When I listened to MAG 92 for the second time, something that struck me was how much Elias talks about the web. This post is somewhat in response to this one
When Elias is confronted by the archival staff we get the following exchange between him and Jon:
Elias: Uh, it’s also very important to me, in a personal capacity, that you
understand I’m answering you of my own free will.
Jon: I don’t care!
Elias: I know, but I do. There’s so much of this place, of ourselves, twisted by forces far beyond us. I just wanted you to know—
Part of this is Elias establishing that the abilities of The Archivist are not affecting him, But the second part makes it sound like he knows that Beholding is not the only power influencing the institute and its employees. I think Elias is aware that the Web is connected not just the institute, but with himself.
Elias: Yes, I was just saying to Jon. It’s very important to me you understand that no action I have taken has been controlled. I have done everything because I wished to.
This, to me, very much sounds like Elias trying to deny that the Web had any part in his actions. Why would he be so insistent on pointing that out? Well, as we all know by now, he has been orchestrating everything from day one. And while it is impossible to deny that Elias is a servant of the Eye, it is also impossible to deny that he has been playing the part of a web servant as well.
Elias tells Jon that they “ thrive on ceaseless watching, on knowing too much ”. We have seen this bastard man dig around in people’s mind to find what will destroy them. He likes it. But he has also enjoyed playing people.
Elias played Jon like one of Peter’s cheap boat whistles. He manipulated everyone around him so that The Magnus Archives could succeed. He bound the archival staff to him and the institute without their knowledge.
The Web is the manifestation of the fear of being controlled, entrapped, being trapped and not knowing it, and your will not being your own, of being manipulated.
I think Elias is so insistent of saying it was his own choice and not at all controlled because he knows Beholding think’s he is on thin fucking ice. Just because he is an avatar of the Eye does not mean he can’t also serve the Web, even is he himself did not want to.
Jon: It doesn’t please your master?
Elias: Our master, Jon.
Jon: I never chose this.
Elias: You never wanted this, no. But I’m afraid you absolutely did choose it. In a hundred ways, at a hundred thresholds, you pressed on. You sought knowledge relentlessly, and you always chose to see. Our world is made of choices, John, and very rarely do we truly know what any of them mean, but we make them nonetheless.
Elias chose not just to watch everything around him burn, he also chose to pull the strings, to manipulate and control. He chose not just Beholding, but the Web as well.
