Very real Jon and Agnes parallels trust
Tma spoilers up to mag200!
Starting from their childhood. Both of them were outcasts with dead parents, raised by people, who hadn’t really known how to handle them properly.
Jon was a “difficult child”, who often would wander off without any warning, who was hard to keep still and obedient, who often would talk back and would take any criticism very personally. Raised by his grandmother, who was already grieving her son and daughter in law, who already raised her own children, now having to deal with a young kid, she had practically no idea how to handle, and not having any friends, he, naturally, grew up very lonely.
Agnes as a child would have frequent outbursts sometimes even causing death in the cult. She also was a "difficult child”, but, in this case, both by being a child and being a god.
While Jon had a traumatic experience as a kid, that was tied to the Web, Agnes has been surrounded by the Web’s servants and victims almost her entire childhood. By saving Ivo Lensik and killing Raymond Fielding I think it’s safe to say that she definitely didn’t enjoy it, but i wouldn’t say she was traumatised by it. Instead it was probably very lonely.
Then we move on to their adulthood. One of theirs main themes is craving humanity, while not being fully human, and being gods in a way.
Agnes tries to simply mimic people around her to try and “fit in”, without really understanding why they do what they do, to pretend to be human, a person, someone with the most ordinary life.
Jon, on the other hand, tries to prove that he is still human. He’s ashamed to be not human, to have any sort of power. He wants to be human so badly, but he barely knows what humanity is for him. Of course, he’s not physically human anymore, but what makes him convinced of his lost humanity, is how other people view him. (I do have a huge analysis of Jon, that talks about his humanity in depth so you can check it out if you want!)
But even before that Jon did show signs of being misunderstood as a human. Both Jon and Agnes were still very much outcasts even as they grew up. Honestly this part very much seems like something Martin could say about Jon.
They both carry the burden if their destiny and their godhood.
While Jon only found out about his destiny at the very end, for Agnes she knew nothing more than her destiny. She never wanted it, but it’s all she ever have known. Jon feels guilty and scared of his destiny, it’s something he genuinely hates. Both of them feel trapped by it and the world reminds them of it.
Both of them are unknown despite quite literally having completely opposite ways of their story being told.
Agnes is not known. None of her close ones could really describe who she was as a person. Not the people, who raised her, not the person, who was in love with her. She, as the chosen one, has no voice in her own story. People barely knew her, barely cared to.
Jon, on the other hand, is the main character. You, as a listener, know so much about him, how he’s feeling, what he went through. And yet, while they are a few people like Georgie, Melanie and Basira, to whom he was a friend, who knew him, and cared about him, at the end the world doesn’t know him. Every single person knows him, some saw him in their dreams, but they only know him as the Archivist and nothing more. To them, he’ll forever be the Archivist.
Lastly, their love and their death.
These quotes are here just because I constantly think about them:
These two scenes just seem so similar, especially, with the context of their destinies and how they feel about it. Again, Jack and Martin feel very similar, especially how they view their lovers.
Something something your lover, who you often don’t really understand, who often leads you to wonder what’s going on in their head, to wonder how they really feel, dying by their own hand (/by yours when asked to kill them) after a kiss, while crying over you and feeling guilty for the pain they’ve caused you in this moment. Is this anything.
I think Jon and Agnes are incredibly similar even if it’s not intentional. When you try to view Jon from an outside perspective you see how many similarities his life has to Agnes’. It all started when over a year ago I thought about Agnes’ conversation with Jack about destiny on that park bench, and just how much it reminded me of Jon and Martin. And then it all just clicked so here we are.
