#based on Gertrude Robinson of all people

[brighter-star]

Meet Kaede Honoko, an oc of mine from a dnd campaign primarily based on Madoka Magica who sold her soul to become a magical girl after a housefire killed her cat

[thatpodcastkid]

Magnus Archives Relisten 11, MAG 11 Dreamer

If someone came to my place of work proclaiming they had a prophetic dream about my death I would simply believe them. RIP to Gertrude but I'm just built different ig.

MAG 11 analysis, spoilers ahead!

Facts: Statement of "Antonio Blake" regarding his dreams of Gertrude Robinson, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute (Head Archivist is another odd and foreshadowing usage of proper nouns in the transcript). Statement given March 14th, 2015.

Statement Notes: Oliver I love you but I also hate you so so much.

It's so strange relistening to this statement. On my first listen, I was very sympathetic to "Antonio." He was this innocent man who suddenly developed psychic abilities that tormented him. Even in 121 when he describes what he did on the voyage to Point Nemo, he seems to be driven by fear and desperation. But knowing what happens after Point Nemo and who he becomes in the Eyepocalypse, I wonder how much influence the power of the End had on him. As Jon develops his abilities, he becomes less confident in "normal" social situations, but more confident and stronger in dangerous horror-based scenarios. This seems true with Blake/Banks as well. He's very nervous as his abilities are developing when he tries to talk to Gertrude or Jennifer from Grifter's Bone. As he becomes more attuned with his abilities and gives in to his desires, he becomes more powerful, shown when he is strong and devoid of emotion enough to kill the actual Dr. Pritchard. He becomes strongest when he "gives in" to the End, being most clear and charming as he gives his statement in 121 and the Coroner's Report in 168. Just being able to track this change so clearly from this first statement to the last speaks not only to Jonny Sims skills for character development, but also the power of the Entities to draw out the worst in a person.

Blake describes his dream world as an "overexposed" or "washed out" photograph. The fading imagery was very profound and strong to me. Death is a fear, a horror represented by the black tendrils, but also a simple force of nature, slowly sucking life and color from all things. Unstoppable.

I don't know why I'm harping on this, but I can't understand why Blake's dreams always begin at the top of Canary Wharf. Does that come up again in the show? Is it personally significant to Blake?

Character Notes: I already got into Blake, so my other main character concern for this episode is Gertrude.

Did she ever see this statement?

Did she simply miss it? Was she busy and didn't get a chance to look at it before it was too late? Did she read it and attempt to prepare? She was smart. She knew which statements were real and which weren't. She would have understood what Blake was capable of. Did she attempt to prepare and defend herself but just couldn't manage it? Did Elias hide it from her? Did she read it and just accept the inevitable?

But of course, I have to bring up the Graham mention. I always thought the Graham/Oliver ship was just a fun fan thing, but I didn't realize Oliver had broken up with a Graham in cannon. Moreover, I didn't realize that it was confirmed to be Graham Folger until reading about the Season 5 Q&A when working on this post.

This raises an interesting point about original Graham. Blake describes having a mental breakdown due to his job, and Amy Patel describes her office job degrading her mental health as well. Is there something about Graham that attracts people losing their minds in an office? While it could be something spooky, I do understand why people stuck in mind-numbing careers would be drawn to someone with the time and resources to explore what he actually wants to do with his life, rather than what he has to do.

Entity Alignment: This is very clearly an End episode. I very much believe that, while he may not be the most powerful or dangerous avatar in the series, Oliver Banks was one of the most deeply connected to his entity. His psyche, his spirit, and his physical body were all so entrenched in death. It's interesting that there is no "inciting incident" that causes Graham to become an avatar of the End, as usually there is one event that acts as the root of an avatar's development. You could possibly argue it was his mental health breakdown, but that seems unrelated to death or anything associated with the End.

[its-your-mind]

A compilation of things we know:

the OIAR used to work with a security company called Rightforce International, previously called Diligence Security Systems

the Magnus Institute burned down 24 Dec 1999

the OIAR separated from a company called Starkwall Protection Services on 3 Jan 2000

Starkwall had something to do with a “magnus protocol,” and information related to this is above the level of access of the OIAR team members

Gerry Kaey was a Magnus kid

there is no evidence that there were files in the basement of The Magnus Institute when it burned

The basement of The Magnus Institute was the Archives in the TMA World Line

Also in the TMA World Line, Gertrude Robinson was the Archivist for ~40 years, starting in the 80s

She frequently worked with Adelard Decker to thwart the machinations of the Entities and their avatars

Later, she worked with Gerard Kaey, who had intentionally aligned himself with the Eye in order to see when people were being stalked by one of the Powers and help them

He was also a firebug

Also known firebug: Agnes Montague, who had been bonded to Gertrude via a ritual by followers of the Web - a bond Gertrude used to protect herself from the Cult of the Lightless Flame

An unnamed security company saved Dianne Margolis from a shop on Hilltop Road in Oxford that was filled with supernatural shit and subsequently set on fire

FR3-D1 should NOT work like this considering the technology it runs on

FR3-D1 appears to have complete access to any files transmitted via the Internet, no matter how secure or buried they are, for the sole purpose of categorization

there (is? used to be?) some sort of Response Department, that is still enough a part of the OIAR’s operations that Sam gets paperwork on his desk about it after checking a box marked “Response 121” on his onboarding paperwork

Klaus learned things that he believed put him in danger and subsequently disappeared via Lena’s intervention

Colin believes there is Something watching and/or listening via any technology with cameras or microphones

Lena answers to some sort of authority that none of the other workers know about

The Entities exist in this world, just in a different form than we’re used to (in-depth meta on this here)

okay those are all the relevant facts time for:

CRACK THEORY TIME

Gertrude and Decker are co-founders of Starkwall né Rightforce né Diligence

They kept changing the name to keep off the radar of any avatars

Gerry was Youngest Recruit In History

He was recruited while he was a Magnus kid to be their INSIDE OPERATIVE

He got to help set the fire

He swept the archives and stole all the relevant files because he is still an Eye-aligned bitch who wants to figure shit out

Agnes is also in on it

Bc she fuckin DESERVES IT

also look at all the fire shit

She and Gertrude are lovers

Bc I fuckin deserve it

that eldrich bond should be good for something and that something is LESBIANISM

(*speaking in a voice crushed with disappointment but with a Touch of hopefulness* here’s how agnes montague can still win?)

Anyway back to Starkwall

Their whole thing is basically scorched earth policy when it comes to Fears shit (see: MAGP 07 statement of fire at Hilltop Road)

Feeding the Desolation by ^ and the Eye by collecting info on the activities of other fears (whatever slightly warped version of the Fears exist in this world)

Used to work with? under? the OIAR as part of the “Response Department”

FR3-D1 is like EXPLICITLY Eye-based system set up to collect info for Starkwall to go after (Eye is a silly stupid entity who just wants to gobble up the fear and is bad at planning, so doesn’t notice/care how its people use the info gathered)

a significant part of Jon Martin and (probable) Jonah got schlorped up by FR3-D1 when they got here bc their voices reading out Statements for the Eye were the conduits for the Fears to travel, and FR3-D1 had INTENSE EYE GRAVITY that was Specifically Tuned to gulp up supernatural stories from the interwebs

unfortunately the Intense Eye Beams coming off him DOES tend to place FR3-D1’s IT workers directly into a position to get Eyed into intense paranoia and fear of being watched (rip Klaus, stay strong Colin)

this did not happen when Starkwell used to work with them bc they knew how to handle FR3-D1 but alas once the Eye folks all fucked off it left Klaus (and now Colin) open to both paranoia attacks and possible Consequences for asking too many questions

Speaking of which

the Web (or an analog (jonny and alex drop titles for entities in this world if smirke didn’t make up the same ones challenge)) took notice of what was goin on and got operatives into the OIAR

Lena is one, or else she works for one. (Insert here’s how annabelle caine can still win theories here)

Klaus figured out too much and got in the way of Machinations and thus the whole *gestures*

Gertrude and Decker noticed and separated from the OIAR as soon as they were able to bc they realized that shit had gone South but are still out there doin the good work

Alice ALSO done got recruited from out of the Magnus program as a child

The reason she keeps pushing people away from the sus stuff and seems to know more than she claims to is bc she is their PLANT still working for the OIAR

She got Sam hired bc he’s still got eldritch eyes (in general, but maybe also Eyes) on him and she wants him somewhere she can keep an eye on him AND keep him inside a spooky space so it’s less likely an unknown actor would come after him

[shizucheese]

I'm going to use some discourse (?) I've been seeing on my feed as a bouncing-off point for some thoughts and theories I have as of TMAGP 8.

So like...I know a lot of people who are arguing about Gerry being goth vs. not goth in TMAGP are basing it off of the idea that he's happy.

"This Gerry isn't goth because he's happy and not traumatized!"

"You don't need to be traumatized to be goth, you can be happy and have lived a good life and still be goth!"

Um...guys? How often does it turn out that the most cheerful people are the ones hurting most?

Gerard Keaye is living with Gertrude Robinson and calling her "GG", and she's calling him her grandson.

Let me say that again:

Gerard Keay, descendent of Friend-of-Jonah Magnus (and finder of books that eventually were stolen by Jonah that may or may not have eventually became what we now know as Leitners) Albrect von Closen, lives with Gertrude Robinson, whose TMA counterpart was the head archivist of the Magnust Institute, and the Archivist, Avatar of the Eye. And calls her "GG." And she calls him her grandson.

Do you seriously believe for even a second that he was telling the truth about not having had much experience or remembering much about the Magnus Institute?

Do you honestly think for a second that those two are actually grandmother and grandson, even by adoption, and that this isn't just a cover? (Didn't they pull this same shit/ let people assume they were related in TMA, too?)

Like here I am smacking myself because I missed the very obvious fact that "there were no survivors"--in reference to the fire at the Magnus Institute--1) may not even be true for all we know (this is the fucking Magnus Institute, ffs), and 2) even if it is true, only means that nobody who was in the building at the time of the fire survived; it does not mean that everybody who worked for the Institute died.

So here's what I'm thinking: Gerry was absolutely part of the Gifted Kids program. Gertrude was an employee at the Institute. Maybe she was directly involved with the Gifted Kids program, or maybe she was Head Archivist again, but somehow had some involvement, even just tangentially, with the Gifted Kids program, or via some other circumstances ended up getting to know Gerry. Or maybe Gerry ending up with her was just pure dumb luck on his part.

Maybe she and Gerry survived the fire (maybe they were two of the very few, or were the only survivors?) And Gertrude took Gerry in after the fact.

Or maybe the Gifted Kids Program was like....exactly the kind of Bad News (tm) that I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking it was, and Gertrude had enough of a conscious that she grabbed Gerry and fucking ran, and so they weren't even there when the fire happened?

Or, wait, like....

What if the fire was a smokescreen to distract from her grabbing Gerry and running, or was to cover up any evidence of their existence or something so they could go into hiding?

What if Gerry isn't Gertrude's only "grandkid"?

The timeline absolutely does not line up for her to have been one of Gertrude's "grandkids," I'm acknowledging this here and now, because by 1999, when the fire happened, Agnes should have been in her 40's. But we also don't know how different the timeline is in the TMAGP universe or how long the Magnus Institute might have been running this "Gifted Kid Program", or what it involved, or what they would have considered "Gifted" in the context of what they were all about. So like...what if?

And if that's the case, who else might be Gertrude's "grandchildren" that we might recognize?

[a-mag-a-day]

uhm ahem *tap tap* i read a geography book that had percy fawcett in it

also

DAISY (Curt laugh) Arresting them. I hated the handcuffs. Th-the click. It meant the chase was done; the hunt was over. Satisfying, on a good day, sure, but… “moreish”. I never really wanted it to be over.

Sorry but I can't hear that line without hearing "I hated the cufflinks." Damn you tma bloopers

also:

ARCHIVIST You’re starting to sound like Gertrude. BASIRA Good. Far as I can see, Gertrude Robinson was the most effective person in this place.

(MAG 133)

ARCHIVIST Yes, Basira, he is. And I am sorry about that. But we needed it. Anyway you’re the one who wants to be like Gertrude. You think she’d give a damn about a few bad dreams? BASIRA No. ARCHIVIST No. She got the job done, and didn’t care about the cost. BASIRA But I thought you did

(MAG 141)

yea not hypocritical at all

BASIRA Have you? ARCHIVIST Yes, I have. Like you’re the only one responsible for everyone, the weight of all their lives on your shoulders? It leads to bad decisions. BASIRA Yeah, well, when I get myself kidnapped three times in a row, maybe I’ll look to you for advice.

(MAG 133)

BASIRA How many times have you been kidnapped at this point? ARCHIVIST That depends if you— …Huh. BASIRA Say it. ARCHIVIST Depends if you count Daisy.

(MAG 179)

killing & maiming stop talking about the godforsaken kidnappings :(

ARCHIVIST Fine. I don’t care if you trust me, but I think I’ve proven at the very least that I’m useful. So, use me. Because if you go it alone, you are going to die. Even Gertrude worked with people. We make bad decisions when we don't communicate.

*sprays jon with some water* bad jon, no basing your self worth off how useful you can be to others

uh yea. haven't really got enough thoughts to do a full ramble, and like, haven't really got the time either so enjoy The Thoughts.

It's good that he's at least standing up to basira somewhat and reflecting her behavior back to her

[fakecrfan]

Here is the thing about Gertrude Robinson’s sacrifice of Michael Shelley, given the best available information about the oncoming apocalypse at the time:

Refusing to sacrifice Michael would not spare him.

If Gertrude refused to sacrifice Michael Shelley and let the Spiral destroy the world or remake it into a torture factory--is there a reason to believe that Michael would be spared in this world? Any reason at all?

No. Likely, if the world was destroyed and everyone killed (one likely apocalyptic scenario) then Michael also would be dead. If the world was transformed into a torture factory farm for all living things, then likely Michael would also be tortured.

In this scenario, it’s not a choice between Michael and the world. It’s a choice between the entire world and also Michael suffering----or only Michael.

Lots of people call Gertrude cruel or heartless for making that choice. But given that set up, can you even call it that? When he (or another chosen sacrifice) would suffer either way, but everyone else could survive?

You might think--well, she could have thrown in someone else. She could have thrown in herself! But such a sacrifice is not more fair or more moral than sacrificing Michael. Because any other sacrifice’s life matters just as much as Michael’s does.

Of course, it later turned out the world was not at stake (though I still think the decision was likely justified, see my thoughts on that here and here.) But I also think that people don’t actually judge Gertrude based on facts about the outcome or the reality of the situation. They judge her based on a perception of her emotionality. They judge her based on a perception of a lack of compassion or other feelings that they have (particularly, that they have for Michael.)

I’ve seen people say Gertrude was “less human” by making this decision. Yes, really. And to that I say: if your compassion doesn’t take into account whether it actually helps its target, then don’t call it virtuous or demand other people do the same. And if “being human” means blithely making decisions to spare someone that doom both countless other people and also THAT PERSON THEMSELVES then “humanity” is a self-serving moral delusion. 

[finder-of-rings]

Okay what the hell is the plot of the magnus archives? I haven't listened and I'm not going to because it's horror but I would love to have a base idea of what you're talking about because it sounds really cool even of it's not my thing

Okay!! If anyone actually wants to listen to the magnus archives PLEASE DONT READ THIS. Will likely contain spoilers for EVERYTHING.

So it's about this guy named Jon who just became the head Archivist of the Magnus Institute which is a Institute in Britain that researches paranormal encounters and experiences and as you might expect, the vast majority are bs. The archives are a mess though, the previous Archivist (Gertrude Robinson) appears to have not filed anything correctly for YEARS. Jon decides that auditory catalog would be helpful in sorting the files but oops! Certain stories cannot record to the computer and only record to a tape recorder! And those stories seem to share some reoccurring themes, fears and characters. The podcast episodes are everything that goes on the tape recorders, mostly the statements although as the years go by more and more conversations and moments are also picked up. They also seem to appear out of nowhere whenever convenient, particularly around Jon! It starts out as a monster of the week type thing with a skeptic debunking almost every single one after reading it and giving the follow up until one of his assistants (Martin) is attacked by one of the entities they've been researching. Now as they research and record old statements, they are also dealing with being menaced and eventually attacked and killed by these entities. Perhaps even worse, Jon appears to be Becoming one of the entities that they're trying to oppose. He begins being able to compel people to answer his questions and tell them the truth, when he's not around the statements are all disorganized and sound like how people actually talk, and he needs to feed on statements to survive. Also he's gay for Martin now. That is very important to his development. Jon suffers from being excessively kidnappable and ending the world but at least he has a boyfriend now

It's so cool because you start out with it seeming like all these unconnected events and stories and by the end there's this major overarching story and the journey to get there is So well done. Also almost everyone is incidentally queer or can be read as such VERY easily. And it delves really really well into how subjective morality and ethics can be. I think it's really compelling how everyone in the archives can almost never agree on right and wrong and i honestly see how each person is right, in their own way. It gives me SO many shrimp emotions I love it so much!! I know that's kinda a ramble, please feel free to come back to my ask box or my dms if you want to know more or have any particular questions!!

[marxistgnome]

My predictions for what the magnus archives 2 will be

1. An arg based on the fears being in our universe. If its this all of u need to ve good at posting updates cos i don't know shit about decoding

2. A tma show focused on a new archive or organization just fibding out about the fears ive seen people making ocs for things like the magnolia Institute abd that so maybe something like that

3. A prequel detailing the adventures of gertrude robinson and her archival assistant to be honest ill leap up and down if adelard dekker is even mentioned

4. The og tma story from another perspective maybe following a different organisation like section 31 or the pu songling research centre.

5. Jon and Martin in somwhere else

6. Basira Melanie and Georgie in the post apocalypse world

7. The regency era tma so reiner Fairchild magnus and smirke

That's all I have there are a few i think are more likely than others but yeah definitely add more ideas in the notes

I AM VERY EXCITED

[digitalmediafundamentals]

Podcast homework

I tried to find a podcast that was relevant to the topic of being an immigrant student but, for the ones I found I just couldn’t keep my attention on them so I hope you don’t mind as I dive into a storytelling podcast instead. 

The Magnus Archives is one of my personal favorite podcasts as it is a fictional horror mystery podcast that details the events following the death of the previous archivist Gertrude Robinson as Johnathan Sims (the new archivist) is trying to re-organize the archives assume Gertrude left it a mess because she never truly did her job. It turns very quickly into an action-packed adventure full of monsters and terrifying situations surrounding John as he tries to uncover the secrets of the archives in the Magnus Institute.

Being a podcast without a video format is perfect as everything is being recorded with a tape recorder which crazily enough is part of the plot! As for a customer profile:

A lot of the branding comes from the organization itself which is The Rusty Quill They’ve been performing music and doing DND podcasts for a while so it makes a lot of sense to use your bigger platforms to advertise your smaller podcast. 

And as far as I know, they’ve been making a killing of it on YouTube and Spotify so good on them!

The next homework for this was to listen to 3 different podcasts so we all decided to watch one together and 2 separately. 

All of which I watched on Youtube.

First we watched therapy Gecko together which is not only an audio podcast but it is also visual. 

The man behind it dresses as a gecko and talks to people about their problems and this is all done on a call. 

I thought it was definitely an interesting idea and that would definitely grab peoples’ attention.

I’m not sure if we as a group would do anything a long those lines but, it’s interesting none the less and a good inspiration for our group.

I then relistened to my personal favorite podcast The Magnus Archives. 

I would listen to this podcast on the daily back at home, when I was at home, at work(when I could), or even just out and about in town. 

If I wasn’t using my headphones as hearing aid amplifiers I was listening to the Magnus Archives. 

It’s a storytelling podcast that spans around 200 episodes and from what I hear we’re getting a second season soon!

The premise is as follows, an archivist and his group of assistants are trying to reorganize the archive after the old archivist passes away. 

But, there are paranormal forces at play and the deeper you go into the archive the deeper into the fear entities web you fall. 

It’s a great podcast and I relisten to it religiously.

I might want to do something like this later but, on my own time and definitely not for the project we have assigned. 

There’s just too much prep that goes into something like that.

And for the last podcast I listened to Student Podcast Life of Students in UK by India Travller.

The setup for this podcast looks a lot like what we are going for in our podcast.

It’s a group of people just sitting down and talking about their situations. 

We want to call ourselves the Immigrant Nuggets and we all want to talk about our experiences in life and studying here in the UK.

This is almost exactly what we are going for but, India Traveller is more focused on their culture and students from India who moved to the UK.

Ours will focus on everyone in the group which is Poland, Egypt, America, and the UK as well.

All in all, I really like what they talk about and I think we as a group should go for a casual group video like this.

That being said I think that is all I wanted to talk about for this homework.

[screechfoxes]

6 & 7 for Published Fics Ask Game?

6. pick one of your fics and tell us about a "deleted scene" from it.

death & desolation was meant to be a very different fic originally, with agnes and oliver being one scene in a larger narrative of agnes trying to find a sense of purpose when she no longer had one any more. i think it was meant to be an open ending with possible jack/agnes?

but the deleted scene i have the most written of is actually agnes and basira. agnes has been hanging around the ruins of the magnus institute, and basira comes up to talk to her -- not knowing who she is, mind, but asking if there's something she needs/wants

i actually like the scene as written, so i'm going to stick it under the cut on this post. apologies to people on mobile! (or, do cuts work on mobile these days?)

7. are any of your fics strangely sentimental?

i don't really get what this question means, to be honest? sentimental to me? sentimental about something?

not to talk about it twice in one post, but i think death & desolation is one of the few that fit in both categories. it's so heavy on the character study and the introspection, and i have a lot of fondness for it myself.

The Magnus Institute is a ruin.

Agnes would have been satisfied with that once, but two weeks ago, she found herself sitting in the garden of the old house on Hill Top Road. The morning dew was cold on her bare skin, and she watched goosebumps rise, as fascinated as she was perplexed. Grass curled against her legs, a gently vital green. There had been no curl of smoke beneath her touch, no scorch-marks left behind when she pushed herself to her feet.

The Lightless Flame and its church is gone. Gertrude Robinson is dead. The Magnus Institute sits there in front of her, a pile of meaningless rubble. What, exactly, does Agnes have left?

Day in and day out, people flock to the destruction. Nestled in amongst an otherwise-pristine London, the Magnus Institute is the last reminder of the change the world underwent. Some scream, some cry, some take their anger out on the stones, but one thing unites everyone who comes here: they all want answers, even if the answers hurt.

There are some faces that stay the same. Unlike all of the others, these faces are trying to rebuild this glorified grave-marker— or at least clear away the worst of the damage. Agnes watches them with interest, curious about what they’ll find in the rubble. It shouldn’t be a surprise, given the circumstances, that one of them approaches Agnes one day.

She’s a dark-skinned woman with an angular face, long hair tied back loosely at the base of her skull. Her clothes are practical, and do nothing to hide the lean muscles of her arms. In some distant way, like a dream, this woman’s sharp eyes remind Agnes of Gertrude Robinson.

Is it grief that Agnes feels? She isn’t sure.

“You’ve been here every day for the past week,” the woman says, in lieu of any greeting. Her expression is one of practiced neutrality. “Is there something you want?”

Agnes exhales. She doesn’t have any reason to be honest, but she doesn’t have any reason to lie, either. The structures that made her enemies with this woman — almost certainly one of the Beholding’s acolytes, however unwittingly — have vanished, and Agnes doesn’t know how to fit into the world she’s found herself in.

“I wanted answers,” Agnes admits, after a long moment of consideration.

“You and the rest of the world.” The woman shakes her head and turns to walk back to the ruins.

Agnes finds herself reaching out to grab the woman’s wrist. Her skin is warm and a little rough, pulse beating slowly underneath Agnes’ touch, and when Agnes lets her hand fall away, there isn’t even a mark left behind. Even though she’s free to walk off, the woman looks back at her. Her brow is furrowed now, and her gaze has turned assessing. 

“I don’t want to hurt anyone.” The defense sounds weak even as Agnes says it; she doesn’t know what she wants, not now she has an option. It was so much easier when her life was decided for her. Even when she rebelled, it was within that structure.

“Are you going to?”

“I might. I’m very good at it.”

with the alternative response from Basira:

“That wasn’t what I asked.”

“… I don’t know. You don’t have any more answers than I do.”

[ghostbustermelanieking]

tma characters ranked by how often they physically appear in the show; an approximate list, updated for mag 200

so i decided to remake this post made back in november now that we've heard all the episodes and know what's changed. (isn't it insane that november was only fifteen episodes ago?? the passage of time... check out the original post if you wanna see my original reasoning, and how character appearances have changed over the last act of the season.)

this count is approximate and based on the wiki, but i can't count so if there are discrepancies it is entirely on me. this list is based on physical appearances -- i.e., do we hear their voice? appearing in a statement or simply being mentioned does not count. i'm also not counting bonus content like the liveshow or trailers here -- this is strictly numbered episodes. (and once again, i cut off the list at 2 appearances, which a lot of people did only appear twice physically.)

1. Jon - approx. 177 episodes as of 200

2. Martin - approx. 86 episodes as of 200

3. Basira- approx. 47 episodes

4. Melanie - approx. 32 episodes

5. Elias - approx. 27 episodes

6. Tim - approx. 25 episodes

7. Daisy - approx. 22 episodes

8. Georgie - 19 episodes

9. Helen - approx. 14 episodes

10. Gertrude Robinson - approx. 14 episodes

11. Not-Sasha - 11 episodes

12. Peter Lukas - 10 episodes

13. Michael - approx. 6 Episodes

14. Trevor Herbert - approx. 6 episodes

15. Breekon and/or Hope - approx. 6 episodes

16. Annabelle Cane - 5 episodes

17. Sasha - 5 episodes

18. Julia Montauk - approx. 5 episodes

19. Nikola - approx. 4 episodes

20. Rosie Zampano - approx. 3 episodes

21. Jurgen Leitner - approx. 3 episodes

22. Lynne Hammond/Celia - 3 episodes

some cool thoughts/statistics to go with this, if you're interested!!

jon, martin, and basira all stayed still in their positions, as from the point where i made the initial list (at 185) no character could ever appear enough to surpass those positions

jon, martin, melanie, and elias are the only characters to physically appear in all five seasons

basira, the character who appears the third most out of any character, has the final line of the series

martin, the second most appearing character in this show, isn't even in over half the episodes (86/200)

georgie had the biggest leap in positions in season 5 -- except for annabelle, who never physically appeared before season 5

martin is only absent in one episode of season 5 -- 195. jon is only absent in two -- 186 and 196, only 10 episodes apart, one of which we hear his voice in

some two character appearances that didn't make this list: mikeale salesa. gerard keay. arun the poet. laverne, melanie's therapist. the admiral. jared hopworth. jude perry. jordan kennedy.

rip to adelard dekker and agnes montague, who we never hear speak

again, eternal thanks to the wiki and also the transcripts for helping me confirm this stuff. i apologize if there are any mistakes, and any mistakes are my own.

[bracefacefreak]

This is for @who-needs-words, who asked for a look at my timeline for Oliver Banks and Graham Folger. Sorry it’s a bit late, but I hope you enjoy it. 

Please note, this is absolutely based on my own hcs and while I have tried to fit it around the dates/events that we are given in tma canon, I have had to tweak and change things a little to make it all fit and make sense. Therefore none of this is canon, it’s just my own ideas and imagination and what made sense to me. So here goes.

Late 2000 - Oliver Banks and Graham Folger meet in Oxford and start dating. Oliver is working after having left his degree programme (he completed his first year in economics and was a high-achieving student, but left due to issues of racism in the department.) Graham has just started studying for a PhD.

Early 2001 - Graham first spots the web-table in a second-hand store in Oxford. He is intrigued but does not purchase it. He shows it to Oliver, who hates the table on sight, although he can’t explain why. 

Aug 2001 - Graham’s parents die in a car crash. (*MAG 3*)

Late 2001 - Graham suddenly leaves his PhD programme. Around this time he also goes back to purchase the web-table. 

Jan 2002 - Graham leaves Oxford and moves into his parent’s flat in London. The web-table goes into storage, while Graham hopes to research it and figure out how it can be restored. 

He and Oliver continue their relationship, meeting up on weekends and their days off. 

Mid 2002 - Graham begins to take night classes as an attempt to entertain himself and to try and meet new people, much to Oliver’s relief. 

2003 - Graham’s mood improves and he begins to feel better, although he sometimes feels like he is being followed. Oliver and him are going steady. 

Late 2004 - Graham persuades Oliver to consider going back to finish his undergraduate degree. Oliver applies to a number of universities, mostly in and around London. 

July 2005 - While getting the flat ready for Oliver’s arrival, Graham goes through the things he has in storage and comes across the web-table. He has it moved into the flat. 

Aug 2005 - Oliver moves in with Graham after being accepted to study economics at the LSE (*MAG 11 - I lived in London for almost a decade now*). He is granted permission to begin from the second year due to his previous study (*yeah I know it’s not the most believable, but the LSE do let you do this - I checked, and it’s the best way to get the dates to work properly.*) 

Sept 2005 - Oliver begins studying at the LSE. Graham is quickly becoming obsessed with researching and restoring the web-table, spending great amounts of time and money on it, which begins to put strain on his relationship with Oliver. 

Oct 2005 - Oliver and Graham argue about the web-table. Graham refuses to move it/get rid of it. 

Dec 2005 - Graham has his first close-encounter with the Not-Them and realises that something is coming for him. He becomes more and more paranoid. Oliver tries to help, but whatever he does only seems to make things worse. 

Early Jan 2006 - before Amy Patel gets concussed outside Graham’s flat - Oliver decides to move out to give Graham some space in the hopes it will save their relationship. It’s not long before Graham realises that not having another person around makes him more vulnerable, but he is also unwilling to ask Oliver back in case it puts him at risk. 

Late Jan 2006 - Amy Patel is attacked outside Graham’s flat (*MAG 3*) 

April 2006 - Graham is killed and replaced by the Not-Them (*MAG 3*)

Mid 2006 - Oliver moves back in with Not-Graham over the summer break, and is glad to see his boyfriend is no longer paranoid. Oliver completes an intern programme at Barclays. 

Late 2006 - Oliver and Not-Graham’s relationship is struggling. Oliver can’t place what it is exactly, but something just feels off. 

June 2007 - Oliver graduates and ends up with a job at Barclays in the City. (*MAG 11*)

Aug 2007 - (*MAG 3 post statement notes - I’m taking a bit of a liberty with ‘early 2007′ I know, but this just fits better*) Oliver and Not-Graham’s relationship breaks down completely and Oliver moves out of the apartment. His mental health begins to deteriorate. 

Early 2008 - Oliver has a dramatic and very public breakdown due to stress and is forced to leave his job. He can no longer afford the small flat he’s been renting on his own and so he ends up sofa-surfing. (*Again, in  MAG 11 he does say he barely made a year, but again it just didn’t fit quite well enough to match with the whole death-dreams for nearly 8 years - also this way he still sees the new year with the company which maybe could count??*)

He begins to have dreams that predict others deaths. 

Dec 2014 - Oliver has a dream where he sees his father. His father passes away 10 days later. (*MAG11*)

March 2015 - Oliver has a dream involving Gertrude Robinson and the Magnus Institute, two days later he goes to make a statement. (*MAG 11*)

[specialagentartemis]

Please give me your take on the Magnus Archives based on the shit we've said about it.

The Magnus Archives is a workplace comedy. Jonathan Sims, the most kidnappable human being, who is terrible at his job and hates his coworkers, reads scary stories out loud as a way of preserving them, and somehow does not see how glaringly nonsensical and suspicious this is. These scary stories are personal narratives of people’s encounters with the Fear Entities. There are twelve Fear Entities who control different aspects of fear, and they sometimes claim people, which either drives you insane, kills you, or gives you magic powers. These magic powers can be awful, awesome, or kill you. These Fear Entities are basically eldritch gods, but they can be defeated pretty easily by The Power Of Love or The Power Of Going “Nope”. Jon Sims is pretty bad at both of these which is why his brain gets eaten by All The Fears. Elias, his evil boss, is Jonah Magnus in a new skin suit and is trying to end the world for reasons. Gertrude Robinson is the former archivist and she’s an old lady with a shotgun and is an arsonist and she’s the best. Also there’s a homophobic vase.

[pitviperofdoom]

taz balance fun? :O

A completely non-serious, 100% just-for-the-joy-of-it AU that puts TMA characters into the setting and story of The Adventure Zone: Balance. Join Tres Horny Folks - intrepid fighter Sasha, carefree cleric Tim, and sarcastic flip wizard Gerry - as Director Gertrude Robinson of the Bureau of Balance sends them out to retrieve the dangerous Leitner Tomes: books with incredible power and insidious corrupting influence.

Here’s a fun scene I wrote a while ago!

---

And then time froze.

Quite literally, in fact. Manuela had fallen silent midsentence, staring fixedly at the three of them with one hand still on the book. Nearby, Georgie and Melanie had also gone utterly still. Above them, the projection of the universe itself continued to hover, hemmed in by encroaching darkness.

Before any of them had a chance to question it, a familiar voice reverberated through the air.

“In all fairness, she was almost right.”

By the time Tim turned around, Sasha was already moving, bringing her sword around in a slashing arc. Gerry followed it up with a volley of magic missiles, all three zipping around her to strike their target.

Sword and spell passed harmlessly through the apparition. Even its ever-present shroud of fog barely stirred.

“You again,” Gerry said flatly. “What do you want now?”

The Watcher’s hooded head tilted to one side, face hidden by shadows and mists alike. “My answer isn’t going to change just because you’re all being unreasonable.” It was hard to tell through the reverberations of its voice, but if Tim didn’t know any better, he would have thought it sounded almost exasperated. “I want to help.”

“Right,” Tim retorted. “I’ll believe that when you release them.” He nodded toward the trio of frozen women.

“I genuinely wish I could,” the Watcher replied. “But I doubt I could convince them that their current worldview is based on only half the facts. They won’t listen to me.”

“Oh, and you think we will?” Gerry asked.

The Watcher was quiet for a moment. Then—

“Yes. I do.”

It drifted upward then, toward Manuela’s projection of the known universe. “I spoke to you of fear, once. In the office in Redcliff, remember?”

Tim ground his teeth as the memory of Captain Herbert’s death slithered back into his mind. “I try not to.”

He could have sworn the Watcher winced. “Right. Sorry you had to see that. But, you know, he was trying to kill you, and I wasn’t sure how else—”

“Yes, we remember,” Sasha snapped. “So what do you want now? I doubt you’re here to reminisce about the happy memories we’ve made together.”

The Watcher hesitated again before it replied. “Right. Well… let him be a warning to you, then. Trevor Herbert was consumed by fear—just like Daisy Tonner. Just like Nikola Orsinov, and Emma Harvey, and Jude Perry.”

“See, that’s what I don’t get,” Sasha broke in. “I’ve been thinking about what you said—what do you mean, consumed by fear? I thought they were cursed by books, weren’t they? That’s our mission—to destroy these books.”

“They aren’t mutually exclusive,” the Watcher replied. “Do you think the books came from nothing? Have you ever stopped to wonder where their power comes from?”

The three of them exchanged uneasy glances. “Um…” Tim glanced to Manuela’s frozen form again. “Not to nitpick, but it sounded as if she was in the middle of explaining that to us. You know, before you interrupted her.”

The Watcher loomed closer. “Manuela Dominguez had a fraction of the full picture. She found the Dark and became convinced it was the greatest of all Powers, just as Jude did with the Desolation, and Trevor and Daisy did with the Hunt, and all the billions upon billions of people who fell to one of them. And just like all of them, she is wrong.”

The projected image wavered, flickered, and shifted. The darkness changed; one section remained, and the rest transformed into flickering images that Tim couldn’t quite make out. Here, the wisp of spider silk; there, the flash of seeking teeth; elsewhere, the hungry bite of fire; and many more besides.

As they watched, the squirming mass surrounded the world and turned inward, cutting and gnawing and falling and burning and crawling and killing and seeking and blinding until finally—

Once the miniature universe was gone, the wriggling mass drifted onward, seeking more. Tim could feel the bile crawling up his throat when the Watcher snapped its fingers, and the projection completely vanished.

“Okay,” Sasha said hesitantly. “So, uh… what exactly is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that there’s no escape anymore,” the Watcher replied, turning back to them all. “You—we—this can’t continue anymore. Not like this. This world is the last chance.”

“The last chance for what?” Gerry demanded. “For who?” He stepped forward, his lighter glowing faintly as he gripped it in one hand. “Who are you?”

“I can’t tell you that yet—” The Watcher froze.

Below him, Gerry bared his teeth. “Why not? You keep talking about who we should trust when you won’t even—”

“Gerry.” The fog began to shift and swirl around it again, whipped up by a nonexistent wind. “Where did you get that lighter.”

“What?” Startled, Gerry pulled it toward his chest, as if he thought the Watcher was going to try to take it. “This? I found it in a cave.”

“A cave?” The fog roiled around him. “Where? Tell me!”

Gerry backed away. “Look, I didn’t—there was a corpse outside the vault, where we found the Book of Asag. It was already a skeleton, it was in a green jacket—but it’s dust now—”

The temperature in the room plummeted. The cold and mist spread until Tim could see his breath, and he could hardly tell it apart from the whirling fog.

The Watcher shuddered, and its voice rang out until the glass and metal rattled in response.

“YOU FOUND HIM?!”

When Tim opened his eyes, the fog was gone. The Watcher was gone. The room was warm again, and the projection of the universe hovered in the air again, whole and untouched.

“Are you three even paying attention?” Manuela demanded.

[thekisforkeats]

TMA Changeling AU Setting Overview

Yeah, so I’ve decided to write this thing up because it’s taken hold of my brain and I figure someone else might like it. So here is the first bit of my “Magnus Archives, but they’re in Changeling: the Lost” AU:

There is only one freehold in London, which is, naturally, called "the London freehold." It was created over decades of smaller freeholds merging into larger ones, until there were only two left. In the 1980s these two freeholds merged, creating the current freehold that covers most of the Greater London area.

How do the Lost of London stay safe when there are so very many of them in one freehold? Well, that's where the Ivory Tower comes in. The Hedge-side Hollow of the Autumn Court's stronghold at the Magnus Institute, the Ivory Tower towers over the London Hedge. From the Panopticon at its top, the Autumn King and his subordinates can keep an eye on everything in the London Hedge, and thus keep its denizens safe.

(Well, mostly safe. There are the Tunnels, but we'll get to those later.)

The Autumn King is Jonah Magnus, a nearly two-century-old changeling who currently goes by the name Elias Bouchard. He has spent decades in the pursuit of his goal of uniting London under a single freehold, ever since the creation of the Ivory Tower in 1867.

Even the highest-ranked among the Autumn Court do not know the true methods Magnus uses to keep the Others at bay. Or at least, any who suspect keep their mouths shut. People who cross Jonah Magnus have a way of disappearing or dying. And anyway, London is safe, its freehold renowned for its security given its large population. If the price for that safety is that a few people go missing... well... why rock the boat?

The main freehold Hollow, the one that cycles between the Seasonal Courts through the year, is based in Camden Market. The Hedge-side of the Hollow looks like a jumble of buildings stacked atop each other, a huge and sprawling mess. The Camden Freehold was the final holdout against the Ivory Tower north of the Thames, and when they joined together in the 1920s, the deal was that the center of the freehold would move from the Magnus Institute to Camden Town. The northwest London location might not be truly central, but Hedge gates take care of that. Besides, it's the only place big enough to hold full Court functions like the Seasonal Crown hand-offs at the solstices and equinoxes.

The last freehold south of the Thames was made up of all the others who had existed before the 1920s that banded together to keep from falling under Jonah's sway. That freehold was long controlled by Winter, through the Lukas family. Jonah Magnus (as James Wright) made a deal with Peter Lukas, who was hoping to wrest Winter's crown from his father, to unite the freeholds. In so doing, Magnus sort of threw his own Winter Court under the bus, but in truth they'd been weak for a very long time, many Winter changelings deliberately heading to the stronger Court south of the Thames.

The other thing that prompted the merge was the Tunnels. The London Hedge actually consists of two main portions--the above-ground portion, which is fairly normal for a city Hedge, and the Tunnels. Above ground you can hardly look up without seeing the Ivory Tower, as it's visible from pretty much everywhere in the City. There are other landmarks as well--the Camden Hollow can be seen from some places, and there are the Bridges, huge spans across deep canyons whose floors are littered with the bones of those who've strayed too close to the edge. But aside from the Tower looming over everything, it's a fairly normal place, thorns and brambles and hobs.

Beneath the ground is the Tunnels. Despite being underground the Tunnels weave in and out of the real world in a much more chaotic and unpredictable way than the Hedge above. The Hedge has (mostly) defined exits and entrances; the Tunnels simply seem to fade in and out, and even the most experienced Hedge-walkers can't always tell when they're in the Hedge and when they aren't, down in the Tunnels (and when, frustratingly, it's really both at the same time.)

Most London Changelings avoid the Tunnels. They're undoubtedly the fastest way to get anywhere in London, but while the well-trod paths are safer than any part of the above-ground Hedge, the rest of the Tunnels are horribly dangerous. There are monsters lurking down there, and sometimes the left turn that should take one to the real world turns out to lead to one of the Gates to Arcadia.

The Tunnels run under all of London, north and south, without regard to geography. It’s entirely possible to enter the Tunnels on one side of the river and exit on the other without getting anywhere near anything one might consider a river. And so, given that the Magnus Institute takes direct responsibility for keeping the Tunnels safe, it was a major factor in every merger Jonah Magnus made that created the current London freehold. Hollows that thought themselves safe and fully above-ground would find themselves attacked from below, hedge-walkers would find their usually safe routes diverting into the Tunnels, and who knew how to keep them safe? Jonah Magnus. And so, one by one, they joined up, until he was King over all of London for a quarter of the year, and an advisor to the other Seasonal monarchs for the rest.

The central portion of the Tunnels, the most confusing part that has gates to every part of London and far beyond besides, directly under the Magnus Institute and its Ivory Tower. There are rumors that there is a stable Gate to Arcadia here, and that's why Magnus built the Tower there. To fuel the Tower, to use the Tower to keep the gate sealed, for some darker purpose--the rumors vary, but most London Lost assume that's why the Tower is there.

In reality, though, it's a different Hollow that opens right onto the center of the Tunnels. The Magnus Institute Archives is a separate Hollow all its own, and it is the duty of the Archivist, in part, to keep an eye on the Gates down there. The motley that currently claims the Archives Hollow is still getting used to the Tunnels, of course, the new Archivist not even having understood that's most of what Gertrude Robinson was doing over the course of her life. Fortunately, things are quiet down there... for now.

[magnusmysteries]

Part 32: When Rituals Fail

The Magnus Archives was a horror podcast. It is now completed. Many of the show’s mysteries were never explained on the show. I intend to explain them. Spoilers for the show, but also spoilers if you wanna solve these mysteries yourself.

Elias thought that the reason the rituals failed was because the fears could never be separated. That it would be impossible to bring just one through, it had to be all. I think he was wrong, for three reasons.

First reason. Here’s a quote from Elias, where he explains why it is impossible to separate the fears “To try and create a world with only the Buried makes as much sense as trying to conceive a world with only down.”

But we have seen such a world. Quote from Entombed “This is forever deep below creation. Where the weight of existence bears down. This is The Buried, and we are alive. There isn’t even an up.”

The Buried is a world without the Hunt. The Hunt can’t reach Daisy there, because the Hunt and Buried are opposites (See Part 3). Elias uses the absence of up, as an example of an impossibility. But John says in the Buried there is no up. I think this was specifically written to clue us in to Elias being wrong.

Second reason, every time we hear of a ritual there is always a reason why they fail. The reason isn’t always obvious, but I’ll go through most of them in this post. Elias based his conclusion on the assumption that there was no reason for the Dark’s ritual to fail. He was wrong, as I’ll explain.

Every attempted ritual, except the ones involving John and Agnes, has a group of people choosing something related to the fear. (With a broad definition of choice.) If only one person does not make the choice, the ritual fails.

The Lonely. A group of people in an apartment building were all supposed to choose to be lonely (rather than move out of the nice cheap apartment). Gertrude wrote about it in a paper, the people got help, they weren’t lonely, the ritual failed.

The Slaughter. The soldiers are supposed to brutally murder each other. But the statement giver doesn’t like killing. He is not swayed by the music, he does not join in on the violence. The ritual fails.

The Hunt. Daisy speculated this failed because the Hunt doesn’t like to complete things. She was wrong. The people were supposed to join in the obsession of the hunt, to kill vampires and probably to die. But the statement giver was only pretending to be obsessed, the ritual fails.

The Corruption. This is from the episode Love Bombing. (John was wrong that the Prentiss attack was a grand ritual.) Here the choice is to love. First they take care of a sick dog. That is, they love it. Then they have to love and join the monster mass of people.

The part where they have to say they love each other, it's a test, to see if they are ready for the ritual. The protagonist did not love the other woman, and so she is told to leave. She is jeopardizing the ritual.

Note that she is not forced to leave, or killed. Had there been force or violence the ritual would have failed. That’s another rule for the rituals.

I think when she left, it was already too late and the ritual failed. Or maybe it failed when it got blown up. Probably by Gertrude.

I think nobody in the cult was working for the Corruption originally. The Corruption just found a cult that was really into love and thought "Jackpot! Send in the dog!"

The Buried. The choice here is for everyone in town to get into the pit at the same time. When the statement giver comes to town, he is told to leave. But not forced, significantly. He is jeopardizing the ritual, because he might not climb into the pit with the others.

The statement giver has a “dream” where he willingly climbs into the pit and puts his arm into the hole. Though it’s not really a dream. This is a test, and he passed. Whoever’s in charge decides to go ahead with the ritual.

This is a mistake. The statement giver does not go into the pit with the others. A woman in the pit suddenly begins to scream. Not because she is in the pit, but because she noticed the statement giver is not in the pit. She knows the ritual is about to fail and it does.

Later Gertrude shows up and dumps Jan Kilbride into the pit. She thinks she stopped the ritual, but she was too late. The ritual had already failed.

The Flesh. The choice is for everyone to throw meat into the pit. (I’m guessing they also all have to die from exhaustion and get thrown in the pit or jump in, but we don’t see that part). When Tom Haan notices Lucia Wright is present, he hands her meat. He hopes she will take it and join in, which she does. Had she not done so, the ritual would have failed. If she had left, the ritual would have failed. If Tom had killed her or forced her to join in, the ritual would have failed.

The ritual fails anyway, because Gertrude blows it up.   

The Spiral. Quote from Michael “A thousand staring morsels stood, and not one of them believed themselves sane to look upon it.”

If one of the humans there had believed themselves to be sane the ritual would have failed.

Actually there was a person there who believed they were sane. More from Michael: “Michael did not go mad, though no words you could have said would have convinced him otherwise. (...) If Michael thought he had lost his mind, it was only because what he saw with crystal clarity was simply not something that could be real. But Gertrude Robinson did not waver. (...) She gave no indication that she saw anything more or less than was expected. Hers was not a mind that left room for doubt.”

Gertrude didn’t realize, but there was no need to sacrifice Michael Shelley. The ritual would have failed simply by her presence.

The Stranger. When John and the gang set up the explosives to blow up the Unknowing, Nikola does nothing to stop them. She knows they are there. She waits until they have set up the explosives before she starts the ritual.

There are no other victims there than the Magnus crew. They are the ones that are supposed to make the choice. The choice they are supposed to make is to use logic and reason during the Unknowing. Nikola has to give them a chance to win, and part of that is she lets them set up the explosives.

In the 1787 attempt at the Unknowing, the ritual is stopped by a soldier from the Slaughter. The soldier is not confused: “I was sure he was a soldier, and he was nothing but a soldier.”

In Nemesis Gertrude speculates that the Unknowing can only be stopped if the explosives are detonated from within Unknowing. Meaning, someone has to “choose” to use enough reason to set it off.

Just four victims is a small number. But I think John counts extra, since he is the Archivist and should be harder to confuse. 

Maybe Elias made a deal with Nicola, told her about their plan. After all, Elias wants John to get blown up, to get the End scar.

Elias advised John not to bring Tim to the ritual. Tim seems pretty suicidal at this point, earlier he dared Elias to kill him. Elias is worried that if Tim is the one to blow up the ritual, John won’t get the End scar.

The ritual fails because Basira reasons her way out. Or maybe it fails because Breekon uses violence against Daisy, not sure.

John is at first very confused, but then he starts to see more clearly. That is because the ritual is already failing, because of Basira (or Breekon). There is no need for Tim to blow up the place and sacrifice himself.

The Eye. We don’t know much about Elias' first attempt at a ritual, but it seemed to take place in the panopticon prison, with Elias in the middle, watching the prisoners around him. The prisoners were probably supposed to make some kind of choice, and at least one of them failed to do so.

The Dark. The darkness ritual first begins to collapse at Hither Green, where it is led by Natalie.

Quote from Manuella “Natalie and the others followed, but they did not truly understand. Not truly, with their talk of peace and unity and Mr. Pitch. A friendly name, to try and hide from a concept they couldn’t grasp.”

In the episode Police Light the darkness creature inside Rayner is trying to get a new host, by entering Callum Brody. Then the police intervene and shoot Rayner, saving Brody from being possessed. But a droplet of the monster hits the police officer Altman. Altman is in the process of being possessed. Then Altman is stabbed and killed by Natalie Ennis.

There is misdirection here. We are supposed to believe that Natalie stabbed Altman because he was a cop. But actually she killed him because he was possessed. She was secretly working against the darkness cult.

Why? Gertrude must at this point have realized how a ritual will fail if one person makes the wrong choice. She must have talked with Natalie and explained to her that Mr. Pitch is a lie. That the Darkness is not about peace and unity. So because of Natalie the ritual failed.

The third reason for why Elias is wrong is the most important, and I’ll cover it in the next post.

If Elias is wrong that a ritual must draw in all the fears at once, why is it that no ritual has succeeded throughout all of history? I think there just hadn’t been that many attempts.

In Family Business Gerard says if a ritual fails, it takes centuries to build up enough power to attempt one again. Yet we hear of several ritual attempts happening very close together in time: the Lonely circa 2007, the Spiral sometime after 2007, the Buried in 2008, the Flesh in 2008, the Corruption circa 2012, the Dark in 2015, the Stranger in 2017 and the Eye in 2018. How can that be?

In the Architecture of Fear, Smirke says he wrote down several rituals. Since Smirke lived a couple of hundred years ago, it could mean most of his rituals were attempted back then, and that’s why most of them were due to be attempted again around 2007. But that gives us the same problem, just further back in time. Why was it that most of the rituals could have been attempted about the same time, back when Smirke wrote them down?

I think the reason was, most of the powers had never attempted a ritual before Smirke designed them. The Powers have no creativity (see Part 9) and could not have attempted a ritual until a person came up with one. Smirke says he is unsure if all the powers had rituals before he put pen to paper.   

I think there were two rituals that Smirke designed that were attempted relatively long after his death. The Slaughter ritual probably needed a great war to succeed, and therefore did not happen until War War 2. And the Hunt ritual took over a hundred years to set up, as it included two groups of explorers from over a hundred years apart.

Three rituals predate Smirke’s creations, those of the Dark, The Vast and the Stranger. 

Smirke got his ideas for rituals after hearing of the ritual of the Dark. In Heart of Darkness, Manuella implies her ritual had been planned for three hundred years, after the failure that birthed the thing inside Rayner. I think when Flamsteed drowned Reimer in The Movement of the Heavens, he stopped the first ritual of the Dark. Reimer was drowned May 2 1715. On May 3 1715 there was a Total Eclipse that could be seen in London. (That date is from real life, not mentioned on the show.) I think that’s when the first Darkness ritual was gonna happen.  

The first Unknowing happened in 1787, Smirke was born in 1780. So unless he invented it as a child, it predates him.

In Big Picture Simon talks about the last ritual he attempted, in 1853. That implies he’s had at least one earlier attempt. Simon became an avatar in the 1500s, so he’d probably only had time to do two ritual attempts in total.