god i don’t know how ANYONE listens to mag 161 and comes away with the impression that they always thought elias was this horrible boss to secretly hate (i mean i do know, it’s memetic mutation and it bothers me), the whole thing, which is exemplified in the birthday bit, is that they were a bit nervous because, as tim said, “double boss”, but he was personable and they liked him and he put in effort to get in good with them and they not only liked having him around and felt comfortable with him (real sasha’s last lines literally included her chuckling fondly over a quirk of elias’s) but that they trusted him with stuff, whether big or small, that they trusted him to look after them (and probably why tim got so angry at elias not doing anything about jon’s season 2 behavior, cuz he trusted elias to step in) which is part of the TRAGEDY.
it’s why we AND the archival crew are meant to take it as hard as we do when we realize that he (appears to) genuinely doesn’t care about any of them and whether they live or die. it’s the classic horror trope of thinking that there’s a greater power there to save you, mrs voorhees arriving at camp crystal lake to comfort alice, only to realize that no, this is even worse, this is someone who is going to cause you harm. his switch from “good boss who cares about his employees and wants to help them and is friendly with them” to “that guy who brutally pipe murdered a dude and WILL kill/psychological destroy his employees if they defy them” is suppose to hurt the audience and it hurts the characters. it’s that horrible gut feeling of not just realizing that no one is coming to help you, but that the person you thought would do so, the person you trusted and wanted to do so, not only isn’t going to, not only can’t be bothered, but will actively contribute to the problem.
and if i see anymore “season 1 era the archive crew secretly all hate elias and thinks he sucks” fics i will start throwing bricks in the street.
So I do agree with most of this and that’s the dynamic I prefer my archives crew to have, actually. But, there is one thing that slightly bugs me. When Elias gets down to the Archives, Sasha goes “Elias?” in a slightly wary tone and i CANNOT figure out how we’re supposed to be interpreting this. Maybe her being still slightly pissed at not being promoted? Tbh I’ve been reading it as the writers retconning things slightly and making the archives crew always having been slightly wary of elias when. I don’t think that’s the vibe they should have at all…
Kind of the samey thing and I guess it could just be them being nervous but the whole interaction seemed a bit. Idk cold? Especially the “happy birthday archivist” and the fact he keeps being sorta creepy and pushing the cake bit it really seems like idk. They forced the “he’s a mind reader” bit when really he should have just been chill with them and I think they should have laughed at his jokes too.
But, yup. Definitely. Elias is a chill manager and while I don’t think any of his employees would be like, throwing their lives down for him I certainly thinks they’re comfortable with him because he knows how to inspire trust and quite frankly he has absolutely no reason to hurt them at this point. The thing with Elias is that he’s not sadistic until he’s pushed way past the limits of antagonism (like with Melanie and Martin)
Anyways the conversation in MAG39 over the fire alarm with sasha and elias is still one of my favorites he’s just so chill and proactive and so well meaning
“I’ll allow it” dude is nicer than half the managers ive had