2025-04-07 11:40:55 ¶ ●

When you think about it, Jon and Martin’s experiences with the Institute were roughly the same. The only difference is in their behaviour, and in how each of them handled themselves.

Oh Martin had to work alongside Peter Lukas and fulfill all his wishes and orders, even if they didn’t sit right with him? Jon had to do the exact same for Elias.

Martin worked his ass off to protect his coworkers from a big unknown evil, and isolated himself from everyone in the process? Jon went through the same with his Gertrude murder investogation.

Martin had no one left in the world to care for him, especially after his mother died? Jon was alone too - at a certain point everyone in the Archives resented him, he was an orphan without any living family members, and the only person he could turn to was an ex girlfriend who really didn’t like him all that much.

Jon and Martin even have similar self-esteem issues. They are both depressed.

But somehow Martin always ends up as the fandom’s poor mistreated boy, and all Jon ever gets to be is a wet blanket antichrist boyfriend whose only redeeming characteristic is his undying love and devotion for the former man.

2025-04-07 15:03:53 ¶ ●

WHY did tma in s5 simplify so much of its previously complex story. Jonah is the big evil antagonist who’s actually weak now and who miscalculated and who dies like a dog. Jon is an all powerful being who kills Elias without a second thought bc he’s evil and everyone suffered solely because of his manipulation obviously. Martin is the goody two shoes who is oh so noble because he doesn’t want anyone to suffer, and so he’s willing to condemn countless other universes to suffering just so his own can be fear-free. The podcast ends in a love confession and one lover stabbing the other and it’s fatal and it’s love that had to be sacrificed for the greater good and they are sooo tragic and it’s so heartbreaking. Where’s the paranormal horror? Why did we ditch the genre at the very end of our story

2025-04-08 11:27:36 ¶ ●

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I belive Martin could have been a great character, especially in Season 5. We know Martin is an avatar, and we learn that he has his own domain, combine it with the fact that he's an airhead who thinks every single avatar is a monster, and it's the perfect setting to explore him in depth, but nope, let's focus on the romance, that'll do better. We do get a little bit of Martin's self reflection on it but it's so few times that it was (at least for me) irrelevant and insignificant.

So true. Suddenly the last season of a horror fiction podcast decided to become a romantic tragedy. Everything was focused on a relationship that didn’t even have a chance to properly develop. The writing just smooshed their faces together like two puppets and declared them deeply in love

2025-04-11 3:04:20 ¶ ●

Imagine a scenario in which Martin wasn’t the reason for Jon’s last mark, and instead Jon got so isolated that the Lonely consumed him all by itself.

He was already an outcast; it would take just a little nudge for him to succumb to the Lonely altogether.

Jon was so painfully alone in season 4. Forsaken. Everyone gave up on him.

What I’m saying is that if Barnabas Bennett could send a letter to Jonah from the Lonely then Jon could surely receive one.

2025-04-11 10:07:39 ¶ ●

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What's your opinion on The Extinction? I personally was very disappointed that a whole new fear was used just as a plot device in S4 and nothing more, I was hoping we were going to get something real big in S5 considering the situation, but at the same time, the Extinction is a young fear, so it kind of makes sense it wouldn't be as prevalent as the others (but i think we should have gotten more than just one statement of it)

I feel the same way. What was the point of introducing an apocalypse-related fear if it wasn’t going to be present in the season set in the apocalypse?

It fit perfectly with the fifth season and the Eyepocalypse. But of course it had to be used for Martin angst! Poor boy, overworking himself and cutting everyone off because he wants to protect them from the Big Bad Extinction!

The setup for it was neat. And I think they could’ve gotten away with making it a red herring, if the following season had literally anything of substance to deliver, instead of a romantic end-of-the-world hike and an oddly framed moral dilemma.

Also, the podcast literally stated that the Extinction was emerging rapidly, and that they had limited time to act and prepare - and then nothing happened. There was no “defeating” or “overcoming” the Ritual - it wasn’t even there. It just disappeared abruptly.

The Extinction was hyped up so much just to be unceremoniously tossed aside the second it became irrelevant to Martin’s story.

2025-04-28 22:13:45 ¶ ●

With the Martin being human and Jon being an avatar arc there are no positive conclusions drawn from it. There is no “love makes you a better person”. It’s just Martin berating Jon for who he has become but also saying that he cares about him (?)

It’s not love that made Jon come back to his senses when he was getting too close to the powers. It was the occasional act of physical violence (slapping/shaking) and I doubt that those particular actions were prompted by love and adoration, rather than Martin’s momentary fear and disgust of fear-influenced Jon. What I’m saying is that any other person could’ve done that, had they been travelling with Jon. Love didn’t play a significant role. We witnessed that others despised Jon for being an avatar as well, and I think it’s safe to assume that they too would do everything in their power to stop Jon from feeding or hurting innconents - but that’s because they hated him and/or perceived avatarhood as violent and monstrous.

Martin’s supposed affection for Jon only resurfaces when Jon tries to go across with his own plan in the last episode, and that one singular act prompted by Martin’s love caused Jon to go with the Web’s plan last minute. The only thing love did for Jon was to strip him of any agency regarding his own life whatsoever. He had to throw away the only decision he could’ve made for himself to appease Martin. His love lost him. His love made him go against everything he believed in.

Love doesn’t fix you, it smashes you into pieces until there is nothing left for you to pick up. The Magnus Archives is not a tragic love story, it isn’t a love story at all. Among many other themes, it is a story about one’s loss of agency. But somehow the narrative completely overlooked that, and instead all that everyone picked up from it was “well they might’ve ended up somewhere else so maybe they’re fine!”. But that is not horror. There is no conclusion drawn it just ends vaguely and hopefully and not at all horror-esque despite it being a horror podcast.