Magnus Archives: Caution
Sep. 24th, 2020 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
writerkitIF SOMETHING IS INVISIBLE TO THE GUY WHO CAN SEE EVERYTHING Y'ALL REALLY SHOULD BE MORE ALARMED BY THAT! Especially given what we know about the *other* places Jon can't see. Though I agree with Martin that excited Jon is really adorable.
Also did I imagine it or did something... else... laugh at Jon's Eye Spy joke?
...I know I keep saying "I really need to start reading the content warnings" and then not doing so, but this week's may well be the thing that actually gets me to do it-- while no one made me give a eulogy (there was hardly anyone *at* my mother's funeral because of the COVID restrictions) and I am *profoundly grateful* for that, I was not ready for "let's listen to a horror podcast about funerals," especially not something like Magnus Archives that really taps into what is actually horrifying about funerals, particularly funerals of abusers.
WASN'T SALESA DEAD? Though now that I think of it, nobody ever claimed to have seen his body, and on this show "if you never saw the body they aren't dead" applies even more than most shows. Somehow Salesa has not only acquired a country estate but managed to suspend the normal rules of the creepiness on it-- like, not only do Jon's powers not work there but Jon also goes back to requiring food and sleep while there. Which is especially interesting because it's unclear the extent to which Jon required food and sleep immediately *before* the apocalypse.
Given that Annabelle's avatarship was *imposed* on her in a way that offered her even less consent than Jon had, and the Web seems to do more outright controlling of its Avatars, I wonder if Salesa is protecting her from the Web somehow? Like, as long as she stays in the confines of his area of inference she gets to make her own choices?
As a sidenote, it's interesting the extent to which different powers have different preferences in that regard-- the Spiral seems to *meld* with its avatars and communicate very directly with them in a way the other powers don't. The Corruption goes in for direct mind control as well; Jane Prentiss actually had her thoughts altered by the Hive in a way I associate more with victims than avatars. The Hunt pushes its Avatars with a driving need to chase but Daisy demonstrates that you do seem to have to offer some amount of conscious consent to go full-bore Hunt (again, as an *avatar*; the Murder Club episode demonstrates that as a victim you can get it imposed on you just fine)-- after which it gains complete control of you in a way there's no going back from, since Daisy wasn't expecting to come back even if they had fully averted the end of the world; it's why she made Basira promise to kill her. At the other end of the spectrum, Peter, Simon, and Jon all seem to retain a good bit of free will and their entities can't really compel them to do anything, and the Lightless Flame cult were controlled via cult mind control tactics backed up by "I will kill you with my magic fire abilities" rather than any direct mind alteration.
Also did I imagine it or did something... else... laugh at Jon's Eye Spy joke?
...I know I keep saying "I really need to start reading the content warnings" and then not doing so, but this week's may well be the thing that actually gets me to do it-- while no one made me give a eulogy (there was hardly anyone *at* my mother's funeral because of the COVID restrictions) and I am *profoundly grateful* for that, I was not ready for "let's listen to a horror podcast about funerals," especially not something like Magnus Archives that really taps into what is actually horrifying about funerals, particularly funerals of abusers.
WASN'T SALESA DEAD? Though now that I think of it, nobody ever claimed to have seen his body, and on this show "if you never saw the body they aren't dead" applies even more than most shows. Somehow Salesa has not only acquired a country estate but managed to suspend the normal rules of the creepiness on it-- like, not only do Jon's powers not work there but Jon also goes back to requiring food and sleep while there. Which is especially interesting because it's unclear the extent to which Jon required food and sleep immediately *before* the apocalypse.
Given that Annabelle's avatarship was *imposed* on her in a way that offered her even less consent than Jon had, and the Web seems to do more outright controlling of its Avatars, I wonder if Salesa is protecting her from the Web somehow? Like, as long as she stays in the confines of his area of inference she gets to make her own choices?
As a sidenote, it's interesting the extent to which different powers have different preferences in that regard-- the Spiral seems to *meld* with its avatars and communicate very directly with them in a way the other powers don't. The Corruption goes in for direct mind control as well; Jane Prentiss actually had her thoughts altered by the Hive in a way I associate more with victims than avatars. The Hunt pushes its Avatars with a driving need to chase but Daisy demonstrates that you do seem to have to offer some amount of conscious consent to go full-bore Hunt (again, as an *avatar*; the Murder Club episode demonstrates that as a victim you can get it imposed on you just fine)-- after which it gains complete control of you in a way there's no going back from, since Daisy wasn't expecting to come back even if they had fully averted the end of the world; it's why she made Basira promise to kill her. At the other end of the spectrum, Peter, Simon, and Jon all seem to retain a good bit of free will and their entities can't really compel them to do anything, and the Lightless Flame cult were controlled via cult mind control tactics backed up by "I will kill you with my magic fire abilities" rather than any direct mind alteration.
