Statement Begins (Magnus Archives listen-along)

[erikavonkaiser]

After listening to the fourth episode it is more apparent the third is setting up greater worldbuilding which is, fine, I guess

I'm having the same issue I have w/ WTNV which is I enjoy just the gimmick, monster-of-the-week part, and once it becomes a straight up audio drama with multiple characters and stuff I lose interest

I totally get why these things become that, it's unsustainable otherwise, but I'm like ehhhhh I don't know if I want to invest in 800 episodes of characters I will have trouble keeping straight

[erikavonkaiser]

For a person who has written two entire episodes of an audio drama, I sure don't like them very much, do I

[knightofcups]

I am finally home, and finally energetic enough to reply to stuff.

First, @Fetian

(Also Fae Vibes -- I know we learn more about the coffin and the entities behind it later but don't remember those details, but for right now I choose to believe that this is a situation where John (original coffin-owner) was in Josh's position, knew how it was Supposed to end, and used Josh to try to avoid meeting that end. Because Josh defied convention and didn't open pandora's box, though, John failed to uphold the new deal and so reverted to the old deal, as it were)

I didn't consider till I read this that John was dragged into the box against his will, and was trying to get the other guy to take over that "debt."

It makes sense, given the screaming and him not coming back out, but I'd actually thought that whoever was screaming was whoever was in the box, and John was an Avatar of [the power in question] and so was doing something fucked up to the person already in there, and then going wherever Avatars go when they have just done a thing.

I thought this before I knew more story stuff, too-- that John was doing bad shit to whoever was in the box, then either going into it himself, or just vanishing or whatever. He didn't come across to me as worried or upset enough to have a bad fate waiting for him.

That said, though, I think your reading makes way, way more sense.

@erikavonkaiser

I'm having the same issue I have w/ WTNV which is I enjoy just the gimmick, monster-of-the-week part, and once it becomes a straight up audio drama with multiple characters and stuff I lose interest

For what it's worth, if I recall correctly the bulk of the episode remains the statement/spooky story/a bit of follow up for at least the full first season, maybe more, with the external story hanging out in the frame for a decent length of time. There's still a lot of meta plot/outside story happening, but you also get the nice monster of the week story in there. I /may/ be misremebering this, or conflating it with other shows though, so do not quote me ; )

You also reminded me what Ep 3 is. I remember really liking this one, but wanting more (and not being satisfied with the more they eventual gave me. It /did not/ go where I thought it would as the story continues.) Going to try to listen to that one today or tomorrow morning, and write up thoughts.

[Fetian]

4: Across the Street

When I saw the title, I remembered I didn't like this one, and then as I was listening to it I found it kind of eh, and then I found it a bit compelling, and then I ended up not really liking it. I think it belabours itself too much and could have been tighted up a lot, and I also think it's trying to shove in too much set-up for too many things that don't pay off in this episode. In terms of acting, Sims is clearly reading from a script, which still kind of works since the character is documenting someone else's writing, but he doesn't have the spontaneity he needs down yet. On the whole I'd give this one like a four out of ten, not much else to say on it.

[Fetian]

I guess it's a kind of storytelling decision of is this the character of the narrator reading these letters as he, himself, would read a factual statement, or are we kinda slow-fading into a suspense of disbelief where he briefly becomes the letter-writing character for storytelling purposes

I think the latter would be more interesting but that's personal preference!

I am pretty sure they either are actively going for this from the start or they end up going for it, there's some Spooky Stuff with the character like, going into a fugue state while reading the statements or something, not being fully in control of himself

The tl;dr of it was "a man acts weird and then gets replaced by a creature but no one really notices" and it needed more compelling writing or a stronger premise imho, I like not over-explaining things (was his antique table....haunted? Idk) but this was a bit watery

After listening to the fourth episode it is more apparent the third is setting up greater worldbuilding which is, fine, I guess

Yeah same, the third episode is really early to want the audience to trust you to pay off this stuff down the line, we don't have the context to know what to expect for longer-term tidbits like the table &c. There was also A Lot of focus on the table specifically for something that we don't learn more about for, let me double-check, 30-70 more episodes

I'm having the same issue I have w/ WTNV which is I enjoy just the gimmick, monster-of-the-week part, and once it becomes a straight up audio drama with multiple characters and stuff I lose interest

I totally get why these things become that, it's unsustainable otherwise, but I'm like ehhhhh I don't know if I want to invest in 800 episodes of characters I will have trouble keeping straight

There's a specific point where it switches from monster-of-the-week to Jonathan-Sims'-bad-time-adventure and I remember it being A Thing that the format changed like that. There's framing with other characters doing things and talking with Sims about it, but the episodes remain focused on 'this is the statement being documented' as far as I remember

That said you will absolutely have trouble keeping the recurring characters in the statements straight

He didn't come across to me as worried or upset enough to have a bad fate waiting for him.

That's fair evidence against it -- the narrator at that point is being so brusque that I just brushed off a lack-of-reaction from John as a lack-of-reported-reaction, but the behaviours described don't really make sense for someone who Doesn't want to go open the coffin and to describe him as 'impressed' and not anything else, well, that would be bad writing if the anything else is something notable like 'resigned' or 'afraid'. It just didn't occur to me that the screaming-and-missing-John would be anything But John getting fucked up by whatever was in the coffin

do not quote me ; )

[knightofcups]

Across the Street

I'm the outlier here in that I like this one quite a bit, my main criticism is

I also think it's trying to shove in too much set-up for too many things that don't pay off in this episode.

^ that.

Or, rather, it's setting up too many things that don't need to be together, and deserve their own episodes. Especially since there are several different... factions, I guess, at work here which while they do connect, are connected in a way that feels... forced, here.

I think I like this one because the narrator's motivations are interesting to me, and her... the fact that she doesn't like Graham, but also he's not like... inherently scary? Creepy, sure, but in such a very normal "this guy is a bit of a socially inept loser" way.

I /wanted/ more about the notebooks. That was the part for me that caught my interest, and I was hoping would be the payoff. I feel like there are like... three specific Scary Things happening-- notebooks, table, creature.

ohhhh, you know what it is? I feel like he becomes the.... horror story Mary Sue? That's a bad description. But /all/ this stuff is happening ot him. In light of the eventual stuff that happens, I can see how it fits and how it works, but even if this were way, way later, I still wouldn't like it.

Spoilers for later plot, I doubt y'all care, but just in case.

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I don't really think they're trying to set too much up, so much as have too many interesting ideas that they want in there, but didn't wait for.

I know I'm laying out all these reasons I /didn't/ like it, even though I said I did. I did! I found it entertaining, and interesting. My first listen, it all just worked for me because I didn't have context for anything. If anything, I like it less now, simply because I can see what it's setting up. Without knowing that, it was just a fun story to listen to

[knightofcups]

Also, this episode had 10 minutes and like 23 seconds of ads total for roughly 20 minutes content. I am even more comitted than I used to be to never buy products advertised by this show.

[knightofcups]

I moved on to the next episode, so lemme put up the summary, and my thoughts, and then I'll wait for y'all.

Episode 4 (which may actually be 5 but the title says 4)
Page Turner

SUMMARY!
Guy finds creepy book with creepy woodcuts in a thrift store. It's in Latin and he doesn't read Latin, but it's probably worth some money, so he buys it. There's a bookplate in the front that says "From the Library of Jurgen Leitner"

Surprising no one, creepy book starts making him feel weird, and then weirder. Starts feeling dizzy, smelling ozone, etc. He starts doing research, to see if he can figure out more about the book and/or Leitner (whose name I may be misspelling.) He finds one bookshop that actively bought Leitners, and ends up going over there.

Creepy old woman with no hair, covered in tattoos in a language he can't read lets him in, looks at his book, shows him /her/ book, which can make bones appear. Says her son is the one that handles the purchasing. Guy gets creeped out and leaves.

A bit later, the son shows up, buys the book from him, and burns it in the guy's apartment trashcan. In looking up who the hell the son was, he finds out that the old lady got murdered like 5 years earlier, said son was on trial for it, but acquitted.

Narrator Jon then says if there are more Leitners out there, the world is in trouble.

---

I liked this episode well enough the first time I heard it, but like it less on each subsequent listen.

It's /also/ trying to get a ton of things on screen in one episode, and I think it's more successful at it that the previous ep was. These things all feel /connected/ whereas the bits in the previous felt thrown together kind of at random. We're following a cohesive narrative about this creepy book from beginning to end, and the people and things that turn up in the telling of the story all fit. Plus, I'm a sucker for books that Do Horror Shit.

I do think that like @fetian said in some of his previous commentary, they lean a little too hard on some things, and repeat stuff a bit too often, in this case, the lichtenburg scars get shoved in our face more than they really need to.

I am a huge fan of Mary Keye, and love when we get to finally hear her story and what her deal is, and I love her even more after we know what she's all about. I'm not as into Jared (except the silliness with the two different Jareds and the Gerrard thing, but that's meta and not actualy in the narrative or about it (I looked this up. His name is officially Gerrard per the wiki. Damn retconning : ) ) but I don't have a strong /dislike/ of his story line.

I would listen to a show that was /entirely/ about Leitner books, though I think this was a very mild introduction to them.

The thing I /don't/ like is that I am completely disinterested in the main storyline this episode is kicking off.

Metaplot series spoilers sort of

► Show Spoiler

The Vast is the power that is least interesting to me. I don't really /get/ the Fear Of Big Shit so much. They manage to get me on board with some of the underwater ones-- I can almost feel where that terror is coming from-- but by and large I just... Maybe it's that I've not really been in the presence of something truly Big before. But a lot of what they talk about is open sky and vast expanses of ground or water, and I really /like/ that. I love the feeling of wide plains and endless sightlines, so it just doesn't hit me like /horror/.

I'm not particularly into the Vast's avatars, neither the Fairchilds nor Michael Crew do anything for me.

The episodes around the above's storylines are the ones I tend to skip. Those and the ones that are historical war stories.

So, in general, I enjoy this episode, but care very little about several of the primary stories that come out of it.