#malevolent women

[cherrisummer-art]

cant sleep

[croik]

I was also really upset by the Bella lore we got in season 4. That is to say, that we learned almost nothing about her as a person, and more about how the men in her life felt about her, and the ways in which they didn't think or feel about her at all. It's one thing to realize you made a mistake and find yourself in an untenable relationship. It's another for a horror podcast to go pretty far out of its way to make it clear that the protagonist, whose wife, child, and parents have already been egregiously fridged, isn't even all that upset about her agonizing and isolated death. It was more important for Arthur that the demon in his head not judge him for wanting to leave her, than it was for him to reflect on her death. And the choice the creator made to highlight that point so emphatically does say something, I think.

(oh it got long it's under a cut)

But the overall issue for Malev and women, as I see it, was really driven home by Marie at the end of part 39. Not every story needs to be about all things or all people, I don't fault the show for not having as many female side characters as men. But it is, in my opinion, fundamentally not interested in women or their stories. They exist off screen as a motivation for men, they die off screen when they are no longer needed, or when we learn that they were never needed in the first place. Which is really obvious when at the end of the multi-part side quest of Arthur hunting and battling Scratch to save Hattie, her sister Marie only wants to talk about her son.

Her sister has been confined to her room for years. Marie was willing to kill her husband to try to save him, but she wasn't willing to kill Hattie. At long last, her sister is back, she can live the rest of her life as herself. But we don't get to meet her. There's no catharsis for that rescue, because rescuing Hattie was only ever a motive of convenience for the plot. She was never a character, and Marie's affection for her disappears entirely once there isn't a need for it. Instead we get a speech about her son (who didn't exist before that moment? I don't remember if he had come up before), and a punchline about how Marie has plans to go out for the evening.

Marie's last appearance as a character is to reinforce how much she cares about having men back in her life. Not about a woman's love for her sister. Arthur absolved himself of the sin of having loosed Scratch by... well, not defeating her in any sense, but he did get Hattie back after losing her. But he doesn't care about her as a person, and neither does the podcast itself. Malev does not care about any of its women as people.

(Hell even Noel, who was in the show for all of 2 parts, spat out his entire backstory, faced his demons and came out stronger, made friends and had catharsis, got Arthur to wail over him... Scratch was around almost the whole season and we didn't get to meet Hattie at all!)

Anyway that's my take on Malev and women. It is utterly uninterested and a lesser show for it.

And I don't want to hear "it's a one man show" ever again!!! He is part of a network now, he is hosting other podcasts run by women on his discord, he has access to the best voice actors in the business. "Only me" is a rule he imposed on himself and a choice he can make or unmake at will.

Ok wait I’m not done with this. Gender in Malevolent is driving me insane.

The way that women in the narrative are so absent, that the hole is so huge you can’t help but stare into it. And I do think a lot of the gender stuff is unintentional, it’s just that the way it’s unfolding fascinates me….

I actually stopped watching the show for a full year after episode 31…. The way Arthur talked about Bella’s death upset me in a way the other visceral horror didn’t. He didn’t resent Bella, he didn’t really…. Feel anything super deep about her. He got stuck with her, she was better than him, she was an equal to him but her life and death didn’t affect him the way every other loss in his life did. He didn’t want a wife, and in the end that’s all he saw her as….

Kind of insane how he finally shows some sort of emotion for Bella in the name of mutual rebellion, she didn’t like what her dad stood for either. Arthur thought he was making a sacrifice for her and Faroe by marrying her…. But she didn’t want it either. Arthur was honour bound she was actually literally trapped. She made the sacrifice.

Everything about Bella makes me so mad. I hateeee the dead wife trope. I feel like a type of subversion was attempted but idk. When I think of this situation from her perspective it becomes a much scarier horror podcast, lol. We all know Arthur Lester is a mess, his flaws make the show. But for this one. Arty when I get u…

I actually thought Bella was gonna turn out to be a figure like Anna Stanzyck when I first started listening. Idk how to elaborate.

[koszmarnybudyn]

[sevinite]

i have spent many hours thinking about the complexities of bella and arthur’s relationship and i’ve come to the conclusion that they were close friends who messed around when they absolutely should not have and that messed everything up

[honeysucklethornsandalligtrhorns]

see now i think my problem is that i find the horrifying evil terrorizing monster character to be the funniest silliest most specialest little guy i ever did see. and then people in the computer expect me to find his words and actions 'wrong' and 'immoral' and 'unforgivable by literally anyones standards, literally'. what if he was just having a good time. fuck you.

[arthur-lesters-left-arm]

the witch was such a hater but also…the message she was relaying to john was basically just “dump his ass!!! he’s holding you back babe, you can do so much better <3” and i find that hilarious

[potato-lord-but-not]

Learn to draw women

YES SIR 🗣️🗣️🗣️

[samglyph]

Me too buddy

[ceaselessims]

kayne saying arthur fell in "like" with his wife so true arthur aromantic gay king i feel vindicated

[women-of-malevolent]

Meta: The Worst Moment In Malevolent (So Far)

POV: You, a fan of a fictional horror podcast, have been really curious about the fictional character of Bella Lester and how her arc would explore themes of institutional misogyny. You find out that she died a horrifying death alone and betrayed by the main character, who doesn't care that he left her to die alone from horrifying medical complications from a medical condition that he spooted into her.

The other characters in the scene also don't care about that. After Arthur insists that being with Bella ~felt wrong~, they give in. Fair enough, they seem to say. If it felt wrong to be there with her, then it was okay to betray your literal wife when she needed you most, and it's okay to not even regret it, or care about the profound suffering you caused her. It's fine. It ~felt wrong~. Other people exist to make you feel good, so if they don't, fuck 'em, the exact moment they start to exhaust or annoy you. No one owes anyone anything in this life.

POV: You, a longtime fan of the Malevolent podcast, don't understand why the story wants to move on from this. Bella has been described thinly up until now. Arthur was clearly torn about her but he's firmly said he loved her, that she was kind, and they cared about each other. Now he's showing us that on a very deep level, he doesn't care that he left her to die after ruining her socially, financially, medically, and emotionally. He only cares that he left his infant daughter alone for 1 hour.

What is a fan to make of this? What could possibly be the intent of the story? What themes are being developed? All I'm learning is that every character and the entire world of this story are scumbag misogynists, in a story that feels like it can't be bothered to flesh out the main character's wife who he repeatedly said he loved lmfao. not to mention his mother-in-law or child lmao. here's their personalities + the impression they left on Arthur Lester: they're dead. they used to be alive but then they died. Bella gets a personality and Arthur inflicted her with a horrible death and then pisses on her memory on screen with her captor and Hattie couldn't possibly have a journal because she's old. Great show great themes great characters

[aliciavance4228]

"Medusa x Perseus" Why don't you guys ship Bellerophon with Chimera? Or Heracles with the Hydra?

[trustypaladin]

Anna Stanczyk

[chialattea]

Anyways this is my Agatha Christie murder mystery rip-off where I psychologically torture Arthur for a bit but I also let him sleep on a bed so I think I treat him rather nicely. I love you malevolent and I understand why, for obvious reasons, you don’t have many female characters— but doctor, I need women to survive

[the-algid]

Wait! I just got a banger Faroeverse idea. Faroe is in an unhappy, old fashioned marriage. She gets a book delivered to her house, and Jane Doe causes her to kill her best friend who was visiting Penny Yang. Eddie in this version is her misogynist husband, who she murders. She also continues to be a pro women's rights activist and just a general girl boss the remainder of the podcast. Pro Faroe Mariticide

[snake-spire]

Had to speed run 16 sketchbooks assignments and I decided to make them all Malevolent related.

And the first page had to obviously be dedicated to Lilith.

[coulson-is-an-avenger]

actually so fond of how we get the lore that Bella was a seamstress in malevolent. I feel like seamstresses aren't given a lot of credit in the various medias they're mentioned in, especially if by a man, but I really enjoyed that we had the groundwork for that reveal set by giving Arthur an insight into expertise on fabric types/make of clothing and then later explaining that he gets that expertise from Bella. it's a cool way to have her trade be seen as a genuine field of knowledge, of relevant and helpful expertise that is acknowledged as valuable and interesting by our protagonist, even if he never worked in it himself. I really liked that!!