History YMMV / TheMagnusArchives

** Melanie's usually assumed to dress like a punk or PerkyGoth, often with dyed blue hair. [[spoiler: Depictions of Melanie after she quits the Institute invariably include either sunglasses or a bandage around her eyes, as she was forced to take [[EyeScream extreme measures]].]]

** Jared Hopworth, the Boneturner, got a lot of EvilIsCool / EvilIsSexy treatment from certain fans and tended to be seen as a more harmless avatar for not wanting to trigger a ritual to change the world (if only because [[PragmaticVillainy he simply likes the world as it is]] and not out of any concern for others), especially after an episode revealed that he had [[MundaneUtility started a gym and used it to help willing people get their ideal bodies]]. What sympathizers might overlook is that, while not willing to aid in a ritual, Jared was still a bully even before he became an avatar, and after becoming one, he spent some time running around taking bones from unwilling victims and eventually led an attack on the Institute. [[spoiler:Episode 171 ("The Gardener") almost feels like it was written to address this image of Jared. We see (or rather, hear) him torture several people by twisting their bodies into new, horrific shapes while whistling a jolly tune. He makes a homophobic joke about Jon and Martin, reminding the audience that he is a jerk. And the gym? Jared makes it clear that he only did that because it was easier than going out and grabbing people himself, and he still fed on their fear; while they weren't strictly speaking afraid of ''him'', they were still driven by a fear and disgust of their own bodies and of how horrified others would be if they saw them]].

* EvilIsSexy: Nearly every avatar gets this treatment, to the point Jonny has expressed his bafflement and exasperation towards it on several occasions. (With Agnes, it's practically canon, at least if you ask Jude Perry and Jack Barnabas.)

** Jared got much the same EvilIsCool and EvilIsSexy treatment as, say, Jude Perry--but as his third appearances portrayed him as a cheerful jock who [[MundaneUtility ran his own gym to help people get their ideal bodies]], this dampened a lot of his fright factor and drew lots of fans to the possibility of a relatively harmless avatar. Trans fans were for this reason particularly [[spoiler:sad to see him offed by Jon, and even more shocked to realize a wisecrack from him was supposed to be a homophobic one.]]

* EpilepticTrees: Episode 186, "Quiet", sparked many theories for the identities of the nameless victims featured therein. Common theories include [[spoiler:Naomi Hernes]] and [[spoiler:Peter Lukas, [[HesJustHiding despite him dying in the previous season]]]].

** Poor, poor [[spoiler:Michael Shelley. Betrayed by a woman he cared for and trusted wholeheartedly, devoured and changed by the Distortion and [[WasOnceAMan twisted beyond the point of no return]], but still just enough of himself to be angry about what happened to him. Made worse by the fact that Gertrude's reasons for the betrayal, while necessary from her perspective and somewhat understandable given that she thought the alternative was TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, she turned out to be ''wrong''. The ritual never would've worked anyway. Michael was sacrificed for ''nothing''. In spite of what he became, it's difficult not to shed a tear for the sweet and innocent person he ''was''. And when his current form gets too emotional about it, he's unceremoniously wiped out and replaced.]]
** A good chunk of the statement givers are this, since a good majority of them are ordinary, decent people who had the bad luck to stumble across an agent of an EldritchAbomination. Some of them manage to get away and go on to live normal lives, but are still traumatized from their experiences, while many others aren't that lucky.

* {{Narm}}: While [[spoiler: Jonah Magnus's]] death was unquestionably cathartic, the 15 solid seconds of dramatic bloody gurgling starts to cross the line from "horrible death gurgle" to "bad school play".

** [[AbusiveParents Mary Keay]] is a chillingly realistic example of a narcissistic abuser in a fantastical setting. Committing her [[EnfantTerrible first murder at a young age to gain power]], she murdered numerous others throughout her life, binding several spirits to her book, making their very existences agony, all to force them to help her. Among them is her [[DomesticAbuse long abused husband, Eric]], whose corpse Mary mutilated while his spirit was ForcedToWatch. Seeing her son Gerard as merely an extension of her legacy, Mary forces him to help her gain power, as well as using him as a guinea pig for her experiments. Refusing to accept her own mortality sometime in 2008, Mary attempts to kill herself in order to bind herself to the book with more power than the others had, making sure to [[KickTheDog give Eric's page away so Gerard would never see his father again beforehand]], continuing to force Gerard to serve her. Despite not working for the Fears, Mary is a frighteningly abusive mother who cares only for her own power, regardless of who she has to hurt and murder to obtain it.

** Sasha is often depicted as dark skinned or AmbiguouslyBrown. [[spoiler: Not Sasha is usually a fair-skinned blonde in contrast. If Sasha's depicted with glasses, Not Sasha won't have them, & vis versa.]]

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Agnes' feelings towards Jack Barnabas. [[spoiler:While Eugene is adamant that Agnes didn't feel love towards him, [[EvilCannotComprehendGood the fact he and others of the cult were unable to comprehend their relationship to begin with]] and even initially thought she was getting close to him to later bring him torment calls [[UnreliableExpositor his interpretation]] into question.]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: John Amherst has no spoken lines, never appears long enough for any prolonged interactions with others, and does not reappear in any of the Corruption's [[spoiler:domains after the Change]], leaving that Power doomed to be OutOfFocus for the show's entire post-Season One run. In Episode 184 ("Like Ants"), featuring one of [[spoiler:the Corruption-controlled domains]], Jon tells Martin that [[spoiler:Amherst basically shriveled up and died after a few years of not being able to feed on anyone's fear]], cementing this status for Amherst.

** Sasha is often depicted as dark skinned or AmbigiouslyBrown. [[spoiler: Not Sasha is usually a fair-skinned blonde in contrast. If Sasha's depicted with glasses, Not Sasha won't have them, & vis versa.]]

* UncannyValley: Pretty much everyone in the statements who's a servant of the Powers is described as having something off about them-- too tall, too short, too broad, too thin, that kind of thing. Naturally, this is taken UpToEleven with the servants of The Stranger.

** Fics covering the two weeks Jon and Martin were in Scotland [[spolier:before the apocalypse]] are very common, since Jon & Martin got together during that time and the canon completely skips over it.

** Sasha is often portrayed with [[{{Meganekko}} cute, round glasses]]. [[spoiler:Michael Shelley]] is also usually portrayed as bespectacled.