just listened to 146 rn and oh my GOD i cannot STAND how they’re treating jon
HE DIDN’T ASK FOR ANY OF THIS! HE DOES NOT ENJOY THIS! HE IS ACTIVELY SUFFERING!
bassira needs to shut up bc she doesn’t know what she’s talking abt AT ALL
like has it not been established that he feeds on statements? he doesn’t just do it for funsies he NEEDS THEM TO SURVIVE
i’m not even the biggest fan of jon but oh my god they act like he’s some sadistic schemer or some shit
like yes it causes harm to innocent people but the alternative is him starving to death!
and he only actively fed off ppl when he didn’t have easy access to statements! it’s not like he goes out on the town every night looking for his next victim
jon deserves a year long vacation and a nap oh my fucking god
So true I cannot BEAR to listen to any of the s4 episodes because Jon is getting borderline abused in practically all of them
Everyone’s hypocrisy is pissing me the hell off, even if I can understand where they’re coming from. Basira shames and berates Jon while excusing Daisy’s behaviour in the same breath, despite both of them being the same! Melanie says it’s Jon’s fault that she’s trapped in the Institute, despite the fact she came here on her own accord and Jon wasn’t even present when she accepted the offer from Elias! Ughh it’s so irritating!!
I get it, people are not perfect and everyone in this show makes mistakes. Hell, nearly everything was caused by Jon acting irrationally cause he was so paranoid. But in the end, the podcast paints those hypocritical characters as good and rational!! They never had to suffer the consequences of their actions like Jon had to!! They just got to live semi-happily, no burdens for them to carry except some minor inconveniences maybe!
Also from what I’ve gathered the fandom doesn’t even allow people to criticise those characters. The survivors. You’re not allowed to whisper a word of criticism in their direction. Jon always gets shamed (even playfully) for being rude in the early seasons. People looove to jokingly insult him “oh he’s such an incompetent idiot!! Haha paranoid dumbass! He’s so mean ughh so annoying >:(” but when hes being hit from all directions by the only people left in his life no one even bats an eye, because then they’re such queens of boundaries of course! Cutting off the awful monster to preserve their own wellbeing! Rational and cruel at the same time.
I had to listen to Jon being treated like shit for an entire season just for s5 to offer him half-baked, retracted apologies that didn’t actually mean anything. None of this conflict was ever resolved. He didn’t become friends with all of them by the end. They didn’t accept him as an avatar. Not even his boyfriend did.
Only Jon ever suffers because of his own actions, and on top of that he’s treated like everyone’s punching bag! No one bothered to even try sympathizing with him. He was so utterly alone.
At no point was it said that the Extinction emerging was overexagerrated by Peter Lukas. We got a statement. We got Simon Fairchild’s views on the thing, and I doubt he would lie to the Watcher. The Extinction was just thrown away and never talked about once it was irrelevant to Martin’s story. And it’s kind of weird for that to happen in the podcast where everything is supposed to connect.
I think that the biggest proof that most Martin fans don't understand Martin is that they never write him really being jealous or bitter. Not like he is in the show. They just make him sad and self-sacrificing and skim over his obvious dislike and disregard for most other people. He's rude to people who don't get along with Jon, with people who get along with Jon too well, and also Jon himself. The first time we hear him, he spends a bunch of time passive-aggressively guilting Jon for Martin getting trapped by Prentiss. Melanie and Basira joke about how rude Martin is to them because of their relationships with Jon. Martin effectively burned his friendship with Tim by acting like a mediator while showing obvious bias. He's such a dick, which I find really funny and apparently no one else does.
“He’s rude to people who don’t get along with Jon, to people who get along with Jon too well, and also to Jon himself” dear GOD you’re so right. It’s like he’s simultaneously insecure and egocentric.
From what I’ve gathered, this is caused by most fans seeing themselves in Martin. Most of their time is spent piling their own personality traits onto the man, instead of trying to understand him as he is.
The fact people prefer the popularized fanon version also adds to this. In fanon he’s a loving, caring, protective sweetheart. His biggest flaws are that he hates himself and loves too much; both perfectly harmless and relatable. There’s nothing that might make him seem unredeemable, his every trait is perfectly innocent and excusable. Sweet gay tormented blorbo.
Martin isn’t the only one who fell victim to the fandom oversimplification to be honest. Jon’s either the mean stubborn idiot or a soft and helpless gayboy who needs his boyfriend to care for him. Tim is the comic relief funny guy who’s only there to goof, and Sasha is the smart one who’s also secretly a prankster. Daisy is the Bad Cop violent butch and Basira is the Good Cop cool-and-collected hijabi. Elias is the flamboyant evil boss and Peter Lukas is his bitter sugar daddy do you see it do you see what I mean. That’s the fandom making them more digestible and versatile so that they can fit them into fanfiction tropes. This is a common occurence in every fandom but it’s sooo prominent here and dear god I hate it. Downsides of a fandom peaking in 2021
I hate hate hate how the fandom oversimplification did not only affect the characters, but also the Fears themselves. The Eye is being a stalker and a nerd. The Lonely is being quiet and antisocial. The Slaughter is anger issues. The Desolation is arson. The Hunt is being feral. The Stranger is uncanny valley. The Web is spiders and lying. Etc etc.
The whole point is that these fears cannot be fully and separately defined. I understand that having objects and motifs you can tie to a Fear makes it more marketable and allows you to cover your clothes with eyes and spiders and stuff to show you are A Fan. But the whole point is everyone experiences fear differently and the entities are intertwined, and I loved that. It made the whole thing interesting.
This fandom is allergic to critical thinking and analysis. Fanfic tropes can be a substitute for everything apparently
Unpopular opinion time: the tendency of tma fans to flock to posts unrelated to the magnus archives only serves to simplify the themes of the podcast to the point of it being unrecognizable and get rid of any deeper meaning that might’ve once been there