Multicultural Headcanon Appreciation

A blog that centers around appreciating poc in malevolent, whether it be by headcanon or in canon

[multicultural-malev]

Welcome to multicultural-malev!

This is a blog focused on supporting art involving the people of colour in Malevolent (whether they be canonical or a headcanon). Part of the purpose of this blog is to try to de-center whiteness and open people's minds to more multicultural non white readings of Malevolent.

This blog is run by:

Mod Ghoul (@soulghouls) - 🗝

Mod Baguette (@deadbaguette) -🌹

Mod Nova (@1nterspace-2) - 🌟

Mof (@mofsblog) - 🦋

Feel to tag us or ask us anything !

[mofsblog]

I'm torn between the overwhelming allure of brown arthur and the really funny joke of "only a white person would do the stupid horror movie protagonist bullshit arthur pulls"

I totally get you anon. I used to have that exact dilemma myself. I think what made me just bite the bullet and go for it was a combo of "okay well I hc almost everyone else around Arthur as poc and it'd kinda rub me the wrong way to make so many brown and black people revolve around a white guy" and ig kind of internally unpacking and dismantling the idea that Only white people are capable of stupid unhinged shit

Like you could argue there's some merit to the idea/jokes that generally speaking white people are more prone to have a certain audacity to them (which in turn makes them do Really stupid shit sometimes) that some poc tend to lack because of the ways in which poc, especially black people, tend to grow up hyper aware of how they're perceived by others and tend to try to avoid situations that would paint them in a negative light (because they know they wont be given the same grace as a white person). But also, people of colour aren't a monolith and pulling unhinged, kinda crazy stunts isn't (and should not be) something limited to white characters

Arthur's parents both died when he was 7 (and its likely they were both pretty assimilated into British culture already) so it'd make a lot of sense for him to be disconnected from his other culture. In my experience, poc who are half white biracial (like meee) or just grew up disconnected from their culture, can low-key tend to do a lot of "typical white people shit" (like meeeee or my friends who grew up in Western countries)

(Also low-key, while I totally get the spirit of the jokes and can clearly see where they originated and do think theyre funny in some contexts, I don't really think they should be taken too seriously. I guess I just feel like thinking characters of colour, or even real life poc, are incapable or somehow above doing really dumb shit sometimes kind of just puts us in a box. I understand that the intent is to subvert former negative stereotypes but I also feel like it can sometimes flatten poc down to certain limited "positive" attributes while low-key denying us complexity of. Idk. Being a messy human)

Okay this got wayyyy deeper than I intended 😭 oops. All in all, go go! Bite the bullet. Give that man melanin 🎉 we need more messy brown fictional men. Give into the allureee

[multicultural-malev]

Can we get some specific non-white Arthur hcs from the mods?? Like how connected is Arthur with his culture, etc, etc. Curious what everyone has to say tbh for their own Arthur designs

Thank you for asking! We all considered this ask really sweet. Mod Nova (🌟) is busy rn and was unable to answer

🗝️: my arthur is pakistani (dont think about the logistics too much. what if the world was made of pudding) but has no real connection to his culture bc his parents died when he was young so hes whitewashed as fuck. hes in denial about how much it bothers him but he really likes burfi. my bella is also a person of colour. im still undecided on the specifics, but its important to note here because he often watches her and daniel engage in tradition & culture with a very achey sort of jealousy. i think hed like to try mehndi but his internalised homophobia & weird masculinity complex would get in the way. my arthur is also trans & gay (still aroace) so i think he has a lot of shame about touching whatever may be left of his parents and their culture because of his queerness. theres a lot more to this and how it shifted once he started raising faroe, too!

🦋: my Arthur’s anglo-burman (historic term but basically he's half white British and half burmese <- bamaar specifically if anyone was wondering (thats the majority ethnic group in Myanmar). I don't think he's all too connected to his culture at all 😭 considering his parents died when he was like 7 and I imagine they were pretty assimilated. He probably knows like a couple burmese words but I don't think he could form a full sentence. I low-key feel like he latches onto any piece of writing or literature he can find about Burma/Myanmar (which low-key isn't a lot and probably isn't all that accurate😭). I actually would not be surprised if him and Parker had probably encountered some Burmese American immigrants while doing their detective work but I feel like Arthur would feel too disconnected from that part of identity (and yknow language barrier😭) to try to establish any connection with them. My Bella is Filipina American and I imagine her family to also be pretty assimilated even if she has significantly more ties to her culture than he does. I think they bond over feeling like they're in-between cultures. I think him and Parker probably encountered some American Burmese immigrants while doing detective stuff but I think Arthur felt too disconnected from his identity (+ language barrier) to try to establish anything.

Also my Parker's Kachin-Chinese (Kachin people are an ethnic group that exist in Northern parts of Myanmar and Southern parts of China) so there's likeeeee vague Small overlaps. The idea of Arthur hearing that Parker might have ties to Burma/Myanmar and getting excited that he might finally be able to learn Burmese (his ass does not know about ethnic groups 😭) only for Parker to have to basically explain to him that they don't speak the same language 😭 I think Arthur was close to the Yang family though and he probably picked up some Kachin from there. My Arthur’s basically someone who's always been open to connecting more with his culture and has at times almost gotten close to it but never quite properly managed to. I also think he has medium spice tolerance.

🌹: My arthur is biracial black and white, born and raised for most of his childhood in england. I like that he doesn’t really have a connected identity to any of his places of residence, that is an immigrant boy who grew up in a mixed culture without the chance to connect to either. I think that’s genuinely why I think Arthur is such a beautiful main character for exploring cultural ambiguity, he is so fiercly in charge of his own identity because he doesn’t have the cultural or childhood building blocks for it. Arthur’s connection to his culture is largely based of my own, and I won’t get into it here for word count, but there is a lot to explore about his relationship to other characters and how that has shaped him in terms of his connection to his culture. As for his like actual design, he’s loosely based of people ik irl like all my designs. I know several black and white biracial people and that deep rusty brown hair he has and the curls are taken from people I know.

[bmpdraws]

Comic of John and Arthur from the Malevolent podcast Not sure what kind of AU you would call this, John is like in-between human and something other-wordly

[bmpdraws]

John: "Isn't it lovely, Arthur?"

John: "Nature is so beautiful..."

[brutalistvision]

Bella redesign!

This Is a flat, it will be rendered eventually but i wanted to share what I have so far!!!

[izel-scribbles]

Husbant

[tildexart-deactivated20240902]

ourthur

[coulson-is-an-avenger]

[ID: A full body digital drawing of Arthur Lester from Malevolent taken as a screenshot from a drawing program with the side bar and small reference photo visible. He is portrayed as a lean man with light, warm brown skin, short curly hair, a thin mustache, and yellow eyes. He stands with his hands in his pockets looking off to the side with a neutral expression. He is wearing a long, tan trenchcoat over a dress shirt and slacks with suspenders. End ID.]

[iris-of-the-eye]

Realized I have one (1) good drawing of my Arthur design that I keep using as a reference but never posted

[multicultural-malev]

Thank you for making this blog, it has existed for about 2 days and its already convinced me to finally make arthur desi (I had been considering it but this was what finally gave me the little shove of encouragement I needed!)

Hell yeah, I'm really happy to hear! This was low-key one of our main motives when making this blog. I feel like a lot of people internally debate making non white Arthur designs but end up not doing so because it feels "too indulgent" or "too non canon". I know I felt that way before biting the bullet and making my own design (but to get there, I needed external encouragement)

White Arthur is a concept very engrained into the fandom, and any deviation is treated as, well, a deviation (even if there's been progress). I think that's why a lot of artists need that extra 'push' to make non white designs of him, and I'm so happy we could be that for you. There's nothing especially white about Arthur as a character, and white Arthur should not be the default

[sargentstyro]

Commissioned @potato-lord-but-not to draw my Jarthur designs !!!

[multicultural-malev]

Puhghh this blog DOES make me want to reconsider remaking and updating my Arthur/John designs

but also I'm not sure how I'd go about that considering I've already seen so much fanart that in *my* head they always feel off/bland

I will ponder

But I love this so much

this is gonna be a little lengthy so im sorry, but i wanted to take the opportunity to say some things your ask reminded me of! hope you dont mind.

honestly? do whatever you feel is fun and what feels right to you. we love (and encourage) seeing diverse designs because we think itd be nice to support artists of colour and to see more representation, but also because it can be a little nerve wracking having your own designs when a set visual has been more widely accepted, more-so when that design entails a person of colour as opposed to the white alternative. that is to say, i was insanely nervous when i first started posting my pakistani arthur. its a tough climate, and fandom can be cruel. but i was met with such a welcoming audience that it encouraged me to keep going and i ended up meeting a couple really sweet, like-minded people. we’d like to give others the confidence to experience the same!

in regards to designing. ive said this a couple times but when i first started listening to malevolent, i avoided fanart like the plague! i wanted to come up with designs that felt right just by their voices, personalities, & actions. so i can definitely understand that fanon has a heavy weight on interpretation. that being said, i do recommend putting on some episodes and drawing them out while they speak… sometimes trying to imagine their voices come out of your designs as you’re actively listening to them helps a ton. thats what i did, at least :] it always takes a couple tries. you are an artist with your own vision, so trust that vision!

[wolfythewitch]

Arthur sketch

[anime-villian-irl]

Guys...

What if I fancasted Jacob Anderson as Arthur lester, and I fancasted my version of faroe as Bailey bass .

Like.......

I could see this man as experiencing the horrors™ and having a weirdly close relationship with the voice in his head

She's just cursed daughter shaped. She is shaped like a girl who is cursed to always be a daughter and be defined by that.

[multicultural-malev]

this blog is such a breath of fresh air, i've had so many high key racist experiences with white malevolent fans that this is a really neat place to find :)))) as a mexican malev fan i love what you guys are doing!!

Genuinely so unfortunate to see so many other fans of this podcast go through experiences with racism because of white fans, but it’s nice that we’re all finding each other here ❤️

This was first and foremost the purpose of this blog to help create a safe space for us poc on malevblr, much love to you too izel :D

[multicultural-malev]

hello some art from mod baguette !! Based off the Demon Days album art from Gorillaz

once again all the Arthur designs here belong to the mods <3

[anime-villian-irl]

Shhh , he's sleeping

[wolfythewitch]

human John Doe doodle wee