absolutely devastating how everyone’s insistence that jon stops taking live statements from people just makes him more dependent on the written ones, to the point where whenever he leaves the institute he needs people to constantly send him statements (because he can’t just feed on the locals)
absolutely devastating how jon’s desperate attempt at avoiding losing his humanity directly leads to him kickstarting the apocolypse. jon’s complete dependance on the written statements is what elias was relying on. taking live statements would have prevented anyone literally putting words into jon’s mouth.
had he just been a little less committed to maintaining his humanity– had he had a little less sympathy or concern for those he had to feed on– he wouldn’t have been able to complete the ritual.