Edette's TMA Relisten

[edettethegreat]

after months of deliberation, I finally came up with what I wanna do for my tma relisten:

for those who missed my original posts after I finished the series in august, the tldr of it is that I had tma playing in the background and gradually listened to it over the course of a year and a half (from april 2024 to august 2025)

because of how spread out my listening to it was (and because it was mostly on in the background while I was doing homework) I missed A LOT. I think I might have skipped whole episodes. (most notably I missed Brutal Pipe Murder entirely and had to look up what happened, s3 is very confusing if you miss that)

this time, I'm prepared. Im gonna make 2 excel spreadsheets, one to keep track of every character name and who they are, and the second to keep track of the statements.

IN ADDITION, I wanna do something here on tumblr.

so I present you with @tma-wwk (The Magnus Archives- What We Know)

here I'll keep careful notes of every new piece of information introduced in each episode

will I be pedantic about it? obviously :) that's the whole fun of it. but not as pedantic as our lovely narrator jonathan sims.

[tma-wwk]

The Archive: A Comprehensive Catalogue of Statements

Statement Giver: the person giving the statement.

Statement Taker: typically the person recording the statement. If the statement is a letter, the Statement Taker is whoever the letter is addressed to.

Live or Written: self explanatory.

Form: if statement is written, it's either a formal statement or a letter. if statement is live, it's either given willingly or taken by force.

Entity: self explanatory and often up to personal interpretation.

Date Taken: statement number.

Fate of Statement Giver: alive or dead, usually based on the information in the followups.

If Dead, Via Statement?: did the thing the statement giver made their statement about kill them, or did they die from unrelated causes?

First or Secondhand: what percentage of the statement happened directly to the person giving the statement, and what percentage happened to someone else? For example, Joshua Gillespie personally dealt with the coffin, while Any Patel watched Graham deal with the notThem

[tma-wwk]

My Excel Sheet My Beloved <3 [every new character in Season 5]

[tma-wwk]

TMA What We Know -[200]- Last Words

-"Ceaseless Watcher, you know why I'm here. Release him.",,, unintentionally the funniest thing he could say. 'really now. you know what I'm here to do. let him go so I can get stabbing'

-Jon's fully going rogue

-Jonah's fully accepted his fate. he's like 'oh,,, I thought Martin would be the one to kill me. but either way. do you you gotta.'

-a lot of stabbing. maybe punching too. For Sasha. For Tim. For Gertrude. we're really avenging everyone out here. notably NOT for Leitner, because absolutely no one's mourning that guy

-Jonah's last words are "Good Luck"

🪦Jonah Magnus, 17XX-2018

-Jon's the Pupil now

-the "You are Dismissed" that Jon says to Rosie has a bit more Static behind it than usual. she may or may not be Dismissed from her job as Elias's receptionist now.

-MARTIN!! he's here. he saw Jon was gone and told the others to explode the archives early. but since Jon already killed Jonah, now the only Pupil left to kill is Jon

-the archives have been destroyed, Jon's getting destroyed and/or pulled into the rift with the Fear Entities

-Martin's gonna have to kill Jon

-Martin stabs Jon

•POST APOCALYPSE•

-Basira, Georgie, and Melanie found a tape recorder. still recording.

-there are birds chirping in the background, which I'll take as a good sign that the world's back to normal again

-Jon and Martin are missing. no bodies though, so I hope that's a good sign

-people attacked Simon Fairchild post-apocalypse

-Rosie's been looking after the Admiral while Melanie and Georgie were out

"Goodbye. I'm sorry... and good luck."

[tma-wwk]

TMA What We Know -[199]- Seeing It Through

-the group's discussing their options for ending the apocalypse

-option 1: do what Annabelle told them to

-option 2: do what Jon suggested before, let Jon take over as the Pupil and resort things to make them "more fair"

-Martin's very against any option that involves Jon sacrificing himself

-option 3 (a la Georgie): do nothing, wait for everyone to die eventually

-Basira wants to ask the people trapped in domains what their vote is

-Jon says that their vote would be to Stop Suffering

-Melanie has said statements that imply the entire group here has a share of the blame for the apocalypse, which begs the question of if anyone told her about how the apocalypse was starts (as in the concept of Jon getting marked by all the Fears). her statements are inconsistent enough that it could be she's just blaming all Magnus Institute employees (she's including Basira and excluding Georgie), but also the degree of blame she's allotting to all of them makes it seem like she's at least partially aware that it wasn't just Jonah and Jon's actions alone that brought the apocalypse.

-Georgie brings up the point that they don't know if they're in the first universe the Fears came from. it could be that this exact same scenario played out elsewhere, and they're however many universes deep into the Entities getting send to new universes.

-option 4 (a la Jon): Jon takes over as the Pupil and sends everyone to End domains, to kill everyone in the world

-the group (minus Jon) unanimously agrees to go with option 1, Annabelle's plan

-Jon and Georgie go for a smoke break together

-Georgie used to smoke but quit for health reasons

-Georgie probably is/was some flavor of Christian? she says she saw a bishop smoking when she was a kid and it weirded her out, which I assume would only hold any significance to her if bishops were a part of her religion

-Georgie's keeping Jon's lighter

-Martin's here!! Martin says that if they didn't live in a spooky scary world, they never would have started dating

-Angela the puzzle witch lady is out there running a domain. love to hear an update on her :)

-Jon is suffering the horrors of Infinite Guilt from having his entire life orchestrated to ultimately lead up to ending the world

-Melanie and Basira scouted out the gas mainline. the spooky eye creatures are also scouting out the gas mainline. they know something's about to go down

-the plan is for Melanie, Georgie, and Basira to set off the explosion while Martin and Jon go up and kill Jonah. Martin will have to kill Jonah himself because if Jon does it, Jon will probably instantly become the new Pupil

-Basira thanks Jon for coming back to get her

[tma-wwk]

TMA What We Know -[198]- Precipice

-Jon Martin and Basira are gonna run Annabelle's ideas by Georgie and Melanie

-they're by an endless cliff with an infinite ladder

-Martin wishes they had the evil lake instead of the evil cliff. he likes rowing. he's good at rowing.

-infinite ladder ends. they've gotta jump off it

~domain description~

-it's exactly what you'd think a Vast cliff ladder domain would be

-more poetic than usual though. shame Martin missed this one. he shoulda stayed on the ladder.

--end of description--

-they're back at the tunnels!! -the whole cult has been kidnapped to domains again

-they're going to explain Annabelle's proposal to Georgie and Melanie

[tma-wwk]

TMA What We Know -[197]- Connected

-Jon's feeling better now that the camera's broken

-Jon wants to rescue Martin and deal with (kill) Annabelle

-Basira wants to hear Annabelle out

-Annabelle considered making a children's TV Show. for Web purposes.

-Martin is able to sense Jon and Basira through the Web

-Annabelle ties Martin up and turns into a giant spider monster. as one does.

-only the End and the Web are capable of understanding the consequences of a successful ritual (the End knows everyone will die eventually in a successful ritual, including the Entities, which it would like. the Web knows this too, it doesn't want the Entities to die though.)

-the Web made a web of the tapes to use Jon's voice to guide the Entities through the rift in Hilltop Road across to other universes

-they gotta destroy the archives and Jonah Magnus simultaneously so the Entities tether themselves to the next best thing (the tapes) and leave this reality

-the Web gifted Jon that lighter to ultimately destroy the archives

[tma-wwk]

TMA What We Know -[196]- This Old House

-Martin's been slowing Annabelle down intentionally because she's carrying the camera and all the people around them get a temporary break from their torment while she's around

-Martin went with Annabelle because she told him she had a way to end the apocalypse, and if he'd tell Jon or hesitate she'd just leave without him

-we've arrived at Hilltop Road!! -Annabelle wrote a statement she wants Martin to read

--Annabelle's Statement--

-Hilltop Road is basically a reality warp ("the universe has cracked")

-Hilltop Road attracts people who are afraid so it can eat their fear

^very spider-like of you. building your home as a trap for your food.

-everyone who lives there dies violently

--end of statement--

-Martin's unimpressed with all that

-Annabelle's original plan involved filling Martin with spiders

-Annabelle says Martin could have affiliated himself with the Web. because he intentionally acts Like That to get people to let their guards down and view him a certain way

-Annabelle breaks the camera

-seems like this place has turned into some Web-Vast domain

-Annabelle webs up Martin

-Martin tells her that Jon will kill her when he arrives, Annabelle's fine with that and is prepared to potentially die for this cause

-the Tapes are Web.

-the Tapes have always been Web.

[tma-wwk]

TMA What We Know -[195]- Adrift

~domain description~

-infinite drowning domain

--end of domain description--

-BASIRA!! -she's here!! -Jon's retrieving Basira so that she can help retrieve Martin

-he lets her know that Melanie and Georgie are alive and well

-Basira and Jon discuss domains and philosophy

-Jon tells Basira that he killed Helen, Basira's concerned with how Melanie will take it, given how she and Helen were close back when Jon was in a coma

^Jon doesn't know that Martin already told Melanie about Helen

-they've reached Hilltop Road!! and the camera's messing with Jon again

-(there's the Guest For Mr Spider tape playing in the background and the episode ends with "Mr Spider Wants More". 10/10 perfect way to prepare us for Hilltop Road.)

[tma-wwk]

TMA What We Know -[194]- Parting

-new plan! Jon wants to take Jonah's place and 'rebalance' things by shuffling things around and putting relatively worse people into the domains, and giving relatively better people control of the domains

-Martin vetos that idea because he thinks Jon's gotten too self-important and is enjoying his role as The Archivist too much

-Jon's like 'you asked me to kill all the avatars and now you're angry that I killed some avatars?' and Martin's like 'no I'm angry because it looked like you enjoyed killing >:('

-Jon leaves the tunnels to get some space from their fight

~domain description~

-guy's on the world's spookiest dating site

-guy has an eye tumor. which is a tumor that's secretly an eyeball

-the eye-tumor is saying all his self-deprecating thoughts

--end of description--

-Jon's gonna go apologize to Martin

-Martin's not here. because he got kidnapped by Annabelle

-Melanie's being such a good therapist for Jon right now. all that therapy really paid off. she knows how to calm a guy down

-not just a therapist. she's also holding all the braincells rn. Jon's panicking too much to think

-Melanie King I adore you. Jon's like 'well I can't use my spooky eye powers so there's no way of knowing where they went.' and Melanie's like 'what about using your head and actually thinking. yknow. that thing that normal people do when they try to figure something out.'

-Melanie's practically just handing information to Jon at this point. boy cannot put two and two together without the help of the eye

^see the same thing is happening to ppl who use generative ai. rip ppl who use chatgpt, you're forgetting how to think :(

-Jon's big boy smart boy deduction skills tell him they're probably going to Hilltop Road. the most local Web Place. the one that they've known about since s2. smh Jon you coulda figured this out 10 minutes ago.

[tma-wwk]

TMA What We Know -[193]- A Stern Look

-Jonah is out here being a vessel for the Eye. chanting a bunch of Eye stuff.

-Jonah's original body was destroyed during the Change. but the Eye is keeping him alive and well 👍

~description of OG Elias Bouchard's life~

-OG Elias made sure not to smoke weed on the day of his interview. good job Elias Im so proud of you :D

-Jonah (James Wright) asks him what he's afraid of and he says Spiders. and now he's suddenly afraid of spiders. he didn't seem to be afraid of them before he said it.

^INTERESTING New powerup Jonah Magnus has got going on there. just giving people fear. Love that. that should have been utilized more. give people random phobias

-Elias had a traumatic experience with his friend dying brutally

-friend got one of those blank page books. one of the Eye Library ones probably

-friend has a panic attack about the book Seeing him. and Haunting him

^valid panic attack because he was brutally killed afterwards

-OG Elias is from the world's most pretentious family and has the world's most pretentious father

-father in question is dead

-OG Elias believes that he "deserves better" and is "destined to be important" because it's "in his blood"

^quicklyyyy losing sympathy for you OG Elias

--end of description of OG Elias Bouchard's life--

-Jon is physically capable of killing Jonah Magnus, but if he would then he would take his place as the Eye's Pupil

-Jon suspects that that's what the Eye wants

[tma-wwk]

TMA What We Know -[192]- An Appointment

-Martin Jon and Georgie are at the base of the stairs of the panopticon

-the panopticon is supernaturally pulling Jon up its steps

-Jon's enjoying being able to See again

-ROSIE ZAMPANO!!!!! <3333333

ROSIE MY ABSOLUTE BELOVED I ADORE YOU SO MUCH

-Rosie's the panopticon's receptionist. and Jon and Martin don't have an appointment

~description of Rosie's life~

-Rosie's inner thoughts are so annoyed and sarcastic I love her dearly <3

-at the time that Elias is interviewing Rosie, she thinks he's far too young for his job. meaning Rosie's significantly older than our archival crew

-Rosie's divorced (or at least separated from the person she used to be married to)

-Rosie didn't know Jon, she only knew him through the gossip other people would say about him

^gossip in question is that he's "insecure, aggressive, [and] desperate to be taken seriously"

-Rosie liked Gertrude because Gertrude would talk to her like they were both in on a secret

-Rosie read Jon's files

-Rosie had a traumatic bug experience as a child. might be marked by the corruption. idk.

-Elias would leave specific files in easy to find places to enrich Rosie's snooping experience

--end of description of Rosie's life--

-Rosie says Jon has an appointment with Jonah Magnus himself

-Jonah Magnus is out here being spooky. being the Pupil of the Eye

[tma-wwk]

TMA What We Know -[191]- What We Lose

-this whole time Jon's been sleeping with his eyes open

-Jon hasn't had real sleep or real dreams in a while

-Martin recognized "Celia" as Lynne from mag100

-Jon doesn't need to make statements while he's down here because he's cut off from the Eye

-Jon says that this isn't as bad as Salesa's house and he probably won't forget all this once he leaves the tunnels

-there are eye-creatures. they're former archivists. they might try to stop Jon and Martin from ending the apocalypse

-if they succeed in ending the apocalypse (via getting rid of the entities), it will probably go very badly for Jon

- if they succeed in ending the apocalypse (via reverting the world to how it was pre-apocalypse), Jon would probably be ok

-Martin promises not to try to save Jon at the expense of the world

-Jon promises not to intentionally sacrifice himself

-Melanie and Georgie went to visit the admiral <333

-he's out there being a cat

[tma-wwk]

TMA What We Know -[190]- Scavengers

-the cult's worried that Melanie and Georgie have been gone for too long

-they don't like how a tape recorder magically appeared in the tunnels

-Melanie and Georgie introduce Martin to two cult members, Martin seems confused when one of them is introduced as Celia, Celia clarifies that she was stuck in a domain that took her name and had to rename herself. so idk why or how Martin would know that Celia isn't her real name,, but that's suspicious,,,,

-Melanie's therapist is down here!!

-Melanie spoke about Jon a lot in therapy

-Georgie tries to destroy a bunch of tape recorders, it doesn't work

-Melanie and Martin bond over the apocalypse

-Melanie told her cult that she had a vision the apocalypse would end

-Melanie's really frustrated with the whole cult thing but she still cares about the people she's protecting down here

-Martin fills Menalie in on the Basira/Daisy situation

-Melanie warns Martin about Helen trying to eat people, Martin tells her the Jon killed Helen

-one of the cult members won't stop writing religious poems about Melanie and Georgie which they both seem to hate

[tma-wwk]

TMA What We Know -[189]- Peers

-(episode titled "peers") me: hehe yeah Im sure the eye does that a lot

-apparently the street flooded with blood at some point when Jon arrived

-Jon's uncomfortable with all the Eyes watching him

-Jon realizes that his and Jonah's stand off will come down to who the Eye likes better

-Jon can't see his way into the Panopticon. guy can't find the door

-Jon thinks this might be a subconscious thing on his part, maybe deep down he doesn't want to find it

~domain description~

-politician feels judgement and guilt over politics

--end domain description--

-Martin's in a suspiciously good mood

-MELANIE AND GEORGIE!!!! <3333

-Jon's not doing too well here. he can't physically handle getting cut off from the Eye

-Melanie and Georgie have a cult

-they've been rescuing people from other domains

-Melanie and Georgie are taking Jon and Martin to their cult

[tma-wwk]

TMA What We Know -[188]- Centre of Attention

-they're walking through a Lonely domain

-Martin's like 'wow this domain is so nice and comfortable' and Jon's like 'Martin you're literally Lonely. of course you think this is comfortable'

-Jon explains to Martin why he had to kill Helen

-Martin admits that Helen was a bit suspicious

^wow you don't say. the embodiment of lies was suspicious

-Martin says he was a bit jealous of real Helen for bonding with Jon so quickly and easily

-Basira's out there 'in a labyrinth of masks'

-they're about to enter London

-and it's very Eye

~domain description~

-what if there were cameras everywhere and everyone was watching and judging you. how would you feel about that.

--end of description--

-Jon's like ok story time is over :) hey cameras why are you still here?

^as if he's not the world's Most Important Guy

[tma-wwk]

TMA What We Know -[187]- Checking Out

neither here nor there but I listen to these on youtube, and this one played an ad for some new pixar movie when I hit play. we're really out here throwing hard dissonance at the vibe.

-Jon's having a fun little chat with Helen

-Helen guided Martin into his domain so that Jon would have to pass through Helen's domain alone

-Helen didn't want Martin around because she thought Martin would encourage Jon to smite her if he saw people inside her domain suffering

-there's a secret third route Jon could take but it's full of spiders, so Jon's sticking with Helen and her silly little hotel

-Helen says Jon's tape recorder feels "more alive" than it used to

-Helen is a bit repulsed by Jon Knowing his way through her corridors

-Jon liked the real Helen

-Jon emotionally bonded with real Helen over a shared feeling of paranoia

-the Distortion switched out Michael for Helen as a means of having more persuasion over Jon

-Helen's taking Jon through her domain "the long way"

~domain description~

-I mean this is pretty standard Distortion stuff. Distortion Classic™

-Helen makes fun little commentary over Jon's whole statement. I think this is the only statement that's continuously interrupted by someone's commentary

--end of description--

-the woman in the statement is here!! she's looking for her (probably nonexistent) son and her definitely nonexistent room

-Jon tries to help, Helen doesn't like Jon helping people

-Jon doesn't like people touching him

-Jon suggests that he could make this woman an avatar, Helen doesn't like that so she transports her somewhere far far away from Jon

-Jon's gonna destroy Helen because she's going to try to stop them from turning the world back

-Helen does something Penrose Stairs-esque to her domain to stop Jon from Ceaseless Watcher-ing her

-Helen's not scared of Jon

Helen... was that... a lie?

-Helen's begging for her life :(((

🪦Helen Distortion, 2017-2018

-Jon and Martin are reunited <333

-Jon tells him he killed Helen

-they've reached London