My latest post/reblog made me want to talk about something that Malevolent fans have probably all thought about, but I haven't seen it voiced yet.
While John and Arthur both have their individual character flaws, like John's insensitivity and Arthur's selfishness, they both, as a whole, are flawed in a way that makes me ache with a want to get them some goddamn therapy.
Arthur and John have a tendency to lash out on the other. Arthur himself has stated that he has said harmful things to John simply because he had no other outlet for his anger. John has abused Arthur's trust by weaponising Arthur's trauma against him. Both of these characters are toxic towards the other, switching from friendly to hostile with the flip of a switch.
Yet they cannot leave eachother. They can't have breaks to think and reflect on what they've said, they can't have privacy, they suffer through traumatic event after traumatic event, and neither can physically function without the other. They are forced to rely on eachother. They can't trust eachother, yet they have to. Any time they reveal something personal, it gets used against them. Any time they don't, the other gripes about it.
I have been a mediator for a very long time now, and I've actually began to study psychology. The research I've done, live study or written information, doesn't even compare to the dripping, deeply set knowledge of just how fucked up these two people are. They need eachother, and they hate eachother. They have a toxic codependency that disgusts me to think about.
Two people, forced together, forced to trust the other, no matter how much verbal abuse they may shoot back and forth, and forced to cooperate despite that abuse.
It's sickening, and yet the fictional narrative it's in is inciting, and so, we all must grin and bear it.
So yes, I will continue to call Arthur my baby girl, and John is my little silly, but deep down, I will know how fucked they act towards eachother, and I will despise it.
