#the oiar

[cult-of-the-eye]

lena kelley could run the magnus institute but elias bouchard couldn't run the OIAR

[mechanical-v1scera]

the difference between (Jonah)Elias and Gwen Bouchard is so funny to me because Elias will say he’s better than you while possessing near godly power that can (and almost does) bring about the end of the world and Gwen will say she’s better than you while possessing mommy issues and a mental breakdown

[transrevolutions]

expanding on my previous post actually every single oiar employee (including lena) is autistic they all just have different and clashing presentations. that "weird interview" celia and sam were discussing in episode 6? yeah that was just lena attempting to give a poorly-disguised diagnostic test.

[phemiec]

the OIAR in all their doomed glory 💀 goal for this was complementary designs for the ships (I’m possessed by the Dyhard entity whoops 🤷)

[thymetravellor]

The O.I.A.R was created by a madman

[thanatos-zagreus-shagreus]

Okay time for some theorizing:

I'm rather sure that the OIAR (Office of Incident Assessment and Response) was made solely for the reason of looking out for the weird stuff happening, and being able to enact the Protocol when necessary. Its name literally says that it assesses incidents and responds when necessary.

Now, the OIAR might have just been looking out for the weird stuff of this world, which might still be based around Desires. But it does so through scouring the internet, and looking at absolutely EVERYTHING. They have probably made some kind of deal with some kind of power to even be able to do that, seeing as they also make deals with / hire different Externals.

All of this does make the OIAR very Eye-like, but here comes the theory: I think that the OIAR got like that entirely without the presence of the Eye. I think that when the apocalypse ended in TMA, and the Fears escaped, they escaped to this world (at least partially). When the Eye arrived it would have immediately been irresistibly drawn to the OIAR, which was already so incredibly Eye-aligned. Because the Eye was so drawn to the OIAR's spying system that it uses to spy on the entire internet, that's exactly where it went. I think the Eye didn't even really go for the OIAR, but specifically for their computer system. And then, in the process of going for the system, that's exactly where the Eye's avatars that it took with it to this world went.

This is why Jonathan and Jonah are stuck in these computers: because the Eye was drawn to this system, and pulled them in as well. Of course Martin would have followed, because he "couldn’t face the thought of the rest of my life never hearing him again".

[theosjunkdrawer]

Do you think FR3-D1 scans tumblr. Do you think the OIAR has to deal with tumblr posts on the daily.

[ultimate-marysue]

Any time the characters point out how convoluted the classification system at the OIAR is I just think "my brother in Christ, you should have seen the tagging system of my first Tumblr blog". I feel like tumblerinas would be the best for the job That's why Alice has been working there the longest.

[ravenwraithe]

its giving '___ needs their own warning tag'

im fucking dead

[lostwords-found]

"Would you have me separate the Corruption into insects, dirt, and disease? To divide the fungal bloom from the maggot?" - Robert Smirke, MAG138

"...Hold my beer." - The OIAR

[quiggel]

Possibly excluding Lena, every OIAR member is going through a different part of Jonathan Sim’s arc.

Alice and Sam are different parts of S1 Jon.

Colin is S2 Jon.

Gwen is S3 Jon.

Celia is S4 Jon.

[cult-of-the-eye]

every single tmagp character is into bdsm cause they all willingly work a government job and are therefore sluts for being punished

[mechanical-v1scera]

Why am i not surprised the cannibalistic hunt commander is the most normal external we’ve seen so far

[red-velvet-0w0]

NOT TRUE!

I will give you that sam is too busy trying to run an archive to get threw his workload, celia is busy being misteriously late, and colin in going insane, but the thing is Alice is the hardest worker in the OIAR. sure she puts 0 effort into her work and doesnt care about anything. but thats what makes her so good at her job. Everybody else, from sam to gwen are constantly behind because they care. they get invested. Alice on the other hand just leaves to make herself coffee. she ignores all of her work and doesnt give a damn about whats going on, which is precicely how the OIAR incentivises you to opperate.

there is a constant input of new cases, never giving you the time to dwell on only one for too long. there is no ways to search for cases or take notes on them because you are not supposed to care, only to move on to the next case. the organizational method is so boring and tedious that it removes any sense of mystery and replaces it with mundanity and repitition. the work is at night so when you start the job youre too tired to care too much, and by the time youve adjusted to your new sleeping schedule youve also adjusted to the cases themselves.

the OIAR is designed as much as possible to keep people from looking into things, and yet still only alice is able to resist the temptation, which is the only reason she is able to get through her caseload, while gwen, who is a much harder worker, cannot.

alice, looking into lena's office: what do you reckon she does all night in there?

gwen: her job, unlike you.

alice: i think she's playing cruelty squad.

gwen: ...

alice: look at the reflection on her glasses.

[murderandcoffee]

"mr. bonzo is one of our externals" I'm sorry, is that bitch getting PAID?

[neo--queen--serenity]

Lena losing her patience and furiously berating Gwen for potentially endangering the staff members of the OAIR is quite literally the opposite of how Elias ran the Archives.

Elias used the Archival staff—as well as his Archivist—as pawns that can be readily replaced as needed. His patron offered them minimal protections at best (the Archivist’s privileges notwithstanding), and even then, he would never actually intervene to save any of them if they were in danger, much less take precautions to protect them at their headquarters. They are used as bait, as sacrifices, as currency, as objects. The listener knows, eventually, how easily he could discard them if his plans called for it.

But Lena. This episode showed us that Lena keeps her entire organization running through keeping her subordinates hidden, safe, and unnoticed by the Externals. It’s quite clear through her conversation with Gwen that such a safety risk has never happened before.

As far as we know, Lena has successfully kept all of her employees alive, watched them come and go, bemoaned the turnover rate, and then got them to look the other way while they documented and dutifully filed the horrors.

But most impressive of all, she’s kept her real work hidden from her subordinates, and her subordinates hidden from her real work—a feat Elias had no interest or desire to accomplish.