#the thing with dead characters (same what happened with tma & jonah) is that its way easier to just. lose that obsession

[devotedlystrangewizard]

i get so ridiculously obsessed with fictional characters sometimes like girl shut up i have a french class to participate in i dont need the middleaged man in my brain

[kazperthegh0st]

RaTing TMA season 1 episodes

001: Angler Fish, the cigarette and disappearance one. Not very memorable. 5/10

002: Do Not Open, the will power this one man contains is greater than God, i swear. I probably would have opened that coffin tbh. 10/10

003: Across the Street, to be Grahm or Not to be Grahm, that is the question. Eating paper is not really my thing but you do you. 8/10

004: Page Turner, kinda boring to me but it introduces important people. 4/10

005: Thrown Away, it reminds me of that one short FNAF story where the girl finds her real body cut up in garbage bags. I liked this episode. 9/10

006: Squirm, I have no memory of this episode. 2/10

007: The Piper, All i remember is rats, a dead dude in a dumb ditch, and The Great War. It was a good read tho. 4/10

008: Burned Out, There was a Spooky Tree, an apple, and a box ( i think it had a necklace in it??). There is also the religious dude— i think hes also the jesuit dude that killed two people in a later episode but i could be wrong. 5/10

009: A Fathers Love, this one was so sad to me ngl. I have two questions: What happened to the mother (i know she died but theres gotta be more)? and also whats the necklace all about ( i might be crazy but wasn’t it in the box in burned out?)? I do think the dad is somehow innocent, like he was possessed or smth. 10/10

010: Vampire Killer, this was a cool, fun episode and I enjoyed the different approach to Vampires. 9/10

011: Dreamer, We hear some new stuff about what happened to Jon’s predecessor, outside of that its an ok episode. Elias is mentioned. 5/10

012: First Aid, don’t remember this episode at all but i looked at the episode tag on here and Gerry is in it so on principle it gets a 5/10

013: Alone, my mind is so blank about this episode. Jon was nice tho. 2/10

014: Piecemeal, i don’t remember it well but Tumblr tells me it was good. 5/10

015: Lost Johns’ Cave, this reminded me of those tiktok videos about idiots who get stuck in caves. But at the same time this episode was deeply unsettling and sad. 10/10

016: Arachnophobia, proof that spiders do not die no matter what you do. Lazy ass cat ( Major Tom, great name, unintended David Bowie reference ) 8/10

***All previous thoughts were made well after the episodes were read so i could be wrong or forgetful regarding some details.***Future thoughts will be made immediately after, or the same day as reading the episodes.***

017: The Boneturners Tale, more of the weird books. I think there was arson in this episode (?) 5/10

018: The Man Upstairs, This one was absolutely disgusting (in a good way?!?!) it made me want to throw up but at the same time was sooo cool. 8/10

019: Confession and 020: Desecrated Host, putting these two together. Why is there such a strong theme of cannibalism and removal of body parts in this podcast? It was really interesting and well written. 8/10

021: Freefall, not that interesting to me ngl. It wasnt bad tho 5/10

022: Colony, MARTIN!!! A real character! He is a sweet innocent baby who can do no wrong. The episode itself was super unsettling. Who is the woman again tho?

023: Schwartzwald, this was boring, sorry. I know i should have found it more interesting cause its a letter for Jonah Magnus but it just wasn’t appealing to me. 2/10

024: Strange Music, I love the aesthetic of Pipe Organs, always have. (Why is it now in the institute?!?!) the creepy dolls and the circus clowns were cool. I love that the movers came back again, kinda odd but thats expected. 10/10

025: Growing Dark, not too memorable but there is now another missing person. (Yay). 4/10

026: A Distortion, SASHA!!! Another Real Character! Nothing had better happen to Jon or Martin or else. I love them too much. Micheal seems interesting too. 8/10

027: A Sturdy Lock, the first episode I listened to while reading the transcript. Is there or is there not a lock on that door? Bro should invest in a pet tho. Average episode but still good. 7/10

028: Skin Tight, wasn’t Cambridge Military Hospital in another episode? Also who is the archivist? The voice ( im listening and reading ) is different from Jon’s and is not female so not Gertrude. Sarah Baldwin is also a familiar name. Skin peeling. Lovely. (Sarcasm) 10/10

029: Cheating Death, reminds me of 007. I think its neat that the person making the statement had the Institute write it for him. This was a cool story. I like how much of it was a folktale and then it took a turn. 10/10

030: The killing floor, oh the delights of the meat industry. What was up with Tom Haan tho? Why did he kill himself? Why is there a living meat pile?!?! 10/10

Shortly after listening to that episode i made steak. While making steak i listened to the next two.

031: First Hunt, I kept thinking of that “Run Rabbit” song. Im glad humans dont have natural predators. But as an American (unfortunately) as soon as I heard where this was and the guy made note of the whistling… I knew he was screwed. Jon is so dissmissive tho. First episode where i only listened to it. 10/10

I have no idea why the previous story made me decide to cook steak.

032: Hive, this wasn’t much of a real statement but proof that Jane is crazy. It was just “insects do be buzzing” the noises in the background were upsetting. (Listened only while cooking a steak) 10/10

033: Boatswain’s Call, We meet Peter Lukas ( who may or may not be Elias’s Husband? I saw it in a Tiktok ) and I think it was slightly unsettling how they all loaded into the lifeboat. Did they vote the dude out or something? (Read and listened) 8/10

034: Anatomy Class, body snatchers named John/Jane Doe traumatize a professor. I love how they’re all trying to pump their hearts to figure out how they’re supposed to beat. Im a big fan of anatomical sciences. (Read only) 10/10

035: Old Passages, It’s Gerry on the hunt for Leitners books! Another dead person and some secret passages. What happened to Jon. Why did the Delivery Duo Dudes show up with a package for him??? (Read only) 10/10

036: Taken Ill, the episode itself was boring to me but the end was interesting. Why is there a lighter, that i assume has connections to The Web? What does Elias want with it? (Read only) 7/10

037: Burnt Offering, boring. Sorry. Could the wicca and voodoo stuff in the woods be related to Jane? (Read only) 5/10

038: Lost and Found, This was Sad. Important things go missing, more so they cease to exist, until eventually its the Husband. Jons fear of spiders returns. And now for the end of Season 1. (Read only) 10/10

039: Infestation, I did find it funny when Jon called himself an idiot. Martin just needs to let my boy Jon be in (SEVERE) denial. Jon is being watched (the eye!) Tim is so excited that he almost died. Its odd. Oooh its Not Sasha! “Archivist.” “Shit.” (I listened to it and then read the transcript) 9/10

040: Human Remains, what did Not Sasha do with the tape… I do know what happened to Gertrude so Elias acting the way he does in this scene is funny. (I listened to it then read the transcript) 9/10

Really good podcast. I liked it.

— are the secret passages from 038 connected in anyway to the tunnels around the archives?

— what was it that got sasha in the end and is real sasha dead?

— does gerard start to pop up more often? As an actual cast member?

— what was Jane looking for in the written files?

[suttttton]

20 and 21 for the fanfic writer ask game?

20. What feedback makes you the happiest to hear?

probably when people say things like, 'i've never thought about this ship/trope/concept before but now I'm obsessed' (especially when the ship in question is jonsasha, i LIVE to spread jonsasha propaganda)

i also get really happy when i get feedback from people who have read and enjoyed several of my stories. especially comments about common tropes and themes i use in my writing that they really liked. my favorite comment ever is this gem that i found in the Little Black Bird bookmarks:

("If I had a knickle for every time i read a forest creature jon! Gets turned into a human to be jonah magnus' husband fic, i would have 2 nickels. Which isn't a lot, but its weird that it happened twice, and i really hope it'll happen again cuz they both rocked. Edit: holy fuck theyre by the same author!")

I have never laughed so hard at a comment. i look at this whenever i'm feeling down and am just like, yeah i sure am the queen of this hyperspecific trope!

21. Is there an idea you’ve always wanted to write, but haven’t yet?

I've got a few, but in honor of the TMA finale anniversary, let me tell you about my idea for a somewhere else fic:

so martin makes it to somewhere else, and the very first person he meets up with is somewhere else!gerry. obviously gerry has no context for the Fears, but he witnesses martin coming through the rift along with a collection of horrors, so it doesn't take much to convince him that martin is telling the truth about alternate universes and whatnot. he lets martin crash on his couch for awhile, and they end up forming a ghost-busting team to try and protect people from the Fears

so where's jon in all this, you ask? ummmmmm he's dead. really. actually. he's dead. his only presence in the fic is as a corpse and in martin's memories. the entire first section of the fic is just gerry awkwardly trying to be sympathetic while martin is nearly catatonic with grief. (and then when martin has recovered a bit it's gerry awkwardly trying to figure out how to respond to, "yeah my dead boyfriend [from an alternate universe] would have been really excited to meet you, he was basically in love with you")

and like. this isn't a martin salt fic in any way (because i love martin with all my heart), but it does address the thing that most bothered me about the finale, which is the way none of the characters (except jon my love) seem to really consider that releasing the fears into alternate universes would do,,,,,, a lot of harm to the people in those universes, and i want martin to have to face the consequences of that choice

anyway, this was the very first fic idea that popped into my head after the finale, and i love it, but i haven't written it yet and maybe never will because jon is my fave and i would miss him :( (also no one wants a somewhere else fic where one of the boys just fucking dies)

[iceeckos12]

tma fic recs

I’ve seen a couple of fic rec posts floating around. since ive been reading so many excellent fic recently, i thought that id make one as well! please note this list is going to be 99% jonmartin. also buckle up, because this is going to get long.

Completed

the umbrella by Wildehack (tyleet)

"And to think—all of Jonah Magnus’ carefully laid plans, the centuries of scheming, the murders, the sacrifices, all of that work could have been completely undone if Martin Blackwood had gone back for an umbrella" - holdthosebees

Notes: This is probably my go-to fic if i want an apocalypse never happened scenario. The jonmartin is wonderful, as is the h/c.

Diary and Prenon-nous la main by luftballoons99

Diary summary:

Not for the first time since they ran away together, a camera reel of all the things they don't know about one another whirs behind Martin's eyes, and he can't help but look at all the sprawling magnetic tape and wonder if they’re going to wind up a romance or a tragedy.

or: Office parties, garage bands, and the joy of being known.

Prenon-nous la main summary:

They still haven't talked about it, any of it, not even to pass the time on the long train ride to Scotland. Instead, Martin fell asleep in the seat next to him, pressed into his side from shoulder to knee, and Jon thought about love confessions and verb tense and how the two fit together when you think you're dying.

or: Good cows, mediocre poetry, and other crucial topics of discussion.

Notes: Do you love impeccable safehouse jonmartin characterization? do you love characters grappling with the mortifying ordeal of being known? do you love softness so tender that it makes you want to weep? please read these fic. im begging you.

i’ll tell you about all the times i’ve smiled because of you by cryptidkidprem

Summary:

Martin thinks about their shoes, sitting beside each other on the floor by the bed. Thinks of the way Jon wears Martin’s cardigans more often than he wears his own, the way Martin’s started keeping elastics around his wrist because Jon always forgets his own when they go out.

He thinks about all the gentle touches and fussing over each other they’ve done, and how much is still to come over the next… however long Jon will have him.

They have a long way to go, an entire life to build out of the wreckage Jonah Magnus and Peter Lukas left them, but laying together in a comfortable, sleepy quiet, Martin thinks they’ve got a good start going.

Or, Jon quits the Institute, saves the world, and it turns out to be exactly what he needs in order to heal and start moving forward towards building a life with Martin.

Notes: how many times have i reread this fic? more than i can count. jon quits the institute and it’s just full of soft jonmartins. they get married! god i love them.

go softly by doomcountry

Summary:

And there is nothing else besides this.

Notes: every time i remember this fic i reread it. please heed the tags because martin is blinding jon, but he’s like. blinding jon in the most heartbreaking way possible. idk how the author made this so tender but i know i was certainly crying so!

The Reverb in These Holy Halls by  Wolftraps (AlwaysBoth)

Summary:

Undoing the apocalypse would have been enough for Jon, if all his people survived. Without them, Jon's only recourse is making it so it never happened in the first place. He's going to do better this time.

Notes: Do you like time travel fixits? i sure like time travel fixits. reverb is an excellent one. heavy on the h/c, I wanted to hug jon so so badly. 

Yesterday is Here by  CirrusGrey

Summary:

"Who the hell are you?" Jon could feel his hands shaking. The man laughed, taking a step forward and raising a hand to point at him. "I'm you, from the future!" he said, then swayed, eyes going unfocused, and collapsed to the floor in a dead faint. -------- Post-season-four Jon and Martin time travel back to the season one Archives.

Notes: Yet another time travel fixit! also excellent. the teasing was HYSTERICAL. also Im just going to say this now - CirrusGrey in general writes incredible tma fic. You can’t really go wrong.

unassigned supplementals by  bibliocratic 

Notes: I won’t put in a summary just because it’s a long series of oneshots, but bibliocratic’s writing is amazing. Again, you can’t really go wrong with one of their fic!

let the soft animal of your body by autoclaves

Summary:

Standing in the warm kitchen, slats of sepia light filtering through onto the counter in front of him, Martin doesn’t know what to do with his hands. He half expects them to go through the countertop entirely, glossy and solid as it is. He isn’t used to any of it, yet. The safehouse. Jon. Beams of sun pouring into his hands. After being deprived of everything of significance for so long, the longing that crashes over him is almost painful in its tangibility. He wants to laugh, to sob, to scream and hear it echoed back against the neat, square walls of the safehouse.

In the end, he doesn’t do any of these things. He makes eggs instead. He can do that, can’t he? Use his hands for something simple and plain and good.

(Or: In the safehouse after it all, Martin starts cooking.)

Notes: this fic really speaks to me a) because i project on martin like crazy and b) because food is also my love language. this fic is incredibly soft and it’s all about cooking!

“Have you tried turning it on and off again?” by shinyopals

Summary:

I hope you find your new role as Head of the Institute as rewarding as captaining the Tundra, wrote Elias Bouchard, to Peter Lukas. There are so many people working there: all with their own interesting lives, and all desiring your attention and support. I'm sure you will relish the challenge it will bring and enjoy every moment spent with the fine men and women of the Institute. In time I'm confident they'll become like a family to you.

The Magnus Institute has a new boss. The Magnus Institute also has a new tech support technician. These two facts are unrelated, except they both happen at the same time.

Meanwhile Jon's woken up from being dead for six months and for once he's trying his best. He just wishes Martin would stop avoiding him and answer his messages...

Notes: if you’re looking for a good laugh, this fic is SO SO SO FUNNY. i was dying. basically the magnus institute being an absolute bureaucratic nightmare.

hello my old heart  by  firebirdsuite

Summary:

Peter’s wrong, of course. When it’s all over, Martin does still want to tell Jon everything. It’s just—well, there’s a few things they need to work through first before they can get there.

Martin and Jon find each other again in Scotland.

Notes: it’s all about the yearning. and trust me, the yearning in this fic? im just. i sure do love jonmartin, and this is such soft, loving jonmartin it just makes you want to cry

two ships passing by pyrites

Summary:

Gerard Keay is 10 years old the very first time he tries to run away from home, right around the time that Jonathan Sims has just come into possession of his first Leitner.

Or: One dropped stone can change the way the whole ocean moves.

Notes: again, JONGERRY. MY GOODNESS. this fic is beautiful, the writing is absolutely breathtaking and it owns my heart. im so in love with it. the author said you’re going to have emotions about jon and gerry and jongerry and i said OKAY

Terminal Sight by viv_is_spooky

Summary:

Spider silk weaves through the visions of two Seers. Monstrosity is dawning on them both.

Notes: I’d never read a gerryoliver fic before this, but the execution is EXCELLENT and now im sold on the ship forever. This fic has wonderful prose and great characterization and i love it a whole lot.

Incomplete

assistant archivist au by  PitViperOfDoom

Notes: I won’t put a summary since I’m reccing an entire series, but. it is absolutely no secret that i adore jongerry. pit’s assistant archivist au slapped me over the head with some gorgeous jongerry oneshots and then gave me the gift of the main fic (which is still in progress) about head archivist martin. i love this au so so much

dustsceawung by  callmearcturus

Summary:

Martin had always been favored by the summer courts, and moving up north to the little village of Lacuna is a difficult adjustment. It's rainy and lonely and everyone seems to have a strange, distant relationship with the local faerie court.

However: there is a strange man in a cloak who walks past Martin's remote little cottage every few days.

However: there is a moth that keeps getting stuck in Martin's house during the rain.

These events are not as disconnected as they first appear.

Notes: you ever just read a fic that you didn’t know that you needed until after you read it? yeah. featuring the fae and moth jon and excellent characterization.

Illicio by ThatOneGirlBehindYou

As the new Archivist debates between life and death, the Eye ponders on what to offer him in order to avoid an encore of the unfortunate situation with his predecessor.

-----

Gerard Keay opens his eyes at what feels like fuck-ass in the morning, inside a room with far too little space and far too much dust.

Notes: This is also the moment where I reveal that im a sucker for jongerrymartin. please read this fic. gerry is brought back from the dead in s4 and everyone is far better off for it.

where there’s a will, we make a way by bubonickitten

Summary:

"So, what does happen if an Eye learns to See within itself?

What happens is this: the Archive Beholds the Watcher – and the Watcher blinks first."

________________________

Jon goes back to before the world ended and tries to forge a different path.

Notes: this time travel fixit is shaping up to be an absolutely incredible read. i love the way this author writes jon so so much, and the characterization is spot on. this whole fic just satisfies some little part of me. god. also!! bubonickitten’s writing in general? beautiful. please check out their other works.

The Timeline of Theseus by Applea

Jon tries to force the Spiral to send him back, but the Sprial's corridors never twist things quite the way you want them to. Back in 1996, Elias has no idea why or how the Eye made such a powerful Avatar out of an 8 year old, especially when said 8 year old doesn't actually know he has any powers at all. Clearly such a child cannot be left outside the Institute's care. 

Notes: This fic is legitimately brilliant. The author manages to capture the big ADHD mood and the precociousness of baby Jon while managing to write a wonderful storyline. Time travel! Elderly lesbians! A Jonah who is wildly in over his head but was walloped over the head with paternal instinct! Baby Gerry! What more could you possibly ask for?

rooms full of people who do not love each other yet by seaer

Summary:

“Wanted to ask about a book.” The boy has his hand on the counter, and he leans into it, nonchalant. The library is air-conditioned, but by no means frigid, and Jon can’t help but feel sweaty just looking at the layers he’s wearing; what looks like old leather over an olive-green Magnus pullover over his school shirt. “Do you have A Journal of the Plague Year?”

Jon says, tetchily, “We’re about to close.”

“I know. Do you have A Journal of the Plague Year?”

Notes: I am so in love with this author’s writing style and the way they write the characters!! The jon and gerry friendship is PERFECT and the character interactions are all darling.

if you read these fics please send the authors some love, they definitely deserve it!! 

[theradioghost]

I don't know if you're still doing podcast recs, but if you are, I really like dramas, horror, sci-fi, honestly anything that gives you the feels (especially if it has lgbtq+ rep). I am not much of a comedy person though unfortunately. The only podcast I finished was tma and I really loved it.

The recommendations are always on tap here, whenever my askbox is open! You might wanna check out:

Archive 81, for a found-footage horror about mysterious archives of tapes full of encounters with otherworldly horror, dark rituals, cults, and a long-suffering archivist with the same name as the show creator who plays him, which despite all that could not possibly be more different from TMA and yet easily matches it as one of the best horror stories I have ever enjoyed. The sound design on this show is basically unparalleled – where TMA has fairly minimalist sound design, A81 goes all out. Quite a few lgbtqa+ folk also.

I Am In Eskew, for a surreal, Lynchian horror about the city of Eskew, where it’s always raining and the streets are never the same twice, as narrated by a man who is trapped there and the woman hired to find him. Take the most viscerally disturbing episodes of TMA as a baseline for how intense this show is, then imagine the Spiral built a city and invited all the other fears over for a party. Also right up there as one of my favorite horror things ever, and recently ended, so you can listen to the whole thing right now.

Within The Wires, for a found-footage scifi dystopia, telling stories from an alternate-history world. Three of the four seasons focus on lgbtqa+ leads, and the first season, a set of instructional meditation tapes provided to a prisoner in a shadowy government institution, is still some of my absolute favorite creative use of medium and framing device ever.

Kane and Feels, for a surreal noir-flavored urban fantasy/horror hybrid, about a magically-inclined academic (and sarcastic little bastard man) named Lucifer Kane and his demon-punching partner with a heart of gold, Brutus Feels. They share a flat in London, they bicker like an old married couple, and they fight supernatural evil. This show WILL confuse the hell out of you and you will enjoy every second of it.

Alice Isn’t Dead, for a weird Americana horror story about a long-distance truck driver, criss-crossing the US in search of her missing wife. Along the way she discovers that both of them have been drawn into a dangerous secret war that seethes in the empty and abandoned expanses of America, and that inhuman hunters have begun to follow her. Also finished! And as the title kind of gives away, the lesbians do not die!

Janus Descending, for a sci-fi horror miniseries about two scientists sent to survey the remains of a dead alien civilization on a distant planet, only to learn all too well why the original inhabitants have disappeared. You hear one character’s story in chronological order and the other in reverse, with their perspectives alternating, which is done in an incredibly clever way so that even technically knowing what will happen it still holds you in suspense right to the end. Also, it made me cry, a lot.

SAYER, for a sci-fi horror with a touch of dark comedy, and probably the single best use of the “evil AI” trope I have ever seen. Tells the story of employees of tech corporation Aerolith Dynamics living on Earth’s artificial second moon, Typhon, in the form of messages from their AI overseer SAYER. The first season is great, the second season is okay, and the third and fourth seasons are fucking amazing.

Tides, for a really interesting sci-fi about a lone biologist trapped on an alien world shaped by deadly tidal forces. It’s different from just about any other sci-fi I know, focusing more on the main character’s interactions with and observations of this strange new world, where she’s very aware that she is the alien invader. (Also I don’t think any of the characters are straight.)

Station to Station, for a thrilling sci-fi mystery where a group of scientists and spies on a research ship (the ocean kind) discover that the time-warping anomaly they’re studying might be causing people to vanish from existence. Corporate espionage and high-stakes heartbreak abound. (And once again I’m not sure anyone is straight.)

The Strange Case of Starship Iris, for Being Gay And Doing Crime IN SPACE! Or, decades after a war with an alien species leaves humanity decimated and under the control of totalitarian leaders, the lone survivor of a research mission joins up with a ragtag crew of rebels and smugglers to figure out why the very government she worked for tried to kill her, and to stop them from inciting a second war. 100% lgbtqa+ found family in space heist action and it’s glorious in every way.

Unwell, for the horror-ish Midwestern gothic story of a young woman who returns to her hometown to help her estranged mother after an injury, and discovers that there is something just a little bit wrong, not just with her mother, but with her mother’s house, and with the whole town. Subtle and creepy. The protagonist is a biracial lesbian, one of the other major characters is nonbinary, the cast in general is super diverse.

The Blood Crow Stories, for an lgbtqa+ focused horror anthology! The four seasons so far have been the stories of an ancient evil stalking the passengers of a WWI-era utopian cruise ship, a dark Western mystery about a group of allies trying to stop the mysterious killer known only as the Savior, a 911 operator in a cyberpunk dystopia who starts getting terrifying phone calls from demons, and strange and deadly goings-on at a film studio in the golden age of Hollywood. Everyone is Very Gay and anyone can die, especially in season 1.

The Tower, for a melancholy experimental miniseries about a young woman who decides she’s going to climb the mysterious Tower, from which no one has ever returned. Quite short and very, very good.

Palimpsest, for a creepy, heartbreakingly sad and yet incredibly beautiful anthology series. Season one is the story of a woman who suspects her new home is haunted, season two is a turn-of-the-century urban fantasy about a girl who falls in love with the imprisoned fae princess she’s been hired to care for, and season three is about a WWII codebreaker who begins seeing ghosts on the streets of London during the Blitz.

Mabel, for a part-horror, part-love story, the kind of faerie tale where you feel obliged to spell it with an E because these are the kind of faeries that are utterly inhuman, and beautiful, and dangerous. Anna, the new caretaker for an elderly woman, leaves messages for her client’s mysteriously absent granddaughter Mabel. An old house in Ireland has a life and desires of its own, few of them friendly. Two women fall in love and set out for vengeance against the King Under The Hill. Creepy, strange, and gorgeously poetic.

Ars Paradoxica, for a sci-fi time travel Cold War espionage thriller. Physicist Dr. Sally Grissom accidentally invents time travel, landing herself – and her invention – in the middle of a classified government experiment during WWII. As the course of history utterly changes around them, she and what friends she can find in this new time must struggle with the ethics of what they’ve done, and the choices they’ll have to make. An aroace protagonist, Black secret agents, time-traveling Latina assassins, Jewish lesbian mathematicians, two men of color whose love changes the course of time itself, this show says a big fuck you to the idea that there’s anything hard about having a diverse cast in a period piece and it will break your heart, multiple times. Also finished!

The Far Meridian, for a genre-bending, poetic, at-times-heartwarming-at-times-heartbreaking story about an agoraphobic woman named Peri who decides to begin a search for her long-missing brother Ace after the lighthouse in which she lives begins mysteriously transporting to different places every day. I can never forget an early review that described this show as “the audio equivalent of a Van Gogh painting.” Suffice to say it is beautiful, and fantastically written and put together.

What’s the Frequency?, for a Surrealist noir horror mystery set in mid-20th-century LA. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I can really explain what goes on in this show, but it features a detective named Walter “Troubles” Mix and his partner Whitney searching for a missing writer. Meanwhile, the only thing that seems to be playing on the radio is that writer’s show Love, Honor, and Decay, which also seems to be driving people to murder. Fantastically weird, deliciously creepy.

Directive, for a short sci-fi miniseries about a man hired to spend a very, very long trip through space alone, which doesn’t seem all that sad until suddenly it hits you with Every Feel You’ve Ever Had, seriously I don’t want to spoil it so I won’t say anything more but listen to this and then never feel the same way about Tuesdays again.

Wolf 359, for honestly one of the best podcasts out there, containing all of the drama and feels, seriously this show ended over two years ago and I still cry literal tears thinking about it sometimes. It has definite comedic leanings, especially in the first season which reads a bit more like a wacky office comedy set in space, but it takes a sharp turn towards high stakes, action, and feelings and that roller coaster never stops. Take four clashing personalities alone on a constantly-malfunctioning space station eight light years from earth, add some mysterious transmissions from the depths of space, toss in some seriously Jonah-Magnus-level manipulative evil bosses, and get ready to cry.

or, may I suggest Midnight Radio? It’s a lesbian-romance-slash-ghost-story completed miniseries about a late-night 1950s radio host in a small town who begins receiving mysterious letters from one of her listeners, and I have been assured by many people and occasionally their all-caps tweets that it provides ample Feelings! (also I wrote it.)

[i-swear-this-is-for-homework]

TMA characters as John Mulaney Quotes

The Archives team reacting to literally anything that happens in the never-ending horrific tragedy that is their work environment:

s1 Jon accepting his new job: I was just shiny and dumb and easy to trick.

s2 Jon: I’m feeling sort of existentially insane, but I’m trying to hold it together.

s3 Jon: Late at night, on the street, women will see me as a threat. That is funny, yeah! It’s kinda flattering in its own way, but at the same time it’s weird because, like, I’m still afraid of being kidnapped. 

s4 Jon:  Do my friends hate me or do I just need to go to sleep?

Martin: I try to stay a little optimistic, even though I will admit, things are getting pretty sticky.

also Martin: None of us really know our fathers. Anyways...

Tim: You know how I’m filled with rage? 

Sasha: Nah, sister. You’re not getting me to no secondary location!

Not!Sasha: Shut up! You’re all gonna die! Street Smarts!!!

Basira: When I saw the perp approachin’, I chewed up a tab of Alka-Seltzer I carry with me at all times. This created a foaming-at-the-mouth appearance that made it look like I had rabies. Now I’ve thrown him off his rhythm. 

Daisy:  Hey, do you want me to kill that guy for you? Because it sounds like he sucks and I will totally kill that guy for you.

Melanie:  Oh, I get it. So rather than violate these meaningless politeness rules, I’ll just go to bed in a smock like goddamn Ebenezer Scrooge. Why don’t you give me a candle for looking in the mirror and a floppy hat and I’ll tremble off to bed in my long Victorian nightgown?

Georgie: God, I guess they’re finally going to kill us all. Alright. This is younger than I thought it would be but I guess we’re all pretty big assholes.

Gerry: Was there ever even a ghost, Mother, or was the dead victorian girl you saw me all along?

Elias: He was a man most acquainted with misery. He could look at a child and guess the price of their coffin.

also Elias: [Imitating French accent] “Oh, the things I have Seen, you cocksucker”

Peter Lukas: In terms of instant relief, cancelling plans is like heroin.

Gertrude: Brush your teeth. Now, BOOM, orange juice dynamite! That’s life.

Leitner: When I was younger I thought the world would be simple and nice. But now, at the end of my life... [extended sounds of brutal pipe murder]

Helen: Oceans 11 would never work with women, because two would keep breaking off to talk shit about the other nine. 

Jared Hopworth: You kids have no upper body strength.

Robert Smirke @ Jonah Magnus: You have the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair. 

The Entire Fandom:  I think eventually everything’s going to be okay, but I have no idea what’s going  to happen next. except maybe everything won’t be okay

[centaurianthropology]

The Magnus Archives ‘The Librarian’ (S02E40) Analysis

Sims gets help from a VERY unexpected source, and in fact the entire episode was … not what I had expected after last week’s setup.  That’s not a bad thing, it’s just not the directly expected shit-show from last week.  Crises I thought we would face were totally avoided, and crises I never expected came slamming into our cast.  It was exciting in a very unexpected way, terrifying and revelatory, with information coming fast and thick.  And it was all topped off with a confrontation that sent every surviving character flying into disarray.  No matter what else you think about ‘The Librarian’, after this episode, everything and everyone will be changed.  We’ve got A LOT to unpack.

SIMS GOT RESCUED BY JURGEN LEITNER!  Holy shit, that was one none of us saw coming.  We were all speculating about Adulard Dekkar, or Gerard Kaey, or even Jonah Magnus.  But precisely no one I talked to even considered that the mystery man in the tunnels, and apparently their very long term inhabitant—a man who was hiding from hundreds of enemies and had been Gertrude’s confidante and collaborator—was Jurgen fucking Leitner.  

This revelation led to some nice confirmation about my biggest writing quibble of the season: how Sims went from totally confused and terrified by the tunnels to navigating them like a pro within weeks.  Leitner was actually remapping all the upper levels into something more navigable and rational, keeping Sims contained so Leitner could watch him.  Leitner also stated that he thought that the chalk arrow was placed there by Not-Sasha, who was navigating the tunnels as well, hunting for Leitner (a popular man to hunt, by all accounts).  He was the presence steering Sims through the tunnels, hidden by one of his books.  Leitner had, during his hiding, started using quite a few of the safer tomes to basically turn himself into a wizard.

Through his very unexpected statement, Leitner himself finally gets considerably more backstory. He thought of himself as a guardian, containing the worst books in the world in his library.  In order to explore them, he used the services of a string of assistants, the vast majority of whom are now dead or insane.  He thought of himself as doing something great for the world.  Hubris, thy name is certainly Jurgen Leitner.  And despite his stated remorse and regret, Leitner still speaks of the trail of bodies and insanity he left behind him with a clinical detachment, as though he had no attachment to them and certainly no responsibility for them.  Even when Sims accused him of being irresponsible and terrible, Leitner had excuses.  He never fully owned what he did.

Contrast that with Sims, who has just found out that Sasha is dead, and all of Gertrude’s assistants met gruesome ends.  He has to be afraid for Tim and Martin, and glad he sent them away when he did (more on them later).  Sims has spent all year trying to distance himself from them, but still feels a very clear connection to them and responsibility for them.  We didn’t get to hear his reaction to them getting taken by Michael, but we could easily guess how badly he’d react to the news that Michael had taken them, so soon on the heels of getting the definitive answer about Sasha.  Sims is not a man who owns his mistakes easily either, but last episode showed that he did get there in the end.  He took responsibility and he took the blame for what Tim and Martin had gone through. And he earned back a lot of my respect because of it.

Leitner never had that moment.  He continued in his delusions that what he did was the best possible course of action right up until the end.  He claimed regret that he didn’t destroy the books, but was clear that he prioritized his role as their ‘guardian’ over any safety concerns beyond those that would protect him from them.  He studied the architecture and writings of Robert Smirke (who still seems to function as the perfect balance point and neutralizer in the TMA world).  His house was built off Smirke’s theories, and his efforts to gain access to Smirke’s buildings weren’t confined to his efforts under Pall Mall.  His library eventually encapsulated 978 volumes in his house.  

The attack that destroyed his library came shortly after he gathered all the books, and is one of the most interesting revelations of the episode.  I think we had all suspected that some group or individual had torched the library (up until now, my money had been on Gertrude herself), but it was no ONE person, it was EVERYONE.  The beings that attacked him seemed to represent every faction of the supernatural that we have yet been introduced to.  There were the people who showed up, their bodies and speech wrong, perhaps the same students we encountered in ‘Anatomy Class’.  When the attack hit, there was the meat pile (‘The Man Upstairs’), Michael and his doors, the endless sky (‘Freefall’), the Closed Eye, the Lightless Flame, and the mouth in the floor (‘The Butcher’s Window’). Beings that have been diametrically opposed all laid aside their differences to decimate that library.

So this begs the question: what the actual hell did Leitner do?  Leitner described his books as the purest descriptors possible in this world of beings that defy comprehension, beings that we experience as various manifestations, but thematically linked and creating projections and simplifications of something too vast to understand or perceive.  They do not exist in our world, and can’t exist in our world, but bits of them do, like fingers worming their way inside an ant colony. They really do seem to be an equivalent to Lovecraft’s Great Old Ones, so vast and strange that we cannot comprehend them, but we see their effects.  And in TMA, you see pieces of them as monsters.  Michael and the fractals are different expressions of something that Leitner called the Spiral: a being of confusion, illusion, and madness. I would suspect that all expressions of the insects spring from the Hive, a being best described by Jane Prentiss in her own statement.  These books encapsulate some fundamental truth about these unknowable entities, and these books potentially even have power over them.  Destroying those books and removing that power would be something that the beings, even those often diametrically opposed to one another, might work together to accomplish.

Jane Prentiss is also relevant to this statement in another, oblique way.  She was the first to give name to the being that holds the Institute, and all the Archives before it: the Beholding.  This is a being of knowledge and comprehension, so far as we can tell, but just like any of the other great beings, we can perceive themes in their behavior, but trying to ascribe human motivations to them, or even simple categories is likely a pointless endeavor.  We can surmise that the Beholding thrives on the accumulation of information and knowledge, and who probably channels that information through the voice of the Archivist.  

But while the Archivist lies at the heart of the Beholding’s power, its true believer and high priest in this world, the man who has killed for it before, who killed for it (very violently) again this episode, and will almost certainly continue to kill any who threaten the Beholding, is Elias Bouchard.  Elias killed Gertrude before she could destroy the archive.  Elias is a true believer, and as many of us suspected, has far greater power than we expected, and is far deeper into the Beholding than anyone else.  So he left Leitner in Sims’ office, causing Sims to flee and Martin and Tim, sprung rather abruptly from Michael’s clutches for reasons unknown, to discover Leitner and jump to all the wrong conclusions.

Of course, I’m still not clear why Leitner and Gertrude wanted to destroy the Archive in the first place.  Is it that the Archive could be considered the largest, most dangerous book in existence, beyond even Leitner’s ability to contain?  Was Gertrude horrified by the fact that she had been caught and held by the Beholding, which eventually killed all her assistants?  She did meet Leitner shortly after their loss, and her anger and resentment could have easily turned toward the destruction of her ‘master’.  But would that accomplish anything?  Would destroying the Archive be a good thing or a bad thing?  Or is that the wrong question entirely?  Just as ascribing human motivations to the Beholding may be impossible, assigning morality may also be impossible.  The Beholding IS, and it will always live in this world through the Archive.  The Institute is its current defenders, and even its inadvertent worshippers.  Much like the People’s Church of the Divine Host or the Lightless Flame, the Magnus Institute consists of people, unwitting or not, who have aligned themselves with one of these great beings, and act on its behest.  Does that make Elias the main antagonist of this series?  Does it make him a very complicated shade of gray that may help or hinder Sims in turn?  Is Elias any more comprehensible than the Beholding at this point?

No matter his morality or his allegiances, Elias’ actions have set in motion a massive change in the direction of the series.  Sims has run away, and Elias and Leitner implied that this was fairly customary for Archivists: they all leave and explore and comprehend the world better for it, or they die.  

And as for Martin and Tim, they are left behind.  Michael apparently released them just as quickly as he took them (for reasons that I’m guessing will be detailed more later), and they stumbled on Leitner’s body, still dripping blood.  Tim has jumped to the conclusion that Sims murdered him, and even Martin seems to be wondering what Sims has done.  The question is, does Martin believe Sims is capable of murder, or was his vague statement less of a condemnation and more of a wondering how he got so deeply enmeshed in whatever catastrophe he was involved in.  They both also seem to have accepted that something happened to Sasha, and that Tim is insisting they couldn’t have saved her.  Did they accept that Not-Sasha was Sasha, perhaps thinking her transformed?

Where are Sims’ tapes? If he’s fled, are they still hidden, or did Elias know all along about them, and was just waiting for Sims to accidentally drag Leitner out of hiding?  If they are still hidden, could Tim or Martin stumble across them and discover the truth?  Would Sims ever reach out to them of his own accord?

We won’t know for a while, because TMA is officially on a season break until late this year.  It’s going to be a long few months.

The Future

Rather than just talking conclusions, I thought it might be more useful if I talked about my own personal predictions for season 3.  I’d love to hear other takes on where season 3 might go, and whether I’ve forgotten anything crucial.  

I suspect that, while we got Gertrude’s statements this season (played by Jonny Sims’ mom, I do believe, just as Leitner seems to have been voiced by his dad!), I suspect next season might be split between Sims’ statements from wherever he’s running or hiding, and Martin’s statements as he settles back in as Interim Head Archivist. I think, at first, these will be separate, with both of them dealing with their new circumstances.  But I think that, at some point, Sims will reach out to Martin, and start sending him tapes.  Some will be statements, some will be investigations or theories or fears. I think that it’s going to become some weird one-way penpal arrangement, with Martin frantically trying to locate Sims on the sly, not letting Tim or Elias know because he’s convinced they would try to hand Sims over to the police.

And I believe Tim would want to, especially at first.  Tim ended the season in a very bad place with Sims, and I imagine he’d believe Sims capable of just about anything.  At first. But Tim is also smart, and he has a good sense for when he’s getting conned.  I think he’ll be a later ally, but that he will end up coming through for Sims and Martin by the end of the season.

And I suspect that Elias will keep pulling strings from a distance.  It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he was well aware of where Sims was (likely informed by the Beholding), although he might not know that Martin is working with Sims.  I think that Elias won’t even press charges against Sims for the murder, as he does eventually want Sims back, but that he will start drawing Tim closer.  He needs eyes inside the archive, and with Martin acting as Archivist (I think this will happen, given that he was the stand-in archivist at the beginning of this season, and because it would be easier for Alexander Newall to do voice work than the guy who plays Tim, given that he’s already directing the episodes anyway), and Tim would be ideal.  They already have some degree of rapport, and though Tim’s opinion of Elias has certainly soured, it wouldn’t take much to rebuild some of that trust.

But even if Elias isn’t actively pursuing Sims, content to let him explore and become, I really doubt that Sims is in the clear for Leitner’s murder.  Specifically, I think Sims may acquire a rather implacable foe and stalker in Daisy Tonner, who was eyeing him for some time as a danger, and may well be the officer called into the Institute to take the body away.  If she thinks Sims has gone from insane and a potential suspect in Gertrude’s murder to a guaranteed murderer of Leitner, she’s going to take the law into her own hands.  She will hunt him, and she might not even be the only one.  Who knows what great beings, and the monsters that act as their extensions, will want a piece of a runaway Archivist?  And even if they don’t want to hurt him, how many others might want to use him, or tempt him?

This has opened up a whole new world of possible stories.  Direct statements from very dangerous or difficult individuals become far more possible for an Archivist on the run than one stuck in his ivory tower. I have a feeling Sims is not only going to collect some very impressive statements, but that he’ll be getting a sharp lesson in supernatural politics.

With all these beings and their servants hungering after Sims’ death or his conversion, who might he be able to rely on?  His list of potential allies is … slim, and reaching out to anyone would put them in danger. I’ve already stated that I think Martin will be his biggest ally inside the Magnus Institute, and maybe even his closest confidante.  Also, until someone reports on his autopsy and cremation, I’m going to keep on believing that Gerard Kaey is still alive, and will appear to save Sims at any time. Trevor Herbert and his friends are out there somewhere, fighting whatever supernatural horrors they stumble across.  The Lightless Flame might be in a position to at least not be openly hostile to Sims, as the Open Eye may well be servants of the Beholding as well, if a different aspect of it.  Melanie may be in India right now, but she could be of great assistance.  

Then there’s Basira. And I worry a lot about Basira. Not that something bad is going to happen to her, but that Basira is going to accidentally bring Daisy down on Sims’ head.  If Daisy tells Basira that Sims has snapped and murdered someone, I’m not sure at all that Basira would believe the crazy and self-centered archivist over her own partner.  I might hope she would give him a chance to explain himself, but in all honesty, I think there’s an even greater chance that if he reached out to her, she would reach out to Daisy, and that could well end with Sims staring down the barrel of a gun.  Could she still be an ally?  Hell yes. But she’s easily the ally with the greatest risk to Sims’ health, if he decides to reach out to her.

Of course, I could be completely wrong in my predictions, or right in some but not in others.  Either way, everything has changed, everyone is scattered and scared and alone.  I can hope they come back together, and that Sims learns enough about the Beholding to work within its sphere without losing himself, or Martin, or Tim.  I hope he finds out why Gertrude was so insistent that the Archive be destroyed.  I hope he reaches out to Martin first, and that their statements can slowly start to build off one another.  I hope that Tim eventually forgives them both, and becomes the other, equally necessary component of their dynamic.  And I hope that they can all come together after losing Sasha.  All of Gertrude’s assistants died.  Sims has to protect and work with the two he has left.