Mae!
wishing everyone a very good luck getting through january-march without killing yourself
God . I bet everyone who listened to the ep before me has said it already, but I genuinely think the car keys bit in the newest episode is like the best subtle horror thing malevolent has ever done.
John sorta serves the role of Arthur’s seeing eye dog. Theres an implicit trust in being forced to completely rely on someone to be your senses. And John did so good in that role for so long. He’s only ever explicitly lied ONCE (as far as we’re aware) and it was an understandable, albeit unwise act of self defense.
And then slowly the trust Arthur and the viewers are forced to hold is rattled. First by his memory degrading - but thats not his fault. His integrity is legitimately declining for reasons unknown. Its a scary thing, for Arthur, and him in equal measure. He doesn’t mean to miss details he should know, and he rushes to overcompensate when he realizes his memory has failed him. It seems noble and tragic.
He takes offense to Arthur relying on others, he seems to take it as a ‘you’re not good enough.’
And then the second blow comes. He is a creature of ulterior motives and manipulation at his core, no matter how hard he tries to play nice, its his foundation. His domain. His by rite of godhood. He can lie about what he sees. Easily. He can use Arthur’s trust however he sees fit. He can guide Arthur anywhere he wants, he can trap Arthur in any location through simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ cues. you’re reminded that he can be unreliable on purpose. And suddenly that desire to be Arthur’s sole support seems like intentionally isolating him. Because someone else might alert Arthur of John’s misdirection and obfuscation. Might undermine his unwavering and unchallenged authority.
Its so fucked.
John Doe headcanons
• the first time he feels an eyelash get into Arthur’s eyes, he PANICS and Arthur finds it very amusing
• Arthur can frequently be seen with only one sleeve rolled up because John doesn’t like the feeling of fabric on his arm
• the king in yellow doesn’t have a gender because eldritch beings are beyond that, but John feels a strong connection to being a man/masculinity because of his connection to Arthur’s mind
• John would like to go to the library and just read poetry books to Arthur
• sometimes when Arthur is too tired to cook for himself, John forces him to get up and uses HIS hand to cook for Arthur. It usually doesn’t go well, but he’s well intentioned and Arthur’s got low standards
• sometimes Arthur holds Johns hand, just to acknowledge he’s listening to him, and John always gets distracted by it. He will never admit that he actually really enjoys the subtle affection
• Arthur tries to teach John piano. There’s a lot of fighting because it is hard to instruct someone how to play when you can’t see
• when they finally go and see a film, John talks about it like an excited child for HOURS afterwards
PLEASE tell me your headcanons for him or Arthur LMAO I’ve got such bad brain rot
gotta get to the bottom of this!!!
some Arthur and Faroe lester doodles
So I found Aaron Bushnell's reddit and went through his comments/posts. That young man was well read and stable as they can be. Nothing in his writings pointed to someone who was "unstable" or "brainwashed".
He held leftist and anarchist ideals. He belong to the ACAB subreddit. He recognized the evil of the US Military even though he himself was apart of it. He hated TERFS and called out fatphobia. He understood the dangers of white supremecy and the evils of capitalism.
He had a cat. He liked the show fleabag and played elden ring.
Apparently in his will he wants to leave any money in his name to palestinian relief funds. He was trying to find a new owner for his cat.
Rest in power Aaron Bushnell. The world won't forget & we sure as fuck won't let the media paint you out to be some crazy conspiracy theorist who had no idea what he was doing.