I hope y'all have been paying attention to your proper nouns because they're all making a comeback this episode.
This is actually, by my reckoning, the fourth time we've encountered Elric Capital and its projects.
In episode 35: Terms and Conditions, Terrance Menke "the Bonzo Butcher" is about to be remanded to the Elric Rehabilitation Initiative.
In the immediate next episode, Elric Capital Ltd. is mentioned as a lead financial backer for the Booth startup - that video conference box that trapped its product reviewer. Consequently, this means that amongst the product's "concerns and delays" is that someone's ear got ripped off. The names of the project leads, [Lila] Bailey and [Chris] Chavez, show up in both places; I have to wonder if it was one of theirs.
Though episode 13: Futures doesn't mention Elric Capital explicitly, the board discusses that episode's app, Zorrotrade, as a previous investment. It seems they were successful in scrubbing their name from the venture.
Finally, you may recall that all the way back in episode 1, we hear the story of a grieving Harriet Winstead, who had paid some sketchy service to hear her departed Arthur again and was met with "some of him". If that wasn't enough of a giveaway, "Adam" says that Arthur Winstead was one of the names he had taken.
In the interest of being thorough, I dug for the other names Adam gave, as well as all of the mentioned board members, anywhere I could. The closest to any matches I could make were that the surname Mitchell (one of the council members) appears twice in the Magnus Institute test subject spreadsheet from the ARG, as does the surname Brown (one of Adam's identities), but that's pretty tenuous. Sadly, I couldn't find traces of Dr. Augustine in any other episode; I'd thought they might be one of the doctors or alchemists we've seen elsewhere.
i've seen a few people theorize that redcanary is this universe's jonah magnus host because of the whole "canaries should stay above ground" thing and the objectively funny thing about this theory is that it implies that jonah magnus knows how to post. it implies he logged into redcanary's account post-possession (unless they were already logged in), took an image of their torn out eyes, managed to upload that image into the right thread, captioned it, and then posted it.
he might be 200 years old but by god my girl knows how to blog!!!
WHY ARE JON AND MARTINS VOICES STATEMENT-READING TEXT TO SPEECH. are they in the computer. are jmart in the fucking computer. was MAG65 foreshadowing this. are they in the computer
Ever since my first listen to TMA, I've had a huge question that NEVER got answered.
Never. Not in the whole series, not Q&As or the wiki or anything. I thought I would never find answers. I thought it would be forgotten. I thought it was a small insignificant detail and I'd have to live with never knowing the truth about it.
Now with TMAGP 19, I might finally know the answer.
Maybe. Maybe maybe. But It Could Be. And now I'm losing my mind at the implications.
((For the record, I know that the stories and worldbuilding are inherently separate - hell, there are even timeline differences in the cases I'm using as evidence. But the overlap might be important, especially when it comes to the Web.))
Spoilers for both shows below!
Its branches were exquisite, and delicate, swaying slightly from small eddies in the liquid, and they shone with every spectra. I must confess that to look upon it, one was – (sigh) filled with profound wonder at its exquisite elegance. [...]
Even I, steeped in worldly matters as I am, recognized The Lord’s words to Adam, and was much dismayed at the implication. Isaac then plucked the delicate fruit with ungloved hands and held it before me. [...]
The creature was taking root.
Strands of its mottled brown hair were extruding downwards between the floor, seeking the dark earth below. Then, too, its back began to sprout, radiant branches unfurling and thickening before me, reaching upwards towards the sunlight with a seemingly insatiable desire. [...] I tell you here, Robert, it saw me, and it knew me. (TMAGP 19 - HARD RESET)
It was an ornate wooden thing, with a snaking pattern of lines weaving their way around towards the centre. The pattern was hypnotic and shifted as I watched it, like an optical illusion. I found my eyes following the lines towards the middle of the table, where there was nothing but a small square hole. Graham noticed me staring, and told me that interesting antique furniture was one of his few true passions. Apparently he’d found the table in a second-hand shop during his student days and fallen in love with it. It had been in pretty bad shape but he’d spent a long time and a lot of money restoring it, though he’d never been able to figure out what was supposed to go in the centre. He assumed it was a separate piece and couldn’t track it down. (MAG 3 - ACROSS THE STREET)
Re: Magnus Institute Ruins. By RedCanary on Saturday April 23 2022 12:17pm. The photos from the spelunk seem properly gone, but I did find an old wooden thing with a bunch of similar symbols on. Some kinda empty box, not really sure what for, though. Gonna see if I can get the light right for a decent pic.
Edit: No dice, I’m afraid. Must be something up with my phone camera. Really not helping the whole paranoia thing either. Anyone know anything about photographic distortion? Gonna see if I can borrow my dad’s SLR tomorrow. (TMAGP 1 - FIRST SHIFT)
Adelard Dekker stood in the corner. He was straight and motionless, his lips moving rapidly, though no sound came out of them. In the centre of the room, stood a table carved from dark wood and wrapped all over with a sprawling, intricate pattern. And in front of that table was the thing that had said it was my cousin. It was long and thin, the tops of it bent against the ceiling and its stick-like limbs flailed from too many joints and elbows. Wrapped around it were thick strands of what I think was spider’s web, stretching back into the table, which I now saw pulsed along its carved channels with a sickly light. The face at the top of that gangly frame was like nothing on earth. (MAG 78 - DISTANT COUSIN)
Now... Now I get it. I get it. I finally gave an answer. Or, at least, I think we'll get a concrete answer soon. But I think I get it.
I think I get where the web table comes from. I think I know what it's made of. why it glows. why it had a hole in the middle. I think I might know how the web gained control and sentience so much faster than the other fears. and, if it still manifests in the same way in the Protocol universe, how it also quickly became "the manager" of other fears, as theories suggest.
More importantly, I think I know what was up with the mysterious tree from so, so long ago.
Now I have an answer.
Why was there an apple buried in Hill Top Road?
I opened the box and sitting inside was a single green apple. It looked fresh, shiny, with a coat of condensation like it had just been picked on a cool spring morning. I picked it up. I wasn’t going to eat it, I’m not that stupid, but more than bleeding trees or phantom burning, this confused me.
As I took it out of the box, though, it began to turn. The skin turned brown and bruised and started to shrivel in my hand. Then it split. And out came spiders. Dozens, hundreds of spiders erupting from this apple that was rotting right before my eyes. I shrieked and dropped it before any of them could touch my arm. The apple fell to the ground and burst in a cloud of dust. I backed away and waited until I was sure all the spiders had left before retrieving the box. I smashed it with a crowbar, and threw the remains into a skip. (MAG 8 - BURNED OUT)
the first episode of the magnus archives, angler fish, was like luring the protagonist, the statement giver and the listeners IN (and poor ill fated jon was pulled into avatarship, just by being at the wrong place at the wring time)
while the first episode of the magnus protocol seems to be warning the protag, the victim and the listeners AWAY (yet sam chooses to keep investigating)
something something jon dug out statements, went looking for them, kept trying his hardest to record them, chose to dig in
something something sam had to do literally nothing to have not one but two entries read out to him
something something choice vs fate
choice vs fate and how they're really the same thing here
