edettethegreat:

ok just a quick check-in with the tma fandom–

the eye is objectively the best and coolest entity (I was pretty sure that was the whole point– the narrative intentionally portrays it as the coolest one because that’s where all the main cast is at)

but. I come here and see a lot of people being really invested in other entities (the stranger and the web are understandable, but the end?? the buried?? what’s the appeal?)

so I’m genuinely asking anyone whose Entity Of Choice isn’t the eye– what’s so cool about these other ones that draws you to them?

poll for the masses who won’t comment

obviously the eye is the best (other entities have little to no appeal)

eye is the best but other entities are almost equally cool

some other entity is cooler or more appealing

some other entity’s cooler AND the eye doesn’t appeal to you at all

See Results

honestly you’re so right (re: the eye being the central focus not because it’s the coolest, but rather because it’s a good vehicle for storytelling), and I think that’s a major reason why I enjoyed tma so much

the vast majority of the time, I’m a massive protagonist hater. I absolutely despise ‘the chosen one’ as a trope, and if I get even the slightest sense that the protagonist is that world’s 'specialest little boy’ I lose interest completely

In most sci-fi fantasy stories, whatever supernatural thing is tied to the protagonist will also just so happen to be the Best and Most Powerful one.

TMA does play around with both of those things– with Jon being a 'chosen one’ (not from birth, but rather because Some Guy chose him out of sheer convenience), and he’s the 'specialest little boy’ (most other characters hate him, but at least the giant eye in the sky thinks he’s neat 👍)

I can probably count on one hand the number of times a media source had a protagonist with some sort of supernatural skill that appealed to me personally, so when I got a whole entire 200 episode podcast where the protagonist had a skill (asking people questions <3) that makes me absolutely lose my mind every time he does it, I was like “wow whoever wrote this really tapped into the universal desire to Know Things and Gather Information. if only more people in the sci-fi fantasy genre could be more like this guy”

it hadn’t crossed my mind that that’s not the most universally appealing thing until I started seeing people being drawn to other entities

anyway tldr magnus archives appealed to me so hard that I thought I had unfortunitely become a Chosen One Specialest Little Boy enjoyer, but I am deeply relieved to find out that that was not the intention of the author and Whatever I’ve got going on here is more aligned with the power fantasy of being the World’s Best (worst?) Interviewer