gee, could it be another post about the magnus archives?

[kindkit]

I've now seen through episode 92, "Nothing Beside Remains." (Actually I've started 93 but haven't finished it yet.) Please no spoilers for 93 and beyond.

"Nothing Beside Remains" is fantastic and I love it and I think Elias may be my favorite character now.

Okay, I probably wouldn't go quite that far, but I do love a good villain, and Elias is an excellent villain. Unflappable, unapologetic, polite, charming, not sneering or cackling. He's like Rupert Giles, but evil. Or like the love child of Giles and Ethan Rayne, and in fact this is now my headcanon for his background until proved otherwise.

As soon as he said Jon's name into the recorder and it became clear that this was all a message for Jon specifically, I started to ship them. Um, I'm sorry? Sort of? Look, I'm a Hannibal (TV-verse) fan, a little bit of villainy doesn't faze me. Or a massive amount. And there is a part of me that would love it if Jon became Elias's partner in crime, so long as they don't hurt Martin anyone too much.

And let's face it: of the available evils, the Eye is by far the least. As far as we can tell now, anyway. Cold amoral curiosity is better than malevolence.

Poor Jon. I hope his hand gets better and that he takes some comfort in purring cats and anything else that will help. (And wow, we've learned a lot about him so far in S3. All the background stuff in "A Guest for Mr. Spider" is heartbreaking. But he does have one friend, anyway. And a detectable sense of humor!)

Poor Martin . . . is actually fairly unscathed, except emotionally. I doubt it will last. And if it does, I will become suspicious, and I don't want to. (I do still ship him with Jon, despite my new enthusiasm for Elias/Jon, but I don't actually picture Jon making Martin happy, even in the limited and temporary way that is probably the best this canon will allow.)

Poor Tim . . . this season has also made me grow fond of him. What started out as pure dickishness (I don't think I'll ever quite forgive him for (a) assuming that Jon was sleeping with Basira, and more importantly (b) refusing to believe Jon's denials) has morphed, with worsening circumstances, into a kind of truth-telling dickishness that may be helpful, and is at least grimly amusing. I loved his self-description as an "archival prisoner" of the Institute. I'm worried about him, though . . . he seems to need to go and lie down quite a lot, and there may more to that than supernatural punishment for rebelliousness.

Poor Basira. She almost got away from all this crap, and then to save Jon she got dragged all the way in. She is awesome.

Poor Daisy, I guess? I mean, murderer many times over, but she only seems to be targeting people who are themselves killers in the service of one entity or another. But is Jon the first person she's been wrong about? I like her anyway, though. In another universe, she'd be Buffy. And while she's scary as hell, we know there's one person she loves. Which of course is how that bastard Elias snares her.


Other thoughts: I loved the statements of Jude Perry and Mike Crew. People who are willing servants to the entities, and happy about it; they're fucking terrifying yet ever so slightly sympathetic, too. "Body Builder," is in a similar vein, and it resonated with me really strongly as a trans person, as someone whose "perfect body" would involve what some might consider mutilation. I have no idea if that subtext was intentional (I'm betting not), but it's interesting.

(I was amused, in "Body Builder" and "The Coming Storm," to see writer!Jonny writing himself out of name-related problems. "J" for Jared-not-Gerard, and "call me Mike" rather than Michael. *grins*)

"Upon the Stair" is brilliant writing, up there with "Hive" for me. Jonny is disturbingly good at writing people slowly losing themselves. And the possibility that the subject of "Upon the Stair" became Michael and has forgotten he was ever human is creeeeeeeeeepy. "Dig" is another good one along those lines, and it plus "The Coming Storm" make me wonder more about the Leitners--do they only work on people who are receptive? Or is it more that they will convert the receptive and purely victimize the rest? If they do only work on the receptive, what does that say about baby!Jonathan's experience?

I had been gradually extending my cut-off time for episode listening into the evening, so long as it wasn't too close to bedtime. "Tucked In" has put an end to that. Thanks for the nightmare fuel, Mr. Sims!

I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of stuff I wanted to mention, but this post is already long. Gah, so much story! So intricately designed! (Like a fractal . . . )

Comments

[sovay]

Or like the love child of Giles and Ethan Rayne, and in fact this is now my headcanon for his background until proved otherwise.

I don't even listen to this show and I want that.

[kindkit]

If you'd like a sample of Elias without having to listen to the rest of the show, check out the last few minutes of episode 98, "Lights Out." You can listen to it here; the relevant part starts at about 19:56. The man in the scene is Elias, and the woman is Melanie, recently hired to work in the archive.

[rydra_wong]

Excellent choice of sample!

[snickfic]

Purring cats! Jon has at least one friend! I LOVE Georgie, and I love their dynamic, where they parted awkwardly but she still cares about him after all this time, enough to let him hide out with her for a while. Her backstory is really interesting, too, although IDK if you've gotten there yet? I can't remember the circumstances under which we learned it.

[kindkit]

It's "Dead Woman Walking," a couple of episodes later, but I've heard it now. Having heard it, I'm even more amazed that she let Jon and his scary problems anywhere near her.

[rydra_wong]

In another universe, she'd be Buffy.

... holy shit, you're not wrong.

(And, I guess, it's an index of some of the ways in which the Magnus-verse is not the Buffy-verse.)

[kindkit]

Yeah, Buffy is really light and hopeful compared to TMA.

[flo_nelja]

Yess, I ship both Elias/Jon and Jon/Martin, I'm glad you do too!

For Daisy, her statement in 62 was quite clear about having a weakness for police brutality even when monsters are not implied, though.

"Or is it more that they will convert the receptive and purely victimize the rest?": It's possible, but I also thing some of them are more aggressive then others. And the old book seller was able to read Ex Altiora enough to summarize the plot with as few effects as some vertigo sometimes.

[kindkit]

Ah, it's a pity about Daisy. But her ruthlessness is probably something the team needs, alas.

[rydra_wong]

"Body Builder," is in a similar vein, and it resonated with me really strongly as a trans person, as someone whose "perfect body" would involve what some might consider mutilation. I have no idea if that subtext was intentional (I'm betting not), but it's interesting.

I also have no idea what's intentional, but given Jonny Sims's (and Frank Voss's) background in The Mechanisms (band with trans and nb members, definitely part of the trans/queer music scene -- kaberett is a Mechs fan and gave context here), it's possible that they're more alert to those resonances than you might assume.

[kindkit]

Ah, that's interesting, thanks.

[rydra_wong]

Yeah -- AFAIK Jonny is a cis dude, but that's a major part of his social/creative context, so I suspect that he might be more aware than the average.

I only have a bit of Mechs knowledge from fandom osmosis, but someone did a useful intro and round-up of links here:

https://mickmercury.tumblr.com/post/176676366041/the-mechanisms