#the magnus protocol theory

[confused--cryptid]

Okay hear me put

what if the fears arent the fears?

like think abt it, the statements so far havent been very afraid.

theyve all been obsession/desires.

Statement 1: Obsessed with seeing him again

Statement 2: Desire to explore the institute (this ones a lil shakier)

Statement 3: Obsession with perfection

Statement 4: Obsession with his ex (who he killed)

also jonny said the fears had been reconfigured, which what if theyve been reconfigured into the desires.

[idkwhyyouaskingm3-blog]

Been racking my brain on why the person emailing Gwen would want Lena out of her position. That's probably why the emailer is sending Gwen this information

But what if that's not that. What if it wants out. It can read stuff on newer tech but it's stuck in the 90s business version of windows.

She gave him a pen drive. It's found a way out. She's basically given Trevor a virus. How bad would FR3-D1 be if it can do more than just witness horrors but create them

[nanaarchy]

HEY BABES so I was relistening to tma s4 and I couldn't help but notice how.. uhm...

THE WEB SENT JARED HOPWORTH REPEATED LETTERS WITH A NAME AND AN ADDRESS OF WHERE TO ATTACK SO JON COULD GET THE FLESH MARK?????

uhmmmmmmmm sounds familiar??? huh lena?? huh gwen?? thats a cool letter you send to your externals, huh?? so you can control the horrors??? on your little website software?? huh??

[elliekillsu]

SO theory time

We now have to cases of dead people narrating how they died to their greatest fear, as called out by Sam which gives two options

One; they are victims from the eyepocalypse come through to this universe

Two; the [ERROR] released from the institute Is somehow killing people with their worst fear and making them do this, which does seem to align with the idea the [ERROR] is a mess of all the fears, I mean it's literally making zombies and they narrate their death and worst fear that caused it

[theseuscloud]

Okay, okay, stay with me for a moment, I know everyone is going insane but listen to me for a bit, let's focus on the statement, BECAUSE

You know how Jonny said that the entities on tmagp won't be the same as the ones from TMA, right? Right.

We've got one already mostly figured out, being the one from ep 11, looking like the buried mixed with the vast. Fear of the sea, drowning, etc, thalassophobia in general and all that. People have started to call it The Deep, you remember right? Of course you do, you're a smart cookie, good job

There's also the one related with luck, gambles, and addiction. This one's a bit more fuzzy, but episodes 7 and 13, the dice man and the cryptobro, do paint a funny picture. I haven't seen anyone name this one, so I might as well call it The Chance

Stay with me here, darling

I present to you, and I think I may be onto something:

The Superior

Look, The name is a work in progress, maybe you could call it *the ideal*? if you've got a better suggestion, go ahead, but if not, let me explain

Related to the stranger, maybe the flesh or the lonely. We've already had two statements, ep 2 and now ep 17, where the horror has been something that looks like you, but is better than you.

Episode 2, the girl, Daria, hated how she looked, she tried everything to look better, to be better, she tried so hard she was, quite literally, consumed by it. She picked out parts of herself in a Dorian-Gray-esque way until there was nothing left just to live up to this ideal of herself. The ideal was the cause of her demise

Episode 17, doppelganger time baby! What does he find? A man, just like himself, just... Well, better. Rich, beautiful, cheery and welcoming. Well, an ideal self, wouldn't you say? He tried to learn from that ideal self, and then he found out, that the ideal of him was a murderer. Then he murdered him. Isn't that convenient.

This is just a theory, but it is a fun one, so what do y'all think?

[hikaaa-bi]

forget the "entities are desires in tmagp" theory, i raise you "the entities are still fears, but all of the entries we've received so far are from the avatars themselves and not the victims"

[spooksnett]

Recently realised not everyone knew who Lady Mowbray was before today

she was mentioned in the tmagp ARG (like Mr bonzo was)

we didn't know much about her other than she was very rich and she has agents (bodyguards? servants? idk) and when we were solving the ARG she sent one of her people out to specifically tell us to 'Stop investigating into Lady M.'

anyway she's really cool. I immediately clicked on to who she was and she's exactly what I was hoping for and she has dogs. what's more to love honestly. As a huge fan of the hunt and hunt related cases, I lay everything down for this women

also she knows the Bouchards. that can't be good! Rich people gathering when?

[ceaselessims]

someone mentioned a while ago that it's odd that (presumably, if sam is in the tma-verse) a universe without fears had a tape recorder click on without prompting,,,,

but the very last scene of tma, when the fears are supposedly gone, a tape recorder still clicks on by itself, at least a few days to weeks after jon and martin are gone.

the only difference is that basira, melanie, and georgie guessed (correctly) they were able to turn it off. something is still able to listen if it ever wants to.

sticking to the science element of the magnus protocol, perhaps what happened here is like a chemical reaction.

TMA is taking place under a hood, where the elements can be mixed and matched to create different reactions in a controlled environment. elias was able to make this huge big chemical reaction under the hood. He was able to calculate the equation so it would be unbalanced in favor of the Watcher.

This reaction was going to sustain itself until all of the elements (read: other fears) slowly blinked out of existence. Jon was going to be an accelerant, speed up the chemical reaction to make it die out faster.

but everyone else says to open The Hood, expose the reaction to the rest of the room. Maybe the reaction continues, maybe it doesn't. Maybe the elements are able to be recombined and it happens again, maybe they aren't. The only way to find out is to open it up.

and they do.

they open the hood.

and the reaction stops

the space allows for the chemical bonds to break and the reaction and chemical equation becomes balanced once again.

but just because the elements are balanced, doesn't mean they're all gone. they aren't in enough quantities to be harmful anymore, but that doesn't mean they're not still there

[teepussilakana]

why am i imagining Colin hiding under a blanket with a "Not Colin" sign stapled onto it in some supply closet this entire time

[real-life-werewolf]

the way fr3-d1 is now taunting sam with what can only be described as a literal tree of knowledge with actual forbidden fruit....

[mikasnazz]

Posting the autographs I got at the festival [which I am sosososo grateful for, Anusia & Ryan & Shahan are the sweetest and I’m so glad I got the chance to meet them!!] a with a little ramble underneath [i swear it’s something!]

There was a great Q&A held where people honestly asked fantastic questions I wouldn’t have thought of, I had my hand raised but honestly the only question I could think of in the moment was did Colin eat his fish.

He totally did, if you ask me, anyway

Back in the hotel and KICKING myself over forgetting my biggest question / thought about the Magnus universe in general, so I’m gonna share it!;

The extinction was made prominent as an up and coming fear in archives, obviously, and it was also made clear that there was no counter power or whatever — until protocol.

Jon, The Archivist, Chester, whatever you see them as, is the extinction. Ready to end everything for everyone on a whim.

Martin, Norris, A Vessel To The Lonely, the opposite.

Yes, he spread the fear — but he also spread humanity, humanity thrives and grows and is meant to be shared, and it is far from perfect.

Martin is humanity.

And Jon, is the extinction coiled around it.

Maybe in every universe the embodiment of the extinction and humanity fall inlove. Maybe in one of them it doesn’t doom their world.

— 👁️☁️ —

Honestly !! A concept I need people to write about, Christ, it’s just so MMM. Anyway. Thank you for listening =w=

[brettanomycroft]

Signals from Somewhere Else

After episode 22 of Protocol, there’s one thing (okay, maybe two things) that everyone is going to be talking about. But I don’t want to talk about that thing (yet. Okay, I lied, it might come up). Instead, I want to dive into some of the implications of this week’s case and how they might relate FR3-D1 [Error], and even Isaac Newton.

Spoilers for TMAGP episodes 21 and 22 below the cut. CW: we’re gonna talk about the brain stuff; probably overuse of the words “fleshy” and “wet” by I blame AJN for that.

Our case in this episode, graciously recounted by Peepaw Augustus, focuses on real-life German psychiatrist and neurologist Hans Berger, whose work led to the invention of the EEG and furthered our understanding of how brainwaves work. The experiment described in the case mirrors actual experiments that Berger completed while working at the University of Jena, including experimentation on a subject with a deformity that allowed easy access to the brain and the placement of silver wires under the scalp to measure electrical activity. Even Berger’s disappointing initial results seem to be in line with history.

Like in real life, the cosmic horrors of this case begin when Berger takes a little depression nap.

The description of “an ocean, deep and unforgiving… full of dark secrets” creates a striking image to be sure, but what’s more interesting to me here is what he recalls next: the “radio signals, invisible and unknowable.” Berger laments that it’s a “shame these two things would never meet,” and then proceeds to enable such a thing to happen, whether he realizes it or not.

He wakes up and is immediately “inspired” to alter the setup he is using to record Herr Schmidt’s brain activity. While Berger is unable to explain how he came up with the idea (we could tell him: it was The Horrors, bud), he transforms his recording device (an early version of an EEG) into a two-way wireless telegraph, using poor Herr Schmidt’s brain as the receiver for the very radio waves that, perhaps, were never meant to make contact with the world below. Berger sent a politely phrased request into the void, and the void screamed back.

Who or what was on the other side can only be guessed at. Was it John/Martin/Jonah, individually or Frankensteined into some horrid chimerical conscience (please read this great post and have your heart broken like me)? Was it The Fears of the Archives-verse, recombined and tossed about like naughty pears in a pear wiggler? Or was it something or someone else entirely? I’m leaning towards JMJ, in parts or as a whole, specifically because I suspect that Hans Berger’s strange (and wetly explosive, thanks Alexander J. Newell) discovery provides a clue to how [Error] and possibly FR3-D1 operate.

Let’s start with [Error]. Here’s what we know about them so far:

They were locked up in tunnels or a basement space under the Archivist’s office at the Manchester Magnus Institute

Something about them causes people, dead and alive, to recount their fears or horrible things that have happened to them (I am not using the word compel here, even though it is used in the transcript for episode 21, and that is on purpose)

They seem very invested in getting the entire story out (this is, admittedly, speculation, as it’s unclear as to whether “THERE IS MORE” is in reference to more victims or more of Gwen’s story)

They have some really weird dogs

I’ve seen a lot of folks speculate that [Error] is or was the Head Archivist in the Protocol universe, and I’ve also seen a lot of folks speculate that [Error] is or was John (and therefore also The Archivist). I think either of these could be true, but more than anything, I think [Error] is a high-powered antenna with the ability to turn the people around them into speakers. Or maybe Speakers? I do love a good capitalization.

What if the “esteemed brethren” of The Magnus Institute were all too aware of the unusual results of Berger’s experimentation, and hoped to tap into the unusual consciousness(es) floating around in the radio waves and ether of the universe by creating their own version? Perhaps they thought they could create a direct conduit (think almost like a psychic medium) through a person, someone who might be able to communicate with whatever is out there and be able to relay its/their esoteric knowledge to help further the Institute’s goals of “Universal Transmutation.” We know already that the Institute was interested in doppelgangers and perhaps alternate universes and that they had a lot of irons in the fire (the Millenium Dome, the gifted child programme, Welling’s Mutare Materia research program, the various outreach centres), so it would hardly be surprising if they were also experimenting in communicating with “the beyond” to try and gain more knowledge.

And maybe it worked. Maybe they were able to create or transmute someone into an antenna, capable of receiving these strange signals, except these mixed signals were too powerful and ultimately took over. Perhaps [Error] is the natural consequence of who or whatever was speaking to Berger finally getting “OUT.” And if who or whatever was speaking to Berger happened to include the fractured consciousness of a hungry Archivist, well then, we have an interesting case for [Error]. [Error], whether or not they were an/The Archivist in this universe, could now be directed by the desires of The Archivist, channeling The Archivist’s thoughts and abilities but with a power greater than that we ever saw in John (or, perhaps, the same power but completely unrestrained by his remaining humanity). Or [Error] could be channeling The Fears themselves, bringing parts of them through not unlike they were brought through in The Magnus Archives.

Either way, I doubt that creating a connection between whatever was out there and the physical world led to the results the Institute was hoping for.

[Error] is receiving the signal to feed, but the signal coming through is so loud and so powerful that instead of politely asking to snack on some horror stories, coming into contact with them instead allows them to pick up on a person’s horrible experience and forces them to broadcast it to the world. It’s possible that, upon creating [Error] or losing control of [Error], those at The Magnus Institute locked them up and cut them off from the dangerous signal they were receiving… Sam accidentally poking a big hole in the floor (and the alchemical signals inscribed in it) could have reestablished the connection between [Error] and the force guiding them.

Now let’s talk about FR3-D1. We know that FR3-D1so far is that it

Is a “bespoke” internet software developed sometime in the mid-90s, apparently designed to search the internet for spooky stuff

Has German source code

Crashes, constantly, much to Colin’s dismay (? Or maybe he’s helping those crashes along to stop it from listening in… but that’s a theory for another time)

Has, within the last year or so of Sam joining the O.I.A.R., started running a text-to-speech program that reads certain cases out in one of three voices, two of which are familiar to anyone who has listened to The Magnus Archives

Occasionally has some unusual .JMJ errors

Seems to be “targeting” Sam with specific cases related to The Magnus Institute

Is believed to be “listening in” by Colin, Alice, and Sam (which is supported by what we know as the audience)

Has been working “better” since Colin has been on mandatory mental health leave

May have some connection to the Stasi, the secret police force of Communist East Germany before the fall of the USSR

Is assumed (by us as the audience) to have some kind of sentience

There are some other items (notably the spreadsheets found in the ARG that appear to be from or connected to FR3-D1and the emails Sam and Gwen have received) that could be connected to FR3-D1 but have not yet been confirmed. Yet aspects of FR3-D1 do seem to share some commonality with [Error], namely a level of sentience and the ability to locate the stories of people who have had horrifying supernatural encounters.

My speculation here is that FR3-D1 and [Error] were both constructed using the same premise or with the same goal in mind: to receive and channel the signals of entities or consciousnesses existing in or coming from “Somewhere Else”: FR3-D1 through a supernaturally or alchemically conceived software program, and [Error] through a supernaturally or alchemically conceived transmutation on a living human.

If this proves to be the case, then the results seem… distinct, albeit with the potential to be equally dangerous. FR3-D1 is more “controllable” and could potentially be better able to separate out the signals being received, manifesting as “Augustus,” “Chester,” and “Norris.” Now these “three” could still be part of homunculus-esque JohnMartinJonah consciousness, but perhaps the computer program is a little more stable and delineated than the fleshy wet mess of the human brain, and therefore what remains of each individual consciousness is able to act more distinctly and independently. In contrast, [Error] (and their fleshy wet mess of human brain) is receiving the signals all mixed and jumbled together, with no failsafes to keep them from “overloading” or being entirely taken over by The Horrors or JMJ or The JMJ Horrors. Given their spectral descriptions, it’s possible that fleshy human brain and body couldn’t take it anymore and, pun intended, gave up the ghost.  

[Error] could be, in some ways, a bodiless, mindless soul acting on a confused mess of instinct and hunger; FR3-D1 is then, perhaps, the elevated mind, in (more) control but disconnected from a body and perhaps from a soul. Given the heavy influence of alchemy in The Magnus Protocol and the importance in alchemy of the number three, the Tria Prima, and the balance of mind, body, and soul, there may be a third entity we have yet to meet who, like FR3-D1 and [Error], are tuned into these signals from beyond and is eager to reunite with the rest… or perhaps FR3-D1 and [Error] are looking for a body of their own to inhabit and find balance (Sam, anyone?).

I feel like I myself am beginning to mix the signals I started with, but before I attempt to wrap this up, I do briefly want to throw one more piece of spaghetti on the wall, because I think it’ll wind up being something: the mention, specifically, of the silver wire the Berger used in his experiment.

It was Dr. Caton who recommended that Berger use the silver wire, as silver is known for being an effective conductor of electricity. Silver also holds importance as one of the seven metals of alchemy and as a possible base metal in the creation of a Philosopher’s Stone. Perhaps equally important here is that the Diana’s Tree, also known as the Arbor Philosophorum, is created using a solution including silver (or more accurately, silver nitrate) and mercury (one of the elements in the Tria Prima)… yep, the (sort of) same spooky tree created by Newton in TMAGP 19, where Newton gave his dog an existential crisis and Robert Hooke was like “burn it all down.” The conclusion we could draw here is that silver is used in both TMAGP 19 and TMAGP 22 to connect organic life to the unseeable Knowledge of some other plane… with potentially disastrous effects.

Whether it ends up being the case that FR3-D1 and [Error] are big antennas wirelessly receiving The Horrors or I’m totally off base, it seems pretty clear that Hans Berger “tuned in” to an unusual—and dangerous—signal, and what’s more, enabled that signal to connect with the Protocol world in a way that likely never should have happened.

[idkwhyyouaskingm3-blog]

Is the MP definitely Trevor Herbert or is he the MP in the same way Elias Bouchard was the CEO of the Magnus Institute. I mean a homeless man would be an easy target or body snatching.

[mita-vittua-olivia]

Why I think Klaus the IT guy is behind everything.

i just came up with this theory while relistening (… again) and i feel like i might be onto something here. bear with me, i don’t know how long this post is going to be.

i have several pieces of evidence for this theory.

1. the emails

the mysterious emails coming from a gibberish email address have appeared quite a few times now; sam and gwen have both received several emails with information they were looking for. sam got info on the magnus institute, gwen got incriminating accounts of things lena did. someone is definitely trying to … help them (the emails eventually led to sam’s downfall, and i’m sure gwen won’t be very okay in season 2 either.)

i think the working theory most of the fandom seems to have about the emails is that it’s jon and martin (and perhaps jonah) sending the emails from inside of the computer, but i’m not too sure (partially because i don’t even know if i still believe it’s them in there, but that’s something for another post). i think there is a real chance it could be him; he’s an IT guy after all and i guess he could have a way to find compromising data? i don’t know but i believe it would make sense.

2. colin

this is an excerpt from episode 19, and while the mercury/sulfur/alchemy references are, again, something for another post, i found two things in particular very striking.

firstly, “he sees too much already.” colin is clearly talking about someone in particular, one person who presumably has control of the cameras, computers, and phones. not an organisation, not multiple people, he. singular.

while this could be anyone, the next sentence does make it clear to me who he is talking about (if my theory is correct, at least). “doing mummy and daddy stasi proud, i’m sure”.

for anyone who doesn’t know, the stasi (or Staatssicherheitsdienst = state security service) was the secret police of east germany who would spy on people by, among other things, wiretapping them and going through their mail - and the wiretapping part obviously reminds me a LOT of what’s going on at the oiar. now, this reference would make a lot of sense if it was in fact klaus who is behind things because, as we remember, he is in fact german. so the “mummy and daddy” part makes an awful lot of sense for colin to say.

and again, klaus is an IT guy, so i think he would definitely be able to hack the cameras and phones to spy on the oiar crew.

3. the lena video

the first (and last) appearance klaus had so far was in the video that was sent to gwen (by a gibberish email address; possibly one he made himself) where lena attempts to shoot him. while we don’t know the reasoning behind the attempted assassination, we know that lena is not an evil woman, we know she wouldn’t kill anyone without proper reason. as of episode 30, we know she only does the things she deems necessary, and if she felt like she had to get rid of klaus, something probably did happen with him; something that made her believe he could be dangerous.

i don’t know why klaus would spy on them, i don’t know what his motives or ulterior intentions could be, but i think it is likely he has something to do with it. let me know what you think of my theory or if you have any additional evidence :D

[shybiii]

Interesting that in TMAGP there's such a marked difference in the consumption of information. A main conceit of TMA was that learning about the Fears was a powerful tool, and obstruction of information was what ultimately doomed the protagonists in the first place. The OIAR's main protocol (haha) is censure and control of knowledge. The employees simply scan the case files for the basic information required to categorize a "statement," and then move on and not think much of it beyond that.

Compare this to even season one of TMA. While Jon was willfully turning a blind eye to everything going on, he was still thinking about them, making follow-up statements, remembering important names, etc. In short, he was to some degree using critical thought and analysis at nearly every point. He was also, notably, forced to engage with the True statements because he had to read them out loud.

The OIAR, on the other hand, being a division of bureaucratic government (former military, I believe?), actively discourages critical thought and engagement with the statements. They do not read the case file, a computer reads it for them in a random order drip feed. Their job is not to understand, but just to file it correctly and move on. Alice even encourages Sam to leave the room and do something else while the statement is being given, and then later "warns" him not to look too deep or think about it at all. The idea of it being a "boring no-thoughts government job" is repeated over and over and over. Turn your brain off, don't engage, be a drone. Sam has been hindered at nearly every turn trying to do the basic background research that Jon would have been able to do post-statement.

Knowledge is power in any Magnus Archives universe. The Institute made it difficult to acquire. The OIAR is actively hostile to it. Whether it's "for the greater good" or not, it is absolutely going to get these people killed.

[not-having-an-eldritch-blast]

At the rate things are going I feel like we're gonna get an Elias name drop but it'll be Gwen saying "no one in my family has that name, why do you ask?"