Fun fact about Sannikov Land: it's a real not real place! It first wasn't seen in the early 1800s and continued to not be real for over a century, when it finally wasn't discovered.
You know, I totally forgot to mention that, but, yeah! Sannikov Land's historical connections are a great point. I'll be sure to bring that up in the inevitable wrap-up episode (with proper attribution) Also, I can tell someone else was having just as much fun as I was in describing the lack of presence for things that do not and never will exist.
I always theorized that the Spiral’s weakness was trust. Like, it’s the embodiment of lies and mistrusting your senses and surroundings. When Michael disrupted the Twisting, I think the map Gertrude gave him was total bullshit, and it was the fact that he trusted her so deeply that got him to the center of the maze. I think Robin Lennox similarly escaped the hedge maze because he remembered he had dinner with his mum, something that was a fact and that he knew for sure was real and that he had to get to.
Jon relized The Spiral was about distrust when he confronts Helen in the hotel. It's the fear that you can't trust those around you; your friends, your family, yourself. It's the fear that we can never really know what another person is thinking, feeling, planning. The fear of betrayal. It likely broke off from The Hunt (fear of the group turning on you) and the The Stranger (fear of the unknown other).
@@melissaharris3389I mean, more accurately, the Distortion itself is about distrust. The Distortion is the gap in experience that is inevitable between you and those you meet; it’s where communication breaks down. The Spiral as a whole is about delusion of the senses and the mind, while the Distortion is a specific facet of that.
I love what this interpretation does for Helen! She drew her own map, and she trusted it. She knew she could follow it through and find her way, and so she Became.
@@anotherrandomperson9174 I heard a theory that, because time can get a little funky with the entities, the map Gertrude gave Michael was actually Helen's map, making them a sort of paradoxical, self-fulfilling loop of distortion
I don't think Michael was the first ever personified distortion, the way Michael talks about it, implies to me that it had happened before, but eventually the distortion returns to a non-personified state I also find the differences in how Michael and Helen scare people very interesting. We see Michael chase Helen through the corridors, backrooms monster style, but in Helen's domain she torments her victim through misleading her, increasing the victims anxiety by making her believe she's misinterpreting information
I think Michael just wasn't a good fit as an avatar. He was so trusting of Gertrude that he walked into the manifestation of lies. Also, his anger didn't allow him to properly decive his victims into believing what he said. He couldn't appear as a false friend.
It must be a thrill for the spiral to befriend the eye avatar. A bit of a challenge to keep your mystery from the embodiment of knowing, and great satisfaction from effectively confusing and tricking someone who needs to understand to live.
Here's something I notice about The Spiral as a Catholic. All the named major(ish) Spiral characters are named after a Biblical/Early Christian History figure: Micheal: One of the Archangels and general of Heaven's Army, and is known for helping people as much as he is known for smiting him (though in the Bible, he only smites the wicked) Helen: The mother of Constantine, the emperor who made Christianity legal in the Roman Empire. She is what ended the persecution of the Early Church in the empire. She was also known to be much kinder to the persecuted Christians than any previous Roman Noble. Gabriel: Another Archangel and God's messenger, who foretold Mary and The Shepherds that Jesus was to be born, and start God's major ritual to save humanity and bring God into the world. David: A king of Israel and it is said that his bloodline would eventually give birth to the king of the world. This would come true later as one of his to-many-greats-to-write grandsons was Joseph, stepfather of Jesus. Also, later in his reign, he started to become hypocritical and a sinner and then denied that he did so. I don't know if this was on purpose or not, but I just think it's neat as a Catholic and how their names kind of matched up with their character. Something else I want to talk about is The Spiral's relation with The Stranger, as while on the surface they appear very similar, I can find away that they oppose.T hey while both using deception and trickery go about it differently, one from an internal deception, the other an exterior deception. The Spiral is about your mind lying to you about what the world really is, while The Stranger is about those around you lying about who, or what, they are. There is some overlap with the fear of false friendships and lies, but I find it interesting how despite the two looking similar at first glance, there is more going on.
The old priest is hard to place...but I do have to agree with the theory that it was an attempt by at least one of the powers to mark a single person with aspects of all the entities in some plot...not sure what kind of scheme, but a scheme none the less
I always thought that the hand coming out of the pot as a twisted version of the husband, because at the time it was spiting out the things ot had stolen which I think makes it more tragic if the husband is still in there.
I cant quite choose between The Spiral and The Vast as my absolute favorite fear. They both give this feeling of helplessness that none of the other fears do Oh my gosh btw, the art in this one is incredible!💗💞💖💕
I always thought that the spiral was the plot twist in stories that’s why the distortion always did what you least expect and why John had to kill them
Your art has improved much since your last TMA video! I love watching the speed-paints, and the jump in quality is very noticeable. The poses and flow of the characters is really nice to look at!
I think the whole distortion fusing with people is because both Helen and Michael tried to understand the Distortion,as understanding is basically going against its principles,so I suppose it can be seen as a punishment But also I feel like the way the Distortion takes human form is similar to The Stranger taking someone's skin,it pretends to have an identity as a way to deceive and make you question your reality
That's what I like about the revelation of what the distortion is; it makes me question whether Michael was really going off script or if the distortion knew the John didn't trust the Michael persona and switched to Helen because he at least liked her. The threat to kill John was just an act to make Helen seem more trustworthy, at least initially.
Lets go Spiral! The biggest upset of all for the Distortion was by far the reveal that Helen was a tory. Also regarding the lack of alternate names for the Slaughter. its honestly a shame that certain powers don't have many epithets. I've bounced around some ideas for new epithets for some powers. Boundless Nothing for the Vast, Skittering for the Corruption, but I haven't thought of much for the Slaughter. Butchery still fits imo, so I'm not sure why it didn't become an epithet rather than being retired. perhaps due to its connection with music the Slaughter could have been given music related epithets? it certainly held for the Corruption's epiphyte of the Flesh Hive, even though the specific flavor of The Crawling Rot which Jane Prentiss and her victims succumbed to doesn't encapsulate all of Corruption. So for the Slaughter. The Blood Soaked Symphony? War Song? Must Do Harm? those are all I can think of for the moment.
Some other ideas The Slaughter- The Ceaseless War, The Endless Blood Flow, The War Cry. The Eye- That Which Listens. The Spiral- The Delusion, The Grand Illusion. The Dark- The Eternal Shadow.
@@wyattwaggener6380 I think "I must do harm" works fine because this is just supposed to be one of many names for the Slaughter not a replacement. I believe "I must Hurt" and "I must harm" can both coexist as actual equally valid names. And both also have similiar vibes to some of the names the other entities have like "Too Close I Cannot Breathe" for the buried and "It Knows You" for the Eye.
14:50 If you're really sticking to this, let me try I guess: The Spiral is horror. Every element of this story meant deliberately to put the eyes watching it on edge and make them uncomfortable
hmm... I like to think perhaps the Distortion could take any form (any person, any doorway) but the disruption of the Eye forced it into holding only one form and one door at a time. Forced clarity, as much as that can be done unto the Distortion. I can imagine why it would be so angry about that. It scares me just thinking about what it might be like to not know if you're interacting with many people who may or may not exist, or just the one... if you just imagined talking to your coworker the other day, or maybe they're lying to you. That you know to be careful of evil glass doors so never open one, and suddenly its red doors that lead to the Hallways. About a third of the way in and enjoying your presentation :D
One of my favorite Entities! I especially like how you mentioned liminal spaces and the Backrooms, because such things totally align with the Spiral! And I saw your post about the creature living in the vase and I loooove the idea that it escapes each time it steals something. Also, just want to say, this may be my absolute favorite speed-painting you've done thus far. ❤ Sorry for all the gushing!
That is an interesting idea about the spiral being the setting... personally I think it's more to do with the concept of the plot or more specifically the plot twist...seeing as how the plot are the twists and turns in the story where the audience doesn't know where it leads like a maze just that there is a road or path that leads to an ending and that plots twists are the paths that you thought was going somewhere but it turns out to be completely different
I definitely agree. If the Web could represent the narrative then the Spiral probably represents twists and stuff. I already commented this seperately but I'm just going to copy and paste it here despite its lengeth. "If you really wanted to lean into your theory the Spiral could also represent some other aspects of a story. For one it could weirdly represent emersion. Here's the thing about stories like the Magnus Archives. They aren't real. Fictional stories are just essentially lies or made-up stuff. Despite this a good story often has immersion. It often sucks us in and makes us feel like we are part of the world or even want to be a part of it. Sometimes people in a way are trying to make the story indistinguishable from a possible reality or at the very least applaud stories that do. I've seen on the TMA reddit so I think you'll get this example and notice how so many people have tags with their favorite or most relatable entity. Nobody HAS to use those tags, but they do anyway. Despite the fact that these stories are fake here we are real people with real lives letting fake things affect us. Making memes, 20-minute analysis videos and maybe just maybe the lies of the Magnus Archives will convince us to write our own lies, inspire us, or maybe it will help us come to some realization about the world. When we immerse ourselves with a story one could argue that, even for just a moment a split second, we are lying to ourselves. Indulging in the horror of a monster chasing us and the cast even though that monster isn't real. Shivering at the thought of being buried below all the earth even though such a place doesn't exist. The other thing the Spiral could represent in your theory is basically a twist. When a twist or some sort of revelation occurs, it is not uncommon for the audience or the characters to have been purposefully lied to by the author. What we thought was actually true about the world or the story was actually fake. For example, Jon wonders if the Eye is changing him and Helen reveals a twist that shakes his world view. Why would the Eye want to? He's doing exactly what it wants right now. Many stories set things up and then have some sort of reveal that shows us that things are not set up the way we think they are. I think both these possibilities get at what you mean by the otherworld to. In the stereotypical hero's adventure, there is the otherworld and with this can often come the realization to either the character or the audience that the world is not what we thought it was. That or the otherworld is why we often clamor to these stories. To embrace a lie that could not exist in our world. Also, the otherworld is also something that usually can't exist so there's that in relation to its lies too. The idea of the otherworld is only a small part of the bigger picture imo."
If you really wanted to lean into your theory the Spiral could also represent some other aspects of a story. For one it could weirdly represent emersion. Here's the thing about stories like the Magnus Archives. They aren't real. Fictional stories are just essentially lies or made-up stuff. Despite this a good story often has immersion. It often sucks us in and makes us feel like we are part of the world or even want to be a part of it. Sometimes people in a way are trying to make the story indistinguishable from a possible reality or at the very least applaud stories that do. I've seen on the TMA reddit so I think you'll get this example and notice how so many people have tags with their favorite or most relatable entity. Nobody HAS to use those tags, but they do anyway. Despite the fact that these stories are fake here we are real people with real lives letting fake things affect us. Making memes, 20-minute analysis videos and maybe just maybe the lies of the Magnus Archives will convince us to write our own lies, inspire us, or maybe it will help us come to some realization about the world. When we immerse ourselves with a story one could argue that, even for just a moment a split second, we are lying to ourselves. Indulging in the horror of a monster chasing us and the cast even though that monster isn't real. Shivering at the thought of being buried below all the earth even though such a place doesn't exist. The other thing the Spiral could represent in your theory is basically a twist. When a twist or some sort of revelation occurs, it is not uncommon for the audience or the characters to have been purposefully lied to by the author. What we thought was actually true about the world or the story was actually fake. For example, Jon wonders if the Eye is changing him and Helen reveals a twist that shakes his world view. Why would the Eye want to? He's doing exactly what it wants right now. Many stories set things up and then have some sort of reveal that shows us that things are not set up the way we think they are. I think both these possibilities get at what you mean by the otherworld to. In the stereotypical hero's adventure, there is the otherworld and with this can often come the realization to either the character or the audience that the world is not what we thought it was. That or the otherworld is why we often clamor to these stories. To embrace a lie that could not exist in our world.
Also, if the Eye represents the audience and their desire to watch then the Spiral could represent the idea of the author purposefully trying to misdirect us or reminding us that the characters can be wrong or biased. For example, Gerard mentions he can't see a world where the Buried is brought into the world and the Vast with it but this is proven to be incorrect as we see that the proper ritual for the entities requires every power to be brought into the world. In essence, the Spiral is causing us and the characters to question if what we know about the story and the world is true. Not everything we see or think is actually correct. To take it one step further the Distortion could parallel how the author may appear to the characters or us as the audience. Is the author on our/their side and trying to get the characters to a happy ending? or maybe they will all have a miserable tragic end. Even stories with happy endings often have the author put them through the ringer or purposefully throw them into conflicts or cause bad events to befall them. How could an author look at the characters they love so much and then decide to torture them with terrible events before tossing them a bone or letting them succeed somehow?
The Door and its Demon was the centerpiece of the Great Twisting at the hands of Gabriel. It's Demon, the lure the Door uses, has always been based off a human identity to begin with.
I kind of came to this conclusion recently, but it was based on your comment on how few snakes there are in Magnus, but a serpent would've made an excellent metaphorical fear for the spiral like how spiders are metaphors for the web. Snakes are often devious or evil in mythology like the serpent tempting eve; and like how the spiral shatters your sense of reality, snakes like Apep and Jormungandr are supposed to destroy the world. Their venom can be disorienting and just the image of a coiling twisting body with intricate patterns really fits the spiral's motif.
Yeah, actually. I'm not big on D&D, so, while I believe I'd heard the name before, I had basically no idea of its existence or power set, but I saw a video by Dungeon Dad a few days ago covering it by chance and went "ooooh yeah, that's almost exactly the same as my idea for the Spiral Pot being." So, it wasn't an intentional connection, but I did realise it retrospectively!
I also swear at some point Michael says it'd rarebit not impossible implying there were maybe other people who became the distortion and maybe it got rid of it human counterparts Also I think you forgot to mention Helen during the character section
Yeah, absolutely, it's very possible that the Distortion somehow ejected its previous inhabitants, although I'm much more inclined to believe that those lines are in reference to other creatures because of Michael's own monologue, where he seems to imply many more Spiral creatures than we know of, so it's very possible that something like the Distortion could be counted amount them, perhaps even as one which "still hasn't found its way back." As for "Helen," I did talk about her a bit at 5:36, but I probably should have talked about her more. I don't know, I think I mostly used "Michael" because that's the art I was working on and, as a result, had that name on my mind, but "Helen" definitely should have had more than a two sentence footnote mention.
Fun fact about Sannikov Land: it's a real not real place! It first wasn't seen in the early 1800s and continued to not be real for over a century, when it finally wasn't discovered.
You know, I totally forgot to mention that, but, yeah! Sannikov Land's historical connections are a great point. I'll be sure to bring that up in the inevitable wrap-up episode (with proper attribution) Also, I can tell someone else was having just as much fun as I was in describing the lack of presence for things that do not and never will exist.
I always theorized that the Spiral’s weakness was trust. Like, it’s the embodiment of lies and mistrusting your senses and surroundings.
When Michael disrupted the Twisting, I think the map Gertrude gave him was total bullshit, and it was the fact that he trusted her so deeply that got him to the center of the maze. I think Robin Lennox similarly escaped the hedge maze because he remembered he had dinner with his mum, something that was a fact and that he knew for sure was real and that he had to get to.
Jon relized The Spiral was about distrust when he confronts Helen in the hotel. It's the fear that you can't trust those around you; your friends, your family, yourself. It's the fear that we can never really know what another person is thinking, feeling, planning. The fear of betrayal. It likely broke off from The Hunt (fear of the group turning on you) and the The Stranger (fear of the unknown other).
@@melissaharris3389I mean, more accurately, the Distortion itself is about distrust. The Distortion is the gap in experience that is inevitable between you and those you meet; it’s where communication breaks down. The Spiral as a whole is about delusion of the senses and the mind, while the Distortion is a specific facet of that.
I love what this interpretation does for Helen! She drew her own map, and she trusted it. She knew she could follow it through and find her way, and so she Became.
@@anotherrandomperson9174 I never even thought of that. Good catch 👍
@@anotherrandomperson9174 I heard a theory that, because time can get a little funky with the entities, the map Gertrude gave Michael was actually Helen's map, making them a sort of paradoxical, self-fulfilling loop of distortion
I don't think Michael was the first ever personified distortion, the way Michael talks about it, implies to me that it had happened before, but eventually the distortion returns to a non-personified state
I also find the differences in how Michael and Helen scare people very interesting. We see Michael chase Helen through the corridors, backrooms monster style, but in Helen's domain she torments her victim through misleading her, increasing the victims anxiety by making her believe she's misinterpreting information
I think Michael just wasn't a good fit as an avatar. He was so trusting of Gertrude that he walked into the manifestation of lies. Also, his anger didn't allow him to properly decive his victims into believing what he said. He couldn't appear as a false friend.
The fact that some guy went into the spiral and just kinda left cause he was gonna be late for dinner is hilarious
I love the idea that the priest was thr webs attempt to mark one person with all of the powers because them going " yeah you know what . Sick em boys"
It must be a thrill for the spiral to befriend the eye avatar. A bit of a challenge to keep your mystery from the embodiment of knowing, and great satisfaction from effectively confusing and tricking someone who needs to understand to live.
Here's something I notice about The Spiral as a Catholic. All the named major(ish) Spiral characters are named after a Biblical/Early Christian History figure:
Micheal: One of the Archangels and general of Heaven's Army, and is known for helping people as much as he is known for smiting him (though in the Bible, he only smites the wicked)
Helen: The mother of Constantine, the emperor who made Christianity legal in the Roman Empire. She is what ended the persecution of the Early Church in the empire. She was also known to be much kinder to the persecuted Christians than any previous Roman Noble.
Gabriel: Another Archangel and God's messenger, who foretold Mary and The Shepherds that Jesus was to be born, and start God's major ritual to save humanity and bring God into the world.
David: A king of Israel and it is said that his bloodline would eventually give birth to the king of the world. This would come true later as one of his to-many-greats-to-write grandsons was Joseph, stepfather of Jesus. Also, later in his reign, he started to become hypocritical and a sinner and then denied that he did so.
I don't know if this was on purpose or not, but I just think it's neat as a Catholic and how their names kind of matched up with their character.
Something else I want to talk about is The Spiral's relation with The Stranger, as while on the surface they appear very similar, I can find away that they oppose.T hey while both using deception and trickery go about it differently, one from an internal deception, the other an exterior deception. The Spiral is about your mind lying to you about what the world really is, while The Stranger is about those around you lying about who, or what, they are. There is some overlap with the fear of false friendships and lies, but I find it interesting how despite the two looking similar at first glance, there is more going on.
The old priest is hard to place...but I do have to agree with the theory that it was an attempt by at least one of the powers to mark a single person with aspects of all the entities in some plot...not sure what kind of scheme, but a scheme none the less
The darn homophobic vase
The vase secretly just wanted a husband of its own, but is very bad at conversation
@@FinalFantasmagorie fair I guess, but it has to know how that comes across
@@FinalFantasmagorie also does this mean I can steal other people’s dogs, because if so, I’m okay with it
I always thought that the hand coming out of the pot as a twisted version of the husband, because at the time it was spiting out the things ot had stolen which I think makes it more tragic if the husband is still in there.
I cant quite choose between The Spiral and The Vast as my absolute favorite fear. They both give this feeling of helplessness that none of the other fears do
Oh my gosh btw, the art in this one is incredible!💗💞💖💕
I agree with you on that...both are awesome and terrifying
I like the vast more... The feeling of being insignificant and that nothing matters is actually freeing in a way...
I always thought that the spiral was the plot twist in stories that’s why the distortion always did what you least expect and why John had to kill them
Me when I see "Evil Doors" in the warning section," THATS MY BOY!!" also I'm obsecced with The Twisting Deceit... I literally think about it 24/7...
Prompt: assign Dr. Who villains to different Entities 😱
Your art has improved much since your last TMA video! I love watching the speed-paints, and the jump in quality is very noticeable. The poses and flow of the characters is really nice to look at!
I think the whole distortion fusing with people is because both Helen and Michael tried to understand the Distortion,as understanding is basically going against its principles,so I suppose it can be seen as a punishment
But also I feel like the way the Distortion takes human form is similar to The Stranger taking someone's skin,it pretends to have an identity as a way to deceive and make you question your reality
That's what I like about the revelation of what the distortion is; it makes me question whether Michael was really going off script or if the distortion knew the John didn't trust the Michael persona and switched to Helen because he at least liked her. The threat to kill John was just an act to make Helen seem more trustworthy, at least initially.
Finally! There has been so little video essays in The Magnus Archives. Thank you for filling that need
Lets go Spiral! The biggest upset of all for the Distortion was by far the reveal that Helen was a tory.
Also regarding the lack of alternate names for the Slaughter. its honestly a shame that certain powers don't have many epithets. I've bounced around some ideas for new epithets for some powers. Boundless Nothing for the Vast, Skittering for the Corruption, but I haven't thought of much for the Slaughter.
Butchery still fits imo, so I'm not sure why it didn't become an epithet rather than being retired.
perhaps due to its connection with music the Slaughter could have been given music related epithets? it certainly held for the Corruption's epiphyte of the Flesh Hive, even though the specific flavor of The Crawling Rot which Jane Prentiss and her victims succumbed to doesn't encapsulate all of Corruption.
So for the Slaughter. The Blood Soaked Symphony? War Song? Must Do Harm?
those are all I can think of for the moment.
I will say, "The Bleeding Symphony" sounds like the name of a Slaughter ritual.
Some other ideas
The Slaughter- The Ceaseless War, The Endless Blood Flow, The War Cry.
The Eye- That Which Listens.
The Spiral- The Delusion, The Grand Illusion.
The Dark- The Eternal Shadow.
i like where youre going with must do harm, but i think something like "i must hurt" would be a little better
@@wyattwaggener6380 I think "I must do harm" works fine because this is just supposed to be one of many names for the Slaughter not a replacement. I believe "I must Hurt" and "I must harm" can both coexist as actual equally valid names. And both also have similiar vibes to some of the names the other entities have like "Too Close I Cannot Breathe" for the buried and "It Knows You" for the Eye.
Finally someone talking about how it hurts for Helen to be a bit of a Tory
I was rooting for her all the way and then BOOM she was a tory
14:50 If you're really sticking to this, let me try I guess:
The Spiral is horror. Every element of this story meant deliberately to put the eyes watching it on edge and make them uncomfortable
hmm... I like to think perhaps the Distortion could take any form (any person, any doorway) but the disruption of the Eye forced it into holding only one form and one door at a time. Forced clarity, as much as that can be done unto the Distortion. I can imagine why it would be so angry about that.
It scares me just thinking about what it might be like to not know if you're interacting with many people who may or may not exist, or just the one... if you just imagined talking to your coworker the other day, or maybe they're lying to you. That you know to be careful of evil glass doors so never open one, and suddenly its red doors that lead to the Hallways.
About a third of the way in and enjoying your presentation :D
i love the spiral sm
youre so right
I'm surprised the Winchester house was never used or even referenced as a Spiral Domain. That place is crawling with Spiral vibes
A US spin off of the Usher Institute to cover some of the weird going on across the pond.
One of my favorite Entities! I especially like how you mentioned liminal spaces and the Backrooms, because such things totally align with the Spiral! And I saw your post about the creature living in the vase and I loooove the idea that it escapes each time it steals something.
Also, just want to say, this may be my absolute favorite speed-painting you've done thus far. ❤ Sorry for all the gushing!
OH NO MY ART guess I don’t need veins anymore
That is an interesting idea about the spiral being the setting... personally I think it's more to do with the concept of the plot or more specifically the plot twist...seeing as how the plot are the twists and turns in the story where the audience doesn't know where it leads like a maze just that there is a road or path that leads to an ending and that plots twists are the paths that you thought was going somewhere but it turns out to be completely different
I definitely agree. If the Web could represent the narrative then the Spiral probably represents twists and stuff. I already commented this seperately but I'm just going to copy and paste it here despite its lengeth.
"If you really wanted to lean into your theory the Spiral could also represent some other aspects of a story. For one it could weirdly represent emersion. Here's the thing about stories like the Magnus Archives. They aren't real. Fictional stories are just essentially lies or made-up stuff. Despite this a good story often has immersion. It often sucks us in and makes us feel like we are part of the world or even want to be a part of it. Sometimes people in a way are trying to make the story indistinguishable from a possible reality or at the very least applaud stories that do. I've seen on the TMA reddit so I think you'll get this example and notice how so many people have tags with their favorite or most relatable entity. Nobody HAS to use those tags, but they do anyway. Despite the fact that these stories are fake here we are real people with real lives letting fake things affect us. Making memes, 20-minute analysis videos and maybe just maybe the lies of the Magnus Archives will convince us to write our own lies, inspire us, or maybe it will help us come to some realization about the world. When we immerse ourselves with a story one could argue that, even for just a moment a split second, we are lying to ourselves. Indulging in the horror of a monster chasing us and the cast even though that monster isn't real. Shivering at the thought of being buried below all the earth even though such a place doesn't exist.
The other thing the Spiral could represent in your theory is basically a twist. When a twist or some sort of revelation occurs, it is not uncommon for the audience or the characters to have been purposefully lied to by the author. What we thought was actually true about the world or the story was actually fake. For example, Jon wonders if the Eye is changing him and Helen reveals a twist that shakes his world view. Why would the Eye want to? He's doing exactly what it wants right now. Many stories set things up and then have some sort of reveal that shows us that things are not set up the way we think they are.
I think both these possibilities get at what you mean by the otherworld to. In the stereotypical hero's adventure, there is the otherworld and with this can often come the realization to either the character or the audience that the world is not what we thought it was. That or the otherworld is why we often clamor to these stories. To embrace a lie that could not exist in our world. Also, the otherworld is also something that usually can't exist so there's that in relation to its lies too. The idea of the otherworld is only a small part of the bigger picture imo."
Time is hard for the distortion, its not a continuity error, its just confusion. Deffinatly...... Not making up excuses i swear.
Fun fact: I now have a fear that borders phobia of fractals! Thanks TMA!
I love your analysis here! The Spiral as the (lowercase c) corruption of the mundane is really clever, and it ties its statements together nicely
Great analysis! You should do The Spiral next.
What was that? You already did it?
No you didn’t. You should do The Spiral next.
🙂
This is my favorite entity so thank you for doing this.
Heck yeah, its one of my two favorite entities. I love being crazy!
Crazy?
I was crazy once!
Also, i really like the theory of father burows being the first attempt of bringing chaos to the world
i love how you put into words why exactly i love the spiral
If you really wanted to lean into your theory the Spiral could also represent some other aspects of a story. For one it could weirdly represent emersion. Here's the thing about stories like the Magnus Archives. They aren't real. Fictional stories are just essentially lies or made-up stuff. Despite this a good story often has immersion. It often sucks us in and makes us feel like we are part of the world or even want to be a part of it. Sometimes people in a way are trying to make the story indistinguishable from a possible reality or at the very least applaud stories that do. I've seen on the TMA reddit so I think you'll get this example and notice how so many people have tags with their favorite or most relatable entity. Nobody HAS to use those tags, but they do anyway. Despite the fact that these stories are fake here we are real people with real lives letting fake things affect us. Making memes, 20-minute analysis videos and maybe just maybe the lies of the Magnus Archives will convince us to write our own lies, inspire us, or maybe it will help us come to some realization about the world. When we immerse ourselves with a story one could argue that, even for just a moment a split second, we are lying to ourselves. Indulging in the horror of a monster chasing us and the cast even though that monster isn't real. Shivering at the thought of being buried below all the earth even though such a place doesn't exist.
The other thing the Spiral could represent in your theory is basically a twist. When a twist or some sort of revelation occurs, it is not uncommon for the audience or the characters to have been purposefully lied to by the author. What we thought was actually true about the world or the story was actually fake. For example, Jon wonders if the Eye is changing him and Helen reveals a twist that shakes his world view. Why would the Eye want to? He's doing exactly what it wants right now. Many stories set things up and then have some sort of reveal that shows us that things are not set up the way we think they are.
I think both these possibilities get at what you mean by the otherworld to. In the stereotypical hero's adventure, there is the otherworld and with this can often come the realization to either the character or the audience that the world is not what we thought it was. That or the otherworld is why we often clamor to these stories. To embrace a lie that could not exist in our world.
Also, the otherworld is also something that usually can't exist so there's that in relation to its lies too.
Also, if the Eye represents the audience and their desire to watch then the Spiral could represent the idea of the author purposefully trying to misdirect us or reminding us that the characters can be wrong or biased. For example, Gerard mentions he can't see a world where the Buried is brought into the world and the Vast with it but this is proven to be incorrect as we see that the proper ritual for the entities requires every power to be brought into the world. In essence, the Spiral is causing us and the characters to question if what we know about the story and the world is true. Not everything we see or think is actually correct. To take it one step further the Distortion could parallel how the author may appear to the characters or us as the audience. Is the author on our/their side and trying to get the characters to a happy ending? or maybe they will all have a miserable tragic end. Even stories with happy endings often have the author put them through the ringer or purposefully throw them into conflicts or cause bad events to befall them. How could an author look at the characters they love so much and then decide to torture them with terrible events before tossing them a bone or letting them succeed somehow?
The Door and its Demon was the centerpiece of the Great Twisting at the hands of Gabriel.
It's Demon, the lure the Door uses, has always been based off a human identity to begin with.
I kind of came to this conclusion recently, but it was based on your comment on how few snakes there are in Magnus, but a serpent would've made an excellent metaphorical fear for the spiral like how spiders are metaphors for the web. Snakes are often devious or evil in mythology like the serpent tempting eve; and like how the spiral shatters your sense of reality, snakes like Apep and Jormungandr are supposed to destroy the world. Their venom can be disorienting and just the image of a coiling twisting body with intricate patterns really fits the spiral's motif.
Ooh, good point
YOUR ART IS JUST 🤌 OMG, ALSO TYSM FOR TMA VIDEO ESSAYS
the spiral is absolutely my favorite entity
9:43 Ohhh, you mean the False Hydra? 😢 False Hydra.
Yeah, actually. I'm not big on D&D, so, while I believe I'd heard the name before, I had basically no idea of its existence or power set, but I saw a video by Dungeon Dad a few days ago covering it by chance and went "ooooh yeah, that's almost exactly the same as my idea for the Spiral Pot being."
So, it wasn't an intentional connection, but I did realise it retrospectively!
9:22
That is what I like to call an Antimeme.
I gotta disagree. The priest fits squarely and neatly within the spiral domain. The demon makes you primarily doubt all of the reality you perceive.
Also non Euclidean geometry is definitely spiral vibes
I also swear at some point Michael says it'd rarebit not impossible implying there were maybe other people who became the distortion and maybe it got rid of it human counterparts
Also I think you forgot to mention Helen during the character section
Yeah, absolutely, it's very possible that the Distortion somehow ejected its previous inhabitants, although I'm much more inclined to believe that those lines are in reference to other creatures because of Michael's own monologue, where he seems to imply many more Spiral creatures than we know of, so it's very possible that something like the Distortion could be counted amount them, perhaps even as one which "still hasn't found its way back."
As for "Helen," I did talk about her a bit at 5:36, but I probably should have talked about her more. I don't know, I think I mostly used "Michael" because that's the art I was working on and, as a result, had that name on my mind, but "Helen" definitely should have had more than a two sentence footnote mention.
Uzumaki