s1 jon: this statement Would have been absolute drivel wasting the time of myself and literally everyone at the institute that i nonetheless put 100000 hours of inspection into even though it’s meaningless and is nothing to me……..if not for this one detail. as it is, it gives me the heebie jeebies. dont tell anyone i said that.
s2 jon: listen this is how you make sure you dont get killed: run around in the dark by yourself. tell the worst lies anyone has EVER heard. also i got stabbed but its fine now. i need to figure out why everyone decided to work here its weird bc this place sucks. i can’t just ask them so i will look in their desks instead
s3 jon: WHY do i keep getting kidnappedSTOP PICKING ME UP BY THE SCRUFF OF MY GODDAMN NEoh wait are you Murderous Mike?? from the statements! please describe how you got to be so murderous– OWWW. okay but tell me i think im like.. you? so tell me,
s4 jon: ah, Murderous Mike yet again. that reminds me of this philosophical conundrum i have been spiraling over for the past two weeks. and also how much ive been missing martin. do you think the world would be better if i were killed. be honest
s5 jon: martin. martin do you understand the dreadful metaphor. good because i was Nott going to explain it. i should probably be shot dead but that isn’t going to happen (im too special) so i am going to bother my extremely stressed out companions instead :)doyou want to hear a joke that you wont like :)
The concept of Gerry having a famously bad dye job is so fucking funny to me. Like, I dye my hair black pretty regularly (meaning whenever my roots grow out) and it’s literally not that hard. You just mix the dye, slap it on, and wait until you remember it’s there and wash it off. The only time it doesn’t stay and looks shitty is if you don’t leave it long enough or mix it wrong. Meaning either he gets impatient and washes it off too soon, or he’s never read an instruction in his life and faces the consequences. I love him.
they just don’t make characters like jon archivist sims. he spends an entire season having a forty episode long delusional breakdown and that’s only maybe the third or fourth worst period of time in his life. he gets intervened on twice. he gets kidnapped thrice. during one of those kidnappings he spends a month tied to a chair getting forcibly moisturized by a plastic ringmistress mannequin and no one notices. he fully dies for six months but gets up again when a friendly grim reaper gives his unbreathing body a pep talk. he spends several episodes at the start of the final season so depressed that it’s unclear if he even moves for multiple days in a row. the basis for his magic powers is that he is so traumatized that he begins to need continuous further trauma in order to live, which gives him the ability to explode people with his mind. he spends about fifty seconds at the top of an episode self-harming directly into a tape recorder, which is not even the most fucked up thing to happen to him that episode. he finally cried on audio for the first time in the penultimate ep and the only reaction I saw for several days after was wildly enthusiastic cheering. he’s missing two ribs and he’s at least 80% scar tissue by volume and the only canon information we have about his appearance is that he looks terrible at all times.
Sorry to bring this out of the tags, but it’s mentioned in episode 81: a guest for Mr. Spider
So on top of allthat OP mentioned, we can add the fact that this 30something year old already looks like an old man (:
Me when I’m spiraling or something, idk i haven’t listened to the podcast for a while now
I took a break from studying for my to make my last drawing before my 20th birthday, so i wanted to post this before tomorrow:) (I’m also cooking something for my artfight attacks dw)
I think one of the fundamental horror elements of jon and martin’s relationship (that is super underutilized in fanworks imo) is that when they say “where you go, I go,” they really mean it. by the time they’re striding across that hellscape, and tbh even earlier than that, there is no duplicity or slight or monstrous act either of them could do that the other wouldn’t forgive so they could stay together. personal insults, lashing out, working with the enemy, attacking strangers, direct violence, deliberately endangering each other, murder, encouraging murder, total and complete betrayals of trust, they’ve done it all and reconciled afterwards. sometimes they talk it out and resolve it in a reasonable way, and sometimes they’re just like “hmm. fucked up!” or (“hmm. kinda cute when he does it <3”) and never mention it again.
it’s not just about letting anything slide with each other, either, it’s bigger than that. martin will make the decision on a personal level that he could never live with surviving off of innocent people’s suffering, but if doing that on a cosmic scale is the way to keep jon with him then he will sacrifice all his principles and do it. jon is hell bent on quarantining the fears by literally murdering the planet as quickly and efficiently as possible, but the second this means martin potentially dying in front of him he changes his mind. when jon says that their love for each other is “the real core of it,” he’s not just declaring affection after a fight, he is stating the cause for the incomprehensible tragedy that they’re about to enact. it’s less “the love was there, it didn’t change anything” and more “the love was there, it doomed us all.” it isn’t even a question, they will wrap their soulmate-red binding string around the necks of everyone in the entire cosmos before they sever it.
I think one of the ultimate thesis statements of tma is that, even if it doesn’t matter, it matters. your life may be controlled by forces beyond your comprehension, the outcomes may more or less be decided already, and you may be doomed to ultimately fail whenever you try to enact good, but it still matters that you tried. or, that you didn’t try. or, that you stopped trying. your suffering and your joy and your kindness and your cruelty still have meaning and value, nothing can be defined by its ultimate fate alone, and submission to a predetermined path is as much a choice as resistance. sure, you’re on a journey to tragedy, but on that journey you might fall in love, or you might become a better version of yourself, or you might betray people’s trust, or you might decide to take up serial killing, the options are as endless as they are worthless as they are vital. you are cosmically insignificant, but you aren’t living on a cosmic scale, you’re living on a human one. so tell me: the train’s coming down the tracks, and the lever is right in front of you. you know you could turn and run and not have to watch, and you know the lever’s probably jammed up with spiderwebs, anyway. you know that it might just give way if you slam your whole body into it, and you know that even if you succeed you’ll still be responsible for a tragedy. do you try?
Like the man says: “our experience of the universe has value. Even if it disappears forever.”
[ID: screenshot from the unofficial transcript of MAG 151, “Big Picture.” MARTIN is saying “I think our experience of the universe has value. Even if it disappears forever.”]
(it’s so funny to me that Simon Fairchild immediately calls this “a lonely way to look at things.” To me, it’s always seemed anything but. What matters is that you — we — were here, experiencing, making meaning. Even if it’s lost, it matters that it happened.)
Kinda obsessed with the way that Jon (<- guy who literally probably couldn’t have done anything differently bc his whole life was orchestrated by an eldritch horror manifestation of the actual fear of being manipulated) blames himself for everything that ever happened actually and Martin (<- guy who was the reason behind so many big decisions, honestly was the one making the choices that really mattered pretty often, who almost became an avatar of the aforementioned fear of being manipulated and i struggle to recall a moment when he himself would seem like he was in fact being manipulated by it to a similar degree as Jon, therefore leaving me to believe that the Web just. Let him do his thing. And trusted that he would have enough of an influence on the world for its plan to work) genuinely believes that he’s not important. like. at all. They’re so neat I think.
Victims of Other Entities: And so I watched the creature that used to be my wife sprint towards me on all fours with its neck bent at a full 180 degree angle. I only got away because it tripped and fell into the lit fireplace and turned to ash immediately. I don’t sleep anymore and I honestly wish God just would kill me already.
Victims of The Buried: God I ffucnking LOVE Dirt. OOh Boy that Shit is GOOD. No Thing on this God Forsaken planet brings me more EUPHORIA than Digging a B I G Hole. I crawl on all fours and c l a w at the e a r th as I pine for its tender Embrace. It torments my VERY SOUL that I cannot simply i n h a l e it Straight Into My Bloodstream. I’ve decided that eating fistfuls of potting soil is the next best thing.
Op is this about me, if this is about me op that’s okay, as the #1 buried fan this is how I aspire to run my blog, please god put me in the ground already nothing else matters
the magnus archives: statement of dipshit mcidiot regarding some spooky happenings that absolutely without a doubt did not actually happen. recording by jonathan sims. i hate my fucking job.
malevolent: OARTHUR HIDE THE CORPSE IN THE CLOSET. SHOOT THIS MAN IN THE HEAD. MOVE OARTHUR MOVE!! [soft piano music] LEFT!! THE OTHER LEFT OARTHUR!!!!! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST.
Season 3 tma: I’m doing everything in my power to not become a monster
Season 3 Malevolent: I ate a guy and my new hobbies are eye gouging and first degree murder.
God listening to Jon turning Jordan this time hit a lot harder. I didn’t really think that hard on it before, just thought “hey that’s fucked up. Jon clearly panicked seeing someone he knew suffer”
But this time I realized something. Jon has been watching this man in his dreams for years now. Every night he’s seen him suffering while he was unable to move, unable to help. And now here he is again. Jordan suffering, Jon watching. Except this time he can do something. And so he does cause he’s so desperate to HELP
THAT IS THE THING.
I have seen so many people take the word of the literal embodiment of gaslighting (Helen) because she’s funny and has a great VA…
Or Jonah, who projects like hell, spilling his own issues onto Jon…
“Oh Jon enjoys it he’s not good anymore”
Listen up, children.
If you do not understand why unwanted pleasure is a violation and does NOT constitute “you really wanted this,” then I’m glad you never been assaulted, but guess what?
Abusers often tell their victims it’s their fault, they wanted it.
It is never true.
To the end, Jon kept being the person who threw himself into the Buried to save a woman who cut his throat.
That is why this is a tragedy and not due comeuppance. They deserved a happy ending.
hello thank u i laughed v hard at that tag and i said to myself “wow this would be a fun little animation project to do slowly over time as a break between my other art pieces!” as i proceeded to spend my entire friday evening on it
i feel like not enough ppl talk about the fact Georgie is like. Brain damaged. Obviously she has mobility and can advocate for herself but having an entire part of your brain shut off is very much a disability.
I don’t like how people depict her as being 100% high functioning most rational and emotionally stable person in the cast when ever scene she’s in sorta hints the opposite to me
Like shes incredibly blunt, talks over people in conversations, and has admitted she has to like. mask. in front of people by acting like shes so worried when she doesnt actually care.
obviously it never comes across as mean or rude. but it is sorta. there. We don’t see a lot of her in ‘normal’ situations but i dont think its a stretch to assume she might have problems respecting other people’s feelings, has trouble establishing habits, or struggles to motivate herself for necessary, boring tasks like cleaning or making appointments.
idk its hard to talk about what i think are hints of her being disabled without it sounding liek 'WeLl In HeR SiTuAtIoN ItS JuStIfIeD’ like don’t careeee if she was right or wrong i care that her pattern of behavior is like mine before I got on lamotrigine.
that scene where Jon is trying to talk about the murder mystery he’s embroiled in and she’s like 'why are you even an archivist you probably suck at that job’ and just like. wont drop it. no matter how he tries to steer her back to their actual conversation. how do you get to that scene and think she’s neurotypical. c'mon.
is THIS your man? [shows an image of a malnourished injured exhausted man with big sad eyes looking up at the camera with blood smeared all over his face and mouth. and he is visibly trembling]
i think that the multiple-divorces meme/fanon of lonelyeyes is funny and cute, sure. we can all happily ignore the fact that gay marriage was only legalized in the UK in 2014, im in favor of that. but i think there’s a huge missed opportunity in most people’s interpretation of the ship - a possibility which, in my opinion, is way funnier.
see, the Lukases clearly only have children as an obligation to continue the line/the cult, and it’s implied that their marriages are for that purpose, each spouse pursuing the Lonely by themselves in their own way, rarely meeting. so it both makes a great deal of sense and would be far more hilarious to me if, out of our two toxic yaoi kismessitude murderhusbands, Peter has a wife.
something about jonalias being a “slut.” something about how so much of the fandom goes “teehee he has a regency harem” and ships him w all his many friends and past victims. “hahaha he’s such a whore.” when there’s no indication in the podcast that he’s even sexually active at all - even with peter, who arguably is the most likely candidate for it with their whole author-supported ‘bitter exes’ dynamic
and something abt how often jon is portrayed as this shivering wet chihuahua of a man. a perfect victim who everyone sympathizes with, when in canon they don’t and the situation is too nuanced for his victimhood to be obvious and he gets blamed. and in so much fanfiction he’s the poor asexual uwu bean who gets groomed and preyed on and treated like he’s so passive while jonah magnus is a predator.
and like. jonah absolutely is a predator, even if not sexually. jon is a victim. and there is room in the text for all of these reads to be valid. but like… <takes a long, abiding, frustrated drag from a cigarette> idk man. i just get sick of fanon sometimes.
by talos the fanfiction authors are basing their works on the presumption that jon and martin are reliable narrators
Jon: yeah i was orphaned, bullied, emotionally neglected, and probably had some undiagnosed disorder but have you considered that i was really annoying and inherently unlikable since the day i was born?
fanfic authors: what a handy and accurate assessment
martin: obviously you arent asking to escape with me because you care for my wellbeing, you just know im a dipshit coward and are using that to save your own skin
fanfic authors: wow jon dick move
annabelle, the avatar of gaslighting: you WOULD have been a good web avatar (even though clearly it never happened) because all the times where it seemed like you were being self depricating and terrified of abandonment it was just you being manipulative
everyone for some reason: and its not like annabelle would LIE to us about this
I find it extremely annoying that people keep coming up with ways how an immortal body hopper whose whole thing is knowing more than anyone wouldn’t know something about his next body
something about jonalias being a “slut.” something about how so much of the fandom goes “teehee he has a regency harem” and ships him w all his many friends and past victims. “hahaha he’s such a whore.” when there’s no indication in the podcast that he’s even sexually active at all - even with peter, who arguably is the most likely candidate for it with their whole author-supported ‘bitter exes’ dynamic
and something abt how often jon is portrayed as this shivering wet chihuahua of a man. a perfect victim who everyone sympathizes with, when in canon they don’t and the situation is too nuanced for his victimhood to be obvious and he gets blamed. and in so much fanfiction he’s the poor asexual uwu bean who gets groomed and preyed on and treated like he’s so passive while jonah magnus is a predator.
and like. jonah absolutely is a predator, even if not sexually. jon is a victim. and there is room in the text for all of these reads to be valid. but like… <takes a long, abiding, frustrated drag from a cigarette> idk man. i just get sick of fanon sometimes.
@kairos-polaris@local-vastard your tags are golden and i want to lift them up on a podium while screaming THIS! THIS! A THOUSAND TIMES THIS! love it when others can articulate what i cannot
