#⌱ BUT I STILL BELIEVE IN LOYALTY | SILCO

[p-taryn-dactyl]

One Eternal Sigh a/n: hi guys! after the results of the poll i posted, i got right to work and then my life kinda fell apart so i deeply apologize for how late this is. ik a lot of you wanted this to be ambessa x reader and dw i am planning something with goddess!ambessa but i had to honor the results of the poll for this fic. i hope everyone enjoys this!!

word count: 2.7k

warning(s): y/n might break critical archeology rules but as i am not an archeologist and this is fiction...🤷🏻‍♀️ - goddess!sevika - possessive!sevika - i know nothing of LoL lore so I have created mythology - sevika is a munch this isn't news - porn with a little plot except the plot disappears - virgin!reader, well not at the end lol - oral (r!recieving) - wall sex - mention of overstimulation - improper use of metal arm (fingering, r!recieving) - im not ashamed of what this became but if you see me at church keep it to yourself - im too dramatic, the 🌶️ (sadly) isn't that long

After years of only finding shards of ancient technology and digging in places that were less than fruitful in findings, you finally discovered something groundbreaking. You had been told by colleagues over the course of your career in archeaology to give up any hopes of finding evidence of the lost kingdom of Zaun, your own Atlantis in terms of it's ambiguity and discussion over whether or not it was real. But now, now you could finally prove you weren't just chasing ghosts.

"Incredible." You whispered under your breath as you were lowered deeper into the tomb. The intricate carvings that decorated the walls seemed to glow an inticing purple, the paint still vibrant even after all these years burried by history. Finally, your feet touched the ground, making you the first person in thousands of years to enter this tomb. But as you walked around, detachting yourself from the harness, the light from your flashlight revealed something incredible. You followed the tunnels, large enough for a person to walk through carefully, eyes wide as you took in the pillars and the paintings on the walls. A figure stole your glance, one made of metal, it's cracks glowing a strange mixture of purple and pink. As if in a trance, you walked towards it, your eyes reading the inscription below.

Sevika, protector and loyal servant of Zaun.

Your hands traced the cracks of the figurine, examining the depiction of the goddess. You couldn't believe you were actually standing here, holding a piece of history. Sevika was one of the Zaunite Pantheon that you had dedicated years of study to, trying to find evidence of her followers and dedicating countless nights into reading about the goddess with a seemingly mechanical arm. You knew she was granted eternal life and goddesshood after she selflessly defended one of the brothers who had started the great kingdom of Zaun, Silco. A conflict that took away her arm but granted her a way to further defend the land she held so much loyalty for. You held the figurine close to your chest as you further wandered around what you now understood to be a temple, a place of worship dedicated to Sevika. This was so much greater than a measley tomb. But of course, even dreams come to an end.

"Miss Y/N? Is everything okay down there?"

The voice of your sponsor broke through the comfortable silence of the temple, carried down through a megaphone through the tunnels. You jumped, dropping the figurine. It shattered onto the floor, sending a tremble through the temple as a purple smoke emitted from the now broken idol.

"No, no, no!" You practically screamed as the walls and entrance to the room you stood crumbled around you, the dust mixing with the strange smoke the broken idol was emitting. You ran towards the now covered exit, hands clawing against the stones, desperate to find a loose rock to somehow help your escape. Your mind ignored the smoke and the hissing sound that accompanied it as you spiraled into a silent panic, leaning your forehead against the rough stones as your breath came out in short gasps. You just had to prove people wrong, a voice that sounded suspiciously like your mother rang in your mind, taunting you about your life decisions.

"Who are you?" A rough voice rang out, accompained by a large metal arm slamming into the rock beside your head, trapping you even more as you jumped once again, a scream escaping your lips as you spun around. What, no who, you saw made your stomach drop. Standing in front of you, arms trapping you against a rocky barrier, was the goddess Sevika, her hair loose and framing her face, silver eyes boring into you, illuminated by purple scars on her face. She leaned closer, having to bend down to meet your eyes, her height causing her to tower over you. Her metal arm moved closer to your face, the mechanics sending an almost unbareable heat searing across your skin.

"I said, who are you?" She growled out, her voice echoing throughout the chamber, sending a shiver down your spine. You swallowed, your mouth and throat dry from fear and the dust clouding the air.

"I'm Y/N," you finally were able to respond, pressing yourself against the closed entrance as Sevika got closer to you, the whirring of her arm reminding you this wasn't a dream, "I'm a researcher- an archeologist."

The name of your profession sent recognition sparking through Sevika's eyes. She cocked her head to the side in confusion, something you would've found adorable except she was an actual goddess radiating power and you were desperate to not insult her.

"Archeaologists study the dead. Why are you here?" While her tone was softer than before, she never left her position keeping you against the makeshift wall. You felt a flare of annoyance shoot through you at the generalization of your job but you held back your defiant response, not wanting to end up an enemy of the Protector. You carefully constructed your response, your words shaky as they left your lips.

"I study Zaun," you watched as realization filled Sevika's expression and you spoke hurriedly, "It's been thousands of years since you-"

Sevika cut you off, stumbling backwards slightly, her arms leaving the wall and craddling her head as she spoke.

"Zaun fell? I failed to protect-"

"No!" You interupted, causing the goddess to look at you incredulously. You laughed nervously as you wrung your hands, fiddling with your rings as you started to ramble.

"You didn't fail to do anything, all empires fall - no matter how great they are! Normally an empire falls after 250 years but Zaun lasted way longer than that, academics estimate that it didn't fall in violence, just that the power shifted and it merged into other kingdoms which also have fallen until today when people don't even agree on whether or not Zaun even existed, which now it's obvious it did and-" you felt a warm hand cover your mouth as Sevika shook her head humorously.

"You talk too much. Centuries and centuries of silence and you seem to be making up for it. I thank you for your explanation, although I request time to mourn my people."

She turned around, walking to the other side of the room, towards a beautifully painted mural of Sevika along with other gods of the pantheon, Vander, Silco, Violet, Jinx, and Ekko, surrounded by the people of Zaun. You stayed in place, standing awkwardly. After a few minutes Sevika turned back around, flinching slightly when she noticed you were still there. You answered her confused expression, smiling way too wide as if it would hide your panic.

"This," you gestured to the wall of stone behind you, "was the only entrance and exit to your temple. I guess you could count me as an offering." You joked lightly, wrapping your arms around yourself as you felt shock settle in about your current situation. As panic once again started swirling in your mind, you didn't see the shift of Sevika's expression, her eyes darkening and a smirk painting her lips as she stalked slowly closer to you. You gasped at the feeling of one of her metal fingers hooking under your chin, forcing you to look up at her. Heat exploded throughout your body as you took in her expression.

"An offering, huh? I haven't had one of you in a long time." She trailed her metal hand down your throat to trace your collar bone as she slowly pulled you away from the stone wall so she could circle around you, her metal hand tracing along your shoulders and back, sending shiver after shiver down your spine.

"Tell me again, it's been so long, what I'm the goddess of?" Her voice was teasing and low, worsening the dampness growing between your legs. You answered, your voice shaking.

"You're a protector of Zaun, the goddess of loyalty and protection, often associated with strength and the bond between blood of the covenant," She hummed, urging you to continue, even though you were sure you had covered her main titles, the only other one you could think of was- oh.

"You're also the goddess of plea-pleasure," your words broke apart as Sevika's wandering hand went lower, "often extending your protection to sex workers and encouraging your priestesses to...explore with one another."

Sevika huffed out a small laugh at your academically charged answer, silently thinking about how she could get you to ramble out words that made no sense and weren't copied from books. She once agains stood in front of you, both of her hands cradling your waist as she pulled you incredible close to her, leaning down so that she could whisper in your ear.

"As a researcher, I'm sure you've explored many places, but has anyone ever explored you?" Her question stole the breath from your lungs as you just stared at her, eyes wide as her flesh hand untucked your shirt from your pants, placing her warm palm against your skin. You silently shook your head, watching as Sevika's eyes almost glowed at your answer, her hands tightening possessively on your waist. You felt her smirk against your neck as she spoke.

"Well, as my offering, I can fix that." She leaned back enough so that her eyes could ask a silent question, one that you were very quick to answer. You barely had finished nodding before Sevika's lips were on yours, dominating and possessive as she bit down on your bottom lip, using your surprised gasp as a way to deepen the kiss, her tongue winning over yours. Your head was foggy with how intense the embrace was, you struggled to keep up with Sevika's pace. Her metal arm ripped off your shirt, using her lips to swallow your protest, and her human hand unbuttoned your pants, pushing them down before growing impatient and eventually ripping them off. You managed to pull away from the magnetic kiss, much to the dismay of Sevika.

"I needed those clothes!"

Sevika's eyes grew even darker, her hands tightening on you once again as she picked you up, reveling in your little yelp as you instinctively wrapped your legs around her as she moved to the other side of the room, towards a smooth wall. You felt her press you against the wall, a dark laugh leaving her lips.

"For what? You're mine now, remember?"

You flushed at the implication, opening your mouth to retort but Sevika used the moment to push you up higher against the wall, using her hands to place your thighs on her shoulders, her nose brushing against your most sensitive spot, making your legs tremble, something she wanted to feel again. She pressed a kiss against your clothed cunt, licking the growing wet spot lightly, enjoying your reactions.

"And you definitely don't need these." She spoke against your pussy before using her teeth to rip off your panties. You only had a minute to register her actions before her tongue was parting your folds, her hands holding onto your thighs so tightly you swore you would be bruised. Your moans were music to Sevika's ears, loving how she finally wasn't surrounded by silence. Her tongue was equally soft and rough, a combination that drove you crazy as your hands clawed at her forearms. You felt her tongue swipe up your whole pussy before her mouth, warm and wet, captured your clit, sucking as her tongue rubbed the underside of your sensitive numb. You felt like you were floating as she burried herself deeper into you, her tongue flattening against your clit as her metal arm shifted so most of your weight was on her human arm. Your brow furrowed in confusion before you felt cool metal pressing against your folds, seperating them, intensifying the pleasure her mouth was giving you. She leaned backwards, a trail of spit connecting your pussy to her lips as she licked them, watching your expression as one of her metal fingers pressed against your entrance, entering slowly.

"You're so sweet, baby, I think I'll stay down here forever."

You barely had time to respond before Sevika's finger was fully in you, pressing against your soft walls, rubbing something that sent you scrambling up the wall, Sevika's hand on your waist gripping you tightly as she licked around her finger, tracing her tongue up to your clit as she laved at it, another metal finger stretching you, your moans now growing hoarse as you felt something coil in your stomach, threatening to snap. Between her cold metal fingers thrusting into you, pressing against that intensely pleasureable spot within you and her mouth covering the rest of your pussy, suctioning slightly as her tongue licked your clit as if she was savoring desert, you felt your thighs start to shake more, your hands now burrying themselves in Sevika's hair.

"I'm gonna-" You couldn't finish your sentence, Sevika's fingers going faster as her teeth scrapped against your clit.

"Come." She growled out, before pressing her fingers up against your g-spot and rubbing, sucking your clit between her lips.

Who were you to defy your goddess?

Your orgasm was just as intense as Sevika's minstrations, which didn't end even as you came. You remember looking down and seeing Sevika's look up at you, tongue out as it flicked against you. Then you blacked out, having flashes of Sevika laying you gently against the floor, her human hand brushing your hair, which was plastered against your forehead with sweat, out of your eyes.

When you blinked awake, you were in a hospital bed, surrounded by beeping machines. A nurse rushed in, followed by your sponsor who looking frantic, his chest falling in relief when he saw you were awake. You were confused, looking around as the nurse checked your vitals and your sponsor frantically explained what happened.

"After I called down, the unexpected noise caused the structure of the tomb to crumble, leaving you trapped. When we finally got a team called in to clear the way, we found you on the ground next to a statue of a Zaunite goddess, blood on your forehead where a piece of the wall had knocked you out," he ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head guiltily. You felt shame fill your body, you had made the discovery of a lifetime and when you were knocked out - you had a wet dream of an important goddess, the very goddess you had spent years studying, "When we got you out, we didn't know where to go, the service on our phones went out and our vehicles wouldn't start. Oh it was a nightmare Y/N but thankfully a local was able to give a ride to this hospital, I've never been more grateful for someone going on a grocery run. She's still here, been waiting with me for you to wake up, she's said she wants to make sure you're okay."

After he finished speaking, you merely nodded, unable to speak as you internally berated yourself, allowing your sponsor to go get the person who had practically saved you. You were looking down at your hands, imagining them burried in Sevika's hair - it had felt so real, when a familiar presence filled the room. Your head shot up, your eyes focused on who was standing next to your sponsor, who left with the nurse, mentioning something about getting you something to eat.

"Wha- How?" You questioned, your eyes following Sevika, who was dressed in mortal clothing, her shirt straining against her muscles and her hair pulled back into a small ponytail, as she came to stand next to your bed. She leaned against the railing of the hospital bed, using the button on the side to gently lift up your bed so you were sitting up.

"I told you, you're mine now. You wouldn't survive forever in the tomb and by breaking my figurine, you broke the ties binding me to that place. I'm bound to you now, Y/N."

Her hand gently held yours, bringing your hand up so she could press a gentle kiss against your knuckles.

"I'm yours. Forever."

a/n: i feel like that sucked, did it suck? actually don't tell me let me be oblivious. thank you for reading!!! im going to hide under a rock now

[zaunrising]

A daughter, anxious.

Starter for @saviourofzaun

On her way to Silco’s office, Jinx was high above the dance crowd of The Last Drop, moving along ceiling rafters with the only hint of her presence a flash of blue hair or shimmer-fueled eyes. A hand on a beam that would let her climb even higher to move to the rafters above the office properly, Jinx paused looking towards the door of Silco’s office, only to find yet another wave of irritation suddenly washing through her as who should she see leaving except a fucking Piltie? The hextech wonder boy himself, Jayce Talis, leaving Silco’s office looking disheveled and quite obviously being allowed to come and go. New people, new hurts, new lies be it by omission or otherwise, and all of it pushing her nerves to the breaking point. For a second, her magenta eyes started to flare while fingers dug into a rafter threatening to break something off of it, before Jinx took a long deep breath and simply left, heading towards Silco’s house, a house she too called home even now.

In no mood to care what Silco might think, Jinx started flipping off every light she came across as she moved into the house. It wasn’t as though she needed much light anymore after the shimmer “treatment”, and stalking past the living room to the kitchen, Jinx grabbed a drink before going to find a spot to sit down and think. For once, instead of running off to her workshop or her bedroom, Jinx sat herself down in Silco’s favorite chair in their living room. By the time he got home, Jinx’s head was hanging over one armrest with a leg dangling downward, swaying back and forth next to an empty glass on the floor with her other leg stretched out across the other armrest. Despite the chair being large and comfortable for the man, who was noticeably taller than she was, Jinx still managed to take up all of the space available. One hand swung downward next to her leg, but her other hand steadily bounced a chomper up into the air over and over again.

The only light on was one to her side, shining just right to let shadows drift across her instead of leaving her in complete darkness and allowing her eyes to gleam with their own strange glimmer. A near constant soft muttering sound came from the young woman as she complained to herself half under her breath.

“We’re all we have Jinx. Everyone else betrays us Jinx. I need you Jinx. You have to complete the weapon Jinx! Blah blah blah. Maybe next time I’ll just tell him to have his precious fucking Piltie, or his river crossing whatever Vik is to handle it… he probably would anyways, probably thinks I’m weak. Couldn’t even beat Ekko. Course not like he’s doing anything about Ekko. Not Mr. Gives me to a mad sadistic whatever Singed is cause he's not a doctor. Lets Singed do whatever he wants, and doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t say, or do anything about Ekko either. I thought… thought he cared more... Yes I know he’s a monster, shut up, I’m not listening to you right now. Doesn’t matter anyways because so am I. We’re both monsters, but we’re supposed to be monsters together, no, no he’s not, he wont, shut up, I’m still not…”

The muttering suddenly stopped as her head turned the moment Silco fully entered the room. The chomper getting tossed once more into the air before being caught and held in her hand while her gleaming eyes stared at him unblinking. Suddenly an entirely too friendly smile hit her face as she raised up one hand offering a lazy wave. “Hiya Silly! I’ve been thinking that we really should have a talk. Catch up on things you know. After all we’ve both been just soooo busy lately. Where to start though… Oh I know, what’s the deal with tall, broad, and disheveled leaving your office?” Despite her friendly smile, and cheerful sounding words there was very much a bite behind them as well as a glint to her eyes that was quite intense and focused entirely on Silco.

[needanaccount2readarcaneposts]

They did Sevika so, so, so dirty this act. SHE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A FUCKING SPEAKING LINE PAST EPISODE 4. But I want everyone to know that this magnificent bitch turned up to negotiate for independence (or whatever the fuck that stupid montage scene was) wearing Silco's colours, with an eye motif on her serape.

[pulchrasilva]

Nobody fucking talk to me i just finished rewatching arcane and it was DEVASTATING I need to KILL

[dothestarsshine-art]

Loyal to the future, not to a person. 🖤🖤🖤

at the core of Sevika's character there's this fun contradiction where she's very loyal but is also down with cold-blooded betrayal if she thinks it's politically expedient

[ratatattouille]

Why The Arcane S2 Finale Fumbled, Part I

arcane season 2 was artistically beautiful and thematically cheap. every interesting and meaningful thing it did with its characters (even in season 2 act 2) was reduced to romanticized bullshit, utterly divorced from its season 1 roots. it's so bad it can be considered pro-status quo propaganda (and i do mean that). good ships aside (and i do mean the caitivi, jayvik, timebomb holy triad), this season squats and shits on every zaunite character in the show. not just their zaunite-ness, but how it literally shaped who they were as characters.

Let's start with Vi:

Vi and Vander:

Vi's loyalty to The Lanes always went beyond Powder. Zaun was her father's, Vander's dream. Zaun was her friends and her family. When she's giving Caitlyn a tour of The Lanes, we see how much she embodies and revels in Zaunite culture (esp in the food scene). She took responsibility for the vulnerable, like Vander taught her to. Her "protective" trait extended to ALL the vulnerable in The Lanes, because Vander taught her that. It wasn't EVER just Powder. Zaun is her HOME. As a child, she wanted to make a name for herself IN ZAUN "one day, this city's gonna respect us." You can make the excuse that Vander's death meant that side of her died, but it clearly didn't because of how she regarded it while showing Caitlyn around. "Family" to Vander, extended to the vulnerable of Zaun, which is how Vi and Powder came to be his "daughters" in the first place. Because Zaun was for THEM. Zaun WAS THEM. Vander and Silco "weren't allowed to fail" at Zaun (i.e. the two daughters).

Additionally, Vi and Jinx were supposed to succeed where Vander and Silco hadn't: forgiving each other and uniting so they could realize their dream for a free Zaun. A big reason why Zaun struggles to be free is because of their own internal divisions (the different gangs fighting for scraps). But if they united, they would be able to liberate themselves from Piltover (who is still the enemy). The whole reason the others are prosperous in the alternate timeline Ekko and Heimerdinger travel to is because Vander and Silco reconcile (not because Vi dies).

Vander also passes on his sense of responsibility to Vi. He tells a repeatedly vengeful Vi how her ambition to show up her oppressors can overshadow the more pressing priority of looking after those more vulnerable than her i.e. Powder. Like Silco, his advice to his daughter is steeped in his own trauma of getting so zealous he didn’t stop to think what it would cost.

Vi and Caitlyn:

Caitlyn was an interesting development for Vi, particularly because Caitlyn mirrored Vander's care for all people. Caitlyn was an enforcer that wanted to truly understand and help people. This challenged Vi's biases and also gave them a common goal. Caitlyn appealed to Vi because she gave Vi renewed hope for peace in The Lanes. That Zaun could be free through co-operation instead of violence. Her whole teaming up with Caitlyn, romance aside, was predicated on Vi brokering for peace between Zaun and Piltover (and getting revenge on Silco).

The first break-up between the two (Season 1's "Oil and Water") centred around Jinx, more or less. Vi believes Silco is a threat to peace between Piltover and Zaun (even though The Lanes aren't known as Zaun to her, I'm just using the names interchangeably). She believes Jinx is acting out due to Silco's influence, as well (and she isn't wrong). Had Caitlyn not been injured on the bridge (and had Jinx not felt betrayed by Vi), Vi was going to leave her in pursuit of Jinx. Vi has also never fit into Piltover (and that's also shown in Season 2 act 1-2). She makes no connections with Piltovians besides Cait and (an already disillusioned) Loris who we see for like two seconds.

Vi and Jinx:

This show was ALWAYS about a tale of two sisters/cities. When Vi becomes an enforcer, it isn't because she's switched loyalties. She wants peace for The Lanes, she just wants to take Silco's creation--Jinx--out of the equation so it can work. Her priority, like Vander’s, is to keep the vulnerable of The Lanes safe, and both were willing to co-operate with Piltover to protect the people they loved. She believes, like Vander did with Silco, that Jinx (and by extension Zaun) is her responsibility. That the reason bad things happened to Zaunites (Vi’s and Powder’s parents dead on the bridge, Jinx’s mania) is their fault.

Vi blames herself for creating Jinx as Vander does for creating Silco. The only reason Vi agrees to Caitlyn's plan is because, again, their two goals align: get Jinx. The difference is Vi wants to kill Jinx to kill Silco, while Cait wants to kill Jinx to get her city (mother) back. Vi is still explicitly concerned about Jinx, who she has come to see as a threat to other people she loves (e.g. Ekko, Cait, etc). Vi became an enforcer to protect The Lanes and the (appearance) of peace. Vi internalized Vander’s words and doesn’t want war, even if it means Zaun never becomes independent. But she is doing it as penance for what she feels she didn’t do that led Jinx to become what she is.

The show in season 2 TOTALLY LOST THIS FOCUS. Vi's guilt at hunting down her own people with enforcers is ALSO ignored a lot by fandom, especially because her post-breakup scene where she goes full goth is framed as regret for letting Cait down (rather than the self-disgust she would feel for joining her oppressors). Vi played a part in creating Jinx and her enforcer-arc is still centred around Jinx. This gets shoved aside for romance with Cait. All the time we could spend post-breakup focusing on the sisters, quickly circles back to Cait.

Cait, who, literally became a dictator and weaponized the air ducts her mother had created to SAVE ZAUNITES. The whole thing is viewed as Vi betraying Cait instead of Vi betraying Jinx/Zaun/her family and Cait betraying Vi ("promise me you won't change") and her mother. Cait was the one who sought to help Zaun (like her mother) but betrayed who she was when she was willing to kill Isha, an innocent child.

Vi would feel even more guilty at how she is literally in an enforcer's suit when she is about to kill Jinx, the only family she has left. She is literally hunting down Jinx, a Zaunite, like the enforcers had her parents. But we barely explore that. It’s just off to chasing Vander/Warwick only for it to not matter anyways!

(ALSO IMPORTANT: Just to further prove my point on how integral the sister's love for each other was, every show started with a record playing. The cover of the disc was Vi and Jinx. They were always the center focus of the story. The song that the record played? Likely "Our Love" by Curtis Harding and Jazmine Sullivan which goes "Our love is a bubblin' fountain, our love, that flows into the sea, our love, deeper than the ocean, our love for eternity." This love deeper-than-the-ocean can apparently crumble in the face of a dictator girlfriend you've known for less than a year lmao).

Summary of Fumbles:

-Vi's and Jinx's relationship becomes secondary not just to the entire plot of the show but to Vi's arc. Zaun and Piltover's conflict was set up to be the epitome of the show, and the fact that it got shelved for some (ahem military propaganda) epic battle between humans and robots is very telling about the writers and showrunners.

-Vi forgives Cait easily and prematurely, trashing Vi's true loyalties as established in earlier seasons/episodes and robbing Cait’s actions of their appropriate weight.

-(above is an excerpt from Amanda Overton's interview with TheGamer) The culmination of love for Vi's character ends with Caitlyn and not Jinx. Vi's character, whose love is explicitly centred on Zaun and her family, reaches its peak in romance with a Piltovian. To quote Amanda further: "If Vi had no one left to protect, she would fall in love." As if Vi had no ambition outside of protecting her family. As if her dream since she was a kid wasn't tied so much into Zaun. As if the reason she wore an enforcer outfit wasn't because of Zaun. As if Zaunites aren't suffering right under her nose. As if she was the only kid in Stillwater Prison and struggled to survive the whole time she was there. I can't pretend to stomach it. (Again, it's not that Vi shouldn't be happy, it's that the ship had to shove this aspect of her character aside for it to work). If they wanted to really commit to the Vi-in-video game origin story, they should have set it up better and stuck to it.

-Vi herself takes a back seat in most of season 2, and becomes a passive, guilt-riddled yes-man to Cait

-Vander's re-introduction is almost completely worthless to the plot and narrative (he comes back just to die), and he is used as a cheap way to re-unite (and then separate) the daughters in a way that has no significance to the themes (also, Silco as Jinx's father is completely ignored during this time)

-Cait's deferral to fascism should have been permanent. Idc about the shippers at this point. Vi and Cait should have never come back from Cait shoving the back of her gun into Vi's injured side (let alone the gassing of the ducts). Vi would've never forgiven her, attraction or no. The fact that Cait could become a dictator after losing one parent is proof of their class divides (after all, Vi held onto hope despite losing all her parents to enforcers and Jinx was all she had left of her family). That should have cemented the death of that relationship (and it would have made for more compelling storytelling on class). I’m thinking it was kept because it matters more to white Western audiences to have a Romeo x Juliet rendition that assuages their classist sensitivities. Cait becoming a fascist made sense and was true to her character and the world. Vi forgiving her (and then having sex with her in the prison she was thrown into as a child?) destroyed both her character and the narrative.

Yeah, yeah, Vi was overwhelmed by the breadth of love and forgiveness Caitlyn had in letting Jinx go, but that's bare minimum shit. Vi "always choosing wrong" because she *checks notes* keeps trying to reconcile with her sister instead of letting her go since she isn't Powder anymore? So she resolves her guilt by choosing her own pleasure and putting herself first for once. Okay, I don't have a problem with that except that Vi and Jinx were supposed to succeed where Vander and Silco hadn't--by reconciling! And you still won't get me to like the fact that so much of Vi's character arc gets held up in a Piltovian who encouraged her to do the worst shit to her OWN PEOPLE and then fucking turned on her when she couldn't kill her sister. It is frankly amazing how we're supposed to celebrate Caitlyn literally coming between the sisters. I'd rather Vi forgiving Jinx than Caitlyn. And if the whole appeal of Vi's relationship with Caitlyn is that she was overwhelmed with love for how Caitlyn forgave Jinx after she killed her mother, I don't see how a relationship with Cait automatically makes Vi feel less guilty, since Cait also makes her feel guilty for choosing Jinx (remember her accusation "you will always choose her" like sorry I don't want to kill my orphaned, traumatized sister who I ripped into for making an honest mistake as a child and who has carried that since). Caitlyn (as others have pointed out) got a whole ceremony for her mother and instantly turned on Vi's people. The Vi I know would have been like, "You really are all the same," and FUCKING DIPPED. And there's a little acknowledgement of this in act 1 where Vi accuses Caitlyn of acting like Jinx.

Both Jinx and Caitlyn are emotional labour for Vi. Vi still wants to protect Caitlyn from Jinx. There's not that much of a difference, lol, except that Caitlyn is a privileged Piltovian and Jinx is a victim of the abysmal childhood she suffered at the hands of enforcers. Yet the show is more or less saying Vi pursuing reconciliation with Jinx was a bad choice for Vi and the reason the cycle of violence continued (for some reason). The sister reconciliation was what I was here for, personally. Cute ships aside. But noooo, Vi should forgive Cait (not Jinx) to stop the cycle.

And having jail sex is a liberating act for her because it's where they had their meet-cute. (And we're all good bc Caitlyn gave up the Kiramman seat, lmao, like sure okay).

It's frankly made the ship that much more unpalatable. If Vi had to be destroyed as a character for the ship to work, then the ship wasn't all that good (even though it started off that way). It's honestly left such a bad taste in my mouth. What a fuck you to oppressed groups that whole subplot was. (And it's made worse by the fact that the creator thought that was somehow an empowering and liberating act for Vi, like fuck that).

Let's Talk About Victor:

Viktor and Heimerdinger:

Heimerdinger and Viktor were the most polar of opposites. Heimerdinger was not only a privileged, ulta-wealthy Piltovian, but he had a comparatively endless lifespan while Viktor's own human life-span was cut short due to being a Zaunite, born at the bottom of the barrel and raised on toxic fumes that led to his terminal illness. Viktor's desperation to unlock the Arcane was explicitly about him overcoming his circumstances, his illness, his premature death. It wasn't merely about his internalized ableism, but the unjust way in which he had to suffer. Heimmerdinger could afford patience because he had all the time and resources in the world, but Viktor didn't. Not merely because he was a mortal, but because he was a Zaunite.

Viktor and Singed:

Viktor's arc with hextech is foreshadowed with his childhood interaction with Singed. I understand that in the games, Viktor is a villain-type character and his catchphrase or whatever is "Join the Glorious Evolution," which the show hinted at from Season 1 when Singed explained his experiments to Viktor. While Viktor is horrified by Singed killing the creature that he eventually uses for shimmer, Viktor later says, "I understand," hinting that he saw the sacrifice (and death) necessary to "heal" the world of its ailments. Both Viktor and Singed grow up in The Lanes, and both have ailments they want to cure (for Viktor it is his lung cancer and for Singed its his daughter's dying). In season 2, Viktor tells Singed that while he understands what healing all those people could cost him, he will not sacrifice their humanity for Singed's cause. This is because of Sky’s death (which is partly why it is her who is in the Arcane with him).

Sky’s death is what makes Viktor beg Jayce to destroy the hex core, since he couldn’t do it himself. He is willing to die if that means no more innocent people do. But here’s where I get a little touchy. VIKTOR didn’t KNOW she was there. Viktor was simply desperate to live. Sky’s death was not malicious (even if it’s true to his character that he’d feel guilty anyways). It is at this point that Viktor has Jayce promise him to destroy the hex core (and by god is this where a lot of my contention with the finale comes from). Also, it is important to note that Viktor’s self-loathing is depicted only in regard to Sky’s death (NOT HIS BAD LEG). Now Viktor feels guilty not just for Sky’s death, but also necessarily for trying to live (AND PLEASE KEEP THIS IN MIND). TRYING TO LIVE is subtly treated as an AMBITION that, for Viktor, interfered with his ethics. (And please note that in the end, Singed, who repeatedly embraces unethical practices for reviving his dying daughter gets what he wants).

Anyway, in S2, Jayce blasts Viktor in the chest and all that conviction goes out the window. All this despite Sky (his conscience and “humanity”) being there with him in the astro-nether. Now Viktor's idea of becoming a higher being is just getting rid of emotion (apparently because Jayce did it or something). Jayce killing him without explanation was all of a sudden all he needed to become a divine dictator. The same Viktor that looked terminal illness in the face and preferred to spare others instead of himself? The same Viktor who's immediate action after waking up with a new body was to go and use the arcane he wished had been destroyed to help others? Because the arcane is corrupting him? That’s convenient for a certain political narrative. Especially because anyone would hesitate pressing a button (in Viktor’s case smashing the hex core) that would guarantee their death. Viktor was being human, not corrupt.

Viktor and Jayce:

Now, I think Jayce's speech had some merit and could have been framed better with a little more time and thought. The philosophical idea of perfection or a perfect world (one which Piltoverians strive toward) being untenable, maybe even undesirable, is a fascinating concept worth exploring. BUT MAKING IT ABOUT SOME INTERNALIZED ABLEISM FROM VIKTOR IS FUCKING STUPID!!!! I'm sorry, but Piltover being the city of progress until it actually included becoming progressive with Zaun was absolutely one of the things Jayce and Viktor's sub-plot was trying to explore.

Viktor WANTED TO LIVE. Viktor wanted his people to STOP SUFFERING. Viktor WAS RIGHT. He wasn't merely eliminating "imperfections" (and of FUCKING COURSE A PILTOVIAN WOULD SEE IT THAT WAY), he was trying to cure sick and dying people who did nothing to deserve it. He was buying them time that people like Jayce and Heimmerdinger had in spades, but Viktor and Zaunites had stolen from them.

Children dying of disease and violence in The Lanes was by Piltovian design! It was not some predestined cosmic necessity. Viktor WAS RIGHT TO HATE HIS FUCKING TERMINAL ILLNESS ARE THESE GUYS INSANE??! Wtf kind of message is Viktor embracing it as part of himself sending to vulnerable, impoverished and ill people? Is that supposed to be some kind of fucking comfort? Fuck off right to hell!

Like I'm glad if it resonated with any disabled people, but Viktor's struggle with his body was a protest against Piltover, not himself, and I hate that the writers gutted that character development. Viktor's and Jayce's paths "diverged a long time ago" because Jayce had the luxury and time of pursuing his dream while Viktor didn't. Viktor, even up there as a scholar of Piltover, was still getting the Zaunite treatment.

Jayce had the time to pursue a better world, while Viktor had to struggle for a little more time. When Viktor becomes part of the arcane, suddenly he has all the time in the world to realize HIS OWN DREAM. Why would wanting a better world for others have to result in "dreamless solitude"? Why does wanting progress equal wanting perfection? You are changing the subject and that is cheating!!!!

Viktor becoming obsessed with fixing what ailed humanity was warranted, and his extremism was hinted to have been due in part to the effect the arcane had on him, but it still made the themes of arcane a joke. There was so much potential and the writers (and showrunners) just squandered it for some more romantic bullshit.

The Glorious Fumblings (A Summary):

-"Humanity, our very essence, is inescapable. Our emotions, rage, compassion, hate. Two sides of the same coin, intractably bound. That which inspires us to our greatest good is also the cause of our greatest evil.” That's a neat quote, but wars don't start simply due to emotions or whatever. This lacks class analysis, and it's annoying that the writers made this the whole theme of season 2 (and retroactively the show) in a story on class divides. Cait did not merely gas the Zaunites because of her mother, but because of her privileged upbringing that made it more acceptable to her to view Zaunites as animals (remember Ekko telling her enforcers “hunt us down like animals"). Cait knew the humanity of Zaunites was real. She just chose to ignore it because she could afford to. While it is interesting that Viktor would come to see being human as a flaw that destroys any hope of achieving peace (conflict theory would like a word with you), it ignored that fascism is not an inherently human trait and detracts from how or why it persists in the first place. It's almost the same as saying men/white people oppress women/poc because the latter were mean to them. It's victim-blaming (and false lmao). The British didn't colonize the Americans because the natives did anything to them. All prejudice is unjustified, that's what makes it prejudice. Again, Cait became a fascist when her mom died, but Vi still drew the line at killing children and even council members despite losing every single one of her family members to Piltover's violence against The Lanes. AND THAT’S JUST IT. Why the Zaunites do what they do isn’t simply because of love and hate, but because of the desperate circumstances they are forced into by their oppressors. Why the Piltovians do what they do, isn’t because of love or hate, but because they are bread in luxury and affluence. Pretending that’s not the case is an insult to the work put into Arcane’s first season (and anyone with a brain and basic empathy).

-Jayce's speech would have been cute in another story, but it's downright insulting in Arcane's. Yes, yes, Jayce's words would have been the only ones to have broken the real Viktor out of Arcane Viktor's grasp by appealing to this deep childhood wound, but Viktor's desperation was not to belong (because his leg kept him from playing with other children) but TO LIVE (because he was dying of an illness). Jayce's speech isn't bad, just misplaced. Like most of the finale.

-Viktor did not have to become a fascist-aligned deity in his quest to heal people. It is a typical MCU thing to have a "villain" that's technically right and then destroy their entire character to make their (correct) philosophy untenable by making them do something extreme. Typical pro-status quo propaganda trope. I DON’T CARE if it was so we could get some game version of him. Viktor was right in bringing progress and his discoveries to The Lanes instead of devoting his efforts to Piltover, the fake city of progress.

-While I am annoyed that the climax of the show hinged on Jayce and Viktor and hextech (a tool to explore the inequalities of Piltover and Zaun) instead of Jinx and Vi, I think it kinda makes sense. Hextech built what Piltover has now become. Jayce, Viktor and hextech kinda represent Piltover (what it could be) and Jinx and Vi represent The Lanes (and the Zaun it could be). Both would have been integral, but the story shouldn't have hinged on hextech, IMO. Hextech should have remained a tool to explore the politics of both cities, but instead it overshadowed everything, cheapening the story's themes, characters and world-building.

-Jayce calling the Zaunites to arms was downright absurd. But not as absurd as Zaunites volunteering.

And Then There's Jinx:

Jinx and Isha:

Isha's only use, as far as I'm concerned, was to be a reconciling force between the sisters. When Cait was willing to shoot her to get to Jinx, that should have stopped Vi right there and brought her back to defending Jinx 100% I DON’T CARE. When Isha sacrificed her life to save Jinx, that should have been Jinx's wake-up call right there and helped her understand why Vi kept leaving her out of missions as a kid. But instead what do we get? Depressed, suicidal Jinx and an astoundingly even more resentful and indifferent Vi. Now Jinx sees herself as even more of a poison to those she loves (because she can’t protect them like Vi can and frequently kills them while trying to do so). Jinx, who has always wanted to be useful to those she loves. Who pursued her own hextech inventions in order to give her siblings a fighting chance when facing down Silco. Who wants to give Zaun a fighting chance as Silco's daughter (and Isha’s surrogate mother). To be useful to the goals and dreams of her family. Isha was the perfect opportunity to bring the sisters together and get Jinx to embrace all she is (both the Jinx that Vi rejects and the Powder that Silco rejected), but no. Instead, the kid was some kind of foreshadowing to Jinx's own heroic self-sacrifice for her sister (a message that left both sister's arcs unfinished). Or perhaps, Isha was a commentary on the cycle of violence. But that this sub-plot really wasn't needed given what we'd already established in Season 1.

Why do I say this?

Because the cycle of violence is not a "Jinx" issue, but a Piltover one, and the writers making it an interpersonal issue instead of a political/sociological one damaged the story and what Jinx's character could have meant to mentally ill people like her. It wasn't illogical storytelling, just far less meaningful than it could have been. It would have been more powerful and moving and impactful for Jinx to realize where the true cycle of violence (as established the whole fucking show from the dead parents on the bridge, to Vander and Silco, to Jinx and Vi, to Jinx and Ekko, to Isha and Warwick, to Cait and Vi, etc) was coming from.

Jinx needed to accept herself and the love others showed toward her (Silco, Vander, Ekko and Vi). Jinx keeps blowing things up because she repeatedly rejects herself (both Powder and Jinx), ignoring the good she's done and tried to do. Isha was a call back to the good Jinx has done and can continue to do for Zaun and others. Isha and Sevika understood (even though Silco unfairly set it up) that Jinx was actually their good luck, their hope, more than just a hex (pun intended) on the city. After all, Jinx made Sevika her new arm (even though she's the reason Sevika lost her arm in the first place), which further proves that Jinx had the capacity to fix some of what she broke. It would have been better for her to embrace responsibility and have the faith to try and fix things (ESP her relationship with Vi). While it is not unrealistic or necessarily bad writing that she would fake her own death to run away and start over (or just die) trying to save Vi, the arc people she represented deserved was her embracing Vi back, not accepting that she was a curse in Vi's life. And most definitely NOT romanticizing her pain.

Jinx and Ekko:

Ekko's and Jinx's relationship is precisely an exploration of how Piltover's violence against Zaun forced these children with entire futures ahead of them (they are both child prodigies) into endless war and hellish heroism. Ekko and Jinx are repeatedly shown to be hesitant and even unwilling to participate in violence against others, especially their own. Ekko does not hate Jinx, though he wants to, and Jinx does not like who she is when she's violent. She is trigger-happy because she already expects Vi and Ekko to want to kill her (projecting her self-loathing on them, but not entirely unreasonably). She doesn't have faith in their love or mercy because she doesn't see any part of herself as redeemable or loveable, which is why she consistently sabotages her life (but not without help from Vi and others).

Ekko and Jinx are symbols of progress for Zaun AND Piltover (and Heimerdinger saw that, especially when Ekko insisted he had to go back to his timeline, even if the one he had landed in was better). Heimmerdinger saw what they could have been in the alternate timeline, all the genius that was squandered in The Lanes. Jinx and Ekko are the ones most willing to put an end to violence and injustice because both of them are nostalgic for their families. All that’s ever kept them going is the love of their families. Jinx just doesn't have the same faith in her ability to be their hero as Ekko does, but Ekko manages to convince her for a moment anyways.

Ekko recognizes (like Silco, Viktor and Isha) how integral Jinx is to the creation of a new world. She injects colour and life and hope into Zaun and is the only one who can unite all warring factions in Zaun in the first place. I know people have gripes with this Jinx being the hero of Zaun when she literally killed Silco, opening the market for other gangs, but her most famous act is the bombing of the Council, which pretty much all Zaunites were unaware was about to grant them independence. To the average citizen of Zaun and Piltover, Jinx was the symbol of a revolution (even if Jinx didn’t see herself that way and didn’t really want to be). Both her and Ekko are rebel leaders, but that is hardly used in Zaun's interests in the end. (ALSO THAT WHOLE CONVERSATION WITH VIKTOR AND JINX WHERE HE SAID SHE COULD BE USEFUL TO HIS WORK. This show would have won with a Viktor and Jinx team-up to unite Zaun--also in parallel to Jayce and Vi's team up. We could have had it all!)

Jinx and Silco:

This, is only second to Vi in the most FUMBLED things about Jinx. Silco was her guide once Vander died and Vi ran away. Silco not only took care of her, but gave her purpose (someone to love and be loved by and protect) and nurtured her talent (one that many others scorned). Silco accepted Jinx even though he weaponized her (which backfired for him). As much as Silco WAS WRONG to lie about Vi (manipulating Jinx) and even try to kill Vi (which was a dumbass move on his part), he wasn't wrong about Jinx's path to healing: self-acceptance and self-forgiveness. And even though Silco's own stupidity led Jinx to "embrace" Silco's version of Jinx to the point that she bombed the Council right when they'd granted Zaun independence (I wanted to fucking kill myself watching that), Jinx was still not ENTIRELY a jinx as Jinx (e.g. when she rescued Zaunites from Stillwater Prison). This fucked up dude did a whole John-the-Baptist thing where Vander tried to drown him with Jinx so she could embrace her Jinx-ness. But I don't think he was telling her to embrace that she was a curse like Vi meant it, but to embrace her new life (baptism is all about death and rebirth) and her new self and take responsibility for it.

Silco, like Ekko, was the one who saved Jinx from death and offered Jinx a home. While everyone else patronized Jinx for her own childhood trauma, Silco was gentle, understanding and provided space for that, even when her psychosis killed him. He showed zero resentment toward her. But when Silco dies and Vander returns, Jinx just . . . oopsie, doopsie! Forgets about Silco until one final hallucination she has of him in the jail cell. The only one she has where he talks. And what does he say? She needs to break the cycle. How? Not by eliminating Piltover or gaining Zaun's independence like he'd talked about and dreamed about. Not by accepting herself as Jinx and Powder, the inventor, the fighter, daughter of both Silco and Vander, but by offing herself? Leaving her family to think she's dead? Embracing the lie that she really was the poison in their lives and the reason none of them could be happy? The reason they died? NICE! SWELL! WHAT A SATISFYING, INSPIRING CONCLUSION! Even worse, they made her "death" staged. I'm sorry, but do we really believe that this same girl who killed herself multiple times in front of Ekko just 24 hours ago somehow found the will to live and escape into air ducts when she was falling with Vander? She decided to live right when she was about to die? And let's not forget that she was falling to the same song that was playing when she was trying to commit suicide. Why? And why would a heroic death (staged or not) be any form of character growth for Jinx in the first place? When her whole thing is distrusting the love offered to her? Or was she accepting herself by being the one to kill Vander because she knew Vi couldn't? Either way, it's cheap!

I Wonder Who Put All Those Holes In You (Fumbling Summary):

-Vander's letter to Silco could have been why she hallucinated Silco talking to her about forgiveness, but breaking the cycle here is about forgiving (unapologetic) Piltovians instead of herself, which needed to happen to complete her arc.

-Isha and Vander misery porn

-(above is an excerpt from Amanda Overton's TheGamer interview) to paraphrase: "SO OUR GRAND CONCLUSION TO VI AND JINX'S ARC WAS TO CONFIRM THAT YES, JINX WAS INDEED A JINX (AND NOT PILTOVER OR ANYTHING HAHA) AND THE SISTERS WOULD ONLY HAVE PEACE IF THEY NEVER RECONCILED - JUST LIKE THEIR FATHERS BECAUSE THAT WORKED OUT SO WELL THE FIRST TIME! :D THE REASON THEIR LIVES ARE IN SHAMBLES ARE PURELY BECAUSE OF THEIR OWN PERSONAL FAILINGS AND NOT AT ALL BECAUSE OF THE SITUATION PILTOVIANS HAVE PUT ZAUNITES IN! XD WE THINK THIS IS ALSO A FANTASTIC THING TO TELL MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE." :)

-Jinx being the reluctant Girl Saviour of Zaun after clinging onto her identity as a jinx so she didn't have to take responsibility for Zaun should have been the completion of her arc, IMO. As far as Jinx's arc is concerned, she was meant to reject the identity of jinx that Vi gave her and embrace the identity of Jinx that Zaun gave her. Loveable and capable of doing the right thing and saving others. Using hex-tech, something Jayce and Piltover had levelled against her people, against them. And she does this to some extent, but we don't even get a hint as to why Ekko's speech worked (and how he got her to fight alongside him and the Firelights in the first place). We know she does so for Vi, but she so quickly gives up once she and her sister are back on the same team. She allies herself with her sister just to die and then fuck off to another land? BRUH! Like act 3 is SO FRUSTRATING!

Conclusion

If the focus had been on the coming war between Zaun and Piltover, then we could have better explored the internal struggles happening with Vi's and Jinx's characters. Using Isha and Vander as misery porn for Jinx was a bad move. I stand by that. Isha didn't need to die that uselessly. Jinx did not need more "trauma" for any character development (positive or negative). It's not unrealistic that Jinx would be depressed after Isha's death (and that Isha was likely meant to symbolize the constant cycle of violence), but that this sub-plot really wasn't needed given what we'd already established in Season 1.

These are where my gripes with Jinx's and Viktor's arcs in S2 really lie: the story tries to strip the political from the personal! Viktor, on waking up with the arcane in him, goes back to The Lanes, and what does he see? The cycle that Silco mentions in Jinx's hallucination in the cell. This cycle is not merely coming from the interpersonal struggle Zaunites have, but rather, the forces behind those struggles: the starvation, the lack of resources, the poverty. All caused by Piltover. Where Season 2 fails while Season 1 succeeded, is it points the camera away from Piltover as the origin of all this mess, and instead, makes it a stupid cosmic clash between chaos and order (kinda fascist ngl). Zaun lost, and Arcane Season 1 had the tits to show why those in The Lanes were always on a losing streak: Piltover. The commitment to saving Piltover instead of destroying it ruined so many arcs, most notoriously Vi's and Jinx's. This should have ended in a war between the two cities, not one where both fought against robo-people and Ambessa.

But what, instead, do the writers brandish as this solution to the cycle?

Fucking forgiveness (of those who harm and oppress you) and acceptance of your (physical) imperfections (like that's what we were apparently talking about, which no, it wasn't). By refusing to acknowledge Piltover's hand in the desperation and violence and struggle the Zaunite characters find themselves, the show inadvertently ends up excusing Piltover.

TLDR: Bad message to send to oppressed people, mentally ill people, and people dying of terminal illnesses, lmao. The Zaunites ALL LOST with this one.

And I'm going to make a Part 2 to really get into it, but from the perspective of three Piltover characters (and one Zaunite) that really prove my point: Jayce, Mel, Caitlyn and Ekko.

P.S.: It's okay if you think the show is good because it succeeds in many other things, I just think it drops the ball in the places I've mentioned. But if your main criticism of my criticisms is going to be defending your ships, please find another post. Oppression is a serious reality that deserves serious depiction and it's insulting to have such necessary political discussions devolve into dumbass ship wars.

EDIT: I honestly did not expect this post to get more than 20 likes lmao, and i must admit that this was more of a thought dump than a super-deep analysis, but i'm glad a lot of it has resonated with so many of you!

EDIT AGAIN: Here's PART 2.

[thermodynamic-comedian]

it makes me so insane that even though the undeniably most relevant moment in his character arc was being betrayed by someone, silco still fundamentally trusts people on principle. the system he's built relies entirely on other people doing their part, he relies entirely on other people's loyalty to him. he lets jinx, someone everyone else says is a liability and unpredictable, inject his eye with shimmer, an insanely vulnerable position for him to be putting himself in willingly. he trusts sevika, someone who could easily overpower him physically (much like vander did), to remain loyal to him.

the trust silco places in other people is also indicative of his past role as an activist and a revolutionary, i think. communities are built on trust. movements are dependent on trust. when an entire people work as one, trust is the thing that keeps them together. and even though vander, in silco's mind, betrayed that trust, he still believes in the inherent power of it.

[nfatcheese]

i love how back in season one, sevika came off as a traitor after she betrayed vander and joined silco, but now in season two it's so clear that her loyalty has always been to the underground.

she worked for vander when he was the unifying beacon for the lanes, but he had become idle and was letting topside roll over them. she didn't join silco just to betray vander, she joined him because he was the only one doing something about topside. like he wasn't perfect but she was loyal to him because his dream was what vander's used to be: freedom from piltover.

and now that they're both dead, she's still trying to hold zaun together. she tries to keep the chembarons from infighting, she hosts the rally (at vander's statue no less), and she pushes for jinx to be a symbol for the underground. she hates jinx but she believes in her because jinx now represents zaun's best chance at freedom.

[somuchbetterthanthat]

The reason why I need to rewatch the first three episodes of Arcane S1 is because I had genuinely forgotten Sevika was technically with Vander before she was with Silco and that fascinates me.

Vander lost her loyalty but not Silco, because he didn't have time to - would she have rejected him as well, if she'd learnt that he was planning on refusing to give up Jinx for Zaun's independence, the WHOLE reason they'd done all this ugly shit, the Whole reason she'd stayed loyal to HIM and not try to take power herself? Because she was more certain that HE could succeed in freeing Zaun than everybody else? Like I know she says in S2 specifically that they're not giving Jinx to Zaun - but that's after the Council blew up, without her having ever knowing there was another option before that.

I'm also crazy about her relationships with the sisters. Her genuine surprise when Vi shows up at the Last Drop for the first time. Like! If she was hanging with Vander's crew for years (even if maybe she was also already working with Silco? Again, need to rewatch, etc.) she saw Vi grow up. Vi knew her enough that Sevika's betrayal was still violently hurting years later. When you look at the way Sevika and Vi are brought against one another.... Do you think Sevika was another model for little Vi? Did she want to EMULATE HER???

And on the opposite side, Sevika DESPISES Jinx, that she most definitely saw grow up this time around. She's crazy! She's a liability! Silco gives her everything and anything she wants and never lets her suffer any consequences because he loves her to bit! Did she see in Jinx the hint of the weakness that had "plagued" Vander? Had she gathered the danger of Silco following Vander's steps by choosing his kid over the cause??

And yet. Despite it all. They both grieve for Silco (would Sevika and Vi, in another world, have grieved for Vander? How CLOSE was Sevika from Vander??) and Sevika is ready to use Jinx's insane actions to keep the cause going. Cause she, above all else, prioritizes Zaun. Like. When it all comes down to it, Vi and Jinx might be the emotional heirs of Vander and Silco; but Sevika and Ekko are the true heirs of Silco and Vander's ideals.

Im sad the show didn't have more time for her in arc 3, because she deserved it, imo. She's so interesting, the way she thought she had to put herself behind other figureheads her whole life,... the way she tries to take the mantle on her own but the show first says.. no.. people will folllow the blue hair girl... the people need the SYMBOL, not just the pragmatic realistic, down to fucking business angry woman.... she herself believes that too much to get on top of things... right til the end? I wish we'd had ONE more scene where she does, in fact, succeed in becoming the leader herself.

Anyway. I'm rambling again. I'm sorry. My point is. Post S2 Ekko, Sevika and Vi grudgingly building a new future for Zaun together (Jinx hiding in the vents, as ever, etc. helping in the shadows).

The whole gang carrying SUCCESSFULLY what Vander and Silco had failed to do by falling apart.

[lbulldesigns]

My Jinx and Sevika Season 2 Theory.

So before the season 2 trailer dropped, we got this picture from Sevika's VA.

Which was our first look at Sevika for season 2. However, Sevika looks wildly different from what we see in the trailer; so the question is, how does Sevika get from this...

To this?

Get comfy this is gonna be a long one.

So from what we perceive from the trailer, there is a possibility of Sevika and Jinx teaming up, this is mainly theorized because Sevika used both Jinx's pistol and has an augmented arm clearly designed by her. I believe that their teaming up is a high possibility because Sevika has always put her bet behind the winning horse.

She used to be loyal to Vander, I'm guessing when he was still the Hound of The Underground and had a righteous anger towards Piltover, but lost faith in him when he became complacent with the Enforcer's mistreatment.

She then teams up with Silco, and even sacrifices an arm for him because he was showing more initiative and actually acting out on his promise to liberate Zaun from Piltover.

And even though we see her continuing to be loyal to Silco, there are hints of discontent with her in some of his decisions. Mainly his inability to see Jinx as a liability and continuing to place her on a high pedestal.

We are led to believe that she has an undying loyalty to Silco because she turns down Finn's offer and willingly kills him, but when Silco asks if she was tempted she says "Not for a worm like him. But he won't be the last".

Many people translate this as her being loyal to Silco but what she's really saying is that she's loyal to him as long as he's willing to follow through on his promise to free Zaun.

So I'm inclined to believe that she won't hold Silco's death against Jinx, she'll be angry of course however once she sees Jinx is not just willing to go to war but lead the march, she'll put her bet behind the winning horse once again.

As much as she views Jinx as a liability, she also knows her strengths and her abilities. I am fully under the belief that Sevika doesn't hate Jinx, she's just frustrated with her as she can see Jinx as a troubled teenage girl who has a severe mental illness. She doesn't treat Jinx with kiddie gloves, she's honest with her and harsh; which doesn't make her Jinx's favorite person but out of everyone in her life Sevika is the only one who is brutally honest with her, and someone like Jinx who despises liars, Sevika's honesty (even if she doesn't want to hear it a lot of the time) is a constant that Jinx can appreciate.

This breeds credence to the theory that the two will team up in season 2.

Another thing noticed and speculated in the trailer is that the two are fighting against someone in an ally way, however, I have to disagree about the location of said fight.

We know that Jinx and Vi's fight is going to be in the ruins of an ancient-looking temple, considering Zaun's history of being colonized by ancient Shurimans, I believe that this temple is a relic from the Shurimans and fully believe that it's a temple dedicated to Janna.

The temple is full of fog, you can see it moving around during the fight between the sisters, and we see Sevika emerge from it like a badass with Jinx's pistol raised.

Now this is where my theory finally comes in.

During Jinx and Vi's fight, Caitlyn (who is hiding amongst the pillars hidden in the shadow and fog) gets caught, yet again, in one of Jinx's bombs. But I believe that Jinx purposely designed these bombs to be non-lethal, she may be furious with Vi but she doesn't want to kill her. Something in Caitlyn will snap and she'll abandon the notion of bringing Jinx in alive will give into her want for vengeance, and will shoot to kill Jinx. Just as she shoots at Jinx, Sevika will shoot at Caitlyn. Vi will see Caitlyn in danger and rush to protect her, and Jinx will be distracted and not see Caitlyn's bullet until it's too late.

Whilst Sevika is fighting off the Enforcers trying to get to Jinx and Vi is worrying over Caitlyn, Jinx will be lying there dying.

This is where it gets maybe a little far-fetched, but bear with me.

Janna, in the Star Guardians universe, recruits Jinx because she sees good in Jinx and wants to give her a chance to be a hero and protector. In Arcane I reckon Janna has been an invisible spectator for however long watching her people slowly die over the years, she doesn't have the strength to help them because people have stopped praying to her.

There's a significant reason why the producers have the sisters fight in this location, and I theorize that the reason is that this is how they plan to introduce a new region to Arcane.

So as Jinx lies dying, going over everything in her life and maybe she wishes that she could've freed Zaun that she could have another chance to complete her mission, and Janna hears her wish.

And drawing power from the multiple hex gems in her vacinity, uses all her strength to teleport Jinx away. Sevika seeing that something is happening to Jinx jumps in to save her, much like what she did with Silco at the cannery; and both of them get yeeted away from the scene.

All Vi and the rest of the Enforcers will see is that another explosion went off and both Jinx and Sevika were just obliterated. Vi will see her sister's blood on the ground and realize that Cailtyn shot her sister and the weight of what just happened would come crashing down on her and she'll walk away from everything.

I know this all sounds like a stretch, but my main motivation for thinking about all this is what Sevika is wearing in the picture at the start of this essay.

She's wearing her signature Ponto, but the design of it looks like something worn in a desert environment; her clothes look Shuriman, the spikes on her right shoulder look like Shuriman accessories and the way she wears her hair looks like she's trying to shield as much as her face as she can from the hot sun.

I don't know where the theory will go from here, but I think Jinx will get the healing she needs in Shurima and both of them will find allies before heading back to their home to liberate it.

This would have a role reversal for the sisters, with Vi being the one struggling to find her footing and crashing hard whilst hallucinating her loved ones as demons; and Jinx will be the returning daughter to a new Zaun but unlike Vi will be anticipating this change and will have a clearer goal, and zero inclination to look for her sister.

Sorry this was so long, but I had to get this brain rot out of my head.

[pepperpixel]

Yadda yadda yadda jinx is generally seen as a loose canon, does whatever she wants type of character, totally unpredictable. When in actuality, up until the last few episodes all of her choices and actions r motivated by wanting to please someone else. Hell. Even in the last couple episodes, the very Last thing we see her doing is ENTIRELY MOTIVATED by devotion and love and grief for silco, she’s taking out her frustration at herself and the world, and also honoring his wishes and dreams. By shooting a fucking bomb at piltover, she’s ensuring his life wasn’t in vain, she’s honoring him. In that moment

Her entire, self!!! is centered around love and loyalty. Is centered around other people, She’s motivated by an insatiable urge to prove herself, to be useful to those she loves, to show that she can help them and be there for them and be WORTHY of there love. That they haven’t made a mistake in loving her. To prove that she can be as pivotal to them as they r for her. She goes to the ends of the fucking earth to do this. And it ends. Terribly.

She puts the people she loves on pedestals and supplicates at there feet, she has no motivations most of the show outside of making the people she loves happy… she yearns for connection and love and safety. For a home that will never leave her behind, or crumble under her feet, (an indestructible home, That she can’t destroy just by being her…)

Which is why.. it’s so. Interesting and intriguing. How now, she has no one on that pedestal to worship, no one to drag sacrifices and offerings to the feet of, no one to spiral around and build herself off of. She is a person so *affected* by her relationships w others, but there is no relationship now, no one is stepping up to the plate to love her. She’s too much. For anyone. The one person who seemed to have unlimited patience for her is dead, because of her. and maybe vi could still love her.. but. She’s already soured that relationship. Already broken that one too. Broken all her favorite toys that made her so happy. That were there for her. And scared all the rest away. (There is a limit to what vi can support and forgive to reconnect w her sister. And I believe terrorism is crossing that limit ghgh)

And maybe, jinx is cutting that part of herself out on purpose. To be stronger, she’s realized she just. Isn’t made for love. That she ruins it all in the end. That it just makes everything worse. Messier. More complicated. She’s better off on her own, but for what PURPOSE! Who will she be now! What choices will she make!?! Almost all of her actions in the show were for others, what is driving her now, now that she has this gaping void at the center of her being. Where love used to be… what kind of person will she become, Without a guide to follow… a sun to orbit around. it’s sad honestly ghghg-!!! like yeah it’s not healthy that she is this way but there’s no THERAPY IN ARCANE. THIS IS THE WAY SHE IS! And now. She’s alone… it’s rough. But also intriguing…!! And I honestly have no clue how she’s gonna act in season 2,,, or what sorta shit she’s gonna get up to. but I’m excited.

[aryesdanger24]

Can I just say that I love how many layers there are surrounding Sevika and her change towards Jinx....because...

1. Sevika misses Silco (perhaps it was the stable chaos or something to do to stop thinking of the suffering. Perhaps she truly likes to protects things in her own way.) It shows in the way she is not utterly messing up the Chem Barons, it's because she misses not making every decision.

2. Jinx is the mess Silco left her, the last one.

She is what is left of his legacy and it is the last thing that ties her to him since as she said "everything he made has crumbled, everything they built" but Jinx is still there, a testament of his life. One who mirrors Silco in his chaotic wish for stability where he finally is in control. Jinx is the opposite of Silco yet the same, she is fighting against topside (her sister who betrayed her) much like Silco but where he needed manpower, Jinx needs mental support.

Jinx needs control like Silco to balance her mental health to create a peace of mind under the sheer power of her own mental trauma. Sevika is what Silco created and she intends to make sure his legacy lives.

3. Sevika finally sees what Silco saw in Jinx.

She could see it when Jinx, without needing to, gave her a literal helping hand. Improved it even to mirror the new era of chaos the undercity is brewing.

When Jinx said it was because she could fix something, it shows a vulnerability and a strength to grow. It shows that Jinx has matured and Sevika is recognizing that Jinx won't always be the bratty psychopath whom she couldn't understand anymore. That, like Silco, there are layers underneath it, a loyalty much like Sevika's to the footprints left behind by Silco.

4. Sevika enjoys serving others.

It shows in the way she states her allegiance even if she disagrees.

She seems to need to not be completely alone, perhaps she has alcohol problems or a deep festering brain that rambles or just something that won't leave her be. She likes to be in control with someone she deems weaker (thus why she traded Vander for Silco) she doesn't follow weak people, but that's the thing. She follows, she never leads even when she is the oldest between Jinx and the little girl Isha. She prefers to help someone than hold the responsibility and all the irritating moralistic choices. (Which is why I believe she doesn't like to think much by herself).

So yeah.... I really enjoy this new Sevika changing arc happening, but it's more or less just showing how deep these layers go will be more interesting because I don't think she even realizes how much she has feelings because they are veiled beneath the word 'loyalty' for her.

Curious to see how deep the change runs but God I love a buff queen.

[zaunrising]

Time is a funny thing.

It was late at night, or perhaps early in the morning. That odd in between time when no one was quite sure if they should be saying good eve, or good morn. It didn’t particularly matter regardless. This, was The Last Drop. Time wasn’t measured in terms of night or day. It wasn’t measured by breakfast and dinner, sun and moon, or even by the normal working hours of the various businesses around it. No, time here was measured by drinks poured, the loudness of conversation, and the music being played. A period with lots of drinks, conversation bustling throughout the club, and hard pounding music might be the high time. Daytime, one might say, or if one preferred the “good” time of the evening. No customers, and boxes getting moved in and out for supplies might have been dusk or dawn. Anything in between? Late at night, or early in the morning, to one degree or another. Time never truly obeyed any conventional rules at The Last Drop. Some conversations stretched throughout an entire day, but only lasted for an hour or two. Some games lasted for a few hours, but stretched nearly out a day entirely.

Time? Inviolable? Tell that to a man who cared. Tell that to a Piltie. Not to the owner of The Last Drop. Not to Silco. Not to one of the most powerful men in the area who ruled his territory as he saw fit.

People created time, and measured it as they saw fit.

Control people, and you create their time.

You, tell them how to measure it.

Outside The Last Drop, time moved as it always did. Obedient to clocks, the sun, the moon, day, night, and human schedules. Silco was not outside The Last Drop however, he was inside, and time shifted.

Late at night, so very late it was near dawn and so in truth it was so very early in the morning. Almost no one else in the club except for a few employees attending to things, and perhaps some minuscule number of patrons. Quiet, peaceful, and for a moment it seemed as still as things could ever be. Leaving his coat in his office, Silco had ended up in the middle of the dance floor with his sleeves rolled up to mid-forearm, as he had used to wear them years ago. Head tilted ever so slightly, he could very nearly hear the bustle of a tavern he’d spent time at, so long ago it felt now like another life. One eye closing for a second so brief it seemed more like a blink, Silco’s other eye stared blazing forward, reminding anyone that glanced over of the truth of who Silco was. Silco’s blurred vision rendered near useless with an explosion of orange, and fiery red reminded him that whatever bustle he might be hearing from the past… was, in fact, from another life. A life that had died in a river with a friend standing over him, and a moment of desperation. Two men as close as men could be, both left with scars, and both changing irrevocably as a result.

Sometimes, though, the past could return in some small way. Even if only for a short while.

Struck by sudden impulse, Silco moved forward to the jukebox and punching a quick series of numbers into it flipped to a record few could access. He wasn’t ashamed of it, and couldn’t be bothered to hide it, but it wouldn’t do to have the atmosphere in The Last Drop suddenly shift because of someone hitting the wrong kind of song. A song years old, and one that brought him back to his childhood for a few short minutes. Eyes open, and staring into the past, his lips parted to sing softly along with one particular song as his hands rested on the jukebox.

“Jesse got trapped in a coal mine, digging in the dark black pearl. Jesse got trapped in a coal mine, never did marry his girl. There ain’t no air, and there ain’t no light, and there ain’t no way to make it out alive. His wedding was planned for the 5th of July, but Jesse got trapped in a coal mine and never did marry his girl. Your hands get black and your eyes get burned, your lungs get tired and poor. It draws you in like an opium den, and beckons you back for more.”

The vaunted Eye of Zaun for three minutes and fifty-three seconds stood at a jukebox softly singing along to a song. His voice soft enough few could hear, but the club was quiet enough it could be picked up if someone wanted. A song about, of all things, a miner who never made it back and a woman left to grieve alone. No revolution, no strife, no call for violence. No deep pounding beat to get people dancing, no soft sounds of love for people to smile to, but also no easily ignored background noise this. Just a song about a miner, and loss, and a reminder that sometimes people don’t make it even when they fight as hard as possible. Of course, just because people don’t make it doesn’t mean they aren’t remembered.

Sometimes, Silco wondered how long it took for Jesse to meet his second death.

How long before Jesse was forgotten by all, and died a second final time.

Sometimes he wondered which was more important.

That Jesse had tried as hard as he could to make it back, or that the man had died.

Did the attempt alone grant its own kind of honor, and respect?

Could failure remove all the honor, and respect?

“Down, down on her knees, she cried. My love is somewhere in that mountain.”

As the song faded, Silco’s one good eye blinked, and he pulled himself back into the present. Hitting a button had the jukebox flip to some random record. Silco couldn't care less what played next. One slow steady calm breath as he turned, and pulled his sleeves back down to their normal position, buttoning them properly while heading to the bar.

Time was malleable. Time shifted, and could at times be hard to define. Time, however, always passed, and always moved forward. Not even Silco could change that. Not even in The Last Drop could that be changed. Time moved forward, and so it was time for Silco to return to the present and move with it.

Some, however, might say Silco had never moved with time. Not really. You might say he had been frozen in time during one particular night.

A night on which trusted, perhaps loved, hands had shoved him underwater. Trusted hands tried to kill him, and although he’d never admit it… had.

One man had been lost in pitch black, polluted water.

Another man, seemingly immovable, and unstoppable, had climbed out of that water. Someone that refused to bend, or change with time. Someone that deep within still felt that water drip from him, and that pain in an eye suddenly lost. A man who, even as he climbed out of the water, had kept so much of it with him, he might as well have never left. Time passed, but some moments never quite ended. Some moments kept a person frozen within them, and made it near impossible to step away.

On some nights though, be it for a minute, three minutes, or five minutes, for however long a particular song might last. A frozen moment thawed, and someone else pushed forward.

On some nights… a person might catch a glimpse not of Silco the Industrialist, the revolutionary, the Eye of Zaun. Some nights a person might catch a glimpse of Silco the miner, a man who years ago had fought, and drank, and loved, and worked right alongside everyone else. A man who had died in a river.

A man who still on occasion awoke, and wondered what Zaun was becoming.

A man could stand in another’s boots, on some nights, for as long as a song. After that, however, the owner returned, and a cold gaze turned to anyone who thought to question him or his choice of song a moment earlier. After all, time never stopped, and it never went backwards. At least, not for long.

Not even at The Last Drop.

[thewistlingbadger]

I noticed the season 2 is AGGRESSIVELY less political than Season 1. So I'm going to examine the ideologies of three zaunites in order to explore this.

Vander: Vander was the first leader of The Undercity and he was given a special focus in season two, so let's look at his ideology. In the beginning, when Vander was a young man, he believed in the idea of The Undercity being it's own independent nation separate from Piltover. We worked alongside Silco to accomplish this goal, as they shared the exact same vision. The two men spent many years of their lives trying to make this happen. However, on one particular night, one of their demonstrations went south. Enforcers came and killed tons of Zaunites who were protesting on the bridge. One of the people lost on the bridge was Felicia, Vander's best friend. He had known her for years and had been around her children as they were growing up, those same kids who were on the bridge that night. From this point on, Vander's entire viewpoint and ideology completely changes on this night. From this point on, Vander abandons the idea of independency in its entirety. He never tries to pursue it again or even make any major changes to Zaun. He actively discourages people from trying to pursue a "better Zaun" because in his opinion, it's not worth the risk of losing people. As a leader, Vander's goal is to maintain the status quo. Nothing he does actively disrupts Piltover's view on Zaun, everything he does plays into that view. Under Vander, nothing changes in Zaun. They're still poor, they're still oppressed. Vander's biggest value is community and protecting everyone, values that are stitched into the fabric of Zaun. In the flashback we see of young Vander and Silco, we see that the last drop is more or less the exact same as it is in act 1 s1. According to Silco's dialogue in season 1 with chem barons, Zaun has always understood the importance of community. He tells them that before Zaun was anything of substance, the only thing that go them by was their loyalty to each other. So even Vander's importance of community isn't unique to him, it was just something he kept fostering that was already commonplace. Vander thinks that if things just stay the same, if they just stick together and keep their heads down, they'll be ok. That is how he leads. He's willing to do anything to keep the makeshift peace between zaun and piltover, and it's not even real peace. It's more akin to mutual tolerance. He has a deal with the enforcers to keep them away, but it's clear that in that deal, Piltover is the one in charge. And when Vander can't offer up his own people, Piltover breaks that deal and sends enforcers to the lanes.

Viktor: Although Viktor was born a zaunite, we mostly saw him in piltover in season 1. However, he's given a special focus in season 2. He spends the season in Zaun and we see how his presence is impacting The Undercity. With his new powers given by the hexcore, he "heals" the zaunites that have the worse afflictions, whether they be disabilities or addictions. He ends up forming a utopia-like community within Zaun, one where everyone is happy and they're self sufficient. This kind of community does challenge Piltover's view of Zaun. In the commune, there is no danger, no dirt, no suffering. Everyone works together, everyone is peaceful, everyone seems happy. This commune doesn't rely on Piltover for anything, they're relying entirely on Viktor on literally every front. However, this commune isn't Zaun. It's a selective place. Viktor isn't making sure all of Zaun has this community, he's only attracting the worst of the worst in a way. He doesn't care about healing zaun, he cares about healing humanity. In Viktor's mind, society would be better if there was no individuality. If everyone was the exact same, then there would be no prejudice, no reason to suffer, etc. Viktor doesn't actually care about fixing the system or even challenging it. He cares about The Glorious Evolution, a world where everyone is equal in every way. But his evolution wouldn't actually fix problems, it would just mask them.

Silco: Silco had no special focus in season two, but he was a significant character in season 1. As a young man, he dreamed of The Nation of Zaun, a world where The Undercity and its citizen are free from Piltover's influence and prejudice. He works with Vander to achieve this goal. However, on one particular night, one of their demonstrations failed. Violence sparked on bridge, and tons of Zaunies who were protesting on the bridge were killed by enforcers . One of the people that died was Felicia, Silco's best friend. Felicia was the one that encouraged Silco and Vander to pursue The Nation of Zaun. She told them that it was worth fighting tooth and nail for not only for them, but for future generations. Felicia's death was a major loss, but it was also a major inspiration. We can draw this conclusion based off some of the things he said in season 1.

"We came from a world were there was never enough to go around, that is why we fight." "You're too young to remember what the undercity was like before it became an 'enterprise'. We had nothing. You know what bore us through those times? Loyalty. Brothers and sisters back to back against whatever the world threw at us. Now I'm forced to share the air with people like you, who leech off their legacies."

Silco was not deterred by the bridge's failure, and he never gave up on the idea of an independent undercity. Even after Vander brayed him and refused to fight, even when he was cast out by Zaunite society. He kept working on his dream. He spent years of planning to make it a reality, until his opportunity came. Everything Silco does directly contradicts Piltover's view of The Undercity. Under Silco, Zaun managed to gain a bit of wealth, industries were established. We can see that overall, Zaun society advanced while Silco was in charge. Silco doesn't operate like a protector like Vander did, or like a messiah like Viktor does. He operates like a politician, because his goal is a free Zaun. Silco is the worst person out of the three men, but he's also the most political and he's the one that combats Piltover's idea of Zaun the most. He was also the most successful out of the three. When Vander died, his community fell apart. Their loyalty was gone and they all suffered. Viktor ends up being defeated in season 2. Silco managed to actually get an offer of independence while he was alive, and when he died, the council voted YES to Zaun independence.

Things do fall apart once Silco dies, but that's because everything was designed around one man and one goal. Silco was the one holding everything together, which is why everything falls apart in the undercity once he's gone. The most devastating thing about his loss, is that his ideas died with him. We don't see a single person speak of Zaunite independence in season 2. The zaunites in season 2 are just fighting against piltover, they're not fighting for independence, The people of zaun have NO IDEA that Silco actually did manage to get them independence. The fact that Sevika gets a council seat at the end of season two means that Zaun is STILL not it's own nation. It's STILL a state of Piltover.

The Nation of Zaun died with Silco.

I'm not sure why season 2 stays away from politics when season 1 was ALL politics- whether it was from Silco or the council. Maybe they got told to stay away from the subject, or they thought it didn't fit with the direction of season two. I don't know. But personally, I think it's a major loss that the show that centered pollical strife no longer cares for politics.

[gumbaigumbai]

The way this is not what that scene was about whatsoever.

They were both talking about Silco and while, yes, they were mocking the things he did it's so clearly shown to be in a mournful manner.

You can see both Jinx and Sevika are not actually happy regarding his absence, both in their tone and their eyes.

"He dips out, the whole world flips over" -- Including their worlds; neither of them know what to do now because his presence stabilized them. They're reminiscing of the past but not criticizing it. Bringing up what they would be doing if he was still around.

Multiple times throughout S1 we see Sevika's loyalty being tested, and she never once betrays him. If all her piety was built on mindless manipulation from Silco's end it would not have been portrayed like that. For Jinx, of course he lied about Vi to keep her anchored to him, but he never lies about his own care for her. He refers to her as a daughter when (he believes) she's not around, he truly has good intentions- albeit unethical -when it comes to raising her. Neither Sevika nor Jinx think he "majorly sucked" or that they were better off without him. They use their shared feelings towards him to bond while in a vulnerable state. And lastly to add, I don't believe Silco ever intended to "pit them against each other" in S1. We see Sevika actively disliking Jinx; that is because she blew her arm off in 0103, I highly doubt they would've gotten along "just fine" without Silco's alleged intervention. He never badmouths either of them in front of the other, we never see him trying to sabotage a potential bond between the two. All in all I was just mildly put-off by how surface-level OP's observation of this scene was and I needed to speak my own piece. Peace and love guys peace and love

[maxdibert]

I once saw a really hot fanart of AU silco from arcane and I was like "this looks like Snape" and then from there I wondered if you liked silco. Then I stumbled across a post from you (I think, I'm sure it was otherwise this is embarrassing) simping for Silco so I was right I guess. My question is do you think you can draw any similarities between those two, if there are any? Maybe even talk about silco? You're pretty good at character analysis so..

Ahhhhh Silco, my problematic fave without a doubt. I’ve criticized Silco a lot, and I still do, because he represents a massive social and structural issue that also exists in the real world: the figure of the criminal who takes advantage of the vulnerability and lack of resources in his environment to enrich himself at the expense of the lives of the poorest, even though he comes from that same background. To top it off, he convinces himself that he’s some kind of solution for the society or community he inhabits, when in reality, he’s a cancer. But I adore him—what can I say?

It’s also true that it’s quite difficult to hate any of the main or secondary characters in Arcane, because it’s a series with a well-developed script that lets you understand everyone’s motivations and actions, even if you don’t agree with them or find them awful. A lot of people criticized Caitlyn this past season, but I’m a strong Caitlyn defender because I completely understand where her anger and radicalization come from. It’s not just about losing her mother in such a traumatic way, but also the disillusionment she feels when she realizes that her attempts at advocating for conciliation not only don’t work but also end in tragedy. She embodies the disillusioned idealist, and it’s really well done.

But anyway, let’s talk about Silco. First of all, I don’t see many similarities between Silco and Snape, aside from young Silco being super Snape-coded physically. I mean, I’d totally accept him as Snape’s image because he has features that really remind me of him (which clearly shows I have a type—shame, no shame lol). But beyond that, their backstories, personalities, and motivations are very different. Silco isn’t someone who’s manipulated or desperate to fit in and join a gang. Silco created that gang; he’s the one doing the manipulating. He’s the one promising young people a better future if they follow him, when all he’s really doing is spreading a drug that’s poison and leaving his city even more impoverished than it already was.

If I had to compare Silco to someone, it would be Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders, because of how both go from being idealistic revolutionaries to animated versions of Pablo Escobar. Both come from poor environments, both were ambitious young men dreaming of a better world, but those dreams were crushed by traumatic events. Both resorted to violence, coercion, and blackmail to achieve their goals, and both ended up as mafia leaders who climbed the social ladder but could never truly reach the upper classes because they didn’t belong in that world.

Silco is a very well-constructed character. His fight with Vander and the deaths of his friends, partly due to his own actions, shift his worldview from believing he can make the world better to seeing it as irreparably broken—but still something he can dominate, something he can reclaim if he becomes powerful enough. This leads him to become a drug lord. He’s not actually achieving Zaun’s freedom; he’s condemning it to drug addiction.

I always compare Silco to Pablo Escobar because it’s easy to see the similarities in their methods: both used the excuse of improving the people’s lives to exploit them for personal gain, both manipulated young people by offering them jobs or protection in exchange for loyalty, both turned their violent environments into even more violent war zones, and both justified themselves by believing the world owed them something.

Silco commits truly horrific acts. He uses children, spreads a drug epidemic to make his environment easier to control, and his relationship with Jinx is deeply unhealthy and manipulative. I don’t doubt that he loved her, but he loved her badly. He projected all his traumas onto her, turning her into an unstable, self-loathing ticking time bomb—so much so that she ended up causing his death (poetically brilliant, top-tier storytelling). I always say that loving someone doesn’t mean loving them well, and Silco didn’t love Jinx well. He loved her selfishly; he loved her as someone to mold in his image. But you can’t expect someone raised in that environment to know how to do things right.

People simp for him by absolving him of everything and acting like he’s just a sad boy, but he wasn’t sad—he was a massive bastard and a piece of trash. But you can love that piece of trash anyway, and I love him a lot because deep down, he’s just a pathetic man—and I adore pathetic men.

Silco’s tragedy is that his fall to the dark side is the root cause of most of the misfortunes in the story. In an ideal world, he would never have fought with Vander, and they could have been good adoptive fathers to the girls—something we see in the AU, which breaks all our hearts because it shows us what could have been but never was.

But oh well, I love him anyway—even if he’s a drug lord, a manipulator, has zero anger management, and is a traitor to the revolution. And that’s important because I don’t forgive traitors to the revolution, but I’ll let it slide this time.

My opinions on Silco are always very contradictory, but that’s because I like making it clear that he’s a piece of crap, even if I like him a lot.

(And even if he turns me on, what can I say.)