#like i know the scholar driven mad by eldeitch truths is a trope

[quantumcartography]

I finished The Magnus Archives 48 and here are my thoughts.

First off, the "monster" of this episode is honestly one of my favorites and most terrifying. Like a being that is just a throng of people gibbering in an almost language whose faces are all this muddle of anguish sweeping you up and utterly forget yourself until you're just another nameless faceless selfless member of the crowd. Good shit.

In 47, when "Micheal" shows up, I was disappointed by Jon's lack of academic rigor by not elaborating afterwards about his encounter. Like that should be an attached statement to the original where he recounts the interaction and explains what happened. It's spookier to not, but to not describe him, to not explain how he got injured, to not extrapolate on his statements is just shoddy archival work. Maybe there's a companion recording somewhere.

Not to be a broken record, but I would kill to see their tagging system. Like, so many mysteries they don't seem to mention would make so much more sense if they had a tagging system that would let them view them all together. Statements involving insects, involving impossible geography, involving Gerard Keay, involving electrical disturbances, involving Jurgen Leitner, like that's super valuable stuff!!

Also, "Michaels" statements clearly imply that there are multiple entities in conflict. The attack of Jane Prentiss, the replacement of Shasha, and the building being built on an attempt to build the Panopticon implies that the Archives are already devoted to one of these entities and multiple others are attempting to make plays against it. Likely the Eye considering the nature of the Panopticon. But that's based on spoiler information.

This is only reinforced by the fact that one of the earlier episodes noted a clear tie between sacrifices to one of these entities and one of the Archives major donors.