Heyo, I feel very strongly that you would benefit from the Magnus Archives. It’s *the* creepy story haven. Perfect for listening to in the background while doing junk and is a free podcast. Also the main char is aromantic and has lots of great themes and dynamics.
So I’ve started listening to it! First 3 episodes so far. It’s a subtle horror, compared to the Random Slapdash r/NoSleep CreepyPasta Podcast Stint I was on, but the writing quality is magnitudes better. I’m no longer yelling about dumb plot points while washing rice.
I’m still kinda feeling it out. I do think I’d like the horror to be a bit stronger. But it also feels like the series wants to slow-build so I’m giving it the time to grow.
Heyo, I feel very strongly that you would benefit from the Magnus Archives. It’s *the* creepy story haven. Perfect for listening to in the background while doing junk and is a free podcast. Also the main char is aromantic and has lots of great themes and dynamics.
So I’ve started listening to it! First 3 episodes so far. It’s a subtle horror, compared to the Random Slapdash r/NoSleep CreepyPasta Podcast Stint I was on, but the writing quality is magnitudes better. I’m no longer yelling about dumb plot points while washing rice.
I’m still kinda feeling it out. I do think I’d like the horror to be a bit stronger. But it also feels like the series wants to slow-build so I’m giving it the time to grow.
Funny thing to me about The Magnus Archives is it’s obvious Jonathon Sims is an exceptionally talented writer, but also it manifests in every single random verbatim from random witnesses of The Horrors being just as well-written.
I won’t call it a plot hole because it’s core to the quality of the series. But it’s just funny that every single student, freelance designer, man at war, garbage man, and unfortunate coffin owner in this world can give these narrative recounts of just stunning prose. Deeply eloquent, exceptionally articulate, masterful diction, great sense of pacing and description, unshakeable flow.
I just think it would be a lot more realistic (and worse, and unlistenable, and kind of funny) if 2/3 of the Magnus Archives episodes went like *Jonathon Sims voice* “Statement begins: ‘So my buddy Jimmy, it started with him acting really weird like, two weeks before he vanished. Like I’ve known Jimmy since like forever and he’s a chill guy, like he’s not a weirdo or like anyone who’d act crazy, and he doesn’t do drugs, either, like okay no hard drugs I mean, so like when he started being weird I asked him like 'hey you seem weird, you okay?’ or something like that and he was like–well I don’t remember exactly how he said it–but there was this giant scary spider thing that would follow him home every day. And like I thought that was bullshit, because like, spiders don’t do that. But then like a week later I saw it and it was HUGE, like really big and creepy, like just really fucked up. Like I pissed my pants a little bit, I can admit that, that I pissed my pants because the spider was so fucked up.”
And then the podcast does that for 27 more minutes.
Chrissy I need to to not go rummaging in the tma tags or the notes on your own posts because you WILL smack into spoilers and it will be much more fun to watch them happen to you in real time.
a fandom for a series with 200 episodes when I am on episode 8
And I rolled in here from listening to a random creepypasta podcast where every single episode was 100% separate from all the others so I wasn’t even thinking about how TMA is gonna have an interconnected, overarching plot.
And it seems I’ve accidentally hit on a real plotpoint with my shitpost as the replies/notes are like, 60% people going “just you wait OP” and 20% “hey guys OP is at the beginning dont spoil it” and 20% “oh yeah well that’s because <full explanation that I realize is a full explanation and then I skim past and try not to read going ”oh hey maybe i should not be reading the notes“>”
I’m gonna have to tread carefully with my liveblogging haha. Which is easier said than done because I’m realizing how naturally I go and read the notes on my own posts. Even after realizing I was in spoiler territory I’ve still opened the notes on that post once or twice and then went “oh yeah”
The thing that keeps Getting Me with TMA is how at the end of every recording Jon gives his commentary basically being like “meh this was probably nothing.” Like this is a Supernatural Podcast the very nature of the series means you have me fully buying in to whatever paranormal nonsense is happening and I KNOW it’s paranormal we ALL KNOW it’s paranormal.
“This man who said a spider is out to kill him is probably just kinda crazy, the fact that he was found dead a week later choked to death on a spider with his corpse covered head-to-toe in spider webbing was probably normal and regular. End recording.” MY GUY.
Jon is funny as a supernatural denier because he actually doesn’t play that role straight at all. Like normally the supernatural denier is staunchly like “there is ALWAYS a rational explanation” until finally they’re convinced of one (1) supernatural thing and they go “my god I’ve been wrong all along.”
And Jon is funny because actually he’s already been convinced twice and his stance is still just “there’s almost definitely a rational explanation for things, except for these TWO very specific and fucked up supernatural entities that I hate so fucking much.”
Jon is funny as a supernatural denier because he actually doesn’t play that role straight at all. Like normally the supernatural denier is staunchly like “there is ALWAYS a rational explanation” until finally they’re convinced of one (1) supernatural thing and they go “my god I’ve been wrong all along.”
And Jon is funny because actually he’s already been convinced twice and his stance is still just “there’s almost definitely a rational explanation for things, except for these TWO very specific and fucked up supernatural entities that I hate so fucking much.”
So it wasn’t until Martin was giving his statement that he learned someone had been impersonating him and sending messages from his phone to work saying he was out sick.
So did. Martin emerge from 14 days of Worm Hostage-ery. And walk into the Institute like cool okay so no one reported me missing or came to find me or seems to even care at all that I was missing for 2 weeks. They DO hate my worm jar though.
Self-restraint of a saint that Martin didn’t just waltz in and up-turn the worm jar over Jon’s head is all I’m saying.
Personally I think it would have been funny if, while Jon was still in his denier phase, he chose one completely ridiculous story to be a gung-ho believer in. This could be out of spite. Maybe he got some flak for his end-notes always being so dismissive and patronizing, and something something “we need to show we respect the people who come to us to give statements.”
Because honestly, as funny as it is that Jon dismisses everything the audience knows is real, there probably SHOULD be some totally bunk statements in the mix here.
Like I want there to be some 19-year-old well-meaning moron who comes along like “I did a lot of drugs at this college party last week and saw so many ghosts. Is that anything?” and Jon’s like “It absolutely the fuck is, my dear and esteemed and most well-regarded patron of the Institute. Martin! Drop everything and go stake out this frat house. Don’t come back until you have the ghosts.”
Every time I said Jon was way too mean to Martin in season 1 is really laughable actually now that I’m on season 2.
Season 1 Jon “I sent Martin, that doddering fool and stain on my work-life, to go investigate. As can be expected he found nothing useful, and was dumb the whole time. His poetry is terrible.”
Season 2 Jon “Martin’s been saying things like ‘Are you okay, Jon?’ and 'How are you feeling after the attack, Jon?’ and 'I’m worried about your health, Jon’ which I believe means he’s trying to kill me. He made me tea with no sugar, how I like it, which leads me to believe he’s trying to kill me. He’s been ignoring work to check in on me and make sure I’m okay, which likely means he’s trying to kill me. All this leads me to believe he may be trying to kill me. His poetry is terrible.”
Knowing now from the s1 finale that Real Cases cannot be recorded digitally and must be recorded via tape recorder, I think it was pretty clever of them to first hint at that concept with the live recording of (dammit whats her name) the woman whose dead fiancé belonged to the rich creepy family. That episode started off with her being annoyed that whatever she tried to record initially was lost and now Jon was insisting she do it over with these shitty tapes.
Like when that happened I took that world-building as “This is an under-funded, under-staffed institute (because what respected academic would waste funds on the ghost stories division?) And as such the recording equipment is ancient and terrible.” Made perfect sense to me and I didn’t think to probe it further.
Also, as meta, I think it’s a clever gimmick so that the audience only listen to Real Cases, while still suggesting there still are plenty of non-supernatural cases that get filed. We can just trust the Not Real Cases record digitally just fine, while the TMA episodes consist solely of those recorded via tape recorder.
The funniest thing about Jon’s s2 breakdown is the fact that he’s decided for pretty much no reason that all of this is about him and he needs to be paranoid, specifically.
Man learned the previous head archivist was murdered and went “but I’M the head archivist!” and decided all head archivists are just that murderable. MAYBE you’re thinking too highly of yourself, Jon. MAYBE Gertrude had so many different, non-head-archivist-related murderable qualities and you can’t compare. MAYBE you’re not half the murderable archivist you think you are, Jon. MAYBE you’re not even worth the jail time. Try some humility, Jon.
Jon is funny as a supernatural denier because he actually doesn’t play that role straight at all. Like normally the supernatural denier is staunchly like “there is ALWAYS a rational explanation” until finally they’re convinced of one (1) supernatural thing and they go “my god I’ve been wrong all along.”
And Jon is funny because actually he’s already been convinced twice and his stance is still just “there’s almost definitely a rational explanation for things, except for these TWO very specific and fucked up supernatural entities that I hate so fucking much.”
This is perhaps funnier in light of the fact that I now know Jon did actually believe all the statements throughout s1, but was pretending not to because he felt Some Evil Entity was watching him.
Like Jon’s willing to lie through his teeth every single day, just dismiss and belittle people sometimes to their faces over the Horrors They Witnessed because he’s a craven little man afraid of the Entity In The Room.
But he just fucking HATES Prentiss and Leitner So Fucking Much that if either of their names comes up Jon’s slamming the tape-recorder down like “Hey Entity I hope you’re taking notes when I say Prentiss is a Bitch Ass Motherfucker and I want her and her bugs to die so much.”
“As for the credibility of Ms. Howard’s statement… let’s just say I find these events as believable as my ever reaching my 1-year mark as head archivist alive: improbable, and far more likely to –” *door squeaks*
“Do you have a moment, Jon?”
“No. But I’m guessing I don’t have a say in the matter. Is it another–”
“Another complaint.”
“–compl- of course it is. What, possibly, could be the issue this time?”
“The complainant is unhappy with the… well she phrases it as ‘theatrics’ in your recordings.”
“Theatrics.”
“Yes, Jon, I know you were a theater minor but you cannot–”
“Oh I leave my love for the performing arts quite separate from my professional work, Elias.”
“The background music, Jon. You need to knock it off with the background music.”
“The background–what background… Do they mean the ambience?”
“Whatever you call it. 'Recordings are overlaid with eerie and offputting music–”
“It’s necessary for the delivery!”
“Jon you cannot put music in the spooky parts of the statements. Complainant also says you are ’a little too into the recordings. It’s weird. Like the guy’s getting something out of the performance.’”
“Oh they’re mad I’m putting heart into the readings? They’re mad that I have both the respect and decency to read each statement with the sort of voice I’m sure the statement-givers would wish to impart in their words?”
“Respect for–Jon you end most of these statements dragging each statement giver’s credibility through the mud!”
“Yes, because it’s my job to apply a lens of professional skepticism.”
“Do we even have the copyright for the 'ambience’ music you’re applying?”
“What fool do you take me for? They’re all licensed for common use.”
“Stop putting background music in the statements, Jon.”
“What because one person complained?? One person! What about the silent majority? What about my fans–??”
*door shuts*
….
*tape recorder clicks on*
*flat, almost as if the speaker is pouting* “Statement from Cordelia Winthrow regarding something unremarkable, and apparently not important enough to dictate with any emotion, blah blah blah. November 1st 2017. Statement begins.”
So Jon’s always been a stupid motherfucker which is not open for debate. And I kinda thought the s1 finale would be a turning point for him to get his head on straight but instead he graduated into being a stupider motherfucker in season 2 due to his whole paranoid unraveling descent into “everyone in this grocery store wants to kill me carnally”.
But what has me amazed right now is, against all expectation, he’s managed to become an even stupider motherfucker in season 3 by deciding the best thing to do while being a fugitive is to go solo candid-camera'ing with all the monsters that he knows love to do death and murder so so so much.
Like season 2 Jon was like “supplemental I threw away my tea because I realized I left it on my desk within breathing distance of Martin which means Martin could very easily have poisoned it if he was carrying around tea poison” to season 3 *clicks on clunky tape recorder he stole from his previous boss* “okay I’m here in the park with Ms. Loves Arson who we know from previous statements is 300 years old and has committed every single act of arson in the greater London area and also she hates my guts so much. Luckily I cornered her in this park full of flammable leaves. I have an IQ of 137. Statement begins.”
