#i like a lot of the other tma characters don't get me wrong but jon is the one i latched onto.

[sparky-is-spiders]

Maybe i already asked that but whatcha think of jon/sasha/elias as a poly ship. Doomed to fail? Very dramatic but ultimately works? Personally i think elias and sasha would uh. Butt heads to say the least. I can see them work individually but in a poly ship... Eh. Maybe if you add in tim instead of jon he could errr moderate the polycule

Hmmm. I've definitely thought about it a bit (mostly in the context of "Elias should be weird about his archivist"). But the problem is that I'm a Jonshipper at heart and my brain doesn't do as much chewing on non-Jon characters. I think I could see a ship where Jon is sort of the hinge? Like Jon's dating Sasha AND Elias but they're only really connected through Jon (and working at the Institute. And being Eyevatars). There would be some level of fondness there (especially if this is dual archivists Jonsasha and they're getting Blended). Personally I see Sasha being "well he's kind of annoying but I guess Jon likes him so I can tolerate him." Don't currently know what Elias' approach to Sasha would be.

Tim being there could add a Dynamic? But again we run into the problem where my brain refuses to generate ideas or opinions if my Special Little Boy isn't there. It's puffing out smoke. There's nothing. Im sorry.

Oh wait if we're going full Eyevatar au I do think Sasha and Elias could and should bond over enjoying seeing Jon in distress. Eyevatar snack time y'know how it is.

(I mean I think they would all enjoy seeing the others suffer (even if it also hurt or horrified them) but Jon's the one I want to see suffering the mostest. I want to bite the scruff of his neck and violently shake him)

[witchinatree]

i'm having so much fun with the new tmagp characters (and i will miss them dearly until april 11th) (side note: patreon members get access on my sisters birthday which is pretty cool) and i don't want to compare them to the tma characters because they are unique and different in MANY ways, i just also notice some parallels

gwen is very similar to jon, she has had a somewhat skeptic attitude but has now clearly been exposed to the horrors (bonzo..) and she's also climbing the corporate ladder if you will. she runs the place, she's grumpy, and i think she's closer to becoming an avatar than any of the others (even sam) (see my other post about it if youd like) (idk how to link it on mobile sorry)

alice and tim are kinda obvious, both comedic with younger brothers and are very susceptible to romantic feelings (sasha/sam). there was a lot more going on with tim and we haven't seen much of that side of alice, so i'm really excited to learn about her backstory and/or traumas. less excited about what that might to do her but yk.. yk..

sam/sasha is the most interesting one to me. sam is curious like sasha was. sasha wanted to know which made her archivist potential in everyone's eyes. sam also wants to know, he'd make a great archivist. except he's not cautious, he's like sasha if she had never worked in the artifact storage. i think sasha's strength was what she had already experienced and what she knew, but she didn't know enough and ultimately that got her killed. sam is going to keep learning until he does know enough, but he doesn't have that prior knowledge to stop him from going too far. very interesting characters from both of them

celia and martin i guess? celia's different since she's not exactly from tmagp

lena and elias because creepy murder boss

and finally colin and gertrude which is kind of insane of me to say but hear me out. gertrude cut out the eyes of book covers and magazines and everything in her home. she was incredibly paranoid she just was also a boss ass bitch about it. i think younger gertrude must've been a lot like colin, but she figured it out quicker and realized what she needed to do to survive. she asked the right questions and took the right precautions. she had the archive full of knowledge. colin doesn't have the archive, he's messing with the wrong thing and he's taking every precaution and hurting himself and those around him (sam's phone specifically comes to mind). i think gertrude was like colin but she had the right resources to get through it

idk all of these are very interesting and it makes me worry a bit, but ofc every character is unique and has aspects to them that change their stories. they're probably still gonna die though, we know jonny sims loves killing characters ☹️

[cult-of-the-eye]

LEMME HEAR YOUR UNHINGED TMA RANTS! <3

Oooh I think I've already posted a lot of my rants but one of the characters who I haven't really had a whole rant on is Martin K blackwood.

THIS MAN. This man is so wonderfully written. A lot of characterisations of the "nice one" are quite flat and don't really expand much on them being nice apart from maybe giving the person low self esteem. What I love about Martin is how masterfully it uses that sort of prototype of a character and makes it much more gut wrenching and relatable. He starts off as sort of the office dunce from Jon's pov, which early on we also realise is unreliable. He's the bumbling idiot, the sweet fool and I get it. As a fat person, I feel like a lot of us feel pressured to be the comic relief or to put it more precisely, the one to be laughed at. And he's seen the gap in the archives, he's seen that role that needs to be filled and he's easily filled it. When you have the group of Tim and Sasha and then Jon, the only thing that could unite them is mutual awkward laughter towards Martin. And Martin is used to seeing what's there and filling the gaps, man is a people pleaser to a fault, he has had to guess what his mum didn't like about him and change accordingly, getting it wrong every time. He makes himself palatable which is so REAL especially for a fat person and/or traumatised people.

And then we see this more calculating side of him. He LIED to all his colleagues and his BOSS about a qualification to get a job and then kept that lie going for at least a couple of months. Listen, I don't think it's fair to label Martin as completely a manipulative calculating guy who's just put on a mask but it's also not exactly fair to characterise him as just a sweet, tea making guy who wears jumpers. And that's what I love about him. He's so complex. I feel like it delves into the idea of having both a saviour complex as well as an inferiority complex. He's had to make choices that are above his skillset early in his life and frequently, he's been blamed for causing other people's emotions so he naturally thinks he has control over how other people feel. Which gives him that sense of responsibility, like I can save anyone cause I can control their emotions, if I'm nice enough then they won't be mad/ill/sad/they'll love me. But at the same time, these sort of underhand methods of indirect communication don't resonate to him as causing any damage cause he doesn't actually think he's important enough to cause damage or have an impact on other people's lives

I don't think it's of any shock to anyone that my favourite Martin is angry Martin. It's the part that fights against both aspects of this inferiority/saviour complex because it 1. Is a path of direct communication. He has the opportunity to state exactly how he is feeling and the focus is on that rather than how can I get the other person to respond. 2. It recognises that he is important. Anger is in response to perceived injustice, frustration, annoyance and all of those things are in a way, self preserving. Obviously it's not good to do that too much (see: Tim Stoker) but there you go. I'm not saying angry Martin is perfect or anything but I'm saying that it's so satisfying and interesting to see cause it completely goes against the characterisation we've been given so far and it introduces a whole new facet to Martin - that he doesn't want to be ruled by his trauma and past experiences.

It's honestly a joy to see Martin develop into someone who fights more against the role he's been "given" while simultaneously playing into it. His whole Peter Lukas arc is very much a part of that. Essentially he's saying I'm not important enough to contribute the way you are (inferiority) but I'm still going to try and control things behind the scenes (saviour). So when Jon goes to save him it breaks that, he looks him in the eyes and tells him you, Martin K Blackwood are Important, you make an impact and you Mean Something. You don't have to save us all. It's such an important part of his character arc and honestly it blows me away every time I think about it.

Plus obviously the whole isolation thing is just so AGH it's just so built in to his character it makes complete sense that he has a tendency to isolate himself. It fulfills both the inferiority and saviour - he doesn't think he's important enough to be missed but also he feels like it'll push them into missing him. Solving the problem and putting himself down in one fell swoop.

Our final stage of Martin is one that is far from perfect, far from healed but absolutely closer than he was at the beginning. He shows more of himself, in working towards realising he makes an impact on people, telling jokes and just sharing his thoughts to Jon. So what does him stabbing Jon mean for this? Honestly I'm not entirely sure (I'm gonna be honest I did not realise this rant would be so long lol) but I'm thinking along the lines of this is an ultimate show of acceptance of his significance and rejection of his need to save people. He is committing the most direct act of all, he's doing this in the same need to help people but instead of being manipulative about it, he's just directly doing what needs to be done. But also he's not saving Jon, he's doing the complete opposite. He couldn't control Jon's response to the situation, as much as he wanted to, so he did what jon wanted. I might not be explaining this right cause I'm not entirely sure what I mean either but I'm trying to say it's a poetic end. It's separate from everything he was but in a way that's parallel to and pays homage to his struggles. He's still being sort of a saviour and he's still arguably not the most important person in this scenario but the point is that it's in a different way than he's used to. In my opinion, a better way.

Anyway yeah thank you for enabling me, I didn't know how much I needed this rant and I didn't know I had so much to say lol. <3

[magpod-confessions]

hi. so because i'm normal about jonathan sims and jmart. um.

i really like jmart. i think there could have been MUCH better buildup, but... ultimately it's a very cute ship. i think the appeal, yeah, is a lot that it's just canon. but.

they're both deeply broken people. jon wasn't loved enough. his grandmother tried her best, but he was never cuddled, never read to, never had a chance to *be a little kid*, really. and martin was never loved. maybe he convinced himself he was just never loved the right way, that his mum just didn't know how to show it because he was so *insufferable* and *incompetant*, but no matter the lies he tells himself, martin was not shown love by his mother.

and then they meet. and martin gives and gives and gives because that's all he knows. and jon has no idea how to receive because he never really had anything to receive. and jon's coping mechanism, with that unknown situation, is to reinforce his emotional walls. martin does not know how to stop giving. so they don't work at this point, not at all.

and then jon's emotional walls come tumbling down. well, moreso that they were violently destroyed, with prentiss and all. jon has no support system!!! tim hates him because he's a fucking *stalker*, martin... well... he can't rely on martin, of all people. and sasha... he never knew her too well, but she's acting strange. so jon and martin don't work together at that point, romantically, i think partially because jon won't let it.

in big part, jmart is built on mutual trauma (NOT traumabonding!! i know it's used that way in podcast, but that's not the correct definition) and ... martin being pretty much the only person jon has left. of course, there's basira and melanie and georgie, but they don't *get it*. they didn't go through everything jon did alongside him. sure, martin didn't either, but martin has been there the whole time.

it's partially a relationship of proximity, partially shared trauma, but i do think a lot of it is genuine care for each other (even if that care stems from the former two reasons).

anyways. theyre really cute. tma could have been just as good without it, but---and im saying this as someone who typically despises most romance in media---i really adore them and their dynamic. it opens up so many doors for both character- and self-exploration.

martin learning to love without sacrificing himself. jon learning to love openly, period. explorations of trust and how mutual trauma that affected people in different ways can shape them, etc etc etc. and of course, this is all in fics and in my own mind, because . theyre dead . (i wont accept any ending but that, honestly. theyre not Somewhere Else to me). but. it's nice. they mean a lot to me as characters and as people and as a pair. thumbs up.

and some jon ranting!! because i. admit. finally. that i might be a bit of a jon kinnie.

jon doubts himself, constantly, unless his decision is completely impulsive (ex. the coffin). he can't *let* himself feel, fully, because as a child it was always annoying/obnoxious, or too much, or wrong in some ambiguous, nebulous way.

he's out of touch with himself emotionally. it's... not so much that he doesn't get emotions, it's moreso that he's repressed the majority of his own so intensely that he has a hard time dealing with others' emotions because he's not too sure what it's supposed to feel like without a heavy flavouring of shame.

he's read a lot of books. he knows, in theory, what sadness or romantic love or anger or excitement feels like---and occasionally in practice, when the repression and 'compartmentalisation' (bottling it up) becomes too much and it all boils over---but he has a hard time relating those hypothetical and heat-of-the-moment feelings to actual, real life people.

he struggles with empathy, severely. partially an autistic thing, partially a trauma response. yknow. he's genuinely well-meaning when it comes to comforting those he cares about, but he's not sure of the right thing to say because of how severely that muscle has atrophied. he was never taught that with his grandmother and her neglect (and yes, no matter what he says on tape, it was emotional neglect) and then not having very many friends... he missed those prime developmental stages as a child.

he never empathised with book characters, i don't think. he was always the observer, never really fully putting himself in the role of the protagonist. he definitely used books as an escapist coping mechanism, but it wasn't in a visiting-this-fictional-world way, it was more of a losing-himself-in-the-story way, if that makes sense. there was always a sense of detachment. reading was an *in between* of his life and the life of the protagonist.

he struggles with his and others' feelings because, from his perspective, his emotions are uniquely shameful, uniquely embarrassing, and uniquely *harmful* to other people. so, he represses them, and doesn't let himself feel them unless they're 'useful'. and then, when he can't apply this ideology to others' emotions, he has no way to deal with them. he freezes up because this is a situation in which he has no real experience in, and, as a child who was punished for behaving autistically *wrong* ---whether by his peers or his grandmother---he's scared to make a wrong move.

he sees himself as a person who is uniquely capable of harm. other people can hurt other people, sure, but jon can hurt them in a *special* way, a *worse* way, because he is a fundamentally wrong, bad person.

yeah👍

.🗣️

I AM EATING THIS I agree with this yea

[dexterkronos]

Slime Rancher x TMA?

Okay but seriously, imagine if Jon and Martin commit MAG 200 and just end up on Slime Rancher's Far Far Range. What then?

(Welcome to your lecture on why my abilities to cook have been restrained by divine ordainment [irl responsibilities])

How It Would Work

Mistaken Identity as their alt selves or assuming the lives of their alt selves as they have completely replaced them

They both have separate farms on the Far, Far Range on opposite ends, and don't know where the other exactly is (they both think they're on distant islands to each other lol).

Martin becomes very adept with Slime wrangling in particular, but still remains an effective slime rancher in the ways of taking care of them. He adopts a particular Tabby (unbeknownst to him an escapee from Jon's ranch) and calls it 'Merry', and Merry stays by his side at all times.

Jon is very particular about only owning docile slimes like Pinks, Tabbies and Puddles, with a lot of his slimes being mixes with Tabbies because cats. He makes a sole exception for ONE Crystal-Tabby that he calls 'Calcite', who becomes a bit of a ranch defender Largo. It is so picky about what it eats or absorbs that there is zero risk for him to become a Tarr.

Jmart end up finding each other when Jon goes chasing after a Tabby-Phosphor with Calcite in an attempt to get it somewhere dark before daylight. Both are overjoyed to see each other obviously and immediately work together.

They have a teleporter between their ranches and help each other out with random tasks. They obvs can't combine ranches now, but they do lots of sleepovers at each other's ranches lmao,

Jon ends up going into Slime Sciences because duh of course he would lmao. He's the reason both farms have cannons to repel Tarr slimes.

They get therapy before even so much as thinking about advancing their relationship further because holy hell these dudes need it. (Therapy is already in swing at the start btw, I'm not delaying their roads to mental stability)

Other Info below the keep reading tag so we don't flood your feed lolol.

Relationships with Canon Slime Rancher Characters

Martin is the one who usually deals with Slime Market stuff because people like BOb exist.

Martin befriends Thora easier than anyone else due to her kindly nature. Let's give the man a nice older lady figure in his life to be a mentor.

Jon become notably friendly with Viktor Humphries, and they collaborate often since Jon has Martin and his own interest in slime collection to help him.

Both find Mochi a bit like Melanie at first, but warm up to her when they start to learn more about her (both can relate to strained relationships w/parental figures, especially Martin).

Both find BOb complexing and typically try to keep conversations curt lol.

Obvs because I'm not replacing Beatrix, they do meet her and are pretty neutral to her. Nothing extraordinary and nothing unextraordinary since Beatrix is more a proxy for the player so I can't gauge much on how she'd be without our interference.

Ogden & Hobson are also a neutral relationship but that's just because I can't think on how either of them and Jmart would work lol.

Likely Queries

Fears When?: No Fears in the Slime Rancher universe because I say so. The Fears just don't have influence here anymore haha. That means Jonah Magnus stays deceased.

How is Jon not like, barely sane or whatever (referencing the 'how much of me is the Eye stuff')?: Well, they did merge/overwrite their Slime universe counterpart so like... e.

Does Jmart retain Fear powers?: No. Maybe. I'm not sure tbh I think if anything it'd be subtle things. EG: Jon being able to identify certain things changed in an area or have a better grip on understanding body language. EG2: Martin being less noticeable when he wants to be or just having a bit of cold resistance.

Why can't they move in together?: Because I doubt the 7Zee Corp would be able to find a buyer for either ranch too quickly, but I could be wrong. Idk I like the idea of them having space of their own separate from the other since those dudes need therapy and time to work on themselves.

Do they look like themselves or their alternates?: Alts with the exception of MAG 200 injuries. The Alts just look like their S1 selves lmao.

SlimeRancher!Sasha, SlimeRancher!Georgie & SlimeRancher!Tim? Yes. None would properly notice a difference in Jon because he's more just their Jon with some weird ass baggage attached. Martin would DEFINITELY be something they'd note as 'unusual' but ultimately set it down to 'omg he's matured so fast having to deal with Jon lolol'. Sasha and Tim would be fellow Ranchers on another area nearby and Georgie either stayed on Earth or is a Tarr Wrangler with SlRa!Melanie.

What about the other Magnus people? Not sure, defs think SlRa!Melanie would exist as a Tarr Wrangler w/Georgie. SlRa!Elias would likely be on Earth still and just living his Pre-Eye life lolol. Sl!Ra Gertrude should be a rancher elsewhere that's just died but other than that idk.

Do any other Slime Rancher alts get their other worlds memories? Maybe Georgie and Melanie but only via 'oh wow that was a funky dream haha' since they were in the Panopticon. Elias doesn't count towards this since there was no more Elias by the time of the series' beginning (source: MAG 193).

[douglysium]

Episode 5 TMP Quick Thoughts

Housekeeping and Prologue

Hello, this is Douglysium and you might not know me as that guy who wrote over 100 pages of analysis on the Eye (which can be read on Tumblr here (https://douglysium.tumblr.com/post/735599414228484097/the-relationships-between-the-dread-powers-the) or Google Docs here (The Relationships Between the Dread Powers: The Eye- Knowledge is Fear and Ignorance is Bliss)) or as that guy who wrote an article on the Extinction (which can be read on Tumblr here(https://douglysium.tumblr.com/post/717929126195003392/what-would-avatars-of-the-extinction-be-like-a) and Google Docs here(​What would Avatars of the Extinction be like?: A TMA Speculation)). Suffice to say I might be a bit of a TMA fan. Also, spoilers for TMP up until episode 4. You can read my ramblings on the last episode here (TMP Quick Thoughts 4).

However, Protocol offers a very unique opportunity and experience for me because I didn’t actually get into TMA until after it was over and I binged all of it. So this is my first time experiencing something even remotely similar to what the original TMA fans probably experienced when waiting for each episode week by week and slowly having to put everything together with the limited information they had. So I decided to throw my hat into the ring since this might be my only chance to do something similar. However, I’m working on some longer form TMA content so I can’t spend as much time on these articles giving a bunch of super detailed thoughts. I will try to keep these short and that inevitably might mean some could have questions about why I think or predict certain things and in those cases I would probably recommend you read at least some of the two articles I mentioned above to get a better idea of where I’m coming from. This also means I won’t be giving you a play-by-play of every single thing that happens in the episode so I encourage you to listen to or read them yourselves and feel free to comment if you feel something is important.

These reviews are probably going to end up focusing mostly on the Entities and their manifestations as they are what I have thought about the most and spent the most time interpreting and there’s been a lot of… interesting theories floating around about how the Entities are manifesting that I want to go over.

Finally, I’m just going to say it right now, spoiler warning for all of The Magnus Archives. I know that Jon and co said one could start with Protocol and be fine, and while that’s probably true, media like this tends to be made in conversation with or take into consideration what came before it in the irl chronology in order to connect them. While I’m sure you could skip The Magnus Archives, I don't really see the point of skipping over it when we are already getting characters from TMA showing up in TMP in Protocol. So to me it’s pretty clear that if we want to understand the full picture of TMP and all the things it is trying to say then we can’t just try to pretend TMA doesn’t exist or scrub it away. Just because you could understand what’s happening without the context in broad strokes doesn’t mean you're getting all the nuances.

These articles are meant to be quick and short so sorry if there’s typos and if I don’t address every possible question or possibility. I don’t want to repeat myself too much in this series outside of the prologue so be sure to skim some of my other articles.

Episode 5 “Personal Screening”

If you ask me, the statement in this episode is almost definitely Eye aligned and it’s one of the most Eye flavored statements I’ve seen in a while. But let’s try to slow down and walk through some bits of the episode. Like always it may be an act of hubris to view TMP through the lens of Smirke’s 14 (and potentially The Extinction if I feel it comes to it) but even if I’m wrong I still find this to be fun and the parallels interesting.

Like always, we are hearing the story of TMP from the perspective of something / someone listening in via device and the transcripts clarify that this time we are listening through a landline.

Sam enters Lena’s office to express his worry about Colin’s paranoia and says “Well, today I found him crawling along the corridor, yanking out wires and muttering to himself.” and points out that Colin has “added all those locks to his office door and he refuses to even go near a camera now…” I feel like this mirrors TMA in how we see a coworker becoming worried about another coworker's increasing paranoia. And, similar to Jon, Colin’s paranoia in part seems to be coming from the feeling that he is being watched or monitored by something. I maintain that if the Entities are present then the O.I.A.R. is at least partially connected to the Eye and we see Colin is even becoming afraid of being seen by cameras and the like.

I think it’s also interesting that Lena says this “Right. Well firstly, thank you for raising this with me Sam. It’s important we don’t keep secrets here.” which feels a lot like some ominous foreshadowing we don’t yet understand. The Eye is all about having no privacy and exposing secrets and Colin seems to indeed be keeping some sort of secret. Not only that, but considering what Gwen saw last episode Lena is also keeping at least one secret.

There actually seem to be a lot of parallels or allusions to TMA structurally or thematically. Many of the statements sure but also the roles certain characters play. Sam is too curious for his own good like Jon and may be here to look into a previous encounter with the supernatural, some have pointed out that Alice and Tim both seem to cope with jokes, and Lena is a shady boss like Elias / Jonah. Just to be clear I’m not saying these are 1-to-1 or are meant to be alternate versions of each other or something. Rather that either The Eye tends to attract certain people, that this is meant to be a reference (Sort of like how how Part 7 and onwards in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure have many direct references and parallels to other characters even though they aren’t always the exact same person / personality or one-to-one), or we are going to end up with some extrapolation, divergence, and / or commentaries on these similarities (either directly or indirectly).

However, long story short, Lena dismisses these claims and basically tells Sam not to worry, schedule a meeting next time, and mind his own business before we cut to one of the computers Sam and / or Alice work at to catch the rest of the story. Alice mentions “Ah. Yeah, Lena isn’t exactly known for her diplomacy.” which points to the idea that Lena probably isn’t the nicest person, or at the very least doesn’t sugarcoat things. Sam finds that Alice left some papers on his desk and she explains “I had a nosey while you were in Lena’s office. Looks like it’s for your Response Department one to one.” One thing I mention a lot about The Eye is that it tends to attract people who are very curious and / or want to know things, such as “Nosy Rosie,” Jonah, Jon, etc.. This scene shows us that Alice might be more curious or nosy than she lets on in some aspects. Of course, in typical Alice fashion when Sam expresses worry about the paper and the Response Department she tells him to basically just ignore it and throw it away but Sam decides to fill start filling it out anyway.

I wonder if this is similar to the magically binding contract from TMA and if Sam just accidentally tied himself to something. Alice does also say “Just chuck it. I told you, I’m pretty sure the Response Department doesn't even exist anymore. It's just the system spitting out dead paperwork. Happens all the time.” so we can’t even be sure that this is coming from the Response Department. In fact the paperwork coming from the Response Department could be The Eye or some other Entity and / or supernatural occurrence. We also continue to have Sam’s curiosity hammered into us when he says “And I’m going to fill it in any way. See what happens.” Sam notes that the paperwork asks strange questions when he says “Uh huh… They want my last seven addresses. I don’t know if I’ve even had-” This could point to the idea of the paper wanting a suspicious amount of information since it not only wants to know where you currently live but the last seven places someone has lived.

(Probably rather luckily) Sam gets interrupted by a statement as Alice manages to convince him to stop as CHESTER gives us our statement for the episode.

This statement is about Tom and the blog he is running. On it he reviews horror movies and even says “Hey all you sick freaks out there, Tom here, your gruesome guide to the most twisted horror films of the world wide web!” He also says “I can’t believe this blog’s still up. Was looking for somewhere slightly less confrontational than social media to post my film thoughts, and I remembered starting this back in, what, 2009?” As I’ve mentioned before The Eye is the fear of being perceived and known which also involves the fear of being judged for things. To put it even more broadly, The Eye seems to be about the fear of knowledge in general. Not just the fear that someone / something might know too much about you (or a specific secret) or is just gathering information by watching you but also the fear that you yourself might know too much or have seen something you wish you hadn’t. In MAG 200 we are told in what order the Powers emerged and what led to their birth and for The Eye we are told it came from the fear of one’s eyes “showing them too much.” In essence, that they saw something they didn’t want to. A more direct example of this is Jonah being able to force information into the minds of other people like Martin and Melanie. Jonah mentions that this information has to be true and it points to the idea of forcing someone to know something against their will.

We also get “That first post... Fourteen years old and convinced I was the edgiest writer on the web. Might keep it up for posterity, god knows the kid went through enough” which implies a rough childhood. Considering what happens with the movie I would also like to point out that tying into The Eye’s whole “seeing too much” thing is the idea of being forced to remember or relive certain things you don’t want to. The most obvious form this took in TMA was the statements (as they were people recounting what happened to them) but Jon could also force people to give statements (forcing them to recall things against their will) and when Jon takes live statements both Jonah and Daisy point out that when this is done the victim will be forced to relive said statement every night via a dream in which Jon is watching. Sometimes, if there’s a monster involved, the victim sees things from the perspective of the monster (forcing them to watch their own suffering in a way).

Tom explains “I remember I was pretty lonely in those days. Ever since I was a child, making friends has always been kind of a struggle. My interests have always been seen as a little strange... While other kids my age at the time were looking up to football players and other celebrities, I was looking up to Pinhead and Freddy Krueger... It wasn’t in a psychopath kind of way or anything, I’ve just always been fascinated by horror. I can thank my dad for that, he showed me Puppet Master when I was six. ‘oh don’t worry, buddy! It’s just like Toy Story”... He had kind of a dark sense of humour like that.” before continuing to describe how he was really into horror and continues to have a fixation on it. This also implies that it’s possible the young Tom wasn’t always aware of what he was about to see and was tricked or lied to about what it was. Which could tie into the idea of seeing something you didn’t want to if we assume that this poor kid was expecting Toy Story only to get a scary movie. Funnily enough, someone judging and critiquing films on something like a blog could draw a connection to The Eye via the idea of judgment and the like.

Strangely, the next 3 reviews have been deleted. I wonder if they reminded Tom of something or if he just wanted to forget about it? But that would be kind of weird since he still leaves up the announcement that make mention of the terrifying film he watches later, “Voyeur.” It might also be a much weirder reasoning like someone or something wanting people to find this movie and / or post and making sure the post is preserved for a statement. It’s pretty clear Tom has at least some of the trademark Eye curiosity when it comes to horror movies since he seems to put in a lot of effort into finding this specific horror movie in order to watch it despite searches mostly just revealing what is presumably porn. However, in his search he comes across one thing- “The only thing I could find was another old blog with what must have been the shortest film review I have ever read. You can check the link, but I’ll save you some time: all it says is “Voyeur needs to be seen to be believed. The Scariest movie I have ever seen”.”

Of course, if you’ve gotten this far you can probably guess what I’m probably going to say. This is so obviously The Eye or some similar overlapping Entity trying to bait curious people into seeing something they will probably regret. In TMA Gertrude did mention that The Eye is also the drive to know and understand even if what you find might hurt you and we can see this in action. The drive to know and understand even if this movie could mentally scar you. Unfortunately, Tom doesn’t realize he’s in a horror podcast and this just makes him want to see it even more.

In the next blog post Tom mentions “Oh my God. I can’t believe one of you found it! Thank you SO MUCH Cinephobia12220 for the link!” Based on a quick google search I don’t think “cinephobia” is a real word (and if it is it’s super obscure). However, I can take a wild guess at what the username “cinephobia” means by looking at the root words involved. Cinephile basically means “movie lover” and phobia has to do with fear, so we can assume that the term cinephobia would probably mean something like “fear of movies”, “movie fear”, “phobia of movies”, etc. 

After doing a bit more digging I found the term “cinephobia” which according to a wikipedia page means “The fear or hatred of films and the cinema.” Whether or not you want to see this as credible is up to you and I’m proud of the logic I used originally so I’m keeping the previous paragraph since it was at least in the ballpark. Either way, this username is foreshadowing since their name literally means “fear / hatred of movies” (ie the fear of a media you would watch).

Tom manages to find a link and a contest that only asks for his name and he somehow wins said contest despite noting that the site hasn’t been updated in years. At this point it’s clear that all the blog posts not relating or leading up to the “Voyeur” have been deleted. What does voyeur even mean? According to google voyeur is defined as “a person who gains sexual pleasure from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity”... okaayyyyyy wait there’s a second definition “a person who enjoys seeing the pain or distress of others.” Okay, I’m going to assume the second definition is what’s applicable here since this ties very heavily into The Eye and the idea of a sort of sadism or someone watching you suffer. Of course, this can also tie into statements as people like Jon gain power and strength from literally hearing about and or watching people suffer. So the movie’s title is yet more foreshadowing. The title might also have a double meaning since depending on why someone likes horror and to what extent you could describe them as a “voyeur” in the sense that they like seeing people suffer in movies. Tom is so desperate for horror he might be somewhat close to a voyeur in this sense but maybe I’m reading too much into that.

When Tom wins the contest he explains “I WON THE CONTEST! I can’t believe it! The invitation was waiting when I got home today, in a small black envelope. I don’t even remember giving them my address. The website must have logged my IP and looked it up or something... I’m really not sure how any of that works.” This is another red flag because The Eye is known to randomly give or find information it otherwise shouldn’t know. We see people like Jon had the ability to know things that they shouldn’t and Jonah was borderline omniscient and could know almost anything he actively put his mind towards.

The cinema “Voyeur” is being filmed at is a theater that Tom actually went to when he was a kid. “And I’ve actually been to this cinema before... I used to go all the time with my dad... they would play classic horror films midday every Saturday.” Considering that Tom probably had a rough childhood this could be The Eye setting up a situation where Tom is forced to remember his past (I mean besides watching the movie of course) and I wonder if this is the theater where his dad tricked him into watching a horror movie. We know that the movie seems to actually be about Tom himself and it’s being played in a place he remembers as a child. Also, Tom mentioning how he wants to give his thoughts on this movie could be likened to a statement and someone giving their accounts about various horrific encounters.

Tom of course is apparently live blogging the event and I think that usually The Eye wouldn’t have it any other way. The more people can witness the horrors another person is facing in real time the “better.” The outside of the theater seems like it’s in a sorry state but the inside is beautiful and clean. Tom asks about this while buying food from an employee and we get “I asked about the mess outside, trying not to be rude about it, but he just said “It’s what on the inside that matters”.” This could be foreshadowing to the idea that the movie is about Tom himself. So the “inside” that matters would be Tom’s own memory and / or experiences. Also, this employee is noted to be old and probably doing all the jobs around this theater. He is at least the one running the concession stand, and usher along with the other stuff. But Tom says that the man is in high spirits which makes me wonder if we’ll see him as a recurring character in TMP’s statements and / or in person (sort of like Simon Fairchild and the like).

Then the movie starts and based on Tom’s reaction he clearly recognizes what's being shown “ I can hear what sounds like... beeping. It sounds so familiar but I can’t quite place it. Medical equipment maybe? There’s something [UNINTELLIGIBLE] the screen... Looks like it might be a flashback or something, handheld… looks like it was filmed on an old camcorder... Wait. Is that...? I know that room…. How... How did they get [UNINTELLIGIBLE] This was after the accident. Mum wanted to to film it for my brothers... Dad... I... [UNINTELLIGIBLE] Wait. Who is that? In the corner of the screen, there’s... WHO THE HELL IS THAT?” and the final thing we hear from the blog is 

BLOG POST: FILM REVIEW: VOYEUR 

Voyeur needs to be seen to be believed. The scariest movie I have ever seen.

It seems like what happened is the movie was a video Tom’s mom had taken of a tragic even but there was something that shouldn’t have been there. This wouldn’t be the first time something like this happened with The Eye. In TMA MAG 193 (A Stern Look) we get an account from the original Elias that details how a friend named Allan Schrieber died from presumably reading some sort of book. Upon reading it Allan started to mentally break down and sob while saying things like “It has no eyes”, “so it has to feel its way towards me. But it knows. It knows!” before eventually dying with his eyes mysteriously missing. A lot of people immediately assume this means The Dark was at play but there are statements where someone / something aligned with The Beholding seems to be missing eyes or taking The Eyes of others. Sometimes the idea is that it’s scary that something can somehow still know where you are or see you and sometimes this is the whole “seeing too much thing.” It’s also mentioned “But he remembers so clearly what he was thinking as he looked at the what was left of Allan Schrieber: where are his eyes? What did they do with his eyes?” 

If you want a clearer example of seeing something you shouldn't, there's the hand mirror that appears in MAG 060 (Observer Effect). Upon looking into this mirror Rosa Meyers notices a dark figure in the night that only has its eyes visible and she feels like she is being watched / stalked even after dropping the mirror and breaking the glass. So The Eye definitely plays around with the idea of seeing something, noticing a figure that shouldn’t be there, and then things follow you before something happens. It wouldn’t completely surprise me if Tom was even replaced or had his mind and / or body taken over somehow (something that has a precedent with people like Jonah) which could explain why his review is eerily similar to the original one. Maybe the old man is body hopping like Jonah? That might explain the old man’s excitement and maybe the old man is in fact “Cinephobia12220.” Hmmm, such an assertion about body hopping with so little information is a bit of a stretch though since the man could just be happy to have a victim and it would be an oddly specific ability for some random new character (merely one iff background or otherwise) to have.

Obviously, Tom also expresses surprise at this theater having the footage and wonders how they could’ve gotten it which ties into The Eye and someone getting information they shouldn’t. Being forced to relive something like this is also comparable to a statement. 

Some Entities that overlap with some of the stuff happening in this statement are ones like The Spiral. I could see an argument for some of its themes with the idea of noticing something you missed before or thought wasn’t there as a sign of your senses being wrong. Maybe also The Stranger since Tom doesn’t seem to know what he’s seeing.

We then cut to CCTV audio and Alice talking on the phone before this conversation happens

GWEN 

“Do you remember the IT manager before Colin?”

ALICE 

“Who? Amelia? What about her?”

GWEN 

“No, before Amelia, before I joined. German guy. Lots of tattoos.”

ALICE 

“I mean, I think Amelia mentioned him once or twice maybe? Mostly I remember her complaining about his work, but he’d have been here well before my time. What’s this about?” 

GWEN

“Nothing. None of your business.” 

ALICE 

“What? Seriously?”

GWEN 

“(walking off). Yes.”

Once again, Gwen being cagey and weird but this time we have a better idea of why. There’s a chance that this German IT manager may in fact be Klaus. I wonder if being the O.I.A.R. IT manager comes with some sort of drawback or “curse?” Maybe even some weird agreement between whoever has the position and Lena? Who knows

Conclusion

Idk having a blast. Feel free to leave corrections and / or thoughts and I may respond to them and explain if I agree or disagree, or consider why it is or isn’t likely, etc.

[olreid]

'the secret good neverafter that lives in my head' lol i take it you're not enjoying the season? curious to hear why if you feel like sharing

hmm idk that i would say im not enjoying it but yeah i think for me it's just not really like. a successful horror story at least so far. under a cut for length lol

i think the first thing watching neverafter has helped me discover is that i dont think characters in a horror story can know that they are in a horror story, at least initially. OR if they do, they have to be the only person who knows it and no one else can agree with or believe them. for me at least, such a huge element of resonant horror is the split between what the world insists it is and what it actually is, between what you are promised in life and what you actually receive. you have to be being told that the world is logical, good, that there is a way for you to win at life or beat the game or escape the prison, and you have to genuinely believe that, at least at first. so i wish neverafter hadn't started with the premise of 'the world has gotten noticeably Bad and you all noticed it and everyone agrees that this is the case even if they dont know how to fix it.' i wish they had played it straight, starting in the happily ever after of fairy tales and had the characters slowly realizing that actually they're not happy even though they're supposed to be, and having to break out of prisons that don't look like prisons and fight through a world that insists it is helping them at every step even as it constrains and warps them. and i know that's partially at odds with needing to appropriately warn viewers about what they're getting into, but i still think even if they had billed this season as a horror season and started out the first episode with Everything Is Great, that would have been excellent because i would have been just WAITING in agony for the other shoe to drop.

and then i think my other issue besides the framing has more to do with the general format of d20, which i don't think lends itself to horror for several reasons, firstly the at this point predictable shape of a main cast season. again i think a lot of the power of horror comes from unpredictability; you know something bad is going to happen in a horror story, but you don't know exactly when or what shape it will be. the wind gets kind of taken out of the sails if you know that it's going to be an every-other-episode combat situation. i appreciate that brennan's trying to add some new stuff in - red tokens, one shot kills, etc - but i don't think it's enough and even the twist of the tpk alreadys feel like it's been almost fully explained in-world to the point that we now understand how combat works in this setting. again that goes along with the format -- the players have to be able to understand the game in order to play it and be able to effectively help tell the story. but it means that things are pretty predictable, and when you've watched a bunch of d20 seasons you develop an eye for what the next fight will look like and what the overall arc of a season will be. there is of course still room for me to be surprised or proven wrong here! but my hopes are not high.

the other issue is that d20 is first and foremost a comedy. and it's not that i think horror can't be funny, but i think that largely the comedy has to come from audience interpretation -- horror needs to take itself seriously to succeed, at least for me. i think of the 'it's remarkably easy to buy an ax in central london' line from tma -- timeless and hilarious but jon is completely sincere when he says it and jonny's delivery is similarly sincere; he plays it straight, and so we get both the horror of that moment -- jon having been driven to a point where he feels the need to arm himself, which seems a pitiful gesture in the face of the forces at work on him -- and the humor, which comes when we distance ourselves a bit from the text and can appreciate that line out of context. neverafter, on the other hand, as a comedy show, is full of jokes and bits which not only contrast somewhat bizarrely with the more serious horror moments but also serve to lower the stakes of the entire project, as nearly every joke creates distance between player and character, reminding us as the audience that they are just that -- characters, not real people, in a made-up world. for example, in the spider fight where lou is calling the spiders who are attacking him Ladies as he fails to fight them off, it succeeds as a joke -- it did make me laugh -- but fails as horror because if someone was truly prone glued to a spider web with spiders crawling onto their body, i highly doubt they would be joking about it, so it takes me out of the scene and makes the world less real to me. in the other direction, the fact that it's a comedy also primes the players to take what brennan says as comedy first and horror second, eg the mouse in cinderella's old house who is saying something genuinely horrifying about not being in control of his body or actions as the entire table struggles not to break because the voice is funny or whatever. and so i feel like the two main goals of the season are at cross-purposes, because nearly all of the successful comedy makes it feel like less of a horror story, and makes the characters feel less real.

and having said all that it's not that i don't think the d20 table is capable of doing horror well, because i honestly think they already have done so with a crown of candy. acoc doesn't suffer from any of the issues ive outlined above; characters were killed in roleplay episodes to the point that you felt something terrible could happen at any time; the season took itself seriously, perhaps because the premise itself is so inherently comedic that they decided that to seriously embody a character who is a loaf of bread named senator ciabatta is funnier than making a gag out of it. whatever the reason, the stakes of the world are incredibly high -- we know this was also partially because it was a low-magic, high lethality season where brennan put limits on the party's healing abilities and removed most of the plot armor that protected characters in other fantasy seasons. and crucially, the characters did not begin the story thinking that the world was terrible. they were all members of the royal house of rocks, and heavily invested in their world moving according to logical rules and patterns; so much of the horror and tragedy of the season comes with the dawning realization on the part of the characters that the rules they thought would protect them -- those of diplomacy and morality and cause and effect -- don't actually prevent harm, death, grief, or suffering.

similarly, fantasy high sophomore year succeeds at horror, largely because the horror is dream and mirror-based so there is a sense of pervasive unsafety and a feeling that characters cannot even doze off without making themselves vulnerable to possession or violation. so it's not that i think d20 couldn't ever do horror successfully, which would almost be better -- they have done it and i have watched them do it but theyre not doing it now for whatever reason and that is disappointing. i was promised horror!! i want horror!!!

hopefully i don't need to say that this is just one guy's opinion on why it hasn't gripped me -- i know it's working for others because the tag is always full of people posting about how they couldnt sleep after the episode or whatever and truly good for them. but that is not my journey

[werewolfwriter323]

So I finally have finished my drawings for Martin K(nife) Blackwood. I have been working on these on and off for the past few weeks usually after I get outta work. I decided to start with a fullbody Martin,  cause he's my fave <3. I am planning on drawing fullbody pictures of the S1 Archival Assistants next, and of Jon, because I want references to look at when drawing comics and shit. 

I also have so many AMV/PMVs planned for TMA, I've got a whole ass google doc, lolz. 

I just know that they'll be easier to do once I've got references for most of the characters.  

So yeah! I hope you guys enjoy! 

Feel free to comment. 

*Written notes about design

S1 Martin

-Hair is short & somewhat curly/poofy. Is a dark copper tone

-Has a silver earring on each ear(cartagilage piercings)

-Collared shirt that I actually own

-Big soft arms, soft everything,  big boy man. 

-Skin is medium brown

-My Beloved 

-Don't @ Me

S2 Martin 

-Hair gets longer & poofier

-Adds another piercing

-Jumper + overalls

-Glasses are slightly cracked 

S3 Martin 

-Hair continues to get longer

-Adds nose piercing

-Eyes start to blacken from reading statements?

-Has tea cup & cow lobe earrings

-Has pocket knife

S4

-Body is waterlogged & frostbitten in certain areas

-Hair is pale copper, with white tips

-No piercings 

-Hair is longer, damp, and limpish

-Bangs in eyes to hide face somewhat 

-Blacksuit to be professional 

-Looses a lot of weight 

-Skin is pale, almost white. Ashy?

S5

-Hair has patches of white 

-Hair got it's poof back

-Hair is back to normal copper color

-Wears hair in ponytail 

-Cut bangs shorter

-Is still thinner than S1, but has gained a little weight since the end of S4. 

-Got a lip piercing, put all other piercings back in

-Wears whatever he wants

-Has patches of white and some black on skin

-Skin is mostly back to it's normal brown

-Link to dress: https://rebelrestyle.com/collections/new-arrivals/products/versace-v2-strappy-90s-dress

*When I was looking for an outfit for S5 Martin's outfit I specifically looked for a few retail stores in Edinburgh, and picked out actual clothes from there. Don't get me wrong, I love all the art of them wearing comfy clothes during the apocalypse, but for my Martin I wanted him to rock a dress.

To add to this I like to headcannon that Martin wears jumpers, dresses,skirts, and overalls through out the seasons. I am a firm believer in Martin wearing whatever the fuck he wants.

[transsexualhamlet]

I’ve never been part of an ask game before and cannot currently remember what any I’ve seen looked like — probably because that information would be useful rn, do I just type the emojis out like this? Can I do multiple? Idk, but uh — thank you for this, I like your questions they’re really nice, and also here

💔👁️🏛️👋

Thank you again, sorry if I’m doing it wrong, or if this was for a specific group of people and I missed that (I’m just gonna stop typing now, bye ^^ thanks again)

No worries at all! Ask games are for anyone who wants to participate. If you want to receive asks about these as well as asking them, all you have to do is reblog the post so people know you're interested.

tma ask game !!

💔- I have already answered this one, but my answer as to which fear would create the most datable avatars I would say either the vast or the buried, depending on if you prefer heights or small spaces. They don't have any traits that would immediately make them immediately unbearable and I sort of see the romance in both. Maybe I am a little bonkers but yk...

👋- What characters that don't meet in canon would you like to see interact?

Obviously Jon and Gerry did technically meet, but not while Gerry was alive. I've seen people say this before of course but it's such a shame, I think they could have been a really good really supportive duo for each other.

In seriousness though, Alice and Tim. This is the answer for me, because the problem is neither Tim nor Alice have anyone in the office that can match their freak to the slightest. My god they would have gotten on so well. They would have been insufferably catty besties, why do they have to live in different universes...

🏛️- How do you think you would fare as the Archivist?

I honestly think I'm more qualified for the position than Jon, at least I have job, volunteer, and college experience with libraries and archival. However the problem is that it has very little bearing on the actual job because your actual job is trying not to die hardcore all the time.

I think I would make... similar decisions to Jon for the most part, other than not being as much of an asshole to Martin. Jon's not much less of a wimp than me, so at least I wouldn't do *worse* physically. However because of the fact that I am largely tiny and powerless, I would... hesitate a lot less to take on avatarhood, because to me the moral quandry just goes out the window when the other option is "people are trying to kill me and everyone else painfully". So what if I get a little nosy. Admittedly I would also think it's cool as fuck.

👁️- Do you have any experiences you'd like to make a statement about?

I've had several low-key encounters that have baffled me over time, and if I had to place them into TMA categories most of them would have been spiral aligned, but the one that comes to mind first is... weird?

This was back last year, either during Thanksgiving or Winter break, I was out on a walk in the woods with my brother on a vacation up north and we kept hearing these extremely faint repeating strings of circus like music. I know, I know, however this occured before I had listened to TMA or had any associations with circus music. Looking back on it, though, if I had to correlate it, it felt almost more in tune with music related to the slaughter than the stranger. But so at first, only I could hear it and my brother was like... you're crazy, and then it sort of trickled away after a little bit and I was like yeah I must have just imagined it because we were in the MIDDLE of the WOODS. But then it came back again and it was the exact same like, four measure sequence but slightly different? That time my brother did hear it, but it disappeared again. We continued to walk quite a ways thru the woods on the path we had already planned on going, and we forgot about it for a while, but eventually it came back, no easier or harder to hear despite the fact that we were quite far away from where we had originally heard it. It came back a couple more times, always just slightly fucking Wrong in a really weird way, never exactly the same but never part of any like, real conceivable song, just a string of notes that most definitely came from instruments and not natural phenomena, and as soon as we left the woods we didn't hear it again. The only thing we could think it might have been was like, the college band practicing, since we were like... kind of closeish to a state school campus, but it was during a holiday when college was most definitely not in session, and the only part of campus we were even remotely close to was the science and medical sector which would obviously not have a band practicing, not to mention outside and loud enough to be heard a mile away. Even if for some reason there was a band practicing there, there were unreasonably long periods of silence in between the repeating music (I know how band practices go, they don't sound like that) and neither does it explain why the music couldn't be tracked to any location and sounded the same nearly a mile apart.

Not terribly *frightening*, really, especially since I was not alone and it was like, 4 PM, so it wouldn't make very good Archivist food, but certainly something that I keep thinking about.

Thank you for asking again!!

[itssomethingcosmic]

mag 119 - stranger and stranger

This is always such a weird and delightful episode! There is cheerful carnival music, Nikola and Sarah are really having a grand old dance while the archives crew are Going Through It — that juxtaposition is where the true horror of the Unknowing lies and it is all thanks to the BRILLIANT VOICE ACTING DONE BY EVERYONE!!!

Join me for a dance under the cut? 🎪💃

I’m so normal about the theme change I swear…. the ONE and ONLY time the TMA theme changed is for episode about the great Unknowing of All Things?? Fantastic. Show-stopping. Spectacular. I want to Dance along with the Strangers!!!

Though now that I think about it… it would have been really cool if there was a theme change for each Domain in season 5. I understand that would’ve been a LOT of work, plus the 14 other Fears don’t always lend themselves well to music, but what I AM saying is we could’ve gotten a Pipe or Metal version for the Slaughter…

“sometimes I think I’m just not built for names” — the Stranger is so gender

Jonny getting his parents to call his own character “a disappoint” will NEVER stop being funny!!! 🤣🤣🤣

something something Hope is dead something something all hope is lost something something TMA is a tragedy

This “I see you” is sooo good!!! It’s so quiet and soft, like Jon is surprised that Seeing is actually working for the first time, but also he is so amazed with just how simple Nikola’s story really is! Nikola never gives a statement because it would be against her nature to reveal what’s behind her many masks, so Jon does it for her. She only tries to deflect with a “Not always!” before turning it back around on him.

I loved the slight nod to the Anglerfish in this episode! Something I haven’t noticed before but I think it finally clicked in my mind that Sarah was meant to play that role in this standoff at the end. The transcript is a little wrong; I think what Nikola actually says is “You can have your little lure within every dark corner of the whole world!” (that makes more sense to me anyway… it definitely doesn’t sound like “girl”)

I don't care what Nikola or Tim think… that WAS funny!! Jokester to the end! 😂😭

@a-mag-a-day

[chaoticpinetree]

SO THE LAST TWO EPISODES OF SEASON 1 HUH *screams*

'I refuse to become another goddamn mystery' *screams louder*

Jon: If I die, wormfood or… something else, whatever, I’m going to make damn sure the same doesn’t happen to me. Whoever takes over from me is going to know exactly what happened. Sasha: You don’t think that would… put them off? Jon: *bitter laugh* I hope so. Only an idiot would stay in this job. Martin: Wouldn’t that make you an idiot? Jon: Yes, Martin, that was my point. Lmao. But also damn. Damn. Damn.

OH MY GOD HE'S EXPLAINING THE SCEPTICISM 'Of course, I believe. Of course I do.' :AAAAAAA 'Because I’m scared, Martin! Because when I record these statements it feels… it feels like I’m being watched. I… I lose myself a bit. And then when I come back, it’s like… like if I admit there may be any truth to it, whatever’s watching will… know somehow.' OH MY GOD HE FEELS WATCHED. AND HE LOSES HIMSELF?????

AFTER ALMOST 40 EPISODES OF BEING THE SCEPTIC. HE'S ADMITTED IT. AND IT'S SUCH. A. THING.

I was wondering about it like a bit but not too badly. Because you know how there's this big difference in Jon's voice when he's reading a statement vs before and after, when he's adding his comments or whatever else. And... Well. It makes sense from our point of view, when you look at it as a podcast, because well, it's a podcast and it means that the voice has to be interesting to us as listeners, to set the atmosphere and all that. But from the in-story perspective... It didn't make a lot of sense. Why would he get so into these statements if he's then denying all of them as soon as he's done? And I mean, I guess the reason for 'why' still wasn't given, but at least the shadiness of it all is, well, clear as something in-story and not just, you know, because the podcast needs to sound nice to us.

AND NO THE TABLE NO SASHA NOOOOOO LIKE EXCUSE ME they were giving the voice actors for every character after the last episode of season 1 and they just gave. A new. Name. For. Not Sasha. Which, you know, really confirmed it, because I had my doubts like what maybe I'm hearing wrong. What no. No no no no. That was so obviously the same table that got Graham in like, 3rd episode of something, and now Sasha, noooooo. Is she dead or is she like idk, somewhere else but alive? But these things made a lot of people die so I guess I should assume that she's dead. So sad :C

AND THE TAPES. I actually noted down the numbers when Jon said which tapes disappeared and then I looked which episodes those were and one of them was the one where Sasha gave her statement and I am not sure about the other one because you know, I'm not gonna relisten to it now, but it could be the one where Sasha interrupted Jon, and this would mean that the tapes that disappeared were the ones on which her voice—real Sasha's voice—had been recorded. So now they just... Have no proof.

BUT ALSO when Graham disappeared, that one random person remembered that wait this is wrong. And nobody else remembered. But one person did. And I'm kind of wondering if anyone's gonna have a 'wtf that's not Sasha' moment. Clearly not Jon, clearly not Tim, clearly not Martin. If Elias did—Not Sasha did say that he looked at her strangely—then I wouldn't trust his ass to say anything anyway. But ye. I'm wondering.

And they found Gertrude's body. Damn. I kinda hoped that she would be alive when that bit was told about her being missing and not actually dead. But she's dead and damn. That's. Well, something.

Sooo a lot of things happened. Like. A lot.

I have to say that I hadn't expected to actually succeed in listening to TMA when I started because idk I guess podcasts as a format aren't that much my thing. I get distracted so easily and I need to be doing something that does not require me to think if I am to actually focus on what's being said. Plus I'm not a fan of horror. None of the stories were scary to me yet and usually I don't find horror scary in general, it's just not interesting, I guess.

But this. Is so. Cool. I just. Akgfdjhgd I get excited about every little piece of connection and every little hint at the bigger things going on and everything everything everything.

[laundry-room-minty]

Whenever I'm listening to a new podcast the characters look like one of those gingerbread cookie cutters. Just the vague shape of a person for a kid to color in.

And usually that cookie cutter never actually gets filled in. Like maybe it gets some clothes, I usually have a vague idea of an outfit for a character. But like eye color, skin color, hair? No idea. I can tell you exactly how tall I feel like they are in comparison to other characters. Sometimes it is confirmed that a character has long hair or a certain color and even then I just cannot picture it.

My favorite though it sometimes the character just isn't really human in my head. Logically I know they are, but my head they are just this placeholder image.

Like Jay from Syntax is just a little white and black spotted/speckled rat with one big black spot over his right eye. Just this sweet little rat then then got rabies.

It's partly why I like Frall from Life with Althaar so much. Cause my brain went: Oh hell yeah I can picture a shimmering cloud. That is EASY. Do not know what a single other character looks like but I know what Frall looks like so much.

Jon Sims from TMA? Was literally just a stock photo in my head with the watermark logo still over it.

What this does mean is usually when I see fan art I think all of it is so fucking cool and then go: They don't look- well actually maybe cause I don't know what is wrong. And if I see a certain trait or image enough that becomes the placeholder for the character in my head.

I think it's also why a lot of the horror podcasts aren't super scary for me? Cause they are describing this monster or trying to leave it to my imagination and it's just water off a duck. I'm vibing not a single image in my head as I chop up chicken for the grinder.

But then I get the Silt Verses. And all of a sudden I can see Carpenter like she is standing right next to me and I've seen her every day of my life. She isn't just a drawing/image someone else has put there. I can see her skin covered in sun spots and moles, cracking and starting to sag in places. I can see all the crow feet and frown lines built into her face. I can see her hair a yellowy dirty blonde that is only so light because of the sun, there is some white/grey starting to come in that also makes it look lighter. Consistency is straw and thick. Often pulled back into a braid that is then ignored for a week or two until too much pulls out that she has to redo it. I cannot tell you her eye color but that is because I don't even know my own eye color. Her hands are covered in callouses and have a firm grip. She is about 5'6" in my head.

And I was trying to figure out why the fuck I had such a clear image for her. And then I realized that I literally grabbed my old no nonsense horseback instructor and went: Here.

[catfishofoldin99colours]

Daisira and Scarian (god i hope i got that right?) for the ship ask game 👀

Clair I love you SO much 💜💜💜 (and YES you got that right!!)

Ok SO

Daisira: SHIP IT

What made me ship it: big scary murder werewolf has one (1) person she is weak and will bend for, what the fuck is NOT to ship

Ok but fr I saw most of the daisira ship on Tumblr as I was getting into tma more and before I really got to the end of S3 and it just looked kinda cool, I think what really made me take off with it is that I just fell head over heels for daisy herself and went 'oh no I can also put blorbo in Situations with Feelings attached' and well it was all downhill from there

But since then I have thought more about them and I do really find daisira interesting as a duo, they're fun to pick apart in how they connect and what connects them and how much they know about each other and interact and why and what they're willing to reveal to the other and how much of their relationship can be inferred from really very limited interactions with each other in the podcast itself vs what they say to other characters

They're fun! They're interesting!! I also like comparing their relationship with their relationships with the other characters too - like how daisy perceives basiras attention and approval vs how she interacts with jon, and how basira's relationship with Melanie and Martin differs to her relationship to daisy and so on.

That also answers the question about what are my favourite things about it (aside from the fact that they make for good smut scenarios lol) so;

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I seen to be in the minority of people who hc daisy as taller than 5 feet sjdjsjajaj so that's probably it??

I mean I also hc daisy as transfemme which various parts of the fandom seem to disagree with a lot but. I do what I want and I'm not hcing her as that because she's aggressive and brutal like come on I know better than that jesus christ

Anyway! Onwards

Scarian: SHIP IT

what made me ship it: 3rd life. Not much else to say djsjja

What's my favourite thing about it: oh man, they're just Not Normal about each other no matter what you do - grians always dancing around scar like a pigeon on cocaine and whether it's in exasperation or excitement it's always just absolutely nuts to watch

And scar is just also not normal, I mean he's not normal in most scenarios and about most of his hermit friends but there's something about how he interacts with grian, either in hermitcraft or the life series, and they're just. God.

They just love each other a lot and it's so obvious how they're such great friends and how much they do love each other and I'm talking about irl interactions mostly but in lots of fic and art and au stuff they're just kind of insane to look at and the fact that they are so Not Normal in irl interactions they make for such interesting dynamics to play with in au stuff, it's FUN. God I love them so much

Is there an unpopular opinion I have about my ship?

Don't fucking get me started ohmygod - there's so much angst already and I actually don't mind that, angst is so good when done well and to their credit, most angsty fics I've read do a great job of balancing it with appropriate levels of fluff and emotional care and healing between them

It's just. There's part of the fandom. That. Idk. Babies both of them??? In the sense of 'grian can do no wrong' which sometimes also goes in hand with 'scar is a victim and unable to stand up for himself' (which is also especially egregious when the actual Minecraft youtuber is physically disabled and has been for almost his entire life like. Just say you think physically disabled people need to be infantalised) and it's just like. Shut up.

What I love about scarian is that they're BOTH terrible and complex and weird and yeah they have bad traumas (depending on what mcyt lore you choose to engage with for them both) that certainly can exist as explanations for their behaviours and attitudes but personally I find it more fun if they're also just Like That and just fucking weird about each other and kind of fucked up??

Ajdhjajaja that post that's like 'gay sex would make this situation worse but we should give it a shot anyway' AND that post that's like 'things that would be deeply unhealthy for any other ship but given its these two its Actually the best case scenario' like THESE TWO ARE JUST SO FUCKED AND WEIRD AND INSANE ABOUT EACH OTHER LETS LEAN INTO THAT and stop infantalising scar while we're at it and also stop making him just take shit from grian because he doesn't and he shouldn't and it makes me personally offended when I see people making scar just take shit from grian in fic and art and stuff

Anyway! There's my thoughts, thank you for asking ^^

[nerdypixel]

Okay I think you have a point. The women in tma don't get enough attention.

And this might be due to sexism, but I think there are more factors at play, especially if you consider that (from what I've seen so far at least) the women in the Magnus protocol get much more love and attention than the men.

I think it is a difference in who is at the center of the story.

Jon and Martin are the main characters. Elias/Jonah is the main antagonist. It makes sense that most stories include these three.

I also think that it is logical that most mlm fanfiction is about Jon and Martin, especially since the fandom is exploring a lot of different relationship things with these two characters specifically.

Jon's in cannon asexuality is explored and discussed in all the different forms it can take and this is a huge and important part of the fandom, as good ace representation is still rare to come by. Martin is a great exploration of depression and parental dynamics and insecurities in relationships. They are undeniably the main characters, so much of the fandom is latching onto them and dissecting them from many different angles.

The relationship between Georgie and Melanie just doesn't get as much screen time. It is established in a somewhat awkward, short scene in between major plot points, so it doesn't get focused on as nearly as much as Jon and Martins relationship.

Furthermore, it seems to be an overall healthy relationship, so there is no easy drama to write. (if you compare them to the other in cannon established relationships) So I think more inexperienced writers shy away from them a bit, because they have to do a lot more ground work to get a good story. Also I didn't know that their relationship tag was this, as someone who joined the fandom just last year. I agree they do need more love, as I think they ARE overall interesting characters, but I also struggle to include them in the fanfic I'm currently writing, because they get to live in the end. (I will include them in different AUs though)

Regarding ground work in setting a story... With Jon and Martin it is enough to say "this is set at point x in plot" and then just write a one shot set in the Archives. You don't have to set up anything.

Another thing to consider is that there are a lot of one shots out there. A general rule in writing is: The more characters you include, the longer the story will be!

This is because you need words to describe what each character is doing. So a lot of one shots only feature two characters at most. In case of this fandom, the two characters in question are most likely Jon and Martin, as they are the main characters and the main relationship, explaining part of why there are so much more mlm fanfiction.

Also... Peter and Elias do have this weird relationship with each other and that gets featured a lot, as well as the weird dynamic between Jon and Elias. Hot, somewhat creepy villains are just fun to explore.

Now regarding specific characters.

I think that Sasha gets less attention then Tim for example, is because she died so early. Don't get me wrong, I love her a lot, but she is not nearly as fleshed out as Tim and her dynamic with the others is not as well developed. Wich means there is a lot more potential there, but it also means, that as a writer, I'm scratching my head a lot, trying to get her characterization right.

As an artist I have a different problem. That is finding a good design for her. Somehow she always looks wrong, when I try to draw or picture her, wich is kind of in cannon, but it also means, it's a lot of frustration. Frustration I don't necessarily have with drawing Jon or Martin or even Gerry for that matter.

When you compare Gerry and Georgie, then you are right that Georgie gets more of a speaking role and I do think she is crucial to the plot, because she took Jon in and his relationship dynamic with her is important characterization for him. She is also super important for the whole later part of the story.

However, it would be unfair to reduce Gerry to only his speaking role (wich was phenomenal). First you have to acknowledge that his speaking role was plot deciding. He was the one to really explain things and make sense of things and helped Jon a lot with his statement, moving the plot forward big time.

He is also a really tragic character. And gets a lot more characterization (and a cannon design) through the statements. He is in a lot of them, doing badass, mysterious stuff. His first introduction is as early as episode 4. We don't get to hear Martin until Episode 22. Gerry sets a lot of things in motion. His relationships to Gertrude and Mary are interesting to speculate and talk about. You can analyze a lot of stuff there.

Also Jon pronouncing his name as Jared and the confusion that lead to is at least part of the tags.

The difference between Helen and Michael might be because Helen gets more depth.

Michael is mostly fun and his laugh is iconic. His relationship to Gertrude is an interesting factor the parts of the fandom I've seen want to explore more. Personally I find Michael more fun to draw, because he is described in a way, that burned itself into my head. I'm also friends with some people who go absolutely feral about Doorkeay (Gerry x Michael) so that's part what influences me as well.

Helen is more fleshed out and definitely interesting and I will draw her more soon, but I also don't like her as much. She is a really good character, but not as likable, because we see more of how she affects people. With her the manipulation and lies are much more clear and while Jon regarded Michael with neutral suspicion and caution, his relationship with Helen is more complicated, leading to him killing her in the end. Because we see the story mostly through Jons eyes, our feelings towards the matter get influenced by his, if that makes sense. So, I don't think she gets hated, but she is just not as likable.

That's another problem I see with Georgie as well. She gets hated, because we see how Jon gets hurt by her not helping him, when he would need her the most. She is making a completely rational decision, setting a boundarie and enforcing it at that point in the story, but because we are seeing it through Jons eyes, we only get the hurt and little to none of the rationality and many fans can't separate this.

Now I think there is the same problem with the Archival Assistants overall in the later part of tma. They are largely antagonistic towards Jon throughout season 4, wich is good writing and completely understandable and human of them, considering the circumstances, but that paints them in kind of a negative light when you are rooting for the wet cat Archivist.

I think overall the women in tma are just too capable, competent and badass to make fun off or put in silly situations, so they get featured in more serious stories. When I see them included in stuff, it is usually the more time intensive and well thought out variety.

And another point I haven't mentioned... Most of the women are not in the podcast from the beginning. That's a main difference I see with the Magnus protocol for example. In tma we get Jon for the most part of season one, a little bit of Sasha, then Tim, Martin and Elias. Melanie, Georgie, Basira and Daisy are established later, so they appear more as side characters, regardless of how important they are to the story.

Most stories that are set in season 1 will naturally feature more men, based of how tma is structured. With the Magnus protocol, we have a lot of badass (and wet cat) women from the start, so that might explain the difference there.

The focus is also different. There are many more dynamics established at the same time and even though Sam is one important main character, we also get to follow Gwen and Alice and Celia. There is not one or two main characters, but 4, three of wich are women.

Lena is also a really important part, similar to Elias.

So to conclude, this might not be a sexism issue, but an issue about who is at the center of the story. How is the plot framed. And wich characters are we supposed to be rooting for. I will not deny that sexism might play a role as well. I will not deny that the women in tma absolutely need more love and attention, but I will not put the sexism stamp on the entire fandom, when there are much more factors to consider.

It is more complex than just sexism.

Most fans are lovely people, who are obsessing over a handful characters out of a HUGE pool of them and yes some things come down to preference.

Tma has so many niches and so many characters to choose from. It is impossible to put the same attention and care to all of them.

Ok putting serious thought into this

SEXISM IN THE TMA FANDOM

[pt: sexism in the tma fandom]

There are a lot of female characters in tma, all very complex. Yet they dont get a lot of attention in the fandom, which I am going over

Ao3 is a good for this actually. This is the tma tag without any filter

The top character tag consists of 6 male characters and 4 female characters, with sasha barely being in the top 5. Hell GERARD KEAY a character who had a speaking role in ONE EPISODE has more fics than daisy, a character whos been in a large large amount of episodes. Georgie, someone who was in the majority of season 3 and parts of season 4 and 5, isnt even in the top 10

Along with that the top 10 male characters that have been tagged on fics a total of 51041 times, with top 10 female characters at only a mere 12199 times. The difference between those is 38842

The top ships tags has mlm at 15588 fics tagged as such with wlm ships being at 1830. That is a difference of 13728 fics.

And lets check tumblr

Here are 4 female characters in tma and their follower tags on tumblr

See thats all good now lets look at them men!

oh. well then

Shipping is not much better:

Jonmartin is so much more popular than wtgfs. And before someone says 'Well wtgfs dont get much in canon' there should be some people who actually acknowledge them

A more clear example is pitting Helen and Michael against eachother. Helen undeniably has more screentime, while Michael has around 4 episodes total? So lets see the results

And as expected it is again, much higher in the male category regardless of how much screentime he actually gets

Lets do another one, a male character that is barely in the series vs a female character that is in the series a lot

And theres so so much more, such as how all the women get demonized while the men get praised, Im just pointing out the clear unavoidable facts

So all in all even if the women DO get attention they still are horrifically overshadowed by the men. Hope you all had fun, please fix this the girls dont deserve it

Also I swear if one person goes 'The men are just more interesting' or 'I just have a preference theres nothing wrong with that' you are entirely missing the point. Having a preference towards men is sexism plain and simple, look at yourself and fix it

[radiosandrecordings]

I've seen a lot of discussions about the implications of drawing jon as brown and i figured you'd be the person to talk to about this? (you can ignore this if you don't feel like replying!!) so here's the thing - I'm brown and i really like brown jon. i like being able to project onto that. but yeah i think i get what everyone means when they point out things that are wrong with that. but on the flip side, white jon designs are a minority and it would also be weird to suddenly revert to drawing him as white, i somehow feel like that could also have implications. also I've lived through the age of white Cecil and that wasn't very great either.

which got me thinking - while i completely agree with the criticisms about the fanon designs, there isn't a clear solution to any as far as i can see? having both sasha and not-sasha be of the same ethnicity could be interpreted as the racist joke where white people can't tell poc apart. having them both be white would feel like I'm whitewashing the fanon designs which is completely stupid because they're FANON but i hope you understand what i mean? anyway ghfhdgs i hope this doesn't come off as combative, I've just been trying to figure these out for days and wondered if someone else had an answer. have a nice day!

I'm going to give limited opinions here because while it's nice you thought of me, I'm a white teenager and while I have extensive TMA and TMA Fan knowledge I am definitely not who should be giving The TakesTM on stuff like this.

I do actually remember the days where white Jon was the most common, and the shift to ~ambiguously brown Jon~, at least to what I saw, definitely took over art far faster than it did fics. Which to me implies it was on a very aesthetics based level rather than one of exploring what the text would be like with him as a POC, let alone any one specific ethnicity, which is obviously very emblematic of a lot of the problems of people just copying off the guy next to them's art and going "Look it's Jon, we can all recognise that it's him because he's got the same 3 or so traits each time" without thinking about how that actually reflects on their interpretation of the text. But, exactly as you said, it would be weird to suddenly have those artists redesign him as white. So I'm not sure if there's an actual answer there, at least not one that I can give? Something that fans can't even be entirely blamed for, because of course that kind of shit is going to happen if you have a white man write and play a character and then refuse to give that character a canonical race. It's going to become messy and it's just easier to write with a character's race in mind.

I get what you mean with Sasha/Not!Sasha and from what I've heard others say it's best to keep them the same ethnicity, but I don't think you can really white wash a fan design since it's a fan thing and white washing implies a sense of canon? I haven't heard anyone bring up the "white people can't tell POC apart" thing but I would assume that would only be a problem if you Sasha design was the only POC in the archives.

But again, I'm white so nothing I say here should be taken as instructional so if any POC want to add on with their opinions please feel free to do so.

[lyrebright]

I mentioned in my last TMA post that I wasn't sure if I wanted to take a break or go charging on ahead--well, the answer was both, apparently, because I did go charging on ahead, but then I hit MAG030 and halfway through had to take a break. I don't think I like the meat episodes.

I am jumping ahead here a bit but I just needed to get that out!! I was cooking beef mince for dinner while I was listening to that episode and it made me unbelievably queasy!! No Thank You!!

Jon's closing statement for it did get a chuckle out of me though. Yes, precisely, my thoughts too, my guy.

MAG027: I actually have immense paranoia about being alone at night so this one Got Me. Outside of the "oh I can relate to that" vibes though I honestly didn't find it very...visceral? I get the vibe from the writing style that the horror in TMA doesn't come so much from making you afraid as it does just simply making you feel, and this one was like. Too generic spoopy horror story to carry that through?

MAG028: another live statement! It's cool to get some further fleshing out to the worldbuilding; this is someone from an established YouTube channel, and also apparently the Magnus Institute has an established reputation, which. Hmm. Interesting.

I liked both the focus of the statement this time and Melanie King. Since the only other live statement givers we've had so far are the...first one? And two 'recurring' characters I wonder if that means they're all like...important? I'll have to to back to the first statement giver and remind myself of her name so I can keep an ear out for it in case she turns up again.

I hope Melanie turns up again too I like her and I wanna know more about her IRL spooky YouTube happenings.

In the first live statement I actually did feel like Jon was trying to be tactful in his words to the woman at the end and she simply took them the wrong way, but oh no the bitch energy came out full force for Melanie (she gave as good as she got though!)

OH I am looking through the episode transcripts as I write these to remind myself of what went on in them so I know what points I wanted to ramble about and that's right. Jon said something in the closing statement about Sarah Baldwin being a familiar name Hang On.

Yes I Am Going To Go Backread The Prior Transcripts What Of It

Oh I did. Not have to dig too deep I was just going to skim through them from episode one and There She Is.

Hmm.

Much to think about.

MAG029: this was an episode I listened to the same night as MAG030 and it was ALSO not a pleasant one to cook dinner to.

At least I wasn't cooking meat at the time? I was frying onions.

I don't have much to say about this one other than that I am Updating my Worldbuilding Databank.

MAG031: I actually just finished this one today (I also finished MAG030 today and it's still BLEGH) so it's a lot fresher in my mind. Also I was doing the dishes while listening, not cooking, so it made me feel MUCH less queasy.

Oh my god I know Jon like gets really into delivering those statements but the like. The poshness he slips into for this one had me cracking up.

Sounds like something that would happen in America, yeah.

The whistling hovered between sinister and taking me out of it entirely tbh. I do not think it would have felt nearly as cringe if Jon did not sing along at that part in the statement.

Like I dig the commitment but Come On. He was totally a theatre kid.

Closing statement was the most interesting part once more.

So it's been two months since Martin endured a worm siege and he's just living at work? That poor man.

Jon's work/home balance sounds atrocious and he does NOT have the excuse of living at his workplace get some sleep???

He sounds so like...exhausted ): and the worms keep just turning up...sounds like some psychological warfare to me!

Wormfare, even,

Does make you wonder though. Jon aren't you meant to just be archiving these? Digitizing these historical records? Jon won't people listen back to these for study one day and hear all the personal shit you are saying?

Imagine being a uni student in like. Current day listening through some tapes for, idk, your thesis or whatever (I have no idea how higher education works) and you get taken through this wholeass journey of this man being snide to his coworkers before worms and you are just. I am just l. I am just listening here.

I'm pretty close to the season one finale now!! I'm excited!! Worms!!