i really do love the style of the podcast and i think that the tape recorder stuff is very creative and works incredibly well for the start of the podcast especially, as it really fits that early vibe where there’s still the fear of the unknowing and that’s emphasised by just the sheer amount of setting that the listener just does not know, and it’s fun to piece together all the statements and there’s just that general like exciting detective vibe.
that being said, i think it’s also a reason why some of the character writing feels less appealing to me, as we only hear snippets of the worst parts of their lives and whatever small details happen to be caught on a tape that’s focused on something bigger.
i can’t exactly tell how much of this is intentional, but, to be fair, it’s especially interesting with Sasha, as while she’s a tragic concept, it feels less devastating as she is so defined by tragedy in all that we hear from or about her - she’s so defined by the absence of humanity that it makes it more difficult to think of her as a full character, and rather just a symbol of the horror and the supernatural that can exist in this universe, as the not!them is genuinely a chilling concept. the media used works so well with Sasha as we don’t know anything about her, and we’re not meant to. but i still do wonder if the concept would be more effective if we did know her a little more, and therefore if we could feel the loss like the characters could, rather than just seeing the fallout and with her turning into more of a forgotten cautionary tale.
A funny thing about the widespread “Jon is stupid and keeps making dumb choices that lead to him almost dying” take is that if you were to really look at his behaviour, he very much acts in the way the “horror characters are so dumb” people would want him to act.
He doesn’t jump to irrational conclusions, doesn’t dive head first into danger and instead prepares for it as well as he can etc etc. He’s very distrustful of everyone and everything due to his paranoia, and tries to do as much research as possible before heading into the unknown.
You just get annoyed at him because you, as the listener, already know the things he’s researching, and possibly already know what his actions will result in. No, his fate couldn’t have been avoided if he had done something differently. The only way Jonathan Archivist Sims’s fate could’ve been avoided would be by entirely rewriting his character story from at least the age of eight. Goodbye Mr Spider!
In this eassy i want to say that Jon never hated martin bc he thought he was stupid
In fact ill go as far to say he never thought martin as stupid
Air headed? And thoughtless? Yea but not stupid
Infact jon thought martin was the smartest one in the archives
Thats why he hated him so much
Jon thought martin was underminding him in every way through out season one
Martin from Jons perspective was the oldest, had the most qualifications, spent 10 years in the library, and way directly appointed by Elias
Bad first impression aside Martin was the most qualified for that position to Jon
Only for him to be bad at the job
Jon HAD to think that martin was doing it on purpose to show how bad he himself was at his job
Worst part? Martin was nice
I cannot tell you how Justified Jon would have been if Martin really was pulling what Jon thought he was being incredibly qualified purposely being bad at his job having a direct line to Elias to report how Jon is doing and then being nice on top of it yeah no Jon was right to be pissed if that was what was going on
Which is why the cv thing ment so much to jon
Bc no martin wasn’t doing all of this to make an ass out of jon
No he was just a guy struggling and in effectly the same boat jon was
So yea
In my next essay jon never claimed the supernatural didnt exist he just pretended to think the statments were horse shit
isn’t it wild when a ship has so little chemistry that they have to be the last free people in the world just to get together
Jonmartin wouldn’t have been together if not for the literal end of the world. It’s not a “sticking together no matter how bad things get” scenario this is a “the only ones left in an apocalypse desperately grasping at scraps of normalcy” scenario
“would you kill yourself had you known your death would free people?” top things you should NOT ask your already suicidal boyfriend who hates himself. that’s just basic empathy I fear
* keeled over * it’s not… (dying gasp) it’s not an office comedy…. (transmutation into a skeleton sounds) it’s a horror podcast with anthology elements…. (begins to crumble to dust) not everything has to be something else…. (stock explosion as i fade away)
Literally anything couldve changed the trajectory of Tma, but I think the thing that fucks me up the most, is the fact that I’d argue a lot of the reason Jon even ends up in that precarious place between avatar and human (”how much of you is left”) is because after all that time nobody, not even martin treated him like a human. Jon tried his damnedest to help, and persevere, and he did what humans do to survive, make bad choices. And everyone invalidates that. His needs, like statements, are viewed of that like a dog needing to be taken on a walk. His acknowledgments on his capabilities are never about him, and only the powers, the things he can take and steal and do, and martin pushes him to use the powers and yet is so shocked when Jon is more horrified with himself than when he started.
^ your so right I’m also dead if Martin has no haters, but obviously its my personal bias along with hating basira and Melanie, I just feel like the sheer disrespect dished out to Jon was never reciprocated, which makes it worse for me because Jon was either to tired of it to fight or genuinely believed this treatment was deserved. And nobody, not even Martin, finds it in them to apologize to Jon about anything, and you could argue “well, Martin was with Peter for—” that was his willing choice, its not like it was Elias (whom he resisted fairly well already) so any damages he did I think he should have to apologize for, because Jon already paid his penance Imo,,
(post about martin blackwood) it is human nature to want people that you trust/care about to know the bad or complicated things that happened to you without wanting to say what happened, and i think that this is clearly something that is also felt by martin in particular due to how we see him isolating himself while still wanting john to come get him, and how we see him getting mad at john for not being able to predict exactly what he wants while also getting mad at john for having mind reading powers (a pattern he picked up from his mother presumably).
that is to say, i think that him having his experiences with his mother ripped out of his head and put on tape and without any of the biases that he would taint it with if telling the story himself is something that at least some part of him wanted to happen.
it’s sort of the perfect scenario for him in that he has a part of the whole complicated relationship with his mother shared with john (presumably) without any of the actual responsibility that would come if he had told him himself. the only way we could ever get martin’s backstory from a semi-reliable narrator is without his will, and i think martin himself knows that.
The thing about me is that at this point I don’t actually give half a shit about Martin anymore. This blog has been running for several months now and I’m nearly out of new things to say.
But the sheer amount of hatred that’s expressed towards blogs like these keeps me going. As long as people will keep complaining about me, I will keep making dogshit posts just to make you angry because I am obviously evil and toxic and hate fun and suchlike. And you should totally tell me to kill myself just because I find a fictional guy annoying
Also if you like martin blackwood then why on earth would you go to martin hate blogs. Don’t say you didn’t know what to expect the ‘content warning’ is in the literal url. And why would you want to send them an anonymous ask about martin being your favourite character and him being the best guy ever actually. Do you expect them to have a sudden change of heart or what.
And then after all that you people run to the magpod confessions crying that “martin haters are so mean and toxic!” First of all you did this to yourself. Frog willingly jumps into boiling water then complains to the stove. And second of all we know you just mean that one guy. You’re not fooling anyone
No but for real why didn’t Martin feed? He was fully an avatar in season four. Like he flat out just went ghost in front of Georgie and we’re not supposed to question that he could do the same sorta shit as Peter FUCKING Lukas without victimizing anyone? Or did they just decide that it only took Jon taking one live statement to make him haunt people’s nightmares because he was just that evil of a person? Like. Where is the logic.
Laughing at Jon saying Helen tricked them into thinking she was their friend. Like she wasn’t exactly convincing nor trying to be nor did you at any point treat her like you trusted her.
I love your posts because me and my friends have been screaming about how badly Jon was treated by the Archive Crew despite him doing his best, and also about how the poor man never got any agency in the end. It’s nice to see that we’re not the only ones who have Issues with the Finale.
The thing is, this really is a masterwork of eldritch/existential horror within its genre. Amazingly terrifying, infinitely soul-crushing. Where similar stories play up the dread by keeping the bogeymen in the dark and their purposes Arcane and Unknowable, Jonny Sims put 15 spotlights on his entities and still managed to horrify us so much more than some random evil squid god. It’s a good story and a great tragedy.
But yes, the Issue with the Finale is very much the absolute vacuum where Jon’s agency and validation should be. The man got fuck-all from the narrative and even less than fuck-all from the holier than thou hypocrites he was forced to call friends for lack of anyone better around him. Much as I am very much onboard with blaming the Web for most of Jon’s plight, I’ve come to revise my initial hope that the others on Team Archive were being forced to be cruel/isolating to Jon.
Now I’m forced to believe the Web’s only move there was arranging things to have Jon surrounded by the least supportive support network it could give him who would be malleable enough to use for its own ends once they reached the climax. People with just enough moral fortitude*** to slap Jon’s wrists through s3-s4 for simply surviving, only to have them turn around and jump at the first easy fix-it for themselves at the cost of others’ lives in s5.
The Fears I can hate because they are the Fears.
These people I hate because they did the one thing Jon never did throughout the entire series, including MAG 160–they chose to willingly deliver torment unto innocent victims for their own sake. Maybe one world’s worth. Potentially many more. Potentially an infinity more. They spent a total of ten fucking minutes pretending to ‘debate it’ before coming to the decision.
And the only excuses they can make for themselves is ‘Well, we don’t know for sure; the best we can do is hope!’
So say these understandable, believable, traumatized people–who have suffered less than an nth of all the torturous bullshit Jon has been dragged through. Jon, who was so conditioned by the narrative to bite the bullet that he was willing to pull a euthanasia on the world he’d tried so hard to save just to be sure the Fears would die with them, never to touch or torture anyplace else.
and that would be a fine ending for a cosmic horror tragedy. it’s fine for horror to explore dark themes and morality. the issue for me is that it’s framed as happy. we’re not supposed to be sad about the way Jon’s agency was taken from him. we’re not supposed to be angry that Martin betrays jon and berates him for going behind his back even though he did the same thing twice (with Annabelle and with the lighter) to deny jon the option to say “no.” We’re not supposed to be sad about the people in countless other universes who will suffer now. we’re supposed to cheer for the ending.
it’s also especially weird bc it doesn’t really feel like the others have that much empathy even for the people in their own world. the cult members are taken and Georgie and Melanie have barely any reaction despite having lived with them for months. jon cannot bear to leave Jordan Kennedy to suffer even though he knows the only succor he can offer him is its own kind of torment. Martin just wants to get out of the caves and doesn’t seem to really understand Jon’s choice or his conflict. He also says he doesn’t care about Salesa’s victims because he doesn’t know them and Salesa was nice to him (and given the way s5 created a direct link between the fears and oppressive systems that is concerning since it’s the same mindset that lets someone say “well this person was nice to ME so who cares if they’re bigoted towards people of other groups?”). In the end no one seems that sad or worried about Jon and Martin.
So Martin & Co’s choice feels less like it is born out of empathy for the people who are suffering and an inability to let the people in their own world die or continue suffering just because the same fate MIGHT befall others in the future, and more like it is born out of self interest.
only jon seems to feel the weight of what they are choosing to do. and they silence him. they also say that it is the responsibility of the people in the other worlds to deal with the fears. jon is very much defined by his guilt. he even feels bad about things he had no control over. in contrast the others entirely absolve themselves of any responsibility for choices they took of their own free will.
It almost feels like there was a direction change in the writing and they became determined to give the story a happy ending, no matter the cost. and in this case the cost was the thematic and emotional integrity of the story.
I think Martin fed on Jon. Whenever he demeaned Jon after he read a statement or whenever Jon agonized over being unlike the others as he was no longer human™ ... that's food for the loneliness
I have considered that possibility before, and I actually think that this kinda interpretation has a lot of potential, and would add a lot of depth and flavor to an otherwise bland relationship. What I had in mind when reblogging that post was the fact that Martin canonically being a full-fledged avatar was not utilized in the podcast at all beyond the convenient parts.
He got the "cool" part, which is disappearing when he didn't want to talk to people. He got a domain that he refused to acknowledge but still spent an entire episode sitting in it and self-reflecting. But there was no hunger. He didn't feel the need to feed like Jon or the other avatars did. Him being an avatar was not talked about unless it was beneficial to Martin angst and questionable jmart moments.
Throughout the length of season 5, the podcast highlighted the divide between Jon and Martin and their respective relationships with their humanity. Martin never had to face the consequences of being an avatar and thus fulfilling the role of a perpetrator in the fear-infested world. It was not explored or plot-relevant, and I think that was a wasted opportunity.
And it's just weird to me??? The podcast spent several seasons outlining how being an avatar of a fear was very much like being a host to a life-threatening parasite. The fear feeds off of what you extract for it, and if you fail to do it, it consumes you. It's not a superpower or a quirk. But in Martin's case that aspect was never talked about. And yes, the potential IS there, but the podcast doesn't cover it. You have to think it all up yourself, and when you fo you start to notice how much you have to dig for scraps and make up interpretations in order to make the ship even slightly compelling.
That's a huge part of why I don't like s5. The whole foundation of it is "two people in love walking through the apocalypse" but the romance is hinged purely on the assumption that you already shipped them, hence interpreting everything they did as romantic without the canon having to support it or actually develop anything.
What I'm saying is if Martin had fed as Jon did in canon, things would've been a lot more interesting between them. But all the Lonely made him do was fuck off to his domain and spend an entire episode talking to himself. As if one Martin wasn't enough smh
What if, instead of Sasha, it was Martin who got killed and replaced by the Stranger in s1?
Think about it. Martin was sweet, always helpful. You couldn't say a bad word about him. He was inobtrusive and caring. But what did you actually know about him? What are his hobbies? His passions? What was his history? After all, most of the information he put in the Institute's paperwork was made up.
Imagine the Archives crew finding out the truth about him being gone and seeing that they never actually knew him, not even when he was there. That he was a replaceable figure. Good, sweet, caring Martin who never shared what was on his mind. Martin who was always so plainly kind without actually contributing much to their lives, passing by unnoticed not because he was disliked but because he wanted to. Was he ever truly there? Do you even know who the person you're mourning was? Or is it just an image of him, an image that HE created of himself and sold to you.
My controversial tma take is that Martin should've died instead of Tim. Jon and Tim should've been the main duo of season 5 because unlike with jmart it could've actually 1) make for interesting conflict and conversations 2) explore their characters much more deeply especially Jon being a monster without the yaoislop that we got instead what do you think do you see my vision
I think I'm picking up what you're putting down. And now that I'm thinking about it, it would've been interesting if Martin died instead of Sasha. But back to your point.
Unlike Martin, Tim actually had a sort of bond with Jon in the earlier seasons. They respected each other, and I'm pretty sure they were on decent terms. Fast forward to when things started falling apart, Tim and Jon are now conflicted, and that conflict partially stems from the respect they previously held for each other (at least from Tim's side). Add to that Tim's relationship with the supernatural and you have a much more complex and intriguing bond than Jon had with Mr. "avatars are plain evil" Blackwood.
It would've been crazy if Tim in his quest to find and/or avenge his brother ended up becoming the very thing he sought to destroy. Avatar!Tim hating Jon for his feeding, very aware he has to do the same thing... lashing out at Jon because he's an easy target to blame, but the actual person he hates is himself..... every time he'd feed on someone he'd imagine that's how his brother must've felt before he died....
I dont know. The random canon appearance of a fan favourite ship ruined a lot of lives that's for sure
y'know the thing of "he would not fucking say that". that but with martin in a negative way. the fucking. "sorry I can't hear you, there's a door in the way" is such an iconic line. but it doesn't fit his character at all. like. who the fuck is this self assured witty guy.
I can see where you're coming from, but I disagree. I'll try to explain as best as I can.
One of the things Martin cared about more than anything else was being seen as caring. He tried very hard to put himself into the role of a sweet and helpful guy not only because he cared about his colleagues, but because he felt safe that way.
Making them tea was a simple gesture, so much easier than trying to offer a solution or talk about a problem they had, but it still showed that he cared and put in effort. He avoided conflict because he's bad at resolving it. He's the kind of guy to pretend an argument has never happened, cause it's easier to brush it off and forget about it rather than try to get to the root of the problem. Later on, he admitted to putting on this quiet sweetheart persona while simultaneously keeping people at a distance because loneliness is easier, safer than opening yourself up to someone and showing vulnerability. He kept his interpersonal relationships surface-level because it was easier to maintain them that way.
That moment you mentioned, the action of locking himself in the archives to burn statements, and throwing a snippy response at Elias instead of folding and apologizing seems to me like positive character development - Martin finally choosing a stance in a conflict instead of trying to find a blanket solution or an easy middle ground. Finally doing something he believed mattered, and not just to keep up appearances for his own comfort. That development is very clear later, when he made the decision to collaborate with Peter Lukas because he believed he could 'help' his colleagues that way.
Randomly opened my copy of the third season transcripts to ‘MAG 102 - Nesting Instincts’ and I completely forgot that after the month long nonconsensual lotioning this happened.
Like. JON HAD TO COMFORT MARTIN ABOUT IT. MARTIN MADE A DIG AT HIS LACK OF BEING THERE. You can hear the way he grudgingly tries to take it back too. Ughhh. Jon can’t even begin to talk about it for fuck sake. And this is after he has to talk to Jonah, stopping Melanie from killing him, and Jonah makes gross ass comments about his ‘progress’.
Makes me ill, and not cause of no fucking beetle wife. I’ll tell you that for free.
Like. Is it me? Am I the problem? Cause it don’t feel like Martin is concerned about anything but being seen as not caring. Like he was worried about getting in trouble at his grown ass age of fucking, what, 30?
Pro tip : fucking ask if someone is okay BEFORE YOU EXPLAIN WHY YOU DIDN’T HELP THEM.
One of my favorite things about Elias is how comfortable he is being underestimated. I think a lot of people tend to write him as prideful and intolerant of disrespect, but he's really not?
His employees call him by his first name. The very first time we hear his voice it's Jon talking back and being snippy with him, and Elias barely admonishes him for his mistake for the first place. It was under Elias's supervision that Gertrude "let" the Archives fall apart, and Jon + his assistants are obviously aware of that.
He stole the body and identity of a weed-smoking failson that was too young for the position he was in and only joined the Institute a few years prior. The Institute itself is kind of a laughingstock, openly mocked by academics and dismissed as "crackpots" that will accept literally anything.
Elias comes off as borderline incompetent until episode 80. He dismisses Jon's concerns about Prentiss, "admits" that he ran away like a coward and abandoned Sasha during the attack, and then apologizes because he couldn't figure out how to work the fire suppression system fast enough.
Even in Season 3 he still comes off like a dolt sometimes. He conveniently can't find Jon after he's been kidnapped, and then this whole conversation happens:
And a bit later:
And in season four, with Basira!! He apologizes to her after she physically assaults him, and then stutters about a "miscalculation" when Basira demands to know why he sent them to the North Pole.
And then Peter sums it up nicely in 159, after revealing that Elias has "lost" most of his wagers against him:
All of this!! Probably for 200+ years! He's most comfortable being overlooked and underestimated, he doesn't care about being disrespected or looked down on so long as he wins in the end. And he did.
no hate & maybe I'm severely misreading-- jon is allowed to make mistakes, but when the archives girls do, it's death to them?? why would anybody be eager to literally end all life. They did what seemed like the best option they had at the time & were manipulated by the literal web. yk. like. the mother of puppets. but idk I guess its fair
None of them were eager to end all life is the point.
HOWEVER.
The others believed the Web’s mouthpiece, despite knowing fully that it was THE aspect of manipulation and LIES, and did what it fucking wanted them to anyway. Despite how they, THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE SERIES, dehumanized Jon for doing the Eye’s bidding in any capacity. Even prior to his becoming. Essentially proving that it would never have mattered what he did, they would always find a reason to hate him and see him as a monster.
So excuse me if I think maybe it would be cathartic to see them suffer for their failings like they were happy to see Jon suffer for his. And if that includes dying like he did then so fucking be it.
Inside of me there are two wolves. One of them is sick of popularized headcanons and tma fandom in gereral and wants to stay as close to canon as possible. The other one desperately needs Jonathan Archivist Sims to be happy
I recently thrifted this hoodie and the little pixellly tapes in the front reminded me of tma (because of course they did). I want to try painting on it.
I recently thrifted this hoodie and the little pixellly tapes in the front reminded me of tma (because of course they did). I want to try painting on it.
I recently thrifted this hoodie and the little pixellly tapes in the front reminded me of tma (because of course they did). I want to try painting on it.
What should the design be related to?
The Eye
The Corruption
The Web
secret other thing
What kind of fabric paint should I use for it?
Black
Metallic copper
Glow-in-the-dark off white
I've made up my mind. The hoodie is gonna be Eye-themed (because of the damn cassettes), and the design is gonna be in black because sadly all the other options don't show up as well. Here's a swatch:
As you can see the coppery one is too faint, and the glow-in-the-dark one is practically nonexistent and looks like snot.
I'm thinking of adding the glow one to the eye whites tho... will see once I've actually painted them
Got out of therapy a bit ago and thinking about this scene. Not about Georgie saying no, this time, but what Jon says afterwards.
I’m not going to take the commentary in the bracketed stage instructions cause that’s not here or there. But he knew she was gonna say no. And I use the lowercase know here cause it’s important.
She tells him to go to therapy, he asks that she be moral support — possibly even accountability that he follow through — and he is unsurprised when she denies his request. It wasn’t like he was asking her to BE his therapist, or help him find one, or anything more than just be present. And she says no like he thought — expected — she would.
It is so FUN when your preconceived notions are confirmed. It is the best feeling in the world, having your view of a situation be affirmed as right. Especially when that situation is as emotionally sensitive as going to therapy for an ongoing traumatic experience. Cause when you’re right, then you no longer have to alter your thought process. You were right. Ergo. You will continue to be right about the current thought and any related ones.
Georgie telling Jon no — which was her right, cause she is right with whatever decision she made — didn’t just deny her involvement in his life. It told him that his assumption that everyone around him would not help him get better was right. That his assumption that everyone around him thought he was better off dead was right. That he had no real worth to anyone BETTER and that getting worse to end an even worse outcome was preferable than putting in useless effort.
This was all subconscious. It wasn’t like she knew. It wasn’t like he knew. It is just what happens when what are considered cognitive distortions are affirmed.
![Screenshot of the TMA transcripts. ELIAS I do regret… Gertrude’s notes on the Unknowing are… lacking. I only shared the statements for a reason. ARCHIVIST S– You didn’t even know why you were sending them to me, did you? Just, what, a box of random files she labelled? You were hoping I could figure out the reason Gertrude chose them! ELIAS There is a possibility some of them were misfiled. [DEEP BREATH]](../media/6025222b7817bd5c3c66eb6010330f245758e788.jpg)
![Screenshot of the TMA transcripts. ELIAS [gasping] No, no, no – it’s fine… I’m sorry? BASIRA Oh, yeah? For which part? ELIAS …all of it? BASIRA You sent us to the North fucking Pole for no goddamn reason! ELIAS A, um, miscalculation –](../media/da11ca6a123f6941f665a4036706ca239a880cd7.jpg)
