I started listening to Hello from the Hallowoods (on Ep 30) , and I didn’t realize it was going to be so centered around queer experiences. I knew it had a lot of representation, but was thinking it was a horror story with queer rep, not queer stories with horror.

Which is to say, I was not prepared for Percy’s story and the Instrumentalist. The transphobia in the story really caught me off guard. I was thinking it was a cozy horror podcast where all the characters are supportive and respectful of each other’s identities.

I’m not saying that it’s bad, it feels so real and my heart aches for Percy, I just wasn’t expecting it, which is my own fault because I don’t tend to check content warnings.

So yeah, don’t be like me, check content warnings. They’re there for a reason.

sexyorganmusic:

One thing that kind of irritates me about the tma fandom is the way Jon’s intelligence is treated. It’s like he makes a lot of decisions that seem dumb to us because we know the full context of the narrative he’s in, but he doesn’t. How’s he supposed to know what’s happening around him when he has no scope for how to handle it. He’s also not the most emotionally aware but I digress.

My point is that he’s not actually stupid, which is how I feel fans sometimes treat him. He’s intelligent, especially booksmart wise, so I get annoyed seeing posts acting like he’s some dumbass bumbling around making a fool of himself out of stupidity. He makes bad decisions but not because he’s dumb, it’s because he literally has NO idea what’s happening, how could anyone make a fully informed smart decision in those circumstances. Tma is a tragedy not because some guy is making bad choices knowing they’re stupid, it’s a tragedy because this person can’t make “smart” choices in the situation he’s been deliberately placed into to prey on his intelligence and curiosity.

Idk man I also enjoy the occasional “haha Jon makes stupid decisions,” but sometimes I feel like that “stupid” stuff gets turned into like an actual character trait when it’s not really. I also might be yelling at no one so 🤷

podcast-official:

reblog with what you do when you listen to podcasts i’ll start

crochet/knit or play games like endless ocean or animal crossing :D

stringless-arthur:

hold on im curious

what season was being released when you first started listening to malevolent

1

2

3

4

5

other / idk / im bald / i dont listen to malevolent / hwatever idk

See Results

Ok so I just finished season 1 of Hello from the Hallowoods, so here are some of my thoughts.

• Polly is probably my favorite character, and his group was definitely my favorite to listen to. (Probably because their story was pretty self contained and only met with the other characters at the end , and they didn’t really even talk to anyone else.)
• If I think too much about Percy I get really sad .
• Olivier makes so many bad decisions, but I love him/her/them.
• I well and truly understand Nikignik’s annoyance of Lady Ethel, because every time she interrupts, I want to punch her and go back to my little stories.
• I honestly don’t really like Riot, but I am kinda interested where her character goes, I was kinda hoping she would decide to wander the Hallowoods and do odd jobs here and there, like Walt seemed to.
• From what I have seen, Riot and Olivier get together? Which seems weird to me, and maybe kinda toxic? Like, Olivier tried to hand Riot over to the Instrumentalist, (granted, they/she/he were/was just doing a job), and then Riot threatens to kill her/them/him. (Speaking of which, was Bern really going to let Riot decide what to do with Olivier? Cause even on a good day Riot doesn’t really seem like the most levelheaded, much less while she’s still grieving Walt.)
• There were definitely some plot lines I didn’t really follow or care about too much. I was a bit confused with Barb and the other characters that show up in his first episode.
• I kinda feel like Walt’s death was a bit unnecessary at that moment, or at least could have been done a bit differently. I just don’t understand how Solomon was faster in that moment, if Walt had hesitated maybe, but it just kinda felt like Solomon was too op, if it had been that he used a ghost or something I’d get it, but it was a contest of their physical capabilities, and i can’t believe that Solomon is more fit than Walt.
• Also I’m a little sad one of the two canon Ace characters dies. (Is Polly Ace? He gives me Ace vibes.)
• I really like Diggory and Percy’s relationship, but I do hope they make other friends as well. Just cause I don’t like it when couple characters almost exclusively interact with each other. Riot and Diggory do have a nice friendship though.
• I find Nikignik very interesting, He’s not doing this out of love for the characters, but out of love for the very thing that corrupted their world. (As far as I can tell anyway)
• I really like the music for the show, especially the end music. I also like the music that plays at Barb’s hotel. And there were some that sounded really familiar, but I’m not sure what from.

theturncoattournament:

Do you love a character with a good redemption arc? Or a corruption arc? Or even just seeing the kind of storylines that emerge from a character who was formerly aligned with an enemy side decide to join a different one?

Then welcome to…

The Turncoat Tournament!

This is a tournament for characters who have changed sides at some point in the story. It can be from good to bad, bad to good, or from one morally ambiguous side to a different morally ambiguous side, as long as the change in allegiance is still clear. Characters can change sides multiple times, and ultimately end up returning to their original side, and still qualify for the tournament!

Characters from any medium are welcome- tv, comics, movies, books, etc- any form of media is okay!

The submission form is below:

The Turncoat Tournament

Right now I plan to have submissions open until July 27th, but I may lengthen or shorten that if I’m getting less or starting to get more submissions than I’d want for the tournament. If I decide to close submissions early for any reason, I’ll try to let people know well ahead of time so they can get any last submissions in.

If you have a character you are unsure counts, I have a list of some specific variations that will or won’t be counted on the submission form’s description, but you’re also welcome to send me an ask for clarification!

Tagging for visibility:

Keep reading

happycattail:

Once in a while I’ll just think about the scene when Natsume could no longer see yokai and Nyanko- sensei transformed into his true form and Natsume couldn’t see him.

The look in Madara’s eyes, the way it pans out to show Natsume surrounded by Madara but not seeing him, the utter sense of loneliness within that one scene is so fucking good.

It really just fully shows how important they are to one another. Natsume wasn’t too sad when he couldn’t see Chobihige. It’s only when he realizes he could no longer see Madara, that he finally feels that loneliness again. Similarly, the focus on Madara’s eyes and despite him not saying anything you know he’s hurt that Natsume could no longer see him.

It’s such a bittersweet but beautiful scene and whenever I think about Natsuyuu that’s one of the first image that pops in my head.

This is Tumblr, so I doubt most of the people on here have a normal sleep schedule, but out of curiosity,

vvanillavveins:

Humour me for a second-

Imagine that you and a podcast protagonist of your choice are on a road trip- but you’re lost, going in circles, stranded in the middle of nowhere, with no supplies and no signal.

However, there is an old paper map in the car, which your blorbo can interpret for you whilst you keep your eyes on the road.

So, with all that being said…

Who would make a trustworthy GPS?

Arthur Lester

Jonathan Sims

Samama Khalid

Audio Tour Guide

Daniel Powell

Sydney Sargent

Sister Carpenter

David Ward

Juno Steel

Cecil Gershwin Palmer

See Results

This might just be a me thing, but I had an easier time telling what was happening in Archives than I do Protocol. (But I also have read up on Archives a lot more)

Like, I know I recently made a post making fun of John (Malevolent) for over describing, but I really can’t tell what’s happening in Protocol half the time. Apparently the tape recorder bit Ink5oul? I really could not tell what was happening and I haven’t read the transcript yet.

But I feel like I shouldn’t have to; I shouldn’t have to read the thing I just listened to to understand it. I get that some people like reading the transcripts and it can have some fun insights, but I shouldn’t need it to understand what happened.

And I think Archives did a better job at it, mostly because Protocol hops around way more. (And I like that! I like that it’s different, I’m glad it’s not just Archives again but different characters) In Archives we only heard Jon and the institute; if it wasn’t Jon it was someone else at the Institute, and if it wasn’t at the institute it was Jon. The only time that I can think of where we heard any other character that wasn’t Jon (or with Jon) outside the Institute is Melanie’s therapy appointment (and Martin and Annabelle at hill top road, but I don’t really count that one)

Protocol on the other hand, we hear the Office, we hear Sam and Celia go on dates, we hear Alice outside the Office, we hear Gwen give a hit list to a clown, we even hear Celia’s kid and Georgie before Celia gets back. With it going from one place or another it’s hard for me to know where they are and what is happening.

I know there’s different sounds for the different devices, but i can’t really tell them apart. And if it’s someone’s phone, who knows where they are.

This isn’t really meant to be a Tmagp hate post or anything, I am enjoying Protocol, I just don’t always get what’s happening.

Honestly, I feel like part of the reason that Jon is so insistent that the apocalypse was his fault is because he doesn’t want to admit that he was manipulated.

Like, it is also his extreme guilt complex, but I feel like he, maybe even subconsciously, doesn’t want to admit/think about how he was manipulated; he’d rather take full responsibility for the apocalypse than be manipulated.

I saw a post recently about how people treat Jonah/Elias like he’s way more evil than all the other avatars, and I completely agree that he’s not. He is however, hateable in a way many can relate to hating.

(This ended up way longer than I thought it would, so I’m going to put the rest under the cut)

Pretty sure most people aren’t able to relate to “yeah, this guy ripped my ribs out of my chest” or “that woman engulfed my hand in flames” or even “that’s the clown that murdered my brother.”

They can relate to “ugh, yeah that’s my creepy boss” or “yeah, that person has gaslit me and tried to manipulate me on multiple occasions” or even just “that bastard, he’s always so smug, like he knows something I don’t.”

There is also of course the fact that his evil plan actually worked, so he seems more evil cause he actually succeeded in the whole apocalypse thing. And of course most of his evil actions we see had a very direct impact on the characters we all know and love.

But no, he’s not more evil than most of the other avatars, I think people just forget the other, more mundane, things to hate about other avatars.

Jared was a bully. Mike Crew had no care for the people who died in his search for an escape. Jane was a toxic friend. Jude enjoyed watching people’s lives collapse. These were things about them before they became avatars.

Also, I don’t think people are as sympathetic as they could be to Jonah. (I am NOT excusing his actions, just hear me out.)

I would say one of the most sympathetic avatars (not counting Jon) is Michael, he was sacrificed to The Spiral without ever truly knowing what was happening. (Although, he’s not really Michael Shelly after that, so you could argue Michael Shelly was never an avatar, but that’s a post for another time.)

We get Annabelle Cane’s statement but it’s vague on whether or not it was true. Personally I do think it’s true, it was a statement and I don’t think you can lie during statements, so she also has a sympathetic angle.

Mike Crew got chased by something and was forced to become an avatar just to escape it. Oliver Banks just wanted to sleep. Jane was scared and looking for love. Simon Fairchild, if I remember correctly, just loved the sky. Even Peter Lukas arguably didn’t have a choice in becoming an avatar. (I honestly don’t really remember Jared and Jude’s story and don’t care to check right now)

So many other characters get, at least some, reasons to be sympathetic or understand where they’re coming from, but Jonah doesn’t. All the old statements are of people Jonah is hurting or has stood by as they got hurt. We don’t get a statement really telling us how he became who we see today. (Not counting the fact that we do see how he “became” Elias Bouchard, via eye swap.) The most we get is his statement in ep 160, but even that’s a very brief mention to what drove him to such extremes.

So anyway, now I have some headcanons as to Jonah’s life when he was still Jonah Magnus. As corny and tragic as it sounds, I do think Jonah probably watched his family die, and not all at the same time, I think he would have seen his family die in a lot of various ways.

I think he watched his mother die from childbirth, I think he probably had some siblings that died before they were even a day old, I think what siblings he did have were away when their father died, leaving him alone with his father’s corpse, I think he probably caused the death of some of them and the guilt of that faded away to the back of his mind. And I don’t think it stopped at his family, death seemed to follow him, or at least everyone around him, his friends and colleagues, his family, even just the mere acquaintances he made during his research.

I think as the ones around him died they were all in pain, but he wasn’t, he watched with morbid curiosity as people died, saw the agony they were in and feared it. And so, what was he to do but try to best it, to avoid the suffering that everyone around him seemed to accept as inevitable.

Ok, so I was looking for an old post, and I was using my laptop, and because I forgot I could just look through my Archive on my laptop I was using mass post editor to look for when I posted it. So I’m scrolling down, cause it was a while ago, and I see this:

And literally my immediate thought was “what the fuck?” Because why am I being jump scared by my own blog!? Where did that creepy emo face come from?! I know for a fact that I never posted or reblogged that, I would have remembered that face.

So I checked what post it was, and it’s this?:

Why is this turned into an emo sad boi in mass post editor? I checked the Archive and it’s not like that; it’s not even any of their blog avatars.

So yeah, could someone tell me why a random video game post became a mix between a sleep paralysis demon and the next Tumblr sexyman?

This is like 98% a Magnus Archives blog, so just expect mostly that; usually long winded posts about my opinions on the podcast and its characters.

(Also, for me, criticizing a piece of media is how I like to engage with it. So just to be clear, almost any and all criticism comes from a place of love for the media.

If I say something you don’t like, or disagree with, just block me. Block me and never look back. I can be a very argumentative person, any argument will likely end with neither of us changing our views and wasting both our time.)

However, I’ll still post about other things that catch my fancy, (just expect TMA for the most part)

Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London, is Demiromantic, and I will die on that hill.

If we’re talking headcanons, he is Aromantic to me. To me, as someone who doesn’t really like JonMartin, Jon yearning for Martin in season 4, is less “I love that man, and have secretly been in love with him for some time” and more “Martin is the last thing I have of simpler times, when Sasha was alive, when Tim was alive and didn’t hate me, when the worst thing I had to deal with was misfiled papers.”

Sorry, but why does Harlan Guthrie write so horny?

*gestures at

“It was difficult to go back to “normal” knowing she was inside me but here I am, actually sat at my desk with her pressing against my thigh skin. I keep catching myself running my fingers under my skirt just to feel her pressing up beneath my skin;”

*Gestures at

“The cursed feelers of some unseen horror dance along your inner thigh, feeling for soft flesh to latch onto.”

*Gestures at whatever Arthur and the butcher have going on

*Gestures at whatever Arthur and Kayne have going on

*Gestures at whatever Arthur and basically any man (besides his father-in-law) have going on

Arthur, my good man, my buddy, my pal, you sure you don’t want to check if making a deal with a talking skull isn’t magically binding? Like, good on you for honoring a deal, but that was the most sketchy transaction I’ve ever heard.

“Yea. So you’ll let me have the powerful object right? Oh and I’m not going to tell you what I’m going to do with it, and you’ll have to do my bidding without question”

witchcraft-in-wonderland:

miggylol:

You’ve ended up in a story. You don’t yet know what its genre is. You hope to end up as:

The protagonist

The protag’s BFF

The love interest

The OTHER love interest

The protag’s rival

The villain

One of the villain’s minions

The mentor

A side character

Nuance/bald/other (in the tags)

See Results

AFTER VOTING, click here to see what genre you’ve landed in.

Love Interest in a horror fic… Oh no

I was talking with my brother about this a while ago, and I was telling him that, to me, the reason Tim reacted so strongly to Jon stalking him is because it was probably a really big betrayal and trigger for Tim.

It’s implied, at least to me, that Jon and Tim were decent friends; Jon wanted Tim to join him in the archives, Jon trusted Tim not to pull a prank on him, Tim tried to calm Jon down when he was obviously stressed, and Jon even admitted to Tim that he wasn’t doing well, (and coming from Jon, I take that to mean they were on pretty good terms.) Tim was helping Jon limp around in the tunnels, and didn’t leave him when they got attacked, Tim happily threw Jon a birthday party.

So when Jon falls into a supernaturally induced paranoia spiral and starts looking at everyone like they’re going to kill him, it’s pretty bad for their relationship, and then Jon is stalking Tim’s home and that’s even worse for their relationship.

Tim explicitly says that he just wanted someone to support him after his traumatic experience, but Sasha is acting odd, and he’s not as close to Martin, and when he turns to Jon, Jon is looking at him like he’s a murderer.

And it is, again, at least to me, implied that Tim was a suspect in killing his brother. He was the last human to see Danny alive, and if questioned what happened to him, all Tim would be able to tell them was something that should be impossible. (In Ep 79 Tim wants to record what’s happening because he wants evidence, and if I’m reading it right, they think Jon might try to kill himself, so Tim doesn’t want to be suspected for the death of another person he cares about.)