per discussion on discord, the Tapes are not a Beholding thing so much as a manifestation of Jon’s own personal powers
the thought process is like this:
It’s assumed that tapes are just a Part of Being the Archivist, but they are mostly emblematic of Jon himself. There have been other Beholding avatars before Jon, and there have been other Archivists, but no sign that anyone else has this affinity for the tapes.
Per Gerry, Gertrude did absolutely read statements for her hunger, but according to him, she didn’t record them. What she did record was relevant information.
Tapes also pop up when Jon wants more agency. They crop up when there is information he specifically will want to know, and often not necessarily Fear-related.
And the way people react to the tapes is parallel to how they think of Jon. For Martin, he’s very fond of them, sees them as little confidants, and they form his connection to Jon through their separation in S4. Tim and Basira both view the tapes as a sign of Jon’s monstrousness. Back when Daisy has her bloodlust on, she sees Jon having one as a sign he’s a “freak”, confirming her need for him to be a monster worth killing. Melanie is neutral to them mostly, but they capture the story of Elias tormenting her, which informs Jon’s kindness to her after he knows about it.
And very interestingly, Elias can’t control them. When he wants to turn one off, it will decide “actually nah” and defy him. Particularly in the case of his mental attack on Martin, that doesn’t even feel like something the Beholding would want as a snack. What Elias does is scary, but the chief emotion Martin is going through isn’t Fear at all (in fact, it’s p much not fear, he planned the whole thing) but grief and sorrow.
Martin, who has the clearest view of who Jon really is, doesn’t distrust the tapes. And Jon takes one with him to Scotland for a sense of protection. In fact, they are closely associated with Jon from the very beginning; he shoves his fucking hand into worms to recover one out of his desire to not become a mystery. They are less an artefact of the Archivist and more an artefact of Jon wanting to be known. Not in a scary way, but an informative way, which is a motive that certainly overlaps with Beholding stuff but is not fear-aligned.
After all, later in the show, as Jon starts to fight with his addiction to statements, most tellingly, when he feeds purely to feed, the most monstrous thing he does, it’s done entirely OFF-TAPE. It feels important that things Jon is ashamed of and doesn’t want known about him happen off recording.
Thus, theory: the tapes don’t serve Beholding, they serve Jon. And Jon has power beyond the scope of Beholding.
(nct’s taeyong, stray kids’s bang chan, seventeen’s joshua aka mr. gentle sexy) simply put, the perfect man. boyfriend, husband, best friend, they can do it all. idols like this are usually sweet and down to earth off stage, but hella fucking sexy on stage (the fans go WILD over the contrast). half the fan content about you is side-by-side comparison videos with captions like “your favs can’t even spell duality”. you probably do group therapy-esque vlives, and there’s a 50/50 chance you know how to cook and have a drivers lisence (if that number seems low, just remember that out of 23 neos only 5 can legally drive and like 3 can cook). fans outside your fandom probably see you as genuine and relatable, OR hate you with the passion of a thousand burning suns- you win some, you lose some. charisma is a must have, and you’re probably one of the faces of your group.
