#tma fan theory

[amanita-the-spore-druid]

Idea:

There are multiple archivists being created by The Web in the event of death, and they only meet 3 needs:

Already marked by the web

Capable of fulfilling the watchers crown by being marked

An avatar (Gertrude of The Desolation/Hunt, Jon of the Eye, etc)

So there are countless (although likely not MANY) Archivists/archives being used by The Web

[atlasail]

Tmagp theory(spoilers for the series thus far as I’m not sure what episodes I will reference but primarily Episode 7 of tmagp and references to tma)

Note: I have not done the difficult work of checking case dates when writing this theory. This aspect could completely debunk my theory in the case that one of you know the case dates please inform me in the comments and I’m open to any and all corrections

So episode 7 in which the artefacts are gathered at the hilltop centre could possibly be how the powers gained their foothold in this universe. The powers in tma originally manifested as books (later coined Leitner’s) and the existence of supernatural artefacts is heavily explored in tma. Episode 7 was very much giving ritual vibes. Hilltop road obviously where the crack in the universe lies. here a run down of how I speculate the events occur.

1. End of TMA, Fears travel through crack and into this new universe and artefacts manifest with their arrival, the artefacts being the more potent manifestation. When the Fears enter the new universe their tokens of power are stripped from them their avatars, monsters and other manifestations left in the tma world. (This is just my thoughts based on the info I’ve got)

2. The web (or whatever it may be reconfigured into) controls the people bringing in the artefacts literally gathering power from a variety of the fears, securing this Hilltop has the very same significance as the one before it.

3. That gathering of power allows the fears to start creating avatars and generating monsters

In summary I believe Episode 7 provides insight into how the fears grew their power within the world of The Magnus Protocol. Creating a site of horrific power that allowed the fears (however they may or may not be reconfigured) to create avatar and monsters to further channel and grow their powe

[1nk20ul]

Discovering Jon and Martin’s Birthdays

It’s a wonder how much you can uncover about The Magnus Archives using only a bit of mathematics and a smidge of psychology.

Apparently I have too much time for both and can definitively say that I have revealed the absolute best and most accurate dates for both of their birthdays. Feel free to join me as we dissect piece by piece when these two were born and put to rest the age old question: What is Jon’s zodiac sign?

I’ll put the results in the tags as a TLDR if you’re not interested in reading my method and simply care about what star sign they are or what date to put in your calendar so you can go out for ice cream.

Statement Begins.

To find out the birthdays of Jon and Martin, we first must determine when exactly they joined the Archives. This will be important for the wider picture, as after all, the earliest possible birthday must take place after they start working there. We also must understand the Archive team’s speed in order to understand how to space out our statements and find that aforementioned number.

Gertrude Robinson passed away, according to her file, on the 15th of May 2015. This makes 15th May our earliest possible starting date. The next time the day’s date was specified was on 13th January 2016, when Naomi Herne gave a live statement. This is MAG 13, and our latest start date. Obviously, these numbers are nowhere close to the day we’re looking for, but they act as upper and lower limits. Our answer is somewhere inside.

In Jon’s supplemental notes for MAG 12, he states that Gerard Keay passed away late the previous year. Since Gertrude died after Gerard in early 2015, he must have died in late 2014. This confirms that MAG 1-12 was recorded to tape in 2015. We know that MAG 13, the next statement, was given live on 13th January 2016. This creates, at the very least, an almost two-week gap between archiving statements. This is likely due to the holiday season, so the time between 24th December and up to 1st January can be omitted. To recap, MAG 1-12 was recorded in 2015, and MAG 13 onwards in 2016.

The key to determining archival speed lies with Martin. Martin goes missing right before MAG 17 and reappears at the end of MAG 21. As he gave such a detailed account of those two weeks, our archiving timeline can be significantly accurate. MAG 19-20 were more than likely recorded on the same day, meaning three separate recording sessions took place in two weeks. However, it took a minimum of six weeks to record MAG 14-16.

So far, the timeline looks like this:

Now we have to figure out the left half.

Calculating the average time it takes to archive statements from MAG 13-22 (removing any outliers from our calculations), we can find a true average and apply it to the 2015 year. By March of The Magnus Institute’s 2016 calendar year, the Archive staff was able to archive 1.31 statements per week. I double-checked this number by doing the same with the statements recorded between MAG 22 and MAG 39. By multiplying the average amount of weeks it should take them by the adjusted number of statements recorded, it should equal the number of weeks it actually did take them. If the numbers are the same, the average is reliable. Hoping for the number 20, the number of weeks I had calculated... was 20.11. This average seems relievingly trustworthy and fits Elias’ complaint about the staff “barely getting through one statement per week.”

All we have to do now is multiply the first 12 statements by the 1.31 average to determine how many weeks it most likely took to do the recorded work of 2015. This leaves us with 15.72 weeks and makes the earliest and most probable start date somewhere around 5th September 2015. I will round this to 1st September as I am not expecting the team to start working on statements right out the gate, so these extra four days act as a buffer for everyone to get their bearings and find the tape recorder. Also, it’s convenient for Elias’ financials to start everyone on the 1st of the month.

Now is the fun part - the birthdays. We now know that Jon and Martin’s birthdays must fall somewhere between early September and the end of February. Since March kicks off the Archives living with the threat of Jane Prentiss, they have to take place before then. After that point, the team is far too stressed to have the carefree party heard in MAG 161. We also know that Martin’s birthday has to come before Jon’s, as the team mentions going out for ice cream at Jon’s party. This event has to be long enough in the past for Jon to forget about it, so their birthdays must be reasonably spaced out from one another in the allotted time. Likewise, an amount of time must have passed after their start date for the team to be close enough bond to want to celebrate Martin’s birthday.

Martin’s birth year is easy to determine. Martin tells us his age in MAG 56. His birthday could not have happened at this point in 2017, so his birth year must be 1987. In a Q&A, it was speculated that Jon and Martin have birthdays near each other (and one being slightly older than the other), so only 1987 and 1988 are our options for Jon’s birth year. Let’s look a bit closer at that.

Early ‘88 is closer to Late ‘87 than Early ‘87. At Jon’s birthday party, he says he’s turning 38. Martin is 29 at this time. The obvious conclusion to me is that Jon simply adds a decade to his age. (I find this the most hilarious yet believable scenario.) Jonny was also born in 1988, being 28 himself when that scene would take place. As Jon’s childhood details sometimes mirror Jonny’s, I am taking this as a sign of accuracy.

And by doing some additional work that I will not share here, I can reliably say that these are the best observed birthdays for Jon and Martin:

Martin - 23rd November, 1987

Jonathan - 2nd Febuary, 1988

Also, this makes Martin a potential Valentine’s Day Baby. Do with that what you will.

Thanks for reading!

(Full timeline for those who are interested:)

[magnus-paranoics]

sooo, let's talk about Celia's sleepwalking

I've had this on my mind and I'm too lazy rn to go back over the previous episodes to reconfirm the details. Might check later. So basically. We know she's been sleepwalking. Ending up in weird places, first outside in the rain, then waking up just barely in time to dodge a train coming straight at her. At that point I was already thinking that, okay, her subconscious, or whatever holds power over her at night, wants her dead. And now after this episode, as I was texting the second half of this account, I realised I needed a map. Her sleeping body dragged her all the way to Oxford, while the oiar office is smack dab in the middle of London. Surely, that must be significant. And so I googled, just to check, the locations of the oiar office, the magnus institute, and hilltop road. Guess which one is in Oxford. That's right.

I don't actually know what exactly this means, other than, most likely, whatever forces are at play here (the Web?) didn't like that Celia crossed over from the original tma world, and very much want to drag her back. I wish her luck and keep hoping that the oiar staff will unionise and just collectively hear eachother out and pool shared knowledge.

– The Rat, aka the Beholding avatar of this duo

[vlly-of-despair]

Ok but like, we need to talk about Alice and the ‘victim’… (spoilers for TMP)

I’ve been kicking around the theory for a little bit in my head now that the Magnus Institute program for gifted children is meant to find children who have an aptitude to act as conduits for the Fears via meditation practices that can transport their consciousness to the ‘Somewhere Else’, aka the layer of reality in which the Fears resign.

I made a past post about this, but for a summery: In the Magnus Archives, the Fears are described as gods from another realm, not necessarily from another universe, but rather in a different layer of reality we usually can’t see or comprehend, but can bleed into our world in the small weirdness of the statements we see throughout the narrative, and humans being able to harness gifts derived from the warped reality of these beings via becoming an Avatar. In the Magnus Protocol, people may channel the powers that may be from the layer of reality through becoming an ‘External’ or by an object, or environment. They categorize cases regarding the Somewhere Else as subjects being viabilities as subjects, agents, or catalysts (see ep 9 as an example of this cataloged on record).

Now, I personally believe whatever the Magnus Institute was cultivating, they wanted to specifically target areas of greater knowledge.

In TMA 127, John describes to Basira the ability to see into the minds of others as:

It’s like there’s a, a door, in my mind. A-a-and behind it is, is the entire ocean.

Before, I didn’t notice it, but now, I – I know it’s there, and I can’t forget it, and I can feel the pressure of the water on it… when I’m around p-people, or.. places, or.. ideas? A drop or two will push through the cracks at the edges of the door. And I’ll… know something.

Now both Sam and Gerard both applied to the Magnus Institute program, but were not accepted. When we saw the ARG Mag Testing sheets from past children’s names, as well as the criteria they ranked the children on, many being less so on their intelligence, but on their empathy, obedience, and conformity. So my best guess is that they find the most obedient children of high intelligence, those who may be able to harbor great ‘knowing’ and ‘seeing’ about the intellectual comprehension of most people, and that are apathetic enough to endure the possible… casualties tapping into the Eldritch horrors may call upon. Then they train them to become figures similar to the Archivist, but to the degree in which they can ‘open the door in their minds’ completely. This didn’t go so well… like at all… taken by the fact that the ‘protocol’ was enacted and the whole institute burned to the ground. Did they open a rift to this dangerous world? Is the OIAR fighting against those who try to push too much of these Outer Gods into our material world? To ‘see’ too much?

Curiously, there is a child in the ARG spreadsheet listing the children involved with the ‘gifted kids program’ with the name Connor Dyer, the same lat name as Alice. Many people, including myself, think this IS Alice and her deadname, prior to transitioning.

So, Alice was involved with the program, and her denial of the fact and urging Sam to stop researching the institute raises some big red flags. Where am I going with this? Well, if we go back to MAGP 15: WELL RUN, we see the victim that approached Gwen being compelled to spill out her fear as she is ‘drowning’ on land, trying to grab Alice as she whispers about seeing an endless, dark sea. Alice’s reaction is sooo interesting to me. At first it seems normal, she sees a dying frantic woman, reacts in panic and calls the ambulance. However, once she sees the tape recorder, she becomes utterly terrified. She says, “ I’m sorry, I can’t-.” And runs.

Alice, what about the tape recorder specifically triggered you so much? Is it because perhaps you remember this scene? Using a tape recorder, as a child in the Magnus Institute program, to document your decent into that same vast ocean beyond our world? Is if because if suddenly clicked what this is, what has happened to this woman, that she was compelled? That her thoughts were spoken with far more clarity after death because her corpse is being puppeteer by a power which unlocks the minds and fears of others beyond their mind alone? Why are you working at the OIAR? And why did you invite perhaps the only other person you know who could have the abilities the Magnus Institute searched for in youth?…

[hancave]

a magnus protocol theory: “time isn’t real”

now, this theory is a Slight shot in the dark, and is purely based on a throwaway joke that Alice says at one point, but given the way alex and jonny like to plant very silly bits of foreshadowing early on, and some themes i’m noticing in my re-listening of tma, i’m becoming more and more inclined to believe it to have Some truth lol.

So we know that remnants of the tma universe are being revealed, especially through celia. considering her involvement in the post-change cult i think she’s likely going to be an important link.

But the question is, how?

A lot of things i had initially circling my mind was something alternate reality related, due to the doppelgängers and how everything is different, but celia seems to remember another reality.

It wasn’t until i was re-reading some of the earlier transcripts that alice makes a, somewhat pointed, joke that “time isn’t real”, that i thought:

what if this is the same reality, just heavily time distorted due to the post-mag 200 fallout?

at first I was like… nah i literally have no proof, just a hunch, but more and more things just kept piecing together that keeps bringing me back to it:

* the doppelgänger found underground appears to be older in ep 21

* darrien seeming to have fading memory until he meets his doppelgänger

* the spiral is HEAVILY involved in MAG 65: Binary, where it seems possible that the Spiral can trap consciousnesses somewhat in COMPUTERS. Hence “DISTORTED” time, as this could be work of the Spiral

now this theory is most definitely patchy, and i have some ideas on what the entities are now up to since the ending of the apocalypse, my most solid one being that the OIAR are serving the web, or some kind of smirke kind of idea to keep everything in “balance”. but once i finish my re listen i may update this as i go along hehe

also would like to thank @indieklutz in helping me out this theory together hehehe

very excited for the outcome of this side-quel (my hyperfixation is going crazy)

[terminalvelocityfrfr]

SPOILERS FOR A TMAGP + TMA!!

So what’s everyone’s theories for Tmagp?

I’m talking the institute burning down, GERRY BEING ALIVE (+ GEEGEE), the undeniable evidence that Celia is the same Celia from the cult in TMA, the archivists, [ERROR], PLEASE TELL ME YOUR THEORIES‼️

Kinda off topic too but has no one caught onto the reference to protocol in mag 068??

need a remind you what year the institute burnt down in the protocol!verse? Could this be maybe stuff leaking through like Annabelle mentioned? We never got a reason how those statements were leaked, and if we did I can bet money it sounds like bullshit, and better yet we haven’t got anything on how the institute burnt down in the protocol universe.

My bet is Gerry and Gertrude just got their petrol on a bit earlier before..whoever was head of the institute could interfere. Or maybe it was THE head of the institute did it to stop a dreaded power? We r still without so much info and s2 is about 11-12 episodes away!! Give us theory juice!!

[jo1sstuff]

So, you know how there are multiple realities in TMA?

Like how they send the fears into more dimensions at the end of the podcast, and Anya Villette being from another universe?

What if, like how Anna Wilett is the 'original' version of Anya Villette, there are other versions of TMA characters in The Magnus Protocol.

What brought this to my mind was hoping that Melanie King might make a return. Imagine: There's a mention of some ghost-hunting lady with an almost familiar name; Marilyn Prince.

Maybe other characters could be mentioned too, like Georgie Barker, or Basira and Daisy, but with different names. Who knows!

Feel free to add your own 'alternate universe' names for TMA characters. Also feel free to write fics with this concept. Maybe TMA universe people meeting their TMAGP counterparts. Go wild! (please let me know if there are any fics with that concept though, it sounds fun)

[scattered-dreamers]

Listening to Mag 085 got me thinking. We don’t know just how much as changed in TMagP universe.

Is it possible that Georgie and Jon still dated in uni? That said, are they still kinda close? Like shown in TMA?

Yeah, they’re still distances apart but Georgie let Jon crash with her in S3 when he had nowhere to go else to go.

That doesn’t explain anything about the whereabouts of Tim, Sasha, and Martin though.

I hope they’re safe.

[potatoeenjoyer]

I think jon and martin are dead the same way that lightner was dead so... they aren't ,oficialy they are dead but you know,they just might not be ,and on the other hand their minds or atleast their voices are in the computers so this might be like that one guy who got his soul traped in a book,the one jon talks to in america so they might have goten turned i to the sistem after their death ,there are to many options .

[starsoftheeye]

bro i wish i could draw better so i could make an animatic of that one but in the horse and the infant when odysseus finds hectors son, but instead its celia finding jack after killing her tmagp counterpart

[corvid-corvette-coven]

Watch me ramble and speculate wildly off the top of my head about TMAGP’s new fear paradigm

VAGUE SPOILERS FOR THE MAGNUS PROTOCOL EP2

the ramblings of a madwoman

The fears have been severely reshuffled in TMP

These fears might have entered TMAGP’s universe recently

Or otherwise haven’t shaped history to the same degree as the TMA universe

The magnus institute still existed though

Which implies the events of Jonah Magnus’s life, barnabus bennett, etc happened

But the magnus institute was not relocated to London, and was in Manchester… which could mean a lot

Maybe

A. The original Jonah Magnus never attempted the watchers crown, or any version thereof, he died a natural death, and the institute continued until that fire (which may or may not have been intentional)

B. Many of the events of TMA did happen the same, with the exception of a lot of the webs spinning and key events around the 70s and 90s when the OIAR or whatever was formed and the magnus institute crumbled.

C. Jonah DID live or some other influences to do with the institute and the eye happened and strands that have not yet revealed themselves will lead us to discovering this OIAR or whatever is some extrapolation of that original mission

I feel like jonah being the villain again is weak sauce tho

the series is yet to reveal its finish line OBVIOUSLY cos only 2 eps are out but there is a puzzle in my mind that is being filled out slowly, and i’m only guessing from these pieces and reasonable expectations of our boy Jonny.

Any of those being said, the way Jon, Martin, and Jonah have entered this world in some form or another, which implies there was an active change made as a result of the apocalypse and the events of MAG200 ( 😭 )

They could have been unwillingly injected into this program, or maybe the program was born when they were, if it’s intentionally nonsensical or otherwise jumbled it might be a creation of some new or old entity

Maybe in this new world smirkes 14 doesn’t apply at all, and whatever otherworldly playdough made those original entities was reformed and remoulded to newer, more apt designs for our modern day, no longer based in ancient cultures and primal motivations.

Self image coupled with flesh based self mutilation and an almost corruptive force that drains the first true joy the victim felt regarding their appearance once they strayed further and further from themselves to achieve an idealised form is ALOT to try to define as a single known entity

They were gifted this beautiful design, and once they were finally at peace with their look, they gained an itch to go further, more and more unnatural, they pursued perfection and paid the price.

Maybe multiple entities may claim a victim,

The tattooist might have been an avatar of a new eye esq entity that takes a more active role?

Then the victim was claimed as by some sort of flesh adjacent entity that contains the unrealised potential of the flesh from TMA originally (more self image and impossible standards than body horror)

[colourfulbookdragon]

Spoilers for the magnus archives episode 92 nothing besides remains

This is my thoughts after each episode allong with theories i have so far and a lot of rambling

Episode 90 body builder

Definitely part of the circus right betting new strongman and gymnast for them also tim trying to escape again I'm sorry he's stuck but also he is now one of the more reliable narrators if only because he is talking more of an oppositional stance to the archive with out being an antagonist I still don't trust anyone working there to be fully honest though he definitely has secret

91 the comming storm

Daisy, you can't murder humans. i know u already have, but seriously, don't kill John. Also, not Basira already knows she (daisy) did kill things. We got Michael crews backstory and lost him in the same episode do u think maby Michael the distortion one chould have token his name from Michael Crew after he got banished and reformed or just a coincidence connected only by the distortion the sky? Emptiness vertigo vast nothing falling entity idk but I like it also the lighter had way too much description for it not to be important probably in someway connected to childhood story.

92 nothing besides remains

Omg, Elias is Jonah Magnus. What i knew he was something(probably a past archivist), but this basically confirmed it unless I am wrong which is possible but even then we r still operating under the assumption that Elias has more information then anyone else he speaks to and also that John is going to get better at being things and closer to his leave I assume. Is he immortal? No, not imortal but longer living he did say he can die, but also that he is not human anymore, so definitely something there. At least John is no longer on the run, but Georgie is probably gonna be disappointed in him for going back. Who's going to keep him from being to paranoid and will keep the admiral company when Georgie is gone. Also everyone working there is stuck on a deeper level ( sorry Tim ) but even destroying the archive or Elias ends them(further proof that he is Jonah) u just know there is some good fan fics for that were some character is desperate and suicidal enough to actually do it or try. (If there isn't, then when I'm finished, I'll write it myself)

The timeline is confusing. I'll probably check a timeline after I finish. making my own would be difficult, but looking up stuff will lead to spoiler for myself, so idk, but I have no clue how far apart anything is or how to figure that out shasha just reminded me I still do this she is going to come out of some dimension or other traumatized but alive

[quinn-fucks-shit-up]

ok, something I've been wondering about

if the archivist dies, then all the assistants are let free right?? because the archivist is the thing that ties them to the eye

but what if the archivist cut their own connection to the eye through blinding themself, surely they couldn't still be a conduit for others when they aren't even connected themself

in conclusion, if Jon had blinded himself it absolutely would've solved a lot of problems for everyone

[sector27-system]

Long time no see; we're always forgetting that we write for us and feel weird about doing it because we're thinking of the wrong reasons.

Now, initially we were thinking we were going to see some spicy Hunt x Slaughter action in the near future but with the most recent developments...

We definitely have an Archivist. They're from the Manchester branch of the Magnus Institute if we recall, so probably not some remains of OG John...

Of more concern however is the difficulty we have had with fearspecting (fear+classpecting we live with a homstuck forgive us) our dear tattoo artist. They seem equally capable of invoking any fear through both the tattoos they make and others. We think we may have an Archivist (of the "I OPEN THE DOOR!" sense) for the... Spiral. For this kind of art we want to say Spiral. It is exclusively rendered on skin though, which is a Stranger thing so we could be wrong but we think this plays into team up idea we had before.

Honestly it feels like a LOT is coming to a head all at once so we have no idea what specifically comes next. Let us know your thoughts!

P.S. The Protocol people seem to have some Smirke-esque ideas. Excited to see where that goes.

[frogofshadyorigin]

Okay, it's time for an unhinged and probably completely dumb fan theory. Maybe someone else has even thought about it before me. I'm sorry if I copy anyone.

Spoiler warning for The Magnus Archives, especially season 2.

Okay. We all know the not!them. Like not!Sasha.

I have a theory based on nothing really that explains who can see the person that changed as the not!person.

But first, let's look at all the people we know of that got changed.

There is, obviously, not!Sasha. Changed at the end of Season 1 while hiding in artifact storage.

Then there is not!Graham who got changed because he owned the table that trapped it.

We also have not!Rose, the mother from MAG77 who got changed before the not!them was bound to the table.

And lastly on my list, not!Greg, the cousin from MAG78. The not!them also got bound by Adelard Dekker in that statement.

Now, let's look at the people that knew they were replaced.

We have Melanie, who met Sasha whilst coming to the Archives the first time and later met not!Sasha.

Then, there's Amy, who met Graham and lived opposite of him, watching him but never really doing anything with him.

Next, we have Lucy, the daughter who had fallen out with her mother after they never really got along and only came back when her father had an accident.

Lastly, there's Lawrence, who never really did much with his cousin and they became estranged.

Now that the groundwork has been laid, let's look at what they have in common. What do all of them share?

They knew the person that got changed but also somehow they didn't know them.

Melanie had a long talk with Sasha about ghosts, where they probably also talked about other things. I mean, Melanie was interested enough to want to say goodbye to her when leaving for India. One could argue that she knew Sasha, but only on a surface level.

Amy watched Graham for a long time. She knew of his habits, how he looked, maybe a bit more, but like Melanie with Sasha, she didn't really know him. They were not strangers but also not really friends or anything.

Lucy hadn't talked to her mother in 10 years before visiting them again. Her relationship with her mother beforehand didn't seem like a good one where they would tell each other important stuff and they definitely were distant for a mother/daughter relationship. And even after Lucy started visiting again, it was not because of her mother but because of the way her father always lit up. I think it's fair to say she didn't really know her mother that well. (Granted, this one is a bit of an outlier and kinda hard to fit in the narrative, but I think it still works. More on that later).

Lawrence hadn't seen his cousin in years, only sporadically and they never really did anything. They were related by blood but that was about it. Once again, he knew him but didn't get close to him.

So. And here's my final thoughts that kinda wrap it all together.

The Stranger is often described as tapping into the 'uncanny valley' effect, where things don't look like they should, are slightly off, but you don't really recognize why. And only when you start looking closer at it you realize.

Now, if I didn't know a person beforehand, I wouldn't know that they were changed. Hence why unaffiliated people don't realize someone was changed.

If someone knew that person really well, they'd probably just wouldn't realize if something minor was out of shape. They'd push the thought away or ignore it because they trust the person they think is in front of them. Their brain fills up the non-fitting parts.

But someone who only knows them a bit, who's relationship with them is not good but also not nonexistent, would recognize something like that. And they would start to take a closer look and realize that this is an entirely different person. (Or, more accurately, instantly see it, because their brain doesn't fill in the blanks and mistakes)

Just like, as from my experience, if I know something really good and am familiar with it, I don't realize errors as much as I do with things I know only a little.

For example, if I write a text, I definitely know what words are. But it's so much harder to find mistakes in my own writing than in someone else's writing. Because I know my writing and I know what it's supposed to say and so I overlook the error. If I read someone else's text, I find mistakes much easier because I don't know what's supposed to be there so my brain doesn't just fill the blanks in. And if I didn't know writing (or the person that got changed) at all, I wouldn't be able to recognize any mistakes, since I don't know how to write.

So yeah that's my theory on who can see the not!them for their true form. Someone who knows them for more than a fleeting second but never got around to developing a proper relationship with them.

I hope this makes sense for someone else as well and doesn't just sound like the ramblings of a mad person. And if you have any ideas on this, feel free to interact. I'd love to hear other people's opinions in this.