Gertrude Robinson - Blog Posts

I’m climbing the walls wtf was this episode

Every fandom has a comfort emo and an iconic old hag that is universally despised

I haven’t seen anyone mention it yet, but did anyone else notice that when Sam asked about the Magnus Institute, Gertrude responds that she doesn’t “think Gerry can help you” and then there’s static???

Maybe I’m reading into it too much, but I don’t think she’s completely oblivious to what’s going on

These designs go crazy tbh

After slowly chipping away at this for a while, I'm finally done drawing the cast of The Magnus Archives!

had to Google what an APV was for this

The distortion formerly known as Micheal Shelly.

Oh mY GOD THIS TOOK SO LONG. Jonny sims has a choke hold on me at this point and I'm going to do so much more tma fanart, if I'm bothered, I might even finish an animation for it but in the mean time have this.

Artworks of michael distortion and michael shelley in the same image often draw the former intimidating/enfolding the latter. But that’s not it at all, is it? They’re one and the same, yet mutually unrecognizable to each other. The distortion did not prey on michael shelley, he was fed to it and it was bound to him. And once it became clear it would not escape unscathed, it did not want him. Michael shelley was never even meant for the spiral at all, and it shows in how it acts as a distortion. If anything, the intimidating factor above the hapless human should be gertrude robinson, not any facet of something that could be called michael in some capacity

The thing i both love and hate about michael’s sacrifice was how simultaneously inevitable and preventable it was.

With the info gertrude had, she thought she had to sacrifice someone to save the world. She doubtless thought michael’s blind trust in her was necessary for the plan to work. From her perspective, her actions make sense and couldn’t have happened any other way.

And yet. And yet. It would have failed anyway, whether michael was there or not. Michael could have lived a long and happy life (or at least not been fed to an eldritch horror) and the world would not have ended.

His death is pointless. He died for nothing. And yet there was no path by which he could have survived without changing fundamental aspects of the timeline. Preventable, yet inevitable.

The more merge mansion ads i get the most convinced i become that “grandma” is actually gertrude. What is she hiding? Leitners. Information about the fears. Tapes

Random thought but what if gertrude let gerry die bc she sensed that he had been marked by all of the fears by virtue of bookhunting and didnt want jonah noticing and abruptly changing plans for who the archivist is

Reblogs a nearly four year old post i found while looking up stuff about gertrude’s assistants. This is now canon in my mind

Hey so like, apparently Emma Harvey was the one keeping Michael Shelley completely ignorant of all the paranormal nonsense going on at the archives. And it seems everyone (including me) interpreted this as ‘‘Gertrude Robinson never spoke about the paranormal stuff openly, making it easy for Michael to stay uninformed.’‘

But consider an alternative:

Gertrude isn’t super chatty around her assistants in general, however neither does she mince words around them. When she is off to try and find a way to disrupt the Flesh ritual, she just is putting on her coat and outright saying ‘‘Alright I’m going to go and snoop around the place that evil dark monster ate some children. Please leave any statements I need to look at on my desk while I am gone.’’ Michael is like 20 years old and he’s like, uh what.

‘‘I should be back in 3 weeks. Emma, keep that polaroid of me on my desk so if a changeling comes back pretending to be me you’ll know.’‘

Michael: ?!?!?!?!?!?!

Emma just smiles gently and says yes Gertrude, of course dear. And then once Gertrude’s gone and Michael is still shooting Emma alarmed looks, waiting for an explanation, she takes him aside.

“Ms. Robinson is… quite a character,’‘ Emma says with that lilt people make when they mean batshit crazy and should probably be in a home. ‘‘The Institute has always drawn in people with… unconventional beliefs.’‘

Michael understands instantly. “Oh,’‘ he says.

Emma grimaces. ‘‘It didn’t used to come up so much,’‘ she says. “But since Fiona disappeared… well. She’s started to see spooky things everywhere.’‘

And Michael just thinks that’s just the Saddest, you see. What a poor, tired old soul, warped into frenzied paranoia by the loss of her coworker. What a Tragedy. And so now, every time he sees Gertrude cutting out eyes from magazine clippings or recording conversations religiously on tape, his heart just breaks a little. He had a friend, once, who was always half-convinced he was being followed by things that couldn’t exist.

So Michael goes into Protect and Nurture mode.

So yes, Michael does hear Gertrude talking to Emma grimly about how she’s planning to ‘‘save the world.’‘ He catches a few conversations she has about Entities or Powers or evil books that eat you. But all it takes is a few Shared, Knowing Glances with Emma and he just wants to wrap this poor old grandma in a blanket and give her some tea and tell her yes, she is Very Brave and Very Hardworking but she can take a nap now :)

Gertrude, meanwhile, eventually figures out that Michael thinks she’s off her rocker but suddenly out of the blue going ‘‘I know you think I am crazy but really there are 14 eldritch fear powers, you have to believe me’‘ is 1) incredibly undignified and 2) will not make Michael believe her. So, resignedly, she decides having an ignorant assistant probably has its uses.

Does she suspect Emma? Yes. Does she ever have enough proof to confront her? No. No she does not.

GERRY KEAY, THE LOVE OF MY LIFE 😭😭

Grrrgrhh *bark* ghgrr The Magnus ghrgh Archives grrr grrrrrhg *bark bark* ggrrrrhrhrh *bark* grhrhrhhrrrr

of course michael distortion was born angry. but hey guys do think it would still try to be near gertrude subconsciously searching for her approval just as michael shelley did. now intentionally unsettling and intimidating and sarcastic and mocking and derisive but still something along the lines "you can't get rid of me, you can't abandon me now. i stay here, therefore you have no choice but to accept me. please accept me again; please show that you didn't mean what you did."

thinking about this one au where michael distortion continues to work in the archives after michael shelley's death because apparently you can't leave the archives even if you aren't you anymore

The Magnus Archives: mentions a road/ borough I visit regularly/ live in:

Me (a Londoner):

EVERYONE LOOK HERE, THIS DESERVES SO MANY LIKES AND VIEWS

Also, yeah, spoilers for mag200

TMA x Villain(빌런) feat. @worldformula

This is almost as good as going all John Amehrst on Elias's office.

Extremely late crack AU where Gertrude and Gerry met the guy with the clown-eating Monster Pig and just took it back to the Institute. 

Jonah-James-Elias: I’m compelled to ask why

Gertrude: This is my new service animal.

Jonah: For what service?

Gertrude, with her longest pointed Stare: Eating clowns

Jonah:

Monster Pig, sitting outside Jonah’s office, staring in at him through the door he Knows was closed and locked when he came in: 🐷

And that’s where it stays. The titanic horror-hog wouldn’t go anywhere if it didn’t want to. It’d be there to greet Breekon and Hope the second they tried to walk in with their delivery. It’d devour them and the table in one sitting just to get at the Not-Them. 

It’d lay in wait, lurking around Jon and the Archive crew like a massive pink shadow–

Jon: Elias, I understand Gertrude was attached to it, but are you sure we shouldn’t relocate th–

Monster Pig, in the corner: 🐷

Jonah, Knowing it knows where he sleeps: The Pig Stays, Jon

–and turn up at the Unknowing, at which point it would devour the entire circus. 

Jon, Tim, Basira, Daisy:

Monster Pig: 🐷

Its job done, it goes snorting off into the night, maybe heading back to haunt its very best friend, Dylan Anderson…after a brief detour.

Jonah, sitting in his cell: Well, the Unknowing was a waste. At least there’s still the Dark Sun to string them along w–

Monster Pig, kicking down the door, having saved the best clown for last: 

 🐷  

tl;dr: The Monster Pig was Flesh-aligned, Stranger-averse, pro-clown-cannibalism, and would’ve saved the day if Gertrude had only taken it away to let it do what it loved

Gertrude: James is dead Elias Bouchard is the new head of the Magnus Institute

Eric Delano, who’s caught Elias hotboxing in Artifact Storage on more than one occasion: 

[(laughing nervously) What the fuck?]

Big Boy Man Scared

One of the dumbest animatics I’ve made probably 

I made this for me

Gertrude was Agnes's "anchor"...?

Sounds kinda gay to me :)

It all makes sense now. So much more sense. Through all of that badassery, Gertrude is an old lesbian :)

Gertrude Robinson threatening people has the biggest dick energy I've witnessed in a while, pass it on.

WAIT. WHO'S THIS SPEAKING? I'M INSTANTLY INTERESTED AND I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW IF SHE'S UP TO DATE M-

oh. it's Gertrude. the previous archivist. the previous now dead archivist.

Me, The Magnus Archives 44, Tightrope

More art of TMA, haven't been able to do much due to being busy for the past week or so