History Podcast / Malevolent

* PreSacrificeFinalGoodbye: Right before [[spoiler:Arthur stabs himself to prevent the King from reclaiming John.]]

--->'''John:''' Wait. We didn't leave the radio on.

* WhamLine: As the pair's set of eyes and de-factor narrator, John gets quite a few of these, but there's plenty to go around.
** "Wait. We didn't leave the radio on."
** "Arthur, tell that voice in your head that my mother was ''not'' a whore."
** "''He's... looking... at...'' '''me.'''"

* AmnesiacGod: [[spoiler:John, who is a severed piece of a god of madness called the King in Yellow, spends the first season unaware of who he is]].

** One of the first things Arthur discovers is that when he read John's book, he killed his partner Peter. [[spoiler: Except Arthur didn't actually kill him. John did.]]
** Arthur and John make their way to Harper's Hill in pursuit of answers, braving mortal peril to get there, only to learn that the person they came to speak with [[spoiler:was killed just days prior. Even worse, it's partially Arthur's fault.]]
** After a decent amount of needling from John, Arthur eventually reveals that [[spoiler:he had a daughter named Faroe who died some time ago]]. That's bad enough, but it takes Arthur even longer before he's willing to admit that [[spoiler:she died as a result of his own negligence.]]

* BreakThemByTalking: The King in Yellow tries to convince Arthur to [[spoiler:betray John by bringing up how he had killed Parker and betrayed Arthur’s trust.]]

* ColdBloodedTorture: When his [[ToThePain threats]] don’t work, [[spoiler:the King in Yellow resorts to breaking Arthur’s leg.]]

* DramaticDislocation: Arthur’s shoulder is dislocated by [[spoiler:falling rocks in the caves in the Dreamlands.]]

** The abandoned temple of the [[spoiler:King in Yellow in the Dreamlands.]]

* EmergentHuman: Discussed. [[spoiler:Being trapped in Arthur's comatose body for a month]] prompts some introspection and self-discovery for John. He chooses a name for himself and develops the first hints of more "human" personality traits, including a remedial sense of sympathy for others. The change prompts Arthur to muse that perhaps the experience injected some humanity into him; John suggests that perhaps whatever humanity he previously possessed has started to return. [[spoiler:Seeing as John is actually a fragment of an elder god, Arthur is correct.]]

** In her letter, Amanda states that [[spoiler:the King in Yellow’s]] goal is simply to drive the world mad.

* HopeSpot: There's a few scattered here and there, a notable recent example is in episode 26 where [[spoiler:after having had a break down, Arthur gets a few moments to simply collect himself and eat. John allows him a few moments of silence, and all we the audience can hear is the crunching of an apple.]]

* INeverToldYouMyName: During his [[AdventuresInComaland coma,]] Arthur realizes that [[spoiler:the King in Yellow]] is trying to gather information from him when he refers to him by name.

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Arthur]] is stabbed through by [[spoiler:the creature in the mine at the end of “The Roots”.]]

* MeaningfulRename: [[spoiler:While Arthur was in a coma, the hospital caring for him only knew him as John Doe. One of the nurses would greet him as John while checking on him every morning]], and the entity trapped in Arthur's body took enough of a liking to the name that he decided to adopt it as his own. While the transcripts initially refer to him as The Entity, he's known as John from this point forward. Inverted when [[spoiler:Kayne brings John back sans his newfound humanity; this new version is referred to exclusively as Yellow, and Arthur responds angrily when Yellow offers to be called John.]]

* RegainedMemoriesSequence: Hearing Arthur play Faroe’s Song brings back [[spoiler:Yellow’s]] memories, during which time we hear a montage of significant lines from previous episodes.
* SealedEvilInACan: John's imprisonment within the book definitely qualifies, even if he's a relatively genial example. [[spoiler: The trope becomes especially relevant once it's revealed that he's actually a fragment of The King In Yellow.]]

* ShootTheDog: Invoked in-universe. One of [[spoiler:the King In Yellow's]] efforts to demoralize Arthur and John involves fatally wounding an animal they'd only just befriended not ten minutes ago, forcing them to choose between leaving it to die slowly or putting it out of its misery themselves.
* ShutUpHannibal: Arthur delivers one after [[spoiler:the King in Yellow’s]] [[BreakThemByTalking attempts to reason with him]] fail.

* TraumaCongaLine: Arthur’s parents committed suicide when he was a kid, his wife died in childbirth, and [[spoiler:his daughter drowned]], all before the show even began. Then he loses his vision, partner, and memories and is partially possessed by an eldritch being, all in the same incident. Then he is near-fatally stabbed by a madman in a gas mask, spends a month in a coma, nearly dies of multiple gunshot wounds, and is sent to [[spoiler:a strange, chaotic dimension called the Dreamlands]]. While there, he and John are nearly eaten by a cave monster, spend three months in the [[spoiler:prison pits]], [[spoiler:are separated,]] and then the [[spoiler:King in Yellow]] breaks Arthur’s leg and leaves him stranded in a snowstorm. And that’s just the first two seasons.
* UndergroundCity: The [[spoiler:King in Yellow’s]] cult operates out of one.

* AmnesiacGod: [[spoiler:John, who is a severed piece of a god of madness called the King in Yellow, spends the first season unaware of who he is.]]

Malevolent is a {{horror}} podcast produced, written, edited, performed & created by Harlan Guthrie. It began in July 2020 and is currently releasing new episodes. The series has since been acquired by [[Creator/RustyQuill Rusty Quill]].

Note: Due to the nature of the story, a wide variety of information could be considered spoilers; major plot points and revelations will be tagged, but basic facts such as main characters' names may not be. Proceed at your own risk.

* TheDeterminator: Arthur.

-->''"I’m not even sure how to… it looks like foulness. It moves like an animal, like a dog, but it’s large. Its… its skin doesn’t look organic, but rather… I can’t, Arthur."''

* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Inverted. During his [[AdventuresInComaland coma dream]], Arthur realizes he’s being interrogated when the Entity uses his name.

-->''"You continually put yourself in a compromising position based on poor decisions. It’s not even a judgement, Arthur, it’s just a fact."''

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: While Arthur’s British accent is generally pretty good, the actor’s Canadian accent shows through on words like “sorry”, “bury”, and “out”.

* TheBadGuyWins: Just as Kayne predicted, [[spoiler:the King In Yellow succeeds in becoming whole again. It doesn't stick.]]

* TheDeterminator: Discussed by Arthur.
-->''”You want me to… to give up. You want me to throw in the towel and call it quits so you can fight over the scraps of me like fucking dogs. Well I have news for you, for both of you – '''I don’t give up.'''\\
I didn’t fucking give up when the woman I loved died, and I didn’t punch my ticket when I held my… when I held my only daughter’s lifeless body in my arms. And I am sure as shit strong enough to push through ''everything'' you throw at me. So ''bring it on,'' you spineless ''fucks''. I am going to go down swinging, every fucking time.”''
* TheFarmerAndTheViper: Arthur recounts the 'scorpion and frog' variant at one point. John argues that it's a flawed fable because if the scorpion knew what waited for him after death, he would never sting the frog, regardless of his nature.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: [[spoiler:The King in Yellow]] delivers one to Arthur.
-->''”Death surrounds you, Arthur. It stalks you like a black shadow that takes everything you touch away. You’re cursed. You’re damaged. A boy playing with matches that kills everyone sleeping in the house, while you escape unscathed.”''

* TraumaCongaLine: Arthur’s parents committed suicide when he was a kid, his wife died in childbirth, and [[spoiler:his daughter drowned]], all before the show even began. Then he loses his vision, partner, and memories and is partially possessed by an eldritch being, all in the same incident. Then he is near-fatally stabbed by a madman in a gas mask, spends a month in a coma, nearly dies of multiple gunshot wounds, and is sent to [[spoiler:a strange, chaotic dimension called the Dreamlands]]. While there, he and John are nearly eaten by a cave monster, spend three months in the [[spoiler:prison pits]], and [[spoiler:are separated,]] then the [[spoiler:King in Yellow]] breaks Arthur’s leg and leaves him stranded in a snowstorm. And that’s just the first two seasons.

-->''"Perhaps I’ll simply stop existing."''
-->''"Yes."''
-->''"Well, if that is the worst case scenario, then I suppose it’s no different than dying."''
-->''"That is not the worst-case scenario."''

* MeaningfulRename: [[spoiler:While Arthur was in a coma, the hospital caring for him only knew him as John Doe. One of the nurses would greet him as John while checking on him every morning]], and the entity trapped in Arthur's body took enough of a liking to the name that he decided to adopt it as his own. While the transcripts initially refer to him as The Entity, he's known as John from this point forward.

-->''"We’re taking that head."''
-->''"Are you insane?!"''

* WhamLine: As the pair's set of eyes and de-factor narrator, John gets quite a few of these.

** "''He's... looking... at...'' '''me.'''"

* CameBackWrong: After [[spoiler:The King In Yellow reclaims John as part of himself, Kayne]] offers to bring him back... at the small cost of [[spoiler:all the progress he's made toward cultivating his own humanity]].

* ShootTheShaggyDog: Invoked in-universe. One of [[spoiler:the King In Yellow's]] efforts to demoralize Arthur and John involves fatally wounding an animal they'd only just befriended not ten minutes ago, forcing them to choose between leaving it to die slowly or putting it out of its misery themselves.

[[caption-width-right:350:"However, time is not the factor that distinguishes this world." "What does?" "Choices."]]

* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: Arthur's last-ditch effort to stop [[spoiler:the King In Yellow from reclaiming John]] ''does'' work, sort of, but he [[spoiler:slits his own throat in the process]].

* InsignificantLittleBluePlanet: Discussed. At one point, John describes how compared to the infinite power of the gods, individual mortal lives--even a whole planet's worth of them--are practically nothing.

* OutsideContextProblem: [[spoiler:Kayne]] seems determined to make himself one. In an unusual variant of the trope, it's unclear whether he's more interested in hindering [[spoiler:the King In Yellow]] or Arthur.