2021-08-10 13:42:31 ¶ ● ⬀ ⬈

feathered-serpents:

> Also now that I’ve had some time to sit on it. I think this is how I would’ve done the last three Magnus episodes

> (DISCLAIMER: I don’t hate the finale. I actually really like it, the best way I can describe is “I like it and wish there was MORE of it” this is 90% a thought experiment FOR FUN for myself NOT genuine criticism!!)

> So. Let’s do it.

> 198:

> - I’m going to take the existing 198 and just. Throw it into the wind. Much like Jon jumped off that ladder just. There it goes. Whoosh.

> - I know. That 198 is intended to be a respite from the craziness that was 191-197, thing is…199 is kinda that too. It’s regrouping and talking. I didn’t need both, I didn’t, while 198 is fun, I’m now making the entirety of 199 the bulk of 198. And it goes down roughly the same way with the major difference being that Jon becomes the pupil at the END of 198. It probably doesn’t go down exactly the same way just due to time but that is when it happens rather than the start of 200. We end RIGHT as Jon settles into being the Pupil and says something in that weird Pupil voice-warp he’s got going on (maybe dismissing Rosie?)

> 199:

> - Now 199 is basically JUST 200. Everything that happens in 200 happens HERE now and it’s mostly the same with a couple changes. First we get a little bit of Jon just BEING the Pupil, seeing that he was right, he is in control. He’s talking and acting like HIM before he starts the statement (and that statement stays, I like that statement) it’s just him equal parts relishing and hating being the Pupil.

> - After that, everything goes down the way it did in 200. Martin comes up, the tower blows up, Martin refuses to leave, Jon gives in. It all happens the same way, that scene is one of my favorites in the entire show it stays.

> - But it ends there, after the big sound of tapes winding and stopping THAT is where it stops. And that’s where we go into…

> 200:

> - So. Obviously. 200 is where things get really different.

> - This 200 is basically a callback to 100. It’s a bunch of tiny “statements” given to the surviving archival staff. The survivors of the apocalypse have come to THEM wanting… somewhere to document what happened to them. They aren’t great at it. They aren’t storytellers. There’s no- Archivist, here to make it easier. Some of them are very frank and stoic as they speak, some of them are overcome by emotion and can’t continue.

> - No matter what, it’s very calm, very quiet. Still. The silence after an explosion.

> - But Melanie, Georgie, and Basira take the “statements” many of which are DEFINITELY from people we’ve heard from before. Direct from subject statement givers. Cult members. People whose voices we remember, talking about their experience. The girls also talk back, and we get a little sliver into how they are coping with all of it.

> - And yes, we hear “Statement of ____” I am SO UPSET we didn’t get “Statement of ____” SAID IN 200. I’M SO MAD ABOUT THAT. anyway

> - The whole time we do hear mentions of the Archivist, and the “man who was with him.” People who saw them. People who hated them. People who felt a strange comfort by them. People who tried to worship them. Throughout all of this, the IRL listener slowly starts to realize that… they’re gone. They’re both gone. No one knows what happened to them. Maybe there’s even a dry joke from probably Melanie about the irony of that. Eventually, it probably is outright said that they’re gone, vanished, no bodies, no evidence, nothing.

> - And it ends the same way, I really like the last words being “Goodbye. I’m sorry and good luck” so we still hear that. It’s after they either decide they’re done taking “statements” like this. It was meant to help but seems to be doing more harm than good, or maybe they’ve run out of people who want to give their “statements” either way, it’s time to move on from this, from the tapes.

> - And I thought about there being some static or a rumble or an incomprehensible whisper before but I really think it’s much more powerful if the recorder just clicks off. There’s nothing spooky that happens, it just turns off.