dr-fanshawe:
it’s so insane to me how differently jonah treats jon compared to how he treats everyone else. throughout his life he treated people like tools, like something “to watch, to know, and ultimately to discard”. he doesn’t care about their suffering as long as it benefits Him. but even though he separates himself from other people, puts himself on a higher pedestal, it never seems to apply to jon. with jon it’s always “our master”, “our victory”, “the world that we have made”. everyone else is for us to use. the world is our playground. he’s been living with this “use or be used” mindset for centuries, always on the run, never safe, never trusting anyone, just to meet jon and decide to include him in his life-long plan… and yes, part of this was out of the necessity (he did need to get an archivist for this to work), but if it was purely transactional, then why would he say all that. gayass
Oh, I have so many thoughts on this.
Let’s start with the fact that Jonah Magnus outright stated he chose which Fear to serve and try to make supreme - to the fanatical level that the writers he’d be a cleric in DND.
Jon, however, was chosen. Jonah wasn’t chosen. And yes, Elias tried to say he had chosen Jon in MAG 160, diminishing any specialness on Jon’s part, but in the same letter, said that the Web had already marked Jon, essentially gift-wrapping him, and implying Jonah’s choice wasn’t as important.
(That letter was all over the place, too, and I still believe it’s because Jonah both desperately wanted to be seen by the only other person on Earth who could understand him… and was simultaneously terrified of what would happen when Jon came, so Jonah half-heartedly beat him down with words and birthdays to try to keep him away. BUT ANYWAY.)
He mocked Jon for making choices, as if to blame him, then ensured Jon would do what he wanted by trading Martin away at the risk of his own life.
He fought for two hundred years to make the Eye supreme, and when he succeeded, the special magical Panopticon nest he’d planned ended up being made for Jon.
The Eye cared for Jon more than for Jonah. (Yes, it could feel things, in spite of what Gerry thought, which we know because it was fond - a personal emotion - of Martin.)
I fully believe Jonah was envious yet resentful, obsessive and dismissive, fixated but loathing, needy and superior, all at once, when it came to Jon. If he hadn’t been conflicted, he would have tried to prevent Jon from coming for him… but he kind of wanted Jon to, in spite of any reason.
So instead of a practical solution -
(E.g. call in a favor from the Flesh and paralyze Martin, guaranteeing Jon stays in Scotland to take care of him forever)
- we get Jonah released from being the Pupil, pulled out of an insane Beholding-daze that was blissfully too much for him, seeing Jon, and instead of anything like, “What are you doing here?” we get this:
Does this seem like the reaction of a man who never planned to see Jon again?
It didn’t surprise him. In the moment before his brain came back online, he recognized Jon and wanted to tell him the wonderful dream he’d been having.
I don’t have the urge to tell people I hate my wonderful dreams.
We. This isn’t a necessarily sexual thing, understand; but it is a deeply human one.
Jonah was disappointed at the knife. (“Ah.”)
He pleaded to live, but not like one would an enemy. Even at the end, he thought Jon might understand.
And he was sure he did understand Jon. His last words? “Good luck.”
Absolutely could be a “fuck you.”
Or.
It could be a near-genuine wish from a servant of the Eye who knew how lonely being the Beholding’s own could be.
