2025-10-30 2:51:11 ¶ ●

magnus archives’ fear entities are so interesting I wish we got to know more about them. 200 whole episodes and we really just don’t know much about any of them and how they work

we see more of what they do (manifest as supernatural occurrences and haunt people) than get any understanding of what they are.

How do they choose who to target? We see them targeting both people with an aversion to the Fear and people with an affinity for the Fear in question. Is it completely random, or is there something specific that draws them to people?

What qualifies as ‘fear’ by their standards? Based on the series as a whole it seems to be more of any negative emotional response rather than the biological chemical release of the hormones we would classify as 'fear’.

What level of sentience or will do the entities themselves have? Do they have enough 'will’ to actively seek out feeding themselves, or is it more of a reflex, like a plant rotating its leaves towards sunlight?

Do they choose their own avatars? We know that not every person affiliated with an entity who has a near-death experience becomes an avatar, and we can’t just dismiss that as them actively choosing to remain human. And if the entities do choose, that would imply more sentience than we’ve previously afforded them.

What’s the line between Avatar and just being affiliated with an entity? Melanie was affiliated strongly enough with the slaughter that she was able to mark Jon, but she wasn’t an avatar. How does that work? How does 'getting marked’ even work? It’s deeply unclear. You’d think you’d need an avatar or an active manifestation to occur to mark someone.

ALSO. Absolutely stupid question, I’m a bit embarrassed to ask, but.

How was Jon marked by the Eye.

Just 'working at the magnus institute’ shouldn’t mark him. And becoming an avatar shouldn’t mark him either. He never had an adverse experience with the eye. he was never haunted or harmed by the eye. All the other marks were from clear adverse experiences. If every person who existed in the vicinity of supernatural things was considered 'marked’ then half of the magnus institute’s employees would have been marked by everything by now.

Jon was validly harmed and haunted by everything else, but the eye never did anything spooky and haunting to him.