What is The Magnus Archives even about?

A log of my first listen through of The Magnus Archives

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MAG 13 : Alone

A new person! I’ll admit I was very surprised to hear a new voice, especially one actually giving a statement. Although I suppose for the previous statements I totally forget that it’s even Jon saying them I get so sucked in. 

I feel really bad for poor Naomi :( it seems like the only person she really had was Evan which would make the loss even harder for her to handle. His family is really weird but I can’t tell if it was supernatural or not, their being described as overly religious does kind of point to another cult type thing though.  

The pacing of this episode felt kind of off to me and I’m not really sure why? I might just be overly used to Sims style of recording... 

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MAG 12 : First Aid

EYES!!!!!!!!! I don’t know what they mean yet but they are clearly very important! The pendant that Gerard mentioned made me think of the mother from episode 9 who had the pendant from ‘the peoples church of the divine host’ (yes i had to go check my old post to make sure I got the name right). So it seems like he’s involved with that cult as well, especially since he had all those eye tattoos. I’m also going to assume the eye stuff is related to the ‘Beholding’ he mentioned (which, in context, definitely feels like a capital B beholding). Definitely super suspicious that he seemed unaffected by his injuries/medication and seemed to know his way around the hospital, but I’ll just chalk it up to weird cult stuff. (Side note: I wonder if the red journal was a Leitner?? another possible explanation for his superhuman-ness)

I really don’t know what to think about ‘The Lightless Flame’, it seems singled out from the rest of the words in the burnt mans chant. With the other two pieces being preexisting things and this being a unique phrase. Gerard putting it in opposition the the Beholding also makes it feel very significant. 

I got so excited when Gerard got mentioned only for him to immediately be killed off screen :( we are now two for two with people who actually seem to know whats going on dying.  Also! Jon is such a drama queen and I love him for it, he sounded so disgruntled that Martin was actually correct about something. It’s like, you’d think he’d be happy that the people who do research for him are actually competent but nooooo. 

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MAG 11 : Dreamer

Okay so the concept for this one was also very interesting, final destination vibes (that’s a compliment I swear). It seems clear to me that what Antonio was seeing was how people around him were marked for death with some specificity (tendril around neck = hanging, etc.), which really makes me question even more how exactly Gertrude Robinson died. 

Gertrude was surrounded by the death tendrils which doesn’t really have a clear parallel to death. Hers were also notably thicker/glowing which?? The only thing I can think of is her death is especially significant/impactfull to whatever was causing those tendrils. 

Also, JON! Why did you take this job!! You're creepy boss literally tells you the last person to have your job ‘died in the line of duty’ (aka something involving this job killed her) and you think that’s a totally normal occurrence. You really saw nothing wrong with that? I begrudgingly love you, but you are testing me. I would say I’m hoping he gets smarter about this sort of this but.....I think we all know he definitely won’t. 

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MAG 10 : Vampire Killer

The atmosphere for this statement was extremely well done!!! The creeping buildup of Sylvia McDonald as we the listener know what the woman is while the brothers remain unaware is particularly effective. I really enjoyed this re-imagining of vampires, all the unsettling inhuman details fit very nicely together. Big big leech vibes. 

The way vampires are presented here make them feel like an entirely new creation with Trevor simply not knowing what else he could call these things. The more explanatory sections weirdly reminded me of that Vampirology book that I would compulsively read every time I went to Barnes n Noble as a child.

Really sucks that Trevor is dead, but I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing more mentions of him in future statements. 

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Hey guys! Sorry that I’ve been radio silent for like a week, things have been really crazy in my personal life so I haven’t had time to really sit down and pay attention to something like tma. I’m listening to the next statement as I’m typing this post though (VV interesting so far), so expect a proper post soon!!!

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MAG 9 : A Father’s Love

Really good episode, definitely in my top three! (I would say top ten but as of right now its not that much of an accomplishment...)

 So the mother was a member (or former member) of this ‘People’s Church of the Divine Host’ (a name which screams cult by the way), and after the mothers disappearance the father began hunting down and killing other members. Although I kind of wonder if the mother chose to leave or if she was abducted. The cult seem to be connected to the darkness, with the shadow approaching the house and the father being found dead in his dark cell. The closed eye also points to them serving the dark. 

The whole taking pictures thing was definitely odd though, i cant really see any connection to the things we’ve seen before. It might just be a trophy thing (which is common with serial killers) but it seemed too significant. I’m also not sure if the father was working with or against Rayner. If the man on the phone was the head of the cult I’d assume against, but the half of the conversation we know seems to point towards with.

I also wonder what’s up with this Rayner family. Like, I know Jon said that it was probably a coincidence but..... c’mon. Especially if he’s seen it in other statements, maybe a family deeply connected to the occult like the Keays?

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MAG 8  : Burned Out

This is the first statement that I could really picture as just a straight up horror movie. ‘The House on Hilltop Road’ is definitely the name of some b-list slasher movie.

The man with all the bones in his hands seems very interesting, but they didn’t really elaborate on who that is or what that means. I’m choosing to assume that this means he’s going to make a reappearance (is this bone hand man perhaps the fabled Fuckhands McMike???).

So Agnes 100% killed all those missing people/animals, she gave off h u g e possessed evil child vibes. She also kept Raymonds hand as a trophy for some reason? It seems like she was linked to that box that was pulled from the tree, and maybe Raymond was linked to the house? Idk, honestly I’m kind of grasping at straws here.

This whole story really read to me as something that should be expanded upon. Like, every statement leaves me with questions, but this one especially. Who’s bone hand man? Why is Raymond a ghost? What was that box?? What was Agnes’s whole deal??? 

[livebloggingtma]

Loving your liveblog so far! You're catching so much that a lot of people miss first time around, and I can't wait to see the theories and connections you make as you go through it. Be extra careful of spoilers on your dash; S5 has a trailer coming out tomorrow and the season itself starts next week. Are you looking at the transcripts as you listen? Or are you getting name spellings from your friend? Because in episode 39 and through S2 the fan transcripts spoil something fairly important

Ahhh thank you for the kind words :))

Whenever a piece of media I’m consuming has some sort of mystery element I always pay extra attention to seemingly irrelevant details because they tend to not actually be irrelevant! Sneaky!! I also always theorize like crazy and try to guess at twists for everything I watch, most of the time I end up having over thought everything but it’s still fun to look back and see all the wild connections I made. That’s actually the main reason I thought this liveblog could be fun :)

My friend gave me all the tags to blacklist so I should be good on that front! She also looks over my posts before they go up to do basic spell checking and to fix my spellings for names/concepts unique to the podcast, so I’m not having to use any transcripts. (Y’all should feel blessed that you didn’t have to see how i thought Lietner was spelled lol)

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MAG 7 : The Piper

I realized that the archives had been around before the early 2000′s but i was still surprised to hear a statement from before then. Now I’m kind of excited to see other ‘historical’ type statements, the opportunity for more period pieces like this one is endless! (If there isn’t at least one Crimson Peak ass Victorian Gothic horror statement I will be supremely disappointed)

The description of “The War” was honestly really chilling and absolutely unlike any personification of conflict I’ve seen before. There being a singular being embodying all  the different aspects of war was a very unique idea, and was executed so well. (The three heads especially were a nice touch.) I absolutely love how vivid the descriptions in these statements get, it gives such a clear image weather you want it or not. 

I wondered why The War decided to spare Wilfred until I realized it probably thrives on the glorification of itself. The more people are made aware of the horrors of war, the stronger the fear of it becomes. 

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MAG 6 : Squirm

Oh worm? (I’m sorry but y’all had to have known I’d make that joke at least once) 

Poor Timothy :( he just wanted a nice night out and some girl exploded in his bed. Yet also, that girl was acting sooooo suspect and he went along with it just to get laid so...chalk up another he got what was coming to him. (If the worms got into Timothy it was definitely like those fish that can swim up into your dick if you pee in a river/lake)

Jane Prentiss seems like yet another important figure, similar to Lietner it looks like Jon takes any mention of her seriously. (The way he keeps offhandedly mentioning previous cases regarding these reoccurring figures really help to flesh out the world they all live in which is cool) I feel its safe for me to assume that Prentiss is spreading the worms for some reason, and that those she spreads them to can then spread it to others. 

(This is super irrelevant but when Jane Prentiss was described as having matted black hair and a red dress I instantly thought of the little girl from the old rpg maker game Corpse Party....I feel like I should make an effort to not have that be my mental image)

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Hey! I love liveblogs and am enjoying yours so far - I wanted to let you know upfront that you should listen to the trailers for each season, because they’re not so much “trailers” as they are mini scenes that help set the stage for the coming season. I only say this bc I’ve known a lot of people who skipped the trailers bc they thought they would spoil the upcoming season, but they don’t!

Oh! That’s really good to know, thank you :)

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MAG 5 : Thrown Away

This was an odd one. I don’t really see any sort of connection to be made between the dolls heads, the strips of paper with prayers on it, teeth, and a metal heart. It kind of all just feels like miscellaneous spooky things to find in someones trash. The fact that the bags didn’t belong to the couple who lived in the house was a nice touch though, added a bit of mystery. 

The garbage collectors seemed almost entranced by the bags which could’ve been interesting, like that sensation of knowing what you’re seeing is awful but you just can’t bring yourself to look away, but it came in to toward the end to really sink in.

I liked the teeth, every tooth being the exact same tooth (I took this to mean that its a carbon copy of one singular tooth duplicated endlessly, not just that its a bunch of peoples right canine or something) was odd in a more fun way. But then it was followed by the mechanical heart which??? That was so out of left field that it didn’t really hit me the way i think the author intended it to.

I feel kind of bad criticizing this episode so much, but even in the few episodes before this there has already been a level of quality established. I’m sure writing and voice acting for every episode (which I haven’t touched on yet but holy shit irl Jonathan Sims is amazingly talented) makes it so somethings end up not as polished as one might want them to be. 

Still a generally good spooky story, but doesn’t really fit in with what has been established for this particular series.

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MAG 4 : Page Turner

So...evil books? It seems like Mary was a collector of these books, until one of them inevitably killed her (she was becoming the book??). However, her son Gerard is going around destroying these books because he realizes the books are a bad idea. We now have one (1) competent character folks. (I’m not counting Jon because he’s in denial about the supernatural, and the assistants haven't been properly introduced yet so it seems unfair to count them)

Ok so Jurgen Leitner had a library full of evil books, the institute thought they were all gone, but now it’s clear there are still some out there. Jon seemed pretty upset so I’m assuming this is one of the things he considers legitimate. ‘grbookworm1818′ is almost definitely Gertrude Robinson, so now I’m thinking she was either killed by the book or was more competent then she let on (privately destroying the books like Gerard?). Either way she’s now doubly suspicious because it’s seeming more like she was deliberately hiding files she didn't want other people (Elias?) to see.

Hmm, this was the longest episode to date but i have the least to say about it. Think I’m going to just leave it one statement per post, for claritys sake

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MAG 3 : Across the Street

Amy is on some ‘Rear Window’ shit, again someone asking for something bad to happen to them. As soon as she saw graham literally EATING his weird notebooks (very the shining btw) she should’ve stopped watching him because that is some serial killer shit. 

HEY AMY? Why did you not immediately move when the changeling thing acknowledged that it knew you were watching??? Like, it saw what window you were looking out of it will know which apartment is yours! Shes lucky that the thing felt like taunting her, giving her enough time to actually move.

I wonder why Amy could remember original Graham, maybe because she saw the thing taking over through the window? The only surviving evidence of there ever being another Graham is analog which also seems significant. 

I’ve been trying to figure out the significance of the table and I honestly can’t which is kind of frustrating. I have to assume the table and the changeling thing are linked to each other but I don’t really see the connection? The table draws people in so that the changeling can catch them?? Hopefully this is something that gets expanded upon later. 

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MAG 2 : Do Not Open

First things first, totally forgot to mention in my last post how cool the intro song (?) is, really sets the tone.

This Joshua guy was really asking for it huh? Like some dude wants you to hold onto a package and you can’t open it and he can’t deliver it himself but he’ll pay you 10,000 pounds. Even he realized this was a horrible idea and he did it anyway, you deserved what you got my dude.

Okay! So whatever was in that coffin would’ve killed me Day 1 because I’m a curious bitch with 0 self control. Joshua may be stupid for accepting the package but honestly I’m impressed with how effective his ice method was, definitely wouldn’t have thought of that myself. But he still didn’t just rent a storage unit or something to store it away from him after he realized how it was effecting him so, he’s not that smart.

So Breekon & Hope are definitely gonna come back, mainly because they were given a proper name and are creepy as hell. I wonder if the two guys are actually Breekon & Hope or have simply stolen the name?

If the episodes are going to continue to be this short I think I might listen to two or three at a time and put them all in one bigger post.....

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MAG 1 : Angler Fish

Wow! Real strong start here huh?

Really enjoyed the set up at the start of the episode, I love seeing how narrative podcasts justify how the audience is listening in on whatever is happening and this is a very creative way of going about it. I’m sure there’s something significant about why certain statements can only go onto the tapes, maybe these are the few genuine cases?

So Elias is the head of the titular institute (which even if I didn’t know he sucks gives off big evil dude vibes in a show like this), and the previous head archivist ‘passed away’ (which I’m sure will in no way come back) and she sucked at her job. 

We also have a few more people who I’m sure will be reoccurring characters at some point, archival assistants Tim, Sasha, and Martin. Poor Martin, I don’t know what he’s done to make Jon hate him but the contempt is s t r o n g. 

I don’t have much to say about the statement itself other then, spooky! Definitely freaked out when I realized what the title was referring to lol (I also now feel slightly self conscious of my lol usage). I really dug the supplemental information at the end, yet another creative way of giving the audience information!!! 

Looking forward to Do Not Open, loving the names of these episodes btw.

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I keep being told to listen to The Magnus Archives and with the new season coming out soon and all my newly found free time I’ve decided to finally buckle down and do it. My friend and I thought it'd be more fun if we made my first listen through into a liveblog, like how people used to do for homestuck. 

Things I think i know about TMA:

The main guy Jon kind of sucks but we love him anyway

Martin is best boy and must be protected at all costs

In this house we hate Elias 

There is someone my friend refers to as Fuckhands McMike, I sincerely doubt this is his real name

Worm = Bad

There’s something with eyes? Big WTNV vibes

If anyone decides to interact with this blog I ask that you don't try to spoil or give me hints or anything like that, I like theorizing about content I enjoy and this is apparently a really good podcast for that sort of thing. 

With all that out of the way I guess I’ll go listen to the first episode now :)