TMA fans: It's so cool how our personal experiences and fears affect how we see each statement, and how something that is inconsequential for one person can be unthinkably scary for someone else
TMA fans: Also FUCK Lost John's Cave
So I've gotten an assortment of reactions to this post
why yes lost johns' cave can absolutely go fuck itself (yEAH)
idk it didn't really find it all that scary (yeah that tracks)
it made me want to go caving! (horrific, thanks for letting me know)
I found the X episode scarier (yeah that tracks)
actually it's lost johns' cave (lol I did a typo)
This post continues to be at least 50% of my activity on tumblr so I might as well keep it rolling - and I've seen a new response crop up that I think warrants comment:
it's the recording that's the fucked up part
And like, actually
I first listened to TMA as it was still being made, in the year of our devil 20-whatever the fuck, but caught up with it at around episode 165, I think? Season 5 made NO sense to me the first time around, and I lost focus as I waited for the show to finish/waffled on doing a relisten.
I completely forgot about the show, picking it back up again 2022, only to consume it voraciously. It made sense this time around, and I fell in love deeper than ever. This was also the first time I realised there were transcripts, which I found enormously helpful, what with my non-existent memory for names and auditory processing issues.
I had heard Lost Johns' Cave several times - and quite liked it - before I finally went "hey I should really check the transcript, because I can't for the life of me hear what the woman says in the recording at the end".
No other piece of media - in my life - has even come close to inspiring the nauseating dread I felt when I finally learned what she said on the tape. What she had said into my ears multiple times, over multiple years, without my knowledge.
So yeah, fuck Lost Johns' Cave! :D
Unneccessary disclaimer: I don't actually think LJC is the best or scariest episode of TMA. In that moment in 2022, it definitely was to me, but that's just me. It's been so fun to see what other episodes people bring up as their favourite MAG kryptonite, especially because opinions are so different!
