i always saw martin as representing humanity including the horror of it as opposed to the horrors of avatars/monsters that much of the podcast goes on about. hes not the initial thing that traumatizes a person hes represents the callousness towards victims who are now "monsterous" due to their trauma. he offers comfort sure but he never can relate and frequently judges jon.

like that was very much my take after finishing the show with how it framed elias/avatars vs martin/humanity as things for jon to chose between. and i was surprised to see all the dickriding for martin when i looked at the fandom because hes not meant to be a remotely good person. you should NEVER hit your partner idc the circumstnce!

yknow that kinda hell yeah actually i get the vibe actually. i typically don’t like any exploration of his character (it’s always bad) or anything that could be close to sympathising with him but you can live i suppose. notice how martin haters always have the best takes? 😇😇