#tma arun

[lickmycoffeecup]

I’m shocked Martin didn’t materialize like “The only one writing Jonathan Sims poetry IS ME”

[gammija]

Ahh, back home and finally caught back up with the amagaday!

No particular thoughts on today's 192, but while the pacing of the season bothered me less on this listen through (probably because I neither had to wait a week for new ones, nor binged everything in 3 days), I still think it wouldve been cool if Jon and Martin had reached London and Elias before the midpoint of the season. For several reasons, but this time the one I was most struck by is that it feels kinda silly for jmart to make it all the way to 3/4s of the final season before discussing just exactly what/how they're going to deal with Elias, since that they're all powered by the Eye™️. Y'all didn't think to discuss that even once in the past 29 episodes?

[witchinatree]

GENUINELY obsessed that we got a celia statement though like it completely brought back all those feelings i had back when i first listened to season 5 of TMA

like the tunnels era with celia and georgie and melanie and laverne and martin and jon and arun literally one of my favorite parts of season 5

i freaked OUT when i heard her statement the vibes were the same and i cried

[martington0x0]

ok WAIT TMAGP THEORY TIME

:0)

Ok so I know that the universe that tmagp takes place in is generally considered to not be the same universe that tma takes place in, but have we considered that there’s a possibility that all the characters from the tma universe that were unaffected/saved from the eyepocalypse are the same?

what if after martin stabs jon and all the fears are sucked through hilltop road all the surviving characters are brought there witj them? this would follow the current pattern:

-Jon, Martin and Jonah are (presumably due to beholding shenadigans) stuck inside the computer

- Celia who is 100% from the tma universe is working with

- Georgie (who, for lack of information, I am unsure if she IS the same Georgie but i am assuming so) to find out THINGS ABOUT TIME TRAVEL AND DIMENSION HOPPING??

Gertrude and Gerry arent the same because they weren't around for the eyepocalypse, so it makes you wonder about the alternate universe versions of the previously mentioned characters…

anyway, if this theory is true, then it means that we may see:

-Jon, Martin and Jonah (i mean obviously)

-The WhatTheGirlfriends cult members (Georgie, Melanie, Celia, Arun, Danielle, Song, Christopher and the other unnamed members)

-Basira maybe?????

- (and the person who I’m CONVINCED will show up and some point:) Annabelle Cain.

Also extra mini theory: Another thing to note is that at the VERY end of mag 200 when we hear Basira, Melanie and Georgie hunt down the last tape recorders, this could have been after they were all dumped into the new world cause if the web had disappeared out of tma then the tape recorders should have stopped BUT THEY DIDNT, so maybe it was because they were still manifesting as an aspect of the web before the web changes in the new world?? Idk if that’s anything but that’s just a thought I have had

ALSO to add to the Annabelle Cain thing there has to be a reason why Jon lets her live at the end of tma. Something something Checkoffs gun (similarly this COULD mean the return of Simon Fairchild but I doubt it cause he has no relation to the eye or to hilltop road.)

Yeah I know that it was said that you don’t have to have knowledge of tma to enjoy tmagp and that it was said that tma listeners shouldn’t be biased about tmagp but Cmon…

I hope that u enjoyed my yap fest I don’t know if any of this is actually anything of if I’m just slowly going insane but I would love to hear your thoughts!!!

[alwaysbooyahback]

MAGP 15: TMA 195 & S 5 Act III Trailer

Tossing this out there: the drowning victim in Magnus Protocol 15 has pretty parallels to the victim in TMA 195.

Any chance it’s the same victim, brought in with/by the tape recorder?

Also, just putting this out there, the poem that Arun read in the Season 5 Act III Trailer: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

[guybitesatgames]

A Primer/Refresher on Celia (and why the TMA listeners are freaking out)

Below the cut, I've written up a little synopsis of all Celia's appearances in The Magnus Archives, for those who are just joining during The Magnus Protocol and want a little background context. There will be HEAVY spoilers for TMA season 5, so if you don't know what happens as of episode 160 generally, and episodes 190-194 specifically, and want to remain unspoiled, steer clear.

After that, I will be discussing her appearances in TMAGP 06 and 07, so spoilers there as well.

Following the summaries, I have a few theories about the Celia we're seeing in Protocol, based on a few extrapolations from TMA Celia.

Celia's first appearance was in MAG 100 - You Had to Be There, where she was going by the name Lynne Hammond. She showed up to the Archives to give a statement about a flaming ghost that would visit her at night up until she moved apartments. The details were… lackluster, because she was giving the statement to Martin. Normally the Archivist's powers grant the statement-givers a better recollection for the event and some amount of verbosity, but Martin's no Archivist. She came to give her statement not because she was particularly perturbed, but because according to a friend, the Institute compensated people for their stories.* She left without having met John.

We next see her after the Eyepocalypse in MAG 190 - Scavengers, where she is a member of Georgie and Melanie's cult. She was rescued from a domain of terror by Georgie and Melanie, but not before the domain took her name, so she goes by Celia now.

Celia seems head-over-heels about G/M, very well attuned to their likes/dislikes, and is first to notice and alert them to the appearance of a tape recorder. She's eager to hear how G/M rescued John and Martin, but they put it off. Georgie and Melanie perpetuate the idea that John and Martin are prophets like them in front of another follower, Arun, but it's unclear whether Celia is present in that scene. I assume the info gets around.

In 191 - What We Lose, John and Martin talk about Celia and confirm that it seems like she doesn't recognize them. She never met John, so that makes sense, but she did give her statement to Martin, and he remembers her and her former name (and doesn't even tell her, rude).

In 194 - Parting, Celia is the one to alert John to the fact that Martin left with Annabelle, but we don't get much other characterization for her, and that's the last we hear of her in TMA.

-

Now, in Protocol, we're meeting Celia again -as Celia-, not as Lynne Hammond. So far we can't know whether this is meant to be the same person as the one in TMA, but we do know they share the name and are both voiced by Lowri Ann Davies. In the two episodes we've had her, TMAGP Celia has said some suspicious things.

In TMAGP 06, we get this allusion:

Back in the cult, the reason Georgie was able to survive The Horrors unharmed was that she was biologically immune to fear. Now, there was nothing indicating she could grant that power to others, but this line could be a callback to that.

Failing that, we know that Lena's interview requires that the applicant has seen something terrible, that no one would ever believe, and Celia even remarks upon it to Sam and Alice. So even if this isn't TMA Celia, this is a Celia who has seen something.

In TMAGP 07 - Give and Take, she starts hunting around more directly.

"Buried alive or meat" seems pretty specific for someone who doesn't have reason to know about the Buried or the Flesh, but let's come back to that later.⸸

After "Chester" reads out the case, Celia is audibly shaken. Notably, it doesn't seem like the Too Close I Cannot Breathe aspect of the story bothered her (which might have made sense given the "buried alive" quote). It was the voice that read it.

This one throwaway line‡ really stuck out (as I'm sure it was intended to).

It COULD just be an easter egg for all the TMA girlies. But it could ALSO be...

Theories

-Is this Celia the same one from TMA?

I think there's an argument for "no", for two specific reasons. First, that Celia was not well versed in either fear cosmology or The Magnus Institute. Remember, going back to our first *, she'd only visited there originally because she thought she could sell her ghost story - the one she seemed utterly disinterested in. Post-change, she doesn't even seem to remember giving a statement - the appearance of a tape recorder doesn't trigger a memory of the Institute, nor does she recognize Martin.

Second, we have this exchange:

Post-change, Celia hung on the words of Georgie and Melanie. They named the Archivist as a prophet, a nightmare strider like them, and shortly after he left the cult, the Eyepocalypse ended. Even if she didn't believe he was the reason it ended, "unimportant" doesn't strike me as the go-to adjective, even if she's lying to Alice.

-Then who is this Celia?

⸸ This Celia is someone who may be familiar with Smirke's 14 fears categorization.

‡This Celia may have direct, remembered experience with the Magnus Institute's filing system (which TMA Celia did not seem to have).

I think this Celia has worked with an organization dealing with the supernatural - possibly the Magnus Institute itself - before.

Wild Stretching - One Possibility

Let's make a bunch of assumptions. We know there's a multiverse situation and that people can be pulled from one continuity to another without obvious cause (see the case of Anya Villette in MAG 114: Cracked Foundation). Might it be that Celia came from not the TMAGP continuity, nor the TMA continuity, but one we haven't seen? One where John was unimportant, just another researcher? If she's hung up on "being buried alive or meat or whatever", maybe she was an aide of Gertrude's and witness to The Last Feast. I'm connecting too many dots there, but it's for illustrative purposes rather than a firm belief.

I think this Celia has been displaced from a continuity where she had more than just hapless-bystander-level involvement with the supernatural, and I'm willing to bet there is a reason she's not using the name Lynne Hammond.

[jaisaac-cosplay]

Thinking about how poetry is a big thing in TMA and how Martin is a poet and poetry defines humanity

How to be human is to create art and feel and how Jon hates poetry but grows to like it

Thinking about how Arun accuses Jon of knowing nothing of poetry -- knowing nothing of humanity and thinking how Jon doesn't have an answer for the first time

Thinking about how Jon only knows poetry (humanity) through Martin Blackwood and in this essay I will

[a-mag-a-day]

TMA AU where Arun stumbles into Jon's office and mentions he's his other assistant.

How long would he last? My money is on Piecemeal.... I think Jon would probably want Arun to get chopped up by Angela even more than Martin xD

That’s an interesting question, thoughts?

[aflyingcontradiction]

The Magnus Archives Relisten: Episode 190 - Scavengers

Laverne: Besides, you know that they sometimes go to a side tunnel for “private contemplation”. I think it’s sweet.

... is that what they call it these days?

Martin: Celia? Celia: Probably. The, um… place I was trapped in, they took my name. I never got it back. But I like Celia, so… yeah! Celia it is.

So Martin clearly knows Celia from before the apocalypse but I haven't even the slightest clue who she is supposed to be (having zero ability to recognise voices probably doesn't help with that). Somebody refresh my memory?

Jon: Well, that’s a fair point. I suppose, technically, ‘saviours’ would be the correct –

Jon is having way too much fun with the whole "cult" thing.

Georgie (angrily smashing tape recorders): I can do this all day!

You clearly cannot!

Georgie: There are seven with us now. It used to be more, a lot more. But… um, we got greedy, pulled too many out. We… attracted attention. And… well, now there are seven.

Have I mentioned how I love the way TMA evokes horror (or, in this case, tragedy) by circling around the actual events rather than actually describing them explicitly?

Jon: I promise… I promise that they’re not here for you. They’re here for me. And maybe a bit for Martin. They seem to like him.

Not getting Web!Martin was still a lost opportunity, tbh. There was SO MUCH SETUP.

Jon: I did wonder about the ‘Ennui’-brand coke bottles. Georgie: Yeah, it’s convenient, not subtle.

Okay, that one made me snigger.

Georgie: He’s, uh… he’s fine. I guess. He’s enjoying himself, at least. He wasn’t immune, not like me and Melanie. And he’s a predator, pampered piece of fluff that he is. Turns out, there’s a place full of cats. And their prey.

I know this is being played for tragedy here but Admiral-the-Avatar is just ... kinda funny. (Not if you're a mouse, I guess.) Also I suppose there's not really any other way Johnny could have gone with Admiral's fate in the apocalypse, given that he had already promised the cat would be fine!

Melanie: I’m actually one of the prophets chosen to walk the end times unscathed. (...) Martin: Oh, I’m the antichrist’s plus one.

The banter in this episode is deeply, deeply enjoyable.

Melanie: Well, we were, we were out, and we found this Spiral maze, uh, and who did we find inside but Laverne, my therapist.

Okay, that makes perfect sense - the therapist being the perfect fodder for the Spiral.

Melanie: Um, and she’s, and she’s far, far too good for me. And I, I only hope she doesn’t realise that while there’s an apocalypse on.

Yeah, I've been THERE (except replace apocalypse with more mundane crises. Obviously. Though those still feel pretty apocalyptic at times.)

Martin: Oh sorry! Didn’t mean to sit on the prophet’s throne.

What is it with Martin and CHAIRS? This is a whole THEME now!

Arun: I-I, I realise that you dislike that k-kind of thing, your humility is… humbling. - Melanie makes a squeak of distressed exasperation -

I just ... I love that noise. I can't quite describe it, but I love that noise.

Georgie: We generally err on the side of caution and sleep in.

Wise choice!

My impression of this episode

The tone of this episode is, obviously, a bit different from most - no statement, for one. A lot of banter but with an undertone of exhausted sadness. Not really what I came to TMA for, but definitely suitable for this point in the series, and I did really enjoy the moment of sort-of-but-not-quite-respite for the characters.

[teamfortresstwo]

Love this arun guy. THE cringefail poet of TMA <3333

[miavkin]

He doesn’t seem holy…

[themagnustournament]

Redemption Round One - Match One

It's time to kick off our first Redemption Round! Time of Revelation received 150 votes, and What We Lose received only 83 votes. Can past performance predict how these two episodes will battle it out in the absence of Annabelle? Let's find out!

MAG 134 - Time of Revelation | Spotify - Acast - YT | Wiki | Transcript

Statement of Adelard Dekker, taken from a letter to Gertrude Robinson.

MAG 191 - What We Lose | Spotify - Acast - YT | Wiki | Transcript

Continued interactions with various survivors, recorded on location.

[deendee]

Martin: you’re rude

Arun: I’m a poet. I speak the truth

[rainebownerd]

Martin: You're rude

Arun: I'm a poet. I speak the truth.

Martin: (internally)

[smilesbag]

arun "so maybe your powers feed on hope?"

you are so nice. so kind. i love you.