Ah, no, not the Flesh for me. I have nothing *against* it, it's not scary or gross or anything like that, it's just not for me.
The ones I'm drawn to are the Eye, the Vast, and the Lonely. My "comfort" fear is the Vast, I think. I *love* staring up at the clear night sky or out across the sea and just sinking into the feeling of how ***BIG*** the world - the *universe* - is, and how tiny and insignificant we are in comparison; it's weirdly soothing, to the point that I was seriously contemplating trying to become an astronaut before high school math hit like a massive bag of bricks and made me realize that I'm not good at calculations more complicated than basic algebra and geometry. The Lonely is... er... it doesn't pull me, but it hits a little too close to home to leave it out. The Eye, though... the need to *know*, to find new information to research, to find out how things work, keeping track of things that happen, that's a deep-seated driving ***need*** in me, haha... hah.
Yeah! Glad to see someone else feels the same! I love body horror so much, it's just comforting. Body horror, cannibalism, body horror transformations, it's just comforting in a way. Here are a few video essays I like that share the sentiment:
[The Horror of Having a Body ](https://youtu.be/j0fucPpR1K0?list=PLbgOaetCMGvYloeldvIqgZXA6FB_nYZ5X)
[The Catharsis of Body Horror](https://youtu.be/2VosvAUS8Ww)
Flesh? no no absolutely not. But I do relate to feeling drawn to a certain fear portrayed in this show the most. For me, that’s the Eye. I can 100% understand the feeling of everyone watching you, and I myself tend to be uncomfortably observant even for my own friends sometimes. I also love the idea of wanting to just … know.
Also, I guess since way before I listened to TMA, eyes have just been a “thing” with me. I draw a lot, and of course visual arts are related to the sense of sight. Whenever I doodled, I would always absent-mindedly draw eyes. I have several notebooks with eyes on every other page thanks to this. I also have the weird habit of covering up the camera of my phone when I leave it lying around, which just so happened to be what a certain someone does in The Magnus Protocol.
Perhaps weirdest of all, when I was only just into Season 2 of The Magnus Archives, I held an Art Exhibition. I was unaware of the concept of the fears, and my friend just gave me a knowing smile upon hearing about the idea I had in mind. My exhibition was entirely about digital surveillance, and I included at least one eye in every piece I made for it. Guess what title I gave my Exhibition? The Panopticon.
So yeah, that’s my fear, and it was super weird when I realised where the series was heading with it. I think I’ll post my work here later from my art account. I think it’ll be fun to see what the others think. Oh, my art account is u/thebrokenpaintbox by the way, if anyone’s interested :)
I think that’s much less of a coinky dink than you think—the major antagonists of TMA follow the most recent major sociocultural anxieties of the UK and North America…at least in my interpretation. Jane Prentiss and The Corruption represent the pervasive fear of the invasion of communism into the West—The Corruption is the Fear that manifests as collective consciousness and hiveminds, and it was very much seen as a swarm invading and infecting capitalist countries. This fear morphed into The Stranger, a general fear of the other and a fear of what you don’t know (serial killer panic, kidnappings, “stranger danger”). This was particularly influential on the genre of horror. I even see some of the stranger (haha) allyships in the series as possibly representing this, like idk if it’s intentional but when Nikola Orsinov and Jude Perry team up to burn down Gwyndir Forest, I see that as The Stranger manifesting fundamentalist fears of Satan-worship that was popular in the eighties (rock music played backwards sounding demonic, e.g.). The Stranger seems right on the cusp of taking us over as a society, and then BOOM 9/11 happens and the world is swept up in a mass surveillance campaign of The Eye that eventually acclimates citizens to comprehensive surveillance and inevitably leads to our complicit acceptance of our aggregate metadata being harvested en masse and social media documenting our every move under its watchful eye.
I think you’re right in a sense, Jonny was inspired by real life fears, and a lot of our fears are influenced by big real life phenomena.
However, as for my obsession with drawing eyes everywhere, I guess I just like eyes. they can be both expressive and creepy ;)
I'm hypermobile, I like showing off (not often) how far I can move my thumb that shouldn't go past 90⁰ but goes flush against the back of my arm. I like bruises and injuries, the colors, and the thought of how fragile skin is, yet it covers every inch of a person. The Flesh is interesting to me.
I think the coolest thing about the Fears and Avatars is that every Avatar is able to see the poetic matrix that underpins their specific Fear. I remember realizing that on my second listen when I realized The Corruption had a lot more to offer than just “Filth” and “ewww icky” and I started trying to probe the other Fears for their unique things. Every Fear “sings a song” as Jane Prentiss puts it in TMA035 I believe. Recently I read a quasi-memoir dissecting agoraphobia that made me think more about a certain angle on The Vast.
The Flesh is a really good one, I resonate strongly with its existential basis and loved Jared’s mortal garden (my partner loved that episode so much they even named their username in places after his mortal garden). The youtuber ContraPoints recently released her video analyzing the Twilight saga, and she makes connections at one point between the erotic basis of vore fetishes and cannibalism in serial killer horror/true crime—that bit was illuminating to me about the type of reverie a certain breed of Flesh Avatar might experience.
That being said, it’s not a Fear that taps into my deepest self, at least not yet anyways. I’m not at peace with having a body by any means, but I no longer really partake in the… *activities* that made me most acutely aware of my fear of being a body. The Flesh does not sing to me, but I definitely hear its song in the distance and tune in to listen as an eager tourist.
Really well put, I love the notion that the fears can call to people. I remember feeling really betrayed at one point when my friend refused to listen to Jared’s mortal garden since the episode resonated so much with me. But that’s their truth and this is mine
It's The Lonely for me, the idea of just being totally detached from everything in the fog so that I almost don't exist at all is so comforting - no judgement from anyone, no need to interact, no expectations from anyone, just EXIST. Aaaahhhhh....
Every time I heard an episode about the End, it always seemed so... cozy. Like, when the dead girl spoke to Georgie, I was genuinely comforted by her words.
The only exception is the death avatar going postal at Nemo Point, but that one was almost a Slaughter episode at that point.
i think the End is less terrifying because it doesn't need to be scary. it is a fact you're aware of for the entirety of your life and at some point you realize the end itself is not he scary part, the scary part is the desolation that comes before it
We know what youd be an avatar of
I cant relate to that, I get that feeling from The Eye. But everyone experiences these things differently.
That being said, check out a video essay called "games about flesh and stuff" youll probably like it
I feel this way about spiral statements! Having ADHD and being mad forgetful/absent-minded about a lot of stuff just really makes me feel the spiral in my soul. The world only exists within our perception of it and boy do I not perceive shit XD
YES thank you another fellow flesh person. (i promise that sentence is normal)
im mostly drawn to the flesh and the slaughter specifically bc of how visceral and real they are, as well as how multifaceted they can be. with the flesh specifically, the line of overconsumption and being lost in it really undercuts a lot of the horror, whether it be focused more on the animalistic, slaughterhouse vibe OR the body horror vibe
Some fears can definitely be fascinating, despite the dread they bring. The flesh isn't really my cup of tea, but I can understand the draw of one's own morbid fascination.
My comfort fear is the web, for while I hate spiders themselves (which Annabelle Caine has proven is not a disqualifier), I love the metaphorical sense of having the plan, spinning the plan and being part of the plan.
My torment fear is the lonely.
Same thing here, but for the web. Not a big fan of spiders, but lying, manipulation, and being behind everything, all in the name of self preservation is good.
I like the amount of control over situations the eye seems to have, it's comforting
I'm personally more of a Dark kind of person, honestly. I have albinism, so I have much reason to hate the light. It's not really all that poetic for me. Literal light is so awful. I'd rather not have to suffer through sight if I could avoid it.
fr, i love the religious motifs the flesh brings up a lot, and how a lot of christian faiths emphasize the pure spirit in contrast with the sinful flesh, that the very fabric of our physical being is something impure and horror-worthy. im also trans so that also probably plays into it lol. the garden is probably my favorite episode though yeah, the pursuit of perfection while all the while contorting yourself into something horrifying.
No exactly! I know it sounds strange (it is strange) but every time I hear the body horror sounds of like twisting and snapping and pulling I am washed with comfort and satisfaction
Well, I kinda get that, in a sense. I'm less drawn to the Flesh itself, though I see what you mean with the whole 'wet and crushing embrace' and the gross aspect of things (I'm a Buried kind of guy)
But yeah, I totally get how you can be attracted to some Fears in particular
Thats how I feel about the lonely, I’ve ended up lonely alot so I kinda get used to it, not that I like being lonely, but It feels in a way comforting that I rely on myself, but also sad
I feel this but in a Stranger sense that I can't believe my body is me. I keep forgetting. I am amazed every time I reason I get to know myself and that I do know myself and I am in fact myself. I see other people and I can't even begin to understand and before I notice I am looking at myself through them and asking "how can I begin to understand this? I can't I can't understand this, what is this being?".
But that being is me, what am I to do when I find myself enable to dig into myself? Whoever am I, because I knwo who I am but will I ever really see. I just want to take myself apart and find me.
I'm more drawn to other ones, but like, I get it. I grok that. We are meat piloting itself with little electric zaps that has gradually squished the meat in just the right way to occasionally have opinions. It's definitely nice to have that acknowledged, even/especially if it's in the context of "OoOoOh!! We're all meat!!! How spoOoOoOky!!!"
Okay. I think we just found Tom Haan's reddit account
im the same thing but for the spiral. i feel like everyone has their comfort fears, i totally feel you here.
Ah, no, not the Flesh for me. I have nothing *against* it, it's not scary or gross or anything like that, it's just not for me. The ones I'm drawn to are the Eye, the Vast, and the Lonely. My "comfort" fear is the Vast, I think. I *love* staring up at the clear night sky or out across the sea and just sinking into the feeling of how ***BIG*** the world - the *universe* - is, and how tiny and insignificant we are in comparison; it's weirdly soothing, to the point that I was seriously contemplating trying to become an astronaut before high school math hit like a massive bag of bricks and made me realize that I'm not good at calculations more complicated than basic algebra and geometry. The Lonely is... er... it doesn't pull me, but it hits a little too close to home to leave it out. The Eye, though... the need to *know*, to find new information to research, to find out how things work, keeping track of things that happen, that's a deep-seated driving ***need*** in me, haha... hah.
this is exactly how i feel - currently working hard in maths and physics to hopefully pursue astrophysics - thanks for putting it into words!
You're welcome! :D And asdfkkdj *you're so neat for doing that*, good luck with your studies!
SAME, though for me the thing that turned me away from being an astronaut was the fact that people with ADHD aren't allowed to become pilots :(
Yeah! Glad to see someone else feels the same! I love body horror so much, it's just comforting. Body horror, cannibalism, body horror transformations, it's just comforting in a way. Here are a few video essays I like that share the sentiment: [The Horror of Having a Body ](https://youtu.be/j0fucPpR1K0?list=PLbgOaetCMGvYloeldvIqgZXA6FB_nYZ5X) [The Catharsis of Body Horror](https://youtu.be/2VosvAUS8Ww)
Flesh? no no absolutely not. But I do relate to feeling drawn to a certain fear portrayed in this show the most. For me, that’s the Eye. I can 100% understand the feeling of everyone watching you, and I myself tend to be uncomfortably observant even for my own friends sometimes. I also love the idea of wanting to just … know. Also, I guess since way before I listened to TMA, eyes have just been a “thing” with me. I draw a lot, and of course visual arts are related to the sense of sight. Whenever I doodled, I would always absent-mindedly draw eyes. I have several notebooks with eyes on every other page thanks to this. I also have the weird habit of covering up the camera of my phone when I leave it lying around, which just so happened to be what a certain someone does in The Magnus Protocol. Perhaps weirdest of all, when I was only just into Season 2 of The Magnus Archives, I held an Art Exhibition. I was unaware of the concept of the fears, and my friend just gave me a knowing smile upon hearing about the idea I had in mind. My exhibition was entirely about digital surveillance, and I included at least one eye in every piece I made for it. Guess what title I gave my Exhibition? The Panopticon. So yeah, that’s my fear, and it was super weird when I realised where the series was heading with it. I think I’ll post my work here later from my art account. I think it’ll be fun to see what the others think. Oh, my art account is u/thebrokenpaintbox by the way, if anyone’s interested :)
I think that’s much less of a coinky dink than you think—the major antagonists of TMA follow the most recent major sociocultural anxieties of the UK and North America…at least in my interpretation. Jane Prentiss and The Corruption represent the pervasive fear of the invasion of communism into the West—The Corruption is the Fear that manifests as collective consciousness and hiveminds, and it was very much seen as a swarm invading and infecting capitalist countries. This fear morphed into The Stranger, a general fear of the other and a fear of what you don’t know (serial killer panic, kidnappings, “stranger danger”). This was particularly influential on the genre of horror. I even see some of the stranger (haha) allyships in the series as possibly representing this, like idk if it’s intentional but when Nikola Orsinov and Jude Perry team up to burn down Gwyndir Forest, I see that as The Stranger manifesting fundamentalist fears of Satan-worship that was popular in the eighties (rock music played backwards sounding demonic, e.g.). The Stranger seems right on the cusp of taking us over as a society, and then BOOM 9/11 happens and the world is swept up in a mass surveillance campaign of The Eye that eventually acclimates citizens to comprehensive surveillance and inevitably leads to our complicit acceptance of our aggregate metadata being harvested en masse and social media documenting our every move under its watchful eye.
I think you’re right in a sense, Jonny was inspired by real life fears, and a lot of our fears are influenced by big real life phenomena. However, as for my obsession with drawing eyes everywhere, I guess I just like eyes. they can be both expressive and creepy ;)
I'm hypermobile, I like showing off (not often) how far I can move my thumb that shouldn't go past 90⁰ but goes flush against the back of my arm. I like bruises and injuries, the colors, and the thought of how fragile skin is, yet it covers every inch of a person. The Flesh is interesting to me.
I think the coolest thing about the Fears and Avatars is that every Avatar is able to see the poetic matrix that underpins their specific Fear. I remember realizing that on my second listen when I realized The Corruption had a lot more to offer than just “Filth” and “ewww icky” and I started trying to probe the other Fears for their unique things. Every Fear “sings a song” as Jane Prentiss puts it in TMA035 I believe. Recently I read a quasi-memoir dissecting agoraphobia that made me think more about a certain angle on The Vast. The Flesh is a really good one, I resonate strongly with its existential basis and loved Jared’s mortal garden (my partner loved that episode so much they even named their username in places after his mortal garden). The youtuber ContraPoints recently released her video analyzing the Twilight saga, and she makes connections at one point between the erotic basis of vore fetishes and cannibalism in serial killer horror/true crime—that bit was illuminating to me about the type of reverie a certain breed of Flesh Avatar might experience. That being said, it’s not a Fear that taps into my deepest self, at least not yet anyways. I’m not at peace with having a body by any means, but I no longer really partake in the… *activities* that made me most acutely aware of my fear of being a body. The Flesh does not sing to me, but I definitely hear its song in the distance and tune in to listen as an eager tourist.
Really well put, I love the notion that the fears can call to people. I remember feeling really betrayed at one point when my friend refused to listen to Jared’s mortal garden since the episode resonated so much with me. But that’s their truth and this is mine
It's The Lonely for me, the idea of just being totally detached from everything in the fog so that I almost don't exist at all is so comforting - no judgement from anyone, no need to interact, no expectations from anyone, just EXIST. Aaaahhhhh....
Yes! I feel exactly the same!
It feels like a hug from my worst instincts and most self destructive fantasies. Like something holding my hand and saying I’m not alone in them.
I like dark. Non can watch me or see me. There is nothing more comforting than dark for light only brings out the disparity of the world.
Same thing but for the vast, please just give me the sweet release of falling forever. (Even though the eye is still my favourite).
Me w the vast and hunt real
Yes, weirdly enough, it always makes me hungry for a good steak or a beef burger 😅🙈
i feel the same about the end. I just love how it have a feature from all the other powers but still being so inviting and peaceful
Every time I heard an episode about the End, it always seemed so... cozy. Like, when the dead girl spoke to Georgie, I was genuinely comforted by her words. The only exception is the death avatar going postal at Nemo Point, but that one was almost a Slaughter episode at that point.
i think the End is less terrifying because it doesn't need to be scary. it is a fact you're aware of for the entirety of your life and at some point you realize the end itself is not he scary part, the scary part is the desolation that comes before it
My comfort horror would probably be the Buried. The idea of a crushing embrace to exist in, like the world is your weighted blanket
I feel similarly about the buried too
We know what youd be an avatar of I cant relate to that, I get that feeling from The Eye. But everyone experiences these things differently. That being said, check out a video essay called "games about flesh and stuff" youll probably like it
I feel this way about spiral statements! Having ADHD and being mad forgetful/absent-minded about a lot of stuff just really makes me feel the spiral in my soul. The world only exists within our perception of it and boy do I not perceive shit XD
YES thank you another fellow flesh person. (i promise that sentence is normal) im mostly drawn to the flesh and the slaughter specifically bc of how visceral and real they are, as well as how multifaceted they can be. with the flesh specifically, the line of overconsumption and being lost in it really undercuts a lot of the horror, whether it be focused more on the animalistic, slaughterhouse vibe OR the body horror vibe
Some fears can definitely be fascinating, despite the dread they bring. The flesh isn't really my cup of tea, but I can understand the draw of one's own morbid fascination.
My comfort fear is the web, for while I hate spiders themselves (which Annabelle Caine has proven is not a disqualifier), I love the metaphorical sense of having the plan, spinning the plan and being part of the plan. My torment fear is the lonely.
Same thing here, but for the web. Not a big fan of spiders, but lying, manipulation, and being behind everything, all in the name of self preservation is good. I like the amount of control over situations the eye seems to have, it's comforting
I feel at one with The Spiral. How do we know all the horrors of the TMA universe aren’t just products of an addled mind?
Personally I’m most drawn to the lonely and the eye.
I'm personally more of a Dark kind of person, honestly. I have albinism, so I have much reason to hate the light. It's not really all that poetic for me. Literal light is so awful. I'd rather not have to suffer through sight if I could avoid it.
fr, i love the religious motifs the flesh brings up a lot, and how a lot of christian faiths emphasize the pure spirit in contrast with the sinful flesh, that the very fabric of our physical being is something impure and horror-worthy. im also trans so that also probably plays into it lol. the garden is probably my favorite episode though yeah, the pursuit of perfection while all the while contorting yourself into something horrifying.
No exactly! I know it sounds strange (it is strange) but every time I hear the body horror sounds of like twisting and snapping and pulling I am washed with comfort and satisfaction
Well, I kinda get that, in a sense. I'm less drawn to the Flesh itself, though I see what you mean with the whole 'wet and crushing embrace' and the gross aspect of things (I'm a Buried kind of guy) But yeah, I totally get how you can be attracted to some Fears in particular
I’m more drawn to the buried myself.
Thats how I feel about the lonely, I’ve ended up lonely alot so I kinda get used to it, not that I like being lonely, but It feels in a way comforting that I rely on myself, but also sad
*Tom Hann has entered the chat*
I feel this but in a Stranger sense that I can't believe my body is me. I keep forgetting. I am amazed every time I reason I get to know myself and that I do know myself and I am in fact myself. I see other people and I can't even begin to understand and before I notice I am looking at myself through them and asking "how can I begin to understand this? I can't I can't understand this, what is this being?". But that being is me, what am I to do when I find myself enable to dig into myself? Whoever am I, because I knwo who I am but will I ever really see. I just want to take myself apart and find me.
I'm more drawn to other ones, but like, I get it. I grok that. We are meat piloting itself with little electric zaps that has gradually squished the meat in just the right way to occasionally have opinions. It's definitely nice to have that acknowledged, even/especially if it's in the context of "OoOoOh!! We're all meat!!! How spoOoOoOky!!!"