#MAG 173

[microclown]

I’ve listened to 173 and 174, the Dark and the Vast episodes. Tensions are understandably high, but given their circumstances I’m pleasantly surprised with how well Martin and Jon seem to be communicating. I’m also pleasantly but cautiously surprised with how well Jon seems to be hanging onto himself, despite, as Helen pointed out, ultimate power and no consequences. Especially since he’s admitted that he likes the suffering he feeds off of here, and especially with the person who is supposed to be grounding him egging him on to murder.

I am, I suppose, waiting for the second impossibly vast shoe made of grotesquely tangled together people, to drop.

[flowersfrombefore]

Thanks I hate it

[tumb1rprincess]

Dear God, my stomach just dropped when Jon asked Martin what he thought happened to the children once the apocalypse happened, that hadn’t even crossed my mind. And the whole situation is just fucked up. There are children screaming in the background all the time, the avatar of the Dark is just a kid himself, the statement reads like a fucked up storybook, and there’s nothing Jon and Martin can do except keep going and hope that turning the world back can fix everything.

[fractal-voidling]

MAG173 - ########-13 │ Night Night

oooh, I love the concept

well, it's obviously awful, don't get me wrong

but to be fair, we tend to think of children as inherently good and pure

and as someone who was a victim of bullying K-12, I feel strangely validated by this?

children are egotistical by nature

and it's not that hard to twist that ego into something monstrous

like Martin, I too would've preferred to help them

but there's just no way to save everyone at this point

[yumaisbored]

maybe i’m just built different but i absolutely would’ve smote Callum Brodie, kid was a dick.

[yeetthebottle]

MAG 173

What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck!

What the fuck

This one fucked me up, the children constantly screaming in the background, them describing the monsters and how they are going to kill them, Callum literally creating new monsters by just saying they are real and the childen fearing them actually make them real.

What the actual fuck

[libraryfag]

huh. that wasn't so bad, I actually really enjoyed this episode. much like mr spider it perfectly encapsulated the 'kids book' style of writing. its so clever how each fearscape has its own statement format, looking forward to hearing what the ones for the remaining powers are

[the-great-kraken]

oh :) children are here :) that's.. fuckin great.. :)

[a-mag-a-day]

OOOF! This episode has got to be the darkest episode in season 5... I always have a hard time listening to this one on relistens, just because of how bleak it all is...

It's the Dark - yes - but it's also a VERY grim and morbid question of "what happened to all the children?" in the Fearpocalypse, and even though this episode hurts A Lot, I'm honestly glad they acknowledged it?? Of course with all the severity such a question deserved!

Normally, Jon and Martin - up until this point - have always had at least a little banter to offer up some levity between the statements (I mean there was a bit in the beginning here) but this one shows us one of their biggest arguments this season. I am glad Jon called Martin out on all the slapping though (something that makes season 5 hard to listen to on relistens 😭)

This episode is really fascinating in a morbid sense but it's also A Lot....

It really is a… heavy episode. Important topics were discussed, but it definitely is A Lot.

[a-mag-meme-a-day]

Meme for @a-mag-a-day Day 178

MAG 173 - Night Night

[lycanlovingvampyre]

MAG 173 Relisten

Activity on my first listen: cutting the French tamarisk in my garden. (Speaking of cutting, I’m going to put only one bullet point instead of three before the cut because the first two are so damn long...)

JON: "Look, I would just really like to get through here as quickly as possible." MARTIN: "How come? This one seems like the quietest place we’ve been in a while – it’s just rows and rows of quiet houses. I mean, I know some people don’t like that sort of thing, but – (slight laugh) – I’m actually finding it kind of relax–" JON: (cutting him off) "Martin. Please." [ALL OF A SUDDEN, IT’S APPARENT HE’S BREATHING HEAVILY.] Hm, thinking a bit more about the background why Jon sounds so panicked here. Like really, reaaaally in distress. I somehow can't imagine it's just about Martin not finding out where they are and what this is. So is this domain doing something to him? In what way, the fear usually feels right to him. Is it the knowledge that the fear of children feels good to him and he doesn't want that? Being reminded once in a while that it is the suffering of others that feeds him? One could argue that he kind of got used to that by now and he gets a bit of a wake-up call here.

JON: "The Eye prefers the more complex neuroses and disquiets of a fully developed mind. So the children are allowed to age – and they are placed into domains where their fears can… mature." Remembering there was something about no pets/children will be harmed in TMA, I think? (Sorry, Gertrude's cat I guess.) Is there more to this "Eye prefers more complex fears" or is it simply done for the audience to get info that they are growing out of their childhood, so no child is harmed? (This has been done before, making a comment that no child came to harm. MAG 97, there were no children in Bucoda, so they couldn't die in the pit. MAG 125, none of the victims of that Slaughter Leitner had children). What begs the question, is the suffering of some people more okay than that of others? Ah, it's fine though, they didn't have children? (regarding MAG 125 e.g.) Or where's the limit to childhood? 13? 14? 15? 16? 17? 18 you're legally not a minor anymore though I very much didn't feel all that different than 16. (What did feel different was that everything suddenly wanted money from me just because I hit that magic mark although I was still in school - damn you, Capitalism!!) This was venturing a bit into the territory of MAG 155 though and not so much what this is about here, I just enjoy moral debates as one might have noticed from my MAG 155 relisten post ^^’’ So returning a bit to the topic, actually I didn't really have the impression that the victims here are not children. The screams sound like children. The statement seems like childish fears. Parents are mentioned... (so the kids on Night Street are joining Gertrude's cat here, I guess xD)

MARTIN: "Anyone who’s chosen to spend their apocalypse tormenting children – God, you need to end them. Now." The one who torments children: Is a child Martin: Surprised Pikachu face

MARTIN: "This is that kid Basira went after last year, right? The one the darkness cult took. So, So that’s not even a kid, that’s whatever was inside Maxwell Rayner; it’s just wearing his body!" [JON INHALES.] JON: (calling) "Callum!" Callum: Whatever was inside Rayner died with him and besides, I was an asshole before this. Martin: Surprised Pikachu face Guess what, kids can be assholes.

MARTIN: "I want you to use your power. I want you to help them; I want you to make things better!" Jon's power. The one he gets from a Dread Power. Dread! Which is at its best passive. Yeah, he got Martin out of this Lonely state he was in in MAG 159, but there is no snapping out of it in this new world anymore. There are no nuances. It's either causing fear, or feeling fear. Martin really is not up to date on how all this works. It makes sense, he is a few steps behind. Steps Jon already made when the world was still normal. (But yeah, I love the trope of trying to use evil powers for good and it does, naturally, backfire horribly because these powers are designed to cause suffering.)

"Is it because he is brave enough to fight the monsters? No. Jack is scared all the time. The world is so big and the night is so long, and the monsters are waiting under the bed and in the closet and down the hallway and in the street and round the corner and behind him." Oh, love the pace picking up here. It's getting this chasing rhythm.

"Her mother is downstairs, but she is part of the sofa now. She won’t stop staring at the television and laughing. Laughing and laughing." Haha, yeah, gotta love the TV zombies xD Do we have a word for them? That generation was quick to call the younger generation with smartphones “smombie”, while they themselves melt plenty into the sofa hypnotized by the TV in front of them. And then they just put a tablet (or a smartphone), the thing they condemn so much, in front of their children for them to watch YouTube so they don't have to play with their children... Sorry, this turned a bit into a rant about hypocrisy. Furthermore this is a domain of the Dark, but there is actually another fear in there. The parents not helping. Bit of Lonely? Or what would you say? This is also something that already dips a bit into the “matured fear”. When you’re a kid, you (usually) have grown-ups to stick up for you. When you’re the grown-up you gotta stick up for yourself and that can be very scary.

JON: "Is that enough for you? Do you need to hear more? See Luka. See Luka sleep –" MARTIN: (cutting in) "No, no, no; that’s enough!" [A JANGLING AS HE – REACHES OVER?] MARTIN (CONT’D): "That’s enough." [PAUSE.] [A FEW STEPS.] [THEN, CLOTHING SOUNDS AS JON SPEAKS:] JON: "Thank you for not hitting me this time." [A PAUSE THAT STRETCHES ON FOR THE SPAN OF THREE HEAVY BREATHS.] It's so interesting that this call out is phrased in a positive way. Highlighting, that now Martin has done it right rather then telling him what he did wrong before. But there is definitely hurt in Jon’s voice and Martin not reacting feels like he's taking time to consider what his actions really did to Jon and then stays silent out of shame. Also what did he do this time? Just pat Jon's arms? Shake him?

@a-mag-a-day

[oaxleaf]

mag 173 - night night

martin has this tendency to view the world in an incredibly black-and-white manner. there are good things and bad things, right choices and worng choices. every problem has a straight, followable line from cause to issue to consequence to solution. he also has a very righteous nature, and wants to confront and solve these problems. i'd say he's a more logical person than jon, and he certainly is one of the people who has the most issues with not only understanding but also accepting dream logic. when presented with a problem that can't be solved, or an ultimatum with no good outcomes, he has a tendency to resist the truth and insist that there must be some third, alternate path

this is a point of conflict that takes centre stage in his arc this season, and something that repeatedly drives a rift between him and jon. it doesn't exactly help that jon is so often wrapped up in his knowledge of what is the 'truth' and can't really understand a perpective from where it is not seen as undenaiabel and unchaning. this is just one of many occurences where they fight over this

jon also is presented here with a situation where he is pretty much powerless. despite being protected in this new world and despite having god-like powers, he has very little chance of impacting the world around him. he knows this, but it's a pretty frustrating thing for an outsider to hear, i imagine. it's an interesting conflict though, since it's not based on the stakes of our main characters safety but rather on their more personal issues. jon experiences terrible guilt and a strong sense of responsibilty that is really only fueled by being safe. martin gets deeply frustrated by that prospect of being powerless to improve things

i just think this episode is one of the best in the season at really establishing their dynamic and characters, as well as not only their internal conflicts but also their conflicts with each other. no one wants children to be hurt and scared, but jon can't do anything about it and martin has a hard time accepting that. it sets up the dynamic of their conflict at the end of the season, but on a smaller scale

[spacedemodulator]

MAG 173, Night Night

JON: Isn't it past your bedtime?

CALLUM: Bitch, I am bedtime.

MARTIN: Burn!

@a-mag-a-day

[ashes-in-a-jar]

No you don't understand. Jon has an impeccable sense of humor and every other sentence that comes out of his mouth is some version of an intentional joke that sounded amazing in his head and sounds even better when spoken between two serious sentences which makes everyone around him miss the punchline.

Martin tho? Martin is fully serious no matter what he says. "Smorgasbord" for the Fears? Fully serious. "If I ever see another can of peaches"? Serious. "Righto"? Dead serious. "I can't hear you there is a door in the way"? Furious. "Gouge your eyes out"? A fully serious expression. You want to hear a martin joke? Here is a real life martin joke and it's glorious:

MARTIN

(surprisingly chipper) No prizes for guessing who’s in charge here, eh?

ARCHIVIST

Mm, I – I suppose not.

MARTIN

You know, I really miss the days when I could blame broken streetlights on the council.

A strongly-worded letter just doesn’t feel as forceful when it’s addressed to (funny voice, pitched lower) whichever Dread Power it may concern.

[THE ARCHIVIST SIGHS.]

[elavihere]

I don't like it when mommy and daddy are fighting :(

[mamahersh]

I have spent the last two hours on and off trying to write about MAG 173 and only coming up with a disjointed essay about how much I dislike the JMart dynamic in early S5 and trying to figure out why that’s my gut reaction.

tl;dr for MAG 173 though: spectacular job in making me feel just as much horror as intended for children quite literally being raised to be the best Fear snacks in the apocalypse when they finally grow up.