#The hag malevolent

[potato-lord-but-not]

ep 43 doodles that are weeks late bc I forgot about them OOPS

[moookar]

[styrofoamdoor]

This was like an enormous therapy session but if your therapist was rooting for your anger issues

[dani-r]

Here we are, amazing Malevolent 43 and oh boy do I have a bunch of silly comics for you, my friends.

First:

And hey, I made it a meme format and I know they are some amazing ones that people made on the Invictus server, feel free to make yours or reblog with the one to made when we were all running around not knowing what would come next!

Fancy png and all, to make it easier.

[toastydumpster]

I can finally post this stupid doodle dump

[roboneco]

ok but honestly the witch's backstory is incredibly sad. Your mother has been surrounded by suffering and greed for as long as she could remember. You've been conceived from that suffering. Your mother looked at you and then looked at the world and decided it would be mercy to kill you. And she was right. If she kept you among humans, you'd have suffered her same fate. And unknowingly to her, by killing you and keeping you away from them, you found life, power, love even.

No human could hurt you the same way she was hurt like this.

[creekschaoscorner]

This is about two parts analysis and two parts personal connections, so bear with me here. The first half is talking about certain lines from Malevolent Part 43 through the perspective of a trans allegory, and the second half is the rest of my thoughts about the episode. This is gonna be long

SPOILERS FOR PART 43

“You cannot even admit it to yourself. Hell brings about the truth in people…… It’s who you are: A King. Such a being as yourself… playing human is only a facade.”

This whole section, where John is talking about regressing to his former ways in the Dark World, reminds me of how sometimes people are forced to de transition due to safety, peer pressure, or a variety of reasons. The hag’s response to this only emphasizes the parallel- treating it as though because John caved under immense duress this is the “truth” of him.

“From what you have told me, you are simply… (Momentary whispers.) Lost.”

The experience of being told that we’re just confused, just misguided, is something that I think many trans people can relate to. Especially autistic trans people.

“Perhaps it was affecting me, or… or I was meant to be back there…” “Ah. So there is hope for you, yet.”

There are times, when it’s hard to be completely happy with your transition. It can make you wonder if maybe you’re not really trans, if somehow you’re faking, or like you’re destined to be what you were? It’s a miserable feeling to have. But to have someone treat it as proof? As proof that you are still capable of being ‘saved’, because they are so sure they know you better than you know yourself? That’s something I think an unfortunate amount of people are familiar with.

“You introduced yourself as the King in Yellow. Did you not?”

Presenting as your AGAB temporarily for safety, job security, familial pressures, etc. is such a common phenomenon that ‘boymoding’ and ‘girlmoding’ are terms created to describe it. What the hag is doing here is reminiscent of someone taking that and using it against a person- claiming that because they had to present as their AGAB that means that *must* still be who they are. The parallel is continued with her insisting that John must still want the power that comes with the King in Yellow’s name (I know trans men who still use the women’s restroom, because they’d rather be misgendered than harassed).

“This role you’ve been playing. Your time pretending to care.” So many trans people- particularly nonbinary trans people- have been told that it’s a phase, something they’ll grow out of.

So many trans people- particularly nonbinary trans people- have been told that it’s a phase, something they’ll grow out of.

“You have decided to be something that robs the world of its King.”

Sounds so similar to ‘You’re robbing your parents of their son/daughter’. It’s a gut punch to hear, the idea that you somehow owe people to be something you’re not.

“I cannot… fit into your version of what I must be.”

As a gnc trans person, this one resonated with me. Even when it comes to the people who have been my biggest supporters, especially my mom, I can’t fit into their idea of what my gender should be. I just can’t. That doesn’t mean they don’t love me, and that doesn’t mean their support doesn’t matter, it just means I have to define myself on my own. That’s something John has come to terms with on his own, just like I have.

I am someone who has struggled for a long time with an often compulsive need to “be a good person”. It’s made me a pushover, it’s made me self-destructive, it’s made me miserable. The black and white morality that comes with being autistic doesn’t help. It’s impossible to be 100% good all the time. It’s impossible to 100% good in everyone’s eyes. Good, Evil, they’re all subjective- everyone contains multitudes. I contain multitudes. There was something deeply healing about hearing John call himself both.

I have struggled with the darkest parts of myself a lot, especially in recent times, and so has John. But the fact that I can be mean, or selfish, or petty- it doesn’t make me unworthy of love. It doesn’t make John unworthy of love. When I fuck up I still have to take accountability for it, I still want to strive to be better, but I am allowed to be complicated. I’m allowed to be messy. Hearing John acknowledge that about himself out loud felt like confirmation that I am allowed to acknowledge it about me as well. (I haven’t even murdered anyone, so if John can accept himself so can I). I don’t know it I completely agree on John’s outlook on life, but that’s okay. I don’t need to. It’s his own, and that’s all it needs to be.

It feels silly to say, but I feel like my relationship with John as a character has grown so much, especially with these past couple episodes. I like to joke about it a lot, but I really did not like John when I first started Malevolent. I thought he was a fantastic character, but I couldn’t stand him. His manipulation, the way he deflected blame, it got under my skin. My opinion on him had just as many ups and downs as Arthur’s did, if not more. One moment when I was live-blogging to my friends I’d be typing “JOHN STOP BEING A FUCKING DICK”, the next moment “guys I think John is growing on me”. But this episode made me really feel like for the first time, I really understand him. Like I’m seeing for the first time him as everything he is. And that’s really special to me, in a way that’s hard to describe.

And the hag. Oh, the hag. She’s everything I love in a villain, it’s like she was crafted to get under my skin. She’s a lot like the kind of villains I love to write, and I’ve gotta say, being on the opposite end- being the audience- and getting twisted in that manipulation? It was AWESOME. I am delighted to say that I got caught up in her story at first, that I almost lost sight of the goal like John did. She’s incredibly written and I feel like I understand her, and that just adds such an extra layer to her cruelty. There’s so much I want to say about her but I don’t even know how to put it into words. She’s a wonderfully written character and I’m going to be thinking about her for a while.

This episode was beautifully written and masterfully crafted, and has more than earned the praise it’s been given.

[humming-fly]

I've been really enjoying all the heart-wrenching and beautiful art episode 43 of malevolent has spawned, so to even things out here's even more monty python shitposts

Bonus:

[theartingace]

"I will destroy EVERYTHING you have come to love- just as you have taken it from me"

Lines and details under the cut!

[laughable-umbrella]

malevolent is crazy i just heard the phrase “pregnant meat” and didn’t even think twice about it. like yeah arthur and john just went through the wall mouth, hid under a pile of bones, and killed a dead guy and reanimated him with an all knowing tooth. pregnant meat seems like a pretty natural progression.

[izel-scribbles]

how we feeling after part 43 gang

(click for hd, closeups + other doodles under the cut)

the reason this came out so good is because my best friend came over when i was drawing and we just parallel played (drew next to each other on my bed) while listening to 43 (7th relisten for me)

here's my original sketch

another thing ⬇️

also, @percymawce-arts, i said id take pics of my process, but i uh. forgot to, so ill do them next time srry

[moookar]

Hag sketches. I should probably wait until i have a bunch of sketches saved up to post them, but also, I don’t want to so I won’t. I did the one on the right first and it shows, but I do like how the one on the left turned out. I want to push her shapes/anatomy more creaturey. I might take inspiration from chimpanzees or something.

[hydrus101]

It’s so fascinating to me about how much of Malevolent centers around bad or misguided fathers.

We spend ample amounts of time with Arthur’s grief and his faults, his fear of fatherhood, his failings of Faroe and the ensuing spiral afterwards. We hear of Bella’s strict upbringing, of Daniel’s controlling nature, the desire to shape his daughter into what he expected her to be, and even admitting to Arthur’s face that he intended to mold him as well, into what he thought his daughter’s husband should be. We learn of Larson’s betrayals, the sacrifices of his children: the monsters he made of those he should’ve loved, all in the pursuit of power and legacy. There’s an argument to be made even, of fragments and reflections and daughter and sons, that the King - that initial version of him now dead in all respects - was a sort of father, with John and Yellow as his residuals, his sons, his heirs, in a way. Finding their own identities now, free from the shadow of a predecessor, free to chose their own destinies, wether that is to separate themselves entirely, to scream defiantly of humanity and hope and self, or to try and reshape the visage of that dead malevolent god in desperate pursuit of love that wasn’t given, driven by a hate that was shared. What other analogy so seamlessly fits with the relationship between Arthur and Yellow than that of a neglectful father? The one who was supposed to be patient, be caring, be kind, the one who was supposed to teach this new being, this new child, about what life could be like? What love and kindness it could hold? But Arthur was too unsteady then. Too unstable to give Yellow the upbringing that he deserved. His nature was shared with John, and we’ve seen the depths of love he’s embraced. Yellow was simply nurtured wrong, encouraged down that spiral by a foster father who embraced and even venerated his rage. And similarly, in the basement in New York, we are reminded of nature and nurture, of animals and babes. Briefly, quick as a glance, we learn of the Butcher’s father, both a seething livewire and a subtle undercurrent in his motivations, manifested, perhaps, in his tumultuous relationship with failure, his self inflicted violence. Roland and Amanda receive less of the spotlight, but the foundations of everything are built upon their relationship. And now, with the Unclean, we know more of Arthur’s own father—who’s fate is known and the same as his mother’s—and his envy towards his friend, his childish jealousy and vindictive actions, of which he now condemns, having learned better, having known better. Every aspect of the narrative is seeped in fatherhood, in parenting, in children. Malam says as much by the fire: “They are our betters, our futures, our learned mistakes.” Malevolent is, at its core, about parents and children and hope.

And now, Arthur and John are on the run from a mother, on a mission given to them by a father, who’s daughter is largely a mystery, or perhaps, more familiar than we might think.

[dani-r]

I love John deeply. More now than ever, 43 is him, on his own, defending his own self. I love him more now. Not whole, but his own. A rebirth, made in flaw and not perfection, from death, darkness and blood. And love, on the face of resentment and hate.

But this bit was hilarious, total boss that hag, damn. She owned his ass 90% of the chapter and he fucking knows it. I love her hateful twisted ass, that was some power move again. Total Queen, fuck me, I love her.

[marimo-art]

Here's some Malv doodles from the recent eps!

[dear-kumari]

Interesting, uh, "corrupted grain processing" motif in Jorthur being transported to an abandoned windmill with a hag basement immediately after spending the previous season finale in an abandoned grain terminal with a cult basement