I think the archivist is a manifestation of how people perceived jon after the eyepocalypse , a lot of the externals in tmagp relate to perception in some way ( Ink5oul's whole influencer thing, Needles calling 999 so someone else knows what they've done, etc ) and since the first time we saw the archivist was in the protocol universe I wouldn't be shocked if they were the same. We can tell that people in the archives universe don't exactly have positive opinions of jon, even viewing him as a monster, so the archivist is everything they thought jon was. Could also explain why the archivist seems disgusted (?) By jon if they're connected to him in some way
as much as i LOVE all the multi-layered tmagp statements where you have to think about who is reading out which statement, and how it plays into the metaplot and everything going on, i’ve missed statements about it unhinged lil guys terrorising people for fun. like yes creature made entirely of sharp needles stab a guy and call the cops to feed off their fears. slay
See, I don't think Gwen is actually malicious; I think she does genuinely care and want to help people, she is power hungry yes but she also does actually want to help. She's just doing it in the worst way possible.
She wants to make the world safer and is running on the idea that the OIAR is evil for working with externals, ignoring the fact that the OIAR is the only thing keeping the balance and making sure the externals are not running rampant. She knows first hand how scary and dangerous these things are and she wants to make sure they're not able to hurt her or anyone else.
She does genuinely want to help, she's just afraid and incompetent and way out of her depth; I think to some degree she is aware of the importance of balance but she refuses to accept it because it means that things such as Bonzo or Ink5oul need to exist, that the suffering and pain they cause and the statements that the OIAR process need to happen and are unavoidable. That she, despite having this position of power, is unable to make any of it better and instead now just has a different seat to watch the bloodbath.
TMAGP 46 Thoughts: The real evil was capitalism all along
Boy. What do I even do with this one? I will say that this episode leaned way more towards comedy than horror. I laughed at many points and felt afraid at no point, but I do love a bit of horror comedy. Unfortunately, with all the names and the detached tone and format of the case, it was very difficult to follow even with the transcript. Which is a shame, because I found the format clever and interesting, just not very fitting for a podcast. Anyway.
I don't have too many theories about this episode, but a lot of loose threads were tied together. Spoilers below the cut.
As someone who's been writing minutes (albeit for a student organisation and not an objectively evil corporation), I found this episode hilarious. No matter the chaos or the emotions involved, you keep the tone neutral and matter-of-fact. Granted, I never witnessed several murders (three of the same person) during those meetings. But I guess these people are used to gruesome incidents. They had to switch locations three times. I don't know why that's especially funny to me. That, and "forced to resign from the board in Q3 2022, following his death".
So it looks like Elric Capital has been funding all sorts of fucked up (probably alchemy-related) business initiatives. We got a follow-up on both the Zorrotrade app (ep. 13) and the Booth (ep. 36). A representative from the Elric Rehabilitation Initiative was also present at Menke's trial. I'm interested in these "specialist investments". We get names and aliases for two: Teeth and Inside Out. Reminiscent of Needles. I'm guessing Elric Capital has their own little circle of Externals, though I can't begin to imagine what sort of returns they're expecting from them. As of now I'm also convinced that Elric Capital funded the research of the Magnus Institute.
The incident with Mr Adam is a really charming homage to Frankenstein. The name Adam, the doctor calling him "the creature", the whole deal of him being a gentle soul made for love but inspiring only fear and hatred. I love the idea of Frankenstein's monster being brought to the Shark Tank to make his sales pitch with absolutely no clue of how capitalism works.
The business idea was VERY questionable to begin with. Apparently Dr Augustine wanted to just rent out his creation to a person grieving the loss of a loved one, and have Adam take the form of said loved one by having him harvest and wear their remains? Kind of like those horrible AI models of dead people except arguably worse. One of the previous identities Adam mentioned was Arthur Winstead, who was Darla's Harriet's (edit: name corrected; Darla was the recipient of Harriet's email, probably a relative) dead husband in the very first incident we heard in episode 1. So it's cool to know that it connects. And awful to know that Augustine asked Harriet to meet her dead husband at the graveyard, where the creature had just finished eating him. Like have some tact and arrange the meetup somewhere else.
Alchemically, I don't have much to break down here. We don't really get a clear picture of how Adam was created. Artificial life brings to mind homunculi again, but those are generally grown, not built. Though the original creature very well could've been grown, and the additions are just that. Corpses, dismemberment and cannibalism are symbolically all very common in alchemy, with the idea being that matter must die, be broken into parts and then be reunited through an act of devouring. But these are also just common themes in horror, so I don't want to read too much into them here.
Outside of the incident, I'm a little sad that this might mean the end to Alice's adventures with Heinrich. But I also think we really need her in the office to fill the weird emptiness with her presence. Also, Celia is being drawn to the portal again. Was Sam not enough to restore the balance, or was Celia's hypothesis wrong to begin with? Did something change? Will Sam experience similar pull towards his home world? Things to ponder on.
The interesting thing about tmagp episode 9 is that, from one perspective, it's about a pair of dice that kill you if you roll a crit fail. And in TMA that would be very End-coded. Games of chance were End-coded, and death is obviously The End. Open and shut case.
Except it's not, here. The statement giver had never seen anyone roll a 2 before he ran into Gary in that coffee shop, even after thousands of rolls. That's not an End artifact. Those dice are going out of their way not to kill anyone, save those who try to part with them.
The compulsion to roll feels like the Web, but is it? Certainly games of chance can become addicting, but I don't think that's the whole story. The Web is about the fear of the loss of control, yes, but it's also about something else controlling you instead. Here that something else is an embodiment of "random" chance - although again, it's not properly-random, not even pseudorandom. I have thoughts on that but they're best addressed further on.
Weirdly, of all the manifestations of Fear from TMA, this statement seems most akin to Jude Perry's - rolling the dice with other people's lives and fortunes, for the thrill of sometimes devastating them.
Which brings me back to the possibility of AU Fears.
In the Protocolverse, why shouldn't there be a Fear associated with chance and luck and fate and misfortune that happens for no good reason? A fear of lacking control and losing everything, without anyone else necessarily having that control.
This is where the way the dice are rigged becomes possibly meaningful. Their outcomes aren't random - they're what humans expect random to look like. They operate according to the gambler's fallacy, where the longer a chain of bad luck you have the more you're due for a good roll, and vice versa. Snake eyes aren't just a normal outcome of the 1-in-36 chance of rolling 2d6 - they're reserved for when someone is cursed with truly rotten luck. Notably that isn't true of boxcars: those just happen sometimes, without prerequisite.
Logically, a Fear of Misfortune wouldn't operate on the actual rules of probability, would it? It would be shaped by the superstitions of those that feared it.
(Also, I hope this statement puts the "they're not fears they're desires!" theory to bed. This guy didn't want the dice, and didn't especially want to roll them, but seemed compelled to anyway.)
