Gertrude and Jonah are so similar, I think. they both learned about the dread powers when they were young (I assume early 20s) and decided they were not going to be victims of the situation. in the world actively hostile to everyone, they dedicated their whole lives trying to solve that issue – whatever that means for them. and they were ruthless; they lied and killed and betrayed and made themselves cold and detached so as not to grow soft and vulnerable for years and years and years. don’t get attached, use people, don’t let anyone too close, sleep with one eye open, for god’s sake, you don’t have the time to be afraid. while they did have opposite goals (although one can argue they are complimentary – if no one is trying to start the apocalypse, why would you need to prevent it?), they also were the only people capable of matching each other’s intensity. unstoppable force vs unstoppable force. they were doomed to crash
@ajcrawly‘s recent fic THAT IS HERE is so good and so emotionally devastating but the first thing I latched onto was Fanshawe surgically peeling an apple SO…
taking poison damage from thinking too hard about how tma capitalizes on the horror of not having all the information by slowly taking away said information from the listener
elaborating: seasons 1-3 are firmly rooted in the viewpoint of Jon. The audience knows just as much as he does about the goings on around him, and sometimes even more (such as with Sasha being killed by the not!them). There are very few points in which Jon has more information than the audience, and most of said information is discovered and deciphered within the confines of the podcast episodes.
Season 4 is where this starts to change. A lot of this can be attributed to the fact that Jon is rapidly developing supernatural knowledge, but at the same time this is basically giving him a get out of jail free card. As the audience, you assume Jon is still giving you the information when he finds it, because that’s what he’s been doing up until this point. You assume he’s still doing all this for the noble cause of saving the world. Hell, it’s not even until over halfway through season 4 that you learn he’s been stalking people and taking their statements (the guy who does have a history of stalking, of paranoia, of taking things to far - but you don’t want to think about that, because he’s the protagonist, the voice you’re supposed to trust), and only then does the audience fully come to realize how much he’s been lying to you and how little you can take his words at face value.
And then there’s season 5. If seasons 1-4 were spent looking over Jon’s shoulder, season 5 is spent looking over Martin’s - the man who does not have eldritch knowledge, who doesn’t wish to know every little detail about the horrible world he’s found himself in, whose only source of information is from his partner who is trying to protect him from what he did. And at that point…you really cannot say anything about what’s going on in Jon’s head for definitive fact aside from what he explicitly says out loud. You’re stuck with a bundle of uncertainties. You don’t know how they’re going to put the world back. You don’t know Jon is planning to kill Helen before he’s at her front door. You don’t know Jon is going against the group’s plans until he’s already at the top of the Panopticon. You’re not the watcher anymore - you’re the one being watched.
Jonah Magnus is a grown man whose drive, intelligence, and strength of will I admire, but that doesn’t mean I can’t wrap him up in a blanket and give him a warm drink from time to time.
“He saw a hopeless reality and resolved to reforge the world and rebirth himself into a god just so he wouldn’t be hurt even if it seemed as impossible as defying gravity itself, which (even if I would never hurt people in real life for my goals) is a beautiful act of rebellion against the natural order, and his struggle against impossible odds is incredibly inspiring” and “he must be in constant unaddressed abject fear that he intellectualizes to the point of barely feeling anymore” are two thoughts that can coexist.
Every character in TMA is a tragedy in their own way but I think Gertrude’s tragedy is often overlooked. She effectively spent her entire life stopping rituals. She never let anyone get close to her. I don’t think she ever even trusted anyone. Every relationship she had was carefully monitored to make sure she didn’t reveal too much to the wrong person, because in her position, any mistake could lead to a sudden, unpleasant death, or worse, the end of the world. And as she went on as the archivist, she watched so many of her assistants die that she seemed to be numb to it, though I don’t think she truly was. When she had to sacrifice Michael, and then lost Sarah and had to kill Emma not long after, she never took another official assistant after that. She’d never admit it, but the effect that had on her seems pretty clear. The way she’s described by the catalogue when Gerry dies, “there was almost sadness in her eyes,” just speaks to me of someone so tired of losing people that the pain becomes distant. It has to, otherwise it all comes crashing in at once, every single loss compounding on all that came before it, and there’s no time for grief when you’re the archivist. And in the end she died alone, and as far as we’re aware, no one cared until the mystery of her death became pertinent to stopping the next ritual. Her fate wasn’t that different from Gerry or Michael: a dead voice left behind to guide the new archivist on his path.
imagine for me, if you will. catboy jonah magnus being given catnip by one of the others in smirke’s band, out of curiosity as to whether it will affect him
it does. very much so. he goes out of his fucking mind
What do you think of elias/jonah wearing earth tones suits? Dark browns, tans, dark greens (not the frankly ugly neon green suits the fandom dresses him in) etc. While i do imagine him in grey s and navy suits from time to time, i feel as though his wardrobe isn’t *that* dull, styling nonwithstanding.
but i’m kind of of two minds of elias in earth and gem tones because the first three or so times i listened i was picturing him dressing like hannibal lecter…. and that’s like. what i want for him. for my babygirl. to wear bespoke tailoring made of fine fabrics… to match his pocket square to his ascot to his socks. to wear italian loafers.
but really looking at canon my interpretation is that elias is a moderately attractive man who dresses in a very neat, professional, but outdated way. so yes he does wear three piece suits but they’re old. you might assume that he got them second hand.
so i can see him in grey, navy, brown, maybe even patterned suits (but a subtle pattern… even houndstooth would be too flashy. never plaid) but i don’t think he would go as far as wearing green.
i think he purposefully dresses in very subdued colors, all the better to escape notice. his clothes are old but they aren’t shabby. they’re extremely well taken care of and well tailored. if you knew anything about tailoring you would actually recognize immediately that they were tailored for him, maybe even made. well, of course, not made. i mean. that suite is at least 30 years old. maybe 40. surely not made for him…. but clearly he bought the suite and had it fitted.
Someone on reddit pointed out Jonah’s last words “Good luck” are the same as the last words of the entire podcast, Basira’s “Good luck”. And oh my god I am feeling unwell about this. Like, the parallels with having the main villain’s send off be the same as the podcast? Hooooly shit that is incredible. What a conclusion. This is so simple but such efficient dialogue.
Because the words aren’t said with the same meaning, not at all. Jonah says them with the hope his Archivist can achieve what he didn’t, immortality. They remade the world together and so he cares about what happens to him, somewhat. He’s going to die and so he wishes for the last person he cares about to find what he wants. But it’s a selfish wish, he doesn’t wish for the world to be fixed, merely for Jon to achieve his goal. Not necessarily his goal actually, either starving the fears out or taking his place as the Pupil and be corrupted by the absolute power of it. It’s all the same, it will all be something Jon chooses.
Basira’s send off are selfless well wishes, to anyone who might be listening. Hope that they haven’t ruined too utterly whatever world they sent the fears into. It’s a way to say sorry, we knew what we were doing but still it’s not fair, I wish there had been a better solution. It’s not the same intent, but the juxtaposition of the two lines rhymes so well
Jack Barnabas is such a guy. He would do numbers as a period romance protagonist
idk there’s just something to be said about how innocent his affection for Agnes is. Even after he acknowledges that she couldn’t have been human, he can only ever describe her in the most human way possible. She’s beautiful because she’s tall and has auburn hair and hypnotic eyes, not because she’s some messiah to some vengeful god. She’s strange because she’s a bit socially awkward and takes joy in simple things, like ordering coffee, not because she can burn someone with just a touch. He only ever finds her bizarre mannerisms charming—not scary, not off putting, not even after he gets his face burned off can he manage to say a bad word about her. Instead he says he’s not sure he would have done anything differently.
Maybe it really was the tree, or the web, or some other cosmic factor that killed her. Or maybe someone saw her so painfully human for one brief, blinding moment that everything else simply burned itself out
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having incredibly normal feelings about spending your entire life being locked into the concept of Destiny and then some guy with the most innocent of crushes on you comes along and tells you he doesn’t believe in destiny. what a both freeing and terrifying thing to hear
The first rule of tragedy is to be yourself. The second of rule of tragedy is to be literally anyone else. The third rule is that however much you try, there is no escaping being yourself forever.
thing is you can’t really talk about the progression of tma’s plot without acknowledging the fact that it was jonah’s “love” and fascination with jon that led him to do the things he did
the fact that when melanie got the poisoned coffee she assumed elias likes it the same way as jon… his little AMUSED confirmation that she was right before he goes “ik youre attempting murder but nice try”
what makes it so interesting for me is that it wasn’t necessary to specify what kind of coffee she brought and why, and it definitely wasn’t necessary to confirm that yes, we do take our coffee the same way, thank you very much. besides, wouldn’t it make more sense for Elias to say that he doesn’t like it and ask Melanie to drink it? so why add this in the first place?
I thought about it a lot, and I don’t know if I’m going somewhere with this, or am I just too obsessed with them, but this little remark could be about Jon’s loss of humanity
why would Melanie assume they like the same type of coffee? well, that’s because they are the same to her. she sees both of them as eye monsters, one of which is arguably worse, but she hates Jon too and thinks it’s his fault that she’s trapped here. they are the same kind of evil for her at that point. they might as well be the same in this for all she cares
and they are. this unconscious assumption immediately gets confirmed by Elias. it’s a tiny off-hand remark, but it shows just how similar they are even in these mundane details
#I always actually thought of it from the other way around #in their little mundane very human things Jon and Elias are so similar. so she made the assumption #before they’re evil Eye monsters they’re my boring old bosses #also nudge nudge wink wink are they you know… drinking the same sort of coffee
your point of view does make sense! it’s reasonable to assume that at that moment she thought about them from a more mundane standpoint because coffee is a very mundane thing. I do, however, think that for her they are cryptids before they are human, which is where my point stems from (and also because I like to be dramatic. as a treat)
it’s still interesting, though, isn’t it? Jon thinks that trying to anchor him in his humanity will separate him from the monstrous, from Elias. he might even think that there’s a clear distinction between a human and a monster, and as long as he has these mundane traits, he’s safe. but no. not only Elias also has his little quirks, but they are the same as Jon’s
ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether she thinks if they are similar in their human traits or nonhuman traits. both are true and equally devastating to Jon: no matter where he looks, he will always see Elias’ reflection in him
JonElias week, Day 5: “You have nowhere else to go.” | Post-MAG68.
Elias spends Jon’s ride back to the house stealing glances at him through the driver’s eyes, feeling a curl of satisfaction as he puts together his own idea of what must have happened in the tunnels; an idea that blooms closer to the actual Knowledge of the truth the closer Jon gets to him. He doesn’t indulge in it, though; for once, he wants to hear it first-hand. He wants to hear for himself, in Jon’s words, if something has marked - no matter how lightly - his Archivist tonight.
He’s already waiting, when Jon pounds on the door, but he waits just a moment more before turning the lock and opening up to Jon and the frigid January air.
“Goodness, Jon.” Elias looks him over, concerned but assessing. “Come in. You look a fright.”
—
In the split second before the door opens, Jon is afraid. What if it’s the same as it was with Sasha? No, that’s stupid — the driver was fine. Jon thinks he was fine, anyway. He rubs at the back of his arm, hugging it tight to himself.
And then, there’s Elias, awash in gentler light than the street, and he's —
He’s himself. Jon huffs out a hard breath that puffs up in the air between them, and then before he can stop himself, he’s bolting over the threshold and straight into Elias, smashing himself into his chest and wrapping his arms around him. Somehow, Jon is out of breath. His lungs burn from the cold.
“You're—” No, not saying that, that would be insane. All of this, actually, is pretty insane. Jon straightens himself up, looks up at Elias. “Sorry, it’s just.” He laughs humourlessly, his eyes wild and his breath still shallow and uneven. “I’ve had a hell of a time.”
some random TMA worldbuilding speculation about five years too late, but here it is anyway: I used to wonder what the practical purpose of Artifact Storage was supposed to be. like, I know the in-universe reason for its existence was that the Institute was “researching” the artifacts, but by the end we know the Institute wasn’t researching shit; Elias (and presumably the people in charge of the sister organizations) knew exactly what was up with all that crap all along.
then I realized: it’s Elias’s home garden. hoard a bunch of extremely scary and dangerous artifacts with very specific containment requirements, then put a few stressed-out academics in charge of keeping it all in order so you can passively feed on their fear. people who desperately want to believe that learning and knowing the behaviors of every item will be enough to keep them safe. it’s a less effort-intensive version of what Peter does on the Tundra.
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