I think it's important to understand that DPHW is not a categorization system like Smirke's 14. Each case has a number for all of them, and none that we've seen are exactly one, though only two is often enough.
Why do people try to match tmagp cases to tma fears? They are very obviously not the same, even if the things in the cases come from the tma universe the fears have obviously been extremely warped on the way through and no longer match smirke’s 14. Any attempt to assign tma fears onto tmagp cases will result in a headache of overlapping themes because imo that’s kinda what’s happening. The fears in tmagp have been mixed into a homogeneous soup and each case has a certain amount of flavour of all of them which is what the DPHW is, it’s how much of each fear flavour there is.
Ooo this was a good one. We're still being trickle-fed information a tiny bit at a time, but at least the incident was really good and the drama continues to build up. I was supposed to write this post yesterday but I got sidetracked reading the original Greek play Medea. It's a banger, can recommend.
Spoilers under the cut. (For both the episode and Medea lol)
General thoughts
Heinrich is now officially part of the crew, I'm telling you. Alice has adopted a pet monster who's very adorable and not safe. And sad that he couldn't prove it to Colin. Oscar Jarrett and his tattoos are also popping up again. I wonder if Gwen would be more worried for Alice if she's listened just long enough enough to hear that. She's too busy pretending like she knows what she's doing. I hope we'll finally get to hear from Lena next week.
The casement was really cool and spooky. As I said, I read Medea to see if there were any thematic connections to the case. If there are, they're pretty thin, but I'm glad I read it. Medea was a sorceress who joined Jason and the Argonauts on their sea voyage as they quested for the golden fleece. She ends up marrying Jason and they have children. In the play, Jason has decided to leave her for a princess, and in revenge Medea kills the princess, the king, and her own children to cause as much pain to Jason as she can. She's then flown away in Apollo's golden carriage. The opera moment recalled by Prim takes place when Jason confronts Medea, covered in her children's blood. Make of that what you will. There's also a tenuous link to alchemy, in that the golden fleece is sometimes used as symbolism for the Stone. But I doubt that was a conscious decision. Though I do wonder if the series bible given to the guest writers lists out some of the symbolism, since there seems to be a lot of it in the show.
Alchemy connections
Starting with the obvious, Alice recognises the symbols for Mercury ☿, Sulphur 🜍 and copper ♀. I've explained Mercury and Sulphur to death, but copper is associated with the planet Venus, the element of water, and the concepts of love, harmony and femininity. But it's impossible to draw conclusions without the context, so it might not be worth reading into. Though I will say that some alchemists believed (due to the law of correspondences, or "as above, so below") that invoking the symbol is equal to using the element itself. This is probably how the tattoos work in this universe, Oscar Jarrett was basically carrying out alchemical work through the use of symbols and art alone (with ink as his mercurial conduit). Since the goal of the Work is to refine and perfect matter, his goal was probably to perfect the human body. Which also raises questions for the heavily tattooed Klaus, who just so happened to be building an alchemy machine with the same symbols.
Speaking of Klaus, we finally get his full name: Klaus Schweitzer. This is a reference to another alchemist, Johann Friedrich Schweitzer, who's apparently credited for successfully transmuting lead into gold. Though in the story he's just randomly given a Philosopher's Stone that happened to work, so I don't know how much credit we're supposed to give him. But if we're reading into the names, just know that Edward Kelley was a con-artist who also claims to have found the Stone (in powder form), was employed by Rudolf II, failed to show results, killed a guy trying to escape, was given a second chance, failed again, and eventually killed himself to avoid punishment. So uhh. Here's hoping the name's not a sign.
Incident analysis
Since I've started doing this now, I'll break down the alchemical symbolism in the incident. (See my post on transmutations and symbolism in TMAGP.)
I keep harping on this, but in alchemical imagery the sea almost exclusively symbolises Mercury. In this case, it's Mercury as a solvent. Drowning symbolises the dissolution of matter into prima materia, beginning the nigredo stage. (Drowning of the king is an especially established metaphor, and the Diva's date drowning fits that too.) To that end, we have the Diva contained in a sealed vessel, ie. the ship cabin filled with water. Incidentally, a ship/ark is one of the common symbols used for the alchemical vessel. Other common symbols for the nigredo stage include darkness and corpses, both of which are present. Though it's interesting how the Diva emphasises their paleness, and the whiteness of the swirling waters. These are symbolic markers of the albedo stage, where the matter is purified. It's possible that her singing to the corpses was actually her way of carrying out the purification.
She says that the word "Diva" means someone who died and became divine. This is a very apt metaphor for the goal of the Opus, where matter is killed and then resurrected into a new, perfect form. I believe this is what happened to her. She died, either literally or spiritually, and then became "divine". Basically, she went through the process of transmutation and became an embodiment of the Stone. And just like the Stone transmutes matter (known as projection), she and all other externals project their newly gained powers on the world. It could also be that the transmutation stopped at albedo, which would leave her with incomplete powers (the White Elixir, associated with Luna, which transmutes matter into silver instead of gold). It's also once again noteworthy that she doesn't hunger for fear, but for admiration.
Random musings
Music keeps popping up, and I don't think it's coincidental. With the violin, Bonzo, and this, it seems that music has a special effect on the world. It feels like there's a connection, but I don't know how it ties in. Pythagoreans believed in universal harmonies, and there are some connections between vibrations and the modern concept of manifesting. I'll have to look into it some more.
I have started to wonder if I've been wrong in assuming that the DPHW classifications have a direct link to the metaphysical forces at play. The cases are starting to make more and more sense to me as metaphysical and literal transmutations, and for those we only really need two metaphysical forces: solve et coagula, or dissolve and coagulate, passive and active, Mercury and Sulphur, water and fire, Luna and Sol. And yet there seems to be some thing that they tap into, some invisible ideal plane where thoughts and archetypes and fears live and can be made into reality. Which makes sense in the Hermetic worldview but doesn't fit with the categorisation. So I'm wondering if the DPHW doesn't measure powers but ingredients.
I'm almost ready to scrap my DPHW theories completely and return to the idea that the OIAR is unknowingly just feeding Freddie a balanced alchemical diet in data form, and are helping it to metamorphosise into some horrifying new form. The system was built by Klaus, and Klaus seems to have been obsessed with some sort of immortality project. But we'll see.
Sorry for the long and rambly post, I have a lot to think about and re-evaluate.
