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??
painful-earholes:
martinblackwoodhater:
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 🫣