What Follows Was Intended To Be A Brief Elaboration, But Turned Into A Progressively More Unhinged Essay
What follows was intended to be a brief elaboration, but turned into a progressively more unhinged essay looking at a component of Arthur’s descent into madness. I’m not keeping this shit in my notes app, so if it survives, it will have to be here.
In the Sad Parent Poem -as I like to call it- Arthur tells his younger self that it wasn’t his fault. Growing up in that family structure, at least in my experience, you don’t see your parents as people like you. It’s like feeling weird when you see your teacher buying groceries. They are your world, and you are theirs, and that’s it. So for them to decide to dip- I can only imagine how a child would interpret that.
Maybe after investigation(by family or police) Arthur learned that this happened because his parents were Cultists. It was Their fault and not his. In the Sad Parent Poem, he also tells his younger self to “swallow all the hate.” I first interpreted that to mean ‘don’t blame your parents, the hate will only weigh you down.’ But now it seems like he stopped expressing his hatred, and swallowed it - pushed it down and let it fester for years. But a part of him always believed that it *was* his fault, and in reality the hatred was a way to distance himself from that feeling.
And then he (ostensibly) impregnated his wife and she died in child birth. But hey, at least your daughter survived to be all that’s left of her, to be your whole world, to prove that you are better than your parents… Whoops, you hyper focused on piano for a few minutes too long and now she’s dead and it is undeniably Your Fault.
I hc that it’s at this point he goes to the US to, ya know, Escape the Pain. After a few years, he lets himself get close to another person- his business partner, Peter “Parker” Yang🕷. Whoops you opened a book and now your bestie’s dead. Bonus points, you hid his body and then practically forgot about it due to Imminent Danger.
But hey, at least you have a voice in your head who you can’t possibly lo- Whoops he’s gone too. But hey, at least Cultist Bad. It’s Not Your Fault Because Cultist Bad. At least you have that. Oh wow eye bestie’s back! Something good actually happened to you. Maybe you can hold on to someone! This reminds you of that dead bestie… oh fuck you have a whole dead bestie that you haven’t even thought about. And then you became besties with his murderer. You didn’t even have the courtesy to mourn him. What the fuck is wrong with y- What’s that, Eye Bestie (murderer of Dead Bestie)? You say Cultist NOT Bad? You say ME bad for not helping?! I try to help, but yoU SAY CULTIST DEAD AND IS MY FAULT?!!? SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUTUPSHUTUP I HATE YOU …hence the negative reaction, probably
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LMFAO INCREDIBLE. IMMACULATE.
Thank you, Harlan, you feed us so well.
“…who?”
GOT ‘IM. ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED.
Old favorite character divorced, new favorite character acquired.
Malevolent 26 dropped 3 days early baybeeeeee
[MALEVOLENT 25 SPOILERS]
“WhAT The FUCk IS WRONG WITH YOU, ARTHUR?” I said those words aloud, and I have never meant them so earnestly😞😤 I get it, the absurd amount of trauma is finally catching up to him, but?? ‘You seem more sensitive than before, let me tear into you with the most vicious and personal insult I have thrown at you yet, which is saying something, directly after a deeply traumatizing event.’ APOLOGIZE RIGHT NOW ARTHUR. John honey he didn’t mean it, he doesn’t really think that 😭😭😭
And this is only going to get worse, unless Mr. Guthrie decides to take a U-turn on this character arc.
😞🎶 You call it madness… 😞
Hooded Crow John and Red-backed Shrike Arthur
Actually, I decided I should have it written down. Here: (if you can decipher it🙃)
Ah yes, the brainrot is developing nicely
I’m surprised Malam has any time to slumber considering the child mortality rate of the middle ages.
Also, if Faroe had been “with them” this whole time, that dead toddler has seen some shit.
Also
“They aren’t our friend”
EXCUSE YOU john. Ur just mad someone’s coming for ur throne. They are our soulmate our bestie the bro we kiss goodnight. I would die for them i would kill for them i am adopting them and we will be together forever thank you very much
…was my reaction in the moment. Before…y’know
I relistened to episode 27 earlier, and now that I've had time to actually process it, I want to examine that final desicion in a bit more detail.
Let's start with some facts about the monster:
It is intelligent ("It's not a mindless being like the one we fought in the Dreamlands, John, it's intelligent.")
It knows that its victims can free themselves using obsidian ("to know when to be silent, to guard obsidan so more of its meals won't leave.")
It knows where the only source of obsidian is
It knows John and Arthur have returned to the mines ("It senses you.")
It knows that they're in contact with the person they met in the shack, who I'm going to nickname Cave Buddy (CB).
We can safely assume that the monster has drawn the following conclusions: John and Arthur would only return to the mines to rescue the others, and that CB, having already freed themself, can tell them how to do that. Meaning that the monster knows that John and Arthur will be heading to the lair to retrieve the obsidian. So its most obvious course of action is to go there and wait, which is exactly what it fucking did.
Now some facts about the Cave Buddy:
They have survived down here for a long, long time ("They look pained as thay talk, as if they haven't spoken in a long time."), and have managed to evade the monster for that entire time
At one point the monster got close enough to attach a tendril, and CB still managed to get free ("Cut it out"). So it's been demonstrated that they are not completely helpless
They are small enough to fit through narrow passages and nimble enough to climb into the rafters, and they can do both of those things too quietly for John and Arthur to hear. They are highly mobile and stealthy
They have willingly stayed in the mines for a long time, at great risk to their own safety, because they want to free the others ("You haven't left because you want to help them.")
Their tendril has already been cut free, and presumably another one cannot be attached. Meaning that the monster won't bother trying to subdue them and will simply kill them on sight (which it did.) CB knows this.
It can be assumed that any decision CB makes takes all of this into account.
Everything I've listed is information that CB, the monster, John, and Arthur all either already know or have the capacity to deduce. And they're aware that the others know it, too.
So in light of all that, walking into the monster's lair without someone drawing it out first is effectively suicide. John and Arthur should have know damn well that the thing was gaurenteed to be in there because, as Arthur said, it knows to guard obsidian. Someone needed to distract it, and CB's superior mobility meant that they had a way better shot than John and Arthur.
Having CB serve as a distraction is not only the logical choice but also the compassionate one, because it gives them the best chance at achieving a goal they've had for a long, long time. It's dangerous, yes, but their continued presence in the mines and the fact that they literally fucking offered to do it proves that they are just damn fine with that risk.
Basically, CB was not a child or a pet in need of protection, they were a rational being who was trying to achieve a goal and who knew full well what they were getting into. Choosing not to have them provide a distraction was a poor decision.
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mymalevolenthyperfixationpit reblogged this · 2 years ago
