fulcrums501st

[fulcrums501st]

Everybody in the undercity: man it sure sucks down here. I mean we're getting by I guess. Wish we could do something about all the crime

Everybody in topside for some reason: I HATE POOR PEOPLE I HATE POOR PEOPLE I HATE POOR PEOPLE

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Fully agree, having fun with your power and toying a bit isn’t the same as abusing or being a power hungry megalomaniac the way some people make Silco out to be

And yes he is locked in lmao

Oh yeah I forgot that there's this opinion that Silco "was blindsided by power and wealth" and "lost his way" and "he only did what he did to benefit himself all along" etc etc. Uh. Where- where did you get that from? I'm not even being sarcastic or something, I'm genuinely curious how you can come to this conclusion.

He operates from a crappy office in The Last Drop and the only attributes of wealth he has are cigars and whiskey(?). My man had one pair of pants for 10+ years and only got a fancy coat to look more intimidating. Besides, when chembarons proposed to give back the gemstone to Piltover so their sales don't drop even harder Silco refused. Also he was ready to give up his power when Jayce made imprisoning Jinx a requirement for Zaun to gain independence. Sure, he IS motivated to keep his daughter safe, but it would also mean that his goal will finally be achieved, so there's nothing left for him to do. Both wealth and power are only means to achieve a goal to him. He also doesn't really display that he gets the kick out of it, unlike councilors in Piltover.

"Well yes he wants Zaun to be independent, but only as he personally sees it" when did he EVER say that??😭😭😭😭 Every time he speaks on the topic he only mentions how he wants Zaunites to have opportunities, respect, "more than (Piltover's) runoff". Like- that's literally everything he ever said about this. All that matters to him is independence, he couldn't care less about everything else.

As to "losing his way"...idk I think this can only be attributed to pre-drowning Silco. Because after it he pretty much decided to stick to what he now believed in forever, and at no point except the finale he went south from his beliefs.

Silco isn't "misguided" or "corrupt" or any other similar definition. He's a character who chose to become a monster to bring change to his people. And as s2 didn't do anything about resolving this conflict, he was never really proven wrong.

[fulcrums501st]

op don’t leave this in the tags!

only way he “lost his way” was post-drowning he became willing to do whatever it took to get Zaun independent, including making monsters out of his own people cuz he thought it was the only way Piltover would listen and it was the only way to “defeat a superior enemy” . and he’s right, Piltover didn’t listen to the needs of zaunites, they decided to cut off Zaun once the problems down there (shimmer, crime, chembarons, etc) became too obvious an inconvenience to them. It’s like he made the undercity a limb so infected that it would scare Piltover into cutting it off to survive (by survive I mean stay privileged and rich and corrupt without any resistance).

He does sometimes relish in his power over others. Like Marcus and the chembarons. But that’s cuz Marcus is an enforcer and the chembarons are purely in it for themselves, not Zaun, so he doesn’t respect them. He does have that moment tho where he toys with shimmer addicts by holding it just out of reach when he’s tracked down Vi and Caitlyn. And yeah that’s like wtf man what’s wrong with you. That’s rlly the only moment I got the ick from his use of power that I can think of tho.

Oh yeah I forgot that there's this opinion that Silco "was blindsided by power and wealth" and "lost his way" and "he only did what he did to benefit himself all along" etc etc. Uh. Where- where did you get that from? I'm not even being sarcastic or something, I'm genuinely curious how you can come to this conclusion.

He operates from a crappy office in The Last Drop and the only attributes of wealth he has are cigars and whiskey(?). My man had one pair of pants for 10+ years and only got a fancy coat to look more intimidating. Besides, when chembarons proposed to give back the gemstone to Piltover so their sales don't drop even harder Silco refused. Also he was ready to give up his power when Jayce made imprisoning Jinx a requirement for Zaun to gain independence. Sure, he IS motivated to keep his daughter safe, but it would also mean that his goal will finally be achieved, so there's nothing left for him to do. Both wealth and power are only means to achieve a goal to him. He also doesn't really display that he gets the kick out of it, unlike councilors in Piltover.

"Well yes he wants Zaun to be independent, but only as he personally sees it" when did he EVER say that??😭😭😭😭 Every time he speaks on the topic he only mentions how he wants Zaunites to have opportunities, respect, "more than (Piltover's) runoff". Like- that's literally everything he ever said about this. All that matters to him is independence, he couldn't care less about everything else.

As to "losing his way"...idk I think this can only be attributed to pre-drowning Silco. Because after it he pretty much decided to stick to what he now believed in forever, and at no point except the finale he went south from his beliefs.

Silco isn't "misguided" or "corrupt" or any other similar definition. He's a character who chose to become a monster to bring change to his people. And as s2 didn't do anything about resolving this conflict, he was never really proven wrong.

[fulcrums501st]

It always bothers me when fans mock or make fun of critics/antis for constantly making posts venting their grievances about a story they dislike and say shit like “oooh why can’t u just talk about something u like11” or “pfft, get a life and do something more productive than complaining about a show!” and plenty of other shit.

Not only does this come across as condescending, it’s also hypocritical. So if people aren’t allowed to make posts about things they don’t like…I guess that means that fans can’t make posts about things they do like. I throw these same arguments fans use against people who complain about something that’s enjoyed by a good amount of people. “OMG why do you care so much about a stupid show” and shit like that.

Fans like these don’t realize that the reason for why people talk about things they don’t like is the same reason for why people talk about things they do like; they are passionate about it and enjoy analyzing it. They like breaking it down because they just enjoy media analysis. It’s not unhealthy, it’s not obsessive, it’s just a perfectly normal way of consuming media. And critical communities on Tumblr allow for a safe space for people to voice their grievances about a piece of work without being harassed by deranged stans.

My point is; let people make blogs criticizing shows whenever the fuck they want. What they are doing is no different than what fans of the work are doing; analyzing the story and voicing their opinions.

[fulcrums501st]

Like I see slimmers of a rlly cool vision, and then the vision is thrown away by other stuff they did in s2

Arcane S2 makes me want to cry, and not in a good way. You can see the makings of a beautiful, tragic story with maybe a glimmer of hope for Vi and Cait in s1. An exploration of grief and a narrative parallel between Jinx and Caitlyn doing what they do because of their grief, for Cassandra and Silco. An exploration of the politics of the first season. An exploration of Ekko that isn't just a waste of an episode, in which his experiences revolve around Powder.

Instead, we got what season 2 was.

[fulcrums501st]

people are not the “anything” police if they just express their opinion on their blog. if they are simply sharing their thoughts, negative as they may be, on their accounts, they are not trying to ruin your experience, they are not mad at you for enjoying something or having fun. stop villanizing people for existing and having opinions. i never went into anybody’s space to tell them their opinion is wrong or to insult them. if i see something i don’t like or i don’t agree with, i simply scroll. unlike you, who feel the need to purposefully go into other people’s spaces to complain about things they probably never even said in the first place. you are doing what you are complaining about. a little piece of advice: not everything is about you, you don’t have to take everything as a personal attack, because you are just not that important. most of the times you are just intentionally misinterpreting what other people are saying on their blogs because you want to fulfill your attention-seeking needs. so, before you go whine on other people’s accounts about how they spoil all the fun for you wah wah while they are just expressing their opinion, you can:

a) engage in a meaningful and respectful conversation, remembering you consciously decided to go into their personal space, not the other way around;

b) just ignore what they said and scroll!! incredible, right? but yes, you do actually have that option!! it is really that simple!!!

[fulcrums501st]

LMAO

saw a comment saying jayce would love imagine dragons and the best part is he CAN love imagine dragons they exist in his universe and since they were shown in zaun jayce probably thinks he’s really cool for listening to underground zaunite music

[fulcrums501st]

the b99 gifs made this impossible not to reblog

Arcane S1 was nominated for nine Annie's and won them all.

S2 has been nominated for 7 Annie's.

Annie's S1 was nominated for but not s2:

Best Character Design

Best Voice Acting

Best Writing

Best TV Media/General Audience

Annie's S2 was nominated for but not S1:

Best Editorial

Best Music

How incredibly surprising. Look what happens when you throw away the people who actually have expertise.

[fulcrums501st]

y’all say you love vi, but you only love her and see her worth if she’s with cait. you say you love vi, but to you her entire life revolves around her relationship with caitlyn, like that’s the pinnacle of her existence, the only thing that matters about her. outside of caitlyn, she doesn’t even exist. you say you love vi, but fail to recognize that her relationship with caitlyn was never the most vital in her story, while you downplay or straight up ignore the immense importance of her bond with jinx/powder. you say you love vi, but you think she’s living happily ever after because she has a gf now, while her family (the most important thing in her life) is gone forever and she thinks she has lost her little sister for good. you say you love vi, but you are perfectly fine with the fact, or even ignore, that she has absolutely no arc in s2 when she was supposed to be the main character. you say you love vi, but you are not only okay with, but also want her to be only an accessory to caitlyn and her arc with no development of her own. you say you love vi, but refuse to accept or acknowledge any caitvi criticism, or how vi’s character was constantly butchered in every possible way in favor of making caitvi canon. you say you love vi, but you dgaf about caitlyn not even apologizing to her. you say you love vi, but you actually think that their sex scene being in (jinx’s) prison cell was a) in-character — you genuinely believe she would ignore her baby sister being suicidal because fucking caitlyn is clearly more important — and b) a good thing for vi and the ‘reclamation of her trauma’. you say you love vi, but you think that ending up living in piltover being nothing more than cait’s girlfriend is the best thing that could have ever happend to her and a satisfying end to her story. you say you love vi, but you hate on the people who point all of this out.

[fulcrums501st]

[fulcrums501st]

LMFAOOOO

[fulcrums501st]

Season 2 makes it so obvious that the actual worst thing Silco did is not all the murder, extortion, etc. It's the fact that, despite being absolutely dedicated to the Nation of Zaun and hating Piltover, and holding to his principles always, he never bothered to foster a sense of community or loyalty or principles in Zaunites, not even Jinx. And now the Underground is paying for it.

[fulcrums501st]

silco really did just force his own unhealthy coping mechanisms onto jinx, thinking it was the only way to help her.

the "eye of zaun", the "jinx", they're both turning their traumas into a brand. silco's fixated on the river he almost drowned in, framing it in his mind as not trauma, but an important lesson. a baptism. a rebirth. all to avoid the fear he actually felt. he can dismiss the pain and terror as the emotions of someone other than himself entirely, some other version of him that he let die, so that he never has to actually confront it.

and he thinks that that's what jinx needs to do too. to let powder die, to become someone else. reframe her trauma, make it her identity. and she does. she names herself jinx, she draws the things she has flashbacks about over and over again until her room is covered in the proof of her "rebirth" as jinx.

but it doesn't work for her the way it "worked" for him. she's younger, she was way younger when it all happened to her, it's imprinted into her brain in a completely different way. she can't repress it the way he does. all of the reminders only do that; remind her. she hallucinates and has breakdowns and none of this is healthy for her. she can't recover, not in this environment of constant triggers.

silco doesn't understand that, because it "worked" for him. he wears his trauma as a role, a mask, a brand. the eye, a very real permanent disability of his, becomes a logo and a signature. the river becomes a metaphor for rebirth and change, instead of what it actually is: a large body of water full of toxins that he almost drowned in. sort of off-topic, but this is the main reason why the song "dramaturgy" reminds me of silco so much: he's performing his own trauma as a role. he's purposefully leaning into the dramatics of it, the themes, he's turning his own life into a compelling story. because that's easier for him than confronting the actual horror of what he went through.

there is, however, one moment in s1 where we see silco express a raw sort of terror directly because of his trauma, and that's when vander wraps his hand around his throat in episode 3. only for a moment, the reality of it all sunk in again. he'd spent years wearing his trauma like a costume, but right then, he was forced to acknowledge once again that that costume was him. vander's hand wrapped around his throat, and he was that boy again, terrified and choking, drowning, lungs burning, being beaten to a pulp and strangled by someone he thought he could trust. for just a moment, that elaborate coping mechanism he'd built for himself crumbled. the eye is just an injury. the river is just a river. drowning isn't rebirth. he's just that traumatized boy. he'll always be that traumatized boy.

until the mask slips back on, and he forces that meaning into his own suffering once more. now he's the eye of zaun again, and he has to kill vander. that's a compelling story, isn't it? and it has to be. it has to have meaning. he'll make sure it has a meaning.

[fulcrums501st]

thanks, silco

[fulcrums501st]

exactlyyyy! All the advice he gives her is rooted in his own trauma and specifically the messed of ideology he learned from his drowning experience. Because his ideology makes him so messed up and tunnel visioned he is incapable of being a good parent to Jinx, and incapable of bringing actual prosperity to Zaun.

I think he sees his advice about “letting your past self die” as the best advice for Jinx to move on from her past and guilt cuz it’s what worked for him. But like it didn’t even work for him lol. Bro thinks he successfully “moved on” by basing his entire ideology around one event, which determines every action he takes for the rest of his life. And he’s like “omg I am the best person to guide this little girl through the same trauma as me”. It was the blind leading the blind. That’s what makes their dynamic so hear and interesting and messy.

One thing that I think is missing from a lot of the discussion about Jinx and Silco is how much he identifies with her.

In their first scene together, when he asks where her sister is and Powder tackles him, she says, "she left me," and Silco looks at Vander's body. "She's not my sister anymore."

That's Silco thinking, "oh, she's like me."

He hugs her, and says "It's okay. We'll show them. We'll show them all."

He's identifying with her. I think to him, he's not just talking to Powder, he's talking to a younger version of himself. He's giving her the comfort that he wishes he could have had.

The way that Silco identifies himself with Jinx is what their whole dynamic is based on. The lack of boundaries, the you-and-me-against-the-world stuff. All his lectures about killing one's old self and becoming what others fear. His hatred of Vi. Silco's projecting his experience onto Jinx.

I don't want to say that he doesn't see Jinx as her own person, because he does. But I do think the line is blurry for him. Like, I think to Silco, Jinx is a version of himself, who can be stronger and better than him, because she has him to help her realize her potential. Something that Silco himself never had.

I also think he sees her a bit abstractly, as the embodiment of a concept. "Jinx is perfect".

What this all means is that Silco genuinely loves and cares for Jinx, but because he himself is so fucked up, and he relates to her in such a fucked up way, that makes their relationship what it is.

Like, he sees this traumatized child, and is like, "I can fix her". And proceeds to give her new problems.

[fulcrums501st]

this shot is still so hysterical to me. like silco gets hug tackled by this adopted daughter who can't be more than eight years old bawling her eyes out alone next to her dead father, and he hasn't been touched with kindness for so long so helplessly he looks up at his lackeys and they're all like 🤨😟😐😧

[fulcrums501st]

Plus we see people get one shotted often in that fight, that armor does nothing. It is a uniform, not armor. Having zaunites do battle in enforcer uniforms and not address how they’re literally wearing a symbol of their own oppression to fight is messed up. And it doesn’t make any sense that Zaunites would join with Piltover.

If “Arcane was never about the cities conflict” then WTF is THIS! Why would the show open with a brutal display of police brutality from the perspective of the oppressed! By opening with this sequence THE ENTIRE SHOW IS SET UP TO BE VIEWED FROM THIS PERSPECTIVE OF INEQUALITY!

Zaunites wearing enforcer uniforms has huge implications. The opens like this…

so much interesting nuance regarding all out war between the two cities set up in s1 that is then completely not followed through in s2 cuz they just change the plot halfway through to something more confusing and less grounded and less interesting.

And then they try to pretend they had well developed and well explored themes regrading war and class and progress cuz a character who doesn’t do anything for half the season gets a seat on the council when we don’t even see the complex negotiations that would have led to that happening.