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Malevolent: Chapter 248 [POLL] (Patreon)

Published:
2025-01-14 12:00:10
Imported:
2026-06

Poll

Malevolent: Chapter 248 [POLL]

  • Give Mother Darkness the Talisman 215
  • Keep the Talisman 241
  • 2025-01-13
  • 456 votes
{'title': 'Malevolent: Chapter 248 [POLL]', 'choices': [{'text': 'Give Mother Darkness the Talisman', 'votes': 215}, {'text': 'Keep the Talisman', 'votes': 241}], 'closes_at': None, 'created_at': datetime.datetime(2025, 1, 13, 23, 46, 21, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), 'description': None, 'allow_multiple': False, 'total_votes': 456}

Comments

Aspen Whispers

Y’all do we REALLY wanna out the man in more danger

Puck

i say we keep cause it could be our deus ex machina when we inevitably kill arthur for the 10th time

Puck
>>161264548

or this could just kill arthur who knows at this point lmao

Ivycoveredstones

do we really want to FURTHER antagonise the malevolent deity who JUST established that she does not like being told what to do? if she didn't like lilith telling her not to kill arthur, how do you think she will react to being told "no, you cannot have this thing that is yours"?

Project Worldbuilder

Y'all know she's gonna gut us like a fish if we tell her no right? What power do we have in this moment to say that?

Martina Don Vita

SHE knows how to use it she will repay in the future, it will be very helpful

Autumn

All my thoughts are so jumbled arg Atm I am on the side of Fuck Her and the horse she didn’t ride in on Keep - Keeping the talisman means it could be used to revive Arthur and also has other magical properties Yorick doesn’t get into but does seem to be aware of, and this could seriously benefit us - It’s too late to appease MD and try to avoid her ire, we killed her daughter and if we’re going off of ‘general rules of life’ murdering someone’s child is like the biggest fuck you ever. Like maybe it’d solidify her negative opinion of Arthur, but if he gave it back I don’t think she’d even consider it as being courteous it would just be a worm listening to her as they always do, meaning going light on him because of his obedience wouldn’t have crossed her mind - MD can’t impede/hurt us directly bc she doesn’t wanna be curb stomped by Lilith, she’d have to get monsters to do it for her, monsters who aren’t as powerful as her so all 4 of our party may be a better match for them - There will be horrors regardless on if we give MD the talisman or not, she’s already said she will kill us, giving her the talisman id adding more power to her arsenal - Arthur has never made nice with gods and it’s one of the things I admire about him - Arthur still had horig clinging to him, it’s uncertain if alia’s healing capabilities are as good as they first appeared - The talisman may not only benefit us, but could also be used on other party members. For instance, if Alia goes down we have no healer which would be VERY BAD, but if we have the talisman we could revive her - Following on from the above scenario, we’re going to betray Evrard which will likely turn Alia against us, loosing us a healer, if everyone else is also aligned with Ev as they say then we will need the talismans power to help survive against them - It’s uncertain if the talisman gives off a magical signature, Alia didn’t sense anything but then again she doesn’t talk so we wouldn’t know - If we chose to keep it and she could just take it from us anyways, it would be the same outcome but we’d at least have a *chance* at keeping it Give - She could go after our party members (cannon fodder, we’re gonna betray them anyways) - She’s p powerful, she did threaten to kill everyone if we didn’t light the hand (not powerful enough to oppose Lilith tho) - If we antagonise her she could make the journey harder (we knew it’d be hard, we have our party to help) - Don’t make even more of an enemy of her (bit late for that tbh) - It might draw other powerful entities (we have the BLACKSTONE on us, the talisman is hardly gonna make a difference) TLDR I’m team keep for the moment, vote to keep!

Lucius Hound

We can’t afford to keep the talisman. It’s powerful but not THAT powerful. If we risk her wrath, we could get killed in the beginning. Besides, it’s her daughter’s hand, and we already called her a hag, we should give it back.

Waffle 427

Maybe she’ll let us go home?

Izzy

Do we really want to give away a powerful artifact to a being that already wants us dead? Not in my book.

Juanita

The way I look at it she’s already let us know she’s not going to do anything to us rn, so let’s keep it. Tell her we will give it back when our quest is complete. It could be useful to us and our allies. We need all the help we can get!

Conner Duncan
>>161265911

Pretty sure she is asking for the talisman we took from the witch, not the hand of malevolence we made from her hand. Two different artifacts

Autumn
>>161265330

She can’t kill us without getting curb stomped by Lilith so she’d hold off directly attacking us

Conner Duncan

I'm firmly in the camp of giving it back, it won't put us in her good graces or anything but showing some respect and honoring the request will do better to keep us lower on her priority list.

Autumn
>>161265450

Also people have got to remember what happened when we adhered to social niceties We got kidnapped by kellin and spent over a month in a coma Playing nice with irrational humans, let alone gods will not benefit us and will actively put us in a worse position- we would loose the talisman and STILL be pursued by MD

Ark

I don’t know if this went through in the chapter comment, but I’ll say it again here; I think I’d rather we not tick off any more dark entities and just fork over the talisman. In the long run it might grant us the smallest favor for being cooperative. Also we have Alina, I think that’s her name, on our side for the foreseeable bit and we already know she’s pretty powerful. Also I think she’d just take the talisman even if we told her Nuh uh

Autumn
>>161265450

I’m just gonna keep adding stuff for keep as I think of it I think the fact that she just gives him the ‘protection’ instead of using it to barter for the talisman suggests the fact it may not be protection at all, because why should we do something nice for Arthur even if it was to spite Lilith? And if it’s some malignant curse, we really don’t want to give up our only possible, reliable, protection in the talisman

Project Worldbuilder
>>161265330

That doesn't make us safe. She's already expressed her disgust at the whole Lilith thing AND she gave us info she didn't have to! Keeping it now is just an a-hole move for no reason.

Liz

It's been a while since I did a proper argument in poll chat, and I think it's worthwhile to really think about this one. We know thanks to the latest Spooky Stream that we are in the endgame of Season 5 right now, with Part 52 being expected to be the finale. We've just finally met Mother Darkness, and she has explained in no small detail that she despises Arthur and John for what they did to her daughter (the Hag or the Witch from beneath the windmill). She makes this extremely plain both in her actual spoken dialogue and in the more subtle cues about how she reacts to seeing proof of her daughter's corpse being mutilated in order to make the Hand of Malevolence. We learn that the only reason that she hasn't already taken out her vengeance on Arthur and everyone around him is that Lilith has forced her hand and prevented her from doing so. (And I want to reiterate, for the people who are relatively new, that Harlan plays a fair game when it comes to being able to understand the motives of his characters.) Now. Here's two truths that are important to weigh: Mother Darkness insists on speaking to Arthur only under the protection of the Hand of Malevolence. And Arthur notes that Mother Darkness has already made the most potent threat she possibly can against them, which is either a bluff in this moment, or one that she'll actually carry out - either now with us refusing to bend to her whims, or in the future when we lack a powerful artifact that could help us fight back or survive the aftermath. So. There are a few questions that one should ask themselves. Why did she need to the protection of the Hand of Malevolence? "YORICK: The Hand of Malevolence, like its antithesis, offers an ability to its owner. While a Hand of Glory may give light only to its holder, this Hand, while lit, suppresses any and all magical effects from those around us and offers a small radius of… silence." The Hand of Malevolence does two things. It keeps people from overhearing the conversation, and it suppresses magical effects. So, by the sounds of it, that means that Mother Darkness explicitly was trying to set up a scenario where she could place whatever spell she just performed on Arthur on him without that spell being interfered with from the outside and without anything outside being able to hear what she was about to do. This does not speak to a being that thinks she can speak and act freely without consequence in this moment. On some level, I think her threats to kill everyone here right now was a bluff. Arthur is not wrong to be flippant in the face of a being already determined to kill him, I think. His position can hardly be worse, no matter what he does. Here's something else to consider, from when he first considered going after the talisman: JOHN: Arthur, didn’t you just say we need to look at everything available to us? We’re playing for keeps, remember? We can’t afford to not use every resource, you – (Arthur sighs.) You said that. ARTHUR: This isn’t a resource, it… YORICK: No. Much more powerful. ARTHUR: Okay, Okay, I hear you. (A small pause.) Okay, w-what is it? JOHN: More than that. Yorick, is it something that would help us find the Black Stone? YORICK: Directly, no. The talisman has many abilities. Of course, at the cost of her losing some of her power." Although Yorick was speaking about what we believe was the Witch. It is not impossible that the talisman is something that Mother Darkness is weakened (however slightly) by the loss of. Do we wish to grant this being even more power than she already has, and it is clear that her power is considerable, given how easily she dismisses John as below her notice in terms of strength. Additionally, we don't know if the talisman's power is limited to healing and resurrection, or if there is more that it can do that we simply haven't asked Yorick about. And we know that Yorick generally does not volunteer information of his own accord. Now, of course, there are those among you who point to the fact that we have Alia with us now, and that she can fill in for the talisman if needed. But do we know that? Alia is not an inanimate object. She is a person with feelings and agenda that is her own. How certain are we that she will aid us at all times? We already know that she has made statements to Evrard about "The Day of Wrath", and I think that should be a concerning point. Why does she know about that? And does that mean that she means to help that come to pass, or does she mean to hinder us? Don't forget, our actual goal here is to betray Evrard and by extension - if she is truly Evrard's most trusted friend - Alia. Therefore, I don't think we can depend on her to save our lives in all circumstances. There's also the Narrative to consider. Arthur is our Protagonist in what is currently a mash-up of Dark Fantasy and Lovecraftian Horror. What decision here makes a better story? A Protagonist that caves to the whims of a horrific entity because it might make the entity who has sworn vengeance no matter what slightly less angry right now. Or one that stands defiant against horrible odds. Booth John himself even hints at this: "However, perhaps this display of obedience could do more harm in your position with her than you realize. Much is unknown for now. Let’s hope… your willingness to play along isn’t to your detriment." In short, there are many reasons that I believe that Mother Darkness is not going be in any way lenient toward Arthur if he hands back her talisman. We lose something powerful and helpful, which makes us somewhat more independent of the goodwill of our adventuring party (specifically Alia), that is for sure capable of resurrections (which Alia may not be), and which may grant Mother Darkness even more power than she already has. And we gain nothing except for the barest and deeply unlikely hope that Mother Darkness will somehow forgive and forget John's murder of her daughter. (If it was your child, would you ever forgive their killer, for any reason?)

Layali

I might vote Keep after all bc I realized MD probably can’t kill any of the four right now without interfering with Llilith’s plan (so not just Arthur is ‘safe’) + if she does try anything Alia might fully reveal her hand/abilities fighting back, which is useful. Also Arthur didn’t seem like he was in the headspace to yield with the way he mocked MD about her daughters hand, etc etc, so even if I wanted to be cautious and give it away I don’t think Arthur is. In the long term, we aren’t getting rid of this enemy (MD) but we are losing a tool if we give it to her now.

Axle

While she won't kill Arthur, I'm worried about her killing someone else. I don't think she was bluffing when the threatened it earlier, and while it could be good to have the talisman it would be stupid to make another thing mad at arthur.

Marina Bennett

Voting to keep the talisman for now. We *killed her daughter*, I don’t think giving the talisman back is going to heal any amount of that harm. She could only act under the hand of malevolence as well, so I think she’s bluffing when she says she’ll hurt the party in this moment. She’s coming after us as soon as she can anyway, so we might as well keep the advantage that Arthur died for.

Kara

I don’t like what it means to “give in” so easily to an entity right now, considering how badly Arthur felt about Horig, and what it could mean for confronting Kayne soon. Also Alia is allied with Everard who we intend to betray, so she might not actually heal us when we need it! Or after we split off with the black stone!

Quinn

I have many ideas and arguments for both sides BUT even if just for the narrative and fun’s sake, I say we keep it, because I much prefer Arthur being his stubborn self and not bowing down to anyone — people, gods, creatures — ever

Liz

A further thought: We've been very focused on how Mother Darkness may react, but have yet to consider how our companions may understand what is going on. From their perspective, they've seen Arthur light a candle in the grip of a severed hand, and then they can't hear anything further. But they see Mother Darkness do something to Arthur (take his hair), and a conversation take place that they can't make out, and then they're either going to see Arthur hand something over to this entity (which Yorick did identify within earshot of the party as Mother Darkness) or refuse to do so. Which will make them trust and respect him more? Which will make them question his motives?

Quinn

If anyone wants, I highly recommend checking out the discord for poll chat and/or slow poll chat for this! There’s a lot of amazing arguments being made, as well as ideas, speculation, etc that could help sway anyone from one choice or other

Quinn
>>161276089

Autumn and Liz and several others in the chat have some fantastic notes and ideas

Quinn
>>161275979

True true! The party may see and interpret: Arthur giving a seemingly random old woman an item could be seen as extremely sus — like, what is that? Why/how does he know this woman, and are they interfering with the journey? Arthur talking to this woman and denying her an item could be seen as sus in a whole other way — the party would likely want to know WHAT he wouldn’t give her, and therefore Arthur would have to explain what the talisman is or lie about it’s purpose (which we all know he is notoriously bad at lying lol)

Quinn
>>161276089

For now, please please please please PLEASE keep it 😂😭

Quinn
>>161266383

Agreed!!! It could prove useful in the future, and we can give it back later even if that pisses her off. It’s worth the risk.

Quinn
>>161266095

Exactly! Yorick mentioned how the talisman holds power that weakens the hag/witch (or is part of her power yadda yadda), and therefore it might have that same effect on MD. At the very least, it’s a powerful tool for us to hold onto. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

keyraven

Arthur died for this talisman; we shouldn't give it away so easy. We get nothing in return for giving it away.

Alexi

we should give it back

keyraven

We should keep the Talisman. Mother Darkness already wants to kill Arthur, John, and everyone John has ever encountered. She is currently being stopped by Lilith, but has vowed to enact her vengeance as soon as she's able. With that in mind, what do we gain from giving up the Talisman? It will not stop her from enacting her vengeance, nor make her vengeance any less terrible. She wants to kill everyone John has ever met. It really can't get worse than that. Likewise, keeping the Talisman will not further endanger any of our party members. If she could kill them while under Lilith's protection, she would have done so - it's her stated intent. She will kill them after Lilith's protection ends no matter what we do with the talisman. But she can't kill them till then, nor interfere with Arthur's "path". Although keeping the talisman won't stop Mother Darkness from killing us, it's a huge bonus in meantime. MD implies that Horig's influence was not fully cleared by Alia, so we may still need the Talisman to heal us from Horig. Or, maybe, save the life of one of our party members. Or maybe we can use one of it other abilities! We should eat the elephant, and focus on the here-and-now benefits of the talisman. MD's anger is a problem for another time - we are safe for the time being. And, in general, Arthur giving in to Mother Darkness feels meek. It's not like Horig, where he "bent the knee" to save his life. He gains nothing from giving the Talisman away. He would just be giving this powerful object to a force of great evil JUST because she asked. What evil could she do with this Talisman? How many more people could she hurt? And, again, Arthur gains nothing from giving it up.

keyraven
>>161272056

Her stated intention is to kill Arthur, John, and everyone they've ever encountered. Since she hasn't killed anyone yet, I feel it's safe to assume Lilith's protection extends to Arthur's friends and party members.

RoryMarkal

I've seen some good points on why to give the talisman away. I'd like to add on that, by giving the talisman away, mother darkness will have a reason to a) trust us and b) help us, even if she later in plans revenge. Either way, it is possible that by giving her the talisman that she'll directly conflict with Lilith or perhaps be the one to revive us in the end when Arthur inevitably dies again. Idk, I just think we need more friends in dark places. Right now, we know mother darkness won't be killing Arthur no matter what, but we have to keep in mind about the future. Alternatively, this could be the thing that enables mother darkness to go against Lilith and consequently kill Arthur. Who knows and who's to say?

blacklightRIOT

mother darkness does spooky shit to kids we aint givin her SHIT she doesnt like being told what to do? WELL ARTHUR DOESNT LIKE BEING PUSHED AROUND SO JOT THAT DOWN

Heather Bruce

Her magic is gross and I don't like that we took it in the first place. Can we *please* give it back? Please???

Raven Fritz

Please give it back, this moment is important. It's shaping the future. This is a *Mother darkness will remember that* moment.

boneseed
>>161270176

+1 REMEMBER HOW PISSED BJ WAS WHEN WE CHOSE NOT TO USE THE PERSON AS BAIT IN THR S3 MINES????? Submitting here feels very similar to that.

Inumaki Bakugo

Sorry lady but we need it more than you do. Do you KNOW how many times we've kicked the bucket

Jayquellin

Y’all the power of the talisman has cursed us from the start. It’s been far more trouble than it’s worth and it got Arthur KILLED. Not just unconscious but actually visiting-the-afterlife killed. Booth John warned us about the danger of pursuing power and reprimanded us for taking it in the first place. He said “lessons must be learned” and then Arthur DIED. This is our chance to learn our lesson and get rid of it for GOOD.

keyraven
>>161305378

On the other hand, we paid a heavy price for that talisman. We suffered and were punished, but we still got the talisman. It would be lame for Arthur to give it up without a fight, considering how useful it can be.

Jayquellin
>>161305378

And what if there's an even greater cost in the future for it? There's so much we don't know about the talisman and it could create more trouble for us. What if, by using it, we attract the attention of far more dangerous entities who wish to steal it? One thing I've learned is that taking the easy way out always has a cost. It was a mistake to take it in the first place and we don't need it. We've seen in this story that power is dangerous and unpredictable. We don't need that when we're about to go on an already dangerous journey. The thing that has actually saved our lives before was our connections to other people. By giving it back we could make MD a reluctant ally which could save our lives in the end. We've gotten so far without it and I trust in our capabilities to survive without it.

hydrus101

I feel like the most advantageous thing to do right now is to return it. Yes, the talisman saved Arthur’s life, but he wouldn’t have died if we didn’t pursue it. This is the time to set things to rights, we don’t need to be greedy with the magical artifact that rightfully belongs to Mother Darkness. This moment, right now, is about not digging the shithole we’re in any deeper. Yorick even WARNS Arthur at the start of the episode that antagonizing Mother Darkness isn’t wise, regardless of any limitations she’s under, thanks to Lilith. She put a freaky spell on his hair under the cover of the hand of malevolence, it’s possible she impeded Arthur in some way as well. Returning it now will not make our situation any worse.

alicyn

hi okay so. arthur’s daughter. mother darkness’ daughter. KAYNE’S DAUGHTER? IT KEEPS COMING BACK TO DAUGHTERS. HERS IS DEAD. extend an olive branch. did her daughter fill arthur with worms. yeah. but she isn’t gonna care. it’s Her Daughter

hydrus101
>>161305378

I don’t disagree about the heavy price, but I feel like the it might be a sunk cost fallacy. It’s served us well once, giving it up could prevent certain backlash/harm (from MD) as opposed to potential/unknown harm (in the future)

Abby-May Burkin

Arthur was NEVER going to have TWO powerful methods of healing for long, lmao. Give Mother Darkness the talisman. Sure she can't KILL Arthur or John, but what's to stop her from fucking up Arthur's body and/or destroying his party out of anger? She could even kill or maim Aliya and steal the amulet - leaving Arthur at 0/2 healers instead of 1/2......

blacklightRIOT

ARTHUR [part 47]: [...] I let Horig shake me. I was caught off guard, and… influenced in some way. And I let that weakness seep into me. I know that… cult is dead, now. Malam saw to that. But I still folded. To survive, yes, but… (He sighs.) I’m not gonna let that happen again. Whatever happens… whatever we’ll face… we’ll stare it down. Together. STARE IT DOWN!!! TOGETHER!!!!!!

Oakland

give her back the talisman IT WAS HERS ORIGINALLY WE DO NOT NEED HER TO HATE US MORE THAN SHE ALREADY DOES PLEASE I BEG

Hyde, World’s Best Shoggoth

I am all for defiance against eldritch beings but she’s not asking us to give us something that’s ours, but something that’s hers. We stole that talisman, it doesn’t belong to us and risking our safety, health or even life in the long run to keep it is quite foolish

growingdark

I just got here and I’m already sweating…I need 1-2 business days to think about my answer

Jellybean
>>161320654

me personally if I had a loved one die I'd rather have a piece of sentimental jewelry than their rotting flesh xD

Chimera Mercy
>>161344131

We need to reignite the hubris he had when he was talking to the KiY 🔥 also it sounds cool as hell to stare down mother darkness and not flinch

alicyn
>>161320654

the amulet is powerful. we know this. it could bring her daughter back

Amy

Ngl I’m terrified this is gonna end up a tie

keyraven

Giving MD the talisman will hurt Arthur's morale. He's been pushed around by more powerful forces for the entire of season 5. He needs to stand up against the darkness, for his own mental well-being, especially now that he has leverage against MD. She can't hurt him, and she needs him alive to hurt Lilith. Standing up to MD is baby steps towards standing up to Kayne. (or, if you prefer, foreshadowing)

pistachioINK

Y'all saying that giving the talisman back might incentivize Mother Darkness to either trust us or help us out later are nuts. She wants John dead for killing her daughter. I don't think there's anything that's swaying her off of that path. She's coming for us eventually, we might as well hang on to it while Lilith is "protecting" us.

blacklightRIOT
>>161427270

bruh real somebody swears to do super murder on you, and you hand over an item that can bring you back to life if someone does super murder on you? NO LMAO

Luna_de_maria

Ok the daughters argument bit got me. I think returning the tailisman to protect John and honor a grieving mother is narratively smart. Arthur also told Larson he would destroy everything when he was triggered in his grief of Faroe. I think this is a moment of honoring grieving parents, more than anything. It’s not like the KiY since he was a bully trying to rip John back and same with Horig. I think this is a moment of parent to parent empathy and a chance to prevent further anger from MD

blacklightRIOT
>>161438868

she's cool with us keeping her daughter's severed hand tho. that's chill. just need that mega powerful artifact back for, uh, sentimental reasons. yep.

Toni
>>161344131

Yes! Bring back Arthur Spit-in-the-eye-of-God Lester!

Michaela

checking back in with this after two days actually just scared me so bad…time to be eaten up with nerves until the ep drops 😔

Jellybean

if Faroe killed a guy I'd still want us to get her music box back. give it back, parent to parent. alia can heal us if needed, as long as we keep alliances with her and the rest of the party

Dustin
>>161320654

Don’t forget how crucial Larson’s daughter was to the Addison plot and his motivations

Thaelia

This might be just because I hate the idea of giving up any of our stuff, but I say keep. If MD wants to try to take it from us or make a deal to get it back, that’s another thing, but we shouldn’t preemptively give up a valuable item to someone who’s probably going to try to kill us later no matter what we do. Plus, healing abilities are super useful, and we have no guarantee for how long Alia is going to be around or how cooperative she’ll be. Also, Arthur did literally die for the talisman! We still may end up losing it anyways, but we shouldn’t give it up so easily.

Luna_de_maria

Ohhh...someone just pointed out Faroe's Lullaby plays with MD talks about losing her daughter...this might be a moment for some olive branch...

Izzy
>>161584186

To be fair it also plays in other moments where children are mentioned (e.g. EWA's home when they're talking about the floor), I wouldn't read too much into it

keyraven

The talisman really goes with Arthur's outfit. It would be crime against FASHION to give it away. (Inspired by discord poll-chat shenanigans. If you aren't on discord, join us!)

Luna_de_maria

When the British museum stole the Elgin Marbles I think we can all agree that was really awful. Especially since they keep refusing to return them when asked by Greece. Do we REALLY want to be on the side of the British museum and keep something we stole?

Luke Holcomb
>>161538205

Remember we’re planning on stealing the blackstone at some point — which certainly will not leave us in good graces with the party in question

Luke Holcomb

On my first listen, my instinct was to give MD back the talisman — but with how much emphasis has been put both by in episode John and Arthur and Booth John on not folding to powerful entities and giving up so easily anymore, why should we? We need everything and anything we can get — Arthur DIED for this talisman, it being the only thing to reliably bring him back if that were to happen again (we are NOT planning on staying goody-goody with Alia and the rest if we hope to get the blackstone and fulfill our deal with Kayne) and historically Arthur and John have a pretty strong history with getting fucked over by gods no matter what we do. MD has sworn vengeance on us regardless of if we give back her rightful possession, it doesn’t matter that she may or may not have put a protection on us from Lilith, we know she’s just being spiteful to her more powerful enemy, but we don’t even know the EXTENT of what this talisman is capable of, for all we know it could be vital in helping us get the blackstone, or at the very least provide us with a slight edge over any competition MD and Lilith are guaranteed to throw our way on this journey. Keeping the talisman is objectively the wisest path to take — and giving it to her only will reinforce the pushover nature Arthur has been desperate to rid himself of; think back to how ashamed he was after Horig.

Luna_de_maria

I think Arthur has suffered too much this season to believe he is safe from MD. Horig, the witch, Barnabas. And Lilith did NOTHING. We’re putting an insane amount of faith in an entity who hasn’t even shown up yet

HD

Making Mother Darkness mad now by denying her the Talisman could change the object of her wrath. Lilith has most of it for now, no reason to make her focus on Arthur, someone who she could hurt, but not kill. Other people have hurt Arthur near to death, so why can't Mother Darkness? Lilith hasn't done much to save him from normal old harm yet. Horig and the Witch sure got away with alot of damage.

Fisher

I think something to keep in mind is that this is not a grieving mother mourning her daughter. This is an entity that’s masqueraded itself into this appearance to appeal to mortal followers.

boneseed
>>161584186

It’s also plays when they walk into the order of the falling star (I only know this because I just got there on my relisten)

alicyn
>>161630768

this is inconsistent with the reoccurring theme of parenthood/love for a daughter

Toni
>>161618693

Well said, Luke! Arthur's reflection on his interaction with Horig solidified the decision for me.

Luke Holcomb

Another thing: what was one of the FIRST things Arthur did when he was faced with a supernatural entity that wanted to kill him? He put his fucking foot down and didn't let anyone - god or not - bully him and shove him around like he's nothing. He SPIT in the face of the KiY in the Dreamlands when he tried taking John from him; but now he's becoming used to the powerlessness he feels towards Kayne and his inability to avoid being under his whims, and now he keeps moping and "folding" as he puts it every time he just turns in the towel and obliges like the peasant he's supposed to be. How is that a compelling path for Arthur to keep following? He needs to stand up for himself! Giving up this amulet will do nothing to benefit him and will guaranteed only harm him in the long run. Let Arthur have his confidence again!!

MemeticHygienist

Honestly, MD is way more willing to talk than I was unconsciously giving her credit for. I think Arthur could probably do a decent job talking his way out of her grudge, at least enough for for her to be a temporary ally. He probably wouldn’t just “give” it over, especially with his renewed conviction to not surrender to eldritch powers. He would plausibly have some explicit things to say, if not as conditions, than powerful mind games or something poetic. These grandiose Powers clearly experience emotions in their own ways, and Arthur is clever and ever so subtly *malevolent* enough to pull at those heart strings. I have changed my vote to giving the talisman. Arthur & John don’t even know how to use it, so its utility is contingent on Yorick’s motives continuing to align with theirs.

Fisher
>>161630768

okay. so what gives MD the right to have her role as a “parent” respected? the witch was using this talisman to turn people into insect monster incubators. not only that, but Malam says this about Mother Darkness: “. But like me… feels a pull to the children. Unlike myself, she seeks them before their demise and twists their minds, creating disciples. She infects them, raising them as her own. Bestowing her… ‘gifts’ upon them. At least while she wears this face.” does this sound like a loving mother? why should Arthur have to respect her?

BeastlyDeath

I know people are saying Arthur died for this talisman but uh If she was powerful enough to create a talisman to bring people back, then I feel like it's best to not poke the more powerful than us bear. We BARELY won against the witch, who had just a fraction of power compared to MD.

Thea Bell
>>161625515

Yeah, I was leaning towards returning the talisman until relistening to the chapter, she's very determined to kill arthur as soon as she can, no chance of her having any kind of heel-face turn

Ni nak

we are messing this one up guys. it was not ours to take, not ours to keep. and now we seem to be in some kind of pissing contest with a god like being. those do not end well.

Oliver Byrne

Honestly, I think it’s better not to dig ourselves into an even worse position. It’s bad enough further antagonising a dangerous enemy, but really the talisman has been nothing but a bad omen for us from the start. Stealing it in the first place got us killed, and now it’s placed a target on our back. And think about it. Is it likely that it’s power is tied to Mother Darkness, and she might be able to influence its use. Who’s to say that if we ever find some way to actually use the damn thing, it might work against us?

Sam

Yeah… This was the wrong call…