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metannoyuhhh · 3 months

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I just saw a TikTok about the fears and motivations of TMAGP and I don’t think I can sleep until I get this out.

So the main big bad(s) of The Magnus Archives was the fears and their entities and artifacts. All the main characters and statement givers, if not the rest of the world, were effected by them. Motivated by them even.

Even if someone wasn’t experiencing one of the fears firsthand, a connection to someone who has or even just a read through of a particular statement could motivate one to do so much.

Jon had The Web first. He experienced Mr. Spider at such a young age and his fear of spiders carries on for as long as he does. Then it was The Eye, the position he presumably worked so hard for turned out to be far more sinister. He was trapped and he was paranoid and he was surrounded solely by other paranoid victims. And yet, this fear did nothing but push Jon to do more research, to find what was going on, and to fix it. He was scared and he was tearing himself and his relationships apart but he saved the world, at least once.

Martin was Lonely for a long time, making him a perfect candidate to be taken under Peters Lukas’ wing. He was isolated from the beginning, watching his family and friends drop one by one like flies. Close to the end he felt he had no choice but to give in. He probably knew it was wrong to give himself up to The Lonely but if that meant saving what was left that he cared for, he’d do it every time.

Tim was such a doting big brother who lost his other half in such a devastating and horrific way. His brother was picked off by The Stranger when his curiosity got the better of him and his best friend was murdered and replaced and he didn’t even notice for months. His fear turned to aggression and his aggression turned to vigor to research and fight to do his damn best to stop The Unknowing, and he did.

In The Magnus Archives, fear and trauma is what motivates people. It’s the rush of adrenaline that gets people moving and fighting. And while sometimes it’s also to get something they want (a better world, to save someone, revenge) there is always trauma that comes first. You cannot have the motivation and obsession shown in TMA without having experienced the fears in one way or another.

I think The Magnus Protocol is going to flip this on it’s head. Instead of fear fueling motivation, it’s going to be motivation that leads to the fear and trauma.

Gwen is a perfect example of this. She’s so dedicated to her job and so obsessed with filing things accurately so that she can work her way up to the managers role. And I think her precision and dedication to the statements and the knowledge they hold will put her straight into The Eye’s influence, or maybe even The Web.

Sam is a similar case, his curiosity about the files is going to lead him to something unsavory that he won’t be able to get out of.

In The Magnus Protocol everyone wants something. Gwen wants power, Sam wants knowledge, Colin wants to get ahold of this strange computer system, and I think Chester and Norris most all want each other.

I think Jon and Martins love for each other, their wanting to be together and still sacrificing that in hopes of bringing the world back fundamentally changed the way this world operates. They wanted to be together so they came back in the form of our little text to speech bots, they will always be together now, even if that means being trapped in a desktop from the 90’s.

The Magnus protocol is going to be about wants, and I think that is going to be apparent very soon as Colin works on the app more and as Sam dives deeper into the files and as Gwen works her way up the corporate ladder.

It may even be that these characters become entities because of their wants. Like the woman in episode two who wanted to perfect her art and herself at the cost of her physical appearance and relationships. It really wouldn’t even shock me if my the end of this all of our main characters will have succumbed to a fear in some way, except for maybe Alyce.

#my brain is so big rn #so full of thoughts #and tumblr is my only place to put them #tmagp #the magnus protocol #chester tmagp #norris tmagp #alyce dyer #colin becher #samama khalid #gwendolyn bouchard #jon sims #martin blackwood

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zecoritheweirdone · 2 years

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so..

dream smp superhero/villain aus, am i right

recently(as in, about a few hours ago at the time of first writing this), i just had the sudden urge to just.. write a whole essay about this topic. and like, who am i to not bend to the will of my own mind?

so, strap in, and prepare yourself for me rambling a bunch about how people write plot twists and identity reveals in these kinds of fics(this is gonna be mostly, if not all, positive, if i may add).

(also, quick little disclaimer, for anyone who sees this who doesn’t know of me(which, fair), yes i will be writing in italics the whole time — it’s just a thing i do. just letting y’all know now jandkdndjd.)

now, i’m sure we all know, or at least have heard of the superhero/villain fics, of which there are many, that us dream smp fic writers have latched onto. we all know of the fic that, while may not have invented it, has definitely popularized it — tommyinnit’s unbeatable method. while i myself have never read it fully — got a little bit too crack, for my personal tastes, and pure angst has never been my forte, either (but to each their own, of course!) — i cannot deny the effect it had on this fandom, and i, for one, absolutely love it.

i’m not here to simply talk about the super fics(which is what i shall be calling them from now on, for simplicity's sake) in general, however. no no, here, i want to focus on something specific, something that typically is the main thing that draws one in to this kind of fic.

that is to say, as i’m sure you already know if you’ve read the intro.. the identity reveal, as well as just plot twists in general.

now, i could really have used any sort of fandom to use as an example here, but the dream smp is the first fandom that comes to my mind when i think about this — plus, well, dsmp fics are the only kind of fics i’ve been reading recently, so.. haha, yeah.

so, let’s get this straight, right out of the bat — it’s incredibly obvious to a reader who exactly the supposedly hidden identities are supposed to be. most fic writers, and do note i say this with love, i promise; are not all that great with coming up with original names. when i read a fic, i know that siren is wilbur, that the blade/blood god is techno, and that the angel of death is philza. and while those are the most common names to see, there are more that alert one to their true identities, as well: orpheus, whippoorwill, jubilee, zepherus, crowfather..

(dude i looked so hard(not really) to find other common names ppl use for techno but i could not find any.. either they use blade/blood god or they’re using a unique name or something else that isn’t used much by people.. in which case kudos for them.)

that isn’t to say that most official superhero media have great names, though. i mean.. captain america? ironman? spider-man? batman? whole lot of blank-man’s..

but, well.. for the people who know the characters well(which, well.. if you’re reading the fic, chances are, you’re gonna know the characters), it’s pretty obvious who’s who from the get-go.

but..

that isn’t really.. the point of these fics.

while it isn’t unwelcome to be in the dark about certain people’s identities(or at the least, have semi-original names),, that’s not the point.

the point is to see how all the characters interact with each other.

and.. it’s to see how they react to the reveal.

because, while the reader may know who the character’s real identities, the characters themselves don’t. and that, folks, that’s why most of you lot read them.

if not because of their names, then the summary often clues you in on what exactly you’re reading — that is, typically, an identity reveal between either a civilian or vigilante tommy, and a hero or villain trio of techno, phil, and wilbur; with some sort of extra spice thrown in to make it unique. what that is can vary, either tommy and gang are some sort of experiments, or are otherwise wanted by a not-so-good group, or maybe a different, just-as-good(that is to say, not as good) group is causing mayhem, and everyone around them has to pick up the pieces while keeping secrets locked tight. maybe nothing is as it seems at first glance, or maybe tommy is a kid with a power who heals the wrong(or right) person.

there are a ton of ways you can take this to keep it from going stale — and even if a fic is just like those that come before it, well.. two cakes is always better than one, you know?

brief fic plugging aside, and to reiterate a previous point.. it’s the characters’ reactions that drive a fic forward, not just their secrets.

a great example of this in a popular media is in this show, i don’t know if you all would have heard of it, it’s called, uh.. lemme think real quick...... oh yes, the owl house.

jokes aside, the owl house does provide a wonderful example of what exactly i’m talking about. major spoilers for the show for the next few paragraphs, for those who haven’t watched it — which, i highly recommend doing so, for it is very good. the start is a bit weak, i will admit, but the rest of the show absolutely makes up for it. definitely gets better halfway through the first season, if not a bit earlier than that.

(warning this went of for way too long,, woops djndkdjd)

now — and forgive me if i get a couple details wrong, it’s been a hot second since i’ve seen the earlier episodes — in season two, luz, with amity’s help, comes across a book, one written by a human who was previously trapped in the demon realm, just like luz is currently — you know, after she destroyed the only portal door they had to keep belos, the show’s main antagonist, from getting his hands on it. and apparently, he was building a portal door to the human realm — and was presumably successful.

so over the next few episodes, they build up this human, named phillip wittebane, as a fairly nice and smart guy. mans is just trying to get home, you know? and as luz reads the book, she begins to idolize phillip a bit. she follows his instructions, and eventually, she manages to rebuild the portal.

it uh, fails.. but that’s a story for another day.

she goes back to the book, and finds out phillip needed to go consult this being called the collector — who is important but not to this essay — and luz assumes he needed to find him to help with the portal.

with help from her aunt, lilith, she manages to go back in time(don’t ask how that’s not important), and find phillip. they team up, and adventure to find this macguffin that’s used to summon the collector.

good news! they find the macguffin.

bad news? uh.. phillip, isn’t quite as nice as was first believed. in fact, he happily tries to sacrifice his new companions in order to get away with the macguffin.

the two manage to get away, and end up confronting phillip once more — which ends with lilith punching phillip in the face, hell yeah girl!

but once they return to their own time, well.. the show cuts back to phillip, and..

it’s revealed that he’s belos, who is, if i may reiterate, the show’s main antagonist.

fans theorized about this for a while now, but this was the first time it was confirmed.

but folks, we’re not done with the owl house talk yet!! (i promise this is relevant okay the toh talk will be over soon).

so, it was revealed to the audience that phillip was belos..

but the cast, all they know is that phillip is a bitch. for all they know, phillip was a human, and belos is a witch.

but this all changes when the episode hollow mind airs.

luz and hunter — the golden guard, belos’ right hand, and supposedly his nephew — end up traveling into belos’ mind(again don’t ask it’s not important).

they end up falling deeper into his mind, and find out all the terrible things belos has done(which absolutely crushes hunter’s mindset, as he was advocating for his uncle earlier, poor kid) — launch an attack on a witch town, claiming it was by wild witches; horrifically kill a bunch of witches with a test version of the sigil system(well, they were still alive when we last saw them, but they were in agony, and i wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up dying a while after), and literally murder his own fucking brother.

and if that wasn’t enough, turns out? he cloned said brother. and then had to kill that clone when they fell out of line. rinse and repeat for the next, oh,, four hundred fucking years.

icing on the cake? hunter is a clone — or a grimwalker, as the show calls it. which, in of itself is another great example of the fans knowing something before the characters, but if i touched in it deeper this section would be longer, and y’all probably came here for the dsmp talk,, jdnkdmidj.

anyway, luz ends up getting confronted by belos — or rather, inner belos, but if you haven’t seen the show you don’t need to worry about the difference — and this.. this is where he reveals his true identity to luz.

and were this a lesser show, this would probably be very underwhelming for fans. like, c’mon, dude, we already knew that, give us something new.

but, again.. this wasn’t a reveal for the fans. this was for the characters.

and by god, did they deliver on that.

luz, who was already kicking herself for idolizing the prick that was phillip, now has to deal with the fact that, not only was she idolizing belos, albeit his past self, but she also helped him.

so, all this to say.. plot twists don’t need to be a surprise to have a reaction.

now, i just accidentally made like half of this essay so far about owl house, which, in a thing that’s supposed to be for, well.. you know, not the owl house.. probably not a good thing?

so, well.. how about i spend the rest of this time talking about a fic that i believe handles plot twists really well — that is, both ones that a surprise to the audience, and ones that aren’t.

let’s talk about.. tommyinnit’s services for villains, vigilantes, and various other vagabonds by scorpionoesit.

that’s right, folks, this whole post was secretly an advertisement for vagabonds this whole time!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! YOU WERE FOOOOOOOOOOOOLED.

[coughs].

anyway.

in my opinion, vagabonds perfectly handles both types of twists.

for those who haven’t read it before, the TLDR of the fic is that tommy is just.. some guy, who ends up helping all sorts of people, be that civilians, vigilantes, the mafia.. even villains and heroes.

granted, we haven’t seen the latter two yet, but it’s only a matter of time!

and usually, these sorts of fics would have tommy have some sort of healing powers, like tommyinnit’s clinic for supervillans by bonesandthebees, which i linked earlier. but.. this fic doesn’t do that.

that isn’t to say fics that do have him use healing powers aren’t good — for one, have you seen tommyinnit’s clinic, or like- literally any other fic like it? and two, the last thing i want to do is talk down in writers for using tropes, even if they seem overused. once again, i’d like to bring attention to the two cakes theory.

but, i do have to admit.. it is refreshing.

i could explain his power, but tommy puts it together better than anyone could, over in the second chapter. the tldr of it, though, is information. which.. doesn’t sound all that good, until you see what he can get up to in the fic. i won’t spoil much(i say, knowing i’m going to spoil so many other things),, so if you’re really interested in knowing, and haven’t already, i’d say check out the fic!

and, just to state again, i’m gonna be going over some things that are spoilers for the fic, so either go and read the fic, or proceed with caution. and if you’ve already read the fic before, hell yeah!! take a peanut butter cookie.

now, as i’ve said before, there are some things — mainly characters — in this fic that are pretty obvious to a dream smp fan — which, as stated before, is not a bad thing.

there’s the vigilante orion, who’s stated to have a “large red cape” and a boar skull — who you can immediately pin down as techno from that description alone. and then, when tommy mentions a protégé of orion’s, who just know he’s talking about ranboo(technosensei for the winnnnn).

then we have masquerade, who, if not from his name(presumably being a reference to one of the tftsmp episodes), or his power(semi-time travel and portals), then by his outfit, we can say safely that he’s karl.

the hero marauder, even if you haven’t seen that name used for her before, is also pretty clear to be puffy, seeing that she’s stated to be dream’s mother.

and the author isn’t hiding their identities, either — in fact, they want you to know. because trust me, you’ll know when they’re attempting to hide it. or, well.. not quite hide it, but they aren’t giving any obvious clues, either.

jägerbomb is a villain that hasn’t shown up much, beyond a few mentions here or there, but even his identity can be found, if you know where to look. there’s the fact that jägerbomb is a type of cocktail, and the fact that, apparently, his power causes him to not be liked a lot by micheal(who, for those who don’t know, uh.. doesn’t have good parents, to say the least). all this to say, well.. there’s only one person in the dream smp that’s so obviously connected to alcohol. jschlatt.

schlatt, though, even through his minor appearances, can still be found out(unless we’re wrong but like.. [points at the villain jschlatt tag] we’re.. probably not). but, what if there’s a person who isn’t so obvious?

enter, geyser. or, sewage boy, as he’s more commonly known as.

at first glance, especially at the latter name, you’d probably think, like.. they’re charlie, right? which.. sounds plausible, until you take into account their power. manipulation of water — or, more specifically,, steam. which, well.. probably not charlie, then? especially considering he shows up later in chapter three, with.. you know, not steam powers.

when looking into at sewage boy’s identity by focusing purely on their powers, there’s.. not many people you could pin to them. maybe foolish, but, if anything, he’d be related to water, not steam. boomer, mayhaps? i don’t know much about him, but he’s like, some frog guy, right? again, still related to water, not steam. and while this fic was first posted a bit after he joined, i can only assume that it was planned out beforehand, so.. again, probably not him.

again, looking purely at their steam powers, or their name,, doesn’t really reveal anything about their identity.

but.. if you look deeper.. it can be done.

looking at their powers at the surface, as i’ve said before, doesn’t help much. but.. their powers isn’t just steam — or, well.. it is, but they can do more than just control steam.

specifically, in the fic, it’s said that they can, and i quote..

“..turn all the surrounding water...into steam so fast that the steam so fast that the expanding pressure could and would rupture every pipe in the vicinity with an explosion powerful enough to level every building in the area.”

and, i should mention, just a few paragraphs before that quote, he’s said to wear a trench coat.

folks, is there any sort of character that comes to mind when you think of explosions and trench coats?

that’s right, the one and only wilbur soot.

now, personally, when i first saw this theory, i shot it down real quick. knowing what we know about him and his son, fundy, back when chapter two first came out(which is it’s own can of worms), i thought it didn’t make too much sense. if wilbur wanted to protect fundy, yeah, i could see him being a villain, but.. wouldn’t it make more sense to just.. lay low?

but.. then i saw more and more evidence leaning towards it. the first two things i mentioned, as well as the fact that he is absolutely down to murder a kid because he might threaten his son’s safety — something i assume someone who is willing to become a villain would do.

plus, well.. all we know about wilbur’s power is that he needs to charge it, which.. makes sense if he needs to summon steam to use in a fight.

and then there’s the fact that both wilbur and fundy are a bit weird about sewage boy — specifically when wilbur finds out tommy and tubbo went to fight between orion and sewage boy.

“But the Lower is dangerous, Niki,” Wilbur argued. He glanced at Fundy for a second before continuing. “There was a massive villain attack just down the street last week!”

Fundy glared at him instantly. “Really, Dad? That’s your argument?”

…

“That attack was a major outlier, dude,” Tommy argued. “Besides, I was there, and I got away literally without a scratch.”

...

“You were what?” Wilbur yelped, at the same time Fundy yelled, “Wait, you guys actually went?!”

Tommy turned to Fundy, confused. “Yeah? We said we were going as we left, we weren’t exactly hiding it.”

Wilbur turned Fundy. “Why didn’t you stop them?”

Fundy turned a fierce glare on his dad. “I’m sorry, I was a little busy freaking out over why the fuck Sewage Boy was in the Lower.”

...

Wilbur suddenly looked sheepish. “F-Fair point.”

so.. yeah, i am definitely on the side of sewage boy = wilbur soot now.

(also there’s the fact that villain wilbur is literally in the tags but shhhhhh this is the more fun way)

all this to say, well.. uhh. something something plot twists.

okay i’ll be honest this deviated a little bit from my original point but uh. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

and all of that,, is just the stuff from the first two chapters. and it’s not even everything there is. we’ve got tubbo’s stuff, i’ve only kind of mentioned ranboo, micheal is lovely, clementine is the best character, tommy’s got a whole thing, and.. [gestures at fundy] yeah.

and then there’s the stuff in the third chapter. this fic isn’t even done yet we’re not even halfway done yet.

i could go on for so long about this fic. like i didn’t even get into the non-superhero/villain related foreshadowed stuff. eret’s powers,, niki’s connections.. and like, duuuuuude i could ramble so much about the fucking implications of the peanut butter cookies. was thinking about those implications since like the first week of may.

but i’ve rambled for far to long, and at this point it’s only vaguely related to my original point. so i should really wrap this up by now, hahaha.

so, tldr.... the best plot twists and identity reveals aren’t always reliant on the audience being surprised as well, character reactions are important as well; the owl house is a good show, and read vagabonds.

#zecori rambles #dream smp #my writing #<< i guess??#dude you don’t know how long it took me to format this #wrote it originally in a google doc; pasted it here; and had to redo Everything #PLUS… i had to italicize the whole post…. the work i make myself put up with /lh #tumblr mobile only lets me edit things a paragraph at a time H #anyway woops i meant to have the vagabonds bit link a bit more into my og point #but uh. i mean if you squint-#..yeah okay this entire thing was just an excuse to ramble about vagabonds jsjdkjfknffk my bad #but ngl tho; i would absolutely love to see a legitimate #-essay about the superhero/villain trope (whoops hit enter too early)#it’s genuinely neat to see how the fandom just flocked for it after unbeatable method #and the stories i’ve seen…… i won’t claim to have read all of them; or even a significant portion; but of those i have…. they are good #also also whoops the toh portion of the thing took up longer than i wanted it to jfjfkfjfif. sorry i like to talk a lot rkjdkfj #not tagging it bc they don’t need to see dsmp stuff in their place dkjdkdjdkdj #anyway i don’t expect this to get far but to those who did read it: i hope you enjoyed it. have a s’mores cupcake #also it’s 10:30 at night so i should sleep

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