The Extinction Explained (The Magnus Archives Entities)

Hey y'all, I'm Afton G. Kier and today we're looking at the next Entity from the Magnus Archives in my ongoing series where I do a deep dive on each and every Fear. This time around, we're changing the world with the Future Without Us! From Adelard Dekker to not-so-SEAgulls and everything in between, we're examining the Extinction. As always, please consider liking and subscribing to support the channel. Anyways, I've been Afton G. Kier, and good night, KZbin people!
---
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:19 Overview
2:38 Different Organisation
3:02 MAG 134: Time of Revelation
4:26 MAG 144: Decrypted
6:22 MAG 149: Concrete Jungle
7:22 MAG 156: Reflection
8:30 MAG 175: Epoch
9:26 MAG 5: Thrown Away
10:43 MAG 65: Binary
12:17 MAG 84: Possessive
13:38 MAG 114: Cracked Foundation
14:50 MAG 122: Zombie
15:31 MAG 133: Breathing Room
17:37 MAG 157: Rotten Core
19:17 Emergence & Preparations
21:41 Analysis
29:55 Closing Thoughts
---
Thumbnail Art is The Extinction "Tarotesque" (Dark) by Grace Holsten
---
Music:
Don't Go Underground by Nicsa (pixabay.com/music/horror-scen...)
Late Night Country Road by TimKulig ( / latenightcountryroad-1 )
Industrial Nightmares by TimKulig ( / industrial-nightmares )
Agony and Ivory by Daub Audio (pixabay.com/music/mystery-ago...)
The Sacrifice by 17406877 (pixabay.com/music/rock-the-sa...)
Mining Gold on 16 Psyche by TimKuliq (pixabay.com/music/mystery-min...)
---
Follow me on Twitter @Afton_G_Kier
Catch my Reddit posts with u/Afton_G_Kier
Watch me interact with Twitch Streams with Afton_G_Kier
---
The Series
( • The Magnus Archives En... )
The First TMA Video
( • Rating EVERY EPISODE o... )
Every Video!
( • Something is Coming | ... )

[@zypalitra8080]

The Extinction's a bit of an enigma. It's easily one of my favourite "Fears", and all of its stories are very strange, but it's horrifically underused. I hope that Jonathan Sims makes it more prominent in The Magnus Protocol. I know that "Binary" isn't apparently an Extinction-related story, but I like to believe that it is. My personal favorite is "Decrypted"" - the visual imagery of someone's shadow being burnt into a wall is one of the more unnerving bits of imagery from late TMA.

[@claret1044]

wake up girls new afton entities video just dropped 🗣️🔥

[@kaygirl10101]

I always saw 'Binary' as an End episode myself, at least in regards to Ushanka. Someone trying to escape death and ending up in a torturous existence, just like Nathaniel Thorp from 'Cheating Death'.

[@viktorharle3757]

Hot take: the extinction did manyfest and kinda won via the watcher's crown. A ritual succeeding and bringing about apocalypse? Sounds like a terrible change to me.

[@melissaharris3389]

The reason we don't get much of The Extinction is that it hasn't fully emerged as its own entity yet. It's a negging anxiety in humanities collective unconscious but few people experience it as a distinctive fear, yet.

[@watercraftworshipper3758]

I really, really like The Extinction. GOD I hope it makes more of an appearance in Protocol. Really interesting analysis linking the apocalypse to snakes. I'm also pretty surprised that there's only one snake in the entire series, but now that I think about it, TMA is kinda lacking on forms of zoophobia in general (aside from insectophobia and arachnophobia for obvious reasons).

[@lexutterstrom1615]

I find it very fascinating how many myths and legends connect snakes with death, rebirth and change. But i suppose it makes a lot of sense. Seeing a snake shed its skin would look a lot like it dying and being reborn into something new. Serpents make a great symbol for the extinction! :) The fact that many snakes can also be poisonous or venomous only adds to the thematic match.

[@maevepage606]

In fairness to Decker on the issue of spending more time looking for/trying to prove The Extinction than stopping it, he couldn't know how to stop it without knowing more about it. Peter Lucas was doing pretty much the same thing, he didn't have a plan to stop it, but had a plan to find out more via the Panopticon.

[@BiblicFurby]

I always though the extinction was almost like a manifestation of the fears only desire to emerge. Which is why it has elements of almost all of them in its very few actual appearances or conceived appearancs

[@yansindex2067]

The extinction is maybe my favorite Fear, maybe I'm just a big fan of its imagery (I'm a suckered for empty worlds, radiation and especially abandoned buildings/cites) but I really liked all of its episodes, epoch especially

[@Phantom682]

You could add snakes shedding their skin as a symbol of death and rebirth to the thing with the Extinction and snakes also.

[@willhibbard6903]

I’m really glad people make entries about each episode, because I thought MAG 149 (Concrete Jungle) was an instance of The Stranger when I first heard it

[@ghifariasoka8272]

In a way, I think the Stranger is still there, but not as potent. I think really bastardized mimics of familiar things are Stranger food in general

[@TheMind129]

@@ghifariasoka8272 The Extinction also deals with the death of *humanity* so it is often confused with The Stranger. It's all about what fear is felt. Are you afraid of not knowing what person is, or are you afraid of that thing not being human?

[@urru7749]

I always thought that the extinction was a way of the entity's to become one again, do the overlapping between at least one aspect of the extinction and the others fears. I was convinced of that until the last moment of season 4.

[@Ciran87]

I would like to add that one of the reasons we may not see much out of the Extinction throughout the entire show, and especially the post-change world, is that it may not even be a distinct or emerging entity. One of the points of that storyline was gathering evidence for it even existing; if it is only a facet of The End, as some theorise, rather than an entity in and of itself, then it having only a single domain in the post-change world actually makes sense.

[@MatchesIsme-io2vt]

I really like the extinction!! I wish they have focused a little bit more on the digital aspect of the the extinction, and the AI part of our end. Also ur art has been progressing and it’s so cool to see!!!

[@ghostnorm]

I love the extinction sm, I really hope that it gets spotlight in protocol! It really melds all the fears together and highlights the fact that they all mix into eachother somewhat. Because when people put things into their own boxes and categories it lessens fear, it brings order, but fear is orderless and in the end the fears lie more on a spectrum, never being fully clear cut in the end. And on that spectrum the extinction is like the eye of the storm, and I know you mentioned this near the end of this video but it's very cool messaging of the series that some people look over.

[@moonbunnygw8342]

Trash: *exists* Tma fans: is this an Extinction manifestation? Honestly I personally don't see Binary as Extinction aligned,but I feel like it's something the fandom misinterprets often

[@ac.fergus7046]

i love this comment, thank you dear stranger

[@EzraSharkey69]

Woo! New video!

[@daang3873]

I'm so excited!

[@moonbunnygw8342]

Excited ❤ always looking forward to those videos

[@patsmith7095]

Great stuff man…it’s a big help…Im going to begin at Angler Fish and go through again to 200, looking forward to your excellent, ordered, imaginative work enhance my experience. Good lookin out, old boy.

[@akaLizard]

It’s been so great seeing your art skills improve throughout this series 💚

[@chai7218]

oh im so fucking psyched for this video

[@user-hf1qu2yf1j]

Your art has been getting so good over this series!!!

[@coleroberts1773]

Thank you for another in depth video. I hope you get the chance to make the video idea you mentioned in this video about the organization of the entities and your thoughts and research on Smirkes 14. Can't wait

[@myheartisstillthebside]

THIS IS SUCH A GOOD VIDEO augh

[@HimitsuHunter]

Thanks for this episode. The snake connection to The Extinction is something fun.

[@cypressbushnell3992]

love these

[@cypressbushnell3992]

yay u liked my comment

[@Scarecrowlove1983]

I always thought 160 should count as extinction. They literally ended the world as they knew it, replaced not with humans per se, but with avatars and victims. If anything, I think the watchers crown is the extinction ritual, or at least is the extinctions birth. I think in that case, Jonah inadvertently causing an extinction instead of an eye ritual is fitting - in the sense that any extinction isn’t specifically intentional. And as an extension, episode 200 - destroying the new ‘current’ world, and infecting other worlds with it, is another extinction, in a way. Also theoretically - I like to consider the whole thing from an outside perspective, either from out literal point of view, or from the characters in protocol’s point of view if they find some record of what happened in TMA. From ours (or maybe Sam’s?) point of view, we’re listening to the story of a world (or universe) going extinct. Like it no longer exists in the way it did at the start of the story. You could consider the whole 200 episodes of TMA a very long extinction statement. I hope any of that makes sense, I realized trying to put my thoughts into words was a little harder than I thought. 😅

[@YouTubewatcher6]

Big stretch here, what if the vampires are extinction monsters ? Just a thought since they could be there to inherent the earth and their ability to quickly burn like discarded paper. But definitely a massive stretch

[@trollkienofficial1225]

Since you just talked about change, I realised I need to change something too. I was not subscribed yet, so I quickly changed that!

[@SeerOfTime577]

Fantastic video, Afton! I can't believe it took me so long to get to it. I especially enjoyed hearing all the mythos having to do with snakes; absolutely fascinating. I recall hearing, once, that Ophidiophobia is the most common phobia...ever. But, even if it was at some point in time, I'm not certain if it still is #1. But it is certainly up there! Insane to think how many more people are afraid of snakes compared to spiders. And the END!!! My entity. I've been waiting, haha. The Extinction is one of my top fears, because I definitely think it's possible that humanity will wipe itself out. But the End, seperate from human beings making horrible decisions, brings me such a sense of comfort. I can't wait for the next video! You're doing great work.

[@l.raphaelnery7299]

I agree with you on the scrapped ideas metaphor...drafts also work in that regard but thats just me since they're basically thebsame thing... And we can all agree that Adelard Dekker went out like the badass he was taking on one of the most dangerou avatars who had been around a long time and how he burned everything down while sitting on a thrown Amherst made for himself

[@marigabyteyssier2279]

About MAG 114, I always interpreted it as a manifestation of the Lonely, Web and Spiral, modifying the cleaner's (and the people around her) memories. It never occurred to me until just now that she could be from another dimension.

[@ryebread_draws]

sure i am glad i checked the void next to my door for videos!

[@EvilOverlord1662]

Adventure Time takes place in The Magnus Archives post-Extinction emergence

[@manon-lb5zl]

i think that since a fair few episodes have hints of multiple fears in them and it would be reasonable to believe that some statements, binary in particular comes to mind, are primarily one fear (in this case the spiral) with influence from the extinction

[@rita6355]

The newest tma episode has snakes!!!

[@DG_Toti]

Yay this dropped on my 20th birthday, time to mentally scream!

[@jaehurd3524]

Can you make a video on plot lines the cross over other entities, like the books?

[@YaGirlChar1986]

It’s a Christmas gift come early woooo

[@Fen_ix832]

let's goo!!

[@chewiecheshire7973]

I mentioned this on another video but I'll say it here again, I think the extinction is very different in that it could have had a successful ritual. Now, it could be that these were ideas that were cut for time or that were never given enough hints, but I believe either Decker or someone else does say the extinction feels different from other entities. I will again say, the reason I think the Web even did the mass ritual which is a major risk because it would mean the death of all life because of the nature of the end (technically, most human life: bit of a tangent but I realized that because the End is an existential fear, it actually wouldn't affect most animals. And cause she can't fear, the end can't touch Georgie. With Melanie cut off from the eye, she might also be immune. So basically the end of everything will leave Georgie, Melanie, and the Hunt as roommates. I would love to see that sitcom). But the Extinction gives the Web a reason to act, because it is the only entity that doesn't focus on changing the world to allow it to exist, it focuses on what comes after humanity, another form of life that could fear. And if this new life is so different to humanity then a lot of the fears are in danger of no longer being relevant or at least diminished in power. If human consciousness is uploaded to robot bodies, that's the Flesh and the Corruption screwed. If it's a creature that is blind, well it was knowing ya Eye and Dark. If the creature is a hive mind then what is the Web going to manipulate, there's only one brain to work with, and the Stranger won't fair better if the hive mind can instantly know who is and isn't part of it. The point of reality hopping may be to keep the Extinction in check. Leaving each reality once it gets a bit too close to changing humanity.

[@baszko6152]

Curious how you got to Extinction before End,but i get it. Not having END be final video in a series would be a crime XD. Narrative, themes, lore : the world is always ending have fascinating place in TMA As it simultaneously was pivotal and neglected. After all apocalypse did happen, terrible change did came, heck we even call it post CHANGE world. I think Future Without Us has real chance of coming back as full on power equal to smirks list in protocol. If literal apocalypse is not enough then i don't know what would be. At the same time while just like eye, its mark is felt through all of PCW it only get measly on domain, not even any conjoined ones. Also for something built up whole season it kinda didn't even " go away" more it never even showed up. Its like if in season one instead of Jane Prentis, Hunter showed up or something. HOWEVER Entities and TMA do have history of fizzling out(dark, desolation) so it's not as unprecedented as would have thought. In fact they do more often than not actually. Lonely? Tip to the press. Vast? Submarine Sabotage. Slaughter? Literally just stopped. Burried? Throw in astronaut lol.

[@FinalFantasmagorie]

Yeah, my general rule was that they went in order of narrative significance, but I HAD to put Terminus at the end. If I were to put it in it's proper place, it would maybe go either right before or right after the Spiral.

[@maevepage606]

Sorry, another comment. I wonder if fear of snakes would be found more in different regions. Snakes aren't common in the UK and they only have one rarely encountered venomous example. As an Australian I have a very healthy aversion to snakes! The international sister organizations of the Institute are probably flush with snake statements.

[@miosz4984]

A great video as always, Afton! Here's my perspective: - I believe that The Extinction can seen as a symbol of the story's "climax", where the antagonist must be defeated soon or they will win, for example. Alternativly, it can seen as a metaphor for Wham Shots/Lines/Episodes that bring a big change to the story. - Yes The Extinction deserved better in the podcast - I see The Extinction connection to snakes to be similar to The Web and spiders; spiders are symbolic for manipulation and snakes for the end of the world. A more manifestations of snakes are probably under purview of the Hunt. - The Extinction, I assume, primarly spited off from Filth and Desolation, the because the connction it has with both the refuse and filth of humanity and the destruction both it and the Fire causes. - I certaintly agree that the classifications of fear are abitrary and loose, but it can't be denied that it can be intresting and entertaining. Speaking of classifications of fear, let's use it a transition for me to explain my additions and changes I presented in the Q&A video. Part 1, rest in replies For starters, I made that list with the thought of "what fears are missing from the canon powers and are they "relevent" enough, so to speak, to stand individually in with the other powers", rather then "do they fit with the story and it's symbolism". It can be seen with the concept of the Lesser Powers. The Deprived and The Fallen are rather easy to explain. For the former, many around the world fear lacking something, be it something eccential to live or otherwise. It has alot of overlap with The Delosation yes, but the Flame is a fear pain, loss and destruction, it was never, to my knowledge, a fear of lacking. The Flesh is similar in this regard; it deals with cannibalism and being a resorce, but not with desperation that comes with not having enough, tho there is like with Fire, an overlap. As for the latter, many people, of course, fear that which they see as evil, as well as being themselfs rotten in some way, similarly to how many have a fear of failure and of not being good enough. There is a overlap with The Corruption that I didn't mention than, that The Corruption deals with literal rot, while The Fallen deals with metaphorical rot.

[@miosz4984]

Part 2 The Lost - I thought about it and lumped it with Forsaken, reasons probaly obvious. TBA

[@TheLuckySpades]

A less serious take on the "storytelling" metaanalysis you got going on, but the extinction could be sequels "The Future Without Us" a sequel series devoid of the initial characters or at least with them sidelined or too old to interact, a change in setting and tone shifting away from whatever initial success you garnered leading to resentment and loss of interest from the audience, the characters and writing once so filled with life now husks trying and miserably failing to recapture that spark of humanity As much as it hurts when a good series gets cancelled prematurely there are enough shows that either went on last their end or simply lost their spark in later installments/seasons/sequels that I've seen people express fears that writers will fuck up good shows while we haven't even seen a trailer for it Game of Thrones being an extreme example of dropping the ball, Supernatural going on far longer than planned or should ever have, and for a less extreme example there is a split in the Last Airbender fandom because Legend of Korra is such a different show than AtlA was (and srudio interference didn't help) And as for the audience anxiety: I've seen a lot of people who will sing Arcane's praises day and night tamper their expectations hard while saying they hope that the next season has comparable writing, not even saying they hope it stays as stellar as the first season This is to say I am hoping I am right and we get The Extinction as a major force in the sequel, especially since it seems to be set in a different universe, so to most of the original cast (if any of them end up in the universe of Protocol) this Future is without Them

[@rudolfambrozenvtuber]

Sorry about the massive flood of comments but you keep giving me more to say. The problem with writing the Extinction is twofold imo: -the statement obviously can't include the actual extinction. Then the show would end. Pocket dimension statements get old after a bit -it's a fear that's inherently associated with modern science and rationalism in a way none of the others are, yet the statement must be supernatural

[@FinalFantasmagorie]

Hey, I appreciate all of them! I think the relationship between the technological and supernatural elements of the Extinction is a complicated one, though there are plenty of ways they could be combined. I've always personally liked when technology, which, in the modern world, is often used as a source of comfort, can be turned on its head for fear, whether by changing the way that it operates or by using the regular mechanisms of everyday technology to terrifying effect.

[@YaGirlChar1986]

Yo!

[@ivansomething5281]

I always associate the extinction as late stage capitalism or feeds on it