#extinction!martin

[the-one-alone]

The fact that the extinction had its own statement makes me even more concerned about the possible influence of the extinction on the apocalypse. 

Before the extinction had alwyas been in the periphery of the plot, because it had never been confirmed so it had never been considered to be one of the big fourteen. Now that we’ve seen that it had it’s own domain I don’t think it’s a question of if it’s going to tie into fixing the apocalypse, but rather how it’s going to tie in. 

Because of the placement of the episode, I couldn’t help but compare this statement to the Vast’s last week. The Vast and the Extinction both play off of the fear of disappearing forever, but they do it in very different ways. 

The Vast focuses on how nothing really matters if you’re not going to be around forever, because eventually you will be forgotten. The Extinction focuses on how because everything will disappear, your purpose is to die and be forgotten, which is what makes you matter. 

I think this is really interesting because they feed off of the same fear of insignificance, but the Vast is an uncaring oblivion, whereas the extinction is an oblivion caused by uncaring. 

Simon emphasised how everything will come to an end, and then the universe will forget you, so what even is the point? But Martin wouldn’t have this. He was wildly opposed to the idea that existence didn’t matter, because he believees in the intrinsic value of human life.

That’s why Martin is so focused on fixing the world. He’s not willing to accept an endless hellscape that doesn’t allow for anything but fear to manifest within it. He wants life to matter for everyone, and he wants to make a difference. Martin won’t allow himself to be resigned to the fact that this is it, for everyone, forever, because he believes that existence has a point, even if that point is to disappear forever. 

Martin is just so opposed to the Vast and the way of thinking that is associated with it, that he starts to push into Extinction territory. Now I’m not saying that Extinction!Martin is a hill I would die on, but it’s definitely looking like a more plausible theory after this episode.

[prim-moth]

Apocalyptic boyfriends

[phantom-pizza]

Extinction!Martin theory

He read a lot of extinction statements

He thought about the extinction a lot

This is how some avatars came to be avatars (for example Simon Fairchild)

He’s really into killing avatars

He insists on calling it smiting, implying it’s not the murder he wants, it’s for the avatars to cease

Unlike other avatars, Martin doesn’t know anything about his domain. It could mean that a. He doesn’t have one, b. There is a complication with his domain, for example, the fear he serves not fully existing yet.

Oliver Banks said that now that his god was with him his desires started mirroring his master’s

We also see that in Jon who now craves knowledge even more

And suddenly Martin is very into smiting

(I also have a related theory about an extinction domain)

[taireierre]

charcoal sketches of oliver and extinction!martin

[extinctionmartin]

hilltop road? hilltop road?

here's how extinction!martin can still win

[serenfire]

this is how avatar of the extinction martin blackwood can still win (not clickbait)!

with the information that 175 has given us about the extinction, i am here to prove that martin blackwood (might could possibly) be an avatar of the extinction.

the closest thing that the extinction’s domain has to an avatar is, described directly from quotes from this episode: 

something [that] lives in the anthropocene age… a native

that knows that it is home

does not know or care what a human is

there is only one (and it is getting bigger)

it is our replacement and it is welcome to the world

let’s break this down. the anthropocene age is:

[ID: noun. the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. “some geologists argue that the Anthropocene began with the Industrial Revolution”]

while jon’s statement leads us to believe that it is not human because it is a replacement for humans, (“does not know or care what a human is”), and that it has a pretty long hairy tongue, saying that it belongs to the anthropocene means that this creature isn’t a warped apocalypse creation, but something (or somebody) that already exists. humans do exist in the extinction domain, as leah exists to catalogue the warped changes in the domain, and the extinction doesn’t seem focused on getting rid of her.

“does not know or care what a human is” as we’ve seen in 170, there are other forces that can get one to forget who humans are, specifically the lonely’s influence on martin. martin has been primed by forgetting his life in the lonely to be a part of the extinction.

“there is only one [avatar]” i’m very keen on the endgame theory that jon dies and martin survives. even if this doesn’t end up happening, annabelle specifically called martin to try and isolate him from jon. helen has hinted that only martin can fit in her tunnels, so there’s been a bit of foreshadowing about isolating martin and him being the only one left.

now, taking all of this and applying it more directly to martin: the forgotten bone jon sees is “familiar,” and it is specifically a rib. this could be jon’s skeleton, sometime in the distant future. but it is only one skeleton—there is no martin. why would martin not have died with jon? why would he not be extinct?

because martin asks about adelard dekker. martin pays attention to the extinction in a way jon does not, demonstrating a care and possibility to interact with it as an avatar and not a victim. martin wants to know if dekker was right about god, and it’s not a stretch to assume that martin also wants to know if dekker was right about the extinction. if anyone was going to be an avatar of the extinction, it would be adelard dekker; and if anyone is going to take after dekker, it would be martin blackwood.

thanks for listening.

[zenzaaaaaaaaaaaa]

I’ve been championing a lot of different Avatar!Martin theories, mostly just because he deserves to be strong, powerful, and murderous, but guess what weird ass train I’m going to try to hope onto now? Extinction!Martin.

I don’t know for sure what makes people into Avatars, considering it seems to change from person-to-person and entity-to-entity, but the main points of it seem to be either an overabundance of the fear, a matter of proximity to the fear, or a deep love of the fear.

I don’t have too much for this, given that we don’t know too much about the Extinction anyway, but Martin has been actively learning about it, learning to fear it, and learning to understand it while Peter Lukas was busy being a shitty old man. Up until he realized Elias and Peter were just being petty, he seemed afraid (and, honestly, just depressed) enough to sacrifice himself in the hopes of stopping the Extinction from coming out. He knows the Extinction, and he fears it. Maybe enough to count, maybe not enough.

But more than that... The extinction is the fear of change and eradication done by human hands. And a long time ago, both Jon and Jonah Magnus were human. And by both of them, through choice or being wielded as weapon, the world has ended. That’s a pretty damn radical change if I do say so.

Martin loves the man that has read the apocalypse into existence and likely doomed humanity to die. Martin loves the world-ender that is Jon, the favored child of the Beholding and the one walking this wasteland who can ruin it just like the last world was destroyed by him. And Martin is determined to stay by his side as they walk through the wasteland, hand-in-hand with i-am-become-beholding-destroyer-of-worlds. 

Fear, love, and proximity. He’s shaping up to be the first disciple of an infant god.

[spirallavatar]

dear followers, today I offer you extinction!martin. tomorrow, who knows