omgggg I feel like no-one gets that, like, hating on trans men for being men is just exactly the same as hating on them for being trans?? Like it’s exactly the same concept these two parts of identity are often so tightly interwoven that it’s truly the same impact.
Makes me so frustrated to see a trans guy (usually like younger boys) being so scared to take up space or like be authentic or loud or angry just because of the fear perpetuated around “rahhh big scary evil man” and it’s just like… this is oppression too??
it feels like there’s been such a change recently in like general internet culture to just a lack of empathy and an increase in blatantly dismissing people, like the whole “womp womp” trend that, like, it was funny but like there’s a limit ?? And the like “So sorry this happened to you! Can I use it for my oc lore? <3” copypasta on posts of people that were expressing genuine problems or traumas, also with how incredibly prevalent and normalised fatphobia and those sorts of jokes are in a way that feels so much more recent in online spaces?
Like people like to joke about 2020 and cancel culture and everything, and sure, like, it had its problems, but it also felt genuinely supportive and welcoming, and not so afraid to be genuine or nice or atleast polite and not openly rude to people??
This was actually the first TMA episode I ever listened to and I just fell in love with Jared omg my king, also Patricia’s statement like ruined me I can still recite the whole episode word for word 🤧
(Close up of Jared under the cut)
omg look at his little snout and his little teeth he’s everything to me look at his hooves omg 💞💞💞
anyone PLEASE send Jared or rlly any art request <3
Martin blackwood’s mother holds so many TERF ideoloies. I may have very little evidence to support this but she’s a British mother and that’s enough evidence for me.
That woman will defend JK Rowling at any available opportunity.
No-one understands my vision but in my heart I stand by it… He’s like chill w it but like if you dig too deep he starts to relay terf ideas. He’s that kinda gay guy.
No-one understands my vision but in my heart I stand by it… He’s like chill w it but like if you dig too deep he starts to relay terf ideas. He’s that kinda gay guy.
he is also trans…
forgot to mention that but there are so many martins and this one is trans and the other one is transphobic. he lives such a life.
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??
TMA would be so much better/more interesting if The Lonely wasn’t one of the official fears.
Like omg Martin if he was actually explicitly Web aligned rather than just toeing the line?? Maybe if he was like an actual villain I’d be able to ??tolerate?? maybe even like him, but god his little hypocritical indecisive act was so infuriating by s5.
I reckon he could’ve actually made a good Prentiss-esque villain working for the Web, with a compelling backstory and therefore motivations in how his mother’s manipulation etc has like actually turned him into something cruel (Maybe not cruel, but, like, something definite and fleshed rather than the unclear character he became by s5.)
ALSO the lonely is just boring like as a fear in general. Like… ok?? You’re scared of being alone? It’s not exactly the Vast is it…? I just feel like there’s less opportunity for diversity within the fear itself, so it becomes easily the weakest fear. Like even The Dark gets, like, deep water and lack of knowing, The Lonely just gets being lonely, and it’s a boring fear, like it doesn’t even hold anywhere near as much potential for supernatural personification of the actual Fear, which is kinda the whole point of them??
TMA would be so much better/more interesting if The Lonely wasn’t one of the official fears.
Like omg Martin if he was actually explicitly Web aligned rather than just toeing the line?? Maybe if he was like an actual villain I’d be able to ??tolerate?? maybe even like him, but god his little hypocritical indecisive act was so infuriating by s5.
I reckon he could’ve actually made a good Prentiss-esque villain working for the Web, with a compelling backstory and therefore motivations in how his mother’s manipulation etc has like actually turned him into something cruel (Maybe not cruel, but, like, something definite and fleshed rather than the unclear character he became by s5.)
ALSO the lonely is just boring like as a fear in general. Like… ok?? You’re scared of being alone? It’s not exactly the Vast is it…? I just feel like there’s less opportunity for diversity within the fear itself, so it becomes easily the weakest fear. Like even The Dark gets, like, deep water and lack of knowing, The Lonely just gets being lonely, and it’s a boring fear, like it doesn’t even hold anywhere near as much potential for supernatural personification of the actual Fear, which is kinda the whole point of them??
I love the Lonely. I think it’s a wonderfully human fear, and maybe that’s why it stands out.
It’s the antithesis of the Stranger. Where the Stranger is the fear of not recognizing the world around you, the Lonely is the fear that the world doesn’t recognize you. You become the odd one out. People look at you, and then they look past you because they don’t understand. Because you don’t fit in. Because you failed to live up to a standard worthy of attention.
It’s the fear of being the not quite right puzzle piece, but that as much as people can shun you, and places can be detached from society, you are the problem. You are lonely because you choose to be, but you don’t like it. You ache connection.
But what if you’re wrong? What if being lonely isn’t a choice? What if you gave people the chance to see you and you ended up exactly where you were before? Then it becomes the fear that your nightmare of people choosing to ignore you is reality. You isolate yourself from being able to understand and connect to evade that pain, and therefore people can’t understand and connect with you. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
Lonely avatars are tricky because being lonely is such a personal experience. It’s difficult to truly impart loneliness on someone. I think they would excel by doing exactly what Peter Lukas does. Slowly cutting people off from their support systems until you drop them off a cliff and watch their eyes as they realize no one will come help them because no one is listening to them scream.
The Lonely is not the fear of being alone. It is the fear of being so detached from connection that you are nothing and mean nothing. That would be what makes Martin such a vague character towards the end. In an effort to cut himself off from everyone, he had to become forgettable and bland. He becomes just a part of the scenery. Cruel only because he is apathetic, only because he doesn’t think.
The Lonely is difficult to trap with words. It melds into so many other fears that it becomes muddy, but that’s what makes it so strong as well. It’s because of Martin’s intimacy with the Web that makes him such a good Lonely candidate. To be able to make everyone dance like puppets and feel none of the satisfaction and joy from it. To know you could force that man to love you, but it wouldn’t feel the same as if he actually chose to love you.
And honestly, I just really love the Lonely. Your feelings are so valid, and I absolutely feel cheated by Martin not falling into the Web as was so painfully fit for him. But his character’s loss of potential do not make the Lonely a boring fear. I think there’s a reason fog is associated with the Lonely. It’s difficult to hold in your hands.
A lot of these parts do feel like they could be taken up by the other fears, though, is my only issue with it. The Lonely doesn’t particularly stand out to me as anything other than it’s own very specific niche that just gets a little boring due to the lack of range.
I feel like what you described could actually be picked up by The Stranger if it was necessary, like how The Eye is also the fear of not knowing things, not just the embodiment of knowledge, but I also feel that The Lonely should need to be more than that to be truly important. The Buried is the antithesis the The Vast, for example, and yet they’re both fully very expensive Fears on their own, and have far more content in what they span as fears than The Lonely does.
I do appreciate how The Lonely fits into other fears, such as The Desolation or especially The Corruption, but that feels like it’s best feature, and I feel like a good Fear should be stand on it’s own better than The Lonely does, as it doesn’t bring enough that’s truly unique, so most parts of it could easily by personified as other fears - the aspect of being apart from every other person in the world, for example, is a part of The Vast, and the aspect of being different from everyone else is a factor in so many other Fears, such as the Stranger, as you mentioned, but also The Spiral, and even The Corruption depending on the specifics of the fear.
The Fears working together is honestly one of my favourite parts of the whole concepts, but I just feel like The Lonely doesn’t do enough to be as interesting or engaging than any of the others.
You mention that it’s a wonderfully human fear, which I guess I can’t really fault, though the same can be said for many of the others, such as The Extinction (My fav sorry 🙈), where the guilt and humanity is such a key part, but it feels that that humanity in The Lonely isn’t used to build much in the way of development of the Fear, as there just isn’t as much you can do with The Lonely as a concept. Also, while the humanity is important to connect with the Fear and then could be utilised in either distorting that humanity or preying on it, I feel that it doesn’t do this particularly (The main focus on that was with Jon, obviously, and him grappling his humanity with The Eye, and Helen losing it to The Spiral), and even then, it just lacks enough supernatural or paranormal element in any niche of the fear to really make up for it. Like that white streak in Martin’s hair is fighting for it’s life in the fanart against all the actually cool body horror and everything in the other Fears 🫣
TMA would be so much better/more interesting if The Lonely wasn’t one of the official fears.
Like omg Martin if he was actually explicitly Web aligned rather than just toeing the line?? Maybe if he was like an actual villain I’d be able to ??tolerate?? maybe even like him, but god his little hypocritical indecisive act was so infuriating by s5.
I reckon he could’ve actually made a good Prentiss-esque villain working for the Web, with a compelling backstory and therefore motivations in how his mother’s manipulation etc has like actually turned him into something cruel (Maybe not cruel, but, like, something definite and fleshed rather than the unclear character he became by s5.)
ALSO the lonely is just boring like as a fear in general. Like… ok?? You’re scared of being alone? It’s not exactly the Vast is it…? I just feel like there’s less opportunity for diversity within the fear itself, so it becomes easily the weakest fear. Like even The Dark gets, like, deep water and lack of knowing, The Lonely just gets being lonely, and it’s a boring fear, like it doesn’t even hold anywhere near as much potential for supernatural personification of the actual Fear, which is kinda the whole point of them??
i agree, i feel like the lonely is somewhat tame compared to the other fears, and it kind of hindered martins growth as a character. I feel like the aftermath of the lonely arc wasn’t shown enough for it to be significant to martins story. like it was more of a pause, rather than an actual development? he didn’t seem to change much afterwards, definitely not as much as if he had become aligned with another fear.
Martin’s growth is hindered because he never escapes his fear, and neither does Jon. That’s the tragedy of the finale: Jon couldn’t escape his fear of not knowing, and Martin couldn’t handle his fear of losing Jon. It got them both killed in the end (or inconveniently discorporated, at any rate.)
And that’s why I don’t think Martin works as an avatar of the Web. He wasn’t afraid of being controlled, he was afraid of losing Jon, although, that’s pretty clearly the domain of Desolation. That brings me to my biggest gripe when it comes to the fears: the way Desolation and Corruption are portrayed leaves them with so much untapped potential.
Why is Desolation the church? Anyone who’s been around religious zealots knows that their biggest fear is being corrupted. The need to be pure is what drives their bigotry. Imagine a church dedicated the purity of turning everything to filth! To me that’s way more interesting.
Whereas the Desolation, I mean, that’s a fun loving, avoidant, party-til-you-drop kinda fear. That deserves a charismatic pyromaniac of an avatar who burns things down not because it’s a “cleansing fire,” but because fire is FUN. And imagine Martin as an avatar of the Desolation, burning down his relationships over a fear of loss. That’s more tragic to me, personally. And it would still work with the finale: while he’s not burning down his relationship anymore he’s still desperately trying to save them, driven still by his fear of loss, but it’s too late. In the end they go up in flames anyway.
Anyway, I agree. The Lonely is a bit weak. But it doesn’t bother me nearly as much as imagining The Church of Corruption.
UGH desolation and corruption are so easily in my top fears and I agree they could’ve been sooo much more than they were.
Also why was The Desolation JUST given a fire aspect when it could also be so well represented in so many other ways. Like, sure Agnes is my queen but pls The Desolation could be so much cooler than it is 🤧
tma fans will create jmart dynamics from HELL with even less understanding of Martin’s character than even me (and that’s impressive because I actively and intentionally avoid anything about him) - as well as mischaraterizing Jon obviously - and then act surprised when I say that the romance and the overfocus on shipping in the fandom negatively impacted the podcast 😒
Like please guys I understand that y'all are starved of queer rep but PLEASE there’s so much more to the podcast and so much more interesting parts of this 🤧🤧
tma fans will create jmart dynamics from HELL with even less understanding of Martin’s character than even me (and that’s impressive because I actively and intentionally avoid anything about him) - as well as mischaraterizing Jon obviously - and then act surprised when I say that the romance and the overfocus on shipping in the fandom negatively impacted the podcast 😒
Like please guys I understand that y'all are starved of queer rep but PLEASE there’s so much more to the podcast and so much more interesting parts of this 🤧🤧
how have I managed this reblog:likes ratio omg chat am I cancelled 😨
“The average person is being followed by at least 2 eldritch horrors” wrong! The average person is being followed by 0. Arthur Lester, the narratives blorbo who’s being followed by 100,000 eldritch horrors is an outlier and should not have been counted
i think its fun and good that people pick an internet name for themselves these days but i kinda miss when u had some fuckass username and ppl just extrapolated from that i used to be on a star wars forum where my handle was ProfessorMug and ppl just called me prof. u know like there was a guy w vader in his handle so he was just vader
so real actually i wish there was a nickname for my username but it just doesn’t really work
Thinking about making the boyfailures into keychains. Would anyone want the boys as acrylic keychains
I am experiencing the need to draw again because of how much I love these stupid beautiful idiots. Uhhhh yeah John has a body. Uhhh yeah he and Arthur are best friends and literally nothing bad has ever happened to either of them in my favorite podcast Malevolent. Yesss…
Preorder them to support my descent into madness alongside John and Arthur. If you preorder them and dm me receipts I will doodle them for you as a thank-you
