you can draw a direct line between the bodyhopping and the way jonah/elias violates jon’s bodily autonomy. i think 193, specifically, is making that connection during the bit where jonah and jon narrate the statement together with jon playing og elias’s role, but that scene isn’t really about original elias. because he’s a non-person. making a statement in the magnus archives is the equivalent of sharing your story and og elias is denied one that doesn’t come with the overshadowing presence of jonah. beholding has decided the most consumable memory of his entire life is the one where he’s being traumatised by the man who will one day take possession of his body. a stern look isn’t precisely about him, it’s about jonah, jonah is the agent of his victimisation and therefore has control of his narrative. the parallel being drawn with jon has less to do with personal character and more with the manner in which they’re exploited by jonah. bodyhopping involves objectifying the victim and rendering them a vessel for jonah’s personal will. jon’s transformation into the conduit for the fears involves repeatedly invading and assaulting his body and mind—he is rendered a vessel (the archive) for jonah’s personal will. this comes through in the 160 statement, which is framed as jonah possessing jon and speaking through him, in that moment jon serves the same function as any of jonah’s vessels. what complicates jon’s narrative however is that there is a small element of choice here (and you can’t tell me you’re not curious. <- and he was. he needed to read it all, he doesn’t hesitate even once after the statement begins) or as much choice one can have while being governed by systems of control (it’s not an entirely ‘free’ choice, it’s influenced by an addiction)—all of which is, again, synonymous with the web appropriating jon’s body and will for its own plans. interesting that they discarded elias for the web in the final season because they also originally conceived him as the web writ small. possessing people’s bodies means controlling their narratives, he does it to every one of his bodyhopping victims and then jon: there are three statements in the podcast that are About Jon out of which the one that he gets to narrate in full is about the web marking and consuming his life (81) but the other two are narrativised by jonah/elias (120 and 160), because he occupies the same narrative space of an agent of control in jon’s life, he also marked and consumed him in his own way. mr spider isn’t just a bogeyman representation of the web, jon’s personal mr spider was also elias.
Anyways to me the ideal jonelias dynamic is like. If it’s not a constant push and pull between them what’s the point. If Jonah isn’t dragging Jon down into becoming more and more of a monster but Jon is making it as difficult and annoying and being a downright pain in the ass as much as possible what’s the point. If they aren’t psychoanalzying each other and responding to each new development with as much curiosity as they do frustration for how much more difficult it makes everything what’s the point. If Jonah doesn’t simultaneously grow deeply fond of his new favorite and also isn’t more than happy to watch him suffer and do nothing, what’s the point. If they aren’t making personal digs at each other mixed with instant connection and sudden almost fondness what’s the point. If Jonah doesn’t sound so impressed by everytime Jon gets worse what’s the point. If Jon isn’t both furious at Jonah for putting him in this situation and so sure he is the Only Person capable of making it better and having this subconscious idolization of him so strong he can’t shake it, what’s the point. If Jon isn’t the only person who doesn’t realize how obsessed they are with each other, what’s the point. If their worlds don’t revolve around each other, even and especially when Jon hates him, what’s the point. If Jon doesn’t hate Jonah and immediately go to him to fix anything before he even considers bringing it up to anyone else, and none of it comes from trust anymore, just being SO sure he knows everything and could fix all of his problems and just chooses not to, what’s the point. If Jonah doesn’t view him as his, both his to use and his to care for, what’s the point. If Jon doesn’t have a desperate jittery obsession with him he’s only recently beginning to notice, what’s the point. If it’s not weird and mutually self destructive what’s the point. If Jonah isn’t being dragged back into shit he hasn’t felt in years, while never becoming a better person- just a little more vulnerable, a little more known (this will destroy them both and they know it), what’s the point. If they aren’t making each other worse and taking everything from each other and orbiting around each other and eventually destroying each other completely, WHAT is the POINT
Destroying each other doesn’t have to involve killing each other but it DOES have to involve them destroying each other’s view of themselves and what they are and aren’t wiling to do completely. It does have to involve them permanently tainting how everyone else views them. They have to ruin each other for anything other than this twisted dance they have and will always have , as long as one of them is still alive. If one dies the other should be haunted by them so completely they essentially revive them with their bare hands. They don’t have to kill each other but they have to destroy each other completely and it has to be the worst and best thing they’ve ever experienced.
But if they kill each other, it has to be the most homoerotic shit ever written. Btw.
it’s been a bit here’s some tma hot takes. elias is and always was a more compelling character than martin. martin is a heartstopper boy to me he’s inoffensive but pretending elias made-his-own-messiah (that paprika the novel quote about his protege as christ with female genitals) anthropomorphised fear of the voyeur three overlapping psychosexual relationships bouchard wasn’t a standout is absurd. don’t give me any of that ‘but what’s interesting about martin is he stayed nice and dull despite despite despite’ i don’t care !! i do not watch the owl house. also sims especially towards the end had one way he wrote female supporting characters (Strong, exasperated, decent chance of being either a lesbian or a cop or both) that causes a lot of the cast to blend into a slurry of quips and powers. despite this i do consider him an actual genius of shortform horror i have yet to find another podcast that hits anywhere near the same as good magnus archives
Hey you all know about that fungus that possesses ants to make them climb on the tip of grass blades in hopes of getting eaten by a cow, so that the fungus can continue its life cycle in the cow’s guts? Because I think that’s the kind of thing that’s wrong with cave divers.
We don’t know what’s down there. We don’t know what’s gotten into their heads that makes them so determined to physically, personally go down there to find out. But I wouldn’t entirely dismiss the possibility that whatever has gotten into them is very invested in getting eaten by whatever is down there.
“optical illusions” grow up. they are optical realities. a trick of the eye is a truth of the eye to me. all shapes are possible and all concentric circles actually move. if you don’t like it go back to kindergarten.
part of the point of jonah’s character is that he’s the watcher so it makes sense for him to remain narratively unknowable till the very end. it’s telling that the most we have on him comes from incoming letters addressed to him, so it’s always people feeding him their fear, never the other way around. even the 160 statement is written to scare jon, he’s not really talking about himself, it’s all about jon. to use the panopticon analogy again, he’s the observer in the tower and, “in the tower one sees everything without ever being seen” (the only one capable of seeing the observer in the tower is the one who goes there to assume his role, so, jon). anyway. all that hasn’t stopped me from pondering. so considering all previous jonjonahisms there’s some merit in jonah also having his first supernatural encounter during an impressionable age and like jon it should happen in the form of a leitner (anachronistic to label it a leitner obvs, but gives an interesting flavour to his present day murder of leitner), a guest for mr spider was formative for jon because it was a traumatic encounter that happened to him and he’s only saved by a stroke of luck when someone else interferes. his need for answers is both a desire to understand and a sense of obligation he feels for the people around him to prevent a repeat of what happened to his bully (it will happen again). so the point of difference i would go for, is that it doesn’t happen to jonah. at not point is he actually in danger, doesn’t even get to hold the book in his hand, he simply watches someone else getting ‘eaten’ by it. he’s a witness not a victim. this impresses in jonah that something is. afoot. not enough to throw his world out of balance, not yet, that only happens when smirke gathers their group (“Even then, I knew how the world worked. There were supernatural things in the world, but they were rare – isolated and exaggerated”, jon in 81) but disturbing enough to be a formative memory. like jon he has also been offered a mystery and will eventually go looking for answers, but the voyeuristic nature of the encounter should forever serve as a reminder to remove himself from the site of danger. he must never allow himself to be the one to whom the horror happens, but he has to be the one keeping watch.
Off the coast of Australia Macroctopus caught the shark, wrapped all its tentacles around it and soon released it. Most likely, he scraped all the parasites off her.
