fulcrums501st

[fulcrums501st]

It's not acknowledged enough in canon that shimmer is a life-saving medicine. Like how many lives have singed and silco saved by giving zaun access to medicine. Vi gets what I assume to be a lethal stab wound and is healed in minutes after just from a small vial. Shimmer is like any other medicine helpful in a dose but poison in another. I always see the rhetoric that silco spread a toxic drug through zaun, and while that's not wrong, it's also not right (honestly I dont think people give silco enough credit when it comes to his role as zauns leader). Zaunites are shown to be sickly, and I doubt piltovan doctors were willing to help zaunites, and there definitely aren't trained doctors in zaun, so shimmer and chems would be all they have. I wish we got a short story or something from the perspective of an average zaunite because we never really know what life is like for them and how much the oppression of zaun effects the average person.

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not liking arcane season two is like if Spider-Man 3 was the most beloved movie ever and there’s tons posters and fanart and edits of it and everywhere you go people are talking about how good it was and they go “isn’t it so cool how they confirmed harry x peter as canon” and you think ‘I don’t think that happened ‘ and everyone’s saying how well they handled the Goblin jr thing and you feel crazy because it wasn’t really handled well and you see a valid critique of how there’s too many villains and plot lines and all the comments are calling them sexist even though, while MJ is given a lot more character depth in Spider-Man 3, it doesnt make the movie a feminist masterpiece and you see edits everywhere of Peter’s black suit and it looks ok but people are acting like it was a genius character choice and you see ship art of harry and peter tagged ‘love these canon gays’ and you’re confused how the same people who use MJ’s excellent characterization to prove the movie is good forget about her for the sake of an inferior gay ship

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You can change the bar, but you’ll still be looking for the same bartender.

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Arcane au where everything is the exact same except the gang (Vi, Powder, Mylo, Claggor) all have a garage band and Vander lets them play for The Last Drop once a week, most of their songs aren’t necessarily good per say but who is the Hound of the Underground to not support local artists?

One night they played a surprise song called “Piltover more like DUMBtover” to Vander’s amusement and stress (thank janna Grayson and Marcus weren’t there). But it was an undeniable banger that instantly hit the lanes. Rumor has it can even make the Eye of Zaun smile and bop his head.

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"writing about fucked up things doesnt indicate your values as a person" and "the way you write about things may indicate some of your values" are not conflicting statements if im going to be real

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atp I’m giving s2 up for adoption

Season two of arcane is like a toddler that keeps running and tripping over nothing. It’s embarrassing but like that’s my son.

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Probably a nitpick, but can I just say how much I despise when writers try to make every character know every character from the start? I get the need to seem clever, like, oh yeah, I planned allllll of this B), but really it just makes your world feel smaller, like there's less people residing in it and less forces contributing to the events that happen.

For instance, in Arcane:

Silco didn't adopt Powder/Jinx because he resonated with her sense of betrayal and abandonment and loss of a sibling. No, he adopted her because he was already friends with Felicia. He was always her godfather, essentially.

Jayce didn't get the rune from a mysterious mage (once commonly theorized to be Ryze or a Bone Scryer Shaman). No, it was retconned to be Viktor the entire time. Because of course it was. (Lowkey reminds me of the god awful Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond 'le epic plot twist!1' from Steven Universe, but moving on...)

And fans eat this up.

Not everything needs a twist pre-established connection. It cheapens relationships, like in the case of Silco and Jinx, and really just ruins my immersion, lowers stakes, and shrinks the setting. It shows the writers don't know how to handle the material and are just relying on tropes, "Aha! This character was thiiiis the entire time!" The Marvel-style end fight and time travel/Into the Spiderverse universe-hopping shenanigans didn't help either

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List of unnecessary plotlines from Season 2. In no particular order:

Noxus

Warwick

Isha (sorry girlie)

Into the Ekkoverse

Caitvi relationship

Black Rose

The Arcane™️

The fact that there are even enough random side plots to even make a list like this is crazy for a NINE EPISODE Netflix season

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Crazy how arcane 2 did every trope I’ve been fucking annoyed with for years.

Fake out death? We got two!

Useless sacrifice pained as martyrdom? Check!

Bottle episode? Check!

Forced straight romance? Oh yeah baby.

Forgiveness narrative? Holy fuck we are not on Disney channel we can have a war.

Killing kids to get a quick cry out of the audience? Of course!

I loved s1 cause it set itself up for tropes and instead told a very grounded and human story. S2 prioritized fanservice and shock factor.

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Cait acts like she’s so wronged, that no one could feel her pain except her, and so many people suffer from it. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that her mother died, and that is definitely a tragedy, but Vi lost both of her dads, Jinx lost all three of her’s, and the undercity is swarmed with orphans, like, babe, the dictatorship was a little much for the loss of your mom.

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If I had a nickel for every male animated villain with an elongated triangular head shape that uses toxic liquids as a crime tool and that proceeds to becoming a devoted dad and becomes a head of a city I D HAVE TWO FUCKING NICKELS

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Sevika is my favorite character but it is hard for me to analyze her because I feel her ending is so unfitting for the rest of her writing and feels so forced it makes me second guess every other thing that was established about her, it is truly sad to me how the conclusion for such an interesting character ends up being imo a lazy way to tie lose ends for the rest of the abandoned Zaun vs. Piltover class war plot line.

I was thinking about this because I found this concept art of how Sevika would use Silco's office as her room after his death and it is so harrowing how for Sevika her entire life was Zaun's liberation.

The thing about her is, unlike Silco who at least had Jinx, she 100% sacrificed her whole personal life for revolution and thus perhaps her compromise to it was even higher than Silco's and then she becomes part of the same system that she spend her whole life fighting against? How do we make any sense of that?

I see Sevika leaving Vander, because of his refusal of fighting against Piltover, as such an important point for her character and I would argue probably the most important we see in establishing who she is, her ideologies and how much she is willing to sacrifice for that dream. Then Act 3 happens and it is such a weird watch for me because clearly the writing was trying to re-establish her as a sort of Vander figure with the whole "we don't hand over our own people" thing (even though I would argue her motivations where ideological while Vander's were personal), her giving a speech on Vander's statue, under his shadow. It feels like an attempt to make her into a "good-zaunite" by making her into a completely de-fanged version of herself and what that ends up meaning is her becoming non-threatening to the status quo and instead becoming part of the system, legitimizing it and therefore protecting it.

In this regard I think that Sevika choosing to follow Silco might be as important as her abandoning Vander. I find their relationship very interesting because they have similar ideologies and Silco is so dependant on Sevika and they both know it, for over 7 years she could have abandoned, betrayed or disposed of him but she didn't because she understood that violence was the only way to liberation and in that path she did all sorts of reprehensible things just like Silco for that ultimate goal again with the understanding that violence was necessary, she chose Silco because she understood that liberation would come through struggle not by manking deals with your oppressors like Vander did... And then just like Vander she ends up doing exactly the same thing, rendering all those years of struggle, all those actions, violence and atrocities meaningless.

And so for me most of what we knew of her character and what was established about her ideology becomes nonsensical when we see how she ended, either you take it as she completely betrayed herself and what she fought for her whole life or she was never the person the writing showed us her to be and just acted without thinking all those years (?). Furthermore we are shown just few episodes before the end how the people of the undercity don't even listen to her, so again it is just confusing how she ends up as a council woman for a city that doesn't even want her.

Ultimately if this was some sort of commentary about how revolutionaries can become sucked into politics and be de-fanged in favor of becoming part of the system rather than fighting it I could accept it even if I didnt like it but with how reactionary and anti-revolutionary s2 is, it just feels more like a "see? violence is never the answer! if you want change just become a diversity hire and change the institutions that oppress you from within!" /sarcasm

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Vi should have gotten to go to the Vander statue

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Arcane Season 2 feels like the result of Season 1's success in the worst possible way

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exactly the issue is that the show just doesn’t show how Cait’s actions have consequences on a systemic level. we montage through how it affects zaun so the show seems to believe thag gassing civilians and violent oppression just like doesn’t matter. nothing actually addresses the class oppression cuz BAM we gotta move on to some new plots now. so there’s no cause and effect from Cait’s actions, they’re nothing compared to whatever tf arcane-viktor has got cooking. so her choices hold no weight in the story which makes it seem like the creators think that systemic violence that Cait participates in is no biggie. stuff just happens, there’s no actual fallout so there’s like nothing for Caitlyn to actually learn from. she just switches up sides, and then cuz of new end of world plot now none of the months of police brutality matter anymore. we move on without actually exploring the ripple affects of Cait’s choices, which tells me that the show didn’t believe there were ripple affects to address.

so the show just doesn’t even think there would be systemic implications of cait gassing zaun and oppressing them for months. or at the very least they don’t think those affects were worth the time of addressing. like the lens of systemic oppression barely even exists in s2 cuz it’s the only way they can rush in and out of Cait’s arc. and it’s made worse cuz Vi is never allowed to have opinions on zaun or enforcers this season. so that dynamic with or Vi holding Cait accountable in the context of class consciousness also basically evaporates

trying to find good critical analysis of caitvi in season 2 is so rough. no i don't give a shit about "cait HIT vi multiple times!!" or "cait went TOO FAR as a commander" like shut up this is the People Hitting Each Other and Going Too Far show. say something about thematic consistency or setup & payoff or narrative weight or GET OUT OF MY HOUSE !!

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How to explain again that I don’t hate Caitlyn as a character, just how they handled her, and I think arguing she doesn’t have any reason to be traumatised or trying to minimise her trauma actually takes away from any critical argument you may have (I have many). It’s important you acknowledge Cait likely suffers from PTSD after being kidnapped, and psychologically tormented, and losing her mother not long after.

It’s important because I think we absolutely should have representations of grief and PTSD in media that drive people to do horrible things, that display a side to PTSD people often dismiss in favour of the perfect victim. It’s important because, in my eyes, Cait fails this narrative they set up for her, as it lacks any nuance in handling how she abused her position of power, and how she may have been influenced. The minute she switches sides, she faces no real consequence for the harm she has caused, and her feelings about Jinx and her hate for her are no longer discussed in any further detail, as they don’t hold relevancy to the fast paced plot the show is trying to push onward.

Even a few more little moments of Cait perhaps flinching when near Jinx, or the world becoming muffled around her I think would have helped a lot with her arc and her internal struggle, and how she has resorted back to her place of privilege for both comfort, and also to regain the power that was taken from her by Jinx.

All things considered, we don’t really go that in depth on Cait’s inner feelings despite it being a key point in s2. It all feels so shallow to me? She feels more like a tool than a character, which, all characters are tools to drive a narrative, but when that becomes obvious in one of your main characters, it means there’s a glaring writing problem.

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i for real need people to understand how upsetting it is that arcane said, "the revolution never mattered."

arcane said, "trying to actively bring about systemic change is both wrong and futile."

arcane said, "the only moral way to become unoppressed is to simply do mutual aid, and wait for your oppressors to decide to give you rights after a suitably high-profile child death and/or foreign invasion."

arcane said, "to resist or raise arms against your oppressor makes you as bad as them. it is the duty of the victims of violence and oppression to break the cycle of killing."