If you like martin the first time you listened, when did you start hating his character? Did the fandom mischaracterization have an impact? I personally like Martin, but I’m curious about your interpretation of his character. I’ve scrolled through some of your blog and you frequently respond to asks, but I haven’t seen what your own analysis of his character.
honestly no the fandom wasn’t really my biggest gripe with him or any kinda tipping point or whatever. i just sorta found a couple anti martin posts (at the time there were like 5 but there were still some bangers 🔥🔥) and i was like wait a sec like this makes sense…. mainly tho i think i just didn’t like him after growing up from being the kinda person who kins him because like he just reminded me of myself at like my lowest and most annoying. but anyway yes so grateful to the martin haters who came before me and im glad i could further the idea a little 🐗🐗
and then like i relistened to (one of?) the episode (s?) where he hits john and like it felt like i had some like legitimate reason and evidence towards him being a character that i dislike, but ill be the first to admit i was already biased against him at that point
wait what is your opinion on jon x tim. do you mind them in any way shape or form
i mean i don’t really like shipping in the podcast and especially not with john (not that i think aro!john or anything i just don’t like him in relationships) and im not sure how shipping became such an incredibly prevalent part of this horror podcast but like i mean it’s not as bad as jmart at least 🙏
A lot of people in tma fandom purposely exclude the female characters in favour of the (gay) men and this is obviously a bad thing. However that also means there are takes like "if you dislike georgie/melanie/basira youre misogynistic" and they are infuriating. No i actually think the surviving trio sucked ass.
Maybe melanie and basira were bearable cause while their awful behaviour is annoying i can see where theyre coming from. But i cannot bring myself to like georgie i dont know what yall see in her. Not even in that "georgie is jons horrible ex" way i really dgaf about their relationship. But why did she come to him afterwards just to talk about how great her relationship with melanie is while simultaneously rubbing it in his face about how unworthy of care he is. I dont think shes boundary queen i think she is a bit rude at times
adding onto this like it was so incredibly awful seeing john coming out of a coma and having the worst time of his life ever and having every single character be incredibly unnecessarily rude to him omg. like i don’t even think that john’s like the best person or incredible to be in any (platonic/romantic) relationship with but like there was just such an insane lack of empathy for him by any of the other characters that it was like just so depressing at times i swear. like obviously they’re all going through their own stuff and they’re all like flawed characters deliberately but that doesn’t mean i have to like them and like someone give my guy john a break for once in his life. everyone treated him so awfully like it’s no wonder he just accepted the way martin acted towards him by the end. i completely understand jonelias shippers because like even if i don’t like shipping personally and i don’t like shipping john with anyone like at least their dynamic is interesting and jonah at least has like some degree of (even kinda potentially fake) understanding or empathy for him. like if i was john i’d be jumping at that chance so he’s a stronger man than me ((shout out my jonelias mutuals/fans y'all are my biggest allies out here))
I’m confused you’re chill with Gertrude dismembering and sacrificing people, Jon preforming unconsentual surgery, and all this other stuff but MARTIN is going too far?? I mean weird hill to die on imo 🤷😭
like everyone else gets the “well it’s a horror show they can be a bit messed up as a treat” treatment and Martin is held to the standard of like a real person?
eh you do you but that’s a bit silly
also saying 172 wasn’t a stressful situation when it’s literally the apocalypse is wildddd
Martin’s so fucking boring is the problem and all his fans are the most annoying people in the world is the other problem.
like gertrude made decisions and stuck to them and some of them were very difficult decisions and some are ones that we can recognise as an audience that she shouldn’t have done, but that’s what makes her a more interesting character and also like i just think she’s cool because yeah she IS cool. and i mean yeah jon’s little surgery on melanie was probably a low point and i agree that she should’ve had more control in that situation but he’s still got completely understandable motives to his flaws and that’s understood by the fandom and he’s interesting enough and i just like him and also like literally everyone hates him at that point in his life if i made a hate account for him id just be piling on to that poor man and he’s been through enough tbh.
which is to say that, no, while im not particularly on the side of the individual actions listed there, like i appreciate their characters and the larger picture and the reason they may have acted the way they did. with martin, however, it’s just his character to the core that pisses me off and the weird just like everything he does and especially how he’s been somehow projected onto enough by the fandom that they’ve managed to competely turn him into something entirely different just so they can kin him more comfortably.
and my point about 172 was that it wasn’t a stressful enough situation or environment to justify his actions because he was in absolutely no need to rush anything (no concept of time because apocalypse!) and therefore he very clearly was not panicked and was instead acting rationally and in a way that he justified to himself when he hit john, meaning that it was an action that i don’t consider redeemable in what’s supposed to be a portrayal of a semi-healthy relationship (as in it’s meant to be like “good/positive relationship between the individuals despite the situation” kinda thing rather than directly a portrayal of a more toxic relationship between john and martin directly). like yes, the apocalypse is stressful, (tho martin has it better than lowkey anyone else in the world rn), but by this point he’s had time to be thinking rationally when he was physically hitting his boyfriend, and there was nothing in the situation that would indicate higher stress than normal or would really justify his actions to me (yes, i appreciate the whole Web thing but what im saying is he had time to think, and he thought, and he still hit jon when there was no real reason to).
i just don’t see this as the absurd take you’re making it out to be when i can’t see martin as likable enough for this glazing in the first place - like he’s mean to everybody, especially jon by the end, and he just doesn’t come across as likable to anyone except the people that want to relate to him (because they’ve got like issues with their mother and like get lonely sometimes or whatever) or people that think him being needlessly mean is a like crazy character change to be all like badass and cool or whatever. like he’s literally just mean when there’s no reason to be, and just because he’s in a bad situation doesn’t mean i have to like him, because we never really see him as anything except whiney or mean
You know how funny I've curated my Tumblr for you page? I'll scroll and right underneath some fluff teaholding post will be your account dissecting how Martin is a terrible character/terribly written and I find this occurance in my life fascinating.
brutal mischaracterisation in one of those two posts and it probably isn’t mine.
i feel like a lot of the reason john is portrayed as vaguely brown without being given any like links to actual culture or a direct ethnicity and therefore it just coming across as more of an aesthetic thing is just so that he can like he clearly protrayed as a direct opposite to martin (who’s always portrayed as like a [usually tall] fat blonde/ginger white guy compared to john being a short skinny black-haired brown guy) and this trope is so incredibly prevalent in the fandom mainly due to how it peaked in quarantine in fandoms of largely white queers and typically teenagers and therefore still has that like visible effect on the fanon today. getting off topic but i just really hate how like rigid the ideas are in the fandom as well as the lack of any real thought into any designs that like fit the characters in a different way. sorry this was a tangent and kinda rambling
I remember the first time I heard MAG 169 Fire Escape was the first time I really stopped and thought "wow Martin is kind of a dick". And then I began to notice all the other things about him - the controlling behaviour, the black and white mentality, the selfishness, the way he's clearly using Jon's power to get what he (and only he) wants out of this eyepocalypse. The list goes on.
Anyway, my point was that I didn't realize just how toxic the jmart relationship was until Jon offered Martin the choice in 169 - to go into the burning building after Jude Perry, or not. Until that point, Martin, a character who has repeatedly made the choice to be passive in their decisions, throws a tantrum about going in the building. And Jon offers him the choice not to, and agrees to abide by his decision. The moment Jon shows Martin that respect, Martin throws it away. "That's not a fair decision to put on me."
Bitch please, YOU were the one throwing the tantrum! And when Jon responds by respecting your wishes, you're going to actively reject that!
It gets even worse in MAG 173 Night Night. Martin throws another tantrum.
Jon: I don’t know what you want me to do.
Martin: I want you to use your power. I want you to help them; I want you to make things better!
Jon: There is no better anymore.
Martin: (increasing in volume, emotion) You keep – saying that, and I hate it!
Jon: (also giving in to the argument) I keep saying it because it keeps being true; you know that!
Martin: What I know, is that leaving children here is – (struggles for words) i-it’s inexcusable; it’s monstrous!
Jon: (overlapping, firm) Martin. Tell me what you want me to do, and I will do it!
yikes. just yikes.
sorry this isn't really an ask, more of a vent. but you seem like the kind of person I could vent anti-martin sentiments at.
ugh i knowww, and like admittedly im not sure id be MUCH better in an apocalypse so like ill give him some degree of grace but it just really stands out to make him more unlikable when none of the other characters are that whiney.
i think it’s a combination of the fact that he clearly just can’t accept the situation and, and therefore complains about everything, and also the fact that he’s unable to actually do anything whatsoever, that just makes him so irritating this season. he just so clearly doesnt actually know what he wants. and, like, to be fair, it’s not entirely his fault because he’s in an impossible situation where all he can do is walk for ages and witness all this suffering, but him just yabbering on and complaining while doing nothing about any of the problems he’s talking about (because he can’t) just serves to make him sound incredibly whiney. Like if he’s meant to be a “suffering in silence” Lonely avatar then why won’t he shut the hell up for once