i feel like so many people are kinda missing out on one of the takeaways from MAG200 (spoilers!!) because people tend to water martin’s character down. he and jon both believe that the ends can justify the means, and thats one of their central arguments in 199, because fundamentally they have the same values. and up until then, they’re main conflicts with each other was over which actions to take, though they both agreed action was in order. jon believes that the ‘end’, a universe where the fears have died, is justified by the 'means’, killing everyone on earth and forcing everyone to remain in fear domains. martin was on board with their freedom fight at first, having reservations that jon shared, but still choosing to spare people or command jon to kill them whenever he saw fit. as much as he sheugged off making his own decisions, he still chose to combat avatars and even ally with annabelle. throughout s5, we see him prove again and again that the end, presumably killing elias and ending the apocalypse, will be worth allowing people to suffer in the meantime. but when jon is included in the suffering people category, martin cant include that in his world view.
that is the major distinction in their philosophies- the value they place on jon’s life and the amount they each blame him. jon blames himself for everything, and from the beginning he has allowed himself to be put in danger and risk his life. initially, he doesnt want to die, but as s4 progresses, we see him grapple with valuing his life as he recognizes hes becoming less “human”- in the coffin, he even makes the gamble that he’ll did there. martin also has very low self worth, but holds jon on a pedestal (he always did), and once the ends can only be achieved through the means of killing jon or watching him suffer, martin struggles to fit that into his black and white philosophy.
it isnt that martin or jon are “weak” or have deeply contrasting world views, but they are unable to agree which exact actions are inexcusable, as murder never seemed to be an issue until it was martin holding the knife.
This is actually honestly why I’ve never liked Martin’s character or maybe that’s just coming from my incredibly logical analytical style
Something about the way Martin is always just taking care of Jon in ways that -for lack of a better term- ways that would make Martin feel better just makes me uncomfy. Jon needs a certain type of support that Martin just isn’t seeing or catering to.
Jon has gone through basically four seasons essentially on his own. Yeah there are a few heartwarming events in between but I feel like Martin is usually pretty quick to only see things from his own perspective or shut Jon out when he has an idea that Martin doesn’t agree with (Idk, maybe it’s my aromantic ass coming in but that whole scene where he would literally doom another dimension to go through what they did… because he loves his boyfriend too much seems kinda dense to me but I digress). Jon needs someone to really understand him and provide him validation for what he has had to deal with. Unlike what Martin does which is basically tell him ‘Yeah but I think that was stupid so your perspective isn’t important.