[ID: an uncoloured two panel comic of Jonathan Sims and Martin Blackwood from The Magnus Archives. Martin is a fat man with slight freckles and scruff and stud in his left ear. He’s wearing a jacket and a travel backpack with a blanket roll on top. He’s desperately trying to shake off ants, who are seen crawling on his arms, legs and backpack. He’s saying “Yes, haha, laugh it up - they just walk around you!” Next to him is Jon, a thin man with short hair and a short trimmed beard. He’s wearing a turtleneck and a long coat, he is completely untouched by ants. Jon is looking fondly at Martin and has his fist in front of his mouth as if to stiffle laughter. He says “I’m sorry. If there were anything I could do to help, I would, but-”. Next to him is a small round panel showing a close up of Jon, he’s looking up and tapping his cheeck in thought. He says “Wait, actually…”
The second panel shows them in a tunnel, the floor, walls and ceiling completely covered in a grey sludge, a roiling mass of ants. Jon is midway through a step, Martin is piggybacking. Martin has his legs wrapped around Jon’s waist and his arms around his neck. Jon is holding his legs. On the floor around Jon’s foot is an open space where all the ants have withdrawn. Where Jon’s other foot will come down, another section is starting to clear. /End ID]
So, I think I’m starting to believe that the tape recorders are actually just an extension of Jon himself, rather than somehow connected to the web, because I genuinely don’t see how the Web would gain anything from Martin having one this episode.
Like, Annabelle’s only interaction with Martin was trying to get him to think he’s less, and all the tape recorder did was allow Martin to talk through his emotions to see that he isn’t? And it seems anytime Martin is alone, and Jon feels like he needs to check up on him, a tape recorder appears.
Genuinely interested in what other people think about this, so please reply or dm me or something because I am stressing.
Theory: In MAG 181, Annabelle tells Martin “Don’t worry, Martin. We’ll meet again. Hopefully when you’re feeling a little bit more… open-minded.” This clearly means that when Jon and Martin finally make it to Hill Top Road, Annabelle will walk out and just shoot Martin. Or hit him over the head. The details aren’t important
Theory: Martin will survive the Eyepocalypse by walking into the house on Hill Top Road, and simply walking through the crack in reality down there. That crack leads to the Eyepocalypse’s good twin brother: the normal world.
Theory:Jon and Martin will fail to save the world from the Eyepocalypse. London will continue to evolve under The Eye, and develop new government agencies and “secret” police system. After many years it’s revealed London has become the town of Night Vale.
we thought this would be a tour of the 14 fears but actually this season’s just going to be JonMartin Coming Out into avatar society where every episode a new avatar tells them that they’re a cute couple
Jon: We need to kill Magnus
Oliver Banks, a gay icon: So glad you’ve finally worked this out cannot BELIEVE it took you so long jesus christ
Mikaele Salesa is, as expected, an absolute delight. An amoral day-drinking profiteer who’s charismatic as hell and managed to dodge the apocalypse through sheer preparedness and pragmatism. Not a good person by most definitions, but a fun one to be sure.
Also he likes Martin.
“You do know she’s part of the Web?” “No, I assumed the thread holding her head together was due to a childhood knitting accident.”
It’s always a treat to see Martin rebuffing and calling out people who’ve hurt him and Jon in the past. No clue what Annabelle’s planning, but seeing Martin shut down her attempts at manipulating him was nice.
“Besides, I’d rather be trapped in a post-apocalyptic wasteland with you than spend one more moment in paradise with her.” No hesitation. No reservations. Just love.
They had a week of rest. A week in paradise.
It happened. It matters.
Just because he can’t keep it doesn’t mean it wasn’t important. It doesn’t mean it didn’t leave its own mark.
While we don’t know if “the world is saved but Jon won’t survive long in it” is going to be the ending of TMA, I’m realizing that would connect to an extra piece of the puzzle that hasn’t fit anywhere so far: Jon’s character arc in season 4.
In season 4, Jon hit his worst low, taking victims to survive and becoming the monster people give statements about. He was caught, confronted, and forced to stop, but struggled with being willing to let himself die rather than give in. He wondered if he should just leave guilt over hurting people behind like so many other avatars chose to do. In the end, he began fighting back, actively defying the will of the Eye rather than sliding towards the inevitability of “When does the Eye make me monstrous?”
And then ended up being resolved with…that choice being taken out of his hands, and that fear being force-fed to him against his will?
It’s definitely a layer of tragedy, but I feel like all that time and attention given to that arc is going to have a larger purpose. The choice may have been ripped from Jon’s hands, but that doesn’t mean that decision didn’t shape who Jon is as a person. And that person ended up being one willing to give up his own life rather than cause others’ suffering.
After TMA 181, I am very sure that Jon knows he probably wouldn’t survive in a world that was saved. He’s facing a similar choice as he did in season 4, just with impossibly higher stakes. What if Jon had continued to rationalize taking victims in season 4? What if he decided that traumatizing others to extend his own life was justified? I don’t think he would be pressing on like he is now. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it” really just means “I’m fully aware of the possibility, but won’t let that stop me.”
Instead of Jon’s choice being made meaningless when his agency was taken away, that choice could be what makes the difference between a saved world and a ruined one.
I know the “pity, it’s going away” hurts, and it’s sad Jon can’t enjoy the memory of the time they had in that oasis. But consider - now Martin gets to tell him about it.
He gets to describe the ridiculous luxury they got to live in while they walk through the wasteland. He retells the funny, weird anecdotes Salesa told them (leaving out the ones that were actually pretty horrifying.) He teases Jon mercilessly about everything he did that Martin thought was cute or silly, and Jon rolls his eyes and calls Martin an unreliable narrator as if it’s a devastating insult.
He talks about the hours they spent exploring the huge gardens and the interior of the house. How Jon gasped out loud when they turned a corner and found themselves in a tiny, hidden grove filled with trees covered in pink and white blossoms. How Martin laughed because he seemed so delighted, he was like a little kid, and Jon had gotten embarrassed, smiled, and said it had been so long since he’d been surprised, even longer since he’d been surprised by something that was nice.
While Martin’s recounting he starts to realize Jon had hid how foggy he was getting. Started saying he was tired or lost in thought a little too frequently to be believed, because he didn’t want Martin to know what being there was doing to him and that they were going to have to leave. Maybe Martin would have picked up on it at the time, but he was enjoying the respite from the world so much. It only hits him in hindsight, and when it does he’s stuck halfway between scolding Jon and giving him the biggest hug of his life. (So he does both.)
He talks about holding each other in that ridiculously huge bed every night. Jon sighs wistfully and wishes he could remember, so Martin tells him to imagine it instead. He describes every detail of the room, the soft bedding, their arms around each other. Feels a slightly aching comfort as he does so because the memory is so vivid for him. And even though Jon can’t remember, he slips his hand into Martin’s, closes his eyes and sighs at the pleasant image.
Both of them go quiet as they find their thoughts drifting, imagining a thousand moments of peace like this one. The simple, mundane pleasures of a life together that they might never share, but can take comfort in the thought of.
[ID: a grayscale shaded sketch of mikaele salesa and anabelle cane. salesa is standing by a window with floor-length curtains inside the foyer of upton house, backlit by the light from outside. annabelle is slightly behind him, sitting on the windowsill with one leg crossed over the other and dangling a spider from her index finger. to their left is a large plant pot spilling over with small round leaves at the bottom and large fronds sticking out the top. both salesa and cane look vaguely smug and are facing the viewer. /end ID]
i didnt have time to make this neat or do better designs but THEM
