TMA thoughts and speculation
Jan. 2nd, 2020 07:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitI've now listened through episode 84, "Possessive." Please don't spoil me for anything after that, even if my speculations are either exactly right or ridiculously wrong.
Let's start with the conclusion: the Magnus Institute is not just a temple/cult of the Eye. It's either an instance of the Eye, one of its manifestations, or it is the Eye itself.
Here's why I think so: At the end of S2, not!Sasha muses on what would happen if she "wore" Jon. "If I wear you, will I really become the Archivist? Rob the eye of its pupil?"
Now, on one level obviously she would become the archivist, because she would take Jon's place and his job is Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute. The only way not!Sasha could be in doubt is if there's more to being the Archivist than that.
Notably, Michael also tends to refer to Jon by title: the Archivist. So, for that matter, do the transcripts.
And if not!Sasha becoming the Archivist would rob the Eye of its pupil, then the Eye sees via the Archivist. What the Archivist sees, it sees; what the Archivist knows, it knows. (There seem to be limits to this--Gertrude managed to scheme against it for a while, though in the end Elias killed her. She had "protections" of some kind that Jon doesn't have. And does that mean she belonged to something else? That's what "protected" Father Edwin Burroughs, and seems to have protected not!Sasha from detection. Hence her belief that if she became the Archivist she would as it were blind the Eye.)
This role as Archivist is why Jon is reading/recording statements, and why Gertrude did the same thing. They're putting these statements, the true ones, the important ones, the ones that offer information about what the Eye's rivals (and its agents) are up to, into memory. This is why digital recording doesn't work on the true statements: because as was pointed out in "Binary," digital recording is too different from a brain for a mind to survive there. The Eye's mind needs to be analog. (Or sort of analog? That episode also says that magnetic tape is digital too. But if I were Jon, I'd be desperate to have another look at Gertrude's laptop, where she stored whatever information she didn't want the Eye to know about.)
This is also why Jurgen Leitner says he shouldn't be surprised that Jon reminds him of Gertrude: the Archivist is a role that to some extent takes over the personality of whoever fills it.
This is why no one can quit; perhaps all the Institute's jobs, or all its archiving jobs anyway, are roles. This is why Gertrude had three assistants and so does Jon--it's not, I think, just budgeting, it's roles. This is why Elias was so quick to offer Melanie King a job (besides just not wanting a clever and curious person running around loose). And this is why he's not looking for a new Head Archivist--Jon will be back. He won't have any choice. (I note that he feels compelled to record the statement that was mysteriously delivered to him.)
It's also, I fear, why Martin has started recording statements. I really, really want it to be just a cute-sad lovesick thing, where he wants Jon to be proud of him and so he does what he thinks Jon would do. I mean, it probably is that as well, but it's also the Eye needing information. I wonder if it "sees" as well through Martin as it did/does through Jon. Perhaps not?
I try to avoid any spoilers, but I have inevitably seen future episode titles, and I have not missed that late S4 has episodes called "Panopticon" and "The Eye Opens."
Uh oh.
* * *
And on a completely different note: episode 84 made me think about how Martin Blackwood reminds me a little of Martin Crieff from Cabin Pressure, and how amusing it would be if they met. Which my weird squishy analog brain immediately transformed into a fic scenario in which they don't meet at all, just accidentally swap lives via an old book Martin C. picks up somewhere. They don't remember their old lives but they both have this nagging sense of wrongness, and their memories feel . . . odd, but they get terrible headaches if they think about it too much.
The tone of these two fandoms is so different that I think you'd have to pick one. My inclination would be to go for CP-style comedy (which is sometimes ouchy and sad), if only because my brain, the wretched thing, quickly settled upon the title "Fly the Eldritch Skies."
Let's start with the conclusion: the Magnus Institute is not just a temple/cult of the Eye. It's either an instance of the Eye, one of its manifestations, or it is the Eye itself.
Here's why I think so: At the end of S2, not!Sasha muses on what would happen if she "wore" Jon. "If I wear you, will I really become the Archivist? Rob the eye of its pupil?"
Now, on one level obviously she would become the archivist, because she would take Jon's place and his job is Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute. The only way not!Sasha could be in doubt is if there's more to being the Archivist than that.
Notably, Michael also tends to refer to Jon by title: the Archivist. So, for that matter, do the transcripts.
And if not!Sasha becoming the Archivist would rob the Eye of its pupil, then the Eye sees via the Archivist. What the Archivist sees, it sees; what the Archivist knows, it knows. (There seem to be limits to this--Gertrude managed to scheme against it for a while, though in the end Elias killed her. She had "protections" of some kind that Jon doesn't have. And does that mean she belonged to something else? That's what "protected" Father Edwin Burroughs, and seems to have protected not!Sasha from detection. Hence her belief that if she became the Archivist she would as it were blind the Eye.)
This role as Archivist is why Jon is reading/recording statements, and why Gertrude did the same thing. They're putting these statements, the true ones, the important ones, the ones that offer information about what the Eye's rivals (and its agents) are up to, into memory. This is why digital recording doesn't work on the true statements: because as was pointed out in "Binary," digital recording is too different from a brain for a mind to survive there. The Eye's mind needs to be analog. (Or sort of analog? That episode also says that magnetic tape is digital too. But if I were Jon, I'd be desperate to have another look at Gertrude's laptop, where she stored whatever information she didn't want the Eye to know about.)
This is also why Jurgen Leitner says he shouldn't be surprised that Jon reminds him of Gertrude: the Archivist is a role that to some extent takes over the personality of whoever fills it.
This is why no one can quit; perhaps all the Institute's jobs, or all its archiving jobs anyway, are roles. This is why Gertrude had three assistants and so does Jon--it's not, I think, just budgeting, it's roles. This is why Elias was so quick to offer Melanie King a job (besides just not wanting a clever and curious person running around loose). And this is why he's not looking for a new Head Archivist--Jon will be back. He won't have any choice. (I note that he feels compelled to record the statement that was mysteriously delivered to him.)
It's also, I fear, why Martin has started recording statements. I really, really want it to be just a cute-sad lovesick thing, where he wants Jon to be proud of him and so he does what he thinks Jon would do. I mean, it probably is that as well, but it's also the Eye needing information. I wonder if it "sees" as well through Martin as it did/does through Jon. Perhaps not?
I try to avoid any spoilers, but I have inevitably seen future episode titles, and I have not missed that late S4 has episodes called "Panopticon" and "The Eye Opens."
Uh oh.
* * *
And on a completely different note: episode 84 made me think about how Martin Blackwood reminds me a little of Martin Crieff from Cabin Pressure, and how amusing it would be if they met. Which my weird squishy analog brain immediately transformed into a fic scenario in which they don't meet at all, just accidentally swap lives via an old book Martin C. picks up somewhere. They don't remember their old lives but they both have this nagging sense of wrongness, and their memories feel . . . odd, but they get terrible headaches if they think about it too much.
The tone of these two fandoms is so different that I think you'd have to pick one. My inclination would be to go for CP-style comedy (which is sometimes ouchy and sad), if only because my brain, the wretched thing, quickly settled upon the title "Fly the Eldritch Skies."
no subject
Date: 2020-01-05 01:44 am (UTC)Eeeeee. EEE.
if only because my brain, the wretched thing, quickly settled upon the title "Fly the Eldritch Skies."
I only know Cabin Pressure by osmosis but this is a brilliant title.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-05 04:34 am (UTC)