since we’re all on about elias face claims, can I please suggest the guy* who played claudius in my favorite production of hamlet?
(*August Jeske, NOT the Polish educator and journalist from the 1800s, but feel free to go down that wiki rabbit hole if you wanna)
links to timestamps for some very Nice Mannerisms he does. that have impeccable vibes, not just for elias but for any high class suave villain
just the way he closes the book. that’s literally all this timestamp’s for.
the SEETHING SEETHING WITH HIS BACK TURNED… followed by pointing without turning around …followed by I Want To Strangle You Right Now But That Would Be Bad For PR
(please I beg of you keep watching until he does all three. It’s in the span of around a minute)
the way he does the gun thing behind his back
the way he PUSHES THE GUN DOWN (and then fixes his suit. like the proper gentleman he is.)
there’s so much more but this is incredibly tedious and I don’t have the capacity to continue
yeah annabelle was controlling everything from the start. why else would the tape recorders appear before things go down.
half of these so called ‘fear entities’ aren’t even feeding off of fear smh
Elias is, first and foremost, a genius businessman. He’s not a threat because he’s powerful (either physically, supernaturally, socially, or economically– although it’s clear he could be a threat on all spheres), but because he’s fantastic at all the necessary skills for running a business.
Excellent at forward planning. Excels at scheduling. We make fun of how sloppily it seems he was in leading Jon to getting the Marks, but given the time frame, it’s incredible that he somehow got all of them in in under two years.
Sends the Oh No It’s The Apocalypse statement when Jon is far, far out of the country and can’t just walk up to the panopticon and stab him a minute later.
Sets up a whole respectable academic organization where he not only feeds off of his employees (as per this post) but also has a passive stream of endless Food coming in (as per @archivalhaven’s post), just delivering their fear on a silver platter.
Was willing to wait 200 years for an employee who fit his longterm goals. Incredible. I can’t even wait 2 minutes to microwave frozen pancakes, this guy’s willing to wait 2 centuries for some good yummy delicious food.
can someone smart write a whole entire character breakdown comparing jonathan sims from tma to curly from mouthwashing
tim: the only reason you’re not head archivist is because elias bouchard is sexist. this would never have happened under james wright!
sasha: yeah! james wright believed in woman’s rights! Most of gertrude’s assistants were women too!
tim: he knew how to hire qualified and competent women!
[camera pans to the state of the archives. it’s in complete disarray. there are stacks of papers everywhere. nothing is filed properly]
tim: … qualified women. they were qualified at least.
sasha: there’s a pile of takeout receipts in this box labeled ‘unsolved’.
tim: 😐
sasha: 😑
interviewer: given the chaotic state of the archives, why do you believe gertrude robinson was hired?
sasha: she probably had blackmail on James Wright
tim: or maybe he was into her, and her promotion was some sorta flirting attempt
elias: I heard her cat passed away shortly before her promotion. I suspect she got it out of pity.
…
jon: James Wright just closed his eyes and chose a name at random.
jon: Jonah Magnus would be rolling in his grave if he saw James Wright’s hiring process.
the magnus archives asks the question of What if you went through something horrible. what if you experienced unspeakable trauma. and whether or not you survive is irrelevant, because it changed you so fundamentally that not only does no one extend any sympathy towards you, but you’re now looked upon with fear and disgust for what you’ve become. you will forever be seen as a monster.
and maybe you are.
“what if when jon and martin landed Somewhere Else they ended up in our world?”
the horrors and implications of that though. there’s a podcast detailing their lives, clearly produced and distributed by The Web.
the guy who voices jon is conveniently also names jonathan sims.
jon would, of course, go through the trouble of tracking him down and investigating his connection to The Web.
if he messes up this investigation too badly, or pulls too much information from (real human)Jonathan sims, he would get stuck in a situation where he would BE the supernatural encounter (real human)Jonathan sims could make a statement about.
which. unfortunitely. would be “Statement of Jonathan Sims, regarding his encounter with The Archivist”.
idk man., I just think that would mess up our jon. he’s already got identity issues after all this. he wouldn’t handle that well.
magnus archives 160 be like
Jonathan Sims and the inevitability of it all
Home–Daughtry / Crack Baby–Mitski / DEBT COLLECTOR–Jhariah / Scars–The Crane Wives / I’m Sorry Trojans –Marijke Perry
the difference between the spiral and the stranger’s brand of Lies and Deception is so compelling to me
because the spiral is like if someone comes up to you and says that one plus one is three. and you know it’s objectively not. but this person keeps insisting it is. and maybe they can do some sleight-of-hand magic where they can ‘prove’ it’s three. but you know it shouldn’t be. you’re still positive it’s Two, you just can’t prove it.
the stranger, however, is like if someone reached into your mind and ate the concept of Two.
and it’ll never come and ask you what’s one plus one. but it’ll inevitably come up one day. and you won’t be able to answer.
(prequel to this) Jonathan Sims’ epic journey of losing his ties to humanity
Notre Dame–Paris Paloma / Nails for Breakfast, Tacks for Snacks–Panic at the Disco / Abbey–Mitski / Take Me To Church–Hozier / Spirit–Penelope Scott
broken crown out here being jonathan sims season 5 song
forest fires is simultaneously a season 3-4 martin song and jon song
Tim and Jon’s Dynamic, circa s3
Higher–Sleep Token
Helen Distortion
Metaphor–The Crane Wives
back on my soap box screaming about how these Fear Entities aren’t even feeding off of fear.
There seems to be two ways the Fear Entities feed: actively and passively
Actively is when they manifest into the world. Instances of something blatantly supernatural happening. Every statement recorded is an example of the entities actively manifesting and feeding.
Passively, however, is when natural things happen, causing people to feel negative emotions associated with the entities. Elias feeding off of the Institute employees’ discomfort and paranoia, for example.
These negative emotions that they feed off of are often not even fear. ‘Fear Entities’ is practically a misnomer. As for what each feeds off of, let’s try for a messy quick run-down:
corruption -> disgust
end -> sense of finitude
extinction -> existential dread
vast -> nihilism
buried -> helplessness
desolation -> greif, loss
hunt-> fight or flight reflex. prey instincts.
slaughter-> anger. jump scares; flinch instinct. basically Fear Classic ™.
flesh -> feeling of a lack of (bodily) autonomy, your (physical) body being used in a way you don’t approve of (as opposed to the web, which uses you and your personhood in a way you don’t approve of.)
web -> powerlessness; loss of control, lack of autonomy
spiral -> distrust (in yourself, in others, usually both at once)
stranger -> paranoia, generalized unsettled feeling
lonely -> numbness, apathy with a hint of self-loathing
eye -> shame, guilt, feeling of violation
dark-> anxiety. over possibilities that you can’t even imagine. because you’re.. you’re in the dark about them–
(follow-up post)
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.
have the Magnus Archives crew tried to pull a Monsters Inc and see if the Entities could secretly feed off of laughter and joy more effectively than fear
spent 3 months now in the magnus archives fandom. took me three whole months. to notice that the only date we have connected to the Watcher’s Crown ritual is my birthday
Jon circa s1
Plastic Flowers–The Front Bottoms
Elias circa s3-4
bonus: Jon @ Elias, circa s3-4
Up the Wolves–The Mountain Goats / Baptism–Lovejoy
Elias Bouchard, circa Hello Jon Apologies For The Deception
Godspeed–Shayfer James / It’ll All Be Worth It–Sushi Soucy
