seaweedddddd - Tumblr blog

seaweedddddd · 9 days ago

Text

A rant about Heimerdinger

Heimerdinger is one of my favorite characters in Arcane. I like his teacher side, his scientist side, his nice and well-meaning side and especially the approach the show gives of his immortality. I also like how his character flaws come and bite him in season 1, leaving him without anything but the promise of worse and better happening in the rest of the story.

A lot of people in the fandom expect him to have a comeuppance because of all his wrongdoings, in season 2. I fully agree with that. I think I will grow bored of Heimerdinger if he doesn't get some character developement and some charges for what he's not been doing this whole time.

However, in some way, I can't help but feel a little skeptical about the way a lot of people in the fandom feel like they straight up hate him. I guess I'll gloss over the arguments. Warning though: I've seen the show only a couple of times, and I am not the most invested in it, so some of my points might not be correct or might miss something. I've also not read many posts about Arcane, and my English is not the best since I'm not a native English speaker. All of these are just some thoughts I have and I try to translate the best I can.

About Ekko being way too nice to Heimerdinger even though he is a councelor and responsible for Zaun's state:

well, that's a mixed bag. On one hand, yes, I think this scene quickly gloss over some coldness and hostility Ekko could have felt towards Heimerdinger. If Ekko acts angry toward Caitlyn in the same episode, why was he so neutral with someone who is in a higher position in the hierarchy? It doesn't make sense, and to be fair I'm not defending that it was not treated in the way I imagined would be the most accurate for Ekko's character.

But at the same time, if you take a look at the whole context, I kinda see where it's coming from.

a/ Right before Ekko is found by Heimerdinger, Ekko had accepted the idea to negociate with the council. Only the fight with Jinx and Marcus' betrayal prevent Caitlyn, Vi and him from doing what they want; everything goes wrong, and it appears Ekko lost everything he tried to accomplish in the last hours. So… why would he consider bad news to meet a councelor, Heimerdinger especially ─ a scientist ─, who is willing to help? In this whole disaster, it is at least something he can take.

b/ Plus, when they meet, Ekko doesn't have a reason to think of the implication. He has to look for a solution, and he has the beginning of a solution with Heimerdinger, a person he didn't have a chance to meet some time ago. So he takes it.

c/ Also, Ekko doesn't have the context a viewer has. Yes, he knows what state Zaun is in, yes the enforcers are his enemies, but if you look at his actions in the course of the season… Ekko doesn't fight against Piltover. He fights against Silco. Ekko saved the people Silco has hurt. Ekko himself says his people were lost "some" to the enforcers, "most" to Silco. He believes Silco to be responsible for Piltover's violence towards Zaun, because to Piltover, Zaun as a whole appears corrupted by Silco. Once again, Ekko doesn't have the big picture.

d/ Since Vi convinced Ekko that Caitlyn is sincere if misguided, and since he accepted from Caitlyn herself that the cycle of violence needs to stop and Piltover and Zaun need to find an agreement, accepting Heimerdinger is quite the logical next step. And sure, it means that Heimerdinger gets a privilege he didn't deserve by actively doing something good himself, but I believe it to be a good start to develop Heimerdinger. If Heimerdinger's ignorance was confronted at the moment he meets Ekko, the development would have been weak and unsatisfying, given the few number of episodes left in season 1 after that. Season 2 has way more time to develop what he did wrong and how he could fix what he did. Plus, and this is my last point with that…

e/ Narratively-wise, putting a confrontation there would have been not only useless, but just a free stomp on Heimerdinger with no possible payoff. Think about it: Heimerdinger has been nothing but powerless during the course of the whole first season. His authority has been direspected times and times again, he's been excluded from the council's plans and agreements, until ultimately being pushed out of the council. Heimerdinger already lost. If there wasn't some positivity with him and Ekko, the end of season 1 would have been depressing to watch; but they're a light of hope, in the end. Sure, it isn't a duo we expected to see, but Arcane doesn't play fair with characters, it just shows the logical course of actions of broken people misunderstanding each other. And I think it's doing a pretty good job at it.

About Heimerdinger not doing anything in two hundred years to realize Zaun's situation and help it:

yes, actually. I agree with this argument, Heimerdinger had numerous occasions to see what was going on, and he didn't take any of them. But where I don't agree with most of the fandom is that this is a part of the character I actually like (given we like the flaws of our favorite characters just as much as their qualities): his heavy, heavy blindspot about Zaun. I think this is the reason why I think Heimerdinger isn't a good person; but to me, it isn't a proof of him being a bad person. It is just the proof of him being extremely coherent.

Also, just like with how Ekko reacts to Heimerdinger, there are so many contextual evidences that makes it make sense.

a/ I feel like there's some kind of math being made in the fandom where Heimerdinger equals Piltover. Which symbolicaly makes a lot of sense: Heimerdinger is this brilliant scientist whose renown you hear about times and times again. Heimerdinger founded Piltover, and the city echoes the character: immortal, wealthy, clean on himself, popular. The relation between Zaun and Piltover echoes the way we know Heimerdinger interacts with people: because of his immortality, the ones who surround him decay, and he outlives them; and he doesn't empathize with them, just like Piltover doesn't empathize with Zaun.

But as a whole, I think Piltover is also Heimerdinger's safety bubble. We know Heimerdinger has seen awful things in his past, and created Piltover firstly to escape the warmongering of mages. Under his watch, progress is made slow and careful. Under his watch, the city is some kind of wealthy peaceful place, where when something bad happens ─ the most minor thing, truly; say, a bunch of teenagers from the Undercity stealing from an Academy student ─ someone must pay. Heimerdinger is seen enjoying celebrations, concert, wonders of this kind. Heimerdinger behaves like a child in a world where he made sure any disturbance is avoided for him. His fluffy cute design and his happy-go-lucky nature are just further proof of this. We could argue that all of this is a logical reason on its own why Heimerdinger doesn't try and help Zaun: he cares about Piltover, and Piltover first. None of these things are a bad thing in themselves, but it becomes bad when you realize everything that flows from it.

b/ To support this point, one interesting thing about Heimerdinger is his ego. He sees himself as an authority figure, someone reliable ─ a teacher, even! He is wise, he is old, he keep things stable. Piltover is a city shining with pride and privilege (no pun intended). None of this leaves a door open to change. Which is pretty ironic, right? Because science should be about change, but Heimerdinger isn't. Because of his immortality, he must be a moral backbone, he must not lose his way. And since what he's been has been serving Piltover for two hundred years now, you can't make him change his mind. He's a stubborn creature, but truly, is there any character who can fully get where he is coming from? I find this awfully interesting that what he lacks is a person in the same position as him. Because the only person he can respect in this context is himself, even though it leads to permanent self-satisfaction. A permanent feeling of thinking you know better, when you actually… don't. But who could prove that?

c/ I think Piltover's council has to be mentioned. The council is made of seven people and Heimerdinger is only one of these people. This oligarchy has been present for generations; the principle allows every case presented to be examined through several nuances, which leads to debates and votes. Its core definition prevents tyrannical decisions. Sure, corruption within can lead to this instance being actually a disguised despotism… the irony is that corruption indeed runs through the council, but Heimerdinger isn't a part of it and isn't aware of it. And you can guess that since Heimerdinger is the founder of Piltover and is a part of said council, it means that he accepted the suggestion of an oligarchy. The people in the council have interests in mind that aren't purely about science: economy, politics, business… all logical angles to use to take care of a city whose importance is known across the world. Heimerdinger is described as having his only experience be science. So Zaun's situation hasn't been fixed by Heimerdinger, sure… but not by the council either. Their failure to consider Zaun's situation is even discussed in episode 4; Caitlyn's mother even argues that the Undercity can't be controlled. Plus, Marcus hide a lot of crucial information from the council, because he has to accept Silco's conditions in order not to compromise himself. The council thinks that Zaun's situation is being handled thanks to the enforcers.

And at the same time, there is such a complacency in the concept of a council made with privileged families. It is formed with elites, and this elites have an elitist view about politics, which would be better considered with a sociological approach. But this is simply the extension of Heimerdinger's wish to keep everything safe and sanitized for himself and the city. A logical outcome, which actually makes everything Heimerdinger's fault, but at the same time, which makes it logical he doesn't realize it.

This kind of is the whole point of Heimerdinger's character, isn't it…? Everything he does is flawed because he fails to see past his fears.

To conclude this (already too long) post, one thing I haven't mentioned is that I think what leads people to dislike Heimerdinger as a whole is ambiguity. The fact that we don't know yet if the writers are aware that Heimerdinger isn't a perfect person; the fact that he has such a nice presentation which distract people from the fact he's not reliable nor doing as well as you could think. The fact that all the ways in which he means well are not enough to repair what he has failed to accomplish. The fact that he is presented as a solution while being one of the cores of the problem at the same time. Believe me, like I said, I want him to get a comeuppance. But I think his flaws are as likeable as the web of flaws linking every character of this show to the others.

52 notes · View notes