ceaselessims:

do you ever think about how elias actually had peter in a check-mate in s4 bc even if jon didn’t love martin in return, even if jon didn’t touch the empty by rescuing him, elias had already isolated jon to the point where with Martin gone, jon would have truly lost his only ally.

basira, melanie, daisy, and georgie were all stone walling him and his only hope in s4 really was martin. if martin had successfully turned to the lonely, jon would have been completely alone.

jon would have fallen to experience and be touched by the lonely whichever way elias and peter’s deal went, and that’s haunting me.

“Jon wasn’t qualified” this. “Poor archival practices” that. Am I the only one annoyed by how, if these recordings WERE initially for students and made for accessibility, they’d be basically useless and do not follow proper ADA guidelines???

Y’know. I hate that I can’t actually listen to TMA anymore cause any time Jon does something morally wrong all I can think about is the bad faith takes the fandom and narrative have about his intentions and it makes me feel ill.

Like. What do you MEAN he should’ve just accepted Gertrude’s death as a random happenstance? What do you MEAN Jon could’ve just not talked to Jude Perry or Mike Crew? What do you MEAN he should’ve ignored all the signs pointing to an apocalyptic event? What do you MEAN that he caused everything bad to happen to him and if he hadn’t sought out answers for things that could’ve killed him and others that the apocalypse wouldn’t have happened.

WHAT DO YOU MMMEEEAAANNN???

patchworkbearss:

Thinking about how Jon said he was a deeply annoying child and then listed textbook symptoms of autism

theveryhumanhuman:

I love the characterization of S1 Jon so much. How he acts all cold and removed, and usually is, but promises to at least try to help the people he interviews. How when Naomi Herne said she thought that she had imagined it, he still pointed out the stone in her hand, even if he acted like he agreed. How he told Martin that he could stay in the Archives despite acting like he hated the man up to that point. The way he treats the statements like definite lies to cover the fact that he really does believe at least some of what he’s hearing. How he manages to be both an absolute asshole and still seem to care for people in his own way.

jebbifurzz:

My (most likely) VERY Unpopular TMA Opinion:

We only got one season with Sasha, so I always liked her well enough, but never to a huge extent, since we just didn’t have enough time to get to know her.

Then, fast-forward to the end of season four. We got the scene with her and Tim bad-mouthing Jon and saying Sasha was more qualified for the job (like ??), and then that birthday scene where, again, they were kind of awful to Jon…

My entire view of Sasha soured with those few minutes.

Sasha suddenly came off as an entitled asshole. She was no more qualified than Jon, but apparently acted like she was some victim of misogyny and bitched about him behind his back? Jon, who was so committed to the job, working late and coming in on weekends, putting everything he had into doing the best job he could no matter how little Elias gave him to go on. And Sasha acted like Jon only had the job because misogyny? Seriously?

And she and Tim had clearly talked about this before, many times. Which is so shitty. And that behaviour during the birthday scene just reeked of blatant, outright disrespect for a person she’d convinced herself had taken HER job. God, get over yourself! Like, am I crazy for being so put off by this? Everyone in the archives is at least a little bit of an asshole, but this just came off as really nasty to me.

I just… could not stand Sasha after that. And the AU premise of Archivist Sasha makes me mad just by its association, since it always plays out like an endorsement that Sasha was right, she deserved the job more, she would do everything better, and Jon sucks at everything. More power to people who like her, which seems to be the majority of fandom. You do you, I’ll do me. Bleh, why am I so angry?

Guys, don’t be assholes to people who get promotions, especially shitty, thankless promotions.

tim-stroker:

Grimdark mage of mind Jon if you even care 🙄

kassandrasdisciple:

~~~spoilers for all of the magnus archives~~~

How popular is the take that Melanie and Georgie were actually in a Fearscape?

I feel like this must be a common take, but it’s hard to find just meta-theories for TMA, but just incase, here’s how I came to this conclusion.

Melanie’s Blindness

The are alot of blind people in the world. I know Melanie blinded herself under spooky™ circumstances, but nothing actively spooky was occurring other than being inside the magnus institute. Also as seen with Gertrude/Agnes, the flesh book and The Dark ritual, when you want to avoid an Entity, or several, you usually have to do some explicity spooky things.

Because of this I think Melanie is just normally blind, she herself seems to think her immunity is just because of her blindness too. Now I know Jonny hasn’t always been great on numbers and scales but there are ALOT of blind people, maybe the Eye only ignores people who are completely blind and not visually imperared but still, Jon should’ve been seeing dozens of blindspots just within the UK in the beginning of S5. So I think it’s safe to say Melanie’s blindness isn’t why she’s “immune”.

Observation Isn’t Overt

We know the Fearscapes aren’t constant hell, the camera is the most explicit, giving prolonged relief, but it was still a Fearscape, waiting for all that paranoia to ripen until it breaks and the fears decend. We see it in other Fearscapes like the falling titan or the medical centre where there might be hours or days of relative peace, but the fear is still there and the victims still exist to suffer. I think the camera can also explain how Melanie and Georgie weren’t visible to Jon even outside the tunnels, their fearscape relies on feeling “free” to some extent.

Furthermore, Jon still knew they where alive, so The Eye knew that aswell, it didn’t hunt them down to put them in a fearscape however, and that was because they already were, they were just “freeranged” and The Eye just wanted to monitor their vitals.

Lastly, Helen knew where they where. I know she was better at navigating the tunnels than Jon in S4, but we know in S5, all power comes and goes through The Eye, it’s how the smitings work, if she could find them so could The Eye.

Specificity

Basira inherited Daisy’s Fearscape, allowing her to travel freely, but she was still in a Fearscape, having to endure all the horrors Daisy commited and then having to carry on, viewing the Fearscapes without Jons protection. Knowing this helps plug another hole in our original theory, which is that this is quite a specific Fearscape. We know some are small, Martin’s only has a few dozen, but Basira’s is just hers. This I think sets the president that although Melanie’s and Georgie’s Fearscape is highly unique it’s still possible. (Maybe The Eye chooses unique ones for its Ex kids)

Georgie’s Fear

I know people will bring up Georgie and I’ll have to make a much longer post eventually but I think we’ve only ever been told how her power works from her POV, which I think is inaccurate. If we actually look at how she acts she does feel Fear, she just displays it as worry or anxietyusally for others. I think what Georgie actually is, is what everyone else is, an Avatar, specifically of the End. We only have one other End avatar, Oliver, but we see a numbing of emotions in him too. I think she’s unable to feel fear like others because she’s an End Avatar and that brings a dampening affect, for further proof see the book of the damned with Gerry and Eric, both who know it feels “bad” but still have their emotions dampened. Basically, Georgie is a misidentifyed Avatar and she can still feel Fear just not like she used to be able to.

What the Fear / FearScapeUK

Now what is their Fearscape? Firstly it doesn’t fit nicely into the 14 but that’s okay, we know in the apocalypse Smirks 14 is largely redundant. But their fear is simply their followers, both having this crushing fear of failing them, having to be the perfect leaders, and of losing them, which they always will. Just before S5 ends we see the Cycle about to restart.

Just Melanie and Georgie -> save a few -> save even more (“get greedy”) -> lose a big chunk -> lose them all -> alone again, Repeat.

They’d go through this anguish over and over until the End consumes all, it allows them freedom like Basira and Daisy but they still only exist to suffer like those in every other Fearscape.

TL;DR Georgie and Melanie weren’t lucky, they’re Fearscape is them watching those they’re supposed to protect being dragged of to torture whilst shouldering the guilt of being “spared”.

levaagrace:

CURRENT WIP FICS

Decided to go ahead and write down a few fics I am gonna be writing in the coming months. Just to, like, keep myself accountable.

spun sugar, ground spice, not everything is nice.

My ‘post!apocalypse, not!elsewhere, single!dad, barista!Jon AU. Essentially, Jon doesn’t get to kill Jonah, which changes things. Obviously. He ends up raising his three-year-old cousin while working at a coffee shop in Bournemouth. Alone. The others show up, obviously, but…

I have some (potentially out-dated) sketches for it here :)
And I have a playlist here :)

Scream, Scream, Scream

The great therapy fic! Another canon divergent post series version of events where Jon doesn’t end up killing Jonah. Starting a year after the end of the end, he’s all but forced into therapy by the others. It’s an examination of every scar and trauma he got over the course of his life and how they affected him.

I want this one to be about healing and growing, not resentment.

Okay, so… by a few I mean a couple. These are both multi-chaptered fics, so they’re gonna take up most of my mental energy. In any case, I hope to start actually writing them soon. Attempting to get them all plotted before I’m back in uni in a couple-ish weeks.

UPDATE!

Potentially going to finish plotting the first one soonish. Afterwards I will be going through it and fixing any pacing or continuity errors. Hopefully will start writing it come November :)

But the best laid plans of mice and men and all that so… no promises.

Hot take, but I don’t think anyone who hasn’t been told to their face with the actual words ‘you’re not human’ deserves to have any opinion on Jon and his story arc.

g0bleen:

TMA ART DUMP ‼️

Oh Jon…

Some sketches from this week// this man is just way too relatable helpp

Extra :

daughterhusbands:

You want me to be an acedemic? The thing that KILLED Jonathan Sims?

Blrghhh. Anyone wanna beta read for me? Like. For grammar AND characterization and all that ??? I don’t actually have any prose written for the two fics I’ve pinned yet but like. Never too soon to ask. And also get input on the plot and stuff. I just feel like I do better with having someone or two someone’s look at it and point out shit I miss.

Anyway, Jon would never be able to recover from his trauma in a ‘good end’ scenario if he was still around Martin and Melanie and Georgie and Basira because none of them would think he was capable of change or recovery and give him no support and sabotage any support he is given outside of them because they don’t think he deserves it. Y’know. Like in canon.

martinblackwoodhater:

I’ll be honest with y'all Martin is no longer a character to me he’s just an idea of an entity of vibes I don’t like…

This bitch is NOT canon like omg I found myself making hate-filled headcannons about what his voice sounds like earlier and it’s like ??? That’s the one thing we DO know about him??

orpheuslament:

friendships end. relationships end. fictional man whos doing even worse than you is forever

HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON’T by Fall Out Boy is so Jmart.

Like. Do you see it?

suttttton:

suttttton:

I can’t stop thinking about Jon’s reaction to hearing about Naomi Herne’s complaint:

He reacts with absolute hostility, fully embodying the rudeness that Naomi Herne reported him for. And then he deflects in a way that outwardly puts the blame on Rosie, but which also implies that Naomi getting upset was the inevitable result of Jon dealing with her. Jon is bad with people. He’s rude and unpleasant, and that makes people upset with him. He knows.

Except…none of that is true of the way Jon talks to Naomi Herne. He isn’t rude to her in any way. He listens to her. He doesn’t get angry with her even when she directly insults him. He says he doesn’t believe her, but he still treats her gently, and he does try to help her.

From the beginning of her statement, Naomi is the one who is rude to Jon. She insults the tape recorders and the Institute, and she gets angry when Jon doesn’t give her the answer she wants. The heart of her complaint has nothing to do with Jon’s behavior, and more to do with the fact that she wanted to hear the words, “I believe you” and didn’t.

It breaks my heart how Jon clearly doesn’t realize that. He doesn’t even try to defend himself against the complaint, he just immediately agrees that he was rude to her. Jon is so used to people not liking him that it never even occurs to him that their reasons might be completely unfair

I keep listening to it, and it really seems like Jon’s is genuinely trying to be gentle and pleasant with Naomi. He knows what it’s like to have a run-in with something supernatural. He knows, better than probably anyone else Naomi has spoken to, what it’s like to recover from something like that.

Jon does lie to Naomi about believing her story. (He tells her that it was probably a reaction to the trauma she’d been going through, but then in the follow-up, he lists a lot of evidence confirming that it actually happened. Not to mention the fact that her statement won’t record digitally.) I think a lot of people take that, along with him suggesting that Naomi see a mental health specialist as proof that he’s simply being rude and dismissing her out of hand. But his tone is so much gentler than when he’s picking apart the written statements, and honestly, everything about Naomi’s statement points to her needing to get a good therapist.

Naomi gets angry at Jon because he won’t say, without a hint of doubt, that he believes her. (Which he was never going to do because, like he says in 39, acknowledging that the Bad Things is something that scares him.)

She yells at him. Even though Jon really tried, he failed the interaction. Then Naomi files a complaint, and now Elias, who Jon still desperately wants to impress and prove himself to, also knows that Jon failed. So? Jon pretends that he didn’t try. He talks about Naomi with all the hostility that would have justified a complaint.

At the end of the meeting with Elias, Jon assures him that he’ll “be more lovely,” and that more than anything else breaks my heart in this scene. Jon doesn’t really sound like he means it, and how could he mean it? He was already trying to be “lovely” to Naomi, and it failed. What else is he supposed to do?

levaagrace:

HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON’T by Fall Out Boy is so Jmart.

Like. Do you see it?

Similarly, Miss Missing You for post-canon Jmart.

DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?

Not me planning on looking at every interaction Jon had with live statement givers to analyze how he actually talked to them and not how people perceived him to talk to them. Because no, actually, Jon didn’t call Naomi a liar or delusional to her fucking face.

And now let’s look at the next non-archival assistant (at the time) one. Melanie King.

And for good measure, how about Dr. Lionel Elliot?

Notice anything? It’s that he apologizes the third time for the recording set up. Which the other two IMMEDIATELY complained about. It’s that every time he says something could be a lie, that they would STILL LOOK INTO IT and get back to them. Giving them reassurance that they’re not being overlooked or ignored, if not believed. It’s that half the time they question it all themselves. It’s that he returns the energy he’s given.

I may do season 2 next but like. Please tell me I don’t have to explain what I’m getting at. Jon is perfectly cordial to them. And anything he says to their faces is reasonable even though he ‘knew’ they were true because why wouldn’t his skeptic act work to occlude them as well? Because. We all know what happens the singular time he tells and reassure a live statement giver that he believes them.

Average TMA fan: “lol Jon is so socially inept and that makes him a terrible person so he deserves to be dehumanized and degraded until he learns how to be one lol”

That’s y’all. That’s what y’all sound like.

levaagrace:

The thing about JMart isn’t that I think it’s toxic or poorly written or came out of nowhere or any of that. Cause I don’t. At all. When I take a break from drinking haterade, I do agree with a good few points people make regarding their relationship in season five. I don’t want to, but I can give Martin little a grace. As a treat. When people aren’t acting like he’s morally in the right for every action he takes.

Because, though I think there is some veracity to not attributing malice in Martin’s actions, the actions he does take DO show disregard for Jon’s… everything. Because, though I do agree that they both take steps to purposefully not fall into the same habits, Martin adamantly refuses to believe Jon is trying. At all. And why do I think that? Why do I, in my heart of hearts, think there’s no way for either of them to get any better when it comes to moving forward in their relationship?

Martin flat out tells Jon that he believes, in a world without the horrors they face, that they wouldn’t even be able to stand each other. That Jon’s best-case-scenario, the scenario that he’s tied up all his hope into, the very idea that they could’ve been doing normal things as normal humans instead of whatever they became, was so far-fetched as to be something Martin had to bring him down from.

“No, Jon, we’re both too unlovable on a fundamental level and wouldn’t even find each other worth speaking to in any other world.”

That’s, essentially, what I hear when I think of that scene in the penultimate episode. Actually, I don’t think Martin includes himself as being unable to be loved, cue the “I am Martin Blackwood” scene, but as I said I’m giving him grace in thinking he’s not, as usual, putting all their problems on Jon.

This isn’t even bringing in the ‘trauma-bonding’ mention, but that’s also a sticking point for me when thinking about whether or not the two of them SHOULD even attempt to salvage a relationship with each other post-series, whether somewhere!else or not.

All the trauma they went through needed to MEAN something, to Martin, so he placed their relationship in that role. So the question begs, when adding in that quote above, what would’ve kept them together after Martin’s 'kill Jonah, pull the lever, save the world, kiss the Archivist’ dream scenario? The one he legitimately thought he was going to accomplish mere hours later? Without either of them needing to rely on the other in a world gone mad, without either of them needing each other to be sources of comradery when everyone else in the world can be, then why would Martin even stick around?

Nothing, according to Martin.

Course you could say that both of their insecurities would mean neither of them would see themselves as worthy of being with anyone else but each other. But that’s not sustainable a foundation to build anything on. Especially if, god forbid, they go to therapy and develop any form of self-worth not tied to each other or their places in the apocalypse. Eventually something will give and I don’t think many of the 'relationship growing pains’ they went through will be that easily forgotten. Or forgiven.

Here’s the point where I would point out how all the issues they had actually are mostly issues MARTIN caused by not listening to Jon when he said anything about anything at all, but as I said. Grace. So I won’t. Just know, though, that the 'hurdles’ they went through are uneven, in my eyes, at least, and I won’t say no more.

I suppose, when it comes down to it, what I’m trying to say is… telling someone you love them. Means nothing. When you think that loving them. Can only be the result of total and complete psychological, spiritual, emotional, ethical, physical, and mental destruction of the very fabric of your being.

But yeah.

Wrote this at the start of 2022 (?). Putting it under read more cause it’s cringe but like. Whatever.

This is set in an AU where Jon goes with the plan, separates from Martin and the girls, moves in with Naomi Herne, and then is found by Georgie. This is the confrontation they have.

Seriously tho don’t read if you’re not into, like… character bashing.

I’m bored. Send me the title of one of these WIPs and I’ll reply with a snippet from it I like. Some might be empty, though, fair warning.

catboy-draws:

Adding my cursed Jon design into the mix, bro is balding

YEAH SURE WHY THE FUCK NOT

levaagrace:

YEAH SURE WHY THE FUCK NOT

A tv adaptation would be compromising the vision of the series, but a limited run stage play is exactly what would be expected for exploring something like FUCKING HILLTOP ROAD. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

So Jon was being an egotistical asshole by “calling people liars and delusional to their faces” despite knowing that they were telling the truth…

But Tim telling Jon that nothing was trying to kill him, after Jane’s attack AND his own brother’s death at the hands of the circus… was reasonable…

🤨

Upon deep consideration and humble reflection, I’ve come to the conclusion… that Jon actually should’ve been allowed to kill all life with his bare hands. And then himself. I will not be taking any questions.

levaagrace:

levaagrace:

HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON’T by Fall Out Boy is so Jmart.

Like. Do you see it?

Similarly, Miss Missing You for post-canon Jmart.

DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?

SCAR. CROSSED. LOVERS.

Heaven, Iowa. Jesus Christ.

Y’all remember that episode where the academic guy bashes in the skull of another academic guy cause of his theories about the maze they were trapped in?

That’s what some of y’all make me want to do.