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Arthur Lester is the main character of Malevolent. He is a private investigator bound to an Entity (who eventually takes on the name John Doe) after opening a book with a strange symbol on the cover. Arthur now shares his body with John as they try to solve the mystery of what happened to the them and find a way to separate.
Personality[]
Arthur is quick witted, although early on this is overshadowed by his panic and confusion. He is a natural investigator and goes out of his way to discover things that may help to unravel the mystery of his binding to John. This has lead him to have better investigative skills than the average person. He has also told John that despite their initial interactions, he is not a pushover,[1] which becomes increasingly apparent as he becomes more accustomed to his circumstances and more comfortable in making decisions.
Arthur has a lot of self-loathing, and tends to express this through self-sacrificial and even suicidal thoughts, tendencies, and actions. However, he also takes out his guilt on others, sometimes unknowingly.
He holds a deep animosity towards cults and organized religion that seems to stem from an event that occurred prior to the beginning of the series, often speaking with contempt towards cultists.[2]
Description[]
Arthur is not described very often, but he is said to have "the cold, calculated demeanor of someone not to fuck with."[1] It is uncertain whether or not this was an exaggeration or act of flattery on John's part, as upon seeing Arthur's face for the first time, Yellow does not repeat this description. Both Larson and The King in Yellow have repeated this phrase to him, potentially to mock him.[3][4]
Arthur is blind due to his bond with John, who narrates what Arthur would usually be able to see and guides his actions.[1] As the story continues, John gains control of Arthur's left hand approximately to the elbow[5] and one of his feet, though it is never clear precisely which foot.[6]
Following Arthur's time in The Dreamlands, the tip of his left pinky finger has been substituted with wood, with dark oak-colored roots visibly embedded beneath his skin, spreading out from where the wood connects.[7] John states that the wood in their finger is darker than the flesh of their hand.[8] Yellow compares it to "dark bone".[9]
Arthur's clothing changes frequently through the progression of the story, but he initially wore a suit.[3] He is noted to "feel more professional" while wearing a tie when offered one.[10]
He is typically clean shaven, though the events of the story often prevent him from maintaining this appearance. He is frequently noted as having a beard when unable to shave for more than a couple weeks. As of Season Four, Arthur is described as having a mustache, styled after Clark Gable.[11][12]
History[]
Early History[]
Originally from England, Arthur emigrated to the United States at 17.[13][14] His father was an alcoholic.[15] At some point in his childhood, Arthur’s parents killed themselves. After his parents died, a family friend suggested he find a creative outlet, which spawned his love of music and poetry. At the time, Arthur believed that his parents’ deaths would be the hardest thing he would ever have to endure.[3] It is heavily implied, though not outright stated, that Arthur grew up in a religious orphanage.[16]
When he was 12, after his parents’ deaths, Arthur spent time in the Boys' Brigade - an organization aiming to instill certain ideals and qualities in young men, and teach them survival skills. Arthur speaks of this organization as “boys playing war”[7], but also says that it helped give hope when he otherwise felt hopeless. It was there that he met his first real friend, William.[17] Arthur harbored jealousy over William's positive relationship with his father, who had made a wooden toy train for William. Arthur snatched the toy from William and threw it into their campfire, which ruined their friendship.[15]
In adulthood, Arthur pursued music as a career and became a composer.[18] He wrote a few songs which he sold that made it onto the radio.[18] It was during this point in his life that he entered into a relationship with Bella. They lived in Boston.[13] While Bella was giving birth to their daughter, Faroe, Arthur met with a friend, James, at a bar, where he expressed that his relationship with Bella "felt wrong", and that he was considering leaving her. Bella died in childbirth, and Arthur arrived at the hospital an hour afterwards.[19] Faroe later drowned in the bathtub while Arthur was supposed to be watching her.[20] He had been distracted with the piano at the time and afterwards fell into a depression and stopped playing. It's unclear at what point he settled in Arkham, Massachusetts.
He met Peter "Parker" Yang at Jack’s Bar, and the two became close over the guise of a music-related case.[21] At some point, they partnered as private investigators at 13 Mosby Avenue. They took over the lease of that office from Elijah Strong and Teddy Caine, who had taken it over from Roland Cummings, whose name was still on the lease.[1][22] Together they were working on the case of the missing child Emily MacFarland, which lead them to 58 Pelican Lane.[1]
Season One[]
Arthur awakens with no memory of who or where he is and has to rely on the mysterious entity now controlling his eyesight. The Entity describes Arthur as a tender soul, but as events unfold with Eddie, the maintenance man, Arthur is seen to have a spine and earns the description of someone with the “cold, calculated demeanor of someone not to fuck with.” Although Arthur was not a private investigator until going into business with his partner, Parker Yang, he claims to have been quite good at it.[1]
After Arthur is put into a coma from a stab wound to his stomach, he dreams that he is in a sanatorium of some kind, in which he is manipulated by Adam Fry into giving the name of Amanda Cummings. It is after he wakes from this that he gains the ability to see the last moments of someone’s life by touching their corpse.[23]
Due to a moment of indecision, Arthur indirectly allows the lighthouse keeper to die on the island. John gains control of one of Arthur’s feet.[6]
When backed into a corner with the widow in pursuit, Arthur brutally murders her by bashing her skull in with a rock. This causes a rift between John and Arthur, as Arthur will harbor no sympathy toward a "monster" and a "cultist."[24] John gives Arthur the silent treatment, which leads directly to him being arrested and, eventually, killed by being shot three times by one of the officers afflicted with madness. After Arthur is resurrected by the Wraith, he says that he heard a voice that sounded like John calling to him, presumably from the Dark World. He then reveals to John that he has a daughter named Faroe before falling asleep.[25] While exploring the hotel, Arthur vehemently refuses to share about his daughter, saying the topic is "out of [John's] grasp."[26]
As Arthur falls deeper down the rabbit hole of the cult devoted to the King in Yellow and John’s true identity, he chooses to trust John. He believes he is changed from whatever he once was.[27] When “John” in the form of the King in Yellow attempts to erase Arthur’s mind and claim his body, Arthur hangs on to a specific memory of Faroe interrupting him playing the piano. The King states that John, the fractured piece of his soul, has become entangled with Arthur’s, and transports them to his domain: the Dreamlands.[28]
Season Two[]
Arthur awakens in the Dreamlands with all of his belongings and an uneasy John. Arthur is still feeling betrayed, casting doubt on John's previous amnesia. They make a deal together to escape the Dreamlands, but aren’t sure where to begin. They come across the Trader, who they trade items with, and who tells them they can only leave the woods when it wants them to. John suggests that in order to leave, Arthur must sacrifice a piece of himself. After some back and forth, they settle on Arthur biting off his left pinky tip. The forest accepts the offering, giving them a gift in return: a small wooden prosthetic John describes as having small roots that grow into their left hand, “spreading out from the wound like dark lightning.”[7]
Arthur and John work together to traverse the landscape, getting into another argument after an encounter with a creature that Arthur refuses to kill. They come up with a contingency plan for the most dire circumstances: if they're captured by the King, Arthur will take his own life, as Arthur sees himself as "dead either way", and by dying, he at least prevents the King from winning. In every brief moment of rest, Arthur continues to have nightmares about his daughter. He asks John if he’s sure everyone goes to the Dark World when they die, to which he's uncertain.[8]
While inside the mountain caves, Arthur begins to hear another voice claiming to be Frank Underhill, alerting Arthur to John's deceptions and directing him to a bag containing a vial of selenine, which he says will give Arthur some control of his body back. As both "Frank" and John attempt to get Arthur to do what they want, he snaps, smashing the bottle in frustration. He is then thrown into a series of hallucinations, ultimately leading to his capture by the King in Yellow.[29]
In the three months Arthur and John have been imprisoned, Arthur and John's relationship is more than tenuous as Arthur has been slowly starved. After endless planning and preparations, Arthur leaps out of their prison. As they finally reach freedom, Arthur is overcome with joy and weeps that he can’t remember the last time he felt this hopeful. He becomes distraught when they cross paths with the Trader again, who has Faroe's music box that was buried with her. Believing she may be in the Dreamlands after all, he takes the path into the city where they were told not to go.[30]
When confronting the King in Yellow, the King breaks the tibia and femur of Arthur's right leg. He pulls out the dagger given to him by Kayne and stabs himself in the throat, missing his jugular. John bargains with the King for Arthur's life, and the King throws Arthur through a portal into a snowy forest, bleeding out and alone.[3]
Season Three[]
Exhausted and in incredible pain, Arthur manages to drag himself into a nearby cabin. There, he flips a coin, calling Kayne to him. They end up striking a deal - John will be returned to Arthur, along with the control over his hand and leg, but he will have no memory. Arthur isn't happy with the deal but agrees to it.[31]
The entity now in Arthur's head truly doesn't remember anything of their time together. He tries to manipulate Arthur but is quickly shut down when Arthur reveals he knows everything. In an effort to make the entity cooperate, Arthur lies about one of the objects in his bag, calling it "The Glass of the Cana" and claiming it has the ability to send the entity back to the dark world, though soon after he reveals that he had lied about it[32]. Arthur settles on calling the entity "Yellow"[9].
Arthur finds himself missing John. He finds it difficult to cooperate with Yellow, calling him a monster on numerous occasions. They end up in a town called Addison[33], ran by a man called Larson[34]. Arthur can almost immediately tell something isn't right in the town. He finds out about the mine in the town, and how Addison itself is considered "a place of unfathomable depth. Where the crashing waves and churning, nightmarish storms are but memories. Darkness so black, so all consuming, that light can be… only dreamt of."[32] by outsiders. Arthur and Yellow aim to leave the town as quick as possible, but they soon encounter a creature of the mines, an invisible being who killed a surveyor and who attacks Arthur[32].
Arthur and Yellow end up forming a reluctant partnership, now sharing a common goal as John did with Arthur, though that gets ruined once they get captured by Larson. Larson forces Arthur to play "Faroe's Lullabye". Larson decides to throw Arthur down into the mines; as he is dragged away from the piano, John is returned to him.[35] In the mines, they encounter the same invisible creature from before, along with a group of people seemingly under its command. Arthur refuses to help them, dead set on getting out of the mine and killing Larson. [36]It's later revealed that this drive is caused by Arthur seeing himself in the man, as they'd both lost daughters more or less because of their actions.[21]
After they get out of the mine and Arthur kills Uncle[37], they decide to return to the mines and help the people trapped within them. Arthur gets incredibly injured by the creature, who makes a hole in his stomach, but John is able to sew the wound shut. They use the mask to see where the creature is and defeat it by using the flute used to control it.[38]
After all is said and done, Arthur finally gets to have a proper meal.
Injuries[]
Over the course of the series Arthur has sustained many notable injuries.
| Part | Injury | Cause | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part Two | Punched | Eddie | |
| Part Two | Lost consciousness | Car accident | |
| Part Three | Fall | Broken stairs, falls into basement | |
| Part Four | Punched | Kellin Holeman | |
| Part Four | Stabbed in stomach | Kellin Holeman | |
| Part Five | Month-long coma | Stab wound from Kellin | |
| Part Seven | Fall | Off a cliff into a lake | |
| Part Eight | Punched | Officer Collin Burkhart | |
| Part Nine | Punched | Officer Collin Burkhart | |
| Part Nine | Shot twice in the stomach, once in the chest | Officer Mitchell Caldwell | Healed by Wraith |
| Part Eleven | Punched | Cultist | |
| Part Eleven | Blood drawn | Cultist | |
| Part Eleven | Fall | Laundry chute | |
| Part Twelve | Bitten on arm and cauterized | Burrowing tadpole-like larvae | |
| Part Twelve | Bitten and blood drained from abdomen | Amphibious creature | |
| Part Thirteen | Tip of left pinky bitten off and cauterized | Arthur | Replaced by dark wood |
| Part Fifteen | Sandstorm damage to right eye and face | Sandstorm | |
| Part Fifteen | Electric shock and burns | Boltworm | |
| Part Sixteen | Fall | Off a cliff and into a pit | Leg and back injured |
| Part Seventeen | Dislocated shoulder | Rock thrown from above by gug | |
| Part Eighteen | Punched | John | |
| Part Nineteen | Starvation | Lack of non-Faustian food | |
| Part Twenty | Fractured right tibia and femur | The King in Yellow | |
| Part Twenty | Life threatening laceration of the throat | Arthur | Inflicted with the Dagger |
| Part Twenty One | Poisoning | Drink from the Red Right Hand | |
| Part Twenty Two | Bitten and knocked unconscious | Addison mine monster | |
| Part Twenty Three | Knocked unconscious | Presumably Uncle | |
| Part Twenty Three | Piece of right ear torn off | Uncle | |
| Part Twenty Four | Fall | Thrown from hatch into mines by Uncle | |
| Part Twenty Six | Stabbed in left shoulder with splintered wood | Uncle | |
| Part Twenty Six | Hit by thrown furniture | Uncle | |
| Part Twenty Seven | Stabbed in back of neck | Addison mine monster | |
| Part Twenty Seven | Stabbed in abdomen from behind | Addison mine monster | |
| Part Twenty Eight | Stabbed in back of neck | Addison mine monster | |
| Part Twenty Nine | Punched | The Butcher (Dennis Collins) | Split lip |
| Part Twenty Nine | Choked | The Butcher (Dennis Collins) | |
| Part Thirty One | Fall | Mr. Scratch's manipulation | Fell down the stairs of Marie's apartment |
| Part Thirty Four | Shot in shoulder | The Butcher (Dennis Collins) | |
| Part Thirty Four | Punched | The Butcher (Dennis Collins) | |
| Part Thirty Five | Rope burns, chafed to bleed | Arthur, in his struggling | |
| Part Thirty Seven | Fall | Broken stairs, falls to lower floor | |
| Part Thirty Eight | Fall | Slippery 2nd story roof | |
| Part Forty One | Punctured in right hand between third and fourth fingers | Splintered wood of broken ladder | Deep enough to drip blood |
| Part Forty Two | Bitten on shoulder | The Prince | Piece torn off |
| Part Forty Two | Bitten on left hand, beneath pinky on side | The Prince | |
| Part Forty Two | Impaled | The Witch | |
| Part Forty Three | Stabbed | The Witch | 6 in quick succession |
| Part Forty Three | Abdomen torn open with blade | The Witch | Beginning just below the previous stab wounds |
| Part Forty Seven | Fall | Fell into a ditch | |
| Part Forty Nine | Fall | Fell through a trapdoor |
Known Abilities[]
- Arthur can play the piano which calms him, though he does not miss it.[1][24][10]
- As of Part Five, Arthur is able to see the last moments of someone's life before they died by touching their corpse. It does not seem to work when there is no flesh on the bone[35][39] and requires skin contact with their flesh or hair.[35][28][40]
| Part | Victim |
|---|---|
| Part Five | Amanda Cummings |
| Part Seven | Lighthouse keeper |
| Part Twelve | Corpse in The Sleeping City |
| Part Twenty Three | Corpse in Wallace Larson's estate |
| Part Forty Two | The Prince |
| Part Forty Nine | Langward Ardene |
Trivia[]
- He is implied to be claustrophobic.[24][28][36]
- Arthur drinks his coffee black.[6]
- Arthur has killed "maybe seven" people.[41]
- He did not consider himself athletic as a child, and while he had jealousy towards those who were, was too self-conscious to allow others see him struggling in that field to try.[42]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Part One
- ↑ Part Twenty Seven
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Part Twenty
- ↑ Part Forty
- ↑ Part Two
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Part Seven
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Part Thirteen
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Part Fourteen
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Part Twenty One
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Part Fifteen
- ↑ Part Twenty Nine
- ↑ Part Thirty Eight
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Part Thirty
- ↑ Part Thirty Nine
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Part Forty Six
- ↑ Part Thirty Six
- ↑ Part Forty Five
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Part Sixteen
- ↑ Part Thirty One
- ↑ Part Seventeen
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Part Twenty Six
- ↑ Part Thirty Four
- ↑ Part Five
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Part Eight
- ↑ Part Nine
- ↑ Part Ten
- ↑ Part Eleven
- ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 Part Twelve
- ↑ Part Eighteen
- ↑ Part Nineteen
- ↑ Coda
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 Part Twenty Two
- ↑ Addison
- ↑ Larson
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 Part Twenty Three
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 Part Twenty Four
- ↑ Uncle
- ↑ Part Twenty Eight
- ↑ Part Thirty Two
- ↑ Part Forty Two
- ↑ Part Thirty Five
- ↑ Part Forty Seven