I DO think The Magnus Archives fucked up by presenting Jonmartin as a healthy couple, not simply because I don’t believe they were very functional at all, but also because having them remain the pillar of hope throughout the season sabotaged the supposed horror tragedy. If your audience is describing the final act of your horror tragedy as a honeymoon road trip, perhaps it’s time to ask yourself what went wrong.
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
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
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.