could happen would probably do a lot to feed such an Entity. So it’s possible that The Change gave The Extinction the push it needed to fully emerge.

3. The Extinction was already on par with Smirke’s 14 before the Mass Ritual went off. Of course, this raises the question of why Jonah wouldn’t need to mark Jon with the Extinction. It’s possible Jon had somehow been marked at some point or the realization that he was changing the world into an apocalyptic somehow counted as a mark. Or maybe Jonah was simply wrong and he didn’t need literally every single Entity but just enough of them or maybe he managed to get enough overlapping fears to drag The Extinction in anyway.

I would like to to see more of The Extinction because I think it’s thematically very interesting but whether we’ll actually see more of it at this point is still kind of up in the air for these reasons. However, like I said Protocol is a world that parallels our own so at the end of the day it might not matter since the fears causing its emergence probably would still exist anyway. So whether it resets or not could still lead to the same end result.