#thr magnus archives spoilers

[thecatinthepurplepants]

Gerard Keay, minding his own damn business in pinhole books:

The skin book aparition of Mary deciding he hasn't had enough mom related trauma just yet: white woman jumpscare 🧍🏼‍♀️

[marstyler42]

My proposal

I would like to slightly amend my earlier statement about Gerry being exactly the same goth except for the eye tattoos, consider: he has all the eye tattoos but now the eyes are closed.

[originsofevil]

Intro <3 !

I go by Michelangelo or any variation of that

(usually michael/mikey but names dont mean much to me)

but i recently found out that i'm the host of a system so if any tags are signed off with a different name thats why

dont care too much abt pronouns but i typically use he/him, ve/vir, and xe/xir/xem. mix it up, get creative. typically dont use she/her but ynever know

body is 21, we're an aries if u wanna make any judgement off of that, autistic + adhd if that wasnt obvious

i do post occasional nfsw/suggestive content, never anything too crazy but if youre a minor id prefer if you didnt interact with those posts, i have no way of enforcing this as i dont check my notifs unless theres tags but i am a full adult, i do pay rent and bills and taxes. on that topic i probably wont follow you if youre under like. 16/17ish. no hard feelings i just am an adult and im not around kids very much as the 2nd youngest of 4 so. if youre under 16 dont do drugs stay in school all that good stuff. i love you, go to bed on time. i've been on this website since i was 11 and it shows. dont be me.

dms are always open ! i'm not amazing at holding a conversation unless its abt my current hyperfixation (rn its zelda/lu) but i love to yap. if you follow me and we're not mutuals dm/ask me and ill follow back! I don't rly pay attention to my followers so i typically don't follow ppl unless theyre consistently posting abt one of my interests and i remember to

I talk in the tags a LOT feel free to <- prev or rb addressing my tags but i typically assume no one will read them all the way through. i'm writing whole essays. im oversharing. call op a college admissions office bc I'm telling my whole life story. if my tags make you uncomfortable on your post please let me know and i will apologize/delete them if you wish. i dont have a concept of tmi and tend to misread/miss social cues/the vibes so i apologize if i misstep

please let me know if i reblog any stolen artwork/ai generated anything/ etc

‼️‼️i am not spoiler free for anything (even if i myself havent seen the content) i dont have any sort of tagging system ‼️

list of my active fandoms! old hyperfixations tend to creep up on me so this is not complete

- bungo stray dogs (bsd beast fans pls follow me i adore beast)

- legend of zelda (all games + lu/links meet aus)(legend fans pspspsp)

- the witcher (mainly the show but i got attached to a character thats not even actually in any of the games. aiden i love you.)

- cars (2006, 2011, 2017)(yes entirely unironically)

- Voltron legendary defender. (again. yes. unironically.)

- star wars (mainly the main series and animation since i havent read thr or played the games)

- jujutsu kaisen (2nd years stan)

- the magnus archives (gerry delano fans i love you)

- percy jackson (mainly the books and musical, i dont care for the show much but i adore the actors)

- gravity falls ! (i actually just got into this like, last month. binged the whole series in like a week at age 21.)

- my hero academia (my hs best friend made me watch s1 and i got attached to aizawa hawks and the todorokis sorry)(im convinced the todorokis were based on my family. im literally natsuo. dont ask abt dabi unless u think you're prepared)

Non Fandom Interests

- I write ! once i start uploading ill link my ao3 here but its rough out here (microsoft word)

- I draw ! i mightve posted my art a few times but as i mentioned i dont have any tagging system so maybe I'll make one for art or link another social at some point

- this mostly falls under loz but i love video games :3 i MOSTLY play loz but animal crossing, minecraft, and random silly da games ive collected over the years are my pride and joy. i want to play the witcher games but i have assassins creed black flag and im really bad at it. (i only have nintendo consoles (ds, 3ds, switch) rn but i want a decent pc at some point. the sims calls to me.

- Politics! my politics are very important to me as a leftist so if you're right wing we will not get along. if i find out that youre racist/homophobic/transphobic/a zionist (i am jewish)/sexist/etc i will probably block you. id say no hard feelings but i dint mean that.

I will probably update this as needed/whenever i remember to <3 ty if u read this and i love you have a great day

[minimally-incompetent]

Oh, ok, I see, so when Jacobi gets himself blown up to defeat the bad guy, he “miraculously survives,” but when *Tim* does it, he “dies and makes me tear up at work”

[the-rolling-libero]

Here are some thoughts on MAG 184, with a large helping of Very Obvious allegory, vaguely connected images, and a dash of ant communsim.

this isn't the first time we've been ants in the face of the powers, and my feeling that we're supposed to be coming back to this image of helplessness, of ignorance of the full picture, is reinforced by this line:

which is referencing the idea central to the anthill image, that we can’t fully understand the powers, even as we glimpse them-- that our conceptualizations of them are a bit fundamentally ‘bull’. And ofc we have this bit, which is pretty explicit-- but it changes the meaning of the whole thing.

Not only are we seeing the anthill metaphor brought back and reminding us of humanity's ignorance in the face of the powers, but I would argue this line turns Leto's experience into an allegory for the avatars-- specifically, Jon.

If the ants are taken as human, Leto is placed above them as the stand in for the fears. This is the natural way of the apocalypse-scape, where the avatars are more than ever invested with real, tangible power over the general population. If we are ants, Avatars are the new kid with a kettle come to burn us away through the various domains of the apocalypse. But Leto isn't trying to kill the ants. He's trying to reduce all the harm he can-- but of course, he can't help but be what he is (what he’s been made by his placement in the anthill?).

This is not the behavior of the Avatars that we know-- none, of course, bar our good friend Jonathan Sims, of I’m-Doing-My-Best Fame. It's been a prevailing thread through his journey that he's tried to reduce all the harm he can-- sometimes poorly, sometimes incompletely-- but if you don't see Jon in "he holds his arms in close and tries not to move" idk what podcast you've been listening to.

Further, the way that Leto's experience as an “Avatar” in this passage is related repeatedly to Knowing.

Though there's a twist of corruption in there, this absolute knowledge, their senses attuned, connected as one-- this is where Jon is now, connected inexorably to every single person in the hellscape. He can see their thoughts, truly know them in every way. And of course there's this bad boy:

He can feel them and considers their fear and their pain; not exactly the absolute empathy that Jon is going through, but a state of heightened awareness that I would argue still connects with Jon’s experience. This is who Jon is at this moment; Leto is standing in for Jon. And I would be far from the first person to note the similarities of Jordan to Martin, with his quest for the Queen.

The endings for our two characters leave me thinking about the sort of ending a tragedy like tma might have-- the sort of ending they're leading us to expect, at least, with this episode.

For Jon: overwhelmed by his inability to act without destruction, trying to save people incapable of saving themselves, perhaps even tortured specifically by them (bc how else are we supposed to understand him being constantly aware of all the pain in a world ruled by fear?)

and for Martin, a bit longer--

Leaving the other behind on a quest that he knows, deep down, to be futile, defined and condemned by the hope that carries him on.

The fact that Jordan is chosen to become an Avatar of the eye by forces he cannot control in the end is also an interesting little tidbit hint for Martin-- maybe a divergence? A choice he’s currently facing, the two paths of torturer and tortured that he’s been refusing to really choose between the whole time? I don’t think this episode is showing us the future-- that would be a more obvious hand than the writers tend to play. I think it’s showing us some possibilities, setting up expectations for what ‘endings’ in this hellscape look like. I sure hope there’s a third option-- but Magnus Archives so far has been a story about no decision being right, a game you can’t win. It would take a fundamental upheaval of the whole system to change things.

In regards to that, I think there's something to the idea that since the ants are actually the avatars in this situation, despite the metaphor going the other way, the narrative might be hinting at the possibility of people subsuming the fears into themselves, maybe eventually toppling the powers (or simply changing them). Is there anything to this reversal, or is it just the device we need for the episode to work?

Really makes you think! :^)

[statementends]

So as I doubt the format is going to change will we see Jon traveling the countryside forced to take statements from survivors? Will he pull them forcefully from monsters? Or will he try to find old statements from other archives that might have a way to reverse this?

If he does take statements fromom people what will that do to them as he is now avatar of (arguably) the most powerful power.

[aziles]

avatars of the dark seeing julia montauk grow up to hunt monsters:

[theclockworkjudas]

Ok

But Jon asking Elias if he was still human is absolutely heartbreaking.

And Elias got immediately put on my shit list for not answering him in any coherent way, despite his oddly entrancing voice.

[statementends]

Not to mention Daisy and Melanie had beef with Jon before being helped. Daisy wanted to murder him. Melanie made it very clear where she would like to stick her knife. But Jon does care about them and feels responsible so he went to save them.

And I don't think he really expected them to like him more for it. Because of his guilt he maybe thinks it's the least he could do.

And it's easy for others to look at it the same way. It's the least Jon could do. Because they blame him for the mess. Even though Jon has so little agency.

That's why Daisy was such a breath of fresh air: we all make our own choices.

But of course now they can't turn and pull Jon out with them or they might slip backward.

And Martin is not there. And Basira had a ton of mixed feelings about Jon being useful. Georgie is a statement giver not protected by the eye she knows exactly what's happening and has realized she won't be able to help without destroying herself.

Ok so since “but Melanie/Daisy is trying to get better” Has been a huge thing recently that has been repeated over and over again in response to Jon’s own problems, I have been thinking about what exactly makes their recovery different and more achievable than Jons (besides the obvious reason that he’s further along than they were) and I realized…… The difference was Jon. 

Both Daisy AND Melanie only got past their own demons because Jon was there to support them and push them in the right direction and care about them! He was literally willing to risk his life or safety in both situations to help them out. With Daisy, he was willing to maybe get trapped just to bring her back, and he was willing to take a scalpel to the chest to help Melanie with her cursed bullet wound. They both had Jon’s complete support that more or less jump-started their recoveries but Jon currently has no one that’s willing to put their life on the line for him. 

Like idk if love and support would even cut it at this point for Jon but I feel like it’s unfair for the other characters to say Jon isn’t trying to his face when he has done so much for everyone else and he actually IS trying. It’s just so much harder to try when people are actively putting you down. Like Jon basically lost Martin and everyone else after he woke up from his coma so no matter how hard he tries to help the others or himself, he’s still drowning with nothing to hold onto. 

tbh this intense social isolation was probably at least partially caused by Peter because it was never this bad in the past but I’m still sad about it……….. Jon deserves his friends back!!!!!!!!

[statementends]

So with the new episode I've been thinking each avatar of Beholding has a different use, power and purpose.

Elias: the Head of the Institute and who we sometimes refer to as the Watcher. His powers are limited omnicence, inserting the truth into someone's brain and if you kill him you kill everyone in the institute. Basically if this was chess he would be the King. Does nothing but, but is super important. His aspect is to watch and know things. He doesn't go out like Jon because that's not where his powers lie. He doesn't get involved because that's not what a Watcher does and you only use your King on the enemy if you have a good plan or you're very desperate.

Jon: the Archivist. His powers are compelling information out of people and just knowing things and he cannot die at least not easily. He is the experiencer. He defines and learns and to do that he has to experience. He categorizes. If you look at it from a meta perspective he's not archiving so that the archives will be easy to read, he's archiving for the Beholding. He's not a shitty Archivist guys, it's just that his system is way different. If you want to continue with the chess metaphor the Archivist is the Queen. Meant to go everywhere and suprise and directly face enemies. Despite himself Jon is their powerhouse against many of the fears because being able to face, learn, know them, categorize them, and ultimately see through them is how you best them.

Now that leaves Basira, who Elias and Lukas have started refering to as Detective. From the start of joining the institute she accepted things and started reading, seeking knowledge to solve problems. She also logiced her way out of the Unknowing. It wasn't the aspect of the Hunt that helped her in that situation, she was figuring stuff out. If I'm right Detective is another aspect of Beholding different than Head and Archivist. Basira doesn't categorize or watch, she finds and notices. If she grows stronger it might end up being Sherlock Holmes levels of observation and connection. That's just my theory though. She'd be a Rook. A powerhouse meant to defend, but strategically can pin enemies and force them into ambushes.

Martin I think could be a replacement for Elias as Head. Melanie I'm not sure. Right now in terms of beholding they're pawns but pawns can become queens.

Helen is a monopoly hat that somehow got on the chessboard and won't leave.