2022-02-17 11:11:32 ¶ ●

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jonah magnusarchives

first impression - oh boy, let me see if I can remember. I don’t think I thought much about Elias one way or another when he first showed up. I liked his voice and he seemed like an interesting background character, and also, honestly, I really liked his name and therefore wanted to be interested in him, but I didn’t think too much of him.

(I can’t actually remember what I felt the first time we got a Jonah statement. I think the first one was Albrecht’s, if I recall? I found the Jonah statements sort of boring at first, actually.)

impression now - I am a Jonah Magnus fan first and a person second. I really love this evil Victorian bitch. I projected so many fun headcanons onto him and just really got into that side of the fandom and it was a ton of fun. his whole story is super compelling to me - his fear of death, the idea of remaking himself, the idea of dedicating his life to evil bureaucracy and outlasting everyone by being so boring no one paid any attention to him, plus the little hints that underneath that boring, fussy exterior is a truly unhinged human being (who also really enjoys scheduling)… there’s just so much to like there.

favorite moment - “if you die, I’m afraid you probably won’t be able to claim your expenses.”

idea for a story - here’s the TMA s5 fic that’s sitting mostly written in my google docs but will probably never be published: after the eyepocalypse, Jonah starts to miss Peter, and decides to use his connection with Beholding to download Peter’s memories and personality into a different body and see if he can’t bring him back. it works… but imperfectly. the bodies keep dying and Peter, though he doesn’t remember each successive life, gets more and more tired of being dragged out of his final rest to entertain Jonah. then, eventually, Martin and Jon show up, and Jonah finds his perfect vessel, and Peter is subjected to the eternal hell of being stuck sharing a brain with another person, eternally witnessed and known more intimately than anyone could ever know him. also, Jon and Martin aren’t thrilled either.

unpopular opinion - uh. I hc him as trans which is pretty common among Jonah Enjoyers but pretty controversial in other, more annoying sections of the fandom? I think the idea of a trans man stealing bodies is very hot and sexy actually.

favorite relationship - oh his relationship with Peter for sure, but I also am really intrigued by his relationship with Martin and love me some Martinelias.

favorite headcanon - oh gotta go w the trans one again. I just think it honestly adds a delightful new dimension to his character - the idea that he had to recreate himself and claw his way into status in a society that was very hostile towards him, and then took his experiences of being hurt and oppressed and decided that rather than like, learn anything or develop compassion, he would simply accumulate enough power and control that no one could hurt him again and that he would be the one able to hurt others and decide their fates, that is just always a really compelling villain motivation to me. the revenge fantasy aspects of just giving in to the worst, most maladjusted, cruelest, most hateful impulses that come from being hurt, and just perpetuating the cycle with yourself as the driver of it - it’s darkly compelling and I like to examine how someone can be simultaneously sympathetic and monstrous that way.