---
layout:          post
title:           "MAGQA2 - #0170928 - Season 2 Q&A Part 2"
date:            2017-10-04 12:00:00 -0400
episode_type:      special
tags:            [Q&A]
statement_of:    []
recorder:        []
voiced:          []
categories:			"tma"
podcasts: ["tma"]
title_prefix:	"MAG"
prev_categories: ["tma"]
prev_prefixes: ["MAG"]
next_categories: ["tma"]
next_prefixes: ["MAG"]
prev_episode:   ['0801-qa2-p1']
next_episode:   ['0804-mag-s3-trailer']
prev_episode_num:		['QA2.1']
next_episode_num:		['080.4']
prev_episode_title:		["Season 2 Q&A Part 1"]
next_episode_title:		["Season 3 Trailer"]
episode_title:   'Season 2 Q&A Part 2'
episode_number:  'QA2.2'
case_number:     '0170928'
statement_date:  2017-09-28
recording_date:  
event_date:      
summary:         "Jonny and Alex continue to answer your questions about Season 2!"
content_flags:   []
acast_url:       https://play.acast.com/s/themagnusarchives/mag80.2-season2q-apart2
formats: 
  PDF: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwU6M4sYgbYddXhPSmdxR2pnUFE
  PDF (Large-Print): https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwU6M4sYgbYdV2Nsa3p2TVVTUXM
  Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_sgD4vqqmG4s0ieSeH8BOQy1gVIrug5OFqRtdxtdicQ/
official:        true
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---

#### ALEX

Hi everyone, Alex here. Just a reminder that this is Part Two of our Season 2 Q&A episode. So, if you haven't listened to Part One you should probably go back and listen to that first. Assuming you have, we'll be picking up exactly where we left off. Thanks again for your patience.

Now another question, final one from __Steve Bread__. "The series does really well to avoid a lot of the worst horror clichés with smart, if a little overly curious, protagonists. What are our most hated horror tropes and do we find it hard to avoid them?"

I'll dive in straight off the bat. I __hate__ stupid protagonists. I don't mean like a misunderstanding here...

#### JONNY

I mean, you say that but John's made some very poor choices.

#### ALEX

Ah, but a bad choice isn't stupid.

#### JONNY

Yeah, fair.

#### ALEX

I mean, I mean genuinely, like, there is a roar, and there is a scratching behind the door, and blood is seeping out... So what do you do? You open the door. Don't open the door! No-one would op-- Don't open the door. That's stupid; that's a stupid protagonist.

#### JONNY

Mine is using sexual violence as a source of horror. Certain stories I, I have heard generally, generally by survivors do actually use horror very effectively as a means of exploring and coming to terms with that sort of thing but, crucially, they never, it's never __the__ horror. Like, it really leaves us horrid... like, a really nasty taste in my mouth when that sort of thing is equated to ghosts and, you know, ghosts and mummies and all this sort of stuff and--

#### ALEX

Well, it's the difference between trauma and horror.

#### JONNY

Yeah, absolutely. And... I, I just really hate it. It just, it really bothers me.

#### ALEX

So, this next one is from __Operaghost21__.

#### JONNY

Ooh, opera ghost!

#### ALEX

Although, I do wonder what happened to opera ghosts 1 through 20.

#### JONNY

I mean, there's more than twenty operas.

#### ALEX

No, fair, fair. "Word is Gertrude and Jurgen were played by Johnny's parents." Fun fact.

#### JONNY

That is correct.

#### ALEX

Yes. So the question for Johnny is: "How much of the characters and dialogue were initially written with them in mind and what was it like working with your parents."

#### JONNY

Initially, none of it, because it was never planned in that sort of sense.

#### ALEX

Like, we, we never had a sit-down meeting, episode one, going, "Jonny, I need a vehicle for the entire Sims family. How do we make this happen?"

#### JONNY

Yeah. No, it was very much we were looking for an actress to play Gertrude, and at some point I realized that a lot of the lines I've been writing, I'd kind of been reading in my mother's voice in my head. And so, I suggested it to Alex and he said, "Don't be stupid."

#### ALEX

In, in fairness, I said, "Alright, fine, we'll give it a go. Sure." And then I listened to it, and it was amazing!

#### JONNY

From a meta-narrative sense, it's quite pleasing that, y'know, because of the role Gertrude plays in the story and so that was how Mother got involved. And Jurgen, I mean, to be honest, we... we just really struggled casting Jurgen.

#### ALEX

And then I found out that your dad had a voice that, like, matches Christopher Lee and you kept that under your hat!

#### JONNY

I'd forgotten because my mother does, does do some sort of reading stuff, here and there. And my dad used to do some theatre stuff but it just wasn't in my mind as much. And when we were casting around for someone to, to play Jurgen, I sent him a couple of lines and, er, Alex was like, "Oh yeah, no, bring him in too."

#### ALEX

And the second part of this, which was, "And what was it like working with your parents?" I'm going to answer for you. They're lovely!

#### JONNY [BACKGROUND]

They're fine. They're alright. They're okay.

#### ALEX

They are the loveliest people to work with. It was brilliant. Also, in real time, I got to listen to Gertrude telling the Archivist, "You misspelled that. Correct your grammar." _[DIRTY LAUGH]_

#### JONNY

She's an English teacher. She has exacting standards.

#### ALEX

So, this next question--

#### JONNY

It's fine. Working with your parents. It's fine.

#### ALEX

I loved it.

So, next one's from __Ethereal87__. "While reading a script or writing an episode, what were some of the episodes that creeped __you__ out while reading them? And would you say you have a different answer after listening to a finished episode?" So, was something upsetting when writing, and not when listening, or vice versa?

#### JONNY

Absolutely it's different after listening, because after listening, er, they're not scary to me at all because... I don't particularly enjoy the sound of my own voice recorded, because, I mean, no-one does. So, I find listening back, er, I can't really get into it the same way I can when writing it, because my own voice is a bit distracting to me.

#### ALEX

So strap in for this one, serious question, right. __Rohirim36__.

#### JONNY

Right.

#### ALEX

"If all of the employees of *The Magnus Archives* -- John, Tim, Martin, Elias, Sasha, and let's say Not!Sasha for good measure..."

#### JONNY [BACKGROUND]

Okay, cool, cool, cool.

#### ALEX

"...were tossed into a Friday the 13th movie..."

#### JONNY

Oh right, oh right.

#### ALEX

"...Which one is the last one alive?"

#### JONNY

Oh, the __last__ one?

#### ALEX

I, I have a strong opinion on this one.

#### JONNY

Do you?

#### ALEX

I think Not!Sasha because that's the interesting story.

#### JONNY

I mean, yeah, but... Friday the, a Friday the 13th movie is not an interesting story.

#### ALEX

Oh, I may have missed the point there.

#### JONNY

It's a formulaic slasher. Yeah, I think, I think you have. I mean, I think either Sasha or Martin.

#### ALEX

Next one's from __Prid__ via Reddit.

#### JONNY

Sure sure.

#### ALEX

"Do we record on a weekly basis or a block at a time?"

#### JONNY

Fortnightly, chunk of episodes. A lot of it depends on how guest actors' schedules line up.

#### ALEX

And previously whenever we had a multi-cast recording it was a logistical nightmare, we had to do binge recordings. But now!

#### JONNY

What's happened, Alex?

#### ALEX

We're in our big, shiny, new, Patreon-funded studio, which allows us to do multi-cast recordings whenever we want.

#### JONNY

Ah, it's wonderful. I'm stroking, I'm stroking the soundproof walls at the moment but you can't hear because they're soundproof!

#### ALEX

We're not under a duvet. It's brilliant, I love it.

#### JONNY

_[softly]_ I miss the duvet.

#### ALEX

"When the Archivist isn't battling the forces of evil, what does he do for fun?"

#### JONNY

I think he reads a lot of non-fiction, watches documentaries...

#### ALEX

The idea that John has any fun whatsoever astonishes me.

#### JONNY

I mean, this is, this is probably before all this started. He's, he's something of a workaholic. I think he probably collects something. I'm not sure. Like, I don't think it will be stamps or coins or anything quite that cliché, but I think he probably collects something just a little bit weird.

#### ALEX

_[chuckles]_ And the final one from __Prid__, I'm going to answer this one for you. "Is there any chance of a two-hour-long Christmas special?"

#### JONNY

Yes, definitely, we're writing--

#### ALEX

NO!

##### [CARRIES ON SPLUTTERING OVER JONNY'S ANSWER]

#### JONNY

...one right now, I've got... it's, I mean. What?

#### ALEX

So, the answer is, the answer is, No.

#### JONNY

Alex is saying no, this is the first I'm hearing of it.

#### ALEX

Yes, of course we'd love to; no, a two-hour Christmas special might actually kill our editors.

#### JONNY

Pretty sure it's in my contract that I'm definitely, definitely... a two-hour special. Don't listen to Alex. It's definitely going to happen.

#### ALEX

Next question is from __mGlottalstop__. Ooh, it's for me. "How much input do I have in performing characters compared to Jonny's text?"

#### JONNY

Not as much input as you have in whether or not we get a two-hour Christmas special.

#### ALEX

So, in, in general, when you're getting down to, like, the individual episode level so my, my role when it comes to the scripts is -- I help on the really, really big picture 'cause I'm like I'm a story editor and part of that is, like, "move this protagonist here," "this, this thing isn't going to work, necessarily," so I help in a, sort of, really big, broad strokes, and then right down into the dialogue.

So... I don't really touch Jonny's statements, any of the, like, big processes, it's not my bag. When it comes to the dialogue, I think I have a lot more input, and... certainly I'd say with Martin, there's been a few times where I've probably suggested a more Martin way of dealing with a problem.

#### JONNY

Oh, yeah, like I think you get input on a lot of the characters when it comes to the dialogue.

#### ALEX

This next one, again from __mGlottalstop__, and it's for you specifically.

#### JONNY

Cool, cool, cool.

#### ALEX

"In writing and steering *The Magnus Archives* have you ever been inspired by the performance of the cast to try and push their boundaries further? Can we give an example of a time when a voice actor's performance has impacted the writing, specifically?"

#### JONNY

Um, it's less that it will impact the writing and more that often I'll have, er, we'll have a character who's intended as a one shot and then they'll come in, they'll give their performance and they'll leave, and me an Alex will look at each other and be like, "That character's coming back."

#### ALEX

You can just tell.

#### JONNY

So, it tends to be that rather than changing how a character is, it'll make us make the character more important if we really like how they're voice acted.

#### ALEX

Okay, this next one is from __Undeclaredmilk__, excellent name, via Reddit. "Is there any chance we'll ever get to hear Johnny sing?"

#### JONNY

I mean there's a chance. We're not going to do a, like, a musical episode. But I mean, who knows what might happen.

#### ALEX

This next one is from __Crysiana__, Reddit. *"The Magnus Archives* doesn't pretend to be real like other shows like *The Black Tapes* do. But have we ever considered any sort of ARG _[Alternate Reality Game]_ element to the series?"

#### JONNY

Considered? Yes. ARGs, that's a thing, very resource intensive.

#### ALEX

Yeah.

#### JONNY

And the sort of resources that, to be honest, I'm much more inclined to put our time towards making the show as good as it can be.

#### ALEX

Yeah, again it's a, it's a thing, it's exactly the kind of thing that I would normally be all over...

#### JONNY

I'd love it if we had the time

#### ALEX

But we can... Yeah, I'd rather put the energy, like you say, into, into the show itself.

Yeah.

#### ALEX

Next one's from __Gulbasaur__, via Reddit. "Do we have a planning process for pacing the episodes? Is there a big spreadsheet somewhere with 'Jane Prentiss, Spiders, One-shot' table written down the side for tracking and things like that?"

#### JONNY

Yes there is. There is exactly that table. And it is currently being filled out for Season 3.

#### ALEX

And hidden. Don't go looking for it.

#### JONNY

Obviously it--

#### ALEX

You won't find it.

#### JONNY

I mean, it's mine.

#### ALEX

_[Laughs]_ This next one is from __Crystal Requiem__, via Reddit. "As someone who dabbles in writing, I find I have trouble creating a wide array of distinct characters and personalities. But you seem to develop a new one every episode. How do you develop so many distinct personalities?"

#### JONNY

Generally I will take a single aspect that really interests me, either from somebody I know or often just from me -- a particular aspect of my own personality -- and then I will extrapolate it and I find, like, coming up with the voice is the... the key. And once I've got the first few lines, if I've got the first few lines right, I find the rest of the character flows quite naturally.

#### ALEX

Sure. "Have we ever had to change a statement because it was too similar to something that's come out previously?"

#### JONNY

We've had to change what we were __going__ to do. Like, it's the sort of thing where, when we're planning it, I might throw out an idea and Alex will say, "oh actually, we've done quite a lot of that sort of story. Maybe try it in from a different angle."

#### ALEX

We've never reached the point where we had to change it. But then again, I think it's both a thing that we're really quite careful of, so it's not really come up like that.

#### JONNY

Yeah, I've certainly never turned up to a recording with a script I need to have Alex say, "this is too similar, let's change it."

#### ALEX

And finally from __Crystal Requiem__: "As opposed to the statements, everything caught on tape at the Archives is acted rather than narrated..."

#### JONNY

Sure.

#### ALEX

"What sort of strategies do we use to help the audience understand what they're hearing?" That's a really, really good question and it's really... difficult to answer because we had a lot of talks about it at the start of this series about how we were gonna make it work.

#### JONNY

Yeah, it's, it's something that, er, the short answer is: think about it a lot beforehand and discuss it at length. There are all sorts of dodges and kinda cheats that, radio especially, has historically used for this. I find that there are some great books on radio writing and writing for audio that address this.

#### ALEX

I strongly advise everyone who listens to this to go out and listen -- it's in the public domain -- and it's called *This Gun in My Right Hand is Loaded.*

#### JONNY

Yeah.

#### ALEX

It is a, it's a comedy radio piece where they do everything that you should not do, in order to help teach people you know how to not do it, basically. Listen to that. What we do is the exact opposite of that. But it's, it's a great laugh to listen to, but yeah, a lot of it is... finding ways to really signpost and telegraph to an audience what's going on and to contextualize things in such a way that not even that it's--

#### JONNY

It feels natural.

#### ALEX

Not even in a way that it's invisible, just that people will accept, y'know? So it'll be little things like, er, John mentioning that he was carrying a pipe.

Everyone's aware--

#### JONNY

Oh, god, the, the, the number of iterations we had to go through to get that one sounding even remotely natural.

#### ALEX

Well, again, otherwise you end up with, "I am carrying a pipe in my hand", like yeah, yeah. But again, audiences realize sometimes when you're trying to do it, and they play the game with you.

#### JONNY

Yeah. Audiences are very forgiving for that sort of thing.

#### ALEX

Next one is from __HybridTheorist12__, Reddit. "Is the entity calling itself Michael inspired by the manga *Uzumaki?"*

#### JONNY

Ooh, um, that's a very good question. The answer is, not directly. I'm a big fan of Junji Ito's works, especially, er, *Uzumaki's* one that I really like because the idea of malicious concepts really appeals to me, something about the...

#### ALEX

I'd never have guessed.

#### JONNY

The idea of a spiral deciding to hate you and mess with your life? That, that tickles me. So, while Michael is not directly inspired by *Uzumaki,* I would definitely cite it as an influence.

#### ALEX

Next question is from __Fxktn__ on Reddit. "Who is Martin's favourite poet?"

#### JONNY

Ooh, that's a very good question. I think he's probably, er, I mean Wordsworth. I think he probably less has a favourite poet and more really has favourite poetry collections. He strikes me as someone whose poetry's much more based on the anthologies he's read than, er, diving deep into the work of any specific poet. That said--

#### ALEX

*Poetry for Beginners,* that kind of thing. _[Chuckles]_

#### JONNY

*The Dragon Book of Poetry,* that sort of thing. That said, I think he probably has a soft spot for Wordsworth and Keats and that lot.

#### ALEX

Okay, another one from __Fxktn__. "What happens if you ask Michael 'when is a door not a door'?"

#### JONNY

He... undoes you.

#### ALEX

"How much of what's been revealed in Season 2 was planned from the beginning? Obviously, grbookworm1818 must have been. But how about characters like Leitner?"

#### JONNY

I mean, Leitner, specifically, was absolutely planned from the beginning.

#### ALEX

What, we were talking about Leitner from day one?

#### JONNY

Oh, absolutely. But things like the exact manner of his reveal, that has changed slightly from what was originally planned. The superstructure of the plot has been a hundred percent set from day one. But a lot of the individual stuff, while they are planned in advance, what they end up becoming and where they end up connecting often changes in the writing and how the story naturally develops.

#### ALEX

The way I always think of it is, the bigger the detail the more likely it is to have been thought of at the start and then, the more fine, the more nuanced it gets, more likely it's probably had a bit of a more winding path to get to where it is.

#### JONNY

And we have a lot of very important... floating story elements...

#### ALEX

Yeah.

#### JONNY

...that will definitely come to fruition. But the exact details of when and where they're going to land are going to depend on a lot of other factors.

#### ALEX

"How come Jurgen Leitner is said to be Norwegian? His name seems to be German."

#### JONNY

Because of, er, multiple, apparently inaccurate, lists of Norwegian baby names.

#### ALEX

_[Laughs]_ Pears or apples?

#### JONNY

Personally, I prefer an apple.

#### ALEX

That's because you're correct. That's, that's the objective--

#### JONNY

Although, although, I will say I prefer apple juice to an apple...

#### ALEX

You're mad.

#### JONNY

...because, I mean, it's just a lot of chewing, it's a lot of work eating an apple.

#### ALEX

That's why it's so rewarding!

#### JONNY

Okay, yeah, but no, just eating... drink lot of apple juice, you get the same vitamins, you don't need to be chewing like a goat all the time.

#### ALEX [BACKGROUND]

Moving on. We're moving on. We're moving on...

#### ALEX

It's good for you! Right. Next one's from __Caardvark__ on Reddit. "Are certain episodes of *The Magnus Archives* inspired by your own deep-set fears and phobias and, if so, what are they?" I know we've answered this one before.

#### JONNY

Yes, most of them. I'm scared all the time.

#### ALEX

I keep discovering new ones thanks to the show. Specifically trypophobia, and I, er, forget what it's called, fear of abysses.

#### JONNY

Oh, oh, I mean, you're welcome in both cases.

#### ALEX

Thanks. Next one. __pyongYEAH__, I like that name, on Reddit. "Do any of the statements that we feature have a perfectly reasonable explanation behind them?"

#### JONNY

No. There are plenty of statements in the Magnus Institute that do, but they are not the ones you are hearing.

#### ALEX

Next one is from __Blooblewoo__, via Reddit again. "All the statements that involve people with jobs like sailor or antiquities dealer seem really well-detailed. Have you worked a lot of jobs, do a lot of research, or do you just make stuff up good?"

#### JONNY

Oh, while I would love to have had the life of a diver, an antiquities dealer and a garbage man, and an abattoir worker... well, maybe not, er, governor, but a lot of research, a lot of research...

#### ALEX

A lot of obscure forums.

#### JONNY

And I guess a certain degree of making stuff up good.

#### ALEX

If you couldn't make stuff up good, we wouldn't be here.

#### JONNY

Yeah, sure enough.

#### ALEX

This next one's from __purpletopo__, via Reddit. "Do Tim, Martin and John ever hang out or interact outside of work hours?"

#### JONNY

They used to. _[Alex/Martin sighs]_ Not so much since Series 2 started. Not, not a lot beforehand but I mean they would occasionally have had, like, a work function, I think. Possibly a Curry Night around Christmas, that sort of thing.

#### ALEX

It wasn't fun for John, I suspect.

#### JONNY

Oh no, John, yeah, John went.

#### ALEX

Martin had a great time.

"If Leitner didn't make the books, will you ever reveal who did? Or is every book unique in how it was created and there are multiple authors?"

#### JONNY

You are assuming that a book needs to be written.

#### ALEX

"Who does the Archivist consider his best friend? Does he think of any of the people he knows as friends?"

#### JONNY

At this stage, I'm not sure that the Archivist has many friends. But... I guess we'll see, won't we?

#### ALEX

_[Chuckles]_ "If all of the eldritch forces have different origins and different allegiances, does that mean there are some who might have a reason to actually __help__ John as opposed to going after him?"

#### JONNY

Oh, I mean, I suppose __theoretically,__ y'know. That'd be, that'd be quite a narratively rich vein to explore, don't you think Alex?

#### ALEX

What would I know? What would I know? I just ask the questions.

#### JONNY

But it's all very unlikely.

#### ALEX

"Are the writer and actor Jonathan Sims, and the Archivist Jonathan Sims, at all alike or do the similarities end in the shared name or voice?"

#### JONNY

I mean, I don't think they're super alike. Like, a lot of his, a lot of his aspects are small aspects of my own personality turned up to 11.

#### ALEX

I just think you mined the bits of yourself that you don't particularly like.

#### JONNY

I mean, yeah.

#### ALEX

And then, and then just built a personality around them.

#### JONNY

No, I mined the bits of myself that are useful in a horror protagonist.

#### ALEX

Now, the last one, last question we've got. "Do we have favourite episodes and/or moments from Season 2?"

#### JONNY

Yes.

...

#### ALEX

Cool, so thanks for listening... _[laughs]_

#### JONNY

Yes. No, I'm just thinking through Season 2.

#### ALEX

I really liked how the Michael stuff came out.

#### JONNY

Yeah, like, the Michael stuff's come out really nicely.

#### ALEX

I... When we originally were doing Michael, I had an instinct that it might really grab people if we handled it right and spent a long, long time trying to get Michael right. Y'know, with the laugh and with the way he is with the doors, and yet again with all of the, sort of, direction side, never mind the writing side, which obviously was in your hands, so I'd probably say... the Michael bits have been my favourite just because I said that sometimes writing these big sprawling things and working on them is like playing a game. I feel like that was a, that was a really nice trick shot where I hoped it would come together, and it did, and people engaged with it, and it came out as so much more than it could have been.

#### JONNY

For me, a lot of it comes down to when a voice actor really nails what I felt the character was about. So, Imogen who played Helen Richardson in the Michael episode...

#### ALEX

She did a great job, really good.

#### JONNY

...Carrie who played Mary Kaey...

#### ALEX

Carrie's terrifying!

#### JONNY

Oh yeah, she's so scary.

#### ALEX

She's the scariest person I've ever met in the best way possible.

#### JONNY

I also really enjoyed, actually, *The Tale of a Field Hospital* _[MAG068]_ was quite fun, because I genuinely really enjoy going through old, weird, obscure books, especially if they're not overtly creepy, and just seeing which bits can be reinterpreted as sinister, because the majority of the stuff in that episode was taken directly from that book. And also *Fatigue,* because I just, I stayed up really, really late, didn't sleep for a long time, and then I wrote it.

#### ALEX

With a deadline.

#### JONNY

Why, why would it need editing? I wrote it on zero sleep. And it's, it's about not having any sleep.

#### ALEX

So, I think that's everything. I think that's all of the questions. Wow.

So, as always, thank you so much to everyone who has been engaging on the forums, engaging by Reddit, everyone who's been, basically, throwing us money via Patreon. You are literally facilitating this moving forward. I'm sat in a studio with Jonny that never would have happened. It's thanks to you guys. We are generating extra content. We are looking at expanding and it's all very much thanks to that support. Thanks everyone who's been sharing it via social media, Twitter, Facebook, obviously, getting involved but mostly just thanks for spreading the word, like...

#### JONNY

I mean keep doing it.

#### ALEX

Yeah. No, don't stop. Please don't stop.

#### JONNY

But thank you for doing what you've done so far.

#### ALEX

...because, it genuinely... the scale of this, is directly determined by...

#### JONNY

I'm so blown away.

#### ALEX

...what support people have been giving. The more support we get, the more we just increase the scale of what we get to do. And I like that.

##### [INFO ABOUT CLOSED SURVEY REMOVED]

But I think that's us done. Thank you again, as always, for coming along Jonny. Go have a rest.

#### JONNY

No problem.

#### ALEX

Have a sleep. I mean, go get married, maybe.

#### JONNY

Do you mean, do you mean: Go obsessively write content for Season 3?

#### ALEX

That's what I said.

#### JONNY

Yeah.

#### ALEX

Cool. So until then, I guess we'll, we'll see you all later.

#### JONNY

Okay, see you in Season 3.

#### ALEX

Bye, then.