i wanna talk about tma characters and the concept of a facade. because i have a lot of thoughts.

so most people understand how ironic it is to characterize martin blackwood as a soft boy that can do no wrong, because one of the most interesting parts of his character is how much of a subversion of that trope he is. he’s manipulating people by acting like that. this is addressed in the canon. he wants everyone to like him, and he knows he’ll almost always get what he wants if he puts up this facade.

something people talk about a bit less, but is still equally canon, is that gertrude robinson was doing basically the same thing. pretending to be just a boring old woman, when she’s actually extremely clever and ruthless. she plays into everyone’s pre-existing biases and assumptions masterfully to hide just how competent she really is. she knows exactly what she’s doing, and she’s willing to sacrifice anything and anyone for the sake of her self-appointed mission. characterizing her as a grandmother figure is the funniest form of irony to me.

but do you know who isn’t putting up a facade? do you know who isn’t changing their behavior to affect your idea of them?

the older avatars.

peter lukas isn’t pretending to be passive-aggressive and overly cheery, he just kind of…is. why would he ever bother putting up a facade? he doesn’t want people to like him. his authentic self is this talkative yet asocial man, who specifically aims to be awkward and unlikeable.

people say that simon fairchild’s polite and carefree demeanor is an act, but i really don’t think that’s true either. i guess i might see it differently because i personally resonate the most with the vast out of all the fears, but i really think that a lot of that behavior makes perfect sense for his character. he doesn’t think that anything in life matters. his personality reflects the lightness and carefree nature of that mindset. he just doesn’t care. he does everything for fun. he’s not pretending to be anything he isn’t.

this could be me reaching, but honestly, i don’t think even jonah magnus is putting up that much of a facade. he’s lying, sure. he’s manipulating people, obviously. but he’s not changing his behavior in order to do that. even in mag 160, there’s no big, henry mildmay-esque “dropping of the act” when he has his monologue. if you look at his behavior as elias bouchard, it’s exactly the same as the little bits of him that we get to see in s5. the elias whose last words are “good luck” is the exact same elias as the one who always greeted basira with “hello, detective”.

humans put up an act. monsters don’t bother to.