midnightcatharsis

[midnightcatharsis]

the arcane contrapuntal poem

[midnightcatharsis]

People be like, 'jayvik has no chemistry,' 'jayvik is not romantic,' 'jayvik is mid and every other ship is better,' and then the same people draw or repost fanarts of their ship in the astral plane, use the 'in all timelines' quote for their ship, compare their clearly romantic ship with jayvik, and complain that it was jayvik, not their ship, that got the best scenes, moments, and dialogues. It just shows that these people are lying out of jealousy or bigotry because if they truly didn't see jayvik as romantic, or if they thought jayvik was mid, they wouldn't want their favorite romantic ship to get jayvik treatment.

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[midnightcatharsis]

I created a map of countries based on their relationship with jayvik nation ;)

Evidence of jayvik nation being supported (or not) by other countries

1. Brazil - I feel like this is the country with the strongest official support from netflix, league and the actors, not to mention that Brazilians are our nation's strongest soldiers ;)

2. Poland - support from both official accounts of netflix and league (The second pic is more about Vik since it's a collage of Viktor's pictures but from what I get it was posted right after the release of his in game interactions, the text on the pic is his official line to Jayce 'neither friendship nor love (...) Jayce' that is interpreted as romantic by many and censored in some counties, it also has 2 jayvik frames. It does seem pro-jayvik)

3. Greece - they're basically canon m

4. Italy - League collaborated with cosplayers to make jayvik kiss... and posted the kiss pic on valentine's day

5. Czech Republic

6. England, Ireland and Nordics - nothing explicit, but interpreted as many as support, so I classify them as somehow friendly

7. Russia - they straight up censored it so they had to recognize the romantic undertones XD

8. China - ok idk how it happened that China is in somehow friendly XDD

9. Latam - official support from actors, but from what I got, they also censored it -the translation of the partner used in Latin Spanish dub is purely friendly but then maybe it was just a problem with translating or they could not anticipate the popularity of the ship and chose to play it safe. All things considered, I put them in the somehow friendly category.

10. France - Fortiche is in Paris and several animators openly spoke up about shipping and supporting jayvik. They also went out of they way to make jayvik scenes look and feel romantic despite CL wanting to portray them as brothers. I won't include any screens here cause there's simply too much of them but if you will look for it you'll be pleasantly surprised

11. Canada - they gave us bbno$

12. Spain - I heart it was censored there :/

13. Germany - they gave us CL.... Map with the screens. Canada is not here because it was only added after the suggestion from another user :)

If you have any new information or suggestions that something should be changed, let me know XD P.S I made this mostly using info from this thread on x and this post on tumblr You can find even more info there, such as screens of the animators showing their support.

[midnightcatharsis]

I created a map of countries based on their relationship with jayvik nation ;)

Evidence of jayvik nation being supported (or not) by other countries

1. Brazil - I feel like this is the country with the strongest official support from netflix, league and the actors, not to mention that Brazilians are our nation's strongest soldiers ;)

2. Poland - support from both official accounts of netflix and league (The second pic is more about Vik since it's a collage of Viktor's pictures but from what I get it was posted right after the release of his in game interactions, the text on the pic is his official line to Jayce 'neither friendship nor love (...) Jayce' that is interpreted as romantic by many and censored in some counties, it also has 2 jayvik frames. It does seem pro-jayvik)

3. Greece - they're basically canon m

4. Italy - League collaborated with cosplayers to make jayvik kiss... and posted the kiss pic on valentine's day

5. Czech Republic

6. England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Nordics - nothing explicit, but interpreted as many as support, so I classify them as somehow friendly

7. Russia - they straight up censored it so they had to recognize the romantic undertones XD

8. China - ok idk how it happened that China is in somehow friendly XDD

9. Latam - official support from actors, but from what I got, they also censored it -the translation of the partner used in Latin Spanish dub is purely friendly but then maybe it was just a problem with translating or they could not anticipate the popularity of the ship and chose to play it safe. All things considered, I put them in the somehow friendly category.

10. France - Fortiche is in Paris and several animators openly spoke up about shipping and supporting jayvik. They also went out of they way to make jayvik scenes look and feel romantic despite CL wanting to portray them as brothers. I won't include any screens here cause there's simply too much of them but if you will look for it you'll be pleasantly surprised

11. Canada - they gave us bbno$

12. Spain - I heart it was censored there :/

13. Germany - they gave us CL.... Map with the screens. Canada is not here because it was only added after the suggestion from another user :)

If you have any new information or suggestions that something should be changed, let me know XD P.S I made this mostly using info from this thread on x and this post on tumblr You can find even more info there, such as screens of the animators showing their support.

[midnightcatharsis]

“Only you could show me this…..

Jayvik nation how we feeling?

[midnightcatharsis]

I have no idea why so many people think that the 'jayvik shipper' who so bravely claimed jayvik shippers harassed VAs into liking it and that jayvik 'sucks the life and fun' out of VAs and fandom and that we should all 'shut the hell up about it' is not a real jayvik shipper. I’m a jayvik shipper too, and I can totally confirm what they wrote. Not only did jayvik shippers harass them, but they also actively tortured them into submission. There’s an entire jayvik international paramilitary organization with a secret underground base, and from there, we send our elite operatives to every VA’s home. They are held at gunpoint 24/7, and if they don’t fulfill their monthly quota of spreading jayvik propaganda… well, let’s just say things get ugly. All the animators who 'ship' jayvik? Forced. You see, we had agents in Fortiche the entire time while the animation was being developed, and that’s the real reason why they made it look romantic. Then we forced them to post jayvik-affirming content too. As for the other famous people who openly ship it? Also forced. Kidnapped. Locked in a basement, tortured, and drugged (which is why you won’t find any proof on the internet). Bbno$ was the hardest to break. We’ve been working on him since November, and despite the torture, he kept screaming, ‘JAYCE AND VIKTOR ARE STRAIGHT’ and ‘STOP YOUR DISGUSTING GAY PROPAGANDA.’ We had to escalate our methods. And, well… you see the results. I personally witnessed the CEOs of Windows and Opera being thrown into the basement because jayvik higher-ups really, really wanted to have jayvik tweets on Windows and Opera accounts for some reason. And you have no idea what happened to the others… As a real jayvik shipper, I also need to say that I love this ship—it’s super nice and all—but unfortunately, every single person who likes it is ruining its reputation and should immediately stop shipping it. I must agree with that brave, totally real, not-at-all suspicious 'jayvik shipper' who said that jayvik ‘sucks the fun and life’ out of people, fandoms, animators, and VAs, and that you should all ‘SHUT UP ABOUT IT.’ Honestly, you should just gain some self-awareness and start shipping meljay or skyvik instead—or at the very least, stop rudely defending yourselves when meljay fans so kindly show up under your posts or art to leave their very, very nice messages. Because even as a jayvik fan, I must admit that meljay fans are just objectively kinder. They have never harassed anyone. Not a single artist. Not a single VA. They've been nothing but kind to Reed. Unlike my fellow disgusting, evil, racist jayvik shippers, who, as we all know, are the scourge of this Earth. And what I say here is true because I'm a jayvik shipper too, so you have to believe me. I am a real jayvik shipper. I have no reason to lie. I am certainly not a hater making up nonsense to discredit the ship. I'm certainly not lying. Nope. I am a jayvik shipper. A real jayvik shipper. A very trustworthy, totally real jayvik shipper. Just like the other guy. Trust me, bro /s

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[midnightcatharsis]

OMG, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, AND THANK YOU ONCE MORE FOR WRITING THIS!!! I WILL GLADLY DIE WITH YOU ON THIS HILL!!

I really thought I was alone. Even people who call themselves his fans tend to call him evil and blame him for things he was forced to do against his will by Cazador, and I find it deeply disturbing. They play a game where, with a well-chosen spell, it's possible to force an enemy to kill their allies instead of you—a game that repeatedly explains how vampiric compulsion forces the spawn into submission, taking away free will, and that practically hammers home the point that it's PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE for a spawn to not follow orders because if they try, their bodies will move on their own to fulfill the command... and what do they do? They turn around and blame a mind-controlled, tortured slave for following orders he was physically unable to disobey... like the Gur children (the game even stresses it was an order) or taking people to Cazador...

Blaming Astarion for things he was forced to do by Cazador or calling him evil for not being able to resist is just victim-blaming.

As for calling him 'evil' for what happens later... He doesn't do anything evil until the ritual. After the crash, he is immediately found by the player, and his actions until the ritual depend on what the player decides, the same as the actions of other companions. He doesn't really do anything evil on his own. All he does is 'disapprove.' Does that make him evil? His story and circumstances should also be taken into consideration.

He's an escaped vampire spawn, which automatically makes people in Faerûn call him a monster and wish for his death. This is a world where the death of people like Astarion is celebrated, and people who kill them solely for their race are hailed as heroes, like the Gurs. Yes, Astarion doesn't want to risk his freedom and life to help many people, but frankly, I can't judge him. If society labeled me a monster and wanted me dead, I wouldn't want to risk my life to help them either.

Trauma response. People love perfect victims, but that is rarely the case. It's normal for people to feel anger and negative emotions and to express them. Astarion, at the very beginning, is basically someone who was a victim of slavery or human trafficking for years, who was tortured to the point of forgetting his entire previous life, who knows nothing but pain and the fact that nobody has ever done anything to help him, and who was temporarily freed just by accident barely hours or days ago. He had no time to deal with his trauma and no opportunity for therapy. It is normal for a person like him to be angry and to lash out. As I said before, he is not actively trying to hurt anyone before the ritual; all the "Astarion is evil" arguments come down to him lashing out, being mean, and turning his head in disapproval. If you think he is evil for that, ask yourself whether you would have the guts to tell a real victim of human trafficking who has just been freed by accident one week ago that you consider them evil if they said they hate the world, or that it should burn, or some other mean thing.

Objectively speaking, just judging their actions, many other companions who are not considered 'evil' by the fans have done worse things than Astarion and weren't mind-controlled while doing it.

I'm also not a fan of calling his arc a 'redemption.' The idea of him needing to be redeemed for things he was forced to do while mind-controlled puts the blame and the guilt on him rather than on Cazador, who is the real perpetrator. I prefer using the term 'healing.' He doesn't start as evil, but during his story, he can either heal from his trauma, accept it, and become a better person (spawn route), or drown in fear and anger and become truly evil (ascension).

Sorry for ranting, but I really thought I was the only person in this fandom who didn't consider pre-ritual Astarion as evil. Thank you for this post once again :D

P.S. I've seen some people saying vampires are inherently evil in D&D, but that's just not the case. The Monster Manual says:

"The alignment specified in a monster's stat block is the default. Feel free to depart from it and change a monster's alignment to suit the needs of your campaign. If you want a good-aligned green dragon or an evil storm giant, there's nothing stopping you."

The same exact point has been repeated over and over again by the lead designer of D&D rules, Jeremy Crawford. He says that alignment in the Monster Manual is just a "mythological assumption" made by the world and not a 100% binding rule, and also that alignment can change. So if you think Astarion is evil because he's a vampire, sorry, but the designer of D&D rules disagrees with you.

I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL AND I WILL DO IT ALONE IF I HAVE TO BUT ASTARION IS NOT INTIALLY EVIL AND IF HE DOESN'T ASCEND HE ISN'T EVIL THEN EITHER.

He was TURNED AGAINST HIS WILL AND NEVER MADE ANY CHOICES OF HIS OWN FOR 200 YEARS. HE ESCAPED FREE AND THE FIRST THING HE DID was find protection. And he used all he knew to keep that protection. Manipulation and sex. People and feelings and trauma none of it is ever black and white evil or good. Everyone has flaws everyone has choices. And that's the point! Will he make the bad choice and ascend and do harm to others or the good one and redeem himself and try to see good within himself cus he doesn't know who he is anymore. He hasn't known for 200 years.

If he doesn't ascend then he is not evil!!! And he isn't evil before hand either!!

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

[midnightcatharsis]

the boy who shattered time

[midnightcatharsis]

"JaYvIk sHipPers aRe tOxiC" - don't make me laugh. Reed (Ekko's VA) tweeted "canon" about jayvik and the members of the "totally not problematic, totally not toxic" (extremely toxic) meljay fandom started calling him slurs as well as calling him a "coon" and "corny attention whore". All these over liking not their ship. I bet if it was their ship instead they would love it. It shouldn't have surprised me, considering Toks (Mel's VA) was also insulted numerous times for liking the ship, and real people have been harassed by them for pointing out parallels between Mel and Viktor that btw were later reblogged and confirmed by an official lol account or for hoping there will be some jayce and viktor (not even jayvik :p) content in the future series. Apparently pointing out obvious parallels is hate and racism but insulting and harassing a POC for liking a ship is not.

Anyway below are some examples. Unfortunately, there are way more on the Internet 😞 I must say I especially "loved" that one person "reminding people to be respectful" while calling Reed a weak, embarrassing disappointment for liking a ship...

[midnightcatharsis]

Look what I've found on Twitter... Ekko the Boy Saviour himself (Reed Shannon) supporting jayvik and tweeting that it's "canon".

Unfortunately while most people loved it, similarly to Toks (Mel's VA) he is also getting insulted by some toxic people for making a tweet/liking a ship.

[midnightcatharsis]

Devotion

[midnightcatharsis]

I don't think that the meeting has even taken place yet. They may be waiting to hand him a cease and desist letter during the meeting. Would he listen though? He seems very committed. Can they legally even do it? It was just a cosplay 🙃

It was also pointed out to me that there is another option:

I can't change the poll but let's pretend "jayvik will be canon" is instead "jayvik will be more canon than it's now". While canonising it so fast may seem implausible a collab with some hints is more likely. I wouldn't be so sure the last option is just a joke either XDD All possibilities seem very weird to me. Forcing somebody to stop cosplaying or talking about a ship would be wild. Them specifically going after a collab with nr 1 jayvik truether right after his stream but making sure it's not related in any shape or form to jayvik would be strange. Canonising jayvik so soon seems implausible. All things considered, I really think that "Linke is trying to murder bbno$" is somehow the most probable of all 4. Like that guy must be livid right now. 😂 Ok, it's a joke but it's still the most realistic option. 😂😂

So...

Right after the famous jayvik stream there was an announcement:

[midnightcatharsis]

So...

Right after the famous jayvik stream, there was an announcement:

Edit: It has been pointed out to me that there is another possibility: collab with jayvik hints without them really doing anything to canonize it. Since I can't change the poll let's just pretend the "jayvik will be canon" option is "jayvik will be more canon than it is now" which would include collab with hints.

[midnightcatharsis]

I've checked twitter and there is no official update about the situation yet. I don't think the meeting has even taken place yet but I'm not sure cause different people tweet different things… For example, I've seen some tweets the meeting was already over yesterday but bbno$ asked what he should ask riot during the meeting 15 hours ago so that info can't be true 🤔 Anyway as for now he is still alive and if they have already given him cease and desist I don't think he's following it because he tweeted "jayvik is love, jayvik is life" 4 hours ago.

He's also uploading professional photos made during the stream (?)

Will Neff is doing the same thing

There's also jayvik cosplay video on yt now https://www.youtube.com/watchv=1sQvRdCCeR8&feature=youtu.be

I don't have other social media, has Bbno$ been released by Riot already? Or has he just been quiet about it? (Why would you cease and desist by a meeting and not by mail/letter if so??)

[midnightcatharsis]

Chat we are either so back or so cooked

[midnightcatharsis]

I'd like to know that too, but I'm optimistically betting on "it's because we think it's true". My personal opinion is that Linke has proven himself untrustworthy times and times again. Some examples:

He said in the interview that Vik was supposed to be the mage who saved Jayce from the beginning. Only the fans discovered some animation reels with Ryze, which means they started with him and later decided to make Vik the mage. From what I've seen most people in the fandom think what Linke said is bs.

He said that they planned to make Vik ace since the beginning yet it's obviously not true because other people in Forniche don't know about it and because for years nobody said anything about Vik being ace. Linke only said it as an argument against jayvik but when he got the same question 2 days earlier he didn't say anything like that. Regardless of whether somebody ships jayvik or not, the timeline says he only decided to make Vik ace after s2 finale and lied about planning to do that from the start.

He said they died and disintegrated then kinda took it back on Twitter.

It would be difficult to find a more untrustworthy person. Yet I've seen many people in the fandom still using his words as definitive proof while ignoring Amanda or other possibilities.

That being said considering that he kind of took it back and said the afterglow was cut out of context whether perhaps he didn't even mean it. Idk why he first had to say it only to later change his mind and not even specify what he meant but idk.

Then there are 2 other questions. If Linke can't be trusted, can Amanda? And finally, do the two of them even know themselves, and does their opinion matter or is Riot the one that will ultimately decide?

Arcane co-creators seem to contradict each other quite frequently. Who do you believe when it comes to Jayce and Viktor's ending?

Christian Linke - said they disintegrated in the afterglow which a big part of fandom took as a definitive proof of them being dead. When he was asked about that specific fragment of the interview on Twitter, he also said many things had been cut out of context and it had been edited without even showing him the final version. Technically he hasn't said anything else or confirmed any outcome in any other interview he has given later (to my knowledge).

OR

Amanda Overton - said that they're eternally holding each other in the infinite embrace of the arcane, which implies that they're in some way alive or at least that they exist.