#mag 1

[redlobter]

In honor of the new year, I'm starting a series on this blog! As I go through my first relisten of TMA, I will make a drawing for each episode. I will try to do one a day, but we'll see how well that goes.

Anyway, here's episode one, Anglerfish.

[do-not-perceive-willis]

did i do it

[xqidraws]

woke up and brain said it's time to relisten to tma

[agnessdei]

this may be overthinking it, but

in "the Anglerfish" there's the "can i have a cigarette?" line. and that episode is the first statement that Jon reads, it's the beginning of him becoming the Archivist. from now on, there's no return.

the second time we hear something like that is when Gerry asks "you got a cigarette?" right before revealing the truth about the fears and giving Jon the adress to the storage unit where Gertrude kept the explosives. that leads Jon to stopping the Unknowing and becoming not only the Archivist, but also an avatar. another point of no return.

EDIT (important addition that i just realized): when Gerry asked Jon for a cigarette Jon took out his web lighter and it was one of the few moments that the lighter was mentioned

and then in mag 199, Georgie asks Jon "can i have a cigarette", which makes him give her the web lighter, which leads to Jon's death/disappearance AND to destroying the panopticon. and that was the Web's plan all along. and cigarettes and addiction are connected to the Web!

[alyoshaeatsyoeyes]

I kinda love how in MAG 1 the statement giver never saw what was pretending to be a person and only mentioned the Anglerfish as a metaphor but every fanart I've seen of the monster is just BIG. FISH. BIG ANGLERFISH BUT THE "HUMAN" HEAD IS WHERE THE LIGHT SHOULD BE. BIG FISH STANDING IN AN ALLEY.

[cicadabee]

tma commemorative woodblock

Significance of Dates

photo 1: statement number of mag 200, date I finished tma

photo 2: statement number of mag 1, date I started tma

3: finish dates of s3 and s4

4: finish dates of s1 and s2

[cheesefromthegreatbeyond]

You guys arent gonna believe where i was.

WDYM NATHAN FELL DOWN THIS WHOLE FUCKING HILL

[tma-wwk]

TMA What We Know -[1]- Anglerfish

pre-statement:

-we're listening to a recording by Jonathan Sims (<- head archivist) (<-works for The Magnus Institute)

-The Magnus Institute researches the paranormal

-Elias Bouchard is Head of the Institute, hired Jonathan to replace previous head archivist, Gertrude Robinson (<- "recently passed away")

-Jonathan was previously working as a researcher here and claims to be familiar with the ins and outs of the institute's business. is pessimistic about the supernatural's existence on the basis of personal experience, seeing how the cases the institute deals with don't result in anything*

*"VERY FEW genuine cases", in Jon's words. implying he's seen the institute handle (what he'd consider ) 'genuine cases', only it happens too rarely for him to find any merit in it.

->dead-end cases get transferred to the archives

-institute's founded in 1818, archive has cases going back to them

-institute has an elitist attitude about libraries vs archives, which might I add is weird. dunno where elias is hiring from but no self-respecting academic would feel that way. rip elias and your horrible hiring process.

-archive's a mess, it's gertrude's fault. rip gertrude. (literally) <- ("thousands of files spread loosely around the place") (<-they're "handwritten or produced on a typewriter")

-investigation reports aren't stored in the archives, only statements

-Jonathan has 3 assistants-- Martin ("unlikely to contribute anything but delays"), Tim and Sasha (<-here to handle supplementary investigations)

-Jonathan's recording on tape recorders because he's inexplicably having a plethora of computer issues

--STATEMENT--

-Fishmarket Close, spooky creature!!

-appears after statement giver tries to smoke. anti-smoking creature? creature who targets smokers?

-creature talks in a monotone voice

*statement giver is drunk, creature's behavior is also indicative of drunkenness. dunno about this guy.

-creature talks without moving its mouth. creature is not simply a creature, but a humanoid thing being dangled in front of its real body. anglerfish-esque, if you will

-when statement giver went back when sober, no indication of creature

-another guy who was at statement giver's party went missing, guy was supposedly a smoker too

post-statement:

-Jonathan created a new section of the archives for discredited statements

-Sasha found police reports for missing people in that area, all unsolved

-Sasha knows how to use photo editing softwares, specifically to increase resolution/brightness/etc