YMMV / Malevolent

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• Adorkable: Arthur has his moments, a notable example is when he's interacting with a glowing, flying creature in episode 16. Many fans also see John this way at times, especially when he laughs.
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Arthur's role in Faroe's death. Does he bear the brunt of the responsibility, or was his housekeeper Tess more at fault?
    • Additionally, why exactly didn't Arthur get up right then and there, considering his apparent fondness for his daughter? Perhaps undiagnosed ADD/ADHD, which can cause periods of hyperfocus? Or could some eldritch god have been influencing him and keeping him from checking? Or was he simply telling the truth about being extremely self absorbed?
  • When John tells Arthur that he has "the cold calculated demeanor of someone not to fuck with", did he actually mean that? Or was he just trying to flatter Arthur to make him easier to manipulate?
  • What exactly is Yellow? Is he John, a copy of Season 1 John, or a different fragment of the King altogether?
    • Additionally how much of Yellow's behavior and the differences between him and John were Arthur's fault? Did Arthur cause Yellow to take on a different personality by jumping the gun and telling him what he is right away? Yellow did occasionally show moments of kindness and curiosity in the same way John did, but Arthur didn't seem as patient with him. Did Arthur's lashing out at Yellow contribute to his eventual turn? Or was he always going to end up completely different from John, no matter what Arthur did?
  • There's also Uncle/Jack Larson, who is cruel but also child like. Is he fully cognizant of his actions? How much of his violence is a result of Wallace Larson's influence?
  • Episode 31 revealed that while Bella was giving birth to Faroe, and for an hour after she died, Arthur was out drinking and considering abandoning his wife and child. Arthur's reason for wanting to leave has lead to a lot of speculation among the fandom; in his own words, he didn't love Bella and staying married her 'is wrong', with a lot of emphasis placed on how 'wrong' it is. Why? Is he aromantic, and not able to romantically love anyone? Is he closeted gay, and realized Bella just isn't his cup of tea? He is he straight/bi but simply feels living in a loveless marriage is wrong? Maybe some sort of mixture of these options?
• Can't Un-Hear It: Fans often remark how they will hear various internet posts and comics in the characters' voices, especially John's.
• Complete Monster: The Waking Children series (with Ain't Slayed Nobody): The Woken Man is an entity implied to have once been a human sorcerer with immense power over life and death, encased in iron and bound by tree roots in a shrine underneath the Longdale House orphanage with his disembodied spirit haunting the surrounding forest. Offering power and longevity to those who serve him, for untold decades the Woken Man has ordered the sacrifice of dozens of the children and infants sent to the Longdale House. When Father Samson—the priest in charge of the Longdale House—has outlived his usefulness, the Woken Man compels him to take his own life and claims him too. Driving Teddy Bloom insane when he comes across the shrine beneath the orphanage, the Woken Man orders him and Headmother Anne to sacrifice the orphaned newborn Eli Paddock. When Cecilia Hammond, Jeremiah "Walt" White, and Albert Brookner thwart his designs by rescuing Eli, the Woken Man begins haunting them as punishment.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The beginning of Episode 28. John having a breakdown while trapped in Arthur's unconscious, dying body? Horrifying. Kayne, sitting a few feet away, obnoxiously munching on Gardetto's as he commentates on John's breakdown like it's his favorite soap opera? Hilarious.
• Cry for the Devil: Many fans show more than a little sympathy for several antagonists that have appeared, most notably Kellin.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: As stated above, many fans believe that Arthur may have undiagnosed ADD/ADHD, citing things like his tendency to form hyperfixations, and his apparent tendency to hyperfocus when it comes to music, as well as him seemingly being easily distracted. ADHD people are often noted to have issues with irritability, which Arthur seems to have (though a lot of that irritability could be chalked up to stress and lack of proper food and sleep). ADHD is also often associated with rebellious and non-conformist behavior, which Arthur seems to exhibits.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The fandom has clung to a few minor characters, including:
  • Arthur's late partner Peter "Parker" Yang, despite having no speaking lines and dying immediately before the events of the first episode, is very popular among the fandom, especially after episode 26, where Arthur reminisces about their friendship.
  • Kellin, despite only showing up in one episode before dying, is a popular character in fanart, possibly because his introduction is where many fans feel the show truly started to hit it's stride, or possibly because gas masks are just fun to draw, and look pretty cool.
  • Lily, the nurse who took care of Arthur while he was in a coma and helped John realize the beauty and value in humanity, is the subject of a lot of fanart, fan fic, and general speculation, despite never actually appearing in the podcast proper.
  • The Tradesman only shows up twice while in the Dreamlands, but his general description and personality has garnered a lot of fanart and interest from the fandom.
  • Percival has been the subject of some speculation and fanwork among the fans, with many fans hoping he'd show up again so Arthur could finally finish his story.
• Fanfic Fuel: Arthur's late business partner Peter "Parker" Yang is the subject of many fanworks despite having no voice lines in canon.
• Fanfic Magnet: As previously stated, Parker is the subject of more than a few fanfics.
• Fan Nickname: Since transcripts sometimes take a couple of weeks to be posted, in the interim fans will come up with their own nicknames for characters and creatures who don't yet have an official name. One recent example is calling the creature hiding in the rafters in the mines, well, Rafters.
• Friendly Fandoms: There's a huge overlap between fans of Malevolent and fans of other Rusty Quill productions and acquisitions, especially The Magnus Archives.
• Growing the Beard: While most listeners find the show enjoyable from the very start, the fandom generally agrees that the show really becomes something special from episode 4 onward. At that point, the work moves away a bit from it's original Monster of the Week format and more towards an overarching plot.
• He's Just Hiding: Some fans believe that Kellin might have survived, and that Arthur and John might run into him again at some point.
• Ho Yay: Many fans interpret Arthur and John's relationship as potentially romantic, with Kayne even joking at one point that Arthur "only has eyes for [John]".
  • In episode 26 Arthur brings up going out for dinner and dancing after they get back to Arkham. Kayne even outright refers to this as a 'Dinner Date' in episode 28.
  • The first episode of season 4 has them get into an argument over seeing a movie that many fans remark is quite Like an Old Married Couple, and later John gets seemingly annoyed, perhaps even jealous, when Arthur starts talking to another passenger named Percival.
  • Many fans also speculate that Arthur and Parker might have been more than just business partners before his death, especially after the particular fondness he seems to have when describing their relationship in episode 26.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Some fans have taken to calling the Arthur/John ship "Private Eyes".
• Iron Woobie: Arthur; Even after loosing his eyesight, being chased and hunted by multiple unspeakable horrors, dying or coming near death multiple times, he still keeps fighting. He himself even proclaims as such.
• Love to Hate: Many fans feel this way towards Larson, which is likely the intent. It helps that he's a Mirror Character for Arthur, so fans are inclined to compare the two characters.
• Memetic Mutation: The work has spawned several memes among the fanbase, including;
  • Corpse Voice ^note The term the fandom uses to describe the tone John uses when describing a dead body
  • CHOMP! ^note When the patreons were asked to choose whether or not Arthur should bite off the tip of John's thumb, many fans were very excited and since then CHOMP and CHOMP Day have been fandom memes.
  • The way John describes things in vivid, Purple Prose is a popular fandom meme, with fans often making posts and fanart where John will describe popular memes in his usual manor.
  • Arthur's reputation as a Weirdness Magnet has become the source of a lot of jokes within the fandom.
  • "Fuck, Arthur!" and it's multiple variations.
  • The Marriage/Divorce Cycle ^note When the two protaganists are in the middle of an argument, the fandom considers them "Divorced", and when they make up, they are "Married"
    • "They are so Married!" was particularly common after episode 26.
  • Feet-hands Kayne ^note A fan in the official discord server pointed out that there's no way to prove he doesn't have hand feet, due to the audio only nature of the medium, leading to a lot of fanart of Kayne with feet for hands
  • Gardetto's ^note Word of God confirmed that Kayne is, in fact, eating this specific brand of pub mix at the beginning of episode 28
  • "Arthur! There's a Creachur!"
  • THE CABOOSE! ^note Another more active patron poll, the fans have clung to this mostly because Caboose is a funny word.
• Moral Event Horizon: Almost the entire fanbase agrees that Larson crossed this when he sacrificed his own daughter to the outer gods. Some fans feel that Arthur may have crossed this when he killed and ate Faust while imprisoned in the Dreamlands.
• More Popular Spin Off: The ritual and tome that brought John to Arthur in the first place was from Harlan's first Call of Cthulhu campaign, and many of the characters from said campaign are mentioned, especially early on. However, most fans are unaware that this even is technically a spin-off/sequel. It helps that it isn't really necessary to listen to any of Harlan's CoC games to understand what's going on.
• Narm: In episode 18 "The Madness", there's a sequence where the King in Yellow tries to confuse Arthur, playing with his mind. At one point, he invokes the moment where Eddie attacked him early in the series. It's all dramatic and serious... except for when 'Eddie' says "Do you fly mother fucker?" before presumably throwing him out of a window.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: While many fans refer to the John/Arthur pairing as Private Eyes, another popular ship name is Jarthur.