#like manuela & her love of darkness is a v easy trans metaphor and thats FINE

[ofdreamsanddoodles]

a while back, i saw a person say that a lot of magnus archives fans saw basira and daisy’s relationship as a romance because they’re used to reading ya where the supernatural is a metaphor for like, forbidden romance or etc which leads to them kind of ignoring that, in canon, the actual metaphor is about police brutality and the monstrosity of that bloodlust & i think about that post when i see people misinterpret things i feel are fairly obvious

like, i don’t think anyone’s in the wrong for assuming a story will work like the last 50 books they read about the genre, but just because one line of thought would be right for a different piece of media doesn’t mean they’re right now. if tma was a YA novel, og elias might’ve actually been more important or more relatable, because a lot of people do genuinely like writing rich people with tragic backstories, but jonny was clear from the start that he never found elias interesting & emphasized in his statement that what mattered most to elias was that not enough people “realized” he was better than them. sure, there are lines about his dad being harsh and maybe, if this was about a different person, that actually would be a sign of neurodivergence, but that’s just not what this story is about! we’re not supposed to feel sorry for him in any way other than the fact he was chosen by jonah. but we’re also supposed to realize that jonah took him because he and elias are exactly the same