#archivist!basira

the daisy angst alone would be insane. Elias would need to chain her to a radiator when Basira is off getting marked.

For the sake of not using 'jon dies' too much, lets say in this case that Jon, Martin, and Melanie all gouge out their eyes and start an emo band or something.

That leaves Basira and a VERY broken daisy behind. Basira is a bit of a gertrude robinson, in that even though she's aware that the institute is evil she still believes she specifically can use it for good. Elias being in prison gives her the illusion that she the one with the power in their dynamic, which makes her uniquely equipped to reduce harm. she's in denial about herself and her own biases, hiding behind pragmatism the same way Jon did skepticism in season 1.

I think her marks would be... different. I don't think she'd be a victim the way Jon was. Instead it would need to be her accepting new horrors as a 'necessary evil'. One by one she can see the practicality of all the powers, develop a respect for them, and become increasingly frustrated by humans and their refusal to see the bigger picture.

Just as she was willing to enable daisy, Basira would ally herself to different avatars so long as they aided her in stopping rituals. It would be a slower decline than it was with Jon. Basira would genuinely struggle with some of the things she'd need to accept. But Elias would know how to play on her denial, and more specifically, her fear that all of this might have been for nothing.

But thinking about it, Basira really would be a smart way to go. This is all hypotheticals, but I think Basira, in the event of an unfortunate ending for Jon, would be a good successor to pick, though, maybe, maybe not Elias’ end-of-the-world plan.

She doesn’t have as much drive toward knowledge and understanding out as Jon does, Basira still has a desire to learn more about what’s out there, if it means ensuring the safety of those around her. Basira is very resourceful and logical when under pressure, reasoning her way out of the Unknowing, the exact opposite of logic and reason. She helped hold down the fort while Jon was in a coma and they were getting attacked by other entities, notably Jared Boneturner. Basira staged an impromptu surgery with Jon without proper supplies, and helped to take down Maxwell Rainer and his cult while Sectioned.

Also, her pragmatism is rather reminiscent of Gertrude Robinson’s, with Basira’s view on Jon ending up being that he either stop forcefully taking statements, or she kill him like the rest of the monstrous avatars. Also, after Melanie’s forced surgery and Daisy’s rescue from the coffin, Basira understands that the job of protecting the Archives is on her, and isn’t afraid to say this and step up to the plate. She sees her coworkers as they are and adjusts to their capabilities.

You could say that a difference between her and Gertrude is that Basira cares about her team, but as we learned, Gertrude cared for her own at first too. But after years at the Institute, Gertrude became pretty jaded and disillusioned, not beating around the bush when something needed to be done, a quality somewhat seen in Basira.

Anyway, the whole point of this is that Basira would probably make a pretty effective Archivist if Jon has died after season 3, and what I said as a joke, I stand by now.