#i'm on mag 171 but

[caffeinated-and-annoying-bard]

Me, to the me that can't remember my best friend's face (I haven't seen him in over a week but it has felt like months of grey apathy): DUDE IT HAS BEEN 17 EPISODES. YOU'RE LISTENING TO THE END OF THE WORLD ARC (and loving it so much). STOP THINKING ABOUT MAG 154 STOP IT STOP IT

#val ramblings #the magnus archives #i'm on mag 171 but #mag 154 #it is everything #(to me)

[amaritheartist]

CW Body image things

I've been trying to understand what the heck I'm feeling about my body, and Google isn't helping, so I'm making a tumblr rant post about it.

Why do I want my body to be made out of something else like wood or stone? What does that mean? Why do I feel gender envy for scarecrows, the Toy Soldier, and the little art mannequin that's sitting on my dresser? ((This is the part that I don't get the most. Google is doing nothing for me!))

I hate thinking about the shape of my body, and seeing myself when I inevitably have to shower. Like, what is all this meat doing here? I want my rib-cage to be pulled apart into the shape of a flower, with my still beating heart at the center. Make me into a meat tree/sculpture!

I want to pulled apart like a lego or a skeleton, and then effortlessly reassembled again. Frogged like a crochet project. Utterly unraveled.

Terry's Taxidermy by Teddy Hyde, and Body by Mother Mother are the vibes we're going for here.

#i'm just gonna tag this with a whole bunch of stuff #and hope for the best #cw body image #gender dysphoria #trans #transgender #gender envy #cw body horror #body horror #the toy soldier #the mechs tts #mannequin #scarecrow #mag 171 #the flesh #the stranger #amari's arbitrary articulations

[fireball-me]

@a-mag-a-day

I really like MAG 171: The Garden. It's definitely one of my favorite episodes. Perhaps my #1 favorite. It ties in really well with the overarching story, doesn't fail to terrify and unsettle the listener, AND it's one of those episodes with clear connections as a metaphor for real life issues.

I'll start with what each of the "flowers" represents.

Gristlebloom Orchid: Muscular body insecurity. Reese is never able to reach the obviously impossible body standards of society, hating himself for not looking muscular enough. Thus, he can only grow into something entirely inhuman.

Bone Rose: Fatphobia. Patricia is haunted by the idea that to be wanted you must be less. She develops a "grotesque horror of her own flesh," desperately trying to get rid of anything that stops her from being perfectly thin. Losing fat becomes losing flesh becomes losing blood. Until finally, she is like a delicate flower, made of nothing but bones.

Cutaway Tulip: Anti-aging. Leopold is deeply afraid of looking old. He seems to flee decay, carving and tearing himself to stay smooth and young-looking. He cuts parts of himself away, and they become petals.

It's important to note that for the first three flowers, "harsh, judgemental light" is stated as an important part of their cultivation. This is because the terror that drives this grotesque transformation really starts from judgement from others.

However, there is one flower that doesn't need this judgemental light to experience the terror of everyone else.

Lily of the Damned: Gender dysphoria. This fear comes completely from within. "Light levels need only be high if the preoccupation with its body’s presence has a visual component." There are quite a few details in the fourth section of the episode that prove as solid evidence that the Lily is a metaphor for the transgender experience of dysphoria. Maeve wants to hide her body from everyone including herself, which is why the flower must be pulled up. All of her fear comes from that of the development of her own body, new sensations she's uncomfortable with, and becoming something she doesn't want. "She is trapped in the same soft prison of skin she has always so despised."

It's almost poetic, the way the creatively woven words create thoughts and ideas about ourselves.

(I was going to make a second section detailing what makes this episode very effective and well-done horror, but I believe my quotes and descriptions from before have served that sufficiently. I'm also not going to go into its connections to the rest of the story, as to not spoil it for people who haven't reached this point but I still think should be able to read my analysis.)

In short, The Gardener is one of my favorite episodes because it uses body horror very very well, and serves as a very powerful and thought-provoking metaphor for body fears in real life. The Mortal Garden represents the world of beauty standards in which we find ourselves forced to dehydrate ourselves, lose weight, hate the future and our very selves in order to look attractive to others. It's where the desire to not be weak, or ugly, or fat, or old, or you makes us afraid, desperate, and starving to be attractive.

It is the worst place that has ever been beautiful.

And it should not exist.

#the magnus archives #analysis #writing #mine #idk why i ended up writing it like an LA essay #mag 171 #body horror

[frogofshadyorigin]

I listened to MAG 171 recently and my botanist heart just had to draw the flowers of the mortal garden. And since I can't sleep, I decided to start with the blossom of the Gristlebloom Orchid.

I'll add a full-flower drawing and a detailed drawing of the roots when I feel like it, and then jump to the next flower.

Also, I'm trying to keep it in a style of a botanists notebook, but not sure about that yet.

Anyway, I hope some people out there like it. I am not rerally confident in my drawing skills, so please feel free to give advise if you have some to spare

#tma #the magnus archives #art #drawing #flowers #the flesh #mortal garden #herbarium of the mortal garden #< trying to make that my tag for the drawings #also not happy with the small eye in the middle but i can't really erase it now #not without erasing a lot around it

[charlie-and-mushrooms]

Favourite quotes/ moments in tma

Let me know if you see any good cows. Well obviously Im going to tell you if there's any good cows (mag 160)

Starting to feel a bit self conscious, being a post-apocalyptic google (mag 164)

This feels like a strange one. What does... strange mean with something like this? don't think you want to know. Good point. Emm, ok, well, uh good luck..I'll be... Ah... Over there (mag 165)

I'll see you vengeful angels later, don't be strangers (mag 166)

If it moves like a worm, thinks like a worm, and screams it's awful agonies towards the distant, taunting sky, like a worm... Well, conclusion is obvious. (Mag 166)

We won't get lost though, I know the roots. Not really what I was getting at, Jon. Go on? Seriously? You dont- its on fire, jon. It- Yep. it's a burning building. Yes, it is. That's on FIRE. yes. (Mag 169)

Worms don't get to see the sky (mag 166)

Maybe it's her idea of a... Varied diet. Eat you greens and all that, you know (mag 160) (about tapes)

TiM. SAshAAaa. (Mag 162)

I'm not going to kill a man just cause your jealous. Why not?.... Please? (Mag 168)

Is that me? I-is that me? ... martin? Martin. Mahhhtin. Mahhtin. (martin, mag 170)

And whose this? Your boyfriend? Umm.. yes, actually. Oh um... (Mag 171)

Keep your face secured (mag 165)

Feel free to pop by when you're feeling less, um... Murdery (mag 174)

No- no, im sorry cheerleading you when your on a magical murder spree probably... wasn't a... great idea (mag 174)

I really hoped things would be simpler, a nice straightforward apocalypse (mag 174)

Before she was eaten by a door? (Mag 188)

So what? Its just a- an elderitch popularity contest? Yes. (Mag 189)

How long does it take to describe ... Scary mud? (Mag 166)

You haven't been here for months! That's not fair! Sometimes I was kidnapped. (Mag 114)

#the magnus pod #the magnus archives #tma #tma jon #tma martin #the magnus archives is an office comedy

[anything-viva]

silhouette of one of the plants from MAG 171, based on illustrations from prehistoric-wildlife.com

#i'll be posting the fully rendered version once i'm done with it #it's a different style than what i usually do #my art tag #wips #mag 171 #the flesh #jarchivist #jonathan sims #body horror #tma #magnuspod #the magnus archives #lichdraws

[tired-beholding-bitch]

listen I might go to hell for this but--

#tma #the magnus archives #good omens #mag 171 #jared hopworth #crowley #I AM RIGHT #MAYBE I SHOULDN'T HAVE SAID IT #BUT STILL #has this been done #it must have #i'm really sorry it was literally the first thing that popped into my mind

[archived-lara]

... Jon. Dear. Darling. Sweetheart. What the hell are you doing again? Cause like what did Jared do to you? You two got into a fair and square exchange? You asked him to take out the rib in exchange of you letting him go, and then you wanted his story so he wanted a rib for himself? You don't need that many bones Jon, at this point you're being selfish.

Why kill him? Like what purpose does it even serve if it literally doesn't even make any difference? I'm fine with your personal revenge but at least have a good reason as you did for Not!Sasha and Jude.

Jared was a cool guy and that was unfair in my opinion. You could just say "Hey Jared wanna come kick Elias' ass with us. You can just meet us there if you want." And i think he might've come with you.

#i'm upset about his death if you can't tell #like cmon if you can let Oliver live why not Jared #the magnus archives #tma spoilers #MAG 171 #my post

[caffeinated-and-annoying-bard]

I'm on MAG 171 and they love each other so much. Nonetheless, I've decided to take it as a personal offense that no one (at least on instagram, I decided to stay away from tiktok 3 years ago and it has been good) made an audio edit of the "you want a reason not to do this, so that's why you came to me" of MAG 154 with I Bet on Losing Dogs. Why is that.

#val ramblings #the magnus archives #mag 154 #good news is that i made that audio myself. bad news is that i can't draw for the life of me.

[ab-of-steel]

also I don’t know if ‘listening hard’ is a thing but I’ve decided it is because that’s what I have to do every time I hear Jared speak, I understand you are a mass of humans but why do u sound like that sir

#i'm listening SO HARD #u could literally take the vocal cords of any nice sounding person #why do you choose to sound this way #tma #tma spoilers #the magnus archives #the magnus archives spoilers #mag 171

[archivalsapphic]

The Magnus Archives Entities as Hozier Songs

you're just going to have to go with me on this. (the fears as hozier songs but my justification gets weaker as you go along.)

vague entity-related spoilers throughout but i've mentioned specific s5 spoiler warnings where relevant.

the corruption - in a week : it's a love song about decaying and decomposing with the insects.

the desolation - arsonist's lullabye : i also considered would that i for this one which i still think applies, (and would definitely use for an agnes montague playlist) but i couldn't ignore a song about arson for the desolation.

the hunt - it will come back : this one has the "animalistic fear" vibe to it and reminds me a lot of the dynamic between basira and daisy (spoilers for MAG 179 and 180 in the remainder of this paragraph) because of the way basira can track daisy and daisy can recognise basira as the person she cared about and who had her back even when she's been lost to the hunt.

the extinction - be : not technically one of the fourteen, i know, but this one started the entire post idea in my head so i had to include it. i thought about wasteland, baby! and no plan but there's something so final and dramatic about be that i think fits the extinction very well.

the buried - work song : it's the being "laid gently in the cold dark earth" and the description of "crawling home."

the flesh - angel of small death & the codeine scene : "i lay my heart down with the rest at her feet / fresh from the fields all fetor and fertile / it's bloody and raw but i swear it is sweet" (MAG 171 spoilers) something about these lines reminds me of the flesh garden

the stranger - someone new : "electing strange perfections in any stranger i choose" for the way the stranger takes pieces, faces and names from people. also the idea of falling in love with "someone new" every day not because they're literally strangers walking down the street but because the stranger can entirely replace people you know.

the web - movement : the only connection i have here is the line "when you move i move" because it reminds me of Strung Out

the spiral - in the woods somewhere : this was one of the others i was thinking about for the hunt but there's something about the disorientated theme of the song with the fever and the line "i pray my mind be good to me" that i think applies to the spiral

the end - wasteland, baby! : honestly i could write an entire separate post on this but i'm rambling as is so go read the lyrics <3

the dark - no plan : "there will be darkness again" / "sit in and watch the sunlight fade"

the lonely - to noise making (sing) : honestly just the line "at best you'll find a little remedy / at worst the world will sing along"

the vast - sunlight : another one i struggled with. i decided to use sunlight solely because of the lines "strap the wing to me/ death trap clad happily/ wax melted, i'd meet the sea." because of the falling and the mention of the sea

the eye - from eden : "innocence died screaming, honey ask me, i should know." kind of self explanatory because Knowing things.

the slaughter - take me to church : the only vague explanation i can offer is "in the madness and soil of that sad, earthly scene" reminds me of MAG 163.

#the magnus archives #tma #tma entities #tma fears #the corruption #the buried #the extinction #the desolation #the stranger #the eye #the lonely #the end #the dark #the hunt #the slaughter #the spiral #the vast #the web #the flesh #tma spoilers

[i-am-not-a-who-i-am-a-what]

jon:  the agonies of this gore-streaked orchid are pointedly exquisite-

the tiny justin mcelroy that lives in my head: ExqUIsiTE pAIn~

#tma #the magnus archives #tma spoilers #mag 171 spoilers #it's literally one of like three sawbones quotes i know #just search 'sawbones animated' if you don't know what i'm referencing #i would link it but then it wouldn't show up in the tag :(

[frogofshadyorigin]

Omg I want to draw the flowers from the mortal garden (MAG 171) so bad, but I have an exam tomorrow and I'm bad at drawing and ahhhh is non-digital drawing even worth making and sharing.

So many questions

#tma #i want to draw #but im bad at it #dhskhdjdsb

[ghostbustermelanieking]

oddly specific memories i have of listening to tma

in honor of the finale, and because i am a sentimental asshole, i bring you this potentially uninteresting and completely pointless list. i'm gonna miss this show a lot

half my original reasoning for listening to the podcast was to motivate me to walk on the treadmill. this did not work. but i did it the first time, when i was going through the trailers and anglerfish, and i remember the room where my dad keeps the treadmill is really dark and the spooky chanting sort of freaked me out

after the treadmill, i ended up listening to the bulk of the first four episodes on the couch, and halfway through i let my oldest cat, winnie, who always lived outside (i know, i was very against actually keeping her outside) in the house. and she jumped up on the couch with me, which she literally never did. (she was very grumpy and not super affectionate.) i had that cat since i was five, and she passed last june, and i really miss her. quarantine kind of gave us the opportunity to hang out with her a lot, because we were home so much. so i'm glad these memories are kind of intersected in my mind. (below: a pic i have from that day.)

my friend sarah relistened along with me the first time around, which was extraordinarily sweet of her, and also led to some interesting interactions. for example: she forgot when it was revealed that sasha was dead, so she accidentally spoiled that for me when i asked when the others would find sasha (and i spent all of season 2 just like. anxiously vibrating over this fact). she also made this post, when i was still in like early first half of season 1, and my immediate thought was "oh no martin is dead." i hadnt even MET martin at this point

back in early quarantine, my mom had this rule that we had to do something new every day (to keep away the depression... ha ha). anyways, all i wanted to do in my free time was sit around and listen to tma (and also watch this show i was into on netflix), so i came up with some lame excuses, one of which was "i'll give myself a pedicure." this led to the memory i ultimately associate with mag 56 (trevor herbert 2) being me sitting out on our roof balcony thing, giving myself a horrendous pedicure

another time, my family wanted to go play tennis, and they brought me along and brought a hammock for me to lay in. there was this excess material from the hammock, and the sun was in my eyes, so i ended up pulling it up and over me to block the sun and creating this ridiculous hammock cocoon thing. one of the episodes i listened to that day? "tucked in."

before i ever started the show, my friend sarah stayed with me while i was pet sitting. i remember when she got there, she'd just listened to 150 and was telling me how freaky it was (she was still trying to get me into the show), and she was like "of course we're staying on a CUL DE SAC." (that was also the weekend she watched us for the first time and was very upset because i slept through the whole thing, which is scary when you're staying somewhere by yourselves.) anyways, i spent the whole show waiting for the scary cul de sac episode

while i was listening to the show for the first time, my step-dad (an artist) started painting an EYE on the door downstairs near my bathroom. a fucking EYE. he didn't finish it til i had finished the show. but still weird!!

i binged like 12 episodes in one day to finish season 4, which is not impressive at all, but it's still my personal record. i just remember staying up late in my dark bedroom (til like.... 11 i'm lame and i go to bed early), listening to like 158 & 159 & 160 and just being knocked on my ass by how good it all was... i was SUPER spoiled by this point, through my own fault, and i knew exactly what was coming, but actually experiencing it was nuts

the second week i listened live was 167, where the public release was delayed by a couple hours by accident. i spent like 20 minutes refreshing spotify, thinking it was broken, before going on tumblr and seeing what the deal was. (and 167 remains one of my favorites of s5 because i remember just going "thank god it was worth the wait.")

this one car ride where sarah and i made some of our friends listen to the first three episodes of the show. it was the middle of the night and we were just like blasting down i40 listening to anglerfish and do not open etc

the night the what the ghost episode publicly dropped was the night after my graduation, and i was sleeping out on the couch in the living room so my grandfather could sleep in a bed. it was super dark, and i am a jumpy person, and i Remember being mildly disgusted with myself because the corny sound effects were actually freaking me out. (i think i mightve actually seen something weird that night, maybe, but that's another story.)

the weekend my parents moved me into college, we couldn't get the cable in the house we were staying in, and we were all sitting around doing nothing, so i jokingly suggested starting tma with them, and they were like ok grace. my step-dad promptly fell asleep and my mom zoned out -- which is probably good, she doesn't like horror and she's super claustrophobic, so it's probably better we never got to do not open

my brief roommate in college talked about how she was into those youtube channels where people just read scary stories, so of course i was like try tma out. so she listened to the first episode on her own, and we were out one night, and she started mag 02 while i went into an ice cream place. she was into it (she kept being like open it, ya pussy) and wanted to keep listening while we went home, and even back in our room. i had only been in town for a couple weeks, and barely knew my way around, but i also didn't want to turn the gps on and be interrupted every five seconds. so i tried to find our way back on my own. it took the entirety of mag 03, and into mag 04, before i did it. so now i will forever associate across the street with all those wrong turns i took in a dark, semi unfamiliar city, trying to get back to our college without a gps

the day of the early drop for 179 was the day i moved back home from college -- a five hour drive by myself. i ended up listening to it on the final stretch of the trip, when i was super tired and it was dark and i knew it'd probably be a crazy episode. just me full blasting down i40, drinking an energy drink (which i never do) through a hole punched in the top, listening to daisy's death

186 early dropped the day after initial u.s. election day (when we still didn't know anything). my mom had set up a "watch party" in the living room with these giant air mattresses, and we all sort of spent the day crowded around the TV watching the numbers. not much of a memory, but i remember sitting on that air mattress and listening to martin's monologue in the midst of that messy week

i had a virtual therapy appointment on the day of 187's early drop, and my dad was home, so i drove to an empty parking lot to do the session in some privacy. i was trying to listen to the episode before the session started, so i ended up listening to the last half sitting in my car, in the pouring rain, just staring at my radio in shock (187 remains one of my favorite s5 episodes)

my friend sarah had just come home for winter break the day 189 dropped, and we decided to listen together, just like driving around in circles drinking coffee and listening and speculating on whether or not that was really martin

i started my relisten right after thanksgiving and was just kind of blowing through fast as i could through the whole of december. i had to go back to college to empty out my dorm, and i went to the beach after, and i ended up listening to mag 11 while just like walking around in circles in the tide pools. the closer it got to christmas, the more christmassy i wanted to keep things, so i would like. listen in the mornings and turn on one of those Netflix fireplaces and get all cozy

my other friend went with me on a mini bagel road trip in december, and he was still trying to get caught up, so we listened to mag 169, 170, and 171 on the drive home. (by this point, i was accustomed enough to s5 and smiting scenes to automatically reach for the volume controls when jude perry and jared hopworth died.)

when i relistened to mag 47, i was sitting with my cat beezus. i paused the episode to write this big long meta, so i was in a different headspace when i pressed play again. jon immediately yelled for sasha and i immediately jumped, and beezus gave me a searing glare and just got up and left

i relistened to piecemeal while i was cooking, which i thought was kind of funny and also disgusting

after christmas, i got into the habit of bringing my cat georgia into my room in the mornings, and she'd crawl under the covers with me while i listened to tma

one story i've always liked to tell from my first listen is how when i first listened to the meat arm grinder episode, my dad asked me to help him cook hamburgers later that day and explained how hamburgers are ground up (to my disgust). i hit meat grinder in my relisten and um. you'll never fucking guess what i made for lunch that day

so i had all these arbitrary rules for myself when i started tma last april, and i've broken like all of them. i started listening to tma while virtually working -- you just pull it up on your computer and it works. (i got the life scared out of me when one of my coworkers started talking over the podcast, wondering who it was that had walked into jon's office and why he wasn't reacting and why i didn't remember it.) i also started listening a lot while driving, which led to several long meta posts i wrote being typed up in a parking lot somewhere

i spent the entirety of 194 anxious-cuddling georgia. (i tried to do this for 198 and then didn't have any anxiety to cuddle her over.) i fully plan on doing this for 200, where i am sure i will need it again

my favorite place to listen to tma probably ended up being the roof room at my mom's, and unless something goes awry, this is where i will listen to the finale. (with georgia, of course.)

this list is super uninteresting, like i said, but here it is. i'm gonna miss this show a lot. i can't wait to return to it, later in life, and make all new listening memories in the process

#the magnus archives #personal #food mention tw #pet death tw

[hexfrogs]

i'm making a habit of just telling ppl shit so uh 1. i'm working my way through your playlists and i'm having the best time and Feeling Lots Of Things and 2. i only 5 minutes ago realised cutawaytulip is from mag 171 the gardener. i always liked it just never thought about where it was from

afdsggdtghu glad you like them!! Feel free to share any thoughts or feelings lol (and we don’t have to talk about my canon fucked up garden flesh url i hate the flesh it’s just jonny got me with the flower aesthetics and my love of tulips)

#😅😅😅 #I feel like it’s my brand and I can’t ever change it but idk I probably will some day #asks

[thenameless15]

i'm not sure if this has been done yet but mag 171 but after jon tells jared that martin is in fact his boyfriend helen shows up and it's just her yelling at jared for being homophobic until he simply perishes of embarrassment

#the magnus archives #tma #tma helen #jared hopworth #martin blackwood #jonathan sims #mag 171