Liveblogging TMAGP1: First Shift
Hi, everyone! I'm Gking10, local enby who's been obsessed with The Magnus Archives since 2023. So obsessed, I decided to vicariously relive the podcast through tumblr liveblogs. So I tried to find some...
...but there were soooooo few. It made me sad. So when TMAG began to come out, after watching two episodes, I decided "I should liveblog this"! It was a great idea. And sure, I'm prone to procrastinate, but surely I could handle- what do you mean season 2 is about to come out.
So yeah, this is long overdue, but it's happening now and that's what matters.
So here's what I know going into this:
-I've seen all of TMA.
-I've already watched episodes 1 and 2 of TMAGP, First Shift and Making Adjustments. I'll be going into the rest of the episodes mostly blind.
-I know I know nothing about the Protocol ARG, except that it related to alchemy.
-I've tried to avoid spoilers, but some things have slipped through the cracks. Mainly, I know about a certain thing that happens in the finale, but I have no idea what the cause of it is, nor how it relates to anything. I know a few names, like Mr. Needles and Mr. Bonzo (Once I figure out what his deal is, I'll be able to finish we go to camelot, so that's nice). I know a bit of information about Ink5ouls. Thankfully that's it.
-Jonny Sims is a hell of a writer.
I'll be watching on youtube and using timestamps.
3:08 - "Listen to me: bones are a lie peddled by Big Milk to keep you buying."
I love Alice. Her humor is right up my alley.
9:37
So the OIAR has existed since the 90s, or at least the software for it has. And Freddy is the basically abandonware everyone has to use to do this job, so all the technology has to be outdated. Question that comes to mind is why did the government create this job? Sure, the basic answer is "to track potentially supernatural incidents", but I feel like there has to be something deeper.
10:50 - (Alice) "We go to 'D' and, right, would you say this is more 'Dolls comma watching' or 'Dolls comma human skin'." (Sam) "I- Uh- I mean- I guess the human skin bit is only implied"
Hey uh what the fuck did the dolls do? What did the dolls do? WHAT DID THE DOLLS DO?
Moving on from the terrifying implications, how are these categories created? Did a team of government employees in the 90s just go into a board room, drink a few beers, and have a contest of who could think of the most specific nightmare scenarios? Why narrow it down to Dolls comma watching and not Dolls comma animate, which would encompass the ability to watch (or at least have the intent to). Smirke's 14 attempted to be broad, but these incident categories are narrow. You're not even allowed to choose multiple subcategories under the same category!
Which brings me to think of what Leitner said in TMA80. "You’re thinking too literally. Examining the physical categorization, but ignoring the meaning of the thing. What are the bones?" Your job is the OIAR, as Alice puts it, is to look for the element that appears the most within the incident. To see the bones but ignore the meaning behind them. From what I remember of this episode, there's a big underrunning theme of just not trying to look any deeper. Don't focus on the incidents, just do the job. Don't worry about the purpose of the job, just do the job. Just don't think any more deep about it than you have to. Which leads to...
11:54 - (Alice) "If I were a betting woman, I'd say some long dead database that no-one will ever look at or care about." (Sam) "So why do it?" (Alice) "Because that's what they're paying us to do."
Like see what I mean? Alice doesn't want to engage with the job anymore than she has to. She doesn't want to worry about what the goal of all of this is. Probably because worrying about that would involving thinking about the incidents, and those are not fun. Why ask how the sausage gets made?
And maybe no one is reviewing the incidents after they are accessed and categorized. But why? Is it all bureaucracy just for bureaucracy's sake? There isn't even any follow-up investigation, if I remember correctly. This place is not like the Magnus Institute. There's no underlying curiosity or thirst for knowledge to feed the Eye or anything like you. You just put things into boxed categories and move on.
12:33
Started about a year ago... What are Norris, Chester, and Augustus? And why a year ago? Did the supernatural (Fears?) manifest just a year ago and being read out by these programs is the equivalent of being a "real statement"? But if so, what were the dolls? Sam seemed pretty distressed by that incident, so it would be weird to think that wasn't real. Then again, we got so little context. Maybe there could be some completely-mundane-yet-still-horrific explanation for the dolls. Like some person just one day deciding to make dolls out of human skin.
Uh, anyway. Norris has the voice of Martin. Chester has the voice of Jon. I have no idea what voice Augustus has. Are the voices just nods to TMA, or will it have actual meaning. Surely the "somewhere else" Jon and Martin went after blowing up the panopticon wasn't... a series of outdate computers in a government building, right? Perhaps Jon and Martin left a permanent mark on the Fears(?) and now their voices just manifest along with them, even though it's not really them speaking.
14:10 - "I’m so sorry. I should have listened. I just couldn’t face the thought of the rest of my life never hearing him again, I had to try. It wasn’t a scam, not like you said."
There's a "he" who Harriet speaks about. Someone who she had spoken to before in-person. A potential avatar, seeking a grieving victim to further traumatize? Is this a normal thing this unknown individual does: promise to allow people to speak with their dead loved ones again? Does he focus mainly on reanimation, or just impersonations? And why was he strangely joyous when calling Harriet back, rather than being joyful the entire time that he was "luring in another victim"? Was he unsure if... whatever he did Arthur would work or not?
16:56 - "And that voice I have loved for twenty years answered: 'Some of him.'"
Fuck that.
I know we probably aren't going to be dealing with the Fears of TMA, or at least not in the same form as they were in during TMA. But at risk of being those into the obelisk for my pitiful attempts to categorize That Which Was Fear, I'm going to relate these incidents to TMA fears. This incident sits somewhere at a meeting place between End and Stranger. The thing that triggers it is grief, loss from death, and it literally takes place in the graveyard. But there's so much emphasis on Arthur's body being misshapen. Wrong. A parody of what he once was. And there's something pressing against his skin from the inside. Like someone(thing?) is wearing it? But Harriet said the body was too short to match the consultant who told her to come here, so...
19:12 - "It's why I have the highest accuracy rate in the office"
Alice is convinced (or at least trying to convince herself) no one reads these. But then why do employees have accuracy ratings? What does an accuracy rating even MEAN? Does some other part of the government do follow up? Does whatever fucked up eldritch patron the OIAR have just go "yeah, that's seems right, here's a gold star Gwen"?
Gwen takes this seemingly nonsensical job very seriously. Why?
