#my credentials for this? I’m minorly obsessed with stories and I’m good at picking up narrative patterns and predictions

[sesquipedalian-aficionado]

Ok so. I have a thought on the Magnus Archives.

I think Jon is going to go through the rift with the fears, or (possibly worse) PART of him will.

Reasons:

The ending of the Magnus Archives seems (from my perspective) to be slanting in a meta direction. The whole “let’s send the fears into other dimensions”? While WE listen (and shudder) to a podcast spreading that fear?? Other people have made this meta concept already, and better than I could do it here.

Jon doesn’t want to leave all the universes receiving the fears to just deal with the same things their universe has been through. His main argument was ‘someday someone is going to do what I did and the apocalypse will happen again’. This is the main reason (I think) why he’s uncomfortable with the plan as it stands. He is clearly willing to sacrifice himself so the apocalypse doesn’t happen again somewhere else.

Jonny Sims, bless his heart, named his main character after himself. This means that all OUR information on the TMA universe is coming from ‘a’ Jon Sims, if not ‘the’ Jon Sims. This could be relevant if they are going in a meta direction.

Based on these points above, I was expecting someone in episode 199 to come to the conclusion ‘let’s send a warning along with the fears, so each universe will get them but also our story, so they can prepare and understand and be better off than us’. I was expecting that to be the bow on everything: we got the fears but Jon also sent through some form of warning through the Jon Sims of the multiverse, so we could be better off than he was. This warning turned into TMA, bing bang boom, nice wrap-up of everything.

But they didn’t. No one got to that suggestion, which means that if I’m picking up correctly on the groundwork that the TMA team has been laying so far, and it’s heading in that direction, then this is going to be either an accident or (again, worse:) a last-minute decision. My next points:

Annabelle said “Jon will lose [...] the parts of him that are The Eye.” Well that’s...concerningly vague. What, of his fear experiences and observations, ISN’T the Eye at this point?? He’s been giving all of those memories and experiences to the Eye since before he even knew that’s what he was doing. More recently, he’s been using his Eye powers to even get those statements in the first place.

Also!! Annabelle talked extensively about how they used his voice, his statements, everything the tape recorders got, to pull open the rift and set this whole thing up! Will all those recordings get sucked in, too? What would that do to Jon?

Annabelle said that Jon post-fears would be alive still, though I believe her exact words were “he will remain as he believes himself to be” which is about as ominous as it gets. Jon’s not coming out of this the same person as he is in ep 199. Some part of him is going out with the fears, but how much of him will they take? He’s given so much of himself to the Eye (coerced, via statements) and the Web (unintentional, via recorders), not to mention the other fears and his experiences with them. What of him, really, is left untouched by that? How deep is that connection?

And finally, my wrap-up point:

The Magnus Archives is a Tragedy.

I’m not sure exactly what that means to Jonny and the TMA team, but here’s the thing: this outcome has a TON of potential for Maximum Pain. This provides chances for the following (the following points are not quite evidence of my theory, but merely predictions on what they could do with this path)

Jon, deciding that he can’t live with himself without at least warning the other universes about the fears, decides at the last minute to throw himself into the mix. (Worst case scenario: he does this in front of a Martin unable to stop him due to preoccupation or incapacitation.)

Jon’s knowledge of the fears, his experiences with them, his own fear? All sucked through the rift. This could be EXTREMELY painful in combination with that thing Martin said in 199 about how they wouldn’t have ever found each other and fallen in love without the Fears and the Archives. Y’all remember Jon at Salesa’s? Not remembering things? Not knowing things? Confusion? Hey guys. Hey guys. What if he forgets everything he went through. He wouldn’t remember caring about Martin. They wouldn’t fit together any more but also - there would be a somewhat detraumatized, living (kind of?) Jon! Happy ending right? Except clearly not? Sounds tragic huh

Alternatively, Jon just dives right in. He’s not a fear, so he gets fractured throughout the multiverse. Each iteration holds just enough memory to write stories and warn their worlds about the fears, without knowing the truth of it or what he left behind. Meanwhile........Martin is left alone in their world. Thanks, I Hate It

Anyway that’s all the big evidence I could think of but here’s a couple points to add on:

Meta Bonus Points: this would be a fantastic, dare I say, web of interconnected hints about meta and touching universes and the origins of the TMA podcast within its own universe.

Jon gave Georgie the lighter. JON GAVE GEORGIE THE LIGHTER. This means that, if he did decide to do this, the Web (who admittedly is pretty against Potential Victims Knowing About Them) might not be able to see or stop him from doing it.

Jon had a goodbye with both Basira and Georgie. This doesn’t bode well for his chances. He didn’t have one with Melanie, but did we really expect one? Their exchange was fitting for both of them. (Or, if you disagree, maybe she’ll say goodbye at the beginning of the next ep).