Monsters learning to be human is one of my favorite tropes in stories and I love the way Malevolent handles it. Yes, John learns that he’s more than his past and learns to love Arthur and humanity, but not only does he “become good” he is also gains all the selfish emotions that come with being human.

Take lying for example. In seasons 1 + 2 he lies because that’s what he knows as the King in Yellow. He lies and manipulates for his own benefit. He does so uncaring how that affects Arthur because he is just an end to a means. And it’s hard to tell when he’s lied as he only points it out when he knows it would hurt Arthur.

Compare that to season 3 + 4. Despite lying being the core of who he was as the king, he gets kinda bad at it. It’s pretty clear that John is hiding things from Arthur about what happened to him when they were separated and why John wants to go to New York. He begins to sound so unconfident in his words because he now understands what he’s doing is wrong. Instead of lying to manipulate and hurt Arthur, he’s lying to try and hide the fact that he’s hurting him. He’s so scared of the repercussions of the bad thing he knows he did, that he lies to cover it and pretend it will all blow over. It takes a lot of guts to admit your own guilt, and deciding to shrink away from it instead is so human.

When John admits all his lies to Kayne in part 40 he just sounds so desperate. He truly believes that he’s in the home stretch. That just a little more lying and everything will be done and he won’t feel guilty anymore. He decided he’ll tell Arthur when it’s over because he believes Arthur won’t be that mad, that he’ll think “you did something bad, but it all worked out in the end so it’s okay”, but we all know that’s not how that works. He’s so horrified when it’s revealed Arthur heard his confession because he knew what was coming, all of Arthur’s feelings of betrayal, disappointment, and anger, and he wasn’t ready to face it. He feels so guilty that he probably can’t imagine Arthur understanding and forgiving him.

Of course Kanye’s deal makes this worse. John once again knows that this is wrong as he hesitates at the beginning. But once Arthur begins to threaten him to not take the deal, John decides to take it, once again trying to run away from the repercussions of his actions. John doesn’t know yet that lying more only makes things worse, and Kayne knows this and gives him one more bump to trip on before leaving John to the fate that he has been avoiding for so long.

Of course it’s enjoyable to see John gaining his humanity. Him showing compassion, sympathy, and enjoying the mundane parts of life like admiring the view or wanting to watch a movie. But humanity is a double sided coin that comes with emotions like jealousy, selfishness, and envy. It’s frustrating to see John make all these decisions that we know are wrong and will have bad consequences, but he hasn’t been in this position before doesn’t know how this will all play out yet. And we just have to watch him learn the hard way.

arthur is such a tragic character and at the same time the most optimistic fiction podcast protagonist i've ever known. and i think those two things correlate. because his specific brand of tragedy has left him with absolutely nothing except hope to hold on to. his will is the only thing he hasn't lost, and that in itself is also a tragedy. he cannot give up, not even when going forward will only hurt him more. there is mercy in death, there is peace in giving up. there's no mercy in putting one foot in front of the other, bracing yourself and moving forward, again and again and again, not to get somewhere safe enough to rest, but just because you cannot stay still. there is no peace in moving forward when you know the world is not done punishing you. the only reason you'd ever keep going is if you believed you deserved it, and believed that by putting yourself through this hell you will eventually have earned your peace.

So this song fits them so very well right?

THE ABSOLUTE STATE OF ARTHUR LESTER

made a flowchart for some of the most underrated podcasts in my favorites list (you want to listen to all of these you want to listen to all of them sooo bad)

“He’s my bbg”

And then it’s a man with PTSD, war crimes, a 50,000$ bounty, and if you even touched him he’d beat you violently to death

Can't stop thinking about the line "you treat your mouth as if its heavans gate" to describe someone who heavily regulates what comes and goes from their body whether that be in the form of strictly following a healthy diet or refraining from profanity and speaking in ways that may be deemed sinful

I need a Too Sweet edit for Dean Winchester, but instead of a ship edit, it's just between pre hell and post hell Dean.

Sometimes listening to a song on repeat isn’t enough. I need to inject that shit into my veins. I need it engraved into my mind. Tattooed on my eyelids. Sometimes all I need is to eat, sleep, BREATHE that song

Sherlock: Zugzwang.

Me: *criminal minds flashbacks* HUH

that's a horrifying sentence omg (it goes hard tho i love it)

I'm calling alkaline hydrolysis (water cremation) on this one.

No easy-to-locate bodies

Spare immersion heating cylinder

KOH (required) is a paint stripper, so would either already be on hand or raise no flags to purchase for a painter

Very wet paint

Over wallpaper: painting has a purpose other than redecorating

Victim's genetic material on the walls anyway, why would more be suspicious?

Paint would mask the smell (or incorporate it into what'd already be expected?)

Conclusion: dispose of the bodies by painting your house with them???

what does horror mean to you guys? Like, is it an artistic expression, maybe a type of comfort, etc etc. Love your podcasts!!! 🫶

I guess I see it much like any genre - as a kind of licence, based on audience expectation and audience trust, to take them to certain places.

For me the only difference with horror, and what really excites me about it, is that it's a particularly flexible licence, with fewer hard requirements, and the driver is given more scope to go to stranger, bleaker, and darker destinations in pursuit of something interesting.

So we can debate whether elevated horror or torture porn or soft Halloween spookadoodles or whatever counts as 'real' horror (or indeed whether The Silt Verses should be called contemporary dark fantasy instead), or like Stephen King in On Writing, we can try and impose some kind of hierarchy of the audience's emotional responses, but horror resists these attempts to clearly classify it: humanity's collective understanding of the genre remains broad and mutable enough to include existential terror, cosy ghost stories, transgressive body horror, bleak and violent nihilism, and goofy Lovecraftian kitsch.

I love some of this stuff as great art and hate some of it as trash (and love some of it as trash as well), but the joy of horror lies in the fact that it's such a big, anarchic, permissive playground.

Horror is the sign on the door that simply promises, 'Bad things are going to happen.'

I am sorry, but what is Harlan doing making a podcast that is darker than malevolent. DARKER?? HOW IS IT DARKER? girl what are you doing, what fuels this. I don't want to know, I am a little curious... but that content warning list. Dear God wtf. I am not strong enough for this. Oh but it sounds good, and horrible and gross and what if, but like no.

I also think that it is funny tat he thanked his wife and posted what seems like a very heavy and disturbing. I don't know he is like I love my wife she is so wonderful and supports me! Look at this podcast I made, and it is really dark so look at the content warning about the show. (please don't take this as a criticism it isn't. I just think it is a bit funny because of the tone change)

deviser is so fun like what if a guy (AI) really misunderstood frankenstein and just. just fucked up everything forever. fantastic, no notes, really into the fleshy sounds and all the gasping pained breaths.

If you love some grizzly horror, dark humour, characters being taken through hell and back, and out of pocket humour that repeatedly had me rewinding to make sure I heard what I thought I just heard, then I am begging you to listen to Red Valley. I am currently relistening to it for the 4th or 5th time. Please give it a chance, if it seems slow at first don't worry, soon enough people will be getting scalped.

Choose your fighter:

The Magnus Archives is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Todays episode was written and performed by Jonathan Sims and directed by Alexander J. Newall for-

vs.

Deviser was written, preformed, edited, and directed by Harlan Guthrie. Original music and themes written and performed by Harlan Guthrie. This episode featured Henry Guthrie.

I listened to Deviser this week, which is a sci-fi horror podcast about what happens when bad literary analysis goes unchecked