A DISTORTION'S TRIAL [the magnus archives MV] (FLASHING WARNING)

finally after hours of waiting fro my pc to work and rendering issues its finally up!
who wouldve thought going absolutely ham with glow effects and rgb twitches would mess the encoding up so bad
also if you havent noticed i mightve developed a slight TMA problem over the past couple months,,,

UPDATE:
now with some HD renders of loose frames for your background and layout pleasure!
just remember to credit me in your bip if you use them on social media (akidachi on both tumblr and twitter)

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socials:

[comicgeek]

Raise your hand if you're new to tma and avoided this video until the final season to not be spoiled, and then learned you could've seen it since you were at 101

[Manicies]

I honestly think one of the coolest things I've noticed is how different their hair is when they're Distortion VS when they're Michael or Helen. Even when michael is pretending to be a human to lure Helen into the door, his hair looks normal, but as soon as the guise is dropped it gets very stylised and has those cool blocky loops. And once Helen takes over right at the end, her hair does the same thing. It's an AWESOME detail!

[fyrefrost]

Someone help Nikola, she needs a loan to pay her cab fee

[lottie]

'In a _web_ of lies'

Ho dang. This song got even more relevant.

[sofiapsih]

- How many times did you watch this?
- Yes.

[rana]

I'm going to print this out frame by frame and eat it
I love it so much

[rinmedeis]

It was this animation that actually pointed out something to me. Both Michael and Helen had Maps when they went through the door. Michael, the map Gertrude gave him, and Helen, the map she was drawing in Jon's office during her statement.

[mochigreen]

God I didn't notice this before, but at 0:54 her eyes are target shaped, perfect circles. Before she Becomes but after she's spiral marked at 1:55, her eyes turn into legitimate spirals like Micheal's. What amazing attention to detail.

[alicepersson]

Okay-- but this is EXACTLY how i imagined helen.
Profesional skirt? Tie? Clipboard? Hair band, darkish curly hair, orangey eyes? What. The. Hell.
Are you an avatar of the eye because i think you just read my mind

[Catsafari]

I love the way the eyes are done. Like how we never really see normal people's eyes (even Helen's eyes are marked as being singled out by the Distortion, starting with small orange spirals and then growing as she gets further lost) and the different glowing styles of the different avatars. (Also gotta love how TMA artists are always so good with keeping the worm scars from S1; it's just such a nice little detail!)

[chespresso]

Took me a couple watches to realize the guy at 2:03 isn't Michael (Distortion), but Michael Shelley.

Poor guy just wanted to save the world for his work grandma :(

[liolokk]

for some reason human michael at 2:03 makes me so sad :( really brings home the point that he once was just a person lost in the corridor just like helen

[anotherrandomperson]

Something I REALLY appreciate about this line’s interpretation here 1:49: “a feathered creature, and he’s come to see me”. It’s a call back to when Helen encounters Michael for the very first time, and he is “a feathered creature I have never seen”. Both of them are “crows”, torturers of mankind (or Becoming crows, as we see with Jon’s face full of eyes here). Michael is a creature that has ‘never been seen’; like how she’s just met him, but also how the Distortion is not something that can be comprehended by a staring Eye, like how Zemlya Sannikova is where the Great Twisting that never happened took place, and also does not exist. Just in that way, The Door That To All The Places That Were Never There is something that was never seen. And here, “he’s come to see me”. Which is double referencing Michael, who will eat Helen again right after this encounter, but also Jon, who’s Seeing, Knowing, Helen.

[tinydancer]

bruh this song is literally MADE for tma, the lyrics are nonsense and yet they fit so perfectly it's insane. THE ART IS LITERALLY GORGEOUS the design for every character is perfect and the expressions UGH and how Michael and helen change when they become the distortion - you are actually my favourite person thank you for your service

[moony]

2:06 michael looking so lost and holding a map in what is/should be his own domain breaks into my home and shoots me in the chest 3 times everytime i see it

[peachypauper]

I love how at the end before Helen replaces michael, when the door is open and we don't see her face for a moment. It's like, for a few seconds you can easily mistake the back of michaels head with his hair as some sort of dress before registering whats happening. Like he's just another outfit that will be tossed aside for the business suit that 'Helen' wears.

Unintentional and probably over analysing it, but I thought that bit was neat like the rest of this mv!!!

[infinitelyvoid]

oh my god?? this is so insanely good?? the symbolism?? the character design?? JON’S character design?? just amazing- I can’t express how much I love this.

[jwr]

i’ve watched this on loop and keep getting the chills from “takes the devil’s heart a n d e a t s s o m e m o r e”

[dwell]

Underrated part of this AMV is the Archives staff. The distortion (haha) hiding Not!Sasha's face, Tim being the "zombie" crying "I hate you, " it's just sooo good for such a short bit of the video

[lucyelcille]

Holy shit.
Sidenote: I have watched this at least ten times over already. Cannot comprehend how much effort and love must have gone into this animatic. I love every frame Helen is on-screen. Michael looks like the little bastard he is.