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Post by Oneiros on Jun 7, 2018 8:39:43 GMT
OR: "Dancing in the dark"And Tim emerges from the shadows to answer the very long-standing question of just why he left publishing to come work at the Magnus Institute. I think this is a question that's been kicking around since the latter half of Season 1 in some form or another  And the answer is just as tragic as you'd imagine. So, we have Tim's backstory now. Plus we find out the others haven't exactly been going out of their way to keep him company. Coupled with an HR visit from Elias, and we've got one troubled young guy on the edge... Anyone care to hazard a guess as to what he might do? And just how long a shadow does Joseph Grimaldi cast on this tale? How does this feted clown of the Victorian stage - one designed by Robert Smirke it so transpires - play along with the Circus, and is it the 'real' Grimaldi, or just a Stranger's puppet? Or does it really matter whose face the terror wears?
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Post by Brave Sir Robin on Jun 7, 2018 10:49:20 GMT
OR: "Dancing in the dark" Again, an excellent alt-title. Plenty of lines from that song take on eerie meanings in the world of Magnus... "I check my look in the mirror... Wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face!" |
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akelis
Member of the Order of the Quill
Constantly Failing Saving Throws Against Gravity
Posts: 102 
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Post by akelis on Jun 7, 2018 14:56:11 GMT
RQ and Magnus Archives, once again making me question my design choices while in the model of a remodel. Because of this episode I may have to eliminate the harlequin mask from my honeymoon before it goes on the wall over my standing mirror. White face with large black diamonds under the empty eye sockets.
Poor Tim. I feel like his isolation hasn't been undeserved at times, but he's clearly not in a good place after this either. Let that be a lesson in not keeping your reasons only to yourself when horrific weirdness is the office normal. It's bound to make office holiday parties less awkward at least.
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Post by duckpond on Jun 7, 2018 18:31:14 GMT
so, it turns out I didn't want Tim's backstory after all, please, take it back. And for some reason I'm more distressed by the idea that Tim doesn't actually like architecture than by the statement content itself?
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lego
Member of the Order of the Quill
Posts: 127
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Post by lego on Jun 7, 2018 20:01:37 GMT
I was actually in tears by the end of this episode. I dont normally tear up at magnus, but this was just the right amount of longing and missing to make me cry
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amethystend
Alphabet Squire
In the age of evening calm.
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Post by amethystend on Jun 7, 2018 22:21:04 GMT
I'm so torn now.
I really want Tim to get more involved with Jon's crusade against The Unknowing. Maybe working together against something as terrifying as The Unknowing will help patch up Tim and Jon's relationship (I hesitate to call it friendship).
But I really don't want Elias to murder Tim.
Damn it all.
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Post by tabbyclaw on Jun 7, 2018 23:41:01 GMT
Oh, Tim. I was not expecting him to break my heart, which I am aware shows a deep naivete on my part. And my new-to-the-show friend and I just recently listened to the episode with the first mention of Robert Smirke, and 'you should have seen Tim's face when I told him.' I've been wondering when and how that would come up again (and assuming it and his purported interest in architecture would connect to the Spiral), and all the air went out of my lungs when he said Smirke's name this time. I would like to go back to just wondering now, thanks. And then someone else reminded me of that throwaway line in "Strange Music" about Tim reading articles on Russian and Polish traveling circuses, and augh. I love this show.
Not only has Tim gotten a million times sadder with this episode, he has now shockingly dethroned Martin as 'character I am most worried is going to die or worse very soon.' Congratulations? At least you got to break the podcast's "family-friendly" seal before you go.
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liraven
Right Honourable Poster
Posts: 68
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Post by liraven on Jun 10, 2018 2:51:50 GMT
The stone audience, unnatural clown, and skin ripping away like a tablecloth are fantastically creepy but not what unnerved me most about this episode. It's thinking about the dancer and clown, silent in the dark at their places on the stage, waiting for Tim to arrive. Horror show for one, no ticket required.
Not only has Tim gotten a million times sadder with this episode, he has now shockingly dethroned Martin as 'character I am most worried is going to die or worse very soon.' I feel the same way, though I was more worried about Melanie than Martin after her repeated assassination attempts on Elias. Please don't die Tim! We'll miss out on gems like: "Ooh, terrifying! Surely only magic could have let you see so deep inside my very soul." Side note: Before their employment at the Institute, Jon encountered the supernatural as a child, Tim through his brother, and Melanie and Basira through their work. Does that mean Martin had a personal experience too? There's the unfinished letter to his mother Jon discovered back in Season 2 we never found out more about. On second thought, I don't want to know. Maybe unanswered questions will somehow shield him from death.
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julian
Alphabet Squire
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Post by julian on Jun 12, 2018 1:57:00 GMT
"There's the unfinished letter to his mother Jon discovered back in Season 2 we never found out more about. On second thought, I don't want to know. Maybe unanswered questions will somehow shield him from death."
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< *** >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
THAT is another thing that has haunted me. There are so often 'loose ends' that are most definitely intentional, and although i KNOW that the writers must have some thread of continuity attached, I sometimes fear that they will forget that they left us hanging and never get back to the original train of thought!
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akelis
Member of the Order of the Quill
Constantly Failing Saving Throws Against Gravity
Posts: 102
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Post by akelis on Jun 12, 2018 14:02:56 GMT
OR: "Dancing in the dark" Again, an excellent alt-title. Plenty of lines from that song take on eerie meanings in the world of Magnus... "I check my look in the mirror... Wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face!" MY grandfather worked with the late Frank Sinatra both in NY and Vegas for a while. Because of that I was raised being more familiar with his work than many since it was what my mother and grandparents listened to much of the time. This is a version of the 1931 song "Dancing in the Dark" that he sang that may be equally or more terrifying if you take lyrics out of context: Dancing in the dark 'til the tune ends We're dancing in the dark and it soon ends We're waltzin' in the wonder of why we're here Time hurries by, we're here and we're gone Lookin' for the light of a new love To brighten up the night, I have you love An' we can face the music together Dancing in the dark What though love is old What though song is old Through them we can be young Hear this heart of mine Wailin' all the time Dear one, tell me that we're one Lookin' for the light of a new love To brighten up the night, I have you love An' we can face the music together Dancing in the dark, dancing in the dark Dancing in the dark |
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julian
Alphabet Squire
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Post by julian on Jun 12, 2018 19:15:03 GMT
akelis - awesome!!! And yes, chilling to the bone in this context!! And just wondering - what if THE darkness - the same darkness that shrouds all of us every night, the darkness that we walk in and drive in and illuminate with our manmade lights - what if the darkness is, ITSELF, an entity... neither benign nor malignant but ever present and ever observant... waiting for something that we cannot fathom or even intuit? Is Darkness MORE than a mere absence of light ? Just wondering...
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akelis
Member of the Order of the Quill
Constantly Failing Saving Throws Against Gravity
Posts: 102
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Post by akelis on Jun 13, 2018 14:20:35 GMT
Darkness is sentient. And predatory. And hungry.
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Post by KNessJM on Jun 13, 2018 15:38:10 GMT
Listening to this episode prompted some Googling which taught me that Robert Smirke and Joseph Grimaldi were real people. Previously I had assumed that they were just these mythical characters in the Magnus-verse. Turns out that a lot of little details are drawn from real life, which makes these stories even creepier. Makes me wonder what other parts of these stories might actually be real....
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Post by drrandy on Sept 28, 2018 12:57:56 GMT
THAT is another thing that has haunted me. There are so often 'loose ends' that are most definitely intentional, and although i KNOW that the writers must have some thread of continuity attached, I sometimes fear that they will forget that they left us hanging and never get back to the original train of thought! On the other hand, that's life - we don't always get all the answers we want. Leaving some things unanswered adds to the verisimilitude. Then again, Jonny obviously plays the LOOOOONG game with his plotting, considering that we're paying off stuff from episode 1, three years later. |
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And the answer is just as tragic as you'd imagine.
