January 2024

I know I’ve already said this already (probably too many times) on this blog, but Gertrude Robinson is truly the Most character of all time. Her defining characteristic is the belief that The Ends Justify the Means, and she’s placed in a situation where the stakes are so high that absolutely Any means are justified. The world will end if she doesn’t take action, so of course she’ll sacrifice the people closest to her, and she’ll chop that astronaut into pieces and toss him in a pit, and she’ll plant explosives in a historic gnostic temple without worrying about who’s inside. And she’ll do it all seemingly without malice, or satisfaction, or any emotion other than maybe a grim sense of duty. AND THEN she finds out that actually the stakes were NEVER that high, the world was never in danger, every terrible thing she did was pointless, because things would have worked out fine if she’d just done nothing.

And then she fucking dies, before the show even starts, before any of the main characters ever get a chance to really meet her, but the shadow she casts looms over all of them until the end of the series.

Truly, who is doing it like Gertrude Robinson 

I think there’s something very fun about seeing fanart for a podcast where basically none of the characters have canon appearances and having to decipher who’s who based purely on Vibes. One consequence though is that whenever my brain is in Magnus Archives mode, every piece of character art becomes a tma-themed rorchach test.

Just staring at a piece of fanart going, “Well it looks like Gerry to me but they don’t have tattoos, so maybe Melanie? Although I would honestly kind of love it as a Daisy design- it’s really different from how she’s usually drawn but the vibes are definitely there…” and then reading the caption and it’s like. Some real-life musician.

Another thing I’ve noticed about the phenomenon of seeing fanart for podcast characters with no canon appearance and having to figure out who’s who based on vibes is that weirdly - even though she’s one of the characters with the most variety in her character designs - I think Sasha is the tma character I recognize with the most accuracy. Her vibe is unmistakable. I would know her anywhere. Rip to everyone in season 2 but I’m different.