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Name: Alex

Age: 28

Contact: cancerously or discord at cancerously#6043

Character(s) in game: N/A

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→ CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Martin Blackwood

Age: 32

Canon: The Magnus Archives

Canon point: Episode 200, when Martin stabs Jon and the Archive collapses.

History: He's got a lot, but here's his wiki entry; as a major character he appears in the majority of episodes, so there are also links here to every episode, with transcripts. His wiki page also notes the episodes he appears in and the ones where he gives direct statements.

Personality: Martin in a nutshell is a person with good intentions who would like it if he wasn't. His life is shaped by a series of accidentally stepping into terrible situations and then lamenting the fact that if he was a worse person, he wouldn't be having the kind of trouble he is, and yet he believes too heavily in the ideals he holds for him to ever change. It's charming, or at least he'd like to hope it is. That said, he's best defined by:

Dedicated: Martin has had very few connections in his life, and he holds on to the people who will give him any kind of attention tightly. Despite his mother hating him for most of his life for looking like his father that abandoned them, he keeps to her because she loved him when he was a child. In season 1, Jon treats him horribly and tries to get rid of him, so Martin almost dies breaking into a foreign basement because he wants to bring back something extraordinary (and then proceeds to feel guilt for that hurting someone else). He is continuously attempting to prove his usefulness by sticking with anyone who will give him the time of day, because he's looking for the same kindness and dedication to be given back to him in turn. This compounds throughout the podcast from a fairly unhealthy level to an outright suicidal one, as Martin spends nearly all of season 4 almost making himself into an Avatar of the Lonely for the sake of keeping Peter Lukas away from Jon (despite being confident that it was "probably only a good way to die"). He's even the person who puts the most stock into sending the Entities to another world just so Jon could possibly be safe, even if he tries to put up some boundaries during season 5 about his involvement with the statements and the Eye. While it could be described as loyalty, it's best summed up as an active pledge he continues to make to others in search of the kindness and care he wants to receive but believes he doesn't deserve. Martin is dedicated to people because he fundamentally believes he is not enough, and he has to make up for his own existence by proving his usefulness so he'll earn the care he craves. By the end of the series he is incredibly self-aware of this and is trying to begin to heal, but it's easy for him to fall back into old habits when he's in over his head.

Manipulative: Martin was given a pretty short stick in the world of family and capitalism, and learned pretty young that if he was nice and unassuming he could slide by dangers unseen. He's underestimated by everyone, occasionally to his chagrin, but he lets it happen because he understands very well the usefulness of fading into the background. He successfully lies to everyone in the show multiple times, including Elias as an avatar of the Eye, because he's projected such a strong persona of kindness and weakness that Elias doesn't bother to use his abilities to watch him. He manages to manipulate Elias so well he gets him arrested, and Peter Lukas so successfully that he believes Martin is fully dedicated to the Lonely after just a number of months. Finally, none of this is an accident- he spends a lot of time lying his way out of problems and then keeping those close to his chest, because it's the way he knows how to survive- and sometimes it feels like it's all he deserves.

Guilty: Touching upon the first two points, one of Martin's biggest defining traits is his ability to take on everything as his fault. When he's in his domain talking to himself in Season 5, he spends an entire scene roasting himself for feeling guilty over his mother's death, Jon's suffering, and the end of the world- even when fundamentally he actively did none of those things. Guilt is one of his primary motivations throughout the series; having barely received positive feedback, he fixates on his mistakes and the problems they bring to try and avoid them in the future. Martin wants to be a good person and does his best not to hurt others, but holds himself to high standards because he's acutely aware of all of his actions. His persona is so cultivated that he convinces himself he is fully in control of his actions and his world, and when he messes up, it's his fault. Despite not treating other people this way (he repeatedly tells Jon the apocalypse was not his fault even if Jon performed the action) and reassuring them of their powerlessness in the situation, his guilt is the primary way he follows his moral compass- and to do that, he believes must always be wrong.

Kind: While it would be easy for Martin to become a conniving and hardened person based on the way he's been treated, he vehemently refuses to continue a cycle of hurt that has been brought upon him. Martin is a strong believer in being a balm to the world and approaches even people who have drastically hurt him with the best of intentions. Even after Martin finds out Elias is a murderer and has actively tortured Melanie, he still won't kill him and insists on getting him taken alive. He has an argument with Tim in episode 79 where he says "I want everyone to be fine, and, you know what? If we were all happy that wouldn’t actually be the end of the world." He's understanding of situations and acutely aware of circumstance, but he actively chooses the softer way every time and is ultimately concerned with doing good and helping the people he cares about. At multiple points in the series we see different avatars try to play on the fact that Martin is a liar and a heavily hurt perso, and believe he could easily fall to despair and ruin. However, a defining part of Martin's character is his dedication to his kind ideals, even (and especially sometimes) at the expense of his own well-being. This has its own pros and cons, as he's prone to idealism and failing to solve problems as he searches for another option, but his intentions are always to make something better.

Stubborn: This is one of Martin's best and worst traits all in one. It takes a certain amount of determination to make it through life's hardships, and his ability to stay alive is at least a quarter based on spite at any given time. His motivations to his life are incredibly external, and much of what he does is to prove someone else (or even himself) wrong. He's prone to large actions and occasionally overdramatic solutions- when he needs to get Elias to focus on him so Melanie can get into his office, he decides the obviously suitable answer is arson. When it becomes apparent Jon can actively kill other avatars in the apocalypse without pushback, he directly encourages him to "go full Kill Bill" on the situation. Martin could be a master manipulator and control himself at the level of Elias if he didn't simply get so miffed when people think he's adorable, despite that being exactly the kind of soft person he wants to portray. He's stubborn even against his own interpretations of himself, in the end, because despite it all he's determined to survive and doesn't want to be told what to do.

Suitability: Martin's life is driven by guilt, and there's no way he doesn't carry it here when he figures out this is the world that the Entities were (theoretically) sent to and therefore the people he's doomed. Due to this and being given another chance, he's determined to make sure the apocalypse doesn't happen in this new world. This is as close to a fresh start as he could practically have hoped since he's here before the apocalypse, and with the knowledge he has now he has a chance to make a difference and find a better 'ending' to it all.

Powers/Abilities: For the most part, Martin is inherently mundane- his ability to get people to talk to him freely and do as he suggests are a byproduct of society, not the supernatural. That said, during the time he was strongly affiliated with the Lonely we do see that he picks up the ability to make himself disappear, even from mid conversation. This implies that if he were to have become a full avatar of the Lonely he likely would have had access to abilities we see from other Lonely-aligned people (such as Peter Lukas), but ultimately, he's acutely aware these abilities would require serving the Lonely and would not consider them inherently a part of his "power" set.

Entity Affinity: Due to canon being as it is, Martin is a bit of a special case to the single-entity rule. He's been actively scouted by at least four different dread powers, directly served three (not that he always knew) and nearly became a full avatar of the Lonely and could have become one of the Eye as well. We have Annabelle Caine mention in episode 196 he was originally part of her plans to further the Web and did assist with her spying, albeit unintentionally. In addition, we hear from Jon that the Eye is "fond of him (Martin)" for serving it in the Archives and his affiliation with Jon, and his domain in the apocalypse is known particularly as "one part Lonely, one part Watching".

That said, canonically speaking and in fairness to the abilites he's previously shown and therefore could cultivate again if he had some real negative character development, I feel it's best to officially align him with the Lonely. He still has a high affiliation with the Eye as shown in his domain, but for the sake of choosing one, other entities are largely due to his connection to Jon or others as opposed to him directly powering those specific powers. If he is allowed to have two, though, he absolutely stands at the crossroads of watching and lonely- wanting to be seen but never being found.

Inventory: The clothes on his back, glasses on his face, and a few tea bags in his pockets he most certainly forgot about.

Samples: TDM toplevel!