Season 4 Q+A Part 2

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hello again welcome to mangas archive

season for Q&A session to not to part

two because we we have a lot to question

to furious

yep and from our perspective we stopped

to the questions have stopped for five

minutes before immediately pressing on

with a new round of questions and so

with that in mind then I’m gonna do an a

two question Boogaloo Q&A to the

quickening and jump into the first

question here and I to Q&A harder this

one’s at an airport but it’s basically

the same thing Miri asks was been aware

before the last few episodes of season

four that Elias was possessed by Jonah

Magnus if not when did you guys tell him

and what was his reaction oh when did he

find out season it’s really weird

because what different voice actors do

and don’t know he’s often kind of

determined by them

it’s non-standardized because generally

will will lay out all of their story to

them pretty much from the off but also

we’re really bad not just massively

talking spoilers when we’re in the

production space so some voice actors

will face specifically is very keen to

not be spoiled direct which is lovely

because they are very into actually

listening along lid used to really not

like spoilers she gave up the complain

gave up the struggle at some point

they’re just like yeah okay just tell me

what happened says some people argue

that you give a better portrayal if you

don’t know what’s gonna be coming

natural I argue the opposite and that I

think it leads to better script reading

if you do know the destination because

you can focus on like the foreshadowing

and making the bits that matter land

more and so on it is up for debate is

like that there are different schools of

directing but generally speaking I are

on the side of telling people pretty

much their arc as far as it’s reasonable

so I wouldn’t like insert one tell

someone how they’re gonna end in season

5 yeah we told Ben all right from the

off that Elias was one of the big bands

yeah we didn’t go into a lot of detail

with him at the time both because Jonah

Magnus as a thing hadn’t been fully

fleshed out for us yeah

and also because he hadn’t even been

mentioned in the series at that point so

there wouldn’t have been any context for

Ben to understand anyway Ben irrelevance

his characterization we laid out

everything about Elias to him early

season 3 shortly before the shortly

before the big villainous turn

yeah Ben knew he was the big bad

straight out of the gate he didn’t know

didn’t wait no he knew he was bad so he

knew he was a big bad he didn’t think he

was an arbitrary bad yeah and and then

yeah end of season 2 beginning of season

3 were like here’s the nature of your

badness but I don’t have a specific date

or anything

no and generally Ben has been one of the

ones who I’ve always enjoyed his

reactions to discovering the twists

quite a lot with different voice actors

some of them are like oh cool

some of them like oh okay

Ben is very much a sort of like

unappreciative like oh but Owen eNOS Oh

Ben Ben’s very expressive and I feel

safe and saying with Ben what makes me

laugh is Ben doesn’t hide if he doesn’t

approve of a story move as well yeah so

if you give him a story move and he

doesn’t think it makes sense it will

immediately be a hmm right

okay hmm what until you know until he

gets the remaining character things that

are relevant has happened for Magnus

once where he’s none of it I can’t

remember what it was I think it was

something like why is he killing

lightning who’s like cool thing I don’t

know because we gave him the script

before we’d laid out going yeah it’s a

cool story move I don’t understand why

this is happening and he doesn’t do that

oh he goes a cool desert there’s a

problem that needs solving

yep then the second that he’s given the

context it goes okay cool great but yeah

that sounds like that might have been

the time we actually laid everything

like that my actually so that’s even

earlier than we think

okay in that case then I am going to

carry on with a little bit which is a

similar CMP which is how much the

backstory to the general cast know in

advance yeah we kind of covered this a

little bit in the last question the

answer is it’s very much up to them most

of them I think know a random smattering

of significant upcoming twists and

though not from season 5 actually I was

gonna say we’re now in a really weird

situation where four

most people yeah oh saying this is

what’s gonna happen has generally

resulted in and then the world ends yeah

so we’re actually in a week very soon

you either Mars formers now what happens

after the war man so now we’re in a

situation where I’d actually say

performers know the least about their

arcs yeah then they have four years

because everyone was always satisfied

with and then the world and yeah I think

then was the only one who of course goes

but then what you know yeah Ben knows a

little bit of what’s so that’s coming he

does but yeah it’s always weird having

people what’s of people within the wider

Rustique well family who sort of come

into Magnus because they love oz most

stuff from a production point of view

like when we brought helen is the

therapist which Oh incidentally that’s

mmm I I’m really sad about Helen as the

therapist just because everyone decided

that she sounded really spooky and thus

was really plot relevant and I was like

oh no we just we forgot to cast someone

cuz it was such a small bit we ran out

yeah we ran out of people to cast like

everyone who was on our casting books

was either unavailable out of the

country or already cast in other roles

by that plan then Helen was there for a

game II recording and like we’d kind of

pencil there in for some stuff in season

five yeah but we were like okay well

it’s it’s fine it’s a very small role

it’s just like three lines no one’s

gonna really notice play we can reuse

you in season five but now everyone

decided that the therapist was massively

significant and massively infused the

seeking character in season four it was

just meant to be a playful swipe at the

black tapes and Tanis and the bright

sessions all the ones where it’s like

okay so now we’re going to get a lot of

story through these tape recordings of a

therapy session I thought it’d be really

funny to have a oh can I record these

therapy sessions for exposition no Yukon

no exhaustion no exhibition I thought

that’d be a really funny little joke

didn’t come by that no everyone has been

hanging theories on it and I’m like ha

that’s that’s not ideal is it too late

to make the therapist

Jonas therapist’s okay um how did you go

about scripting and editing the sounds

of the apocalypse in the season finale

well from script

inside I think what was it something

long lines of the world goes horribly

wrong everything is bad forever I think

that’s the stage direction or as close

as it gets

yeah in terms of or do I am going to

reveal something I didn’t think I was

gonna reveal but I’m feeling I’m feeling

honest a tailing fruity I don’t like my

soundscape for that episode at the end I

don’t feel like I did it just this

properly if I had another stab at it I

think I could do a better job however

that is in a way where I know in my

heart of hearts that the only person

that you won’t tell the difference

between the one I would make and that

one is me in terms of how it was made

bizarrely I actually use loads of

leftovers from the lonely I need loads a

soundscape experimentation with the

lonely and ended up with a few that were

completely inappropriate for the lonely

but quite useful however the soundscape

for the apocalypse is actually a bit too

dense there’s more layers than the human

is really going to be able to pick up on

and so there are things like pitch

shifted into slowed down screams there

are some winds from an actual desert in

there like a to talk there are a oh

there’s a really peculiar distortion

that I managed to stumble on where

basically it is the sound of a magnetic

tape breaking like a weird cape but yeah

again it’s a bit it sounds strange

I probably strip a bit out and make it a

bit clearer what’s going on if I have it

my way and too much detail on that one I

think disagree story questions alright

let’s head it this one’s from bells good

question higher this one will we get any

more information about the original

Elias Bouchard maybe yeah maybe like his

major contribution to the story is

having his eyes necked history but that

doesn’t mean he won’t that we won’t find

out a bit more about him I think more

context was probably going to come

through at some point I don’t think it

is something upon which the entire story

will pivot no it’s not it’s not Elias

centric masterpiece yeah the pre Jonah

Elias is not super plot significant

but that doesn’t mean he won’t get a

little bit more exploration if we have

time well honestly he’s just not that

interesting a guy no that’s kind of the

point of him like he’s in in my in my

mind he’s kind of a lightly posh

dickhead who just kind of coasted

through uni and landed a just a weird

little academic job and crucially didn’t

have a lot of connections who would miss

him if something were to happen to his

eye color or shape or presence right

onto a writing question specifically

this one’s from des I find that writing

and working on intensive dark material

can often be mentally / emotionally

taxing how do you especially along takes

sessions or scenes take care of yourself

oh this is actually something I’m not

great at I find that the emotional

aspect doesn’t get to me as much because

I tend not to write things that I

personally find too emotionally draining

sometimes it will end up in that

territory especially with like the

lonely yeah but for the most part are

you right the sort of horror that though

it might give me that sort of who scare

as I’m writing it it’s not going to the

emotion I’m getting from it it’s a sort

of kind of slightly sadistically I guess

so I don’t find the writing of that

super draining well I’m bad at is

unvarying cruncher which is something

I’ve been gradually getting better over

the course of Magnus certainly early on

my challenge was not shotgunning

the writing of two episodes like the day

before recording and absolutely

destroying my sleep pattern within

recordings itself a lot of us just drink

a lot of water take regular breaks don’t

scream so much that all the oxygen

leaves the room and you all start to

feel dizzy yeah that’s the thing you get

used to that you were climatized so you

really do from my perspective I’m quite

lucky in that I’ve said before sometimes

I’m a bit weird when it comes to the

writing side no matter what I’ve written

or no matter of what I’ve worked on it

doesn’t occupy the same part of me as

actual real world emotion

for me scripts even when I’m writing the

most emotional thing ever are still

almost a puzzle to be solved and so it

doesn’t have that effect on me I would

say in terms of other cast this season

has definitely been the one that has

prompted the most emotional responses

from performers again 90% of it due to

the lonely if I’m honest and there has

been ones where part being a director is

learning to read the room and part of

that is being like cool I don’t know we

are behind schedule for an hour we still

now need to take a 15-minute break

because if we don’t you’re going to

break someone or you’re gonna end up

just completely ruining a recording day

because no one’s in a state to record

and things like also there’s if somebody

sort of comes into the recording in the

bad way because of stuff outside yeah

the show you’ve got make sure to just

give them the space they need and

fundamentally work around it because

their well-being is always going to be

100% more important than whatever your

own artistic vision might be the

self-care thing is really important it’s

extremely important on the artistic side

because we have been exposed to a lot of

false narratives that sacrifice of self

is a necessity for artistic endeavor and

I don’t believe that is the case I think

that yet you altima tu have to put time

into the thing that you make but there

has it has mutated over the years into

the ideas that you have - yeah yeah you

have to punish yourself in order to make

something of worth and it’s not true

also I think the the overwhelming

narrative that’s is built up that your

productivity is your value Oh is

something that we both struggle with I

think and the worst thing is that it

doesn’t actually make you more

productive because it just makes you

feel worse when you’re not doing stuff

really really high in a way that they

don’t need to be it just means that if

you’re not doing work you feel really

bad it doesn’t actually mean you’re

doing more work and it’s something that

I think we both still struggle with but

it’s a very important thing to learn

creativity is not stick to hit yourself

with yeah people and productivity

has become the new way of disguising the

old idea it’s the whole thing of like Oh

on my seventh cup of coffee and I

haven’t slept because I’ve been don’t

don’t do that it’s not a good thing

yeah people are right summing them yeah

we’re we’re still actively struggling I

will never ever do the thing of like

each when people brag about oh you know

I’m getting by on like four hours sleep

so what are you doing what stop sleep is

good if nothing else it’s inefficient

okay here we go

you’ve got to maintain the engine and

that’s real that’s real evil here is the

inefficiency of it as a system I would

say it is about your own well-being and

was what’s this we’re finally dropping

caricatures and laying bare it bugs me

because you’re making life harder for

yourself in the long run trading off

your long term for your short term

doesn’t work it goes wrong you’re not

running a podcast job I should bring

mostly I’m gonna bring this body let’s

write okay sure sure sure

Oh interesting okay this one’s from

orchid Alex what was it like to voice

Martin while he was in forsaken staying

with the the high truth which I’m trying

to do for this QA actually really

annoying because it just so happens at

the time we were in a real quad mire of

production issues it was when the stuff

was going wrong with allister’s audio

and the technical stuff and blah blah

blah it’s really really difficult when a

day of production is going down the

toilet to then go and now I’m sad and

kind of distant because if you want to

do is go away so so problematically calm

yeah I would love I would love to give a

real deep like exposed my core of my

being nobody was like honestly 90% of it

was just trying to take how a day is

going a bad day putting it in a box

putting it on the shelf and getting the

audio it took more takes and it should

have oh god I’m sorry I’m just

remembering the when we were recording

the

the cabin Sainz and you just over I had

rich so this is really really a lot of

foot pain you’d like - and it was giving

you this weird manic energy and I was

like weird house like no it’s its

domestic it’s chill it’s relaxed it’s a

respite before all the the horror and

that’s what yeah yeah yeah yeah of

course I’ll let you know if I see any

good cows good cows not good we have a

complete retake it was not good

here’s something useful in terms of

points of reference in order to play

Martin in that situation due to varying

situations

I have spent chunks of time around

people who are on things like and heavy

neural inhibitors things like that more

finish is like a pain medication things

things like that so of all the things I

weighed Lee used that as a bit of a

touchstone but in terms of again whether

it emotionally upset me or anything I’m

really sorry mostly I was angry when I

was recording those lines that might not

be as glamorous and my heart-rending

shouts for Martin were mainly just us

doing it again again trying to get the

exact levels right so that they weren’t

clipping but what also clearly shouted

and Jenny was being really good with me

because I was I was gay I was getting

real antsy I was taking real antsy that

day okay we’re gonna abandon that for a

little bit so I can just forget the

memories sure just forget that feeling

and not get that manic energy back we’re

gonna go on to talking a bit more about

story again yep specifically from

Constantine Valda mm-hmm given the

actions Eric and Melanie took to leave

the archives what extreme actions would

one need to take to sever their

connection to other entities oh so

you’re talking like old us how would you

throw a roadblock against the desolation

or how would you do the same against the

end things like I don’t feel like that

is an option for the end unless you know

I mean all actions with that would get

you further in because it’s sharing an

obsession at the end kind of is yeah

like the ends or the ends actually a

really interesting one because because

it works very strongly in both

directions I mean that like the the

thing to do with the end is essentially

what Georgie ends up accidentally doing

which is just no longer fearing it just

check out just like an in George’s case

it wasn’t something that she feels that

like

after a certain point she did choose it

but it’s–but maki it’s a it’s it’s a

it’s a sort of gray area yeah that’s a

real good question

because it’s it’s not about the physical

action it’s about the categorical and

very concrete rejection also via dream

logic as well yeah like via via sort of

fairytale dream logic oh I don’t know

this is one we’re gonna have to be able

to answer on this for the simple reason

that it’s actually gonna require quite a

lot of thought yeah I mean it’s like

I’ll be honest it took quite a while to

nail down for the for the beholding

because like while it while it’s

technically a very simple act a very

simple answer

it took a quite a journey to actually

arrive at that as the there were sort of

various drafts and it was only when we

like came over that we were like yes

Alworth that’s that’s the one I don’t

even have another something like the

desolation if you were to legitimately

sacrifice your life for someone you

loved I suppose but the Saints I care

has been severed from an entity if

you’re really well well if it would be

if you survived okay like I don’t think

the pure altruism so yeah like like it

would need to like I think for the

desolation like a pure act of altruistic

love but at the same time that’s not

quite as that’s not quite as concrete as

like I need to you need to blind

yourself because what we need to do to

destroy your eyes what we would do is we

have to take that as an idea and then

find a simpler physical action to

manifest that emotional and I don’t know

what that would be like I said it’s a

really good question where I go the

stranger the stranger

you got a run through the town centre

nude spare it all no disguises and if

anyone you know draws attention you have

to engage them in a conversation you

don’t just you don’t just follow you

what you walk through and you engage

people you’re very very honest about

what you’re doing absolutely they that

work

oh the flesh you go veggie that’s not

that’s not correct you know well I know

that’s that’s gonna jump me back to this

is gonna jump me back to a question on

casters right this is from Hannah sure

is Johnny a vegetarian honestly after

all the meat content

I might just become one myself no my

relationship with meat is as you might

have guessed complicated basically I’m

not a vegetarian I wasn’t a vegetarian

at the beginning it was much more of

fear about body horror and gore and then

in episode 30 I did a bunch of research

into habit was and was like oh no the

industrialized meat industry is real bad

and it’s been something of a you know a

low-key struggle since because I really

I really like meat and at this point I

don’t eat a lot of it especially cuz a

lot of other people in my life are

vegetarian or vegan so like most of the

meals that that I cook at home or the

wheat at home are vegetarian but I was

still generally you know I might get a

get a steak if we’re going out to eat or

a burger or that sort of thing so I feel

that I am light I consider to be a

conscientious meat-eater even though

that’s kind of a contradiction in terms

but you do have a coherent sort of set

of rules what counts as people and not

oh yeah also I have occasionally seen

people being like oh this guy’s got to

be a vegetarian cuz he keeps saying that

there’s no difference between human meat

and animal meat and we all know the

other way around in that I don’t fit

like let’s be clear probably wouldn’t

eat I mean I wouldn’t just eat a person

okay I wouldn’t I want you to text where

I would I mean know know that there are

content like this is this is the point

like I feel that I mean obviously prion

disease aside like I wouldn’t actually

because prion diseases are God but I

don’t fundamentally see a difference

between

eating other meats and eating human

mates like you need like a short pithy

like three words thick don’t kill people

and also going notice me but no meters

meters me but like also if someone was

dying and was like hey after I die cut

me up and ate me I probably would so

diving in then just cuz I know this

specific thing about you corvids people

or not people corvids people octopus

people are not people that I have a list

of a list of animals in my head that I

consider people let’s see octopuses

corvids dolphins Apes Apes if I believe

an animal is capable of choosing or

elephants 100% people if I believe that

an animal is capable of choosing to do

evil there are elephant serial killers

true corvids

will pass down their vengeance list Oh

children I know this is why I say it’s a

very personal thing okay because I don’t

really have a solid like this is what

evil is but at the same time I can be

like okay so these dolphins helped Dick

Van Dyke when he floated out to see

these dolphins murder baby seals for fun

those are clearly actions that are not

being taken based on instinct because

different dolphins are engaging with the

exact same thing in different ways some

of which are cruel and some of which are

altruistic it’s it’s a very weird very

personal thing but honestly I think if

an animal is capable of doing something

and I’m like you know what that was a

dick move and you could have not done

that I think it’s a person I love that

your criteria for what constitutes like

a person is are they capable of badness

okay it’s not are they capable of

badness it’s would I judge them for

being bad like if a dog does something

bad I’m like ah that’s a real shame the

owners messed up that dog was following

what it’s been taught was from its

instincts I don’t blame the dog but an

octopus

the climbs out is totally an activist

that climbed the king around the saying

every night unscrews the lid to it stank

climbs out loses itself across the

aquarium floor into other fish tanks

eats the fish losses back out back into

its own tank and then screws the lid

back on that’s a bad octopus so what

we’re saying Hannah is thank you for a

question that I knew it immediately

opened a can of worms problematic now

[Laughter]

Charlie sins definite cannibal never in

the human we’ve got a move on I’m

confirmed ok so this is a production

question from fawni when you record as

Martin in the archivist how often you

recording together in the same place

versus recording separately and

combining the dialogue in post we’re

always together there has been one time

where we haven’t and it is because a

single line needed to pick up from okay

so let’s let’s be clear all my dialogue

is recorded with Alex in the room

sometimes there be martinized that he’s

recorded in isolation to drop in but all

my lines are recorded in the presence of

Alex follow on question from playfully

evil has Johnny actually been in the

same room as Alastair Stewart yet or if

they never managed it once we had to be

fair of men Alastair in other scenarios

but we were recording together for the

final the big confrontation between

Peter and the archivist yeah this ROM is

from theatre underscore ghost 98 sure I

want to know about the other 97 melanie

had protection from being a part of the

archivists nightmare zoo for lack of a

better term because she worked for the

institute right she lose that after she

quit

or is she exempt because she can’t see

anymore oh I don’t think we actually we

actually address this directly

it hasn’t been addressed in a series I

would probably say like if he’s not on

the text it’s not canon my head cam

would probably be that severing our

connection with the I probably means

that she doesn’t i nightmare zoo but

also it would only have been for a short

time anyway because the rules have

changed changed significantly so will do

for one from an alert his Jan Kilbride

still alive in the Buried

and John said it didn’t help that

Gertrude killed him before chocking him

in yeah kinda I think that’s all we can

really say yeah

chucking someone into one of the

entities is probably a bad idea of

regardless of whether they’re alive or

dead correct I haven’t really worked out

the details of John kill Brides

situation and how much it is still a

situation but it’s probably not great

from demon cleric were agape and the

monster pig animals that became avatars

know what a good question huh I’ve

mainly been conceiving of them as

monsters in the sense of direct

expressions of the entities that pigs a

plane that can make choices Johnny no

pigs III don’t think pigs are quite

people they’re they’re they are they’re

on the cusp okay on the cusp

I personally don’t quite think they’re

people but I respect those who were

dissing okay okay but yeah you could

100% see them as avatars although

actually not in the case of monster pig

because monster pig emerge like turned

up from nowhere yes if there was a

particularly horrid pig but multiple it

wasn’t yeah AGGA paid maybe like as I’ve

said I don’t personally conceive of dogs

as people enough to necessarily believe

that any choice they would make would be

concrete enough to constitute to

constitute a pledge yeah but it’s a

really interesting thought and I am very

confident that there are going to be a

lot of fan fics out there that explore

it far better than I would on to another

writing one restaurants from alesis

Johnny can you talk about how the Magnus

archives comments on capitalism and

getting tangled in systems of oppression

not really because it’s all it’s all in

it’s all in the Magnus archives like I’m

broadly speaking I think capitalism’s a

big and it’s systems of oppression are

real bad but it’s all very complicated

because

it’s impossible to extricate yourself

from the system and if you do extricate

yourself from the system how much that

is actually helping to dismantle the

system is difficult but also when you’re

within a system working to dismantle it

is really difficult as well because the

system is designed in order to take your

efforts to dismantle it and channel

them into reinforcing different aspects

of it and it’s all a big wobbly

complicated unpleasant mess and you know

you could theoretically say that’s

analogous to the fears a bit there’s an

additional factor here as well which is

worth bearing in mind which is just

because of the nature of like people who

are engaged in the arts and so on as a

group we do tend to lean left

so that will affect the things that we

make as a direct result of that but I

wouldn’t say that it is written entirely

as a treatise and manifesto no but like

it’s it’s very much yeah it’s as I’ve

said before it’s very much our

examination of a lot of these thoughts

and topics and yeah capitalism is

definitely one of the one of the most

cohesive metaphorical frameworks but I

think there are quite a lot of other

metaphors that you can use it for it’s

it’s about being caught in systems

bigger than yourself which i think is

what cosmic horror speaks to yeah yeah I

think it’s it’s useful because it’s a

useful real-world large-scale system

that people get swallowed by or you

could also look at it as analogous to

finding yourself working under a

totalitarian or fascist regime yeah like

the idea of like well no you you have to

participate in an actively harmful

system or you will yourself receive harm

what is like what is the moral thing to

do in that situation yeah it’s difficult

questions and not no easy didactic

answers at least not from not from me

well then let’s let’s jump on to one

that I think you can have an easy answer

to show from Nimbus it’s been nagging me

since I started producing fun work back

in season one mm-hmm

does the Institute have a dress code yes

it’s on like maybe page eight of the

Institute policies and people read it

and then they look around and see that

most people kind of disregard it it’s

unnecessarily arcane in how it’s written

yeah like it doesn’t give any examples

but it word appropriate is used like 14

times with no reference to haggling via

peer very much there so that if a lice

needs to call someone up on something

keyless below and your dress is

acceptable oh you know is the Magnus

archives equivalent of loitering that’s

what it is it’s it’s loitering it’s a

rule that only comes into effect if I

need to punish you for so no one in the

archives has ever been pulled up on it

and it’s a bit of a sore point around

the rest of the Institute that the

archives staff always look just

absolutely horrendous and no one ever

says boo where is like David in research

he wore jeans that were slightly shorter

than the intent doesn’t sound

appropriate to me there wasn’t a proper

apparently was appropriate he wore them

with sandals it’s the thing that’s why I

sent a prayer like he’d bought one

before with like proper shoes and no one

has said anything but weirdly when he

put them with sandals it was the jeans

trip hazard sandals are a trip hazard

well but he didn’t mention the sandals

oh he was talking about the jeans so

where’s where’s the line okay call from

lunar quill

how’d you always plan to release the

final episode of season four on

Halloween or was it just a lucky

coincidence I can answer this one really

easily originally we were hoping not to

need to have a midseason hiatus so

Halloween wasn’t on the cards once a

midseason hiatus was on the cards we sat

down run the numbers in one well ending

the world had this length that would

just be better just be swell so it does

mean as well rather foolishly that

midseason hiatus was a little bit

shorter than it should have been also

there was a real danger because it was

almost on brexit day man I’ll be honest

I was absolutely terrified that our

episode about ending the world would be

forever associated with brexit day but

this does lead on to a pretty heavy

question actually which I think a lot of

people will want to know for various

reasons from lunatic poet for both of

you

have you experienced creative burnout

while working on this podcast if so how

do you normally recover from that sort

of burnout yeah some of season two some

season three to a certain degree I had

to push through the burnout which was

real bad news generally it’s not

something that you can force a recovery

from you’ve just got to kind of be kind

to yourself

actively ensure that you have the

downtime don’t be yourself up for taking

the the time to recover and just wait

for it to get a bit better I was it was

lucky that I don’t think it overlaps

with any of the massively significant

episodes so it was very much

I was drew from a lot of stuff that

wasn’t Magnus or day job aside from

those two things I was mainly just kind

of locked down in recovery mode creative

burnout hasn’t been too much of an issue

for me for the simple reason of that one

of the sad truths about running the

business side of things is that frankly

I don’t get as much creative output as I

would like a lot of what I’m doing at

the moment is working with other

people’s ideas

which is an enjoyable thing in a nervous

own right but I haven’t done the sit

down and write for like two days solid

in a long time I haven’t done it to be

fair thinking about it my burnout was

less was less creative and more writing

in terms of the actual process of

writing like I could still conceive of

episodes yeah yeah it was you’ve never

just been dry no which is good but also

like worrying because it’ll happen

someday and I’m a little bit dreading

when it happens but no it was the the

burnout was much more in the sense of he

was just a really really physically

uncomfortable and difficult thing to sit

down and type out the words yeah I’d

love to give people advice on how to

deal with burnout I don’t really have a

solution mine comes out in slightly

weird way so what I have learnt over the

years which is a unhelpful thing to

learn is that I delay when it happens

till like when it came by oh you do the

teacher thing yes you see the teacher

thing where you get through the term and

then suddenly you get massively ill

every single every single time and you

can always tell how I’m doing because my

weight fluctuates I don’t have a

solution for this but what I would like

people to take away from this is a Q&A

so I’ll explicitly state it is there is

a danger when you are in a position of

even minor responsibility within an inn

within a system where you can end up

setting a bar or setting a precedent yes

Magnus is the release scheduler is due

to things that will beyond my control at

the outset and if there’s one thing I

want people to take away it is not the

belief that the only way to get this

scale of growth is by basically

sacrificing yourself to do it yeah it

isn’t that at all and I the last thing I

want is people to use us as a bar where

if you’re not putting yourself through

together we’re not going we’re not doing

this great I mean the only thing that

I’m quite proud of how we do this is

that we don’t push the other people

involved like with very conscientious of

their well being

let’s move on to a nice easy one yes

story boom

Eilis Jade will we see a bit more of

Melanie and Georgie during season 5 yes

no they’re gone forever no they’ll be

there at all characters that you know

are now gone forever

well we haven’t we haven’t fully fully

laid out season fives with well that’s

what we’ll talk about don’t you find and

if nothing else we’d be running out of

characters that people know if we

sublime arranged many more we’re now

gonna jump onto a story one which has

been asked by look alive sunshine but I

know has been kind of kicking around and

I’m a bit are Daisy and Becerra in a

romantic relationship oh okay this is

going to be quite a long answer so I’d

ask that people bear with me there is

never going to be an explicit textual

clarification of that for a very

specific reason so with each

relationship within the series there is

a specific thing that I’m trying to

explore a specific dynamic that I feel

is is the core of the relationship and

something that I am really interested in

exploring with Daisy and Becerra what

that has always been is the idea of

partners within a in this case the

police but within a context of an

us-and-them

mentality the idea of having your back

against a world that is believed rightly

or wrongly to be hostile to you yeah the

sort of compromises that get made and

the the sort of excuses that you create

for yourself to allow certain very

harmful occasional even evil behaviors

because you have this mentality of it’s

us against them all using we have moral

paradox exactly we we have to have each

other’s backs and so it is this and

especially how it manifests within the

context of something like police work

yeah now adding an explicitly romantic

aspect to that relationship would to my

mind massively complicate and

potentially something subvert it making

a sacrifice to excuse the violent and

harmful acts that someone has done

because you are in love with them is a

very different thing to making

compromises to excuse the violent and

half like someone has done because you

have their back within a police or a

context of us versus them that’s not to

say explicitly that they are not I’m a

hundred percent not saying they are not

romantically involved and I’m I’m not

gonna go into what my own head Canon is

because that would have undue influence

it have massive ramifications yeah are

going to detract from the point I made

but I will say that textually that’s not

a relationship that’s ever going to be

codified one way or the other

the Sarah’s entire arc is explicitly

intended as an examination of how a

siege mentality within somebody who

conceives of themselves as to one degree

or another keeping the peace or

defending people can turn toxic yeah

this one’s from Jane the brain Johnny

have you ever worried you’ll run out of

statement ideas yes

hasn’t happened yet no not yet i I

actively try and collect them from

people around me if anyone ever says in

particularly spooky or anything that

locks into my brain is potentially

having a spooky

aspect to it I will stop the

conversation and I will note it down I

am still wanting us to do one on

coughing syndrome in submarines yes I

know it’s it’s great well I don’t know

if we’ll be able to fit it in season

five but we’ll see we’ll see okay I am

well aware of time as its ticking by and

we availing some heavy answers which

have eaten some so I am gonna make sure

that hurtling towards the grave I’m

gonna make sure we try and get through a

few more that people are wanting to get

answers to and probably should doing the

public so Hale The Wanderer asks you’ve

mentioned previously that in order to

assume their full powers as an avatar a

death seems to be required does it make

a difference that the death used to fuel

the archivists transformation was that

of another avatar

I don’t feel the a death is necessarily

required to become an avatar what is

required to become an avatar is always

active choice yes you need to make an

active decision to finally cross that

threshold because try and death is a

very good motivator for that sort of

decision you know the prospect of death

is it’s very scary and it’s such a

powerful categorical thing that in many

cases it is going to be the catalyst but

what I might say is I’m you know ask the

next question because I think they bleed

together sure from Kara Roth why does

the corruption revolve so heavily around

love and looking for love because I

would use the corruption as one of the

examples of women tend not to die or

necessarily all the death because that’s

a devotion is the whole eros Thanatos

love the death frames but what I can

spot a coke adil but that comes back

round to you though is that I would

argue with the corruption more than most

of them has probably less actia death in

Ian’s it’s more obsession and love yet

the corruption it does engage a lot with

the idea of love and toxicity within

that yeah and the things you do not not

just for like romantic love but for a

sense of belonging

it links thematically in my mind to the

idea of the hive to the idea of colonies

of moulds almost they like less

insinuation yeah the idea of like the

many is one and being part of a group or

part of a whole and how that very deep

human desire can be corrupted and can

turn turn rotten although I suppose in

many ways that does link back to death

in the idea of like the death of the

self through the idea of subsuming

yourself in a wider hole which in terms

then of the original question to do with

avatars and weather and death is

required for transfer it is not required

but it is common yeah I think that’s

probably the simplest way of putting it

yeah you know what I’d go so far as to

say that a metaphorical death is

required I can tell you now that a

metaphorical death will be required for

the simple reason that if it isn’t

happening it’s kind of a bad bit of

drama yeah like that’s where the script

verses law yeah it’s one of those things

where like the the thematic aspects are

beholden to the drama of the thing is a

fictionalized thing where you need to

have some pretty high moments of drama

meaning that you’re more domestic habit

arse that like just will come to their

full power through just like being

horrible in very mundane real ways

they’re probably not making the cut for

the drama it’s mainly the death it’s

mainly that mainly the death they mainly

the death death on sex right we’re gonna

jump on to complete tonal change assume

from basically everyone how’s he admiral

doing

who’s sir you’ll see he’s fine he’s

happy what really is is a sneaky little

pampy for mind that really bugged me

everyone was going on and on about oh we

want the Admiral back we’re on the Unruh

back I put the Admiral back in but it

was the one where Melanie’s they’re

going I’m sorry I can’t help you now no

one cared apparently no there’s so much

going on so everyone have been fighting

tooth and nail to get the Admiral he’s

there he’s having a great time yeah no

one bats an eyelid

the Admirals having a great time

40-foot tall with laser beams for

clothes we’ll see okay we are now fairly

close to running out of time so I’m

gonna do a quick fire across the board

and just see how many we can get out

cool okay you ready from basically

everyone Johnny how did you get through

the closing channel of 160 on a single

breath I was a choir boys from the age

of 8 like I can do I can do breath from

merely bits sorry I mean eldritch

strength channeling my dark masters

course Oh actually no I mean I had one

thing I should there should be quick

fire he did that like four takes on the

trot never batting an eyelid and we had

to take no precautions or extra steps

whatsoever it was quite peculiar I can

do an invocation it was just funny just

for on the trot you were like called you

needed another one and then didn’t

breathe between one and the next it was

yes we did yes I did yes I did

right from melee bit Johnny how did you

go about doing your best Ben as Elias

impression did Ben record a version for

you or was like just your skillful ear

it’s actually it was actually incredibly

simple because Ben once confided in me

that his Elias voice had originally just

been based on my archivist voice just

making it a bit more smug yep so I just

made my archivist voice a bit more smug

and it worked so it’s the exact reverse

of what you’re saying yeah I like i

reverse-engineered it because he’d yeah

there was remarkably easy from vine

terrace Johnny the laugh John does at

the end of 160 was the perfect mixture

of terror and delight how many times did

you have to practice to perfect that

laugh uh we didn’t practice but we did a

lot of tapes that was one of the days

where production was running into issue

so I was a little bit more like do it

again doo da and we didn’t make it about

like I think 10 takes of the laughs but

like this is the thing about working in

audio you tend not to practice as much

as you just do a lot of takes record

because any be perfect practice could be

the best take so this is from ffs mm-hmm

will we find out more about the house on

hilltop Road or is that storyline

complete it is not complete this is from

a bunch of people

what are those tape recorders are you

ever going to tell us about them in

detail yes this is from Michael bush do

avatars of the lonely house

other powers than just turning invisible

I mean they don’t turn invisible they

just make it so they’re not where

everyone else is and also they can send

people the lonely and it depends on the

avatar like every avatar has

fundamentally different powers I think

with the lonely the being able to send

them into a world with no one else is a

strong commonality but like other lonely

avatars might have completely different

powers other lonely avatars might make

it so that you forgot everyone you ever

cared about or that everyone you ever

cared about forgot you that might be a

power who knows okay on to a question

from Nicole can we finally get an answer

as to what power is at work in magazine

five thrown away no actually you know

what yes alright okay so number five

thrown away was a very early version of

Tom Hannah and the flesh it was the

whole like being able to remove

something and it was playing with ideas

of surplus of overproduction this sort

of thing also the idea of like body

parts that are that have been

transformed but a lot of the thematic

elements had not been quite nailed down

because it was still very early in the

the writing process and so it got a bit

muddied but to be honest also probably a

lot of other powers of work there it’s

like a pretty it’s a it’s a pretty much

as we can say it’s like so from a meta

point of view it’s it’s a muddy one

because there’s lots of different powers

at play sheesh yes like it was it was

written as kind of flesh adjacent in

retrospect it’s a lot more complicated

than that a lot of it was just because

it’s one of the it was one of the early

ones and we were still workshopping a

lot of stuff I’m glad we managed to put

that one to bed I didn’t know whether

we’d go the entire yeah it’s one of

those ones where like I’ve never wanted

to really say because the answer is well

it’s this one but we didn’t do it very

well

and also because I know the lot of

people like no I really liked thrown

away because it doesn’t doesn’t it

sticks out it doesn’t conform like the

outs because says we didn’t write it

consistently but at the same time we

gunshots there but this but at the same

time I’m it’s one of those ones that

I’ve been happy to answer to people who

have asked it face to face to me so I’m

like you know what I might as well just

go on record and another one from

basically everyone what’s up with John’s

lighter is it significant what’s going

on there

yeah it’s significant from Kershaw but I

know other people as well are we gonna

hear anything about Rosie’s backstory

she’s a woman of mystery I don’t know I

categorically - I want and will I’m not

the same it depends if there is a

nonzero chance we’ll meet her in season

five but it depends if meeting I would

make the series better like I’m not

gonna put her in there for the sake of

having her in there yeah there are

certain things that are still up in the

air is season five so maybe but I’m not

promising anything okay this one’s from

Seb if John could tell his season one

self something what would it be run away

baby you’ve made some mistakes

it’s already a bad also leave Martin

alone Frank just leave this problem goes

away I mean like to be fair they vote

like it doesn’t because they’ve already

they’ve already joined this technically

season one they’re already joining okay

a fair point but it’s from an emotional

standpoint that’s still the advice I

like I think just like stay puts have a

potential slowdown you know like Mike I

know that like what Melanie was doing

yeah just do that sustain it just yeah

yeah yeah and if nothing else you’ll buy

yourself a good 15 years yeah reg

intrude

this one’s from not Tory what kind of

music do you like or listen to when

writing Oh

my musical tastes change quite a lot

gradually when I’m writing it I mean

it’s it’s kind of a dull answer but when

I’m writing I tend to listen to dark

ambient playlists on Spotify brain also

rain like rain generator for some rain

generator for some so if a statement has

like a a muted quality to it I like to

listen to it rain sounds otherwise just

just like generic dark ambient spooky

sounds it’s not a particularly

interesting answer but it’s it gets me

in the head space outside of that

currently in a post rock phase really

enjoying just ridiculous albums with

like the most pretentious title name is

something like shit-heap Gloria ode to a

town planner or something like that I so

they’re they’re all just ridiculous and

that I love them and it’s just half of

it it’s just elderly American men just

rambling on about radio towers or like

weird spiritualist conspiracies right

I’m gonna give you a choice for the last

question would you rather a question

mm-hmm that touches on RPGs or a

question that touches further upon cats

big decision time did you know what

wait feeling I’m gonna keep the cats for

the patreon okay okay RPGs then so this

is from thin brass what classes would

the archives crew be in D&D hardmode

only one of them can be a warlock ie

with a patron right okay yeah okay let’s

let’s have a think um so Elias would be

a cleric I think rather than a warlock I

think you could go mastermind with him

rogue mastermind yeah yeah but to be

clear it is cleric like you are becoming

like Tim’s a fighter like I’d love to

say he’s like a bard cuz it was my far

as paladin cuz high charisma punchy

no he like he takes to his I think his

his turn is too pragmatic to be a

paladin I would agree with that so we’ve

got Tim’s uh I think I think the Serie

is a paladin oh yeah yes paladin Daisy

starts out

I think Daisy starts out as a rogue

actually she starts out as like an

assassin rogue and then converts into a

barbarian that refused to use her rage

powers that’s yeah bang on Daisy Daisy

multi-class they didn’t even really gel

as much because yeah Melanie is no no

you like I’m sorry you’re just you’re

just saying that because lid plays Sasha

in real life she plays rogues in real

life

oh no I think I would do it is rogue

investigator I really would

cuz she’s got that I think she’s a

ranger she’s got her favorite enemy

she’s very driven in terms of tracking

and when she’s out of her specific

element if he finds it very difficult

March on original Sasha wizard yes yes

yes yes

conscientious knows her stuff when her

life’s on the laws the reading and

unfortunately very easy to kill when

found very squishy okay then Martin then

difficult commoner over-ambitious NPC

I’m robably going to go with bard

because his thing is trying to support

everyone else I think he might just be a

pain does I think he might be seasoned

Bard

oh he’s a bard but unfortunately he

doesn’t have an instrument I chose

poetry and isn’t very well mimics what

he is he’s a bard who was just like cool

guys so what skills do we still have to

cover proficiency in Lund vehicles yeah

okay I’ll take that yeah oh we don’t

have we don’t have survival okay I’ll

take that I guess yep and John I mean

John’s the warlock isn’t he yes

due to the fluff but I still maintain he

doesn’t play like all no that’s fair

that’s fair what does he play like then

he plays like a wizard no he doesn’t yes

he doesn’t because he doesn’t do like he

he’s not meticulous he’s not meticulous

in how he approaches things he was

Wizards wizard

no he’s always it that picks a fight

with something far bigger than he is and

releases usual wall who thinks he’s a

druid expand he thinks like a lot of his

stuff comes naturally from connections

that he feels are natural and I think

that he tries to engage with the worlds

but actually a lot of his stuff is

coming you know what he forgot to take

into account the player behind the

character what John is is a warlock

played by a player who’s like I’m not

going to take anything for combat and it

was like come on come on please take

something no no I’m going to take only

social abilities never was like I mean

okay he’s just a warlock

he’s a warlock who the player hasn’t

actually told anyone else as a warlock

and it’s pretending that they’re a druid

right we’re gonna have to call it there

if yours hasn’t been answered on here

there’s always a chance that we’ll be

answering it on the extra patreon

episode obviously it is worth mentioning

that we are on our season-high users

currently we are going to be releasing

haters content about once every two

weeks or so where it’s gonna be extra

things to sort of keep things moving and

let people see a bit more into how we

make things stuff like that and in the

meantime obviously do check us out on

social media do check out Twitter I mean

if you’re already listening a lot of

people do but apart from that it’s just

safe thanks you’ve made it to the end of

the world

oh yeah thanks everyone good job I hope

hope you enjoyed the ride that isn’t

over

yeah yeah yeah yeah absolutely apart

from that I guess that’s everything so

thanks everyone and now we’ll be

checking with you real soon thank you

bye bye bye