Latest Posts by childish-arson - Page 11

"I don't recall if I told you..."

✨Malevolent Episode 43 Animatic ✨

Here's my fave shots from this (cuties):

NEVER STOP BEING OBSESSED WITH YOUR OCS 🫵

additionally,

Stupid comic because I am really missing The Stand today

every time I think about my gender I get confused so I simply stopped thinking about it. it is not my problem

literally the funniest thing about kayne to me is that he's barefoot. heres an all powerful god who is the last one left of his name because he killed thousands of his other selves in different universes. he has no need we can presume of a human form but he gave himself one anyways and despite the clothes he just. didnt tack on any shoes. i wonder if it was a conscious decision or not. did he forget and by then it was too late? because i also enjoy the idea of him making his grand entrance and thinking in the back of his mind, yes, the blood soaked city will freak these two chuckleheads out but you know whats really gonna unnerve them? these bare grippers.

so embarrassing to get obsessed with your own oc but it doesn't fuel you creatively or motivate you at all you just sort of sit there. like yeah I've been thinking a lot about blorbo from my mind. no images of them exist in the world and they have maybe 3 personality traits so far. I would rather die than attempt to write about them. I've spent the last 48 hours rotating them in my brain though

Actually I'm losing my mind over the implication of Lilith and Kayne's obsession with known daughter-killer Arthur Lester. Like. You imprint on this man like a baby bird because he let you out, made you you again. Gave birth to you. Turns out, he's also the favourite doll of your shitty dad. And also he killed his daughter. And now you're both tugging on his arms like a dog toy because you need him to end the world for you. This dynamic is demented i need to see more of it

Oh when will my husband return from Spain

kayne’s couple therapy

praying for lilith to have been lilly the nurse so i can retroactively care about john's connection with lilly

go sing your gay little song little irish boy

ep 50 save me

….. this took way too long

Gay gay loser fanart, for me, a gay gay loser

I am very self indulgent

(*´∀`)♪

Normal Wesley Drawing honestly (I have no idea how this happened)

being on tumblr is like being in a car in a parking lot

like it's technically public, but you're also sorta in your own little bubble, and people have to be Actively trying to listen in order to hear you, if they're even aware that you're speaking at all. and then sometimes you accidentally bonk the horn with ur elbow and suddenly the whole parking lot knows you're a virgin

Arthur giggling is fine, but Arthur laughing fucking horrifies me. Somehow nothing John does really scares me anymore.

Imma be honest with yall. Call me uncultured but I've never heard of 'Ride Him, Cowboy' before, and it sounds like a gay porn title. Don't you dare tell me it doesn't because it does. Like, "Ride Him Cowboy", are you fucking kidding me. I raised an eyebrow so so high when I heard it in episode 50 and was very reluctant to google it because what if that's something Harlan made up for the lolz and I'll just have google give me a bunch of porn.

Arthur’s hear me out cake:

John Wayne

Oscar

that apple he had in Addison

his piano

As a music, religion, and literature nerd, the Dies Irae has been one of my favorite go-to pieces of trivia for a long time, which means that this line:

Has been driving me batshit BONKERS since part 42! And also as a semi-professional media analysis yapper, I figured I might as well dive into the exact reasons I jumped up and audibly gasped upon first hearing this line and have subsequently lost my mind since then. So!

Here is why I think that the Dies Irae is the perfect analogy for John and Arthur:

Religion

Let's start with the most straightforward meaning: "Dies Irae" is a Latin term, and it translates to the "Day of Wrath." Or otherwise known as the Judgement Day, the foretold second coming in Catholic canon, when Christ will "come again in glory to judge the living and the dead." It's at this Last Judgement where God will wield perfect justice to send the worthy to everlasting peace and the unworthy to everlasting punishment. (everyone say "thank you" to excessive childhood Catholic lessons for burning this into my brain)

There's a kind of irony to the fact that Arthur so vehemently rejects Christianity and religion as a whole, and that John spends much of his arc trying to distance himself from the role/identity of a god, yet both are given this incredibly religious title, effectively restricting them from ever forgetting the presence/influence of religion in their lives.

This title has a couple layers though, because we have to consider why it's the Day of Wrath specifically that represents Arthur and John. Now, I don't think I have to tell you that those two are bursting with anger 80% of the time. But I am going to tell you that those two are not just angry, but moreso "divine fury" incarnate.

The Day of Wrath, the Final Judgment, is the final and eternal judgment of God on all: "For now before the Judge severe / all hidden things must plain appear; / no crime can pass unpunished here." (Dies Irae, Dies Illa). The final Judge, the all-powerful God, can see the objective morality of every single person, and is thus the sole, rightful determiner of fate.

This assumption of their right to perfectly and single-handedly decide others' worthiness shows up over and over, not just John and Arthur's actions, but also in how they describe these judgments.

When Arthur kills the widow on the island, it's not because she was dangerous, but because she was a cultist who "deserved" to be punished.

When John and Arthur need to get rid of Mr. Scratch's stone, John says they should give it to "criminals" who are "deserving of this curse." Even though, just moments before, Arthur refused to give the stone to Oscar because to do so would be to cursing him to a fate of eternal suffering.

And I can't go into every single detail about the entire Larson plotline because this post would double in size, but it obviously needs to be included here. Possibly the strongest tie between this arc and the idea of the Dies Irae is Arthur's conviction through it all. Arthur vows that he is going to kill Larson in divine retribution not because he wants to, but because he has to. He even goes so far as to admit that killing Larson will be a mistake, a cruel and overly-bloodthirsty action that goes against his compassion. But killing Larson isn't a choice to Arthur, it is the unavoidable punishment for Larson's sins and Arthur is simply the enactor of justice. Just like the Final Judgment, there is no sympathy, no hesitancy— the judgment is absolute, divinely ordained, and cannot be stopped no matter how undeniably horrific it is.

If we look at the Catholic Catechism, principle 2302 states that it is sinful to kill out of desire, but that it is "praiseworthy to impose restitution" and use violence to "maintain justic." So even if Arthur has intent to kill, his actions count as divinely sanctioned. He is acting as the hand of God's punishment.

Over the course of Season 3 and 4, Arthur's fiery rage dies down to a more gentle simmer, but his conviction only seems to grow, and John follows suit. Despite previously reprimanding Arthur for his unquestioning wrath, John eventually becomes just as convinced that Larson "deserves" to face a wrathful reckoning. The "fact" that Larson is wholly unforgivable and is fated to receive eternal punishment becomes more indisputable in their minds, and they both stop questioning the morality of their intentions, entirely convinced of their judgment.

Throughout the story, Arthur and John insist upon the importance of kindness, compassion, and forgiveness, and say that these are the values that guide their every action. Yet, time and time again, they approach certain people with nothing but wrath and resentment. It's a sharp contrast to the benevolent figures they make themselves out to be, and Arthur and John are often blind to the contradiction because, in their eyes, they are still following those values in every action. And in the moments when they do recognize their horrific words or actions, they still cannot let their judgment go, convinced that it is their "duty" either way.

In Part 35, Arthur says "Just because you can't make the hard decision, doesn't mean it's wrong." This is exactly how John and Arthur view themselves. They know that some of their actions are harsh and violent and painful, but they are don't view that violence as wrong, because they are enacting that violence in justice. They move through life with carefully-selected destruction, culling the world of those they view as unforgivable sinners, and punishing them with divine righteousness. Arthur and John carry righteous fury in their every step, bringing the Day of Wrath down upon the world around them.

Now, there's already a ton of meaning just in this religious allusion alone. However, there's another application of the Dies Irae in modern culture, which brings us to the second side of this title:

Music

Back in the 13th century (sounds like a familiar setting...), friar Thomas of Celano wrote a poem for and about the Dies Irae. The poem was recited at Requiem Mass (church services to honor the dead), and it ended up being set to a Gregorian chant tune.

Over time, this melody has been used by a variety of composers, but the one we're focused on is Hector Berlioz. In 1837, Berlioz used the Dies Irae melody as part of his narrative symphony, Grand Messe de morts, in order to communicate that the main character had died. Then a lot of other composers saw that and said "Hey that's a cool idea!", and started also using this melody to represent death in their music. Nowadays, it's a fairly staple part of modern film and musical storytelling. If you've listened to literally any major soundtrack, then there's a good chance you've heard this motif (or a variation of it) used before. It's often subtle, sometimes loud and obvious, but no matter what, it reveals the inevitable presence of death. (essentially, the Dies Irae=death)

Now, obviously there's something tragically ironic about Arthur being likened to a musical motif when he tries so hard to distance himself from it, and there's something tragically ironic about John being associated with such a dark piece of music when he shows so much fascination and joy toward the art. Again, though, we've got some layers here. Yorick doesn't just compare Arthur and John to the Dies Irae, he literally defines them as the Dies Irae, a full embodiment of it.

Even before the story started, Arthur lost both of his parents, his friend and wife, his daughter, and his best friend.

John, when he was part of the King in Yellow, knew only how to harm and attack. In the Dark World, he falls back on this fearful lashing out with violence, harming even more people.

And throughout the story, John and Arthur seem to bring devastation to everyone else around them: Lilly the buopoth, Oscar, Noel, Collins, Daniel, Larson and Yellow.

The arrival of Dies Irae musical motif in a film always indicates that death is approaching or that is has already struck— a host carrying its blight to spread onto others. Just like the musical motif, the arrival of Arthur and John foretells the near-arrival of death. They play a duet together— John and Arthur, and death— always singing and dancing around and with each other.

These two never succumb to death, always finding a way to slip through its fingers and survive every situation. But they cannot escape death's presence because they are death's partner— singing the melody to death's subtle harmony. They cannot escape death because they are its host— destined to carry and spread devastation to death's victims. From the moment you meet John and Arthur, you know that death is inevitably approaching just a step behind, waiting to strike you down.

Whether it's the religious or musical side, we can see that John and Arthur are the literal embodiment of these allusions. They carry these powers and ideas in their every action and word, in their every step, in their very breath and blood.

Arthur and John. The hands of God's justice. The enactors of divine fury.

Arthur and John. The hosts of blight and destruction. The partner of death's song.

The man himself. The voice inside his head.

The Day of Wrath. The Dies Irae.

got out-horror’d today by a friend because he said what if Malevolent ends with Kayne putting John in Faroe’s dead body

Malevolent spoilers!

.

it just occurred to me kayne said John would get his own body, never specified if would be human..

CAT!JOHN COULD BE CANON :0

the new malevolent episode is so cool--its so fucking funny that we can only have old, dead or mute women bc mr guthrie is so adamant about having no voice actors

how did evrard get everyone on board w arthur coming with them?? 'thats arthur he is always a few inches off from making eye contact and he has brothers talking skull on his belt loop, i met him last week and i have not one but two crushes on him. he should be trusted with the blackstone'

“we face it head on, just like oscar’s letter said ay?”

reblog if you think sign language should be taught as a language in schools.

re listening to CHNT for the like 7th time makes me realise that if Arthur Lester met Sydney he’d consider helping with the elephant man problem, then he finds out Elijah worships Sidney and his first through is CULTIST??? and hunt him down and kill him probably

does kayne know his daughter is alive.

no, listen. hear me out.

this is gonna be a lot of me interpreting kayne very specifically, but kayne DOESN'T lie. he withholds information but he does not lie. and here, he speaks as if... like he doesn't realize that lilith HAS met arthur. that she DOES love him. that he's her favorite.

and i don't have the ep 50 transcript but i believe that when lillith is being explained to arthur, mother darkness says that she was the forgotten one trapped within hattie. being FORGOTTEN, to me, sounds like "presumed dead," specifically by other gods. oscar described it as a great entity being "trapped." if lillith has been trapped long enough, which, if we're going by what mother darkness said, it has been a LONG time, it's possible her father doesn't think she's alive. or at least she's not coming back from where she was trapped.

"why would he call his dead daughter a bitch" you raise a good point. i could say he's a weirdo and call it a day, but also, the full line is:

im not exactly arguing that lillith is DEAD, im arguing that she's lost enough power that it is the equivalent of being dead to the other gods. based off what kayne says, it seems that lillith has a habit of liking humans (probably what got her originally trapped within hattie) and messing with them. i think this particular comment is more a memory. like a "ah, someone messing with a human because they like them. my daughter used to do that..."

so to bring me to my point, because lillith is a shapeshifter and because (supposedly) kayne isn't really paying attention to what's going on in season five (based on:)

(whether he's not paying attention because he CAN'T (blackstone) or he WON'T i cannot say) the point is, he wouldn't have seen lillith alive. and when mother darkness explains lillith to arthur they are hidden with the hand of malevolence. PLUS, dead children are kind of A Thing in this show, idk if you noticed (faroe, addison, marie's son, malam, mother darkness and the witch...). so, the idea of kayne seeing lillith, his daughter, resurrected to her full self after being dead for years, doesn't seem so far off for the overall themes of the show.

plus, i think it gives him and arthur something to talk about. and adds a fun flavor to his character. the way he talks to arthur about faroe? while having a daughter of his own he believes to be dead? actually insane.

sorry that's a lot. anyway.

can we talk about Arthur's new homoerotic situationship or whatever he had with Lord Everatt or...

Malevolent Ghibli AU - "Kayne's moving shit"

Arthur really, really hates the amount of paranormal shit that's happening to him. And a crazy magician doesn't help at all!

"i would find you in any universe" but it's very clearly intended as a threat