#OR even if he didn't project his feelings for powder on jinx why would he love her in the current universe? last time they met she blew them

[tackykachowch]

How it feels to not like timebomb after s2

[tiger333k]

there are a lot of people complaining about Arcane season 2, and yes, I get it, it is a bit rushed at times and it would do well if they did a little extra explaining on some parts but honestly it feels like people are just nitpicking sometimes

example: just saw a video about someone complaining about ep7 about Powder and Ekko getting together, and just, wtf??? yes, I know it's because of Ekko's tip that vi died and I know the characters should've it weird when Ekko woke up and just started pointing about things in the past that they really don't want to be reminded of... but if you found this a problem you really didn't watch the show. the main theme about this alternate universe is forgiveness, powder forgave Ekko (though tbh, it was really Vi's plan to go rob someone the whole time), vander and silco forgave each other etc etc. alt Ekko was slaving away at this project when Ekko (firelight) got thrust into his body. powder said it herself, genius and insanity go hand in hand, Ekko saying random things like this probably wasn't even a surprise. also saw a thumbnail where Ekko and powder were kissing and they put 'cheating' beside the image. hopefully I won't have to explain how stupid this is.

Ekko didnt just kiss powder and go 'I can fix jinx'. he doesn't want to change jinx into powder, he even admits that jinx has something good that powder doesn't, jinx's ideas can change the world. what Ekko learned from the alt universe and powder is forgiveness, to look at the past and move forward, leaving a few things behind, leaving behind hate, anger, for the present, for the future. he learned to forgive jinx, so they could build something new.

also adding the fact that it wasn't vi's death that changed everything, it was the act of a child, the fact that someone had been killed that points out how dangerous hextech is, and that's why it was never developed.

personal opinion here, I don't think it was just the death and the letter that changed everything, I think it was little details leading up to the moment silco forgave vander, the moment everything went right. it wasn't one spontaneous event that changed it. we don't know what happened in the alt universe, we don't know if the fight went differently, or if slico had done anything different... maybe he never developed shimmer, maybe he wasn't so set on revenge. we don't know, so maybe don't jump to conclusions so quickly?

another point: jinx didn't just magically lose her trauma because of Isha, dunno what you guys were thinking.

jinx in season one had obvious mental issues, and we always see her drowning out the noise with blaring music. the reason why she was like that was because of her internal conflict, of powder and jinx clashing. jinx was trying to forget the past, and powder was the one that kept remembering it. powder was the one that kept trying to insist it wasn't her fault. powder was the one that held on to everything, and jinx hated powder. and in S1E9 we see her let powder die.

she accepts that she is a jinx to people she loves. the voices stop calling her a jinx, because she already knows this. she accepts this. jinx ruin everything. jinx is a curse. it isn't a case where some kid comes in and changes everything, jinx isn't healed in season 2, she just accepts that she is a catastrophe.

the only thing Isha changes is that jinx learns to love powder through Isha, and maybe even lets a bit of powder come back through. and that's why, when Isha is thrown into Stillwater, the voices come back before jinx takes control again.

three: Caitlyn was done dirty, her entire character was ooc

no it was not. you just saw it through a different lens and decided you didn't like it.

like it or not, Cait has always been privileged. she goes where she wants, does what she likes because she has the kirramman family name to protect her. Marcus says it himself in S1, we just chose to ignore it because that's when cait was doing what we thought was right, investigating and helping Vi, although she was not an enforcer, had no right to be there, we liked it because, well, because we hate Marcus, and she was actually doing something right back then

till season 2, where she gasses Zaun, goes all hitler, and... acts exactly how she acted in S1. she does what she wants, goes where she likes, to achieve one thing: get revenge on jinx.

cait has never lost a parent, she has never learned to cope with such a loss, so she reacts in a wrong way, reacts so drastically that we feel is out of character, its not. we merely see her previous traits painted in a different light and y'all decided you hate it.

I could go on forever honestly, but these three points got on my nerves the most, so I decided to say something about it. there.

this is way too long, my god.

[kr-starz]

Silly little Timebomb ask- how would Jinx react upon Ekko telling her about the other universe?

I've written about this in some drabbles before!! But based on what some of the creators said about this in some deleted scenes, I think it'd go something like this.

"How'd you know I was here," Jinx mumbles to Ekko, he's still beaten up, paint smeared on his face. He's still feeling the buzz of a bomb exploding right next to him on his skin.

Pulling his lips into a line, Ekko looks off into the distant walls of Jinx's room. "I just, had a feeling." He tells her. Which is true, he didn't know she's be here, bomb in hand ready to blow up herself in an act of suicide,

Jinx doesn't pry, she has those feelings too. The ones that urge you to be somewhere because you have to be.

The short blunt strands of hair poke at her back, "Why would you try and talk me out of it? There's no good version of me, so why even bother." her head pressed between her knees, looking to Ekko for his reasoning. Because even though she's not going to blow herself up, doesn't mean she understands why exactly Ekko would suddenly want her alive.

Ekko sighs, "You know that special someone I was talking about?" He decides to tell her, "It was you." He says in a breath, trying to figure out exactly he would explain interdimensional time travel to her.

Jinx's face twists in a confused mush, about to say something but Ekko continues.

"Not here, but I went somewhere. A universe where you were Powder, a universe where you were a creator and an inventor. You didn't like to blow things up or destroying things, you like to help your friends. Wingman for Mylo, help me with my projects." Ekkos smiles, just thinking about it. "A universe where your the best version of you." He finishes reminiscing, his eyes fall back to Jinx, where he can't tell if she even believes him or not.

"I'm sorry, I must sound insane right now-" He whips his head to look down on the floor he's sitting on, not bearing to look at her expression.

"I believe you." Jinx tells him. Every single expression on his face told her he was thinking of something- someone. Pure and utter yearning for something, an expression Jinx is all too familiar with oozing from every eyebrow twitch and soft eyes coming from Ekko.

Ekko turns back to her, "you do?"

"I don't know why, but I feel like I can trust you on this one."

Ekko can't help but smile, "right,"

"Tell me more about this universe that you went to, what else was it like?" She asks, curious, subconsciously moving closer to him.

[daretolovemyrambling]

some thoughts about arcane season 2 act 3

Let me start this with the notion that yes, some of arcane 2 is rushed, but I also understand why they did things the way they did. And I loved every second nonetheless. Personally I think the "rushed plot" showed pretty well how the characters are also rushing to the end themselves.

In my opinion they used every second the could, even if I would never say no to more episodes.

But a season 3 would have meant that they spent a decade and a half on just a handful of characters, I think a company like Riot is not exactly thrilled about something like that (they didn't even believe in arcane and the animators and writers had to put their career on the line. It worked out okay for them, but never forget that Riot only really cares about PROFIT)

Let's also not forget that a single animator spent a week on average for "just" four seconds. That is insane dedication to their craft and they deserve every single praise they can get!!! I didn't know it was possible, but arcane season 2 made the animation even MORE beautiful. I can't wait to watch a frame by frame analysis on youtube.

now onto the rambles (sorry, thoughts are all over the place):

Heimdinger is not dead. Yordles don't really die, they just return to their birth place (the spirit realm/bandle city) also technicially only alt-verse Heimerdinger's body was obliterated (meaning that his conciousness might still be out there somewhere just without a body??)

I don't think Jinx is dead, the show hints at her escaping through the vents. *If* she is dead, I honestly don't hate it either. I just really love angst and the thought that either sister won't get their happy end unless the other sister dies is just a perfect angsty greek-tragedy and will drive me insane for the next few months! That said there is no way Jinx is gone. She escaped through the vents and fled with the airship! I think she realized that as it is now, Vi will never stop sacrificing things for her, that is why she has to leave. Maybe one day they can become sisters again.

when we first see Jayce eat in episode 7 I thought he cut off his damaged leg and ate it 💀

the alt universe has no hextech, meaning that Jayce likely killed himself in that universe. I'm not sure if Viktor would still be alive, I don't think his illness is cureable without hextech.

alt-verse Zaundads has my heart <3. I love it when extremly tragic series make their own happy/what-if story xD.

The timebomb interactions and their kiss was so sweet. I feel kinda bad that alt-verse Ekko won't remember any of that. And that main-verse Ekko couldn't tell his own Powder/Jinx how much he loved her.

I'm kind of sad that we didn't get to see much of Orianna (her design is STUNNING though) but they are possibly setting her up for whatever gets adapted next in the lol universe.

Jayik: gay love saves the world once again. If I had a nickel everytime this happens,

whatever Jayvik have going on is somehow gayer than the lesbian sex scene change my mind.

Speaking of lesbians, Cait with an eyepatch makes me feel things, I would forgive all her war crimes to if I were Vi.

Mel is a goddess. As she deserves. Someone please give her a hug though. I'm hoping she will play a bigger role in the next series! She seems to be on her way to Noxus, so I'm sure this is not the last of her we see!

That "sorceress" is LeBlanc, I think now it's too obvious to deny that wasn't her.

I NEED someone to write a spiderverse x arcane crossover at this point. The timetravel/universe travel is a perfect set up! I would kill to read an Ekko & Miles & Gwen & Hobie interaction.

What I'm hoping for the shows post-arcane season 2:

It's confirmed that Fortiche & Riot are already working on the next few projects, I'm expecting Noxus & Ionia to be the next focus. It could be a great way to introduce us non-lol players to the world.

I also really want (to know) more about Orianna, Mel and the Black Rose/LeBlanc!

[brontidetales]

I need to get out my thoughts about arcane or I will explode

first watchthrough impression for arcane season 2 is that my only major gripe is the direction they took Jinx. the trailers, and more importantly the end of season 1 itself, promised us a Jinx who had embraced her demons as her identity and would lead the charge of a violent revolution.

Why was that not what we got? I enjoyed her spare moments with Isha and Sevika, and I know Isha was supposed to represent Powder still being alive, but then they went and killed her so Powder symbolically died again when we already got Powder's symbolic deaths in episodes 3 and 9 on season 1! Plus the baptism scene with Silco, and the time she was literally brought back from death with shimmer! They could could not symbolically kill her any harder.

I just feel like the reveal with Vander and her going to Vi after would have had better punch if she was actually leading the underground against Vi's dictator ex. Vi feeling torn between them, too.

Shafting of Jinx happened to lead to a shafting of Sevika and Isha really only being a— cute!— token with red, glaring death flags visible from space.

Okay, gripe over.

Sevika's on the Counsel, yay. Good for her being a leader and not a follower. WISH WE'D SEEN MORE OF HER.

Mel being a secret mage was an interesting direction to take her character, and I'm hoping that her being the de facto leader of Noxus now means that she'll appear in future projects. It was poetic and fitting that the only way she could get her mother's approval was by killing her to prevent further bloodshed (something she once argued against to her mother, killing one instead of thousands).

Ekko getting a glimpse of an alternate timeline with Powder where they're mostly happy, choosing to go back to save her (and everyone else), using a timeloop to keep her from killing herself, and her still dying (allegedly) anyway was beautifully tragic. Also, he got his time travel powers! Nice.

Jayce having to drag his way out of a rift in a broken city while disabled and starving was a clever way to put him on "even footing" with Viktor. Tbh, I'm going to have to rewatch to fully piece together these two's storyline, but I got the broad strokes. Very bittersweet, very visually bookended, not quite the kickoff for bitter enemies I was expecting but it's not like there was none of that, so. Neat. Butterfly symbolism. Time-travel kind-of-fix-it fic.

Vi and Cait getting a sex scene that didn't feel like it was animated one-handed by a man, and also a semi-happy ending is all I could ask for. I didn't personally see their reconciliation as rushed because the dictator-run was out of character for Cait and both she and Vi knew that and Vi has already proven she doesn't stop loving people even when they majorly fuck shit up. The second Cait expressed remorse would be the second Vi jumped on the chance to forgive her.

[arcane-ish]

I think a big factor is that the show treats it very differently.

In season 1, the moment we come back from the timejump Silco and Jinx's relationship is shown as a controversial subject. Sevika criticizes it, Ekko hates it, Vi is horrified by it.

By comparison, nobody bats much of an eye at Jinx with Isha among Sevika, Vi, Warwick, Viktor. Maybe the whole "Chembarons fighting each other after Silco's death + Caitlyn raiding the undercity" nobody has time to pay attention?

And I guess Vi is in too much of a "don't give a fuck" mode to voice objections? When strictly speaking, if Vi doesn't like or trust Jinx at this point, shouldn't she object to Jinx being around a young child? I wonder if she assumes that Jinx and Isha have known each other much longer and that's why Isha tried to protect Jinx?

With Silco you also very early had this undercurrent of him pressuring her to do certain things, to go into a certain direction.

But I think the main difference why the relationships feel different is because Silco took steps and measures to keep Jinx tied to him including deception (admittedly, we don't know if he was different when Powder had just joined him) while Jinx acts pretty aloof and like she isn't necessarily encouraging Isha to stay around, she just lets her.

For me personally there was also a feeling that even if Jinx was doing things Silco hadn't ordered (like the attack on the enforcers or the council attack) it still felt like she was following his preached vision, just using different methods.

While Jinx I think believably shows no interest in doing the revolution when Isha runs off to do her impersonation of Jinx.

We are also being given context to the relationship, like we see Isha demand and barter to get her hair dyed blue. Without that scene, if we had just started the episode with Isha having blue hair, then I'm sure more people would have reacted with "Uhoh, unhealthy, Jinx is creating a mini-me". But instead we are shown how it came to that.

Now, don't get me wrong, Jinx is certainly a careless and not very suitable parent. And yes there's definitely an accusation in there that she didn't think enough about how her actions would come off and that she didn't keep Isha in check more. That she was maybe projecting too much of the Vi/Powder relationship onto her (ie "I let Isha tag along because that's what I would have wanted back when I was Powder").

But yes, there are absolutely parallels. Isha doing a revolution thing against Jinx's will reminds me of Jinx doing the first enforcer attack against Silco's will. And her complaining to Isha about Vi reminds me of Silco traumadumping his Vander issues onto Jinx.

There’s a darker aspect of Jinx and Isha’s relationship, that somewhat mirrors Jinx’s relationship to Silco, that I think people are overlooking or just don’t want to talk about.

Now, I just want to make clear from the get go that I absolutely adore Jinx and Isha’s relationship. Maybe my favorite dynamic of season 2, actually. But there’s this deeper, darker part of it that needs to be acknowledged.

Like Viktor said, two sides of a coin, inextricably linked.

This negative side is definitely more pronounced in act 1, when Jinx is in a much more negative frame of mind, and if we’re being honest every scene Jinx and Isha have together in act 1 is actually pretty sketchy.

Jinx waves her gun around Isha’s head with her finger on the trigger and straight up tells the girl that being close to death is “the best feeling in the world.”

Jinx grins with glee while Smeech is being torn apart while Isha looks to her with wide eyes for guidance on how she should be feeling about this situation. The tone of the scene is played very light but if you actually think about what’s happening, it’s actually extremely dark. Isha is learning from Jinx to find violence and death fun, essentially.

Then Jinx brings Isha to an extremely dangerous ambush and lets her watch as she fights her sister to the death. Of course, Jinx was planning to die there so why would she care what Isha sees or not?

In act 2 Jinx is clearly in a more psychologically healthy place, so her relationship with Isha is a lot healthier as well (in fact those two things support each other) but also Isha is now engaging in extreme risk taking behavior, on her own. She clearly wants to be Jinx so she dresses up like her and attacks the security checkpoint like Jinx would (or should) do. She jumps off a second story balcony and headbutts Rictus, getting herself thrown in Stillwater in the process. This is actually very alarming behavior for a child her age and is clearly Jinx’s influence.

Also how insane is it (though completely in character) that Jinx would bring Isha along into an abandoned mine to hunt for Warwick?? Which also almost gets her killed when it’s her blood Warwick scents.

And it is this extreme risk taking attitude that ultimately informs Isha’s decision to sacrifice herself.

All this to say that, as much as it pains me to admit, when Jinx blames herself for Isha’s death (which she of course will) she’s not entirely wrong.

[ultimate-marysue]

Okay, just finished Arcane and might change my opinion on rewatch but I just wanted to add my two cents to the whole Silco/Jinx debate. I think Sylco truly loved Jinx. I also think he was a terrible father here's why:

:readmore:

Sure, at first glance it very deliberately leaves unclear whether he took Jinx in as a weapon or whether he truly cared for her. But I'm sure that no one can deny after watching the whole series that he truly cared. Whether it was knowingly or subconsciously, he showed affection even at times when it wasn't beneficial at all. Like, when she was unconscious at the bridge, or whenever Sevika doubted him. Like, that woman already betrayed the previous ruler of the underground for being to soft with his kids, he was playing with fire there.

He never acted aggressively, at least from what we see, and judging how comfortable Jinx was around him it doesn't look likely that he was abusive outside the camera. Like, why would she feel uncomfortable? We can see even when she isn't in frame how he defends her actions, blames others and trusts her again and again no matter how many times she fucks up.

Even at the workshop, his angriest moment, she's calm. He only raises his voice, he doesn't threaten her with violence or abandonment. If he wanted to manipulate her, he would have accuse her of being useless or messing with the plans. But he never blames her for anything.

And here is where the second part of my opinion enters: his obsession with protecting Jinx is what makes him ironically a terrible father. He uses her? No doubt. But he also gives her everything she could ask for. Silko cleans every single mess Jinx gets them in and tells her she's done nothing wrong. At most he would calmly explain the consequences while assuring her she's perfect.

And it makes sense, you know? Whether he wanted to use her at first or he actually always saw her as a daughter, there's no denying he projects his own insecurities on her. He looks at Jinx and he sees himself, betrayed by his brother and left completely alone. When he looked at powder he saw the sibling that was never enough, the one that always messed up.

So what did he do? Overcompensate. He didn't want Jinx to ever feel like she wasn't enough ever again. He nurtured her talents (tinkering and shooting) that were not valued by her previous family. Like, seriously, Powder always had the best aim of the group but somehow no one decided to value that??? In such a violent world?? Like they could have gotten her a stunt gun if they didn't want her to kill anyone.

Rant aside, Silco gave Jinx tools to make her strong, not necessarily to use her, but to prove to Vander his girl was better than VI. So yeah, I think there's a shit ton of selfishness in the way he loves Jinx, but I have no doubts of his love. To him Jinx was a way to heal himself, not only by caring for her like no one did for him, but by proving she was the strongest. He pushed his rivalry with Vander onto the next generation. It wasn't enough for him to kill Vander, his legacy would also be stronger than Vander's.

He hates VI not only because she's the only one who can take Jinx from him, but because she's Vander's. He seems narcissistic to me in how he seems obsessed with seeing their respective daughters as an extension of their feud. That's why he insists on VI intentions being nefarious, not because he knows, but because he's projecting.

Vander betrayed him, so VI must want to betray Jinx. And if she doesn't want to betray her, she's going to take her away from him so it doesn't matter what the truth is. He's going to convince Jinx that VI is evil because it benefits him either way. If he's right, Jinx is safe from betrayal. If he's wrong, making her doubt her sister will help him keep Jinx on his side.

But going back to why he's such a terrible father outside of the manipulation to get VI away from Jinx. He spoils Jinx like crazy. She has absolutely no supervision and after botching missions left and Right with people on both sides of the bridge asking Silco for her head...she gets away without so much as a slap on the wrist. We can see how Jinx herself, with no prompting from Silco whatsoever, convinces herself she needs to steal the gemstone or else he's going to hate her and leave her. We can presume that's how it's always been.

And of course, Silco being the projecting bitch he is can't have this, so he tries to never get angry or make it seem like she screw up just to not upset her. She gets paranoid either way, the damage is already done, but he tries to be a safe space for her to fuck up. But he overdoes it and never lets her learn. She fucks up doing a reckless things and she tries to unfuck it by being even more reckless. She basically starts a war and Silco does everything at hand so she doesn't see how bad she screw up.

Even in his last breath, after Jinx fucking kills him, he still says she's perfect. That's the level of self-destructive codependency we're talking about. Sure, it's a really beautiful moment, but it also truly shows Silco's shortcomings as a father. He encouraged Jinx to "be herself because she was perfect" when she clearly needed help.

It reminded me of those old Tumblr blogs that encouraged people to embrace their mental illness in a really unhealthy way. Like, depression is not what makes you interesting nor is it something to let run rampant until it ruins your life. Silco in a way, encouraged a lot of self-destructive behavior from Jinx believing he was helping her.

He never helped her get over her abandonment issues, he just joined them with his own creating co-dependency. Good old "if you love someone let them go". Silco would have given up his dream and Jinx's (being reunited with her sister) just to have her by his side. In fact, he died happy knowing that his death and his last words pretty much guarantee that she will stay on his side.

So, in conclusion, did Silco love Jinx? Yes, he showed affection and loyalty to her even when she wasn't near or conscious. The rest of the cast including his closest underling saw it as love.

Was Silco best dad? Not even close. He was obsessed with his own trauma and made Jinx way more paranoid of her old family just to foster a codependent relationship. He never ever corrected her on anything and just spoiled her rotten in an attempt to show the unconditional love he himself craved.

So yeah, Arcane is a great show with really complex characters. Portraying Silco as a poor little meow meow that was a great father or as an apathetic asshole that was using Jinx all along is quite ridiculous. Bad people are also fundamentally people, and pretending they aren't is being simplistic.