Actually. Y’know what? Less about my personal grievances with the characters, more about the internal inconsistencies of the world building and lore.
The Archivist can compel people to tell the truth regardless of if they want to… but the statements that feed and empower them can have unreliable narrators.
Georgie was unaffected by the apocalypse due to her loss of fear… but Jon was able to compel her to tell him a truth and feed from her statement?
Martin had a domain and was able to hide in the Lonely, but he never had to feed on anyone to strengthen these abilities.
I just. Don’t get it. Can someone explain?
I’m sorry if this was more of a rhetorical question, but I’m gonna answer (what I think) if this is a genuine question.
(Sorry this is so long)
Something to keep in mind is that it is said that the Fears use more of a dream logic, so it’s not always gonna make sense. Which sure, can be seen as sloppy writing, but I personally don’t think there’s any major issues in consistency. (Also, there’s the fact that the podcast medium doesn’t usually allow for a lot of different drafts to be made)
The compelling one, it’s like the other people said, they’re unreliable because that’s what they remember. For example, the statement of Timothy Hodge, he claims he burned the entire flat down, but it didn’t. That could be because he remembered it burning the whole flat or, again, dream logic, it really did burn, but was magically put back.
I don’t know, the dream logic of the Fears doesn’t really bother me, I feel like they follow their internal rules well enough, and if they show signs of other Fears, I personally don’t mind because the Fears are also kinda one whole thing anyway.
For Georgie, Jon’s not really feeding off her. She doesn’t feel fear, so Jon has nothing to feed from. But that doesn’t mean she can’t be compelled or show up in the dreams. Like, if Georgie met Jude Perry, Georgie can still get burned and hurt by Jude, but there wouldn’t be any actual fear. Likewise Jon can still compel and dream.
I do think Jon might have been able to feed off of Georgie for her statement, but like it was an old written statement, not like the usual fresh live ones. Cause there was fear in the story, it was only at the very end that past Georgie wasn’t afraid.
As for Martin, I would argue that he was actually feeding, he just didn’t know it. He was feeding on Jon, he kept his distance from Jon, he turned the other people in the archives against him, and when Jon tried giving him an out, he cruelly laughed in his face.
Martin may have had his whole “I say no” speech in ep 158, but this show is about choices, and he made the choice to isolate and reject Jon, he can justify it however he wants, but he did choose to do those things.
And for some things you mentioned in one of the reblogs.
Jon actually might have had powers as early as season 1, it’s unclear how he knew about Jane Prentiss, it’s possible that he Knew it. I also assumed he was getting the dreams after the first live statement, but maybe not.
So for Jon to have powers that early, it’s not that far a stretch for Melanie to also have powers, but honestly, her only “power” was that she was actually effective on the Flesh avatars. And she was also probably feeding on Jon in season 3, she nearly attacked him in ep 102, and she never exactly hid how much she wanted to hurt him.
For me, the watcher vs watched isn’t really a retcon because it’s not saying that “avatar” meant nothing, just that it doesn’t hold any meaning in the new changed world. Previously only those that well and truly showed some aspect of a Fear became an “avatar,” but with the Fears in their world, anyone that can elicit more fear than they themselves generate is a “watcher” and those that can’t are “watched”
Okay, I’m done now. Once again, I apologize if this was a rhetorical question. Also I’m in no way trying to say you’re wrong, these are just my personal opinions, and I can totally understand not liking some of the dream logic and contradictions.