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johnfulgure · 1 year

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Magnus and the Consequences of Unprocessed Trauma and Grief

As you may have guessed from the title, my opinion on Magnus as a character is that he is an example of what can happen when one does not process trauma (and grief) in a healthy manner. Additionally, I think he's intended as a warning against allowing said grief and trauma to consume you utterly. Let's try and pick this motherfucker’s brain, shall we?

Before we can really dive into it, though, we need to get an idea of the society from which Magnus comes. Magnus is a member of the ruling Reptoid caste: the Draconians. Specifically, he's a soldier and engaged to Gracelis, who is, in turn, part of the Draconian nobility. Keeping this in mind, Magnus also seems to have some connection to Emperor Coracoid. If I correctly interpreted Coracoid's line on page 908, Magnus might even be a direct blood relative of the emperor. (For what it's worth, my headcanon is that he's either Coracoid's nephew or grand-nephew.) Thus, the guy probably has a lot of sway among the Draconian elite.

If Magus is high-ranking, even among the high-ranking members of their society, it stands to reason that he has a lot to lose should he fall out of line. But Magnus revels in abusing the power he holds over others, you may say, surely there's nothing that could possibly tempt him into risking literally everything he has!

And that is where I say, Maybe. But maybe not...

What do we know about Reptoid, specifically Draconian, society so far? For one thing, they're very warlike and take great pride in that. It also looks as though marriages among the upper class are arranged. If they aren't, however, the feelings and opinions of female Draconians regarding their marriages/betrothals don't appear to be taken into account if Gracelis' situation is anything to go by. Reptoids also have an extremely strict social hierarchy that could spell certain doom for anyone caught breaching it or anyone born as a result of that disobedience.

Regarding Gracelis' impending marriage to Magnus, the fact that she's evidently stuck in this marriage implies that female Draconians as a whole don't really have much input or say about who their mates are if their parents— maybe more specifically, their fathers— and future husbands (and they will be husbands, which I'll touch on in a bit) are all for the idea. From here, we can conclude that Draconian society is not only very warlike and class-obsessed but also heavily sexist.

Sexist societies are often very fixated on gender roles and binaries. They will say, there are men and there are women and these are the only two genders, and there are certain roles for men and certain roles for women and they are rigid and will never ever overlap or change and that's it goodbye the end. They will say, men defend, women are defended. Men pursue, women are pursued. And, of course, if a society prizes men for their abilities to fight and defend and pursue, to be aggressive and not show their emotions because to be otherwise would be to compromise one’s masculinity, it wouldn't be out of the question to assume a society like this is also likely homophobic.

What does all this have to do with Magnus? Everything.

Which means it’s time to talk about the man of the hour himself.

To recap, Magnus is a (presumably) high-ranking soldier of the Draconian military, a (probable) relative of the emperor, and engaged to a noblewoman, with this potential marriage only increasing his social status. Again, the guy has a very far fall ahead of him if he fucks up. But what could possibly compel him to even want to fuck up in the first place?

Enter Longus.

Oh, Gus. Poor, poor Gus. He's a sweetheart, and his almost-love story with Brevis broke my heart. Even though I knew they weren't destined for a happily ever after, I still found myself rooting for him to get that hunk of Draconian beef, and when Brevis died, I grieved the lost potential along with Longus. The fact that Brevis never got to tell Longus he returned his feelings only makes the whole situation all the more poignant and tragic.

But I don't think Brevis was the only Draconian captivated by Longus' charm and looks.

It's never been explicitly stated in the comic, and I don't think it will be, but reading between the lines has convinced me that Magnus was/is in love with Longus. And I do think it’s love, not just lust. Let me explain why!

Firstly, the scene where Magnus finds Longus grieving Brevis is hugely telling to me because, like, let's be real here: if Magnus wanted to kill Longus, he would've done so then. His brother was dead, so there was no risk of incurring his wrath if he'd killed Longus, and the only person who would likely miss Longus would be Quazky, a member of the serving class with little to no sway in Draconian courts (if they even have a court system in place.) Magnus would quite literally have gotten away with murder if he'd killed Longus then and there. But he didn't; he even made Longus his servant, tying Longus to him and thereby ensuring, in some capacity, that he could keep him in his life. And that, I think, speaks for itself.

Of course, we can't ignore the violent attack on Longus. However, I think this is a manifestation of the trauma Magnus has endured and the damaging beliefs he has internalized living on the Draconian mothership. It's not meant to show that he's just a big piece of shit that has it out for Longus (at least not entirely lol), but rather that Magnus doesn't know how to deal with feelings and/or uncomfortable situations in a healthy way. To summarize, Magnus didn't kill Longus because, in spite of how much it obviously infuriated him, he couldn't bring himself to kill the man he loves. Longus was banished, but he was alive.

The next piece of evidence is maybe a bit more blatant, though it also comes with some implications you may not catch immediately.

He straight-up calls Longus "baby" here. I don't know about you, but I have a sneaking suspicion this isn't something Magnus just says to people. He's openly flirting with Longus, and there are probably two options here regarding Longus’ reaction: either 1) Longus simply doesn't think he's being serious or is otherwise mocking him, or 2) he’s still reeling from the loss of Brevis and being exiled from the mothership, and thus doesn't pick up on Magnus’ intentions.

On this page, Longus also mentions that sometimes, after a kill, Magnus would invite “comrades” that he wanted to impress to eat with him. (Part of me can’t help but wonder, though, if some of them were less “comrades” and more “one-night stands”.)

Here, however, it looks like they're alone, which is why Magnus said what he did on this particular page. He's offering Longus the chance to eat with him. On the surface, this may not seem like a big deal, but when you consider the fact that Draconians are obsessed with hierarchy, that Terrans are servants and should be treated as such, it becomes a lot more apparent why Magnus might have said this when it was just him and Longus.

Terrans are servants, and the Draconians are their superiors. It wouldn't surprise me if their society, besides all the other bullshit, also has strict rules about meals and who eats when. If I had to guess, I'd say that Draconians eat first and separately from Terrans, who are then given the scraps and tidbits from their masters' meals.

With this in mind, Magnus' offer to Longus doesn't seem so trivial now. He's inviting Longus to eat with him, i.e. essentially treating him as a sort of equal. I highly doubt Magnus would've done that if his feelings for Longus were purely carnal in nature.

Have I got you onboard the Magnus/Longus (Lagnus? Mongus?) ship yet? Good, because now I’m about to smash it all to pieces and explain why it didn’t work out!

There's one character I haven't really discussed in detail that's the main drive for Magnus doing what he does in the story, and that is, of course, his brother, Brevis. Magnus loved him, there's no doubt in my mind about that, but I also think their relationship was highly complicated and messy.

Brevis was Magnus' younger brother, so right away, Magnus was at risk of developing "eldest child syndrome": as Brevis' older brother, he would've been expected to set an example for him and live up to their parents' expectations, which was likely becoming a mighty, fearsome warrior. Of course, living in a warlike society, Brevis would have at least been expected to foster a taste for battle and bloodshed, if not rise through the ranks of the military. This being said, from what little we saw of Brevis, it's clear that he never reveled in violence the way Magnus did/does. Brevis was able to stay true to himself and not fall into the pit of toxic masculinity that his society demanded of him. But I'm left to wonder: how? How could he remain so compassionate in a world that was the complete opposite?

Which brings us back to Magnus and the "eldest child" matter. We can assume that Magnus felt pressured to give Brevis someone to look up to, but maybe there was more to this potential desire to become the "perfect soldier" than just providing Brevis with a strong role model. Brevis was kind and sensitive, which are certainly not traits that Draconian society values. In fact, they're traits that likely would've been beaten out of Brevis (maybe literally) as soon as possible unless nobody ever really picked up on them. I don't think it's too far of a stretch to suggest that Magnus gave everything he had and then some to turn himself into a killing machine to have all the attention focused on him so no one could see Brevis' "un-Draconian" characteristics. He hardened himself, and in doing so, he allowed his baby brother to remain soft.

We didn't see much of Brevis, but based on what we did see, I got the sense that he was much more in tune with his feelings and emotions than Magnus was and is. This self-awareness, along with his kind nature and good looks, is probably what initially drew Longus to him. I imagine Longus met Magnus around the same time he met Brevis: he may even have met Magnus first, depending on when Gracelis got engaged to Magnus and when she and Quazky became involved.

Maybe Magnus fell in love with Longus first, but because of trauma resulting from internalized homophobia and deep emotional repression, was unable to properly express his feelings, let alone act on them. This left Longus all ripe for the picking, so to speak, to be swept off his feet by Brevis, and Magnus, who might have destroyed his childhood to save his brother from being chewed up and spat out by the world, could do nothing but watch on.

For all the love Magnus had and undoubtedly still does have for his baby brother, I think he also despised and resented him: in Magnus’ mind, Brevis stole what should have been his. But when Brevis died, Magnus realized he would never get the chance to apologize to him, that the person he sacrificed everything to protect ended up dying anyway, and this sent him spiraling into a hole filled with self-destruction and violence that I don't think he'll ever crawl out of. He doesn't see Rose as a living reminder of Brevis' compassion but as a dark memento of what he lost and can never get back.

Magnus is alone— and he is alone; what he has with Roger cannot be called "friendship"— drowning in a sea of grief and heartbreak, and while I understand his trauma is in no way an excuse for the way he's acted, more than anything, I feel sorry for him. There is nothing left in him but bitterness and sorrow and rage, because in his society, to show your feelings is to show weakness. He was never able to truly process the loss of his brother and the “loss” of Longus, and it’s destroyed him. Whatever way his story ends, part of me will always wish that things turned out differently for him.

#this took me like 3 hours to write I'M SO TIRED WHY DOES THIS STUPID LIZARD HAVE SO MANY FUCKIN' PROBLEMS #trying human #magnus #eh might as well tag longus and brevis too #longus #brevis #THERE I'M DONE I'M GONNA GO WATCH THE X FILES NOW #th meta #please feel free to let me know if you'd like anything tagged #I know I joked about it in a previous tag but Magnus really is up to his horns in trauma and it does make me sad

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