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Statement taken from...
Dec. 4th, 2019 01:11 amThe more I listen to the Magnus Archives (on episode 94, "Dead Woman Walking" right now), the more I desperately want Jon/the Archivist to take statements from Dresden, Molly, Michael, Charity, and the rest of Dresden's friends. Maybe some of the Carpenter children, maybe little Maggie. Part of some kind of spitefic-fueled investigation into He Who Walks Behind, or something like that. Or maybe just as the Magnus Institute's chronicle of the events leading up to and fallout of Changes and maybe Cold Days.
Honestly, the more I listen to the Magnus Archives, the more annoyed I am at Butcher's shotty worldbuilding for things like the Paranet and Ivy the Archive and the Venatori Umbrorum/the Venatori. Like goddamn, What Could Have Been.
Not just in the sense of looking at the Magnus Institute and thinking, "Goddamn, this is how you write Eldritch Horror bureaucracy properly", but also in like... just... The Magnus Archives just does Lovecraftian horror better than the Dresden Files. (Even with the whole "techbane" thing!) In large part because the Magnus Archives is also actually a mystery, on top of being a horror podcast, while the Dresden Files is... Well, just look at Gehayi's Grave Peril review, if you want to see how spectacularly Butcher fails at writing THAT. The Dresden Files is an comic book-esque action adventure series wearing a fedora and a trench coat and calling itself a noir mystery, essentially.
There's also the fact that the Magnus Archives doesn't have the gratuitous and frankly sloppy uses of rape and sexual violence and abuse that the DF does. Any, actually, as far as I've gotten. The Magnus Archives also has queer characters that- shock horror!- actually exist in the world and do things! Even if some of them are the statement-givers for some episodes (at least one of the side characters are queer, and Jonathan Sims, the Archivist himself, is bi ace, iirc), I'll take it. Even the ones that end up dead or bad guys are damn sure treated with more respect and more like actual people than Butcher ever treated literally any of the queer characters in his goddamn series.
(I- I won't go into all the ways Butcher does that in his series here. If you've read the DF, you know what I'm talking about. I don't feel like going on a rant about it now.)
Anyway. Back to doing Eldritch Bureaucracy properly. The archives of the Magnus Institute are what I would expect the archives of the White Council to be like, if only Butcher ever let his characters actually investigate, experiment, improve upon, and invent things. Or Ivy the Archive's records, or the records of organizations like the Paranet- organizations that, realistically, would've existed LONG BEFORE Dresden and Elaine founded them (the Paranet) at the end of White Night. I no, goddamn it, I will NEVER not be bitter that we didn't get any of those sooner. And listening to the Magnus Archives podcast is basically exactly why.
It could've been SO INTERESTING to see chronicles of all the weird shit that happened throughout Dresden Files history, recorded by different groups and maybe eventually collected by the Council or the Archive or groups like the Fellowship of St. Giles. Even groups like the Ordo Lebes and the Paranet. I'm so mad we never got anything like that in canon- and probably never will, as short of rewriting the whole damned series, I don't see how something like the Magnus Institute could exist in the DF. Since apparently humans are, according to Butcher, just that uninterested and afraid of the world around them, that willing to disregard whatever frightens them that they don't understand.
I'm not even making that up- that is literally Word of God. From the Reddit thread "Breaking the masquerade- What would be the consequences? (All spoilers)":
"Though, seriously, there's no masquerade. There's no need for one. Give the humans an excuse, and they'll ignore anything that makes them uncomfortable."
Hell, the Magnus Archives even did the whole "cops/the government are in the know" thing better with the whole Section 31 business.
Anyway, yeah. I'd love to see Jon take some statements from Dresden, Molly, and the rest of the cast regarding Molly's "apprenticeship" under Dresden. Maybe from Lea, too- and Mab. If Jon could handle them. And also from Michael and Sanya, regarding the jobs they worked with Dresden, and what Dresden did. And then... Anyone, really- anyone and everyone, regarding Susan Rodriguez, and everything she did. And the Mendoza family. It'd be nice for little Maggie to be able to have some stories about Susan, and what a hero she was, and about her (Maggie's) first adoptive family.
I wonder if Jon could take statements from Mouse? I mean, I think the Archivist position comes with some sort of All Tongue feature, so... Fuck it, why not.
Honestly, the more I listen to the Magnus Archives, the more annoyed I am at Butcher's shotty worldbuilding for things like the Paranet and Ivy the Archive and the Venatori Umbrorum/the Venatori. Like goddamn, What Could Have Been.
Not just in the sense of looking at the Magnus Institute and thinking, "Goddamn, this is how you write Eldritch Horror bureaucracy properly", but also in like... just... The Magnus Archives just does Lovecraftian horror better than the Dresden Files. (Even with the whole "techbane" thing!) In large part because the Magnus Archives is also actually a mystery, on top of being a horror podcast, while the Dresden Files is... Well, just look at Gehayi's Grave Peril review, if you want to see how spectacularly Butcher fails at writing THAT. The Dresden Files is an comic book-esque action adventure series wearing a fedora and a trench coat and calling itself a noir mystery, essentially.
There's also the fact that the Magnus Archives doesn't have the gratuitous and frankly sloppy uses of rape and sexual violence and abuse that the DF does. Any, actually, as far as I've gotten. The Magnus Archives also has queer characters that- shock horror!- actually exist in the world and do things! Even if some of them are the statement-givers for some episodes (at least one of the side characters are queer, and Jonathan Sims, the Archivist himself, is bi ace, iirc), I'll take it. Even the ones that end up dead or bad guys are damn sure treated with more respect and more like actual people than Butcher ever treated literally any of the queer characters in his goddamn series.
(I- I won't go into all the ways Butcher does that in his series here. If you've read the DF, you know what I'm talking about. I don't feel like going on a rant about it now.)
Anyway. Back to doing Eldritch Bureaucracy properly. The archives of the Magnus Institute are what I would expect the archives of the White Council to be like, if only Butcher ever let his characters actually investigate, experiment, improve upon, and invent things. Or Ivy the Archive's records, or the records of organizations like the Paranet- organizations that, realistically, would've existed LONG BEFORE Dresden and Elaine founded them (the Paranet) at the end of White Night. I no, goddamn it, I will NEVER not be bitter that we didn't get any of those sooner. And listening to the Magnus Archives podcast is basically exactly why.
It could've been SO INTERESTING to see chronicles of all the weird shit that happened throughout Dresden Files history, recorded by different groups and maybe eventually collected by the Council or the Archive or groups like the Fellowship of St. Giles. Even groups like the Ordo Lebes and the Paranet. I'm so mad we never got anything like that in canon- and probably never will, as short of rewriting the whole damned series, I don't see how something like the Magnus Institute could exist in the DF. Since apparently humans are, according to Butcher, just that uninterested and afraid of the world around them, that willing to disregard whatever frightens them that they don't understand.
I'm not even making that up- that is literally Word of God. From the Reddit thread "Breaking the masquerade- What would be the consequences? (All spoilers)":
"Though, seriously, there's no masquerade. There's no need for one. Give the humans an excuse, and they'll ignore anything that makes them uncomfortable."
Hell, the Magnus Archives even did the whole "cops/the government are in the know" thing better with the whole Section 31 business.
Anyway, yeah. I'd love to see Jon take some statements from Dresden, Molly, and the rest of the cast regarding Molly's "apprenticeship" under Dresden. Maybe from Lea, too- and Mab. If Jon could handle them. And also from Michael and Sanya, regarding the jobs they worked with Dresden, and what Dresden did. And then... Anyone, really- anyone and everyone, regarding Susan Rodriguez, and everything she did. And the Mendoza family. It'd be nice for little Maggie to be able to have some stories about Susan, and what a hero she was, and about her (Maggie's) first adoptive family.
I wonder if Jon could take statements from Mouse? I mean, I think the Archivist position comes with some sort of All Tongue feature, so... Fuck it, why not.
