avatar of the buried

Statements of Jessicat regarding the Magnus Archives and the subsequent Magnus Protocol. Statement includes a LOT of spoilers. also rambling. also hello jon apologies for the deception

[lukewarmtomatosoup]

why did i hav eto get so attached to the guy from hit show “horrors happen to the guy” . a cruel fate

[yogurtfluff]

Magnus Archives woodburn coasters I made!

[edettethegreat]

Jon's involvement in the eyepocalypse is traumatic in and of itself, but there's this added layer of tragedy we don't fixate on enough-- for the 2 years leading up to it, Jon wasn't ignorant of the possibility of an apocalypse happening. Jon was hyperaware of it.

He was told about the concept of rituals. he did everything he could to try to prevent any from happening. he spent every waking moment doing all he could to learn about them, gather information, travel the world in an attempt to trace Gertrude's steps,.. he was ready and willing to die to stop the unknowing, he risked his life to destroy the dark sun, he really gave it his all.

Jon was aware of the looming threat of the world ending, and devoted every ounce of life he had to stopping it. and it all culminated in that very effort he put in, in a futile attempt to save the world, being the very thing that ended it.

[tigerdrop]

if you dont decouple your drive to create from your desire for attention you will go insane. simple as. you will never feel satisfied b/c you will always want more and you will feel perpetually bitter that you did not get what you are “owed”

[sinsbymanka]

It’s an unpopular opinion but it is absolutely and completely true. I’ve never seen someone who creates for engagement happy with the engagement they get. I posit they can’t ever be happy that way because it will NEVER be enough

[thevikingwoman]

I agree with OP and Manka so very much.

You have to rest in your own desire to create.

But, because I see statements like this turn into a sort of general notion of “it’s bad to want validation or attention or engagement”, and to me, that’s not what this means.

It’s perfectly valid to want people to like and engage with what you create. In a general sense, when you create anything, you do it to share with other human beings. Art, craft, food, anything you create is a way to connect with others through our shared humanity.

And wanting someone to like you fanart or read your fanfic is part of that.

the words used by OP is decouple, and this is important. Nothing wrong wanting engagement. But it cannot be tightly coupled with the drive to create.

[lesbiansforboromir]

You actually cannot skip to being good at a creative endeavour that you haven't put much practice into. You cannot trick your way out of the 'knows that your work is not what you want it to be but don't know how to improve it' stage by planning or reading or talking about it really really hard. At some point you just have to craft through it until your brain finds it's own unique way back to the 'everything I make slaps' stage and be prepared to start the cycle all over again. You just have to make that project you're excited about slightly less good than you want it to be. (Says this standing in a pool of blood and covered in blood and also coughing up a little blood)

[lesbiansforboromir]

everyone stop reblogging this I hate to be reminded of my own good advice

[junglejim4322]

Unironically I think the early to mid 20s age group in America has unbelievably bad consent boundaries on all levels and so much language to defend it but this makes me sound like elon musk if I say it however the commonality of someone who will be like “I had 47 panic attacks and it’s your fault” if you tell them no is insane

[junglejim4322]

I rejected someone and got called “the scariest person I’ve ever met” with so much therapy speak interspersed like alright okay alright okay alright okay

[junglejim4322]

“You just say whatever you’re thinking and I don’t know how to handle it” was verbatim part of this conversation. Also everyone hates to see an autistic bitch

[transhumanisticpanspermia]

When I was in this age bracket, there was a huge emphasis on improving consent culture via graceful rejection, and it's gone by the wayside. Which sucks.

Twice in my youth (once in high school and once in college) I was in situations where I was asking someone out and I could tell they were calculating in their heads the risks of rejecting me, and both times I said, out loud, "you can say no, I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't prepared for either answer." And then they said no. This wasn't some spark of special wisdom I had - I knew to do it because feminist conversations among my age group brought it up regularly. This isn't happening nearly enough anymore.

More recently, I was really glad when we got to "rejection sensitive dysphoria" in my IOP program and it was one of those symptoms where the therapists really emphasized how it affects others. Because it does.

Being someone who cannot handle rejection makes you much more likely to violate boundaries, and yes, that includes sexual ones. Yes, you, reader who has never hurt a fly. If you don't want to stumble backwards into sexually assaulting someone, fix your RSD meltdowns. If you keep them up it's only a matter of time. Because if you're nice enough to interact with, but are known to have RSD meltdowns, guess what happens when your friends and acquaintances need to reject you?

[eroscestlavie]

I need to stop replying to “how do you make friends in your 30s?” threads because all my answers boil down to “you have to want to know people instead of have friends” and I don’t think people wanna hear that

[eroscestlavie]

It’s like. People can tell if you don’t really like or connect with them. If you aren’t truly enamored with someone you will have a hard time coming up with activities to do together to deepen the friendship. Because you don’t really like that person that much.

[edettethegreat]

Jon's progression of Marks is so deeply devastating, because the further along he goes, the more Marks he gets from trying to save people.

His first 4 Marks (Web, Eye, Corruption, and Spiral) were things that were done to him. He didn't seek them out. Mr Spider was in the pile of books his grandma gave him. he had no way of knowing The Magnus Institute was haunted. Jane Prentiss hunted him down, and so did Michael.

the next 2 were brought about by his own curiosity. he knew the risks of accosting Jude and Mike, but he went willingly. his desire to seek out knowledge got him Marked by the Desolation and the Vast.

Elias sent Daisy to Hunt Jon, so that would make it the 5th Mark that Jon had no agency in, and the 7th Mark total.

then comes the Unknowing. in an attempt to save the world, Jon's willing to give his life to destroy the ritual. Marks 8 and 9 (Stranger and End) are purely altruistic on his part.

and from there on out, he continues to only get Marked via Protecting People.

Slaughter's from saving Melanie. Flesh and Buried are from saving Daisy. Dark is from trying to stop yet another ritual, something that he still believes could potentially end the world. Lonely is from saving Martin.

[this brings the final count to an exactly even split; 7 from external forces, 7 from Jon's attempts at protecting people]

as Jon becomes less and less human, he tries to save more and more people. and he's willing to give his life to do so!! he's willing to die!

and he succeeds. he successfully managed to save all his friends. it only cost him the world.

[atlas-of-galaxies]

hey uh martin you wanna talk about it bud

[foggy-eyed-archivist]

sometimes I remember that jmart is actually 100% canon and I get a sudden rush of joy and gratitude for the writer(s) at rq.

and not just implied canon either. not just an ambiguous confession that could be twisted to be platonic. not just subtext. not just a relationship confirmed by the creators after the fact. they are 100% undeniably canon.

they refer to each other as boyfriends. they talk openly with other characters about the fact that they're dating. they have an audible kiss. they say I love you in a way that is undeniably romantic. they openly flirt with each other.

and like. yeah canon is made up and whatever we want it to be yadda yadda. but like,, canon queer relationships, especially quality written queer relationships, are just,, RIDICULOUSLY hard to come by for some reason and jmart's relationship is so refreshing to me, especially because you can tell the writers actually care about it

and they're not the only ones! there's a canon lesbian couple! there are canon trans characters! there are literal statements with themes of transness and queerness and how that impacts people's experiences! there are explicitly queer background characters/relationships! jon is canonically asexual! (and jon's asexuality could be a whole other post for me—it feels so monumental as an asexual person to see somebody who is both canonically asexual and still has genuine romantic relationships)

no matter what your opinion on jmart is, I think it's pretty hard to deny that they're so important on the representation side of things. as a queer person it's incredibly comforting to have a fandom where I feel 100% safe and accepted by not just the queer side of the fandom but the creators as well <3 thank u rusty quill for all you do

[jessicat24]

My friend who has finally started season 5 doesn't like Jon and Martin being together (yet?) because, and I quote, "Martin deserves better" which. I mean ngl. Martin deserves the world like YES Martin is a lil bit manipulative and YES Martin is straight-up vicious sometimes, to a scary degree, BUT also Martin deserves the world and deserves supreme happiness. I love him so much. So I would almost agree. Except

a) Martin has had a crush on Jon for literal years so if this makes him happy then I want that happiness for him

b) Jon gets a bad rap!! Like YES Jon is kind of problematic and I hope nobody ever forgets that. But he's not a monster! He is a broken, flawed person who still risks his life for the people he loves and takes responsibility for rescuing the world from the apocalypse and overcomes his supernatural addiction to other people's fear which if it's anything like standard addiction is really hard actually!! Even harder when it's something you're metaphysically bound to, I bet

c) Neither Jon nor Martin is perfect, but they work REALLY WELL TOGETHER. Martin's instinct to take care of people is literally the biggest thing Jon has been needing this entire time and Jon's directness and determination are what draw Martin out of his spiraling retreat into the Lonely. They both save each other in different ways and each of them explicitly acknowledges he needs his boyfriend to make it through

In conclusion. Martin deserves a better world, a better fate, a better life than what he got. AND Martin also deserves Jon because they make each other happy and they are great together

[sleepingjuliette]

en route to scotland

[threadworn]

Hey guys. Jon and Martin were both children who learned from a very young age that something was inherently Wrong with them via their primary guardian figures. Jon could tell that his grandmother quietly resented him for needing her to raise him after both of her own children died. Martins mother hated him for reminding her of his father after he left them both.

Jon was eight when he was marked by the web. Martin was eight or nine when his father left.

Jon had to struggle with survivors guilt at such a young age and nobody believed him about what had happened. Martin was left alone to care for his sick mother who didn’t love him, giving up his own education to keep them afloat.

They both had their childhoods taken from them at nearly the same age.

Anyway! Just something to think about <3

[vortmort]

"i see you"

[pearl-in-vinegar]

'average person has 4 eyes' factually incorrect. the average person has 2 eyes. Jonathan Sims of the magnus institute who has 3,486,922,046 eyes is an outlier adn should not have been counted

[jessicat24]

Minor Magnus Protocol spoilers below the line

Also a bunch of rambly personal thoughts so just scroll on if that's not your thing

I think the way Sam falls for Celia almost immediately is one thing that makes them a great foil for Jon and Martin. I've talked before about how I think it's really cool that Jon and Martin weren't fated to be together or even particularly compatible at first, and I think that's largely due to who Jon is - distant, a workaholic, and a bit snobbish. But it's the slow burn - the fact that it takes four seasons for something to happen - that makes the end result so rewarding. By contrast, I think Sam and Celia are a more "normal" relationship in terms of pacing? And it's made me appreciate Jon and Martin that much more. The amount of trust and understanding that built up between them before they even considered any kind of romantic attachment is so beautiful to me. And it's definitely not required for a relationship to work, but as a demisexual person myself it is something I've found makes a huge difference in helping me feel safe and comfortable in a relationship, and it's REALLY nice to have that modeled in fiction as something I can point to.

At the risk of sounding hopelessly obsessed with the Magnusverse (I am, I'm sorry), it's very validating to be able to say "I've always preferred a Jon/Martin model for relationships, and the Sam/Celia model doesn't tend to work for me". I won't necessarily use that wording with actual IRL people, but it's a useful example that concretized something I always knew about myself but struggled to verbalize.

This is NOT intended to be commentary on the future of Sam and Celia's relationship I swear 💀 obviously they are.....complicated to say the least

[jessicat24]

MAG 160 might be one of the best pieces of fiction of all time. I mean you have to get through a lot of (also excellent) episodes to get there but my goodness. The STAKES. The EMOTIONS. The absolute HORROR of it and the IMPLICATIONS and the COMPLETE AND UTTER TRAGEDY and I will never recover from The Magnus Archives nor do I want to