Hi it's me again

(@darkgreystorm)

(@sp1d3r0v3rl0rd)

honestly yeah, young gertrude accidentally binds herself to agnes and goes Nope not doing that again 👍

-"It Is Polite To Knock", first and foremost. and there's a running theme of antagonistic forces knocking. eg, Jane Prentiss never attempting to force her way in to Martin's house, but standing outside and knocking for days on end, Natalie knocking politely on Kathy's door when she tries to recruit her to the Dark cult and never barging in, etc etc

-the Distortion doesn't tend to force people to enter, it waits for people to come in on their own

-Mike Crew's "I was trying so hard to be polite"-- and his attempt was pretty solid! he was legitimately polite up until then, and would have probably continued being polite if Jon didn't keep doubling down

-Peter Lukas cares about proper workplace management and takes actual workplace suggestions from his employees. And agrees to do fewer murders.

-the ONE thing Jonah-Elias is famous for is apologizing. Imagine the most evil thing you do in your life is apologizing for the deception

THIS!! the association between politeness and danger!! the way that friendliness is a warning sign for intended harm!!

This is particularly relevant since both Elias and Peter were actively grooming Jon and Martin and deceiving them.

I just want to add a note about doorways and knocking too: in a lot of traditional folklore, Fae or vampires or demons or other spirit creatures cannot cross a threshold without an invitation—they cannot break the barrier of a home’s sanctity or harm the humans within without the (perhaps unknowing or unwilling) consent of the human.

This folkloric idea of permission goes both ways too, with humans needing to acquire it before crossing the thresholds of things like faerie rings, or else inviting harm on themselves.

It definitely feeds into TMA’s folkloric horror feel that this concept is prevalent with a lot of avatars (especially trickster types like the Distortion).

wish I had something smart and clever to say about all this but I don't, so I'm just gesturing wildly at your whole commentary and forcing everyone to look at it. Yes to all of that. they. yeah. it's about how they have deniability. it's about how they make it hard for people to judge if they're overreacting to what's going on around them, because the people in positions of power are so calm and level headed and put together.

it's "don't be so dramatic jon". it's how when sasha came to elias about the worms, he was like 'oh? apologies, I thought jon was overreacting.'

it's about the antagonists being in a position where they can follow social protocols and present themselves as dignified, while everyone else is scrambling to survive and coming off as rude and irrational in the process.

it's. Ouuhhhh,. I mean. that's just how life goes. this isn't anything revolutionary. that's just how life is. but it's not very common to find antagonists who 1) don't get angry, 2) maintain politeness, and 3) aren't personally tormenting anyone (as in, it's not like they're maintaining politeness while torturing people. the antagonists in tma are maintaining politeness while taking a step back and letting people torment themselves. melanie stabs jon. daisy stabs jon. elias sits in his office and watches it all go down)

it's the class divide. Im absolutely losing it over the class divide. of course the lower class is turned against itself whilst the upper class doesn't have to lift a finger to keep the power imbalance the way it is. idk what I'm saying at this point.

honestly I'm so often caught up in my trauma-adjacent read of tma I miss out on the scathing political metaphors like this. but it makes SO much sense!! that the ones in power actively take advantage of the ones without power to doom themselves into destroying each other.

honestly what isn't tma about. it's got everything. it's about the importance of having a support system, it's about the value of trusting others and being trusted by others, it's about the importance of making decisions and moving forwards, regardless of whether or not you make the right or wrong decision, because you'll only know what option is "right" with the benefits of hindsight. you never know what butterfly effect your choices will have, but that's no excuse to freeze up and not make your choices in the first place

-"It Is Polite To Knock", first and foremost. and there's a running theme of antagonistic forces knocking. eg, Jane Prentiss never attempting to force her way in to Martin's house, but standing outside and knocking for days on end, Natalie knocking politely on Kathy's door when she tries to recruit her to the Dark cult and never barging in, etc etc

-the Distortion doesn't tend to force people to enter, it waits for people to come in on their own

-Mike Crew's "I was trying so hard to be polite"-- and his attempt was pretty solid! he was legitimately polite up until then, and would have probably continued being polite if Jon didn't keep doubling down

-Peter Lukas cares about proper workplace management and takes actual workplace suggestions from his employees. And agrees to do fewer murders.

-the ONE thing Jonah-Elias is famous for is apologizing. Imagine the most evil thing you do in your life is apologizing for the deception

THIS!! the association between politeness and danger!! the way that friendliness is a warning sign for intended harm!!

This is particularly relevant since both Elias and Peter were actively grooming Jon and Martin and deceiving them.

I just want to add a note about doorways and knocking too: in a lot of traditional folklore, Fae or vampires or demons or other spirit creatures cannot cross a threshold without an invitation—they cannot break the barrier of a home’s sanctity or harm the humans within without the (perhaps unknowing or unwilling) consent of the human.

This folkloric idea of permission goes both ways too, with humans needing to acquire it before crossing the thresholds of things like faerie rings, or else inviting harm on themselves.

It definitely feeds into TMA’s folkloric horror feel that this concept is prevalent with a lot of avatars (especially trickster types like the Distortion).

wish I had something smart and clever to say about all this but I don't, so I'm just gesturing wildly at your whole commentary and forcing everyone to look at it. Yes to all of that. they. yeah. it's about how they have deniability. it's about how they make it hard for people to judge if they're overreacting to what's going on around them, because the people in positions of power are so calm and level headed and put together.

it's "don't be so dramatic jon". it's how when sasha came to elias about the worms, he was like 'oh? apologies, I thought jon was overreacting.'

it's about the antagonists being in a position where they can follow social protocols and present themselves as dignified, while everyone else is scrambling to survive and coming off as rude and irrational in the process.

it's. Ouuhhhh,. I mean. that's just how life goes. this isn't anything revolutionary. that's just how life is. but it's not very common to find antagonists who 1) don't get angry, 2) maintain politeness, and 3) aren't personally tormenting anyone (as in, it's not like they're maintaining politeness while torturing people. the antagonists in tma are maintaining politeness while taking a step back and letting people torment themselves. melanie stabs jon. daisy stabs jon. elias sits in his office and watches it all go down)

it's the class divide. Im absolutely losing it over the class divide. of course the lower class is turned against itself whilst the upper class doesn't have to lift a finger to keep the power imbalance the way it is. idk what I'm saying at this point.

-"It Is Polite To Knock", first and foremost. and there's a running theme of antagonistic forces knocking. eg, Jane Prentiss never attempting to force her way in to Martin's house, but standing outside and knocking for days on end, Natalie knocking politely on Kathy's door when she tries to recruit her to the Dark cult and never barging in, etc etc

-the Distortion doesn't tend to force people to enter, it waits for people to come in on their own

-Mike Crew's "I was trying so hard to be polite"-- and his attempt was pretty solid! he was legitimately polite up until then, and would have probably continued being polite if Jon didn't keep doubling down

-Peter Lukas cares about proper workplace management and takes actual workplace suggestions from his employees. And agrees to do fewer murders.

-the ONE thing Jonah-Elias is famous for is apologizing. Imagine the most evil thing you do in your life is apologizing for the deception