#Deckard likes his explosives

[noredemptionhere]

what happened after the explosion..// sevika x reader ﹒₊‧ ﹒𓆩 𓆪﹒₊ ﹒﹒

this is just a ramble, a short story—whatever you want to call it. no major warnings, just heavy angst.

you were losing your mind.

it was nearly 4 AM, and she still wasn’t home. six hours late. that wasn’t just late—it was unheard of. sevika was always late, sure, but never this late. maybe you were overthinking it. maybe you were being too naïve, too soft, too you to understand the kind of life she led.

but then again, maybe you weren’t.

a thousand thoughts raced through your head, each worse than the last. had a deal gone wrong? was there a fight? had someone stronger—meaner—finally taken her down? you tried to push those thoughts away, but they sank their claws in deep, festering, growing roots inside your chest. you had called. you had texted. hell, you had even stood by the door, keys in hand, heart in your throat, seriously considering breaking the one rule she made crystal clear:

“if i ever saw you at any of Silco’s— i will wreck your shit.”

a direct order. one you weren’t stupid enough to disobey. but if she didn’t show up in the next hour, you didn’t care.

then, just as your panic was reaching its breaking point, the front door creaked open.

relief flooded through you for exactly one second. then you saw her.

sevika wasn’t alone.

she wasn’t standing.

she wasn’t okay.

deckard stood in the doorway, her massive, half-conscious body draped over his arms. he looked at you like he was waiting for something, maybe for you to freak out, maybe for you to do something—but you couldn’t move. you couldn’t breathe.

because your baby was broken.

her shoulder was a mess of blood-soaked bandages and metal clamps, barely holding together the raw, exposed wound. she was awake, but only barely—bleary-eyed and exhausted, her head lolling against deckard’s chest. you’d never seen her look so small before. so… defenseless.

you wanted to scream. to cry. to shake her, demand what the hell happened, why she let this happen—why she always had to come home in pieces. but there was no time for any of that. you needed to pull yourself together. you needed to be strong. For her.

deckard didn’t say a word as he carried her inside, setting her down carefully on your couch before stepping back. you barely registered the sound of him leaving, the door clicking shut behind him. the apartment was quiet, except for her breathing—shaky, uneven, pained.

you dropped to your knees beside her, hands hovering over her as if she were made of glass.

she cracked one swollen eye open, her lips twitching like she was about to smirk, about to throw out some cocky remark to make you feel better. but nothing came.

instead, her fingers curled into the fabric of your shirt, holding on like it was the only thing keeping her from falling apart.

and then, for the first time in two years of loving her, sevika cried.

she buried her face against your chest, her broad shoulders trembling. tears—real tears—hot and silent, soaking into your skin. it shattered something inside you, something you hadn’t even realized could break.

you wrapped your arms around her, pulling her closer, cradling her like she was something precious, something fragile—something you would burn the world for.

you stayed like that for an hour. maybe longer. just rocking her gently, pressing trembling kisses against her temple, whispering things you weren’t even sure made sense. she never cried out loud, but you felt every sob against your chest as she soaked it in tears, in the way her grip on your shirt tightened to the point of tearing.

finally, she spoke.

“i can’t hold you like I truly want now..”

and just like that.. you heard your heart shatter, your fingers threaded through her hair, your lips brushing over her damp forehead.

“you still have me.”

and you meant it. every word.

no matter how many pieces she came home in, no matter how much she thought she lost—she still had you.

always.

[melmedarda]

arcane ep 1 dashboard simulator

🌉 pilt-power Follow

did we all hear about the explosion in the kiramman building in midtown? somebody's getting fired and i hope its old cassie

🗝️ kirammankitty Follow

literally get off her case? yes it was an apprenta from her clan whos apartment was blown up but its not her fault. she is a mother and a fully functioning member of society you're just jealous you'll never be as rich and influential as she is

🌉 pilt-power Follow

don't know how to tell you this but she's not gonna fuck you.

#some people wanna eat the rich and not in the cannibalistic way #anways fuck the kirammans

🏚️ zaun-and-zest Follow

deckard won't admit it but he got his ass handed to him by a girl. so much for his hardass exterior

🥊 fist-in-your-face Follow

are you saying girls can't fight?

🌐 worldstarzaun Follow

i saw thatttt bro, she let him have it. we were like let him get up, let him get up #deckardassbeating

🏚️ zaun-and-zest Follow

no i'm implying he is weaker than a girl do not put words in my mouth i will enforce my foot up your ass

🍃 downthesump420 Follow

i swear to janna if that pleasure house yordle makes eyes at me again i'm jumping into the pilt and filing a restraining order

🏩 babettes-saggy-tits Follow

why is it you. what do you have that i do not?

👤 life-in-the-lanes-deactivated-3404985 Follow

those damn kids have got the fucking enforcers breaking down my door and for WHAT. this is why i don't want kids they are too much trouble. normalize celibacy

🍺 alkaholical Follow

you won't have that chance have kids bc nobody will sleep with you unless you pay them

👤 life-in-the-lanes-deactivated-3404985 Follow

my mother will know your name

🐹 deathtoheimer Follow

you aren't living in zaun if you don't have multiple organ failure!!!!

🐹 deathtoheimer Follow

👮🏾 grayson-fanpage Follow

Grayson sighted in the Lanes, at Benzo's shop.

🚨 graysonsulimatefanboy Follow

grayson pick me please pick me please pick me please pick me please pick me please pick me im on my knees pleace pick me plouse pick me come over i'm at 69 sidereal st

🫄graysoncocksleeve Follow

mommy longdick just landed back in the lanes!!!!!! welcome mommy longdick!!!!

🚓 graysontheemilf Follow

now what is she doing in the ghetto? free my milf!!! grayson come home baby, the kids miss you!!

🔗 graysons-left-asscheek Follow

humilating how you all are begging over an enforcer who enables piltover's unjust presence and occupation of zaun. disgusting!!! the gray has muddled your minds. that being said, i need grayson to dom me.

🚫 defundthenenforcers Follow

using this post as a blocklist, all of you are sick fucks

🍻 thelastfop Follow

fuck that piltie marcus his stupid face makes me want to kill someone

💦 dilfvander Follow

a fellow marcus hater on my dash??? legendary because i hate that sleeze bag too. i hope he stubs his toe every morning and gets an itch he can never scratch and falls into the pilt and is run through a ship propeller and his remains float out to bilgewater where he becomes fish food. dishonor on him and his family fr.

🍻 thelastfop Follow

bro said

[unknownmoonchild]

You know, I was thinking about how we joke around that if Ekko hadn't scammed Jayce then nothing bad wouldn't have happened and such but if you really think about it, Silco was coming for Vander either way, he was already working on Shimmer before the kids were even in Piltover. The only thing that would change was that Sevika and Co. probably wouldn't have turned against Vander because there were no Enforcers harassing people thus no reason to think Vander was weak.

That means the kidnapping, wouldn't have happened outside Benzo's, most likely it would've happened at the Last Drop which means everyone there would've been likely to get kill, included Sevika.

Vander gets kidnapped and the kids go bust them out, then it does look like they have the opportunity to escape (right before Powder exploded everyone) but there's no guarantee they would have gone too far with Deckard on the chase, this is the first time they come face to face with Shimmer.

Meaning Vander probably would've sacrificed himself to save the kids.

They are alive and together and Powder keeps being Powder, but Vander still dies and Silco still spreads shimmer everywhere.

And then there's the other side of the coin, Hextech. The explosion creates Hextech, if Jayce hadn't been judged for the explosion, Viktor wouldn't have heard about Jayce's research (because it looks like Jayce had no intention to share), so then he wouldn't have help him figure the things out. Who knows if Jayce alone could've eventually come to the same solution.

Granted, Hextech advanced more quickly than the Shimmer did, but for a period of time Silco would actually have something to threaten Piltover with even if Jayce figured it out on his own.

And then you have more obvious things like Grayson wouldn't have die or Caitlyn and Vi wouldn't have met at least the way they did.

And that brings me to another point, if Grayson doesn't die, then Silco doesn't have the sheriff on his pocket, that means he didn't have the way to supply the Shimmer (or whatever it was they were doing when the firelights attacked the ship) to whoever he did, so maybe he would've have been caught sooner or maybe not.

Don't mind me I'm just rambling lmao can it be Saturday already?

[greatbananaboat]

i wanna talk about this comment on my post abt how vi was parentified really quick.

first off, this is some actual bullshit. let me break this question down before i go into how vi is an INCREDIBLE sister and better than anyone i know.

this question is the exact kind of bs i was referring to in the post. I’m tired of people holding vi to insanely high standards and refusing to acknowledge that powder/jinx is also far from perfect. y’all give powder/jinx WAY too much slack compared to how harshly you judge vi. that’s so evident in the way this question is worded. imagine watching a scene where powder 1) ignores what vi told her to do, stay away, which vi told her SO SHE COULD STAY SAFE, 2) disregards the fact that vi was trying to keep her safe by going to the DANGEROUS SHIMMER FACTORY, where, in case you forgot, deckard (the one who brutally killed benzo and grayson, remember that?) is, 3) uses an incredibly dangerous explosive that she hasn’t ever tested or really understood in order to try and be helpful when she was specifically told to stay away, and 4) kills her entire family except vi, and then coming away with the conclusion that actually, she just made a “mistake” and vi must be in the wrong for getting angry with her!

the levels of absolute moronic incompetence that have to be overcome here is honestly painful. I’m trying to enjoy my goddamn show, not deal with idiots like you who try to shit on every aspect of it and get everything so blatantly wrong.

so why don’t we actually talk about vi for a second? because clearly you were watching the show with a blindfold on and headphones over your ears. there’s no other explanation for why you’re so off base here.

vi loses both parents at age 12. powder also loses her parents, at a younger age, no less, but she is the little sister. she still has an older figure in her life who can take care of her. vi now has to deal with the loss of her parents and take care of her baby sister at the same time. she has vander, yes, but powder is her sister. she’s still got to look out for her.

at some point during the time skip, mylo and claggor get involved. now vi has three younger siblings to take care of. again, yes vander is there, but he has the last drop and he’s the hound of the underground. he’s got a lot going on. as we clearly see, vi is the one the kids rally around. she cares for them, and from her conversation with vander, we know she’s expected to shoulder the responsibility of looking out for them. if anything happens to them, it’s on her. remember that bit.

vi looks out for powder CONSTANTLY. when mylo is complaining about powder being less capable, it’s vi who stands up for powder and calls mylo on his shit. as an older sister myself, it’s what i would do. no matter how frustrated i may be with my little siblings, i defend them with my life. vi also! brings powder along with them on their heist. this is SO important when it comes to understanding their relationship. she doesn’t HAVE to bring powder along! mylo even says he knew they shouldn’t have brought her. but even after powder ruins their heist, blowing up a building and then losing the bag on top of that, vi defends her. she wants her little sister to be included.

what happens with benzo and grayson is TERRIFYING. they’ve never seen anything like this. this was a murder of someone they are close to AND an enforcer. deckard kills indiscriminately and brutally. remember how i said that thing about how vi is responsible for her siblings? yeah. that’s why she tells powder to stay away. she doesn’t want powder to get hurt. say whatever you want abt this, she KNOWS what powder is capable of, and she’s scared for her little sister. she brings mylo and claggor because they’re older, they have experience.

and then the incident happens. vi watches her whole family die. the kids she was expected to protect? dead. mylo pinned against a wall, pole skewered through his chest, claggor crushed under rubble. vander dead in an alleyway, veins pumping purple with shimmer. for the second time, vi has lost nearly everyone she loves. shes sixteen years old.

she doesn’t even get five minutes to grieve before she sees powder. what the hell is she meant to think? she told powder to stay away, stay safe. next thing she knows, her whole family is dead and POWDER is the reason for it. she lashes out. i’ll be 100% honest? i’d be so much worse. powder got hit ONCE and called a jinx by vi when vi has just experienced one of the worst tragedies of her life. i’d say shes pretty lucky tbh.

but the more important thing is, after vi walks away, the MOMENT shes even marginally calmed down shes turning back for powder. it’s marcus who drugs her, marcus who drags her away, covering her mouth before she can scream powder’s name when she sees silco. she spends seven years in prison, passing each day with only the thought of getting back to powder.

i am sick and fucking tired of you imbeciles trying to claim vi wasn’t a good big sister. she deserves a goddamn break. want a quick rundown of powder vs vi in that moment, since i know your literacy is kind of shit? i’ll give you one, maybe you can understand a bit easier once it’s all laid out.

vi: has cared for powder their whole lives, spent 3/4ths of her entire childhood being parentified and the other quarter in PRISON, hits powder when she realizes powder is the reason her family is dead, walks away but tries to go back.

powder: doesn’t listen to vi when she tells her to stay away, uses unfamiliar magic in order to try and help, kills their whole family.

but yeah, powder just made an eensy weensy little oopsie and vi is such a horrible big sister for pummeling her face in! oh the tragedy of it all. get off my posts with your moronic bullshit. did we even watch the same show?

[querulousartisan]

Vector Trapped in the Network

Story Link

Rating: Mature

Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Category: M/M

Fandom: Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021)

Relationships: Jayce/Viktor (League of Legends), Caitlyn/Vi (League of Legends),

Lest/Mel Medarda, Ekko/Jinx (League of Legends)

Characters: Jayce (League of Legends), Viktor (League of Legends), Caitlyn (League

of Legends), Vi (League of Legends), Mel Medarda, Singed | Corin

Reveck, Lest (Arcane: League of Legends), Sky (Arcane: League of

Legends), Ximena Talis, Jinx (League of Legends), Vander (League of

Legends), Silco (Arcane: League of Legends), Ekko (League of

Legends), Other Character Tags to Be Added

Additional Tags: Heavily Inspired by The Evil Within, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism,

Dubious Science, Matrix style world, Alternate Universe - Modern

Setting, Jinx Goes by Powder (League of Legends), Hurt/Comfort,

Horror, Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, Blood and Injury,

Experimentation, Human Experimentation, Unethical Experimentation,

They are going t h r o u g h it, Protective Jayce (League of Legends),

Protective Viktor (League of Legends), Mind Control, Body Horror,

STEM (Evil Within), Whump, Suicidal Thoughts, Other Additional Tags

to Be Added, Medical Inaccuracies, not beta read we die like Deckard

Language: English

Summary:

Six months. For six months, Jayce mourned the death of his partner, Viktor. They had finally had the hope of a bright future, a chance at a full life when Jayce had gotten a call telling him that Viktor's life had been ripped away in a lab explosion. For six months, Jayce's life had fallen apart at the seams. He was slowly destroying himself with the intent of joining the one he longed for most. However, as Jayce finds himself in the clutches of a man with sinister intentions, the truth about Viktor's untimely demise comes to light. The partner that had been ripped away from Jayce Talis was still alive. Trapped in a hellish experiment. Jayce will do whatever it takes to get his partner back

Finally started my Evil Within inspired AU JayVik fanfiction. First fanfic that I have written in years. Hopefully I am not too rust.

[thewistlingbadger]

There are too many misconceptions around Vander's first death for my liking. Jinx is in no way shape or form responsible for Vander's death. Vander and Vi, very noticeably, survive the explosion. Since he did not die from the explosion Jinx caused, Jinx cannot be held responsible for his death. Silco ALSO isn't responsible for Vander's death. Silco does stab Vander and push him over a ledge, but once again, Vander very noticeably survived this. Vander drank shimmer, which is most likely the only reason he survived, got up, fought deckard, choked Silco, and then saved Vi. He was very much alive. What actually killed him was the fall damage he took when he saved Vi. He jumped out of a stone wall of a two story building and landed directly on his back. You can see as he gives his last words to Vi, blood is rushing out of the back of his skull. This is very clearly what ends up killing Vander, and I'm tired of people trying to shift blame onto someone else.

[one-chaotic-neautral]

Ok quick post before bed, but in s2 the reveal of Felicia (?) Vi and Powder's mother knowing and being friends with Silco and Vander adds a bit more complexity to Silco's relationship with them.

When I was rewatching s1 earlier I had a theory that Silco may have intended to try and recruit Vi (if she would be convinced, otherwise he probably would have killed her). It makes sense; she's a very strong fighter showcased by her taking down his big henchmen, she resembles a younger Vander, and her attitude toward piltover aligns moreso with Silco in that she wants to fight them. Then adding her mother into the equation maybe he wanted to give her a chance out of maybe old fondness or guilt for her.

What made me think this specifically was that scene in episode 3 where he tells deckard to 'find the girl' after the explosion.

At first it seems 'to kill her ofc' but he didn't mention mylo or claggor, who he had no way of knowing where dead at that point (for sure). So he had Vi in mind specifically, and said 'find' not 'kill' or 'deal with'.

But what more is in Episode 6, when Silco ambushes Vi and Caitlin at her childhood home. First off Huck was the one who gave up their location, but I think Silco also knew where she might go if he knew their parents, cause that's Vi's childhood home. Makes sense why he got there so quickly even if he got told by someone else.

When they're talking he calls her 'Vanders prodigy', so he was obviously aware of her skill as a fighter, likely before their encounter in ep 3 (cause I feel like it is an old title that would've come about from him being aware of her being trained by Vander beforehand)

(Contrary to some others theories, I don't believe he was involved at all in their childhoods, likely observing from afar.)

Then he reveals he 'thought she was the prize of their secondhand family', so he was obviously aware of her for a while before adopting Jinx.

This is the main reason why I believe he wanted to recruit Vi instead. If he was that aware of them already he was probably having them watched and likely knew about her disagreements with Vander over fighting topside.

So if this theory is correct, he likely never planned on outright killing Vi and Powder unless he had to. Which now know about his friendship with their mother makes even more sense.

On the other hand, if this isn't the case, then I think it would make arc 1 Silco even more evil as he was willing not only to kill Vander and some kids, but the kids he knew were the children of his old friend, who'd died in front of him, and made him promise to make a better future for.

[mollysunder]

Does Sevika Have What it Takes to Run Zaun?

The power vacuum in Zaun is sure to be a major source of conflict next season. There will be plenty of figures, both known and unknown, that will try to gain control of what's left of Silco's Shimmer empire and thus the center of Zaun's black market. Of all the candidates that could possibly replace Silco, one of the strongest contenders is Silco's right hand, Sevika. Sevika has many of the qualities that make her an excellent candidate to take Silco's place. Sevika is one of few key players that is trusted by the members of Silco's organization, brutally competent at her job, and genuinely believes in Zaun's independence. The real question is, can Sevika handle Silco's mantle?

Sevika has a lot going for her, but just as much against her, and one of her main problems is that she uses Jinx as a crutch for her shortcomings. When the Firelights destroyed the shipment of Shimmer that was supposed to go out on Progress Day, she laid the blame for the operation's failure squarely on Jinx. It's true that Jinx did injure at least one member of her team in friendly fire and failed to protect the cargo, but everyone else failed too, including Sevika. Not only were all of the crew easily ambushed, none of them had any countermeasures for a known enemy. One guy grabbed a harpoon gun and missed miserably with each shot. Jinx herself wouldn't have gotten involved if Sevika and the crew were better able to work proactively, maybe by investing in a net gun.

Worse still, Sevika claimed she could have handled the situation without Jinx, which is practically a lie. Without Jinx, the Shimmer would have been destroyed much faster, there would have been no one to delay the Firelights or take down 5 of the 8 that were present. But Sevika would rather use the situation to cast more focus on Jinx to undermine her position rather than manage the critical failure in defense that the rest of the team demonstrated under pressure. Silco even pointed this out, the audience was just more inclined to see his opinion as biased.

You can't let Jinx be the excuse for why everything goes wrong, all it does is make everyone zero-in on just Jinx's mistakes rather than take a few steps back to examine why things went wrong. If that actually happened, then someone might actually ask, "How did the did the Firelights know there'd be an important shipment going out on Progress Day?". Or "How did they know which ship they'd be using if they obscure any identifying information on the ship manifests?". And more importantly, "Is there a mole?". Instead, you get a team that drinks and parties after a real shitshow because their direct boss confirms that all their problems are just one person.

This all bleeds into another main issue of hers. Every time Sevika's in a confrontation, she thinks like an individual rather than a leader. The first time she fights Vi, she let's two of her underlings runaway rather than help her. When Vi comes back for round 2 with the same special hextech that caused so much mayhem at the Shimmer Refinery, Sevika tells the entire crew there to leave so they can go 1-v-1. Everytime something comes up, Sevika chooses not to delegate work or strategize with others around an obstacle, she'd rather take on the responsibility for problems like this by herself.

You could argue that Sevika was the only one capable of fending off Vi, especially with Sevika's new prosthetic's enhancements. But Sevika left no room for support in the background to at least distract Vi or give Sevika cover. If we go way back to the Cannery, Silco has to hold back Sevika from fighting Vi because he thought it was a better idea to use Deckard than do the same thing over again. And he was right! It was better to throw a Shimmer'ed up Deckard at Vi, and reserve Sevika when everyone else lost to Vi. If he hadn't Sevika wouldn't have saved him from the explosion.

If all this wasn't enough, the way Sevika is portrayed in terms of power, doesn't bode well for her potential as a leader. Plenty have pointed out that smoking is a symbol of power in Zaun, those with even a modicum of power smoke. What isn't always pointed out is how anyone who's interrupted smoking, inevitably loses power.

The first time it happened was with Vander, Marcus snatched his pipe and extinguished Vander's flame in his drink. The next episode Marcus' deal with Silco sealed the end of Vander's regime. A man on a smoke break at Silco's refinery (probably a manager) is immediately held at gunpoint by an enforcer part of the raid, where everyone caught was likely arrested and lost their jobs. Silco never actually lost his cigar, and so when he was killed, it wasn't politically motivated, it was an accident.

Curiously, Sevika and the Enforcers from the Progress Day attack actually smoke the same kind of cigarillos. These enforcers happen to be the only Piltovans we see smoke in the series, maybe because they're lower class or former Zaunites themselves. Unlike all the the other times, no one had to directly force them to stop smoking, Jinx made them drop it by simply terrifying them. And Jinx would go on to kill at least a score of enforcers including the Sheriff. Jinx likely threw the chain of command in disarray, doubly so if she killed at least 5 councilmen who the Sheriff would report to.

It makes for an interesting parallel when Vi first attacks Sevika and knocks out her symbol of power. In that scene Sevika managed to win her card game with Trump cards that heavily resembles Jinx and Viktor, but even when she wins, she still loses her cigarillo. All Vi needed to do was catch Sevika off guard and apply force, the same as the other enforcers (and even the Firelights). Later she'll let Finn light up her cigarillo while he affirms her strengths in Zaun.

By the finale, we see her after she's been beaten by Vi, Sevika chooses to go to Silco's office to smoke one of Silco's cigars while he'sgone, but she can't light it on her own. While this might foreshadow that she'll try to take Silco's place, Sevika struggles to light the cigar because if you notice in her hand is a lighter with a fancy "F" on it, Sevika's using Finn's lighter. Silco, Vander, and Finn all had their own matches and lighters. To light Silco's cigar, Sevika uses means by which she took from Finn, a man she just killed for an ill planned selfish gambit for power.

This alone wouldn't look too bad, because as I see it, in Zaun, it's not the act of smoking but the imagery of smoke itself that's associated with power, and you don't need to smoke to have smoke. Look at Jinx and Vi, both command considerable influence on the ongoing developments between the two cities and align with strong figures. Neither of the two smoke, instead they cover themselves in smokelike tattoos, Jinx's tattoos literally resembles the blue smoke of her first succesful bomb. In contrast to their predecessors both manage to embody their power more wholly onto their person in a way that's less vulnerable than the smoking tradition to usurpation. Sevika herself also wears smoke like patterns on her collar, which are less prominent or permanent than Jinx and Vi's tattoos.

Each issue alone is cause for concern in the viability of Sevika's potential leadership role, but altogether they create a solid line of doubt for if she can pull it off. To make it work she needs to shape up Silco's former crew because she can't be the only one pulling any weight. They're all going to face a conflict that will only grow more complex, demanding, and fast changing as time goes on. A situation like that prior to Jinx's rocket would have easily have incapacitated them, now it's all going to happen on a larger scale. Sevika needs to recognize what went right and wrong for Silco, Vander, and Finn.

Tldr: The chance for Sevika to be Zaun's new leader will be an uphill climb for her for sure. Her biggest problems is that she takes the lead rather than utilizing the team, she gets easily caught off guard, and Jinx can put blinders on her perspective. She's kind of like an older more seasoned Vi that never gave up on Zaun's independence warts and all.

[saintheartwing]

Analyzing Arcane: Vi

Last time we talked about Jinx. This time, I'm talking about Vi, Jinx/Powder's sister.

Vi, even at a young age, is given clear characterization as the more responsible, mature, has-her-shit-together sister out of the two. She's the one who told her sister keep your eyes shut while we're walking to safety. But even she can't hold it together when she sees her parents are apparently dead. It's upon Vander to help get them to safety, carrying the load. He can't carry their grief, but he can carry them.

We also see though that Vi has both equal hate for Piltover and it's high society pricks...and desire. She wants to go where those people are, as in the words of the Little Mermaid! And hey, compared to where they end up stuck, who wouldn't?

We also see that she's a clear, natural leader. She's the head of her little gang, and treats their thefts topside not just as simply a way to help pay the bills...but also as adventures AND a kind of "break" in an of itself. Them being up top is dangerous, but freeing.

We also see that despite the hardship she endured, it hasn't made her cruel or heartless. When Powder says that one day she wants to ride in one of the big, impressive zepplins flying by, Vi smiles at the thought...and when Mylo says "And one day I'm gonna shoot one of 'em down", she whacks his arm away. She clearly doesn't find THAT funny. He's not just being a little mean (given how he likes to bust Vi's balls you can argue he's going "yeah and I'll shoot your ship down when you get on it" to piss her off), he ruined the nice moment they were having. Way to kill the mood, Mylo!

When she sees Powder is afraid to jump to the next roof, she helps ease her over, and then catches her when she's just about to fall, showing she's still a responsible older sister figure. Her compassion, her responsibility, her natural leadership skills are all here...along with a bit of wit. Yeah, Vander will probably kick their asses if they screw up... "So DON'T SCREW UP."

We also see she prefers the direct route. They can't get the door they need open and Mylo says "I'm the only one who knows how to pick locks"...but Vi just "cuts the Gordian Knot" and kicks the door open. Problem solved. Now, granted...this ALSO shows a bit of recklessness, if someone HEARD THAT...they'd be in huge trouble.

We also see she's smart. She figures out, looking at all of the machinery in the room AND the complex equations on his chalkboard they must be in an inventor's house. AND she's also a skilled fighter, which we see when she fights off Deckard. Even when he's got a knife, her sheer FEROCITY makes him back down. Now, unfortunately things don't quite work out. Powder tries to escape with the loot they got...annnnnd she drops the bag while running from one of Deckard's goons. It understandably gets her friends kinda upset. But their father figure Vander's even MORE upset when he finds out what they did.

He tells Vi that the kids look up to her, and when you're the leader...you CAN'T be selfish. You have to put THEIR needs above your own, you have to be more responsible, more careful, because whatever happens is on her. Heavy lies the head that wears the crown, as the saying goes. And on top of that, violence in the end doesn't solve problems. It just makes more.

Later she has a talk with her sister, who thinks that maybe, she's just a jinx, worthless, of no help to the gang. Vi tells Jinx that truth be told, they all have bad days, and as long as they stick together...they'll be fine. But...she makes a mistake. When Powder shows off that she kept the jewels from their job...(which we, the audience know, cause EXPLOSIONS when they hit stuff), Vi tells her not to tell Vander about them. She's trying to protect her sister because Vander had said "nothing can tie you to that job topside or you'll get in trouble". The thing is...them TELLING Vander about this probably WOULD have been the smart thing. They'd find out what the things can do and either find a safe time to sell them, or they'd get rid of the things...and there wouldn't be any heartache later on.

Things go bad when Enforcers find them based off a tip from Deckard. Vi KNOWS Powder has the stones from up top, they gotta run...and run fast. They barely escape, but then Silco shows up not too long after. Ekko's father figure is killed, and Vander is taken. They know WHERE he's taken though and intend to get him back. There's just one thing...Powder wants to come.

But now, after all those talks with Vander AND him being taken away, Vi's thinking more carefully. If this all goes bad...she doesn't want to lose Powder. Even though she tells Powder "You're not ready", she asks Powder to stay behind, saying she couldn't bear for her to die if the rescue mission goes badly. She's trying to soften the blow. She also gives her a flare gun and tells her that if they come after her, shoot the flare and she'll come running.

Unfortunately Powder has kind of a fit. She angrily tosses stuff around and then she finds one of the blue gems and realizes "Wait, it makes stuff explode, I can use it to help save Vander"...only for it all to go downhill. What she does not only loses Vander, but kills Mylo and Claggor too. Vi's left with almost nothing...except the person whom she TOLD TO STAY HOME.

And...WELL, she lashes out.

And I get why. Vi has literally lost just about everyone but Powder, and Powder is the reason WHY she's lost just about everyone. All the built-up frustration, anger, disappointment she's been holding back not just because as the leader she needs to be strong but as Powder's sister...she CAN'T anymore. The love she feels for Powder turns to hate. Even when Powder uses her full name...

Which BTW, in writing is basically what you do to show things are really serious...

Vi can't help it. She calls Powder a jinx, saying Mylo was right about her...then she realizes "Oh my God I just hit my sister", looking down at her hands in horror.

She remembers what Vander said. Violence just makes more problems.

Boy was he right. But she's hurting right now. She's torn between her love for her sister, her horror at what she did, her horror at what SHE did, and her anger, and she just can't deal. So she walks off as Powder calls back that she needs her.

Vi, however...needs space. She needs space, she needs time to grieve, to process.

All she can do is slip into unconsciousness, assuming her sister is gonna die.

So...we've learned a lot about her. Despite how flawed she is, even when she was at her lowest point, the SECOND she sees her sister is in real, genuine danger she's immediately running off to try and save her and it's only INCREDIBLY BAD LUCK that keeps her from doing that. Remember, she has EVERY RIGHT to just be like "f--k her" after all Powder did, a lot of people WOULD angrily leave Powder to her fate.

But Vi loves her sister.

She can't just abandon her. Even after she's taken EVERYTHING from her. Because the core of Violet...is responsibility...and love.

Years later, Vi's changed a bit. She got way stronger...more buff...and tons of tattoos too. Caitlyn, an Enforcer from Piltover, goes to Vi and asks for her help, and Vi recognizes the particular GRAFFITI left behind at the crime scene. She'd know that monkey anywhere...it's Powder's.

So, Caitlyn busts her out of prison. And Vi naturally runs back to the Undercity. She's overwhelmed with emotions. It's like riding a bicycle, familiar, almost comforting.

Yet...also sad. Her best and worst memories are here, as she looks at what happened to Vander's bar. She tries to find out where Powder is, but by now Powder has changed SO much as Jinx...that basically nobody BUT Ekko has realized who she is. But the thing is, while she's gotten tougher...she's not invincible. She gets badly hurt, and Caitlyn saves her.

The good news is that Vi's hopeful. For the first time in a long time...she might get her sister back. That's when she meets Silco.

"What have you done with my sister?" "I have freed her. Candidly? I thought YOU were the prize of your family. But Jinx? Oh, she's more than I ever imagined!"

And the thing is...

Jinx has something. Something from her past.

The flare gun Vi gave her.

Despite how cruel and twisted she's become, Jinx has held onto the memory of Vi and what she represents. The hope...that Vi will come back to her and they can be sisters again. And Vi sees it.

Vi tries to apologize and Powder says she's changed, and Vi's not mad. "You did what you had to do to survive, what matters is we're together".

Unfortunately...this happy moment doesn't last. When Jinx sees Caitlyn, she begins to slip into a psychotic episode. Just when it looks like MAYBE Vi is getting through...Ekko's gang shows up and makes things worse. The sisters are separated yet again. And Vi finds out what's happened with Ekko.

It's a strong moment for them. Vi's just glad to see a friend. She thought he was gone too. Ekko's glad she's back, and he's also remorseful too. He thinks maybe if he'd gone with them, they could have saved Vander and Powder wouldn't be Jinx. Vi tries to tell him that for all he knows HE could have died too, or ended up perhaps another of Silco's goons. But she still thinks she can save her sister. She saw the recognition in Powder's eyes. She was CLOSE. She can do it.

Ekko shows her a mural...it's everyone they lost. All the ones they loved...and Powder is there too, because even though she's not gone...she is. Cuz Jinx pushed her down a well. Jinx works for Silco because she WANTS to.

But Vi insists...she has to try.

They find out that a pure gemstone is what Jinx wants for Silco. If they bring it back topside they can hopefully make some degree of peace, and bring Silco to justice. But Jinx uses butterfly bombs to attack when Caitlyn and Ekko get caught by Enforcers, and almost everyone BUT those two die. Vi, horrified that Jinx was so casually willing to kill, manages to get Caitlyn to safety and leaving Ekko to fight Jinx. Vi's clearly hurt that Jinx fires on her and Caitlyn, but she leaves all the same.

Later on, Caitlyn and Vi are bonding as Vi talks about her sister. She used to play a game where she and Powder would pretend to be monsters. Then the game turned into Vi chasing monsters away from Powder.

But then a real monster showed up...and Vi just ran. And Powder ran into the monster's arms.

Vi and Caitlyn present their findings to the Council. They tell them about Silco but the Council doesn't seem to want to intervene the way Vi wants.

Vi's naturally frustrated and furious. She went through all this, has possibly lost her sister AGAIN...and nobody's doing ANYTHING to help. Caitlyn tries to calm her down, but Vi says there's nothing they can do. It's oil and water.

Even them. Oil and water.

Even though Vi clearly doesn't want to believe it. She's obviously hurt. She allowed herself to dream of a better life...and instead she's left with disappointment. This is what happens when she gets her hopes up...they're dashed.

But...there's one person who seemed to listen on the council. Jayce.

And Jayce...has power fists.

She recognizes Jayce is someone Caitlyn trusts. If Caitlyn trusted him...maybe, just maybe...he can help. If they can trust down the shimmer manufacturing plants, where he makes the drugs...they'll shut HIM down. And Jayce is just as sick as Vi of doing nothing but TALKING ALL DAY.

It's time for action. Vi has decided to go the direct route...and just bust.

Down.

The door.

What's the time?

HAMMER TIME!

And it goes great! They beat the SHIT out of the shimmer-enhanced guards...

Until a stray shot from Jayce's hammer gun hits one of the workers and he realizes... "Oh fuck. FUCK. There's CHILD WORKERS HERE."

Jayce decides he simply can't keep doing this. Not if it means more kids might die. He'd rather make a deal with Silco. Silco gets his nation of Zaun if he shuts down shimmer production, gives over the gemstones and Jinx.

Caitlyn goes to blow off steam...by beating the ever-loving shit out of the enforcer of Silco who'd stabbed her before and nearly beaten her, whom Caitlyn saved her from previously. Now, all she pretty much wants...is revenge. And she's gonna get it in an act of symbolism...taking back Vander's bar. Starting from the bottom all over again.

She almost loses...but a vision of Vander speaks to her. Vi...Powder needs you. The Undercity needs you. You can't lose.

And she doesn't. She finally wins...and with only ONE power arm.

Just...when Jinx shows up to take her.

Jinx really seems to blame Vi for creating her...that her leaving is what made Powder into Jinx. Vi apologizes again for leaving and says NOTHING will stop her from being her sister. And as you might remember when I talked about Jinx...she's set up a unique dinner.

Silco and Caitlyn are there as prisoners. And Vi notices...Jinx has not only created DOLLS of Mylo and Claggor...she got Vi's favorite toy. The bunny Vi talked about someone tossing up into some phone wires that never came down. She's only NOW beginning to realize that Jinx's delusions might, just MIGHT...be far stronger than anything else. She's getting a peek behind the curtain and it terrifies her. And Jinx gives her a gun. "Make her go away". She says. She wants her to shoot Caitlyn...and Vi can have Powder back.

Vi pleas for Powder to stop. They can just leave. They never have to see Silco again.

Caitlyn gets hold of the gun and is gonna shoot Jinx, but Vi pleads with her not to. "She's still my sister". Even after EVERYTHING, Vi wants to believe Powder can still be Powder. That it's not too late for her. Unfortunately...Jinx gets the gatling gun back. Vi tries to plead with her to remember their family, while Silco gets hold of Jinx's gun. He's about to shoot Vi and Jinx in turn shoots HIM. As you may remember from the last time I talked about it, Silco lives long enough to tell Jinx she’s perfect just the way she is. The affirmation she always wanted from her family.

She sadly sits in the “Jinx” seat she’s labeled at the table…totally given in to the dark side.

“I thought maybe you could love me like you used to. Even though I’m different. But you changed too. So...here’s to the new us.”

Vi kept hoping, even after everything Jinx did...that her sister was still redeemable. That they could be happy again. But they can't. It's never, ever gonna be the same again. Jinx ignores Vi's pleading...and then decides to go launch a rocket at the Council Chambers at Piltover...

The big problem with Vi...is that love isn't meant to be unconditional. If you truly love and respect someone there ARE conditions. Responsibilities. You have to be open and honest, you have to really respect what both your partner or your family wants...within REASON. Because there's no such thing in real life as an unlimited right.

Jinx had chance...after chance...to show she could be stronger than her dark side. And Vi, over and over again, tried to do what was right, and to do the responsible, just thing. But the series keeps punishing her.

Watching this is rough. I'm not gonna lie. It gets hard to watch, knowing that no matter how hard Vi tries to do what's right, and to do right by her home and her sister, and the woman she's come to love...it keeps all getting f--ked up.

The tragedy of Vi is she's had far too many crosses to bear than anyone should. And keeps giving second chances to someone who proved they already had their third and FOURTH chance...and just chose to be selfish over everything else.

And to think...I'm not even at the SECOND SEASON yet. I'll dive into that later. Hope you all enjoyed reading.

[existentialsophism]

Vi from Arcane is a bad person.

Of course, she’s hot. So there’s a little bit that I think is forgiven. Hell I kinda want to look like her. But she’s objectively not a good person. And certainly an absolutely awful sister.

In season 2 act 3 we saw that her death during the explosion of Jayce’s hex crystals resulted in a unified Zaun, peaceful relations between Piltover and Zaun, and a mentally stable Powder with a healthy relationship, a steady job and the ability to pursue her passion of engineering. Now why did Vi dying as a kid result in this? There are a lot of reasons.

Mylo talked shit on Powder all the time. He did it to Vi in season 1 and a big reason she was so upset to the point of having multiple episodes was because of it. Had Vi died Mylo probably wouldn’t have been able to get away with that anymore, because Vander would have shut it down. Plus, he was a good brother, just a bit of a shithead (as most older brothers are), so he gave everyone shit because he thought it was sort of funny. He wouldn’t have done that if Powder had just lost the older sister she really looked up to, who was also the default leader of the group. Vander would have likely taken a more direct role in protecting the kids rather than letting Vi run things for the most part.

Since Vi had died in the explosion, Deckard would have either just straight up stolen everything or would have just not bothered because Vi led them to him to begin with. This would have resulted in Silco being unable to extract any meaningful information from him, and just getting a little richer or something.

Because Vi was dead, Piltover’s enforcers would have found her body and been able to have a culprit that would have put the city on ease rather than Vander having to deal with Marcus and Grayson. The rest of Zaun would have simply mourned Vi’s death, and though Silco was against Vander, he wasn’t entirely unfeeling and would likely have at least paused his experiments on Deckard, which would explain why he found Vander’s bunker in the mines with the apology letters to Silco. Sevika wouldn’t have betrayed him to Silco either as she wouldn’t view him as weak, but understandably mourning.

This probably would have prevented Vander from being captured, if anything Silco would have abandoned his shimmer experiments and made amends with Vander, which resulted in the timeline Heimerdinger and Ekko are transported by the hexcore anomaly.

If we stay in the original timeline Vi never goes out of her way to help Powder. The one time she does is when she tells her to stay home while they rescue Vander, but even then they likely all would have died anyways and Powder would still feel responsible, even if Silco wasn’t there to immediately fill the hole Vi and Vander left.

When Powder literally saves her life, Vi yells at her and calls her a Jinx, and keep in mind she’s like 9 or something, she doesn’t really understand much yet. Yelling at someone who did their best and failed is the exact opposite of what you should do in that situation and it pretty much was the turning point that created Jinx.

Moving on, when Vi gets out of prison and tries to find Jinx she is asked to choose between her and Caitlyn. I’m just as big of a girl lover as the next lesbian but come on, she’s a cop you met like a week ago vs your sister who you pretty much just abandoned and have done nothing but insult for all the time she can remember you. I also get that Jinx was having psychotic episode at the time and wasn’t really all there mentally, but that’s entirely because of the things she heard Vi saying about her 7 years before. All of her actions while in this state contribute to the division between Piltover and Zaun, as well as introducing Ekko’s ecoterrorist organization as a third player in the fight for liberation. If this hadn’t happened, Ambessa wouldn’t have had a real reason to come to Piltover and start a war.

On the topic of Vi being a bad sister, she literally just gives up all of her principles to go be a cop and commits several war crimes while doing so, all to please her girlfriend or something. She subjugates the population she once believed in fighting to protect, and even though Silco is gone she uses absolutely excessive force to kill as many people as possible and to find and kill Jinx, who by now has come to terms with the fact that Vi is alive and is somewhat of a resistance leader herself. She even adopts Isha and becomes a genuinely good sister to her. Having someone who will listen is really healing for Jinx and she starts to grow of her own accord outside of Vi or Silco. All Vi does is cause her to have a traumatic breakdown and kill Silco in the first place. Even after that she’s still a total bitch.

Jinx literally just accepts death at Vi’s hands and Isha is the only one who stands between them. She wanted Vi to kill her so she could live with the guilt of watching her sister die because of her, just like she had to watch Vander, Mylo and Claggor die. Even after Caitlyn physically abuses and abandons her, Vi STILL doesn’t try to find and talk to Jinx at all, and just becomes an alcoholic pit fighter. It takes Jinx seeking out Vi for them to even talk again, and Jinx knew she was taking a huge risk doing so. Even still, Vi insults her as much as she can. She says the things she makes are dumb and that she couldn’t win in a fight as if that’s what matters at all. She was with Caitlyn for like a week and is still more affectionate to her than she is with her own sister.

The second she sees Caitlyn she leaves Jinx for her yet again, working with her after all of the abuse and hell Cait put her through. Jinx decides it would be better if she just died, so she gets Vi to release her and locks her in the cell. Instead of trying to find Jinx when Caitlyn comes back, she spends like an hour just eating her out. Meanwhile, Jinx is repeatedly committing suicide while Ekko rewinds to try and help her. Like come on she’s not even worried about her at all.

When Jinx is presumed dead after blowing up Warwick, Vi doesn’t even hold her a proper funeral. Of course there’s no body so it would be hard, but she just lights a bunch of little papers on fire. She has all of Caitlyn’s resources and doesn’t even hold a memorial for Powder/Jinx, but instead just keeps hitting on Caitlyn.

Mentally ill people with a ton of childhood trauma need to feel like someone actually cares about them, and Vi, who was the only true family Jinx had left, didn’t. At every opportunity to fix things she just ran away or ignored the problem entirely. I get that she’s lesbian representation or whatever, but it’s just playing into the stereotype that lesbians are domestic abusers and it’s an extremely toxic relationship that she mostly just uses as a distraction from having to actually talk to Jinx and fix things with her sister, who by the way still does love her.

Vi is not a good person.

[bookie2020]

The arcane- part 2 intro

(Just so you know the intro is mainly about the backstory of when they were all kids n it has some lil hints here n there)

We walked out of the sewers after half a hour but while walking through the area, deckard started talking to us. “Nice haul huh?” mylo shrugged. “You could say that” vi quickly slapped his chest and muttered “what the hell?” To which mulo just chuckled shyly.

“ you know theres a lot of commotion about some explosion, and that trouble you dragging through my streets?” i paused and rotated my shoulder to get some blood back through my arm even if i couldn't take out the stones yet. Vi had started to talk but claggor interrupted her saying we dotn want any trouble but i doubt thats gonna stop them. “We Won't have any problems we just want a taste of your score”. Vi put the bag lower to the floor while walking up to him. “Just a taste..?” he nodded and vi hit his head with it sending blood out of his face as she tossed powder the bag. I put my hands up and started fighting the first people that came up to me and honestly i must say everything was going good until another guy snuck up behind me and slashed my back. It was shallow enough for me to knock them out quickly but not enough to stop from almost falling over. Powder rushed under me and tried to guide me away quietly until one of the guys saw us and started chasing us. She tried her best to keep him off of us but we eventually ran to a corner and knocked over some wood while trying to hide. “Shit!- pow pow no matter what i do i need you to run away and get back to your sister, if vander asks tell him im out doing a job for some quick cash, ill be back before the next day” she hesitated then nodded her head as i took the bag from her and stepped out. I rushed the guy standing there and knocked him into some boxes. “Go!” powder ran away through the lane but right when she turned back i locked eyes with her before being pushed off the rails with the loot strapped on my back.

.

.

.

.

Mother can i see my little sister? A hand slapped across someones face “shes not your sister….shes a monster”

I shot awake and coughed out some water with the bag mostly still in tact. Whew glad i didnt loose it. I walked through the alley ways again as i could almost feel my back soaking with the dirty sea water and my own blood which- by the way is burnig like a bitch. After a couple mroe minutes of walking and some elevators i was back in front of the last drop and walked inside. I looked around the room nodding my head to the people i knew and i almost made it to the room until a hand smacked down on my shoulder. “Hey there want a drink~” i smiled and wrapped my arm around the guy shoulder. “Yeah lets do that handsome” we sat down at a separate table as he got our drinks from vander who didn't realize i was with the guy as he sat down, passing me my stuff. “So darlin whatchya doin out here” i spun my drink around carefully as i looked over at vander to make sure he didnt spot me yet and sipped on my drink. “Well yknow the usual, good start calls for a good free drink!” i put my cup up in a cheers motion which he gladly returned. “so….how about getting out of here with me and going down to that hotel”he reached his hand under the table and rubbed my thigh as i glanced at his entire outfit and i could put all of him together. ‘A broke bum who just got into the sex industry and is trying out the new dick they made for him’

“Sorry but I don’t like metal di-“ I stared him in the eyes while speaking and slowly reached for my dagger until another hand grabbed my arm, but unfortunately it was someone who i couldnt con. “Now what is this sight, your all gashed up but happily talking to a drug addict addict” he may have been smiling but i coud tell vander was livid. I chugged my drink before he could swipe it from me and stood up. “Get downstairs ill go to you in a minute” i shrugged my shoulders and started to walk away till the guy reached out, grabbing my wrist and harshly pulled my shoulder which made my somewhat healing wounds tear open even more. “shit man!”

“Get you own girl shes mine-” vander grabbed both of his shoulders and clenched down and i audibly head a bone crunch. “If you ever talk about or even look at her the way you have tonight ill hunt you down and kill you myself” he fearfully agreed and rushed out of the door while calling me all types of profanities as i just flipped him off and went downstairs when i locked eyes with vander.

After a couple minutes of me trying to rest my eyes in the dark room, vander had come in waking me out of my sleep. “What the hell was that” his voice was so irritated. “I wanted a drink?” he scratch his head “you know damn well im talking about coming back on your own and also in sopping wet clothes. “Well you see thats actually a funny story because my employer had spilled some-” he raised his eye brow and i immediately stopped talking and looked at my hands. “...look things got tricky so i had to get powder out since i couldnt protect her” “so jumping into the sea was your answer” “it was either that or loose all the loot and have this all be for nothing!” i threw the bag on the floor at his feet. “Vander those kids are so special to me, you know how horrible it would have been to not be able to protect them id rather it be me than them” im not even apart of their family why bother. “And how do you think they feel.”

I paused trying to think of something else to say but all of the words escaped me like a gut punch. “Dont treat me like a child…” he rolled his eyes and grabbed my hands from his seat and pulled me in front of him. “If i was treating you like a kid i wouldn't talk to you like this.” i sighed and sat back down, plopping myself in my chair. “ so what does this mean for your deal with the enforcers?” he flinched in shock. “How did you know?”

“Knowing you theres no way you would have been quiet for this long without good reason” he smiled wearily. “They need someone to take the fall for couple years. “Shit vander! Was there really nothing else” he clenched his fist and put his head down as i clenched my fist. “Fine ill- ill see what i and do, tell the enforcers to grab the person in benzos shop but keep benzo out of there in case things get ugly and hide the loot”. He nodded and quickly wrapped up my wounds and handed me a gauntlet that worked as a transceiver. “ you can talk to the on enforcer i trust through here when your ready to give the person. I nodded and started to walk out. “Oh tell the group that i'm okay and this mission wasn't there fault i'm really proud okay” i smiled when vander agreed as i shut the door. I gave myself some time to let my wounds regenerate enough to where they would stop bleeding before finally heading out. I took one last glance at the last drop before putting down my favorite dagger on the door. “From ashes to jail, what a dreary finish” I sighed and threw my hood on before walking through the rest of the lanes. I grabbed myself a bowl of Jericho’s then finally went over to benzos and sat myself down in the middle waiting for the enforcers.

Back with vander

Vander cleaned the glasses roughly while thinking back about McKenzie. That girls gonna get killed one of these days and I have no clue how to stop them. He grimaced until powder had came up to the bar and smiled before pouring her favorite juice which coincidentally also happened to be her moms favorite. Powder normally jumped for joy when she got it but instead she just kept playing with a dagger. “What’s got you down sweetie?” She looked over at vander and small tears left her eyes and vander finally saw it. Her daggers? What the hell is that doing here if she said she was going to-

Oh my god.

[dothestarsshine-art]

I agree, I totally think he knows/ordered it! You've got so many supporting points up there I hadn't even thought of, but my reasoning has been that Singed was blown up in the cannery explosion, he was in no state to secretly have Vander dragged somewhere else, he was out of commission, just lost half his face, etc.

Silco was the one standing 10 feet from Vander's body, alive and well with what remained of his crew at his disposal. And I do believe that he planned to use Vander for shimmer experiments, that he had early designs to spitefully twist Vander's reputation as the hound of the underground. Vander's like, "I'm just not that man anymore." And Silco's like, "Bet."

I think that when Deckard reports on the mess the kids made topside and Silco's takeaway is, "Vander's in trouble - our timeline has moved up," he was moving it up specifically because he doesn't want to risk losing Vander to death or prison before he can abduct him. Then as Vander's turn the other cheek policy starts brewing a mutiny, that all helps as well.

I like to think that in Silco's mind, he has actually, finally put Vander to rest, that he has separated Vander and Warwick so completely in his head and heart, that he can have Warwick reports on his desk to review and then still go talk to his dead brother Vander at the statue in the square. Just like Silco did with himself, just like how he thinks Jinx has to be, the weak innocent is dead, the more deserving monster remains. Silco is ruthless, Jinx is strong, Warwick is his attack dog.

Does Silco Know?

I'm surprised by the number of people I've talked who believe Silco is unaware of what Singed is doing to Vander, that it is all happening behind his back. Here I wanted to go over the reasons why Silco almost certainly played a roll in Warwick's creation, and perhaps even ordered it.

Weapon of War

Silco needs terrifying, never-before-seen weapons if an overwhelmingly underarmed Zaun is to scare Piltover into submission- it's why he has shimmer created and why he instructs Jinx to create Fishbones. It is likely that Warwick is intended to be another one of these wildcards.

Money and Strength

Singed's funding comes from Silco, so it would be difficult for him to hide such an audacious project. Singed also doesn't have the strength to carry shimmer-Vander's corpse away to his lab, but Silco's thugs do.

Holding On

Silco's biggest flaw is his inability to let the past and his loved ones go, and the way he, like Jinx, destroys what he loves. Silco romanticizes the betrayal and reminisces of the time he and Vander fought together. He refuses to give up on Vander, even forgiving him for the drowning and trying to reconcile. Vander has moved on, he refers to Silco as "brother" only in the past tense, but Silco continues to call Vander brother, even after the failed reconciliation and his "death." When Silco finds Jinx on the bridge, he tells Singed to keep her alive, even insists that "she can't die," despite being warned that the process will be torturous and it would be more merciful to let her go. He can't bring himself to do this because he loves her too much, too selfishly, to give her up to death or topside. Would it be that much of a stretch to suggest he did the same with Vander?

Hallucinations

After the explosion, Jinx hallucinates Vi, Mylo, and Claggor because she knows she killed them or indirectly caused their deaths. Jinx's bomb also helped to bring about Vander's demise, and she saw Vander's corpse. Despite this, she doesn't hallucinate him- not until e9, when she is already in a severe psychotic episode and Vi yells his name. Plus, in the concept for her minigun, she has scrawled "THREE LIVES" into one of the barrels. Mylo, Claggor, and Vi, but what about the fourth? It seems that Jinx may be aware that Vander is still alive, but how could she know unless Silco also knows?

So, if Silco knows, why would he talk to Vander's statue and not Warwick?

A- Privacy

Talking to Warwick means talking in the presence of Singed, who we see in e8 Silco doesn't trust. It's bad enough before you remember that not only does Silco say that Vander, who the undercity turned against, was right all along; he reveals that he is in the same spot Vander was in and is going to make the same decision; he is going to choose Jinx over Zaun, the same choice that lead to Vander's downfall. Silco is not going to risk Singed knowing that.

B- Pain

Throughout the show, Silco disassociates from pain, both his own and the pain he causes others. You can see this from the way he romanticizes his trauma, flinches and looks away at the cat being ripped apart, and reacts to the death of Renni's child. You can also see this when he kidnaps Vander- the blank, distant expression on arrival, the way he looks down and away when Benzo dies and Vander is punched, and how his good eye shines on the verge of tears. But he doesn't cry and he never does, because in his situation, to feel pain and empathy is a death sentence- the perfect way to prove your weakness and turn your allies against you. After all, it was his empathy towards Jinx that caused him to love her, and it was his love for her that turned Sevika and the chembarons against him. If killing Vander's friend and knocking him out was that painful for Silco, imagine how much worse it would be for him to see Vander disfigured, barely alive and in a constant state of mind-shattering agony, being sliced open and pumped full of chemicals. Singed had to drug Silco to keep him from going crazy over Jinx's similar transformation. Silco simply cannot bear to face the pain that he puts Vander through.

[a-gal-with-taste]

When do you think Silco/his goons realized he has a soft spot for Jinx? The fact he gives her a pass whenever she screws something up must’ve been known for a while, considering he'd probably punish someone else for doing the same thing.

In my humble opinion, they knew something was up with Silco the moment these scenes happened:

"But Gal that's literally the first few minutes of Silco meeting Jinx-" Yeah, and what's the first thing he's doing? Hugging her, comforting her.

And in the first gif, not doing a damn thing when she throws herself at him for a hug.

And that HAD to have sent off some weird, 'boss, wtf' signals to the remaining goons around him, consitering literally everything that they witnessed/experienced in the last... hour? 30 minutes? Maybe 10??

Because for context, THIS is what happened in the last 60-10 minutes in that warehouse:

As a quick note before we dive into this; I personally do not think, despite the image of Silco walking up to her with a knife, that he was going to kill Jinx.

Do I think he was capable of it? Yes, and I think the shots ominous shots of him with a knife, standing over a crying Powder/Jinx, was meant to represent that he is 100% capable of doing it. But I do not think that was his plan.

Threaten/intimidate her if she proved to be as hard-core as he saw Violet to be, and definitely as bait if Vi was still alive, but I don't think he would've killed her here. I imagine the ones in his gang in this scene were 100% expecting him to, but I do not think he was going to actually stab Powder/Jinx in this scene.

(I honestly also don't think he would've killed Violet either. I personally see the image of him coming around the corner with a knife, as him preparing to stab Vander a second-time, as he's unsure whether or not he's truly dead yet based on the INSANE amount of Shimmer Vander had to have taken, definitely more than Silco ever had Deckard take.)

(That's just my two-cents, I could go on for hours about Episode 3 and what the hell I think Silco was doing/thinking, but I'll keep it short here, y'all can request more rambling if you want.)

Regardless, put yourself in a henchman shoes: Your base of operations just blew up. At least a dozen of your fellow goons are unaccounted for, probably dead. All or almost-all of the Shimmer, made to be a weapon that evens the odds against Topside, has literally just gone up in smoke...

(Sidenote: Do they even know at this point how the explosion happened?? It had to have come out of NOWHERE from their POV, so, I'm sure they're still reeling from that alone)

Sevika is missing a limb, most just got their asses-handed to them by Violet, and then by an extremely pissed off yet still weakened Vander. (If you headcanon as them living at the cannery) then they probably just lost their damn home too.

They witnessed their boss stabbing Vander, while being actively strangled, before Vander turned into a Shimmer-induced monster that obliterated THEIR shimmer-induced monster (Deckard) the one thing that made their normally cool-headed, no holding back, I'll turn one of my henchmen into a shimmer-beast no-problemo, 'we're-going-to-war-with-Topside' boss take ONE look, and be like:

"Yeah, we're not going to even try to salvage anything here, fuck this, everyone out."

This all happened, MAYBE 10 minutes earlier?? And now Silco's just...

Hugging? This random crying child outside of their blown-up base?? Their boss, Silco? Allowing and then SHARING a hug??? And if they recognize Powder/Jinx as one of Vander's kids, then they are 100% in the mindset of:

"...what the hell? Why are you not shoving this kid off? Why are you letting her sob all over you? What the fuck are you even doing? Literally everything just blew up in our faces, PROBABLY because of these damn kids, why are you just siting there-... you're hugging her now?"

In their eyes, if they know for a fact that this is one of Vander's kids, and if they suspect for a moment that she had something to do with literally everything going to hell not minutes earlier, it's no wonder they're watching Silco interact with this kid with these kinds of expressions:

Because, they had to have seen Silco do some dark shit under his employment. They know what kind of lengths he plans to go to for his goals, they know what kind of man Silco is, and that he'll go to the absolute extremes to get what he wants.

They know exactly what kind of stuff Silco is capable of doing by now, and while it may not have been in Silco's plan (in my theory) to stab the kid on-sight, they 100% expected him to be capable of doing it. Especially if it's a kid of Vander's, even more so if they suspect Jinx had anything to do with the ordeal of the last 10-30 minutes.

But he doesn't. And their obvious confusion/perplextion at watching him NOT do it, speaks volumes, because this just. Isn't. Something. Silco. Does.

(The more I watch parts of Episode 3, the more I'm convinced this is one of the closest we get to true, almost open-vulnerability from Silco, except in Episode 9. It's not verbal, and he has some incredible control of himself for most scenes, but make no mistake: the man was slipping in this episode. Reacting with emotions, trying to keep it cool when he's clearly on the verge of 'going-thru-it'. ('You would die for the cause but you won't FIGHT for one/heard the rumor/You had your chance!') Like, there's SO much bottled-emotion that's slipping out just from his lines alone in this episode, he's not at his 100% here)

((Again, could ramble for a while, but I'll spare you the scrolling for now))

We know that Silco gives Jinx a LOT of leeway after the timeskip. And it started right here, though I'm sure no one expected it, least of all Silco, to go to the extent that it does in the future of the show.

But I think everyone knew something was off when their boss decided to hug Jinx here. They didn't know to what extent, but they knew this went beyond a 'oh, he's just playing along' or 'no, huh, this isn't normally like him.'

No, I think this is the moment, literally the first, that they're seeing Silco vulnerable around Jinx. Possibly in front of them as well, but mostly, they're witnesses to how he drops a fragment of his walls with this child. The first moments of where he's developed that protective, needing co-dependency with her, that's going to define their characters.

I don't think any of them knew it yet, how massively defining this moment is to... well, EVERYTHING. But they clearly know there's something up with the image in front of them, based on the fact that is just... not something they expect their boss to do. Although based on his response to all of Jinx's antics for the rest of the show, I doubt they could be surprised, after seeing THIS as his first-response to Jinx-

In conclusion, Silco's gang knew something had changed the moment Powder/Jinx flung himself into his arms. His response to her, the fact that he allowed her to do it, and then reciprocated it?

Yeah, they knew that something had changed here. They knew it the moment Jinx came into his life, but they had no idea what this would mean in the long-term. Only that yeah; something was definitely changed here.

[ethandoesathing]

The RX-64 starships of old were highly robust spacecraft. Their modular frames allowed the nimble ship to be customized for a variety of different jobs, like cargo, law enforcement, private transport, so on. The RX-64 was a favorite amongst many spacers.

However, the RX-64 series was discontinued after the 2039 Warp Ring incident, in which the pilot of an RX-64 attempted to engage the ship's FTL drive at Starport 217. XanCo, the interstellar corporation that developed the RX-64, had overlooked a glaring flaw in the development of the FTL drive, where the fusion coils that power the internal dynamo would produce more heat than was initially calculated, causing damage to the dynamo.

The coolant systems could not keep up with how much heat was being produced, so the drive would go critical. This is exactly what happened, and caused a catastrophic explosion that took half of the Starport to oblivion.

One of the only remaining RX-64s in service belongs to one Luke "Quill" Deckard, a young Martian bounty hunter, who has kitted his ship out with enough weaponry to match a small fleet of battle frigates. It is affectionately named the "Claymore."

[space-blue]

What Silco wanted for Vander

Sorry @arcane-ish for the delayed reply.

Here's why I don't subcribe to, and don't even understand, the theory that Silco planned to use shimmer on Vander.

1 - Silco uses Vander as bait.

He's put in the chair, everyone hides and waits. This is clearly done to see who is on Vander's team and ready to risk rescuing him, and getting rid of them. They would be the opposition of Silco's group. It's just sad that Vander has no one else but the kids, but voila.

2 - Silco literally uses a euphemism for "killing Vander & the children"

"Vander Fled Town" doesn't sound like "Vander is becoming my shimmer super soldier" to me...

3 - There is no proof that shimmer has any mind control abilities anywhere in the show.

Deckard is a little dipshit who takes no convincing to jump on shimmer despite his misgivings. He's been part of Silco's crew for unknown time. He wants to prove himself, and once he's addicted, you can safely assume he wants to keep pleasing Silco and get more shimmer, sure, but he's on Silco's team. All the people in the picture above go against Vi willingly after she lays all of them out, including the biggest guy of them all. They're clearly loyal and willing to risk injury for their boss. Maybe they're too confident too, sure, but like, team Silco doesn't need coercion.

When Silco sicks the addicts on Vi, he's buying their work with shimmer. It's a straightforward "I will give you this if you do that". There are no orders being voiced. The show never shows shimmer as having mental effects beyond those of addiction. Otherwise I doubt so many people would be using it on themselves.

4 - Shimmer isn't ready, and Vander is an insane threat.

I don't understand how people see what Vander becomes with shimmer and think Silco would want even *risking* that. Shimmer isn't even properly finished. They're rushing their plan forward, and Deckard is, as far as we know, the first human being experimented on. I see absolutely no reason why the second human should be Vander? He's strong enough to go toe to toe with shimmer-deckard, after getting concussed, surviving an explosion, and shrugging off a concrete wall.

Vander is a monster sober. Why would Silco want to empower him and potentially risk him going wild?

Vander takes shimmer and keeps his sanity : he recognises Silco, reacts to the fear Vi shows, and makes a quick thinking decision instead of acting on urges. If Silco *had* given him shimmer, it would have been a terrible mistake. Clearly he would have broken out of the chair, and certainly killed everyone. I don't think Vander is the type to fold to addiction.

Silco KNOWS in episode 1 that Deckard will "volunteer" because he just got handed his ass to him by a teenage girl. In front of his gang. Deckard is a boy with a bruised ego, of course he folds under Silco's speech on power, and then he's addicted to the sense of power shimmer gives him. Vander is already extremely powerful, I'm sure it'd take a ton of mental torture for him to break down and be a slave to shimmer.

Conclusion - I have never seen it and hearing the HC has not changed my mind at all. I'm not headcanon bashing, because anything truly floats, but it's also a HC I don't understand and can't get behind. It just doesn't make sense *to me* in-world that Silco would ever want to go that route. He's way too careful and calculated and patient. If he did, he'd have to want to do a ton of experiments on shimmer first, to make sure he gets the desired effect. And yet he canonically voices to his entire group how Vander is basically like a dog "going to live on a farm upstate".

The only logic I can get behind is him killing him and then gifting him to Singed to try and engineer a mindless super soldier (even if it hurts my Vanco heart).

My reading of this entire scene is that Silco offers Vander a chance to rejoin the movement. Shimmer is the argument : with it they can truly destroy enforcers. Vander himself could take it, but even if he didn't, Silco would probably accept him in his ranks anyway (old sap). It's that or DIE. And Vander choses death.

"I'll show you what you really are" imo is just a threat. Silco will kill whoever comes for Vander in front of him anyway. He probably expects Vander to go apeshit at the sight (and I'm sure he would have if Vi had died).

What "Vander really is" is not a shimmer monster mindless slave. It's the Hound, a monster who drowns his best friend/ally/ex whatever to gain power. Silco is just infuriated by his meek act.

[liobits]

Okay second attempt at getting some Arcane thoughts out:

The peace treaty was never going to work out, for multiple reasons. Like, beyond the ‘Silco was never going to give up Jinx’.

For one, it was being negotiated between the Council and the worst crimelord in Zaun. I can’t trust Silco’s vision of a Nation of Zaun because he was willing to crush the people of Zaun beneath his heel to realize that vision, ignoring that a nation is its people. Silco has committed almost as much violence against Zaun as Piltover. A deal between two oppressive forces was never going to turn out well for Zaun. There’s a reason the Firelights were a thorn in the side of both Silco and the Enforcers.

Secondly, the treaty condition was another act of violence against Zaun. Piltover keeps demanding Zaun sacrifice its people to appease them. In Act I it was ‘give us a scapegoat and we won’t hurt you (more than we already do)’. In Act III it’s still ‘give us a scapegoat and we won’t hurt you more’. There’s a side order of ‘and I guess we’ll give you some rights too’ this time but... Peace that hinges on human sacrifice is rotten from the start. Piltover would’ve been within their rights to try and negotiate extradition of Jinx after the treaty was sealed, but Jayce telling Silco the peace was dependent on that was just... ghoulish. It was letting a personal grudge interfere with the fate of an entire city.

Third: the treaty was inspired by fear, rather than compassion or respect, and fear is an unstable emotion and it’s an unstable foundation for peace. The Council pays attention to Zaun because they’re afraid of Zaun getting enough power to finally hurt them back. And Jayce wants peace because he’s afraid of hurting other people. Like, Jayce wants to do good so badly, but he still doesn’t quite Get It. He still didn’t get it when he killed the Zaunite kid. He doesn’t want peace because he genuinely cares about Zaun and its people or he would never have made handing over Jinx a peace condition.

SO BASICALLY, one way or another, this peace treaty was going to blow up in everyone’s faces. Jinx didn’t ‘ruin everything’, she just sped things along to their inevitable conclusion.

The most hopeful thing in the finale to me wasn’t the council vote (false hope), it was Ekko talking to Heimerdinger. Because Ekko is all about compassion and helping and protecting people, and Heimerdinger is a Piltovian who is finally listening to a Zaunite.

Bonus thematic parallels: I don’t think the kids rescuing Vander was ever going to work out either. At best, they’d get away temporarily before being hunted down. More likely, shimmered-up Deckard would have busted down that door and murdered them. The moment of hope for everyone in that room, when it seemed like everything might turn out okay, came AFTER Powder’s monkey distracted Deckard. But the same distraction that bought them that brief reprieve was intrinsically tied to the explosion that followed, so it was always false hope.

Shiny Attention Grabber -> Moment of False Hope/Peace -> Everything Blows Up

Monkey bomb distracts Deckard -> Kids think they’ll get away -> Monkey bomb goes off

Jinx attacks Piltover -> Jayce and Mel think they’ll get peace -> FISHBONES

The fact that Jinx, like the monkey bomb, had to be set off to buy that moment of peace means that the explosion at the end was inevitable.