#tmagp magnus institute
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Oh no. Oh fuck. I am relistening to some of the earlier Protocol episodes, and I have a horrible, terrible, no good very bad suspicion about Gerry.
I could, I want to emphasize, be completely wrong! I could be wildly, hilariously, off the mark. But--hear me out. This is going to take some explaining about what I think is going on in the bigger picture worldbuilding stuff; hopefully it'll be coherent, but fair warning, it may get a bit long.
First: there have been a lot of cases that have boiled down to trying to keep only the "good"/desirable/etc aspects of things or events or people, and discard the "bad"/unwanted, right? We saw this happening very explicitly in episode 23 with Alesis Newman, and way back in episode 2 with Daria the painter, but a number of episodes have presented variations on a similar theme.
Two variations in particular that I've been thinking a lot about are the violinist in episode 4 and the gambler in episode 9. The violinist can play his violin beautifully, but he wants to be rid of the price in flesh and blood that it demands. Similarly, the gambler wants the rewards of rolling high on his magic dice, but wants to be rid of the misfortunes that come with rolling low. Crucially, both episodes make clear that in this type of balance--something unwanted for something wanted--you can't just make the unwanted piece vanish. It has to go somewhere, it has to happen. But you can make it happen to someone else, somewhere else. And when that's how the game works, one of the major questions for players who want to get ahead then becomes: "how do I make the bad stuff stay happening somewhere else, and keep reaping the benefits of the good stuff that balances it out?"
Here's where this gets wildly speculative and from here on I freely acknowledge that I may be talking out my ass:
I think the Magnus Institute was investigating that question. I suspect a great many alchemists before the Institute, probably going back to the times of Albertus Magnus, were investigating it as well. I think the Great Work they were attempting -- the "universal transmutation" alluded to in episode 21 as the Magnus Institute's aim -- was the exact opposite of Jonah Magnus's own "Great Work" in TMA. In other words, I think they were probably trying to make the world an eternal paradise, rather than an eternal hell.
But if you're getting rid of all the "bad" stuff, all the suffering and misfortune, it's got to go somewhere.
I think they were sending it through to other worlds.
I'm not going to get into all the reasons I think that right now, because that's a whole essay in itself, but basically--the Leitners in TMA? The artifacts? All the little bits and pieces of evil given physical form, that never had a clear origin point in the world where they caused so much suffering for so long? We've all been worried about them winding up here, post-Archives... but I think this is where they came from in the first place. I think they were sent away in the hopes that an increase in "bad" in other worlds would lead to an increase in "good" in this one. Remember all those books Albrecht von Closen found in the tomb in the Black Forest in TMA, that Jonah Magnus later stole and let loose on the world? Remember that Albrecht found a mysterious coin along with them dated 1279? Albertus Magnus died in 1280; I strongly suspect he sent those books from the world of Protocol to that of Archives shortly before his death, much as the world of Archives sent the tapes away centuries later. But I think Protocol's world kept sending things away, kept trying to export "bad" and import "good". Remember all those happy, laughing volunteers bringing strange and sinister items to the charity shop on Hill Top Road in episode 7? "All for a good cause."
Okay so. Now. With that bit of hypothetical framework for Protocol's worldbuilding in place, let's next go back to Alesis Newman of episode 23. Her expressed wish is to create a new her. "Someone better. Someone the pain can't touch." Someone who can be everything Alesis wishes she could have been. Someone "free of all (her) mistakes."
But increasingly it sounds like what she actually wants isn't to create someone new. It is to create someone who is only a part of her current self. Someone who, she says in one of her last few posts, will "just be the good parts of me."
And if that's the case, if what she's really trying to do is make someone who holds only the "good" parts of her, someone who can be happy and strong and perfect and loved by everyone forever... what happens to the bad parts of Alesis Newman, as she currently exists? What about the parts of her that feel pain and fear, the parts of her that make mistakes, the parts of her that she rejects?
One might assume, from the experience she narrates, that those pieces of her are simply being destroyed. But that doesn't line up with the suggestion we've seen from earlier episodes that there has to be some kind of balance maintained in these bargains. What she actually says is happening to her--and what the forum members have apparently told her will happen, through this process--is that she and this "new her" are "becoming one... and then two."
I don't think the "bad" parts of Alesis Newman are dying. I think they're also going to become a "new her"--they're just going to go somewhere else, somewhere the new, happy, strong, perfect version of Alesis Newman never has to see them.
Still with me?
Okay.
Now let's talk about Gerry. Let's talk about the smiling, laughing, irrepressibly happy Gerry Keay we meet early in Protocol. Gerry who seems to have everything that the Gerry Keay of Archives was denied.
Gerry who underwent tests at the Magnus Institute as a child, and who, per the static over his and "Gee Gee's" words, holds a few more secrets about what went on there than he let on to Sam and Celia.
Back when I first heard Gerry's appearance in episode 8, it sure felt like a narrative gut punch: This is who he could have been in Archives, if not for the presence of the Fears. This is what Jon and Martin's final decision threatens to destroy--for this safe, happy version of Gerry, and for everyone else in his world.
I'm now suspecting it might be significantly worse than that. I think the Magnus Institute might have done to Gerry Keay something similar to what Alesis Newman later did to herself: made him New. Kept only the good parts--ensured a happy, comfortable, good life for him. In which case, all the bad stuff--all the parts of Gerry Keay that would ever have to suffer from bad luck, to feel pain and fear and misery...
...well. They'd have had to go... somewhere else, wouldn't they.
Which would suggest I had the causality the wrong way around the first time I heard Gerry's appearance in Protocol: maybe it's not "Gerry has a happy life in this world because he didn't have to suffer everything that the Gerry Keay of Archives did."
Maybe it's "Gerry in Archives had to suffer everything he did because Gerry in Protocol was made to always be happy."
#in which seldon is extremely fucking normal about the magnus protocol#takes a *deep* breath and hits post#tmagp speculation#<-please let me emphasize the 'speculation' part it is entirely possible i don't know wtf i'm talking about#tmagp gerry#tmagp alesis newman#tmagp magnus institute#tmagp albertus magnus#tmagp#the magnus protocol#tmagp 23#tmagp 8#tmagp spoilers#the magnus protocol spoilers#pondering magpods
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Sam knows more then he lets on
Directly about the Magnus institute he says "blast from the past". Later he says generally something along the lines of "how can you listen to these things ? What about if you know they might be true".
And he sent to have a special interest in the Magnus institute later.
This might be a no shit Sherlock moment but he knows stuff, weird stuff, Magnus archivey stuff.
I think he wasn't scared at the incedient but at the fact it is being read out maybe even specifically at him. Maybe the computers know he knows.
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Tbfh as someone who was in the gifted program in school if during my test to get in I was taken to a huge old building to take the test and within said building saw a motherfucker literally shed his skin and become a bone freak I too would spend the rest of my life searching for answers trying to figure out what in the bloody fuck that was about
#sam i see you and i hear you and you are valid#tmagp#the magnus protocol#tmagp vague#tmagp spoilers#tmagp 28#samama khalid#the magnus institute
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If anyone wanted some insight into how Jonny and Alex differ on writing style, here you go 😅
#tmagp shitpost#the magnus archives#the magnus protocol#jonathan sims#tma#magnus pod#magnus archives#the magnus institute#alexander j newall#tma shitpost#tma podcast#tmagp#jon sims#martin blackwood#tma art
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sasha?
#artists on tumblr#fanart#digital art#sasha james#sasha#tma#tma fanart#tmagp#the magnus institute#the magnus archives#the magnus pod
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Tmagp introducing its first avatar be like
#tmagp spoilers#tmapg#Tmagp spoiler#the magnus protocol#Tmagp needles#rusty quill#magnus institute#Tmagp 6
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jon: all these avartars are really weird and do a ton of creepy stuff
also jon: suplemental, im in the walls and also the tunnels at the same time. i see all.
#head archivist of the magnus institute london#jon sims#jonathan sims#the beholding#the fears#the magnus archives#the magnus archives podcast#the magnus institute#the magnus pod#the magnus protocol#tim stoker#martin blackwood#tma martin#tma podcast#tma#tma jon#tmagp#tmagp spoilers#magnus archives
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"Call me Gerry :)"
#fanart#the magnus archive fanart#the magnus institute#tma fanart#the magnus archives#the magnus pod#magnus pod#rusty quill tma#tma gerry#gerry keay#tmagp gerry#tmagp fanart#tmagp 8#tmp fanart#tmp gerry#tmagp spoilers#the magnus protocol fanart#the magnus protocol#tmagp
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Gerry and gertrude being fine and dandy means my crack theory from before protocol started can still happen
They may be computers or jonny could be fucking with us
#digital art#art#fanart#the magnus archives#tma#the magnus protocol#tmagp#jonmartin#tma jonathan sims#tma jon#jonathan sims#tma martin blackwood#tma martin#martin blackwood#tmagp sam#samama khalid#tmagp samama khalid#tma theory#the magnus institute#tma spoilers#tmagp spoilers#tmagp speculation#fan comic#tma comic
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okay so the magnus institute burned down, and we KNOW that gerry and gertrude (grand arsonists #1 and #2) are alive in this universe
mayhaps they successfully got their petrol & matches on at magnus's fear funhouse
#tmagp#the magnus protocol#tmagp 8#tmagp spoilers#gerry keay#gerard keay#gertrude robinson#the magnus institute#bs.txt
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ok hear me out
#PLEASE tell me i'm not the only one who had this thought#like the description fits perfectly#'BDG worked at the Magnus Institute' is my new tmagp headcanon#the magnus protocol#tmagp#the magnus protocol spoilers#tmagp spoilers#tmagp 28#tmagp interruptions#brian david gilbert#bdg
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if you're cold, the magnus institute manchester is cold, douse it is gasoline and light it on fire <3
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Me 24/7
#tma#tmagp#the magnus protocol#the magnus archives#the magnus institute#The Magnus archives is a podcast#magnus pod
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what nice looking besties…. hope nothing horrible happens to them…
#the magnus protocol#the magnus protocol fanart#the magnus archives fanart#tmagp#tmagp spoilers#tmagp fanart#alice dyer#samama khalid#sam khalid#sam and alice#tma fanart#the magnus institute#digital art#tma#character design#mag pod#rusty quill
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This, except he stares you dead in the eye, daring you to complain about the horror in a horror podcast.
#the magnus protocol#the magnus archives#magnus pod#jonathan sims#tmagp shitpost#tmagp vague#tma#magnus archives#the magnus institute#tma shitpost#tma podcast#tmagp#Jimmy craig
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i wonder how robert smirke would feel about the fact that there is now a lot of people who only know of him through association with a handful of evil spooky buildings. that's a hell of a reputation to get posthumously. personally i'd be delighted. robert smirke i sure hope you liked horror.
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