#fuck you elias I liked you

[lonleyhumanbeing]

I just finished the Magnus Archives season 4 and holy fuck. It was all so calculated. I thought that the last episode would be JMart peacefully existing and taking a moment to collect themselves after everything, then go back to the Archive and solving problems together with the people they care about.

Then Elias comes in with an exact statement about how he made John bring about the fucking apocalypse and exactly how the powers and rituals work. He forced John to bring it about and now it is all over. I don’t know if anyone is going to survive. I just want them to be happy.

[destructo-range]

dumb tma fic idea: when michael becomes the distortion it's still technically bound to the eye because his contract never ended with the institute/the eye. and he has to come in like once a week to do paperwork or he'll feel ill

[honeysucklethornsandalligtrhorns]

'i'm fine with elias simps but i draw the line at lady mowbray you people have clearly never met old rich ladies-' i'm not in it for the money i'm in it for the senseless violence and killings. god forbid a woman do anything.

[driedlillies]

Tma AU where Jonah fucked up his ritual when transferring to Elias’ body and still exists but is like. On the backburner unable to control the body. Because he’s a loser. So OG Elias is able to hear everything he thinks but Jonah can’t do anything. And so he learns the evil plan to end the world and immediately decides nope that’s NOT happening.

And since James Wright appointed him as the next Head of the Institute he has full control over everything he destroys every single bit of Jonah’s carefully laid masterplan. And Jonah suffers seeing everything he’s build fall like a house of cards. At the end Elias just goes and kills Jonah — there were concerns that it may also kill him, but he was ready to sacrifice himself — and comes out alive and free from voyeristic georgian men.

Elias establishes something of a truce with Gertrude after explaining the situation and also perhaps maybe telling her that Jonah mentioned one of her assistants is of the Web and what does that mean? Also what are the rituals and why does Jonah keep saying they don’t work unless you— (Gertrude cuts him off before he says it out loud. Walls have ears. You never know who might be listening).

Michael doesn’t die. Neither does Gerry, because after he faints for the third time at the Institute — Elias doesn’t have spooky eldritch eye powers, but he has office gossip, and that’s basically the same thing — Elias personally goes down to the Archives and tells him to go to the fucking doctor dude. Gerry smokes weed with him after a few months and thanks him for potentially saving his life

By the time Gertrude dies, which is post Stranger ritual (not shot by him, but still probably not peacefully, knowing her) Sasha becomes the next Archivist, and her role in the overall world of the Fears — Elias is not an avatar, doesn’t want to be, but has some leftover traits from Jonah’s inhabitance in his body, and knows a lot — is explained before she signs any contract. Also you’re not tied for life, fuck that. There’s a mandatory Entities 101 for every employee, no matter what department they work in; the vast majority of them come here seeking answers for what really ruined their lives, none of them deserve to die because nobody tells them what they’re actually fighting against. Tim — very much alive — goes to the Archives with Sasha, Jon stays in reaserch and eventually becomes Head Researcher. Martin goes to college part time at some point. Life is good

[ladystoneboobs]

anyways, speaking of cannibalism, wrt frey pies in particular, it just hit me that the rat cook song is not just a way for wyman to slyly telegraph what he did w/o any of his in-world foes noticing, it could also be his justification just as much as inspiration. let's look back at how we learned of the legend through bran:

"It was not for murder that the gods cursed him," Old Nan said, "nor for serving the Andal king his son in a pie. A man has a right to vengeance. But he slew a guest beneath his roof, and that the gods cannot forgive." -Bran IV, aSoS

so, in other words: 1) violating guest right is the most heinous of crimes and 2) if guest right is not violated then murder and even cannibalizing the murdered to feed to their own kin is a-ok so long as the motive is personal revenge. by giving guest gifts to the 3 frey envoys to end any guest rite bond asap and get to the killings, wyman not only gets just a feeling of moral superiority by at least not committing the same type of crime as the enemies he killed, he also ensured that his vengeance could be divinely sanctioned as a natural right correctly exercised, unlike how the rat cook did his. he learned his lessons from this northern legend and improved upon the actions of this nightfort cook accordingly. thing is, the justified right to vengeance has to be just an old gods thing, not fitting in with the seven (which house manderly had converted to 1000s of years ago back in the reach) as the christainity stand-in, which is just evidence of the depth of manderly northern assimilation and/or that old dark ways never entirely disappear, no matter the religion. wyman manderly can still worship the "new" gods with just as much urge toward old-fashioned bloody revenge as any old gods worshipping northman, not so different from his vassal ser bartimus in the wolf's den who bragged to davos that his ancestors were likely among those who once hung slavers' entrails in a heart tree as a bloody offering to the old gods.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

i want a tma malev crossover where it's early series tma but later series malev and elias takes one look at arthur and is like "oh goddammit one of the other avatars is stealing my great awesome ritual idea. and they're so much further along than i am. fuck. who is in charge of this guy i have to kill them." unaware that no, nobody is grooming him to be a focal point of anything or whatever, this is completely divorced from any intentional ritual thing, arthur lester is just the universe's least favorite human

[starry-eyer]

i still cannot believe that people consider having lovers outside of a political marriage as cheating

a lot can be discussed about how raging misogyny and the patriarchy in westeros has led to unequal standards for women to uphold and suffer from

as highborn women are not allowed the same sexual freedom that highborn men get to experience, and even if these women do have relationships outside of their marriages, they are usually scorned and shunned by society for daring to practice sexual autonomy

it’s unfair, i am very aware of this fact

(that’s why i’ll never understand team green stans)

but george has never ever condemned his characters for finding and experiencing love outside of doing their duty.

never.

we’re not unfeeling machines that lack emotions. we’re humans who are, more often than not, led by our hearts. and grrm does a phenomenal job when creating characters, as they truly feel human.

so yeah, it’s a bit disappointing that people dumb down what is clearly a very complex situation to “cheating” (btw george himself calls rhaegar and elias relationship complex and he’s never implied that they loved each other in a romantic sense).

to reiterate, i am well aware that highborn women and men are held to different standards, however, if you have a problem with characters working through, around, and sometimes failing to overcome the social structures that cause their suffering, then you must have a major issue with george’s exploration of the human heart in conflict with itself.

george’s characters aren’t robots and that’s what makes them interesting. they do things for very human reasons. they’re biased. they’re traumatized. they’re conflicted. but they’re still reaching for a better tomorrow and they’re still trying to find happiness.

so i’ll never consider rhaegar and lyannas relationship as cheating, or something unsightly that should be scorned. for they simply dared to find and grasp love in a society that would rather shackle them to unhappy marriages, which is very commendable.

oh… and do you know what george does criticize?

political marriages lol

he makes it clear that selling women off as broodmares and forcing men into marriages they don’t want is a recipe for disaster.

of course the eventual fallouts of these relationships is super interesting to read about, but you should never ever support the systems in place and the societies that benefit from pushing people/characters into these incredibly unhealthy relationships

so while i find it interesting to read about characters navigating these relationships, i’ll always be the first person to condemn these societies for forcing this fate onto them. i’ll also always be the first person to root for characters who do their best to find happiness outside of their political/arranged marriage

sorry that i don’t condemn a character for finding love outside of a loveless marriage

instead of getting angry at rhaegar and lyanna and being very nonsensical in the main tags about it, how about you turn that anger onto the patriarchy, which is rooted in every single institution and family in westeros, the patriarchy that refuses to allow women to have the same amount of sexual autonomy as men?

(this is why i despise team green :))

[loosethreadsofyoursoul]

i made a tma playlist! it’s one song per fear entity, each corresponding to an avatar or victim (see below the cut for song breakdowns and more yapping)

cover art i downloaded from pinterest - it doesn’t say the artist but if u know who it is lmk !

the buried: like real people do - hozier

pov: alice “daisy” tonner

why were you digging / what did you bury / before those hands pulled me / from the earth

what did jon bury? what was he hiding as she suffocated? what was daisy hiding from before he came and pulled her out of there? did she ever feel like a real person?

the corruption: my strange addiction - billie eilish

pov: jane prentiss

hurts but i know how to hide it, kinda like it / … / my doctors can’t explain / my symptoms or my pain / but you are my strange addiction

and she did kinda like it, she was drawn to it, addicted to it, even with the pain and the detriment to her entire life. the corruption is toxic relationship core and she made a perfect avatar.

the dark: i will follow you into the dark - death cab for cutie

pov: manuela dominguez

if there’s no one beside you when your soul embarks / then i’ll follow you into the dark

i mean, she literally followed maxwell rayner into the dark. for all the good and the bad, she would have followed him even if no one else did. yknow, for cult reasons. but still.

the desolation: agnes - glass animals

pov: jude perry

agnes, just stop and think a minute / why don't you light that cigarette and / calm down now stop and breathe a second / … / a choking rose back / to be reborn / i want to hold you like you're mine / you're gone but you're on my mind

thinking about agnes montague for this song… jude really loved her. and it wasn’t pretty, she wanted control and loved her partly for how she was connected to their god, but the love was there. and i think she always missed agnes.

the end: if we were vampires - noah kahan, wesley schultz

pov: georgie barker

If wе were vampires, and death was a joke / we'd go out on the sidewalk and smoke / and laugh at all the lovers and their plans / i wouldn't feel the need to hold your hand

i considered this for trevor/the hunt bc of literal vampires but like the narrator is a realist in this song which is very much who georgie is. death is inevitable. danger is inevitable. and just because she couldn’t feel fear didn’t mean georgie wasn’t aware of what she had and that she needed to protect it and herself. she wasn’t reckless with her life which is what this song means to me.

the eye: every breath you take - the police

pov: elias bouchard/jonah magnus

every breath you take / and every move you make / every bond you break / every step you take / i'll be watching you

self explanatory. to me. still giggling about it actually.

the flesh: under your skin - jukebox the ghost

pov: jared hopworth

how much can you fit under your skin? / … / i can fit two people under my skin / … / and i can feel you laughing, under my skin / and the happy palpitations are making me… grin

also self explanatory. just shoving bones in there as often as possible. thanks a lot, jurgen leitner.

the hunt: run boy run - woodkid

pov: trevor herbert

run boy run, this world is not made for you / … / run boy run, break out from society / … / tomorrow is another day / and you won't have to hide away / you'll be a man, boy / but for now it's time to run, it's time to run

this song is so young trevor trying to find his place in the world after violently losing his brother to a supernatural being he didn’t know existed and feeling the responsibility of that while also being ousted from society. he never did stop running huh.

the lonely: agoraphobia - autoheart

pov: martin blackwood

tried on 13 pairs of / shoes and not one made me want to / leave this blessed house of mine / that’s just fine / i really don’t want to go anywhere / i don’t really want to go anywhere

i see why this is on so many lonely playlists and it really is martin in mag 170, trapped in that house by his own mind but also by what the house is doing to him. it’s a comfort, but not a good one, very much those feelings of self isolation.

the slaughter: in our bedroom after the war - stars

pov: melanie king

it's us, yes, we're back again / here to see you through, 'til the days end / and if the night comes, and the night will come / well, at least the war is over

i like this song for melanie and the slaughter bc it’s kind of an antithesis to who she is. as long as she has a war to fight, she’s comfortable. she won’t lose everything she’s fighting for. the war may be raging but by god she won’t be the one who loses.

the spiral: strawberry fields forever - the beatles

pov: michael shelley/the distortion

let me take you down / cause I'm going to strawberry fields / nothing is real / … / living is easy with eyes closed / misunderstanding all you see / it's getting hard to be someone, but it all works out

there’s the obvious “misunderstanding all you see” spiral and distortion connotations but for michael, it also was hard to be someone. nothing was real to him either, really.

the stranger: you’re somebody else - flora cash

pov: tim stoker

well, you look like yourself / but you're somebody else / only it ain't on the surface / well, you talk like yourself / no, I hear someone else though / now you're making me nervous

the irony of this song is that. she didn't look like herself. or talk like herself. but to tim, it was sasha, and she didn't make him nervous until the end when he became nervous about everything because of what happened to her. and he became somebody else, too.

the vast: space oddity - david bowie

pov: simon fairchild

i'm stepping through the door / and I'm floating in a most peculiar way / and the stars look very different today / for here / am I sitting in a tin can / far above the world

this song has very clear vast connotations but i also like the imagery of simon sitting far above everyone else. in a literal way but also he thinks he's above most people because of his abilities, so he uses them to cause problems on purpose which is ultimately his downfall. what an interesting, weird old man.

the web: control - halsey

pov: annabelle cane

my mind's like a deadly disease / i'm bigger than my body / ... / goddamn right, you should be scared of me / who is in control?

the thing about annabelle is that all those things are true but. at the point where we get to know her, she's part of something bigger than herself, it genuinely doesn't matter to her whether she lives or dies.

the extinction: love song (for the apocalypse) - ira wolf

pov: jonathan sims

i packed a photo of us from our very first date / you packed the water 'cause I couldn't carry the weight / and into the ashes you carved out a heart with our names / ... / we could say we told you so, but what good is that now

i like this song for jon and the extinction for many reasons but firstly i think it's funny to have jon's song be associated with the only entity that didn't actually mark him. but yeah this song is very jonmartin during the eyepocalypse. everything's a disaster, but they're together, and they endure.

[literalfuckingfreak]

lol.

[candyskiez]

God the jonelias dynamic really is insane huh. What if you'd spent your entire life being blamed for things you didn't do. What if you'd spent your entire life very aware people didn't want you around, that you hurt people just by existing too close to them. You are constantly under the impression you're being judged or mocked or excluded. Everyone else is laughing at a joke and you have no idea what it is. So you sit away from everyone and you pretend you're smarter than them and they just don't get you, so you don't have to admit they just don't like you. Because you don't know how to be likable and you don't think you could be. So clearly they just don't understand what you're saying. Obviously.

And you're searching for answers, for safety, for some way to defend yourself against what could be anywhere. What could just catch you and steal you from yourself and ruin your life, again and again. And someone died in front of you, and you couldn't do anything. You can't shake being that small. That helpless. Sitting on the sidelines, not knowing how to do anything. You want, so badly, to be at the center where you can fix it. Where you won't be small and scared and always hurting. So you join the magnus institute and you meet a man who sees through you.

He treats you like you're special. Like you aren't some stupid, annoying know it all who fumbles through everything. Like you actually know what you're talking about. He takes you seriously. He's dismissive and cagey but he seems fascinated by what you have to say, seems to enjoy prodding you for thoughts. He seems to be interested in you. Really, truly interested in you. You love it. You've never impressed the authority figures in your life. You've never made them think you're special. You are beginning to realize you love feeling like you actually know what you're talking about.

And then he promotes you. You know you aren't qualified. You know your friend could do so much better. But he's so sure that you know what you're doing, he's so sure that you can do this, and that you're the only one who can, and it makes an awful selfish little part of you preen because deep down you want that. You know you shouldn't accept it. You know you absolutely cannot do this and everyone's going to find out, but you want so badly to be taken seriously, to stop being the punchline or the helpless little kid outside that damn door. So you take the promotion, and suddenly the knowledge of all the worst things in the world is at your fingertips. It feels wrong and ugly and it feels right. You don't know how to feel about it.

You learn more about him. He is not a good person. He would kill, willingly, if it meant he got what he want. He sees you terrified and crumbling and tries to put you together again. Like you're something precious. Praises you just for being alive. (How do you deal with that? You always seem to survive on accident. You always seem to survive at the cost of someone else. Yet he smiles at you, like you're incredible, like you deserved it. Like he's impressed with you. You think about it a lot, whenever you can't fall asleep.) He's either soft and professional or cruel and biting. You hate him more and more. He is the only person you have. You desperately wish he wasn't, and you go to him anyway. He could make all of it make sense if you just could push him. But you can't, and he doesn't. But he gives you this approving little nod whenever your humanity slips through your fingers. You think you hate him more every time. You think you hate yourself for being relieved he's not scared. For not blaming you. And then you hate him again for making you this.

And then he's gone. He turned you into something else. Something that nobody wants, that not even the kindest person can put up with, and then he just left you alone. You're starving and you're scared and he's gone and he could make it make sense. But he doesn't. And you think about it. Again and again. You think you hate him for leaving you. You used to wish you'd never see him again. You think there might be something wrong with you.

You finally see him again. He's proud of you. You hate him for it. You demand his guidance, his patience, his anything like you used to. He gives it so much easier than before. Because he's proud. Because you've earned it. Because you're ready. You think you hate him. There's something else, too. Something painful. Something twisted and desperate and born out of the urge to survive and nothing more. It isn't love, but it isn't not love either.

You escape. You're free. You open a statement.

And congratulations. You're special. He favored you. He was intrigued by you, adored you, shaped you with his own hands, all to ruin the world. He tells you it isn't your fault as he uses you to destroy the world. You were the joke the whole time. He used you, like you knew he would, and it was so much worse than it ever imagined. All that fascination, all that adoration, it was all- it wasn't even fake. It just was for the worst reason it possibly could've been. You hate him more than you ever have in that moment, as he praises you, as he's so so proud of you, as he tells you you'll get used to it. You hate him. You hate yourself so much more. You want him dead.

He does not hate you. He finds you as fascinating as he did before. He talks about you like you're a work of art. You might be sick. You think you almost wish he was a good person, that he was anyone else, so you could love it. You think a part of you does, sometimes. That dumb little part of you that never went away. That will always be that starving man that just wants to be taken seriously. You think you always wanted to be the center of attention. Maybe this is his twisted form of love, translated through layers of fears and wanting to hurt.

And even in his last moments, he doesn't hate you. He fears you. He is so very afraid. He doesn't want to die. He begs for his life. But his last words are just....good luck. That's all. Nothing more. The one person you hate more than anything. The one person you wish you never met. And he is the only person who looks at you and feels no anger, no blame, nothing at all. He looks at you stealing everything he's ever worked for, and just says "Good luck." The one person you hate more than anyone else, who ruined your life more than anyone else, and he is the only person who has never blamed you for anything. He is the only person who has ever forgiven you for every horrible, unjustifable thing you've done. He is the only person who looks at you at your worst, betraying everyone you have left, and understands. In some horrible, cruel way, he understands. He does not hate you. You don't know how you wanted him to react. But he's dead. He's gone. And you do not have time to feel about it until you wake up somewhere else.

They don't know yet another reason why you're so upset. They don't know that the only person who could ever truly forgive you, could ever truly understand why you did what you did, was the worst man you'd ever met. And you can never unknow that.

Which I mean. First off, gay. But second off how do you even begin to unpack that. Jesus christ.

[wow-an-unfunny-joke]

If I wrote a time travel au (Jon and Martin go back in time to first season archives after 200) where because of future intervention there’s a lot less trauma, and with less horrors to worry about past Jon begins to question his gender and starts experimenting with it- and it freaks future Jon out because ‘what tf do you mean I’m trans and never figured it out because Trauma????’

Would anyone read it?

[hypocrisy-incarnate]

once again thinking about podcast men with the most british names i've ever fucking heard

[geraiodli]

Yayyy gunimals!! I fucking despise that they're all jacked if I ever draw them again each one is going to have completely different body type. I fucking hate capitalism

Also some partly unserious selfshipping(more a comment on how much my fears and complexes could be exploited by specifically Elias and Spiral)

[tenwhiteandalusians]

so no one was going to tell me if i got literally one episode further tenax drops that he’s the one who saved scorpus from his mom’s pimp AND that he’s intimately familiar with scorpus’ dick when he was younger. guys. guys.

[givemeureyes]

i cannot lie anymore i am OBSESSED with jonelias. i have to be honest with the people

[gunnrblze]

Ok naughty thought of the day:

Elias sucking on your boobs as stress relief

Merrick obsessed with fucking you while you’re pregnant

Rorke loving to fuck your ass while he plays with your pussy

-End post.

My honest reaction to this