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god

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mechs fanart? m e c h s f a n a r t !

#raphaella #love her!!!

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based on this post

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Jonahs ENTIRE thing is that he is an extremely privileged rancid little rich white man from the 1800s who believes he is entitled to anything he wants and treats people as tools to achieve it like his entire reason for avoiding death is “I’m too special to die I am entitled to ruling the world” if you genuinely think this man has experienced any form of oppression ever in his life or would be good representation for any marginalized group you need to seek professional help

#yeah

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On racial stereotyping of the Haans in TMA...

Right so as someone who is ethnically Chinese I have NO FUCKING clue how I didn’t notice this more distinctly in my initial binge of tma (going too fast and not paying closer attention to character names and descriptions, probably) but the Haan family storyline is, all horror elements aside, pretty fucked up in terms of racial representation re: stereotyping. This got long as hell, but please please please take a moment to read through if you’ve got time for it. thanks.

To start off, the Haans are one of the few characters in tma with an explicitly specified race and ethnicity—Chinese—and pretty much the only explicitly Chinese characters in tma, other than the mostly unimportant librarian (Zhang Xiaoling) from Beijing. But like, Haan isn’t even a properly Chinese surname, at least not in the way that it’s spelled in canon (it should be Han, one a. A quick google search tells me that Haan as a surname has…Dutch origins??).

Of course, that could be chalked up to shoddy anglicization processes within family histories, which certainly isn’t uncommon with immigrant families, so I’m not going to dwell on names too much (although I also find it interesting that John Haan’s name is so specifically and weirdly anglicized that he changed his own surname?? Hun Yung to John Haan is a very big leap of a name change and frankly not very believable. ANYWAY, this is not that important. I don’t expect Jonny, a white Englishman, to come up with perfectly unquestionable non-Cho-Chang-like Chinese names, though it certainly would be nice. Moving on).

What really bothers me about the Haans is how they almost exclusively and explicitly play into negative Chinese immigrant stereotypes. I don’t even feel like I need to say it because it’s like…it’s literally Right There, folks. John Haan (in ep 72) owns and operates a sketchy takeout restaurant. They’re all avatars of the Flesh—and John Haan is Specifically horrific and terrifying because he cooked his wife’s human meat and fed it to his unknowing customers. Does that remind you of any stereotypes which accuse Chinese people of consuming societally unacceptable and ethically questionable things like dog/cat/bat meat (which, if it’s not already crystal fucking clear, we don’t. do that.), which in turn characterize us as horrible unfeeling monsters? John Haan’s characterization feeds (haha, badum tss) directly into this harmful stereotype that have caused very real pain for Chinese people and East Asians in general. 

And Jonny does nothing to address that from within his writing (and not out of it either). And, speaking on a more meta level, Jonny could’ve easily had these flesh avatars be individuals of any race (like, what’s Jared Hopworth’s ethnicity? Do we know? No? Well then). Conversely, he could’ve easily, easily had a Chinese person be an avatar of any other entity. So why did he have to chose specifically the Flesh?

(This is a rhetorical question. You know why. Racial stereotyping and invoking a fear of the other in an attempt to enhance horror, babey~)

On Tom Haan’s side, Jonny seems weirdly intent on having other characters repeatedly comment on his accent (or rather, lack thereof) in relation to his race. Think about how, in ep 30 (killing floor), the fact that Tom Haan had spoken a line to the statement giver in “perfect English” was an emphasized beat in that statement, and a beat that was supposed to be “chilling” and meant to signify to us that something was, quote-unquote, “not right” with Tom Haan. Implicitly, that’s saying that it was unexpected, not “normal”, and in this case even eerie, for someone who looks Chinese to have spoken in fluid, unbroken English. Mind you, the line itself was perfectly scary on its own (“you cannot stop the slaughter by closing the door”), so why did Jonny feel the need to note the accent in which it was spoken in? Why did Jonny HAVE to have that statement giver note, that he initially “wasn’t even sure how much English [Haan] spoke”? 

This happens again in episode 72 with a Chinese man (and again, his ethnicity is Explicitly Noted) who we assume is also Tom Haan. This one is rather ironically funny and kind of painfully self aware, because the statement giver expresses surprise at Haan’s “crisp RP accent” and then immediately “felt bad about making the assumption that he couldn’t speak English,” and subsequently admitted that thought was “low-key racist.” Like, from a writing perspective, this entire passage is roundabout, pointless, and says absolutely nothing helpful to enhance the horror genre experience for listeners (instead it just sounded like some sort of half-assed excuse so Jonny or other listeners could say “look! We’ve addressed the racism!” You didn’t. It just made me vaguely uncomfortable). And again, having other people comment on our accents/lack thereof while assuming we are foreign is a Very Real microaggression that east asians face on the daily. If Jonny needed some filler sentences for pacing he could’ve written about Literally anything else. So why point out, yet again, that the crazy murderous man was foreign and Chinese? 

At this point, you might say, right, but yknow, it was just that the statement givers were kind of racist! It happens! Yeah sure, ok, that’s a passable in-universe explanation for descriptions of Tom Haan (though not John Haan, mind you), but the statement givers are fake made up people, and statement’s still written by Jonny, who absolutely has all the power to write overt discrimination out of his stories. And he does! Think about just how many minor (and major!!) characters are so, so carefully written as completely aracial, and do not have their ethnicity implicated at all in whatever horrors they may or may not be committing. Think about how many lgbtq+ characters have given statements, and have been in statements, without having faced direct forms of discrimination, or portrayed as embodying blatant stereotypes in their stories (though lgbtq+ rep in tma certainly has their own issues that I won’t go into here). Jonny can clearly write characters this way, and he can do it well. So why, why, am I being constantly, repeatedly reminded in-text of the fact that the Haans are East Asian, that they’re from China, that they’re Chinese immigrants, that they’re second-generation British Chinese or whatever the fuck, and that they’re also horrifying conduits for blood, gore, and general fucked-up-ness? It’s absolutely not something that is Needed for the stories to be an effective piece of horror; the only thing it does is perpetuate incredibly harmful and hurtful stereotypes.

And listen, I love tma to bits. It’s taken over my blog. I’ve really loved my interactions with the fandom. And I am consistently blown away by Jonny’s writing and how well he’s able to weave foreshadowing and plot into an incredibly complex collection of stories. But I absolutely Cannot stop thinking about the Haans because it’s just. It’s such a blatant display of racial stereotyping in writing. And I’ve certainly seen a few voices talking about it here and there, and I don’t know if I’m just not looking in the right places, but it certainly feels like something that is just straight up not on the radar for a lot of tma fans. And I’m disappointed about that. 

Just, I don’t know. Take a look at those episodes again and do some of your own thinking about why these characters had to be specifically Chinese (answer: they didn’t.). And in general, PLEASE for the love of god turn a critical eye on character portrayals and descriptions whenever they are assigned specific races/ethnicities (Some examples that come to mind are Jude Perry, Annabelle Cane, and Diego Molina), because similar issues, to an extent, extend beyond the Haans, though I haven’t covered them here. 

You shouldn’t need a POC to do point out these problems for you when they’re so glaringly There. But for those of you who really didn’t know, hope this was informative in some way. I’m tired, man. If some of the only significant Chinese characters you write are violent cannibalistic men with a perverted relationship with meat, just don’t do it. Please don’t do it. 

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Guess who has been listening to too much Wasteland, Baby!

whoops, sorry lmao. I decided to take the L and learn how to draw people kissing. Not sure I have it yet, but nonetheless, 4 hours later, here we are. I spent way too much time on this for it to rot in my “finished art, but not good enough for tumblr” folder.

I was going to do an obligatory “they set the archives on fire at the end of s5 and WHOOPS-“ but I made the executive decision to not be angsty.

Commission me💛

[id: the image is a digital drawing of Jon and Martin from The Magnus Archives kissing. Jon has medium brown skin, long salt and pepper hair, a beard, rectangular glasses, and he is wearing a green sweater. One of his hands is on martin’s waist, the other is on martin’s face. Martin has medium light skin, and dark curly hair that is partially being pulled back by a yellow bandana. He also has a beard, and round glasses. He is wearing a blue coat and light brown sweater. one of his hands is resting on the back of Jon’s neck, and the other is on his upper back. The background is light green. End id]

#and the day that we’ll watch the death of the sun...

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okay like I know we all like to characterize Melanie as angry knife wife or whatever but the reason she went to check for Sarah Baldwin alone at that haunted hospital instead of waking the others when she found that Sarah was missing was bc Melanie “didn’t want to embarrass her” if Sarah had just gone to the bathroom and out of respect for Sarah’s dignity, she went alone and saw the skin-stapling aka the traumatic experience that marked the beginning of her next few years being sucked into The Magnus Institute. when she saw Jon again after they’d had a shouting match the FIRST thing she did was ask if he was doing okay bc he looked like he wasn’t sleeping. the second time she came to the Archives she apologized for her behavior during her statement in MAG28. like, Melanie King is a good person with a kind heart who we keep catching on bad days and she deserves to be soft and cared for at all times, not just before her recovery!

#yeah

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jonny how are my girls doooing??

#I miss them

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Martin: so what’s up with god then

Jon: why are you asking?

Martin: (who knows Dekker’s life work was finding the Extinction, and died in pursuit of it happy and safe in the belief that God would welcome him into heaven, and curious to know whether Dekker’s sacrifice was worth it, whether he was able to get the reward he was seeking in a safe afterlife away from the hell on earth that is this world) oh no reason

#tma spoilers #I miss addelard he was sane

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so my grandmas opinions are

jonny: “doesnt look very nice does he”

ashes: “i dont condone fedoras but this one works”

drumbot brian: “i like this one! very polite face”

gunpowder tim: “is this the one you like? he looks very sad

raphaella: “i dont think she likes men”

marius: “he looks like a nice young man i would invite him over for soup”

ivy alexandria: “did you say she was a librarian? what is she doing in space”

nastya: “is this the russian one? *long pause* i love her”

the toy soldier: i cant translate this but she basically said it looks like a bitch

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Oh miss basira,,,,

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People keep saying that The Magnus Archives is ending soon? But I just traveled 5 years into the future and it’s STILL GOING?? Here’s an episode from the year 2025! It’s kinda… gone downhill a bit over the years, I’ll admit… (This might be one of the worst things I’ve done, I’m very sorry)

#this is beautiful

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the mechanisms come in two flavors: goggles and no goggles take ur pick

#these are so cute

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I LOVE THE IDEA OF USING TMA AVATAR POWERS FOR THE DUMBEST POSSIBLE THINGS

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JK Rowling writing an anti-trans manifesto cannot just be treated like it’s the same thing as all the problematic things she’s done in the past. This is so much more than her having problematic things in her books. She wrote a lengthy manifesto purposefully designed to manipulate people into agreeing with her that trans people are dangerous. It has everything from mentioning studies without actually including sources so they can actually see them for themselves to purposefully misrepresenting how awful her transphobic friends are to including her own personal abuse at the end of the article despite the fact that it has absolutely nothing to do with trans people or trans rights (so that her fans could do what they’re doing, shutting down any criticism of it/any support of trans people by claiming you’re anti-abuse victims if you don’t just mindlessly support JK Rowling over all trans people), and so much more shit. It’s filled with fear-mongering and emotional manipulation, all to convince people to agree with her very violent transphobia.

Who is arguably the most famous author alive today posting that is absolutely going to harm so many people all over the world. This is a direct attack on trans people and it is going to do so much bad because of the platform that JK Rowling has and how she’s radicalizing her fanbase like this.

So don’t read her books. Don’t watch her movies. I get it, you like Harry Potter, but JK Rowling having the fanbase that she does is dangerous. All of her books and movies need to flop or else she will continue to use her platform to hurt trans people. Just pirating her books & movies isn’t enough either - she doesn’t need the money anyways, it’s her fame that she is weaponizing. By pirating her books & movies you are still supporting them. They need to flop both financially and socially. Harry Potter will always be a massive thing that everybody knows about, but that doesn’t mean everything else JK Rowling makes needs to be the same. If her new content flops and nobody ever talks about it, people will start to see JK Rowling as an author that’s just coasting off of the success of her older content that isn’t relevant anymore (which is true) and her fanbase will shrink - or at least people will stop seeing her as an authority like they currently do.

JK Rowling isn’t your problematic fave or anything like that. She’s a rich and famous person that’s weaponizing her fame against trans people, so it’s time to ignore everything that she writes from this point forwards. It doesn’t matter if you like Harry Potter, you have to boycott her new content and let her fade into obscurity because her fame is literally dangerous to trans people’s lives and rights. She needs to lose her fame.

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everyone else is in a horror story but georgie and melanie are living in a romcom. georgie’s lack of fear means she goes to the Corruption Grocery Store to buy stuff to make dinner and just does not react at all to the fucked up bug shit as she buys her food.

#they’re making food together in the kitchen #melanie occasionally flips off the giant eye in the sky