#anyway stream Magic of the Heart on Goodboyaudios dot youtube dot com

[lorepossum]

HOOOOOOOBOY Escaped you activated my trapcard (the trapcard being that im ALSO writing a big essay on MotH and I can and will talk about it with hardly any prompting, till i am blue in the face). Feel free to use this if you want i have SO MANY THOUGHTS

1) I started MotH very early in my “listening to fantasy asmr” journey, as such it was a slow roll of me thinking about its themes. It started as just another thing to listen to (my first GBA series). But I think the second I realized that Zed and Mak were the two sides of the same story I started to go off the rails. You could pull so many themes from MotH that it makes my head spin sometimes.

The most obvious to me upon starting was Love, the power of it, the turmoil of it, and the lengths to which it will make people go. Of course with a name like “Magic of the Heart” (Matters of the Heart as per one of Geeb’s tumblr ask answers) that’s fairly obvious. But to me it’s deeper than that. It’s more than just the romantic love between Makkaro and Darling, or the youthful puppy love that Zed has for the Guardian. It’s the familial love Zed still feels for his mother and family (despite what Mazul’s done), it’s Kayble and Darling’s familial relationship, which can be implied to have perhaps once been loving. The feelings the Guardian still has for Magreos and how they eventually (unhealthily) extend to Zed. It’s the delusions that Makkaro’s love for Darling makes him believe justify his crimes mixing with his anger and desire for revenge and then the strength to come back from such a dark place through the power of that same love for his wife.

Love is such a complicated thing and MotH manages to encapsulate so many complicated facets of it. Facets that most media doesnt bother to explore. The love a “God” has (or doesn’t have) for the people who worship them. In my mind Zed displays more Agape in his appeal for mercy for Makkaro than The Guardian ever does.

Literally any one of those could be a whole damn thesis. But I digress…

2) GOD the two perspectives is everything to me. I love a story that can make me reevaluate every little thing with one revelation. I started with Makkaro only (because he is best) so hoping back and listening to Zed was a revelation to me. All of the hints about what Mak’s doing and who Darling is in Zed’s early episodes pinged my brain off the walls. It was the reason I listened to season 1 of MotH so many times that I nearly had episodes memorized. The way it leads down the thread of the story without being too overbearing made me want to pull out my Pepe Sylvia board and make charts.

Not only that, but god damn, the way MotH just would not work without the duel perspectives. With only Zed, Makkaro is a mostly flat and unambiguous villain, evil to the core. With only Makkaro, the Guardian’s downward spiral and reasons for being in the story at all are lost. Together they form a complex and layered narrative of foils and character mirrors.

Makkaro and Gienne mirror The Guardian and Magreos. But The Guardian sees Magreos in everyone they meet, they are unable to escape it, or him. Zed and Makkaro act as foils to one another, while Zed and Gienne see aspects of their most beloved/beloathed siblings in each other. This kind of character work would be absolutely impossible without starting with both Zed and Mak being separate and then slowly coming together over the course of the series.

3) Honestly? I could go on about Makkaro as a whole because his character was such a delightful play and changing up of tropes that surprised me in the best way from beginning to end. But more than anything it was The endings. And I absolutely adore Geeb for it. I when I started MotH I fully expected Mak to die, or Darling to die, or both. I expected Zed to get with the Guardian eventually and the “‘villain’” (heavy air quotes there) to die, because that’s the story you expect. It’s typical, it’s what most other media would do. Never mind the fact that Zed is 19 and the Guardian is a mentally unstable demi-god, people wanted that ending. But it didnt happen.

Mak and Gienne get a happy ending. Sure it is bittersweet, but they get to live and to love one another. They get to live the ending that The Guardian and Megaros didn’t get to. It’s beautiful.

Meanwhile Zed gets something better than a partner or a girlfriend, he grows as a person. Zed’s arc is so poignant and bittersweet and amazing. His journey into coming to understand himself is 10x better than any kiss between him and the Guardian (in my humble opinion). I absolutely adore the ending of MotH BECAUSE it does something most stories wouldn’t. It makes its message about more than just romantic love, but love of friends, and love of self. And I think that’s fucking amazing.

I could go on. But I should probably save some for my essay lmfao. Im excited to see yours Escaped!

Hi guys! I'm working on my first video essay, and it's going to be an in-depth analysis of Magic of the Heart seasons one and two by Good Boy Audios. I'm still in the research stage, but I want some insight from the audience! I want to include some commentary on the impact it had on listeners of the series. I want something a little more comprehensive than what's available in the comments, and don't want to just project my personal opinions. I have a few questions!

1. Did you ponder the themes of the story as you listened? If the answer is yes, what would you say they were?

2. What did you think of the story unfolding through two separate perspectives?

3. Did the series defy or subvert your expectations at any point? If yes, what were those moments, and how did you react to the subversion of your expectations?

Answer in comments/reblogs/dms/whatever. Let me know if you're OK with me quoting your answers in the video!