2025-07-15 18:14:00 ¶ ●

Non-hateful Martin rant on the Martin hate account??? I bet yall didn’t see this one coming. Under the cut for length

Martin, like literally every other TMA character, is morally grey. He thinks of himself as a “good guy”, sure, but that’s exactly why he isn’t all that “good”- it means he will support everyone who agrees with him, and look down on people who, according to his perception of ‘good’ and 'evil’, are on the “bad” side. This way of viewing things, that categorizing everything into “right” and “wrong” and putting himself on the “right” side no matter what, is in certain situations both a strength and a flaw of Martin’s.

He has his moments: he’s shown to be very helpful and caring, his uncomplicated way of viewing everything means he will fiercely protect his friends no matter what, just like he did when Jon was accused of murder and when he defended Jon’s odd behaviour to Tim; but this simplistic way of thinking means he can be unintentionally cruel and harmful to those around him even when he has their best interest in mind: in season 5 him being very vocal and harsh in his hatred for avatars caused him to be also (subconsciously? Or purposefully?) cruel to Jon, whom he claimed he dearly loved.

But the vast majority of his fans don’t allow him to be actually, consequentially fucked up. Most fan posts talking about him repeat a variation of “Martin is my fucked up pookie!” Why do you think that? “Cause he wants avatars to die haha! He’s so sneaky, everyone thought he was a softie but he craves violence! He’s such a cunning manipulator! Go my bloodthirsty king, he deserves a gun!”

First of all, that’s not really what happenned, but I’m not here to quote canon to you. Second of all, this isn’t at all what I had in mind when making this post. You see, all the things I mentioned in the previous paragraph are perfectly “excusable”. It’s fiction, so the severity of the character’s actions do not matter, and on top of that the emotional aspect of fantasy murder and violence is foreign to the audience. You’re not gonna be personally affected if your blorbo kills off a bunch of no-name characters in the story they’re in. You know the act is theoretically “bad” and whatever, but it’s not real, it’s a reocurring event in this particular podcast, and the story itself treats it lightly, so why should you care?

My issue is that Martin has a lot of everyday-ish, human flaws that hit way closer to home, but are almost never acknowledged by his fanbase. I don’t care that he wants to kill, that’s really nothing new considering how all the other characters are. I care about his personality and canon characterization. I care about the ways in which his behaviour impacted other characters in the story, and I care about the fact that these effect were not always positive. Martin fans are eager to accept that he was okay with murder, but they never acknowledge him being passive-aggressive, or toxic, or selfish, or close-minded. Those characteristics aren’t all he is, and they obviously aren’t his defining traits, but they are a significant part of him as a whole. If you choose to ignore them, then all you’re left with is a stereotypical “soft cute cinammon roll” with Martin’s name and foggy aesthetics slapped on it. No connection to canon whatsoever. He’s essentially become an empty shell.

His problem is that he chooses to ignore things that make him uncomfortable because he’s scared of the responsibility that comes with acknowledging them. He feels like he should stand up for himself but he hates himself at the same time, so it results in him pushing away everyone he cares for and then blaming himself while not changing his behaviour, because he finds comfort in loneliness, because it’s what he’s familiar with. Because it’s always been like this for him, and he doesn’t have the strength to actually change something for once. It’s easier for him to maintain surface level relationships with people and not let them get close enough to form an opinion on him other than “he’s a nice guy who tries his best I guess”.

He himself said that offering tea as a blanket solution for people’s problems is easier than actually getting to the root of the issue. If he just makes that person some tea, technically it does nothing good but they can’t blame him for not helping. The whole let-me-bring-you-some-tea thing was Martin avoiding serious conversations while maintaining his image as a kind and helpful guy.

He can sympathize but not empathize, he relates to things that he personally experienced before but can’t really put himself in another person’s shoes. He can be very hardworking and responsible, but he can also be childish and avoidant, especially when it would mean he has to take responsibility for something. He has a very strong sense of justice, but his morals are based on a very childish perception of the world around him - “cops are supposed to be good, avatars are supposed to be bad” - he separates the world into “good” and “bad” categories without accepting the possibility of exceptions to that rule - you’re either with him or against him, you’re either good or bad; he doesn’t allow the possibility that it depends.

All of those biases and his childishness and his internal conflicts and his season 5 assholery make him equally interesting and unbearably annoying and that’s highkey awesome. Even if I don’t like the season 5 development and think it’s shallow I can still acknowledge that it has potential. But you people focus only on his depression and self esteem issues and pity him like he’s a little child. Baby that man can live on his own just fine lmao. Everyone in this podcast is depressed you just find his experience deserving more pity than all the others cause you relate to him as an introvert with a shitty parent. Let him be inexcusably messed up let him be awful let him be flawed in other ways than “poor depressed bean filled with self-hate aww”. Jon isn’t the only one who’s fucked up. Martin didn’t match his freak but he nearly surpassed him in personal problems and I’m sick and tired of people portraying him as Jon’s selfless pure-hearted savior. Where’s my canonical toxic codependence?????