Magnus Archives Relisten 7, MAG 7 The Piper, Spoiler-Free Version

This is a spoiler-free analysis of Magnus Archives MAG 7, The Piper. One of the best-written episodes in the series. Pure poetry.

Facts: Statement of Seargent Clarence Berry regarding his time serving with Wilfred Owen during World War One. Statement given November 6, 1922.

Statement Notes: "Hey you know Wilfred Owen? The famous poet Wilfred Owen? The guy whose poems you had to read in class Wilfred Owen? Yeah, what if he was possessed? Wouldn't that be fucked?" -Jonny Sims at the Rusty Quill pitch meeting.

In all seriousness, this episode is incredible. The description of the three faces of war is so detailed, yet so brief. I want to take a little time to explore each face and set of arms.

The First Face: "One to play its pipes on scrimshaw bone." This line is apparently where the title "The Piper" comes from. As the story goes on, both Berry and Owen describe hearing strange music. This seems to be the "song of war" that the Piper plays, signaling a truly gruesome battle. This song doesn't necessarily warn off or compel the soldiers, but seems to do a bit of both. A war song doesn't just encourage a soldier to fight, but also warns an enemy. Wilfred Owen believes this being is The War itself, therefore its song should encourage violence from all sides, but also instill a deep fear in every soldier.

To me, this face fits with the hand raised "in a crisp salute." This hand and face prevent a false majesty and honor to war. This face tells the soldiers fighting is good, they will be rewarded, they will be valued. But of course, underneath its muddied green coat, all that the War has is a scarred and bloody body. "Nothing remained but the wounds themselves."

The Second Face: I've chosen to associate the face that "screamed its dying battle cry" with "the arms gripping blades and guns and spears." This face seems to represent the adrenaline violence and war brings, even as it kills you. I've always thought adrenaline not as good or bad, but creating more tangible and real emotions than other things can.

The Third Face: "One that would not open its mouth, for when it did blood and sodden soil flowed out like a waterfall." I associate this face with the hands begging for mercy. Clarence Berry is under 22 when this statement takes place, and (the real) Wilfred Owen would be between 22-24. These are practically children. They are going to die. They are going to die before their time, before it is fair. They are going to beg for mercy. This is the nature of war, and so is the nature of The War.

There is an implication that The War kept Owen alive so he could create poetry that glorifies The War. I wonder if this is out of ego--it wanted to be seen as glorious and beautiful--or simply to drag the battle on longer. If it seems inspirational, it will continue.

Overall I think this episode demonstrates the tentative balance World War One held between being "the writer's war" and "the technological front." The war represented a shift in humanity's ability to be brutal, but also spawned art and innovation. This doesn't justify the violence that occurred, but rather the acts of destruction and creation during the war existed in tandem, like two sides of a coin.

Character Notes: I know that Jon was speaking through the statement when he was making fun of Owen's poetry, but the idea of Jon being a cannon poetry hater is too funny for me to ignore

this is what it looks like when you start connecting the dots and recognizing names in tma btw

maybe the real magnus archives was the creative commons attribution non-commercial share-alike 4.0 international license we made along the way 😔

I just know for a fact Martin would buy this

Just got to Daisy's first appearance and I forgot how violent their first interaction is. Jon's fledgling beholding powers emerging, and Daisy so clearly disturbed that she told him her story. Daisy keeps saying she's done answering questions, Jon disregards that completely and keeps asking, and she keeps answering!! Even though she's so disturbed! Even though she doesn't want to!! And it's the first time in season 2, maybe even in the whole show thus far, that Jon sounds sooo completely happy. Like. He's delighted, he's well fed, he's ENRICHED, he's having fun!! And he doesn't know he's even doing it, consciously. But also. He must, deep down. He doesn't even know about The Eye and yet he's already flexing his wet little newborn Archivist wings. AAAAH Haha Jonathan a darkness is unfurling within you from which you can never escape 🤪

ITS LITERALLY THEM !!

I’ve reached the point where TMA is a comfort series, adding to the list of “comfort series that make it abundantly clear that I have trauma and am mentally ill”.

and this is why i tim is the funniest character because what. insane thing to say in that situation but also very based

I made an observation lately that on any day at least one person on my feed is in the middle of TMA relisten. And that made me curious, so

And as always, it will be super cool if you reblog so more people can vote :)))

"The Lonely’s really got you, hasn’t it?"

"You know, I think it always did.

" Maybe... Well, I’ll be here, if you ever need me."

"I hope so."

"just don't wait too long, okay? if you haven't already."

WHAT IF I KILL MYSELF I HATE GAY PEOPLE

So funny to me how most tma avatars have like cool entity-themed ways to murder people like mike with throwing ppl off buildings, Jane filling people with bugs, etc… but all the eye people just straight up murder people. The eye murders are all so physical for some reason!

Like tim blowing up the unknowing, Martin stabbing, Elias with his gun and notorious brutal pipe murder, Gertrude literally chopping Jan kilbride into pieces and… so many more things tbh that woman was brutal. Idk just funny to me that the beholding’s avatars (or servants or whatever) are humanized more than any other entity bc they’re the main characters but when they kill they do it SO brutally

like a lamb to slaughter

Subtle TMA merch part 11/14

It’s time for the spiral hehehehehhehe. This one is my favorite entity so I had to do it justice

TMA ep 158 with the bangers

finally crawling my way out of the tma obsession and listening to other podcasts when the magnus protocol drops and pulls me right back in johnny sims you’ve done it again

tma has taken over my mind