another great ship dynamic is “characters who are deeply traumatized and haunted by nightmares are finally able to get a peaceful night of sleep in each other’s arms”
thinking again about how fanonisation has completely ruined michael’s character for me and getting so mad it could’ve been so interesting and cool but there are barely any fics or fanart that actually take it seriously as a character and don’t just make it some hyper aestheticised scene monster
also i cant explain it but suicidal jonah is so real to me
like jonah that metaphorically killed himself in order to survive. jonah that’s literally just a corpse under the institute. jonah that let jon kill him. jonah “I couldn’t stop you if I wanted to” magnus.
my personal very specific tma fandom grievance is when people post about something that is LITERALLY jonelias dynamic and then act like its jonmartin. maybe its the verison of jonmartin you made up in your head but its certainly not canon jm lol
also i cant explain it but suicidal jonah is so real to me
like jonah that metaphorically killed himself in order to survive. jonah that’s literally just a corpse under the institute. jonah that let jon kill him. jonah “I couldn’t stop you if I wanted to” magnus.
jonah ‘the only constant in life is death’ magnus. jonah thats been waiting his entire life to die magnus. jonah that probably knew jon would become as powerful, if not more, after the change, & knew jon would hate him to the point of murderousness, and let it happen. jonah that even didnt try and fight jon. jonah that was so calm in the face of melanie trying to kill him - and sure, they werent good attempts. but you have to wonder.
ive probably posted about this before but its so frustrating to be in a fandom where it seems like 75% of the fans / fanworks are not just ignoring the horror of canon for their own purposes but actively and outright disinterested in any of the horror of tma at all. why are you here if you dont care for the horror!
Yes, you’re right, “I’d kill for you – please, ask me to kill for you” is a fun relationship dynamic, but where’s the love for the classic attack-dog power dynamic reversal? I’d have thought Tumblr would be all over that one, too. The old “I’ll kill for you – and kill, and kill, and kill, if needs be – but first you have to tell me exactly what it is you want. You are not permitted moral distance. Tell me what you need from me and admit your soft hands are just as bloody as mine. Say it. Say it.”
i never stopped thinking about that “agonizing bliss” line. i never stopped thinking about the state of jonah magnus in s5. it’s such a subversion of a typical storyline - you’re expecting a fight. a grand finale. but then the finale is there, and it’s just…it’s a still image. a haunting still image of a man who willingly rendered himself inhuman. he doesn’t fight. he doesn’t have a final monologue. he just dies like a fucking thing. he dies like an object.
it feels like it should be anti-climactic, but it’s not. it’s so effective. it’s so fitting. jonah magnus was a tragedy writing itself from the beginning.
also i cant explain it but suicidal jonah is so real to me
like jonah that metaphorically killed himself in order to survive. jonah that’s literally just a corpse under the institute. jonah that let jon kill him. jonah “I couldn’t stop you if I wanted to” magnus.
jonah ‘the only constant in life is death’ magnus. jonah thats been waiting his entire life to die magnus. jonah that probably knew jon would become as powerful, if not more, after the change, & knew jon would hate him to the point of murderousness, and let it happen. jonah that even didnt try and fight jon. jonah that was so calm in the face of melanie trying to kill him - and sure, they werent good attempts. but you have to wonder.
this is so real#i like to think of fears as an intersection of – well – fear and desire#(i heard tmagp has something like that going on but i listened to 2 eps so far so it’s not relevant to my point)#he’s afraid of death because it’s both uncertain and certain. nobody knows what comes after and nobody can tell you how it feels like#but at the same time it’s really the only thing that is guaranteed. everything dies eventually#i think of him as a quite insatiable person. he wants to know more to experience more and that requires being alive of course#but death is unknowable. you can’t truly experience it and so you can’t Know what it’s like – only theorise#it’s such a difficult thing to conceptualise – your own nonexistence#wouldn’t someone as curious as jonah feel drawn to this? he Can learn how it’s like. he just… won’t be able to learn anything else after#but also it’s just him being plain suicidal too. he still tries to run from it though his attempts are kinda half hearted#i think he doesn’t like being alive. it’s vulnerable and unsatisfying and so painfully human. he can’t stop being a human#even after everything he’d done#he knew that he can’t reach immortality. but he tried. and he failed. and it’s over now. “but it was wonderful while it lasted”#this is indeed difficult to explain which is why i’m hiding in the tags don’t mind me
prev youre so right. i headcanon jonah as someone whos been surrounded by death his whole life (older siblings who died before him, narrowly escaping it once if not multiple times during his childhood, etc) & so that was maybe even one of the first things he was Curious about, something that can’t be known or understood that he was determined to know and understand. so like, i imagine dying was partially satisfying for him bcs he finally knew how it felt & also the suicidal ideation
[Image description: a full-color comic about Jonah Magnus.
fig. a; body as performance. Elias is smoking in front of a wall of portraits of his former bodies. He extends his hand. Jonah nervously undoes his cravat.
fig. b; body as a tool. Jonah reclines in his chair, extending one leg. Four hands reach for it, one with a letter. Elias smirks across a table. He swings a pipe, spattering blood.
Three panels build to show Jonah with his eyes closed, skin grayed.
fig. c; body as an inconvenience. James stares furiously down at a struggling body, knife in his hand. It falls beside the two of them. Elias cries out, eyes squeezed shut, as James’s bloody hand touches his chin.
fig. d; body as a prison is a single yellow panel, showing a golden eye trailed by nerves. The panel is set into fig. e; metamorphosis, which shows each of his bodies emerging from the others, bracing themselves to reach higher. They are all alive. Roses cover the ground and weave up the pile of bodies. At the top is Elias, winking at the viewer.
janelias concept uhh jonah getting physical symptoms from his feelings. he starts running a fever out of nowhere and he asks jane if it’s related to the corruption, and she just responds “love is a type of infection :3”
monsterfucker jonah magnus is so real to me. can’t explain it if you don’t already understand. someone in the archives actually manages to get a photo of one of the more fucked up looking avatars and shows it to him and he’s just like “would.” and they’re like “WHAT DOES THAT MEAN. FUCK YOU MEAN ‘WOULD’!?!?!?”
the other day i was tma infodumping and mentioned the religious symbolism and the sentence JON IS JESUS ELIAS IS GOD violently flashed across my eyes i have never fallen to my knees that quickly in my life
underappreciated aspect of jonelias is that, at least in my mind, elias would 100% be the world’s clingiest, neediest boyfriend ever if him and jon were actually dating. not a fan of martin’s sudden distant and avoidant behavior in s4? get ready for the absolute opposite. he’d be knocking on the door to the archives 24/7 going “jon?? archivist??? joonn??? why aren’t you responding to my emails jon :( ???”
like that one textpost that’s like “i noticed you were paying attention to someone other than me. why is that”
it’s so insane to me how differently jonah treats jon compared to how he treats everyone else. throughout his life he treated people like tools, like something “to watch, to know, and ultimately to discard”. he doesn’t care about their suffering as long as it benefits Him. but even though he separates himself from other people, puts himself on a higher pedestal, it never seems to apply to jon. with jon it’s always “our master”, “our victory”, “the world that we have made”. everyone else is for us to use. the world is our playground. he’s been living with this “use or be used” mindset for centuries, always on the run, never safe, never trusting anyone, just to meet jon and decide to include him in his life-long plan… and yes, part of this was out of the necessity (he did need to get an archivist for this to work), but if it was purely transactional, then why would he say all that. gayass
Jon sings to himself in the archives, only when he’s sure no one else is there.
Elias works late one evening, knowing Jon’s probably still there and is plans to send him home. Before arriving to his office, he hears the distant melody of a song he doesn’t recognize.
After his discovery, Elias frequently finds excuses to stay late, silently walking outside of the archives for a chance to hear Jon’s voice.
i love that the common fandom consensus is that jonah magnus would not wear comfortable or casual clothing. it’s all just three piece suits and button-downs. if you forced him into a pair of sweatpants and a sweater he would be genuinely shocked that clothes can feel Like That.
you’re trying to kill him and i respect that
he would be absolutely devastated. he would hide in his office and refuse to come out until he was allowed to put a suit back on.
I’ve been wanting to draw Jon and Elias as Christine and the “Angel of music” from the Phantom of the Opera for a while now, so here you go ૮( ⸝⸝´꒳`⸝⸝)ა
hey bro can we like adopt paralleling themes and symbolize opposites but in a two sides of the same coin kind of way? it doesn’t have to be weird. wait what do you mean thats gay
i would successfully utilize the element of surprise against jonah magnus by calling him cute. this would work only because you guys are constantly calling him hot. you are enabling my strategy
oooo it’s been a while since i properly thought about them.
i don’t have a lot on my mind rn, but i do like the idea of elias having a crush on jon and jon somehow being the only one who doesn’t realize. the others would 100% try to use it as blackmail against elias but it’s not very efficient because like. jon would never believe any of them even if they told him.
I need to hear more about Jonah Magnus being “very sensitive”, I am confused and curious as to how that perspective has been reached ((I love complicated villains I just don’t really see that with him))
idk im just yapping but uhm smth abt the very meaning of the eye. to see and know everything, and the inherent sensitivity of that position. to notice the second something happens. not as much emotional sensitivity as it is literal sensitivity to the universe itself. to want to seek that position above all else takes at least some level of sensitivity. i also feel like in general he’s the kind of character that feels everything so very intensely, but never acts on any of those feelings. they exist to him and him alone.
or im seeing complexity where there is none, which wouldnt be the first time
I need to hear more about Jonah Magnus being “very sensitive”, I am confused and curious as to how that perspective has been reached ((I love complicated villains I just don’t really see that with him))
idk im just yapping but uhm smth abt the very meaning of the eye. to see and know everything, and the inherent sensitivity of that position. to notice the second something happens. not as much emotional sensitivity as it is literal sensitivity to the universe itself. to want to seek that position above all else takes at least some level of sensitivity. i also feel like in general he’s the kind of character that feels everything so very intensely, but never acts on any of those feelings. they exist to him and him alone.
or im seeing complexity where there is none, which wouldnt be the first time
OH ALSO he describes himself as the beating heart of the institute, which implies sensitivity not just as a person, but as a part of a system. if something goes a bit too wrong with the heart, everything else is fucked. the heart is something your body is structured to protect. idk where im going with this but im sure u see what i mean
Important part of Jon and Elias’s vibe that I feel like gets overlooked a lot is that Jon is equally as much of a pain in the ass to Elias as Elias is to him. The powers that be hand delivered him the perfect guy to craft a linchpin out of for his two century old scheme and it turned out to be the nosiest bastard in all of London who is obsessed with being right. This is Elias we’re talking about. We’re talking about Mr “Doesn’t Like Getting His Hands Dirty” here. Mr Perpetual Middle Management. Mr “Sat On His Ass For 200 Years Waiting For An Opportunity Instead of Getting Out There and Making Something Himself” getting conned into shaping his antichrist out of the guy who’s first instinct towards dealing with his problems is to take a literal ax to them. It’s like throwing two unsocialized cats in a bathtub together. This is why Elias doesn’t believe in fate
ALT
