#also Jinx and Silco are SO TOXIC AND SO NOT GOOD FOR EACH OTHER

[optimismbitingmyass]

The pure storytelling potential of Jinx and Silcos journey during the timeskip in Arcane is just so amazing. And it‘s all for the fans to explore - I wouldn’t even want to know what canonically happened - everyone can make that time their own, in their own stories, in fan fiction and comics and it‘s just so amazing!! The possibilities are endless.

Especially the comedic potential :)) Imagine:

Silco has to figure out how to deal with a child (which is hard but especially hard if said child likes to blow stuff up for fun) and then after Silco got used to dealing with an emotionally unstable child, he had to learn how to deal with an EMOTIONALLY UNSTABLE TEENAGER

Did Jinx need braces? Her teeth looked pretty good, so maybe Silco had to drag her every month or so to Singend so he could adjust her braces. Did Jinx go through some heavy acne phase and Silco had to keep her from constantly scratching her pimples bloody? Was he the poor sod that had to explain that ��yes, periods hurt and no, you are not gonna die. No Jinx, your organs are still fine. Yes, about half of society has this.” Did Silco stress himself out about birthday presents for a girl that he has already spoiled far too much? Did he spent hours trying to find the perfect kind of paint for his perfect little daughter, that had already grown so much?

(Tw: implied suicide attempt/self harm mention + toxic relationships)

Did Silco have to walk into Jinx’s room one day just to see her lying on the floor, having drunk half a bottle of paint thinner - the one he got her together with the paint for her last birthday - Did he have to wonder that maybe he could have saved her from this? From her own weakness? From the horrors her so called “family” put her through? And when he took her to Singend so he could save his daughter, did he wonder why she couldn’t see just how perfect she truly is? That she is everything his nation of Zaun is supposed to be - strong, stubborn, wild, biting, clawing, powerful - perfect.

[sandraharissa]

I think one of the many things wrong with Jinx this season is how like, half of her personality was cut off and thrown out.

Like her reaction to grief. We see her suicidal after Silco’s death and she’ll be again very suicidal after Isha’s death. Makes sense. Don’t have notes on that part. However I have so much notes on her rage. In s1 we see Powder sometimes responding to bad situation by being shy and sad, but sometimes she reacts in a more adversarial way, like complaining they should try fighting Piltover or trying to stand up to Mylo. But we also get these moments like when she’s left behind and has an absolute meltdown and starts wrecking shit but more importantly her reaction to Silco. He says they’ll show them all and she throws the audience the most rage fueled look you’ve ever seen. When really pushed beyond her limits this is Powder’s emotional reaction to tragedy/being wronged. We see that all throughout acts II and III and we see it when she blows up the council after Silco dies. And that’s the problem cos that’s the part that’s missing from s2. They cut her personality in half and only kept one half. Anger as part of her personality and reaction to grief was discarded when writing her in s2. Even tho she goes through a lot of grieving in s2.

Another example is Isha. Jinx prioritizing family and just chilling? Wanting affectionate interactions with family? Having an easier relationship with a younger family member cos there aren’t any expectations or need to prove anything or gain anyone’s attention? No fear of abandonment/betrayal? She just has this kid who hero worships her and follows her around like a puppy so no stress? No notes. However I have a lot of notes about Jinx’s paranoia and how not normal and possessive and toxic she is about relationships. And I have notes on the generational trauma. Where did all that go? That’s not how ppl work. Living in a messed up society and Silco’s parenting won’t just evaporate like that cos Isha is just so overwhelmingly cute. It’s more likely that Jinx would corrupt the kid. (which you could argue on paper she does cos the kid in the end thought that suicide was dope but why did the narrative frame it as this beautiful thing lol)

And on the topic of fighting Piltover where did “we beat the enforcers with just the four of us imagine what the whole Lanes could do” go? Jinx definitely prioritized family more but she wasn’t neutral or indifferent on the Piltover matter. The enforcers wrong her/hurt her/threaten her family yet again, they kidnapped Isha, and she just acts panicked and sad, but also jokes and quips while on the mission. Where’s the rage and hatred and desire for revenge on the ppl who wronged her? Sometimes it’s just ppl around her being mean or lying or smth, anyone could be her enemy, like Sevika, Silco or Vi, but a lot of the time it’s Piltover, they killed her parents, they were her fathers’ enemies and drove them to hate each other, they chased them as kids and tried to arrest them, they kidnapped and abused Vi in prison all her adolescence, they would have killed Vi so she blew up the whole blockade, Council tried to turn Silco against her and now he’s dead so she bombs them, all her life she can see that the quality of their life is bad bcos of Piltover, she’s in Jayce’s apartment and immediately goes for the sandwich. Jinx doesn’t come off as a very politically/ideologically motivated character but what happened to all her personal beef with Piltover?

They also inexplicably just ceased to write her fucking up all the time. what about her y’know, being a jinx? In s1 even in acts II and III when she is proficient in fighting and bomb-making they still constantly show her being more of a burden and fucking up in other ways. While never explained (which was good) to me it came off as a symptom of trauma and being neurodivergent, like how ADHD kids can’t escape the allegations that they’re lazy, but on a meta level it did make it feel like she was supernaturally cursed. Part of what felt so profound and empowering about s1 finale and her embracing being jinx it that it was her embracing that she’s different (and ‘wrong’ in some ways) and can never live a happy life in the society she lives in and so she lashes out. Now she just chills and nothing ever doesn’t go her way (ig until Isha died but that wasn’t even directly her fault, Isha just acted on her own choice and agency). Suddenly her mental issues don’t exist or get in the way of her socializing and being a part of society. This bigoted, violent and unfair society.

Don’t even get me started on her mannerisms. Remember how she would bite her lip? I’m not sure if she does that even once in s2. “Sister, thought I missed her”??? let Jinx rhyme sometimes and in general say weird shit, not one-liners.

So the only way for the writers to have Jinx do nothing, heal up completely and just chill with a kid in her lair (and really everything else she does (or doesn’t do) this season) is to get rid of half of her personality, the traits that would dictate she take action and feel wrath and lash out/hurt her loved ones in the process.

All of her tragic traits from s1 that made her Jinx were just erased, not changed throughout the course of an arc, absent from the get go, so that they can have her say that Jinx is dead and have it make sense in the context of s2 cos from her very first appearance is s2 this Jinx was devoid of pretty much all of her jinx-y character traits from s1.

[bitchface24-7]

The old man cravings are at it again- (Not like they ever left) I just can't get enough about Silco. ESPECIALLY WITH YOUR LAST POST OMFGG AMAZING!

You already know how I feel about that man and like omg im already foaming at the mouth thinking about him but like- Silco x Chubby/Bigger girl.. Im on my knees and I (NOT TO VENT) could use a little something to believe my favs would love me and my body :3

Thank you and I hope you are doing well! Glad to see you writing and posting again. You always cook!

THE QUEEN OF ZAUN - SILCO X READER

synopsis: you’ve known Silco for quite some time now. You were a Sister of Zaun, you were there when everything went wrong, you were the one to patch Silco up, and you were by his side when he took over the Lanes. Who better to be the one on his arm? His confidant, his companion, his partner… His Queen.

warnings: non-descriptive violence, mentions of the bridge bombing and betrayal, fluff, suggestiveness, pre-established relationship, grinding, vaginal sex, unprotected sex, creampie, squirting, getting caught, Grammarly as my beta

genre: m/f

p.s. Why'd they make this old man hot??? Everyone enjoys his character now but I was in the trenches back when we only had S1 and EVERYONE HATED HIM 😭😭 LIKE WHERE WERE YALL BEFORE???? Anyways hope y'all enjoy it!

You've been by Silco’s side for as long as you can remember. He's a few years older than you, and you thought he was the coolest guy ever. Especially when he kind of took you under his wing as a Freedom Fighter for Zaun. You all called each other brothers and sisters, it was a found family that you'd kill for. That you'd die for.

Then the bridge explosion happened.

Countless of brothers and sisters dead. Either by the bomb, or by the relentless enforcers. There was so much smoke, so much blood.

It still haunts your nightmares.

What came after was even worse.

You remember being distraught over how you found Silco. His wavy dark hair drenched in toxic water, clinging to his sculpted face. Bruises around his neck and arms, a nasty laceration on his face— blinding one of his teal eyes.

The wound was raw, red, and looked painful. It oozed pus— infected due to the dirty water he was submerged in.

Silco was quiet. His confident, chatty, sarcastic nature no where to be found. His one clear eye was dark, an anger you've never seen before surfacing on his pretty face.

You asked what happened. What did this? Who did this? He only said one word that explained everything. That one word also broke your heart.

“Vander.”

With that, you cared for Silco to the best of your abilities. He's treasured that care, and he will continue to treasure that care till the day he dies.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

That was a little over a decade ago, the two of you in your early twenties. Now you've grown. Physically, mentally, emotionally. The two of you aren't the same people you were back then.

Silco is much colder. He's manipulative, he uses his charms to get what he wants by any means necessary. He's got the Lanes wrapped around his pinky finger.

But you've got him wrapped around yours.

You're not as naive anymore. Not as kind or generous. These past few years have hardened you, and have shown you that loyalty and respect are earned; not given.

Gone are the two young dreamers who wore stitched-together clothing, wild hair and even wilder eyes.

Silco dawns form-fitting suits, jackets, and polished shoes. Expensive accessories and even more expensive cigars.

You have been gifted a multitude of fancy gifts. Each one more expensive than the last.

Now, you match Silco to a T. A black slinky dress dawns your curvaceous figure, sharp black stiletto heels, dark red nails with a matching dark red lip, a massive rock on your ring finger, and a two-toned fur coat.

Only the best for his wife.

You're one of his soft spots, Jinx, your adopted daughter being the second.

Many have tried to get in Silco’s good books. Very very few succeed.

Men with too much lip and not enough action.

Women who try to warm his bed, stating they're better than you. They're thinner, more “beautiful”, they're the ones who should be seen on his arm.

Silco can���t help but roll his eye at that. He’ll scoff and look down his nose at them with a dark, “She’s a goddess among men. You're a cheap, fake rendition trying desperately to cling to a station not meant for you. Now leave, before you make it so that today is your last day.”

They always leave the office in tears. Bottom lip wobbling as mascara streaks down their cheeks. You can't help but smirk as they shoot you nasty glares. Your perfectly painted lips are full of smug venom, your wedding ring sparkling as you sarcastically wiggle your fingers goodbye.

The woman always huff, crying a bit harder as they leave.

Pathetic.

You casually sashay into the office and see your love sitting at his desk, one hand rubbing his temple as the other swirls his bourbon.

“Hello darling.”

At your voice, Silco’s head jolts up. A rare smile graces his handsome face. You close the door behind you and lock it.

No need for anymore interruptions.

“Sweetheart, it's nice to finally see you. You've been hiding away all day.”

You sigh jokingly, sitting atop Silco’s desk. Your fur coat slides down your arms and rests in the crook of your elbow, showing off your upper body. Your neck, shoulders, chest, cleavage and upper back are devoured by Silco’s hungry gaze.

“I didn't want to intrude. It seems like you had some... Company while I was away.”

Silco scoffs, messing up his usually perfect hair and takes a big swig of his bourbon, “Unwanted company sweetness. They keep trying, those idiots.”

You laugh, fully dropping your coat onto his desk and sitting in his lap. Silco's hands rest against your full hips as you settle down comfortably.

Your tone is saccharine and purr-like as you play with Silco’s hair and trace his sharp features, “Well… you are the most powerful man in Zaun, and the most attractive. I can understand why they want you so desperately.”

Silco’s smirk makes you shiver lightly, “And how would you know that?”

“Because I was just as desperate a decade ago.”

Silco chuckles, a deep grumbly sound emitting from his chest, it makes your panties damp, “I remember. You following me like a lost little duckling. All doe-eyed and bitten-lipped.”

You pull Silco close by the nape of the neck, and kiss his scarred cheek slowly, leaving behind a perfect red imprint, “Well it worked out in my favour didn't it? I remember finally getting you where I desperately desired. How I rubbed it in to the other Sisters of Zaun.” your tone full of smug satisfaction.

“Yes, we fucked desperately inside a random storage closet, like most young adults do.”

Your laugh is loud, and full of joy. It causes a smile to overtake Silco's face.

“There's one thing I miss from all those years ago.”

“And what's that, sweetheart?”

“Your longer hair… and eyeliner. I miss pulling on it when you ate me out and fucked me. Seeing the eyeliner roll down those high cheekbones was just a bonus.”

Silco lunges forward and kisses you, you swear your lips will be all puffy due to the force used. The kiss becomes messy, as the two of you grind against one another, eventually you pull back and see red all over Silco's face.

His cheeks are flushed red, his face has perfect lip marks, his lips are the same red yours are, and his hair's a mess.

God he looks so good.

“I’ll grow it out again, just for you.”

You devilishly smirk as you kiss him once more, your panties sticking desperately to your messy cunt as you frot against the large bulge inside his pants.

Without breaking the kiss, you unbutton and pull down Silco's pants, and he pushes your dress up and pulls your panties to the side, slipping his hard cock in with no problems. Your drenched pussy welcoming him in gladly.

There's no adjustment period, you start bouncing desperately and Silco fucks up into you simultaneously. It's amazing. His cock hits every sweet spot you have.

It’s a bruising pace, his cockhead keeps squishing not only your g-spot but your cervix as well. It makes your eyes roll to the back of your head as you gasp out in pure bliss.

The coiling in your lower belly is wounding up each second you bounce on your lover's cock. Fuck, he's moulded your pussy to his cock. No other will ever satisfy you the way his does.

It’s over for you when he rubs your engorged clit in a smooth circle, your juices making every movement easier. You cum, moaning loudly. Your pussy clenches desperately onto the big, thick cock inside you, and a small amount of juice spills out. Soaking Silcos’s lap and staining his pants.

He continues to fuck up into you, even though you're slouched into his neck and whining at the overstimulation. He's using you like his very own pocket pussy.

And you are.

One, two, three thrusts later he's balls deep inside you, cockhead kissing your cervix as he cums viciously inside you. You can feel each pump of his cock as your belly warms up. God, you aren't sure you can get off his lap without a nice stream of cum oozing out of you.

The two of you pant, satiated. You indulge in your after-glow until it's interrupted by a noise in the rafters above you two. A few minutes later you hear, “I’m assuming I’m getting a sibling in the upcoming months?”

You and Silco look to one another before shouting in tandem,

“JINX!”

Whoops. At least she didn't see you two going at it. Small blessings, huh?

😏😏😏

Hope y'all enjoyed this. Idk what came over me, I wasn't originally going to write smut yet… here we are!

[sherbertquake56]

okay I’m dropping some of my fable arcane au thoughts before the new episodes drop tomorrow even tho most of it is based on season 1 anyway—

so some basic taggings for you that I based the AU around:

1. Icarus as Jinx.

powder vs jinx is just the sherbert vs icarus name thing. toxic father. unhealthy relationship with sibling. a lil crazy and maybe evil. thinks that they are at fault for the things around them. lil bombs? nah- little SPLASH potions. hearing and seeing mylo and claggor? it’s Haley- it’s literally Haley—

2. Fable as Silco.

okay fable’s design WAS partially inspired by silco— they literally look the same— they’re both a man with two priorities: take over and make his own nation & care for child.

you know the ending scene of season 1? where they’re sitting at the table? THAT. With Jinx assuming that he’s gonna give her up to topside and him getting the first chance to talk and saying “her name is JINX!” i could write an essay on that for icarus. they’re so toxic and it’s so perfect. also that scene at the start of s2 ep2? YEAH THAT—

3. Centross as Ekko

This one is controversial and up to debate but i will die on this hill— SO THE S1 BRIDGE FIGHT. I am so willing to put aside any possible prison duo gay-ness in this AU for that rivalry/fight. they were friends!!! they were so good!! and now they wanna KILL EACH OTHER!! it’s great.

It’s also specifically thinking of Ekko’s tree home as solstice— older Ekko very much has the vibe of Violet specifically-

4. Arisanna as Sevika

I DONT KNOW WHY BUT IT MAKES SENSE TO ME. It’s specifically vexed Ari during the coworkers era but idk it just feels right— I look at her relationship with Silco and Jinx and go ‘hmmm this could be something’

[I will also say there is an argument here for swapping Centross and Ari tho— big tree city as Ari rebuilding the records goes hard, and angsty fighty toxic with jinx centross is also good— it’s like 50/50 for me]

5. Isla as Vander

LET ISLA BE A BADASS IN THIS AU. SHE DESERVES IT— something something raising vi and powder alone, something something the backstory with silco— there’s something there and it hits really hard in scenes where vi sees vander and helps her get back up— also I look at jinx and vander and I go “mmmm this is in fact how icarus sees Isla”

6. Rae as Vi

This was obvious given the above but LISTEN— in this ALTERNATE UNIVERSE OF EVENTS I think it would be fun- do I think that vi perfectly fits canon rae? no. But in this world it would KICK ASS. rae deserves to beat some people up— got kicked out of the overworld (zaun) by fable (silco) and had to go to the end (piltover) to get away from him?? rae end prince aus are already here so why not end rae also punching people huh??? also. gay people.

———

Okay— here’s where I need some help, thoughts, and opinions from you all…

1. Caitlyn.

POLYAMORY IS HARD TO TAG AND I DONT KNOW WHO FITS BEST?? For me, season 1 Caitlyn fits best as Caspian, but season 2 Caitlyn is more for Fenris— so I’m very stuck. yes absolutely give thoughts on this please—

2. Viktor as Aax (but how does that work)

Viktor absolutely should be Aax— mr. Scientist / lab experiment / turned religious figure vessel for god is CORRECT. But honestly the rest of Piltover gang is really hard with Rae as Vi— Jayce/Viktor/Mel is yelling at me to be the polycule but aGH— ya know??? very stuck on this so I instead look at the coworkers and go “mm good yes—”

Random other tags I think also make sense:

- Ulysses as that Telchin looking mf Stev— mans took out one lil medical device as his fish self and I said YUP

- The hexcore big orb thing underground as Quixis— big white glitch orb room make things go wack. couldn’t be easier than that.

———

Anyways that’s all— I’ve been rotating this in my mind for like a week and have had way too many thoughts about it thank you for your time—

[daydreamerhabitz]

All my controversial/unpopular personal opinions about Arcane in general because I haven't gotten over it yet and don't care if the hype is already over.

• Ekko's character had so much potential and was completely butchered/wasted;

• That being said, Timebomb is such a terrible ship that they needed a whole au to justify it instead of actually trying to explore the whole dumpster fire that is canon Jinx and Ekko's dynamic. Might be because I'm gay for Jinx, but I felt nauseous watching that episode. It was a waste of time;

• Vi. Poor Vi. What they did to you in season 2 was horrible. Season 1 Vi would have never joined the enforcers and I say that having been a league player before watching Arcane (Yes, I liked torturing myself). They established such a beautiful character, only to completely ignore her core values and personality for the sake of the narrative. That's not good writing. I saw someone once mention that it would have been interesting if Vi had been forced to join them and gosh, it would have been such a blast! It could have been a way to further introduce Caitlyn's descent into dictatorship, show more of Vi's inner struggles and maybe we could have seen Vi being a sort of double agent for the firelights... Vi deserved way better than what she got;

• CaitVi was cute in season 1, but terrible in season 2. I stopped shipping it entirely;

• Caitlyn's whole villain/dictator arc ended too quickly and she needed a better redemption. Or not. Make her worse before she gets slowly better;

• Sevika, Ekko, Mel.... Aka, all the beautiful characters of color of the show who had interesting stories to tell, but were reduced to shells of they could have been. Seriously. The whole black rose arc was so confusing and felt so rushed. The firelights? What firelights, they completely forgot about them until it was time for the music video/final battle. Sevika being given a council seat felt like an attempt to make up for how she was put aside for the sake of a bad written narrative;

• The firelights would have never teamed up with Jinx. I love my girl but they had beef with her. She murdered thousands of them for gods' sake!

• Speaking of her. Jinx, love of my life, my wife.... I'm a psychology student, so I'm aware mental illnesses are very subjective to person and cannot be precisely predicted. Many people found her characterization off in season 2 and indeed, it was very different, but not completely impossible in my view. However, by the way it was written, it made a lot of people interpret it as it suddenly healed by Isha or Silco's death, which is... well, unrealistic. A child's presence could be an emotional anchor and getting out of a toxic environment helps a lot, but it certainly doesn't make your all mental health issues almost 100% disappear. Anyways, like all things in season 2, it could have been written better. Killing her off in the end also sent a terrible message and felt like a stab in the back to the many mentally ill viewers who related to her;

• Isha, adorable baby, but she was just a narrative tool. I knew she was going die the moment I saw her;

• Speaking of narrative tools, so was Maddie. They put her there so we'd be focused on hating her instead of noticing how problematic CaitVi got;

• Ekko and Heimerdinger should have had some conflict with each other. You're telling me that Ekko, my baby boy, would completely ignore the fact that the furr ball had a part to play in Zaun's terrible living by turning a blind eye to it? Nuh Uh!

• Arcane should have had more seasons or more episodes because it needed more time to tie together all the elements introduced in season 1;

• CaitVi's sex scene in the prison cell was disgusting. There, I said it. (And don't go calling me homophobic because guess what? I'm one of them queers!) Vi just failed in trying to get her sister back for like the hundredth time and is probably worried sick because Jinx was clearly suicidal, plus she's IN A CELL, a place where she spent years being tortured in, and then the writers go off and make her go "Oh yes, sex." Even if she did it for the sake of coping, how can I think it's okay for Caitlyn to come onto Vi, who's clearly in a vulnerable position? This was the nail in the coffin for me;

• The whole "hextech is evil because magic is evil and corrupted and blah blah blah' is lazy. LAAAAZY. Instead, talk about how any scientific discovery, any tool, magic or not, can be harmful if used incorrectly. ACTUALLY, use the whole original league lore where the crystal thingies were actually the souls from those bugs I forgot the name of and make a parallel of how Piltover's progress was built on the blood and detriment of the people of Zaun;

• Jesus Magic Herald Viktor was great, but Machine Herald Viktor will be missed;

Anyways, I think have more of these, but my head stopped working right now. So byeee!

[envysarchive]

hey so i just want to rant a bit on silco and jinx's relationship and share my perspective over the whole 'silco was a good father bc he loved jinx' (sorry if there's any grammar mistakes, english isn't my first language)

firstly i'd like to talk about the whole silco mentally abusing jinx:

- yes, silco did love jinx but he was still manipulating her so that she remained as jinx and acted in a way that could benefit him.

- after vi reappears, you can literally see silco trying to pin jinx against her by using lies and touching on jinx's insecurities (she could never love you after what you did, she just wants you for the blue thingy, etc)

- he does this because he doesn't want to lose jinx.

- at that point jinx wasn't of any 'use' to him, politically speaking; she caused more harm than good.

- however, silco couldn't imagine his life without her which is why he keeps using these manipulation techniques in order to keep a certain control over her so that she stays.

- silco feels like he's a bad person and fears that jinx might figure it out and hate him, so he decides to mentally abuse her.

- you can love someone inmensely and still do them harm; that is quite literally a representation of a toxic relationship.

now i'll talk about the physical stuff:

- honestly silco and jinx are both some of my fav characters, and although i find their relationship interesting, i think that it's very very weird.

- like yeah, it is clear that silco loved jinx but it was more in a trauma-bond type of way.

- silco saw himself in powder in the way that they were both betrayed by their older siblings (figure for silco), so when he saw how vi had abandoned powder, he felt connected to her and decided to 'adopt' and take her in his care.

- however this father-daughter relationship is not normal.

- despite the fact silco did perceive her as his daughter, they still had this strange touchy thing that isn't normal at all (the 'baptism' scene is sooo uncomfortable, they look like their about to kiss at one point😭😭).

- they aren't romantically attracted to each other, they just feel this deep connection that they don't know how to express correctly.

- this is probably due to both of them having very strained relationships w family members so they didn't quite know what was right or wrong in the interactions within that area.

- i'd also like to point out the fact that jinx at first saw vi and cait's relationship as something sibling-like (which is why she was jealous of cait), demonstrating that jinx didn't understand the boundaries that should exist between family members.

my conclusion: silco was a loving father, not a good one.

[icouldntthinkofabetternamesook]

my brain made so connections

I'm not sure how pictures work here so this is gonna be formatted goofy but these two polycules/love angles have far to much in common and I need to share

Mel Medarda and Hazel Levesque

beautiful terrifying black women with mommy issues, gold, an association with wealth, prodigious magic powers, artistic pursuits and a distant brother. in a position of power in a system that will always see them as outsiders to some extent. big kindhearted boyfriend. terrible relationship with mother who is in many ways the antagonist of the entire piece and they never get a satisfying conclusion to their relationship(I see Gaea as Hazel's mom in this comparison). deeply and seriously underserved by a narrative that treats getting magic powers as the same thing as getting character development. I once again cannot overstate the shared connection to gold and wealth, especially gold. in many ways responsible for the events of the series but she did it for her mother's love so I can't blame her. Mels love of painting and Hazels love of drawing. A deep, loving, if damaged heart. if they came from anywhere near the same social strata they would be the same character

these two characters are defiantly cross universe variants of each other and their massive similarities kicked off this entire thought process

Viktor and Leo Valdez

scrappy, messy inventors with low self esteem, resurrections, a weird thing going on with a magical entity, and they both die to save the world. in weird sorta love triangle with the above. Leo has that pre arcane Machine herald vibe. they both push people away and are in a self inflicted cycle of loneliness despite being full of love. died for your sins and only got hate and pain in response

Jayce Tales and Frank Zhang

probably the least similar of the polycules. absolute puppies of men, tendencies to fail upwards, get put at the very top of a system of authority of a kinda fascist organization, magic totem of some form, come from some level of legacy in their systems though Frank has far more. most importantly in a weird polycule, love angle with the other two, officially dating the golden girl and has weird thing happening with the resurrected one.

these are both utterly delightful polycules were the boys should go make out so the girl can self actualize

a few more arcane riordan parallels under the cut with more thematic exploration

Caitlyn Kiramman and Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

queer woman of color who got pulled into the facism despite their good intentions

Vi and Piper McClean

a bit of a stretch, but messy haired lesbians in conflict with a lot of the existing order and pressure of family legacy. I kinda have it divided with Piltover=Rome, Zaun=greece. which leads me to another connection. their both very close to the next person on my list

Jinx and Annabeth Chase

now this is definitely a hear me out, but I love my girl geniuses who after a falling out with their family ran into an older male figure who loved them like family but nonetheless was horribly toxic and wound up falling into even through their genuine dedication to their righteous crusade being soured after a falling out with another figure who also acted in a similar capacity to the girl they took in and the story ends with the little girl standing over their corpse they are various levels of responsible for after choose their devotion to another over their toxic semi parental love who spends their last breaths reaffirming their relationship and ultimately winning a more centrist version of their cause after death. I just love when little girls wind up alone, and desperate to prove themselves because the system cares about them as weapons over children to be protected.

Silco and Luke Castellan

was right. bitchin scars. fallen hero figures who care deeply for the people they sent out to protect but ultimately became what they feared most and got corrupted by power. leftist hero's in a centrist narrative. this does not change the immense harm they did specifically to the young girl in their care they have weird semi sexual/romantic subtext with despite ultimately having a familial bond. they also have an antagonist relationship with

Ekko and Percy Jackson

the boy savior, far to much on their shoulders to early, leaders in their community, truly look out for the people, will spit in authorities eye but is also pretty close to some specific people in power, in love with the victim/adopted family of the villain/fallen hero. the one who breaks the cycle and saves the day

I managed to get most of the Arcane characters and the tip of the ice berg for riordan. this obviously has Thalia as Vander in the Luke/Silco, Annabeth/Jinx trio, as well as an association with wolves and dying in a heroic sacrifice to protect a little girl in their charge and ultimately coming back from the dead after being saved against their will. I think Vi might actually be the closest to Jason in this dynamic, especially after making Reyna/Caitlyn, but they don't have that much more in common. serious complexes about being what others need and a lack of internal stability? amnesia if you take vi's old league lore into account? I still prefer Piper I think they have more similar vibes and I'm trying to make the camps and city's line up

this also has Gaea as Ambessa and Calypso as Hexcore Sky. no one really lines up with singed or Sevika and no one lines up with Nico. Sevika works as Clarisse, as in utterly amazing butches

this might all just be similar tropes lining up in similar ways but I kinda like it

[avo-gal]

Varigo villian au lore (pt2?? Ig?)

Soz this took longer than expected lol.

So originally I had two ways for varigo to meet but this is the one I ended up liking more.

Varian

In this au when Rapunzel frees Quirin that was sort of Varian's breaking point bc Quirin didn't survive the Amber. Quirin possibly being alive and things going back to normal was the only hope Varian had left without that he.. lost it to keep it short. Andrew tries to work his way back in and Varian practically freaks out and kills him. Whether it was intentional or not he's still not sure. But a part of him that sick twisted part enjoyed it. So now his mission is to kill all those that cross him and in doing so rise to power. Varian in this au is (for lack of a better word) very insane. He's kinda similar to jinx from arcane? Except less childish. He's like a mix between Jinx and Silco personality wise.

Hugo

Hugo meanwhile is still a thief. He finds the abandoned village of old Corona and decides to raid one of the few remaining houses for any goods. That house was old and messy. The rooms were filled with blueprints, designs, lab equipment, tools, metal, etc. Hugo is fascinated with these designs and is a good engineer. that's when a raven haired boy sees him and initially freaked out and is about to kill him (which he's kinda into cause like damn). But Hugo is able to schmooze his way out of that with a good ol "I hate the rich. You hate the rich. We should kiss- I MEAN build these robots and weapons and take over the kingdom together!" Over the course of about a year (more or less) Varian and Hugo build everything and take over (it actually wasn't too hard). Hugo in this au isn't too different from his regular self. He's more energetic however and isn't afraid to get gorey. He is def a masochist in this au lol. Whilst Varian does constantly give him opportunities to have the same level of power as him Hugo never takes it. One reason is he does want the responsibility another may be that he likes being below Varian.

Varigo

Over all Varigo have a sort of situationship? They'll refer to the other as their partner, boyfriend, fiance, etc. But their relationship is very toxic. I wouldn't say manipulative exactly more power hungry? Or fear fueled? They do care very deeply abt the other (since they are the only ones that care abt the other) and if U hurt one of them the other wouldn't hesitate to kill you. But they often threaten each other physically and emotionally (and not always in a playful way). Hugo on the outside seems like he's only in the relationship for the money and sex and Varian seems like he's only in it for reassurance and weaponry. But they both have common interests and are almost unstoppable when they work as a team. There are a lot of layers to both of them the closest couples I can think of to reference them to is stolitz more so in the earlier seasons and maybe Harley Quinn and the Joker? I'm not very good at explaining their relationship but they are very fun to write lol.

Donella

I haven't given Donella much thought in this au. I think after finding out Hugo has taken over Corona with Varian she tries working with them offering her men and resources.

TTS Cast (may change)

Rapunzel, Cass, Eugene and the others have a sort of rebellion in the snuggly duckling. I haven't thought too much magic hair wise but I think Raps has lost her powers by now so they have a very low chance of winning. The current state of this au is abt a year after Vat7k would have happened.

Someone asked on the last post if I plan on writing a fic for this au.

The answer is not currently no. If I did write a fic for this I would want to have more planned out and there's alot in this au I'm still not sure abt. If it got enough attention or if someone also wanted to write a fic I might do a couple's one shots just to sort of show the characters and how they act in this au. But for now I'm prob just gonna stick with occasionally posting abt it. As I said if it gets enough attention or if I come up with more for the au then I might do something big or post more often abt it.

Okay byeee U guys are amazing make sure U eat today <33

🥗🍟🍕🧁

[loxalotl]

Piltover is the problem (*Arcane S1 spoilers*)

Throughout Arcane, Jinx is torn between Vi's "Powder", and Silco's "Jinx". Both love her, but neither accept who she is until Silco's final realistion where he switches from "Jinx is perfect" to "You're perfect." 

Something he was desperate to hear from Vander, who gives up on Silco, betrays him and leaves him for dead thinking he doesn't have the capacity to change. But Silco proves him wrong: "Is there anything so undoing as a daughter". Jinx did what Vander couldn't. Gave him something else to believe in. Focussed that anger and injustice.

And Silco did it. He paved the way for peace. And had a good argument for not handing in Jinx for the murder of a couple of guards when Piltover has been systematically murdering hundreds of children and adults alike in the mines etc.. Oh, but it wasn't them directly, so doesn't count? No. Their inaction was what pulled the trigger. And Jayce doesn't even consider being held accountable for the murder of that boy (again, irregardless of all the out-of-sight so out-of-mind deaths). If brokering peace is enough for him, it should be enough for Jinx and Silco too, particularly when Piltover's body count is so much higher.

When it comes down to it, Piltover are the worst kind of abuser. They're the government who acts all nice and shiny and righteous while quietly enforcing child labour, enabling destruction of the environment, gas-lighting anyone who speaks against them, and promoting an unsustainable and lavish lifestyle based on self-interest at the expense of others. The quiet, deep-rooted, insidious evil that points it's finger at any opposers screaming "look, big bad thing threatening our civilised way of life!"

And Vander and Vi are not the "good guys" either. They're another kind of toxic. The "normal" people with a saviour complex who don't understand/accept anyone different, and part of what pushed Silco and Jinx over the edge (because, yes, Silco and Jinx have crossed a line, there is no excusing that). Neither are the Firelights necessarily the "good guys". They are so focussed on infighting in Zaun that they seem to have forgotten about the root cause of their problems. You know, Piltover? The people who have been quietly murdering your families and loved ones for the past X number of years??? Jeez. Remember the bigger picture guys.

Now, we may have been robbed of the "Silco figuring out how to properly dad" in Season 2 as it doesn't fit into Riots universe (looking at you, AO3), but I can only hope it doesn't turn into the "Vi fixes Jinx" show. Jinx doesn't need fixing. She needs people to accept who she is, and access to mental health care so she can focus that brilliance into productive things. People can be not okay but still valid. Yes, Silco was a "bad guy", but he was also a product of Piltover's exploitation, suppression and abuse (hello? Can we address this please?), as well as Vander's betrayal. He was very deliberate in his cruelty. It all had a purpose. Zaun needed someone to step up as nothing else was working (hello Jinx). Was it the right thing to do? Morally, no. But was it the lesser evil that would overall result in the fewest deaths? Who knows.

The key takeaway for me is that Runeterra DESPERATELY needs access to good quality, free mental health services (as do we all). Also, the world could also come a long way if we a) try to be nicer to each other and b) take a closer look at those really in power ('cos there is a whole lotta grey out there).

But that's how I see it. And I think one of the great things this show has done has sparked these discussions on acceptance, equality, mental health etc. It's okay to not be okay. You're not alone, so just be nice to each other. We're all on this lump of space rock together, and for anyone out there who feels lost, I'm sending all the love and hugs in the universe💜

And yeah, watch this show. It's perfect.

[deadciv]

this is deeply silly, but given that i did spend a non-insignificant amount of time working through it, I thought i’d put it somewhere other eyes can see it. this is for those who thought arcane season 2 was a bit of a rushed mess with a lot of missed opportunities; I particularly found the Caitlyn arc to be unsatisfying and Ekko’s stuff, while good, to be insufficient. in my opinion, the story sorely needed a season 3 to resolve its various plots (which very broadly can be broken down into cosmic arcane yaoi vs. piltover-zaun class struggle) in a satisfying way. i’ll put the rest under a cut to have mercy on my mutuals

Arcane season 2 redux

Act 1: starts off pretty similarly

only two major changes in the first 3 episodes. Isha gets an intense toxic exposure to the concentrated fissure gases that Caitlyn’s been deploying that begins to have effects on her health; we get a scene of Ekko trying to bring together and unite the Lanes in the wake of Silco’s death where he perches atop the Last Drop, takes off his mask, and tries to convince the people of the undercity that they need to stand together and not bow to Piltover’s demands. After this he does still get sucked into the other reality though

also the big guy gets cut entirely; I see no reason for his existence

Act 2: more substantial changes

Sevika plays the revolutionary vigilante, bringing people together: helps get some firelights/their families out of a Zaun-side enforcer lockup; they agree to come to her rally and listen to what she has to say

Jinx and Isha and Sevika still bond and build up a little family dynamic; save each other from undercity infighting etc. still trying to convince Jinx to become the revolutionary the Lanes have been calling for; fails.

Jinx withdraws into herself and focuses on these people closest to her, all the while worried that things might just fall apart again. Isha eventually goes and tries to use her identity to bring people together; the cops still try to round everyone up but Jinx shows up and uses her powers/gadgets to make everyone scatter before the cops can grab them all. Rictus is there and almost captures Isha but Jinx just barely manages to rescue her in time; Singed isn’t picked up by the cops and fades back into the uncercity

People pin their salvation on her; point to her as the person who kept them from being kidnapped by Piltover—“Jinx is back”

In retaliation, Piltover starts playing even more with the noxious gasses in the vent system and begin allowing it to just filter through much of the undercity in low concentrations, leading to a lot of people sickening, driving them towards Viktor’s commune

Fight with Jinx and Ambessa: Ambessa, curious about the opposition and wondering how Jinx can be giving them so much trouble (and frustrated at her lack of progress with hextech), tracks Jinx to a clinic where Jinx is attempting to treat Isha. The girls stand in line together until the other folks recognize Jinx and insist she go first; talk about how grateful they are that she’s back and that she saved them and their loved ones from being rounded up earlier. Jinx is overwhelmed and doesn’t really know how to feel; as she and Isha leave Ambessa strikes. They battle; Jinx is able to hold her own for a while, impressing Ambessa, but is ultimately disarmed, wounded, and overcome. She talks about using Jinx as controlled opposition and how she helps keep Caitlyn in line; about how she wonders what things might’ve been like had she taken Jinx on as a protege instead. Is about to take Isha captive to control Jinx when she activates a rune gem empowered grenade to try and kill them both. Ambessa disables the bomb with a strike of her blade, scattering the gem away from her while Jinx uses the opportunity to use her speed and escape, fiercely protecting Isha. Ambessa leaves, but not without Jinx’s gemless pistol and a better idea of the players on the board. Tells Jinx that her time will come soon as she goes

Vi still goes Rhea Ripley mode, but instead of Jinx coming to pull her out of it, it’s Sevika. She rakes Vi over the coals for siding with the Pilties and abandoning her sister, trying to get her to understand that Silco did things for ideological reasons and wasn’t just Evil; they talk about being pulled between two different worlds and loyalties, etc. Sevika reveals a bit more of what happened with her and her family and talks about how neither Vi nor Silco was willing to accept Jinx for all of her parts, past and present. She leaves with things unresolved and tense still, but Vi starts to think a little bit more about her place in the world; her sister’s; what really matters.

Vi starts wandering around the city, unsure of what to do with herself, seeing Caitlyn and Jinx in every corner, every shadow. Opens her eyes and her mind and really begins to see the city as it’s become: the hate people have for Caitlyn; the hope they’ve placed in Jinx.

By pure happenstance, the two girls encounter each other on the elevator between city levels, with Jinx on her way back from another clinic with new medicine to treat Isha. Vi, still angry about everything, lays into Jinx, who eventually is provoked enough that she eventually yells back (you couldn’t take me without those overgrown punch gloves that you didn’t even make, etc). They start scrapping; bloodying each other a bit and laying open old wounds with each other’s verbal barbs in a fight that goes from almost playful to deadly intense way too quickly before the medicine takes a tumble and Jinx completely stops fighting in order to rescue it. It begins to really sink in for Vi how different her sister is from what’s she thought, and in confusion and shame she runs off.

Jinx takes Isha, now seriously sick from her exposure to the fissure gasses, to Viktor’s commune. He heals her (in his way); Vi has followed them and sees Jinx caring for this little girl in such a genuine way; it reminds her of them when they were kids and she begins to truly come around. Jinx and Isha still have the “you make me feel like i’m seeing through glasses” conversation, just post Viktor healing

More scenes of Caitlyn and Ambessa doing combat practice

Singed is trying to make common cause with Viktor; at this point, Viktor is having none of it. He won’t have anything to do with Warwick etc etc

Vi can’t quite get the courage up to go to Jinx and try to make up; this is unfortunate because at this point Jayce fucks everything up + Caitlyn has been having Vi tailed in case she and Jinx met up and cops/Noxian military roll in

All those touched by Viktor go into a catatonic, empty state, including Isha. Jinx is fairly devastated by this, understandably

Jinx is captured, Sevika is injured (leg) trying to protect Isha (though she manages to get the body safely away), Vi is ignored and watches as Caitlyn coldly presides over the whole thing from afar with Ambessa by her side.

Singed orders Warwick to make away with him and Viktor; they go to his lab

Act 3: also substantial changes

Episode 7 happens (it’s good I basically don’t want to change it at all). Can’t decide if I’m moving it to the episode 6 spot or not though

Jinx tries to hang herself with her own hair in her cell after a hallucination of Silco telling her the only way to break the cycle is to let go. Caitlyn shocks her with the restraints in the cell and has her men cut the hair off in response

Caitlyn sends her guards away and she and Jinx talk. Jinx admits that she didn’t really care about killing Caitlyn’s mom and was just trying to do something to honor Silco’s death and the struggle that was his life; talks about being a jinx and all the people she’s lost or hurt and how every time she tries to make something better it somehow gets worse. knows she’s about to be executed; accepts it. wishes she could see Vi one last time

Caitlyn walks away troubled and unsatisfied with the fact that Jinx isn’t matching what she envisioned of her, but decides to go through with the execution anyway

Check back in on Mel; her plotline has gone fairly similarly but is interspersed a bit more, with her and Lest and Elora trying to snoop around and figure out what the deal with the Black Rose is. She leaves the Black Rose sanctum without accepting the pendant thing; emerges into the undercity and gets a first hand view of what’s been wrought.

Interlude scene of Ekko seeing various other realities, briefly—Jayce’s torment nexus void reality (and a version that seems like, halfway there), a version of himself killing Jinx on the bridge way back when, him and Vi and Powder playing together as kids…Jinx killing herself with the grenade a la the beginning of episode 9 (no time recursion, though)

Jayce and Mel argue about the paths that led them here; confront the Viktor construct

Singed and Viktor ally with each other now; Singed uses his compounds/Warwick to power Viktor’s survival and evolution. They begin to expand throughout the undercity from their reclaimed compound, a wave of constructs taking people by surprise and subsuming them into the whole in order to build up a great enough force to take the hexgates.

Mel returns to Ambessa and begs her to send troops to the undercity to defeat the new threat; when she refuses, Mel realizes that her mother intends to let the undercity die for the sake of expediency and that she likely is waiting for an opportunity to seize Viktor/Singed’s power for herself. Escapes using her magic, shocking her mother; leaves in disgust to find some way to help in Zaun

Encounters Ekko and Sevika; the two have been working together to unite the under city and cautiously accept her help

Vi sends a message to Caitlyn telling her that the constructs will come for Piltover soon enough and that no one is safe; asks for help and asks her to spare Jinx. Maddie intercepts it.

They drag Jinx out on the steps before the council building for an execution via public guillotine. We see her die a handful of times in recursion, the axe coming down as a couple minor details change in the background……until suddenly, she’s just not there anymore. Ekko spirits her away on his firelight board, Vi shatters the ground around the steps to make a big distraction, and Mel uses her powers to stymie any attacks made against them as they flee. a couple other firelights die in the process, including the vampire bat second in command character who was giving Vi her escape ride. Ekko mourns and struggles with the fact that he chose Jinx over his own guys; the two of them have a brief, uncomfortable conversation as they fly away as Jinx clearly feels like she wasn’t worth the risk and Ekko tells her that he’s tired of giving up on people, and that she shouldn’t give up on them either

As they arrive back in there undercity, Vi and Jinx can’t quite find the words to talk to one another. Ekko needles Vi a bit for her flip-flopping

A concerted attack begins. Constructs start to pour over the undercity, trying to claim more people and create a clear path to Piltover

The battle rages. It’s only through the combined power of Vi, Jinx, Ekko, Sevika, etc that they’re able to fight off the onslaught. Warwick is there and part of the attack; something feels off about him but neither Vi nor Jinx quite figure out what it is.

It turns out that Viktor withdrew his forces in order to make his push towards the Hexgates, and that his constructs weren’t at full power yet but are rapidly approaching it. Amidst the wreckage of the battle, Vi tries to convince everyone to listen to Jayce, to go help Piltover even though they left Zaun to die because if they don’t there won’t be anything left of any of them. Ekko joins her; but it’s not until Jinx adds her voice (in her diffident, nihilistic way) that the people of Zaun decide to listen.

Things are going bad up in Piltover; Ambessa’s troops seem to be hanging back, barely defending anything. Caitlyn fights for her city and is seriously wounded in the battle; is about to die before Jinx shows up and blows away every foe around her, saving her without a word

Jayce tries to reach Viktor to do their cosmic yaoi thing in the hexgates

The cavalry arrives, something that the Enforcers and citizens of piltover are not at all expecting, and the tide begins to turn a little bit. Unfortunately, Warwick shows up and starts to absolutely rip through them, injuring the already hurt Sevika badly and hurting Jinx in her effort to protect her. Vi joins that fight and they try to distract the monster away from everyone else, even though Jinx is in a bad way (crushed right side).

Mel fights her way through the chaos to confront her mom; they begin to fight as Mel realizes that her mom is so nihilistic in her pursuit of power so as to cynically calculate that somehow someone else will solve the arcane monstrosity problem and she will be able to pick up the pieces afterward—or, if they fail, at least there won’t be a world left for her to lose power over. Both interrupted as—

Viktor starts to turn everyone; to convert Jayce etc as in canon

As in canon, Ekko shows up with the z-drive and chucks it into the maelstrom

Cosmic yaoi

Isha and all the other folks touched but not fully converted by Viktor’s power come back to themselves, but Changed both physically and otherwise

In that moment, Vi and Jinx see that Warwick is Vander as a small bit of him passes back through the connection between him and Viktor, just as Ambessa’s people take the leash from Singed and gain control over him, calling him back out of their reach.

Meanwhile Rictus, who was sent to ensure that Vi dies in the chaos, nearly ambushes and kills Vi and Jinx atop the juddering, collapsing hexgate before Caitlyn puts a bullet through his head. She disappears before anyone can be sure what happened, though.

In the process of cosmic yaoi, Piltover is changed forever. The spirals and whorls of the void splice themselves through much of the city, rending the council building and academy in two and altering half of the city irrevocably.

The remnant magic combined with Ekko’s time-bending power traps-in-amber the memories of everything that could have happened here. People see their parents again, see people in their lives perishing in ways they’d never have imagined, see versions of Piltover and Zaun that never came to be. The past is in there, but warped; is the future there too?

Music montage time:

Ambessa sees Mel and Kino in the twists and turns of the half-void

Mel and Lest seem to be in some ancient, underground library of some kind

Singed Daughter

Jinx reunites with Isha at the hideout; Vi reluctantly joins them (remembering the last times she’s seen Isha) and Isha offers her a bug to play their little fighting game. Sevika is slowly and grumpily recovering there, too; she has a leg replacement now as well

Ekko welcomes new recruits into the firelights; looks enigmatically at his mural and Powder in particular

Caitlyn looks out moodily from a high vantage point as enforcers and noxian soldiers muster together below her

Maddie ominously finds what remains of the Z-drive

End of season 2!

[ravenkinnie]

Youre right about jinx and silco being emotionally incestuous and u should say it louder. I hated jilco fics sm when i was fresh to arcane because it's not fun to run into a gross what-if for my own childhood. But it's real. even if jinx and silco would rather eat lead than fuck each other, they're still incesty; I wouldnt have wanted to have sex w my parent, but we were close in a way we should not have been. It's just a fact of parent+child codependency that your relationship gets weirdly, almost romantically enmeshed. being codependent & a teenager at the same time genuinely screws up ur head. Thats why therapy exists

Anyway, fandom hates to hear it, but yea, it's incesty. There is nothing less comfortable than watching jinx and silco touch each other. discomfort is its own sort of thrill, yk? that toxicity draws ppl in, but they dont want to label it bc incest is actually really bad & u cant shrug off 'my faves are incestuous' like u can 'my faves murder on the daily'

here is my only take on darkfic or proship or whatever discourse people wanna call it: yes, the majority of those tags are not lolita, they are just bad porn. truth is, the mythical ao3 fic that's so good it should be published is just very rare because if you could write lolita or beloved, you wouldn't be on ao3 you would be winning Nike awards. majority of ao3 tags are just bad porn in general because that's very easy to write and most of humanity are just not good writers, that's statistics. as someone who checks both noncon and rape recovery tags, I can tell you they are both very bad and can perpetuate horrible stereotypes and ideas in their own ways because they are written by people and people don't have themselves as examined as we like to imagine. I have an extreme issue with people acting like only these highest tier level books or fics or whatever are allowed to touch on those topics because it goes unacknowledged that this IS the highest tier level in both quality and literacy. majority of people are not reading beloved because an average reading level is very low and those people are more likely to interact with things we dont consider well written and produce things that are not very good. but things happen to people who aren't that educated too and those people interact with the world around them too and they are also adults. I never once want to come off like I expect people to present trauma credentials at the door to be allowed to be interested in or produce different content and that means I'm accepting that refusing this survivors vs freaks discourse dichotomy means here be freaks and I'm okay with that. rape existed before we had language and it will exist long after elon musk puts microchips in our heads that make us communicate in binary code only - and then of course those things we make influence us further too, reality is just a snake eating its tail like this

sorry this was a tangent because I always fear when I start these topics online people will pull me into their discourse so I want to say I rdject the discourse the way it exists from the start shsjjs and I say this all as someone who does have triggers and who does check sexual assault warnings for movies and such, ao3 is honestly where i will always pledge my allegiance as a fic site just because of the tag system making it so easy to control content you see

I think the fact that I always feel like I should make those disclaimers is why it's so hard to have these conversations in fandom or just social spaces, because people don't actually want to talk, they want you to establish that you are the right moral agent to align with. I was gonna say this feels like a very western culture thing but I think you see it across so many cultures actually, that discomfort becomes inherent harm and breaking social parameters is considered violence so if you bring up something that is uncomfortable, that is complicated, you're the problem because you said it. there are parts of this fandom that don't even want to acknowledge that silco is not a very good person and he's an emotionally abusive parent because if piltover are the bad guys then we obviously have good guys in zaun but people, and by extension fictional people, are more complex than that. on smaller scale you see it in families often, this type of playing pretend and not talking about things and then if you're the one who talks they will say it's you who is toxic because you ruined the vibes, you should just shut up and accept it like everybody else does

but the thing is that a culture of silence has never once benefitted victims, and refusing to accept that depictions of abuse and the conversations around them exist in different ways and shades is exactly that, it's a culture of silence that refuses to accept that the world is so complicated and so the violence in it is so complicated. and families can get SO complex, when you grow up into an independent - emotionally, sexually, physically, whatever - human being around people who are fucking insane and they are so wrapped up in your core development across everything, things get messy

also I wanna say. people who say it's not uncommon for grown women to sit in their dads lap live lives I can't imagine - IM NOT saying that physical affection in your family as an adult isn't normal, it's very healthy actually, I just forget there are people who have like. good fathers out there, I don't even like when my dad stands too close to me like what is he planning...... why am I in the attack range.......

[sandraharissa]

I’ve seen somebody call the dynamic between Cait, Vi and Jinx a love triangle and they praised arcane for utilizing it in a unique way that doesn’t solely involve romantic love. And I completely agree, but the thing is is that arcane did it so much that those love triangles are all over the place. It really is such a unique concept to apply this kind of dynamic to platonic relationships cos typically ppl don’t think of platonic bonds as exclusive, so how would the conflict of two relationships that are inherently in opposition to each other even work in that case? and yet, when arcane figured out how to do it they went all in.

Firstly and most speculatively we have Silco, Vander and Benzo. Vander and Benzo seem like best friends and Silco and Vander were ‘brothers’ but I get the vibe that Silco and Benzo never got along and there was no love lost there. They just purely dislike each other from what we’ve seen and it seems like the only reason they’d hang out is cos of both of their connections to Vander. If there was a deeper character choice there for Vander to make when choosing between the two that is not explored in arcane.

Then there’s Sevika, Silco and Jinx, and again, Sevika and Jinx are the two closest ppl to Silco and the only ones he seems to have any sentimental feelings towards, and yet Sevika and Jinx can’t stand each other, likely only hang out in each other’s vicinity bcos of Silco and would murder each other if they could. Again, there’s no love there and it’s almost like a competition for Silco’s favor. Sevika also represents his devotion to his dream and Jinx his devotion to her, his family.

And then there’s Silco, Jinx and Vi. With the two characters being the two closest bonds Jinx ever had and both being her care-takers. The two are in competition with each other over Jinx and are actively trying to kill each other. They represent the mutually exclusive options of morality/sanity and immorality/madness.

Then there’s the aforementioned Jinx, Vi and Cait. With yet again, the two being the absolute closest ppl to Vi in the world and yet themselves being mortal enemies to each other who’d kill each other if they were left together in a room. If I were to give these characters their thing then I think it’d be Cait representing morality, a future that Vi could have, hope and a healthy relationship where Jinx represents immorality, the past, guilt and a toxic relationship. Altho the finale and Jinx leaving wasn’t really a choice Vi was making between the two. And notice how so far it’s the first example of a romantic relationship being a part of these love triangles.

And lastly a shout-out to our Piltover characters with Mel, Jayce and Viktor being portrayed as tho the romance gets in the way of Jayce and Viktor’s friendship and vice versa. Altho so far it’s subtle cos shit hasn’t hit the fan yet.

I could be missing one but just the examples I already listed are so many, and they cover most main characters and all the most crucial players. Thinking about it, if they hadn’t cut out the Ekko flashback I’d probs be able to add Ekko, Jinx and Silco to the list. (Maybe even Mylo, Vi and Powder count, if Vi agrees with Mylo then Powder’s a jinx, if she protects Powder then Mylo gets his face bashed in and she just gets a pass. Also what about Vi, Cait and Cassandra? could they count? it's kinda underdeveloped but they kinda fit)

But anyway, great majority of the bonds involved in all these triangles are platonic and there’s always intricate character reasons why certain bonds, platonic vs platonic or platonic vs romantic, are actually mutually exclusive. But even stuff as simple as ‘they don’t vibe with each other’ is good enough to justify a completely platonic love triangle where a person has to choose between relationships that on the surface level don’t seem incompatible, like two friends or family members. Most of the competing relationships also typically represent two drastically different choices/life paths a person could choose, where the choice of one inherently excludes the other person from being a part of the character’s life, like a ‘going down a path I can’t follow’ situation. If Silco picks Jinx then Sevika wouldn’t be able to follow him anymore. If Jinx picks madness then Vi can’t follow her anymore. Etc. etc.

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 209 Rundown

Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture: Norland makes his castle fly and become like a Damocles 2.0 without the Fleijas I guess and he wraps the big shield over Japan like a tent so no one can get at him. Catherine challenges him since her whole thing is Might Makes Right so she’d accept the outcome if he’s able to beat her but he sidesteps the whole encounter and just uses an energy beam to turn off her Knightmare, invalidating her whole worldview. Rozé makes his way into the command building but the anti-anybody but Norland lock shuts the power down and traps them in there. The scientist guy Norland killed last time gets the blueprints for the Tatchikomas from hell sent to the Black Knights and they call them Lokis, turns out they’re powered and controlled by Norland’s new Knightmare even though they were operating long before he got in the thing. The Seven Shining Stars take to the ground to reboot the bunker breaker and free Rozé while Haruka deals with the pressures of leadership and one of the background extras gives a noble sacrifice, at this point I don’t really care about any of them except Haruka and Discount Alexis Rhodes so it’s fine. Also apparently Haruka’s the general’s daughter and idk if that’s ever been brought up until now but it’s barely relevant at all. Ash faces off against Norland but gets his suit turned off too and thrown out the window (seriously he did the same thing with Catherine, his goal is GENOCIDE why is he just tossing people out of windows instead of stabbing them!?) but Rozé gets free soon enough to meet him in the sky and catch him as the combined forces of the Black Knights, Shining Stars and Neo-Britannia unite against a mutual threat to humanity itself. Idk man I feel like we just quietly sidestepped the questions about Imperialism and Terrorism the original series raised and are just like making someone cartoonishly evil so we don’t have to deal with any of the shades of gray or complicated solutions a complicated world requires.

Arcane: After catching up Up Top last episode, this one’s all about what’s going on down below. Jinx is having a minor existential crisis and currently deciding which of her multiple personalities she’s going to be now that all her backstory threads at cut. The remaining druglords: Old Guy, Bat person, and Girl are all fighting each other in the wake of Silco’s death and Bat person is out to offer up Jinx because peace always seems to depend on sacrificing a young girl. Sevika and Jinx have a nice little scene where they mutually mourn their boss and it’s really weird because Jinx’s specialty is moving around unnoticed and just kinda popping up wherever but she not only gets followed by Bat Person but also by this little Olivier Twist kid she saved so like idk if these guys are just really good at following or if she’s given up on hiding. Meanwhile Viktor is revived from the magic goop as Ascended Wizard Viktor who seems to have enlightened magical awareness and Dr. Manhattan levels of cosmic detachment and just kinda dips out on Jayce. Turns out Ekko’s tree is dying so Heimerdinger breaks into his own lab and it’s a really funny scene like Professor Porg wants to be in a Mission Impossible movie so bad and Ekko’s just like “Bro there’s like NO security here”. They find Jayce and figure out that there’s some sort of symmetrical magical corruption going on in both places. Jinx is working away in her workshop and Cait’s Seal Team Six just comes in and gasses her, led by Vi which makes Jinx not happy to say the least, like I doubt Vi’s on board with straight up killing her but the fact they started out with toxic gas is not a good sign. Bat Person’s men finally catch up to Jinx but Sevika comes to claim her new Dragon Roulette arm thing and wipes the fucking floor with them with an assist from Oliver Twist kid. And last but not least Viktor makes his way into the Undead Burg and becomes a Jesus figure and starts curing the Hollows.

SAO Alternative: This is mostly one of those “remind everyone what the fuck was going on” episodes that you see between seasons that have had long breaks between them. Just like last season we have a big in medias res cold open of LLEN acting as the tiny decoy for her team with Pito, M and Fuka before flashing back to Pito inviting her to Squad Jam 3. LLEN absolutely refuses to fight Pito again because they made up last time and fighting a psychotic stalker gun Sith Lord once was more than enough for her, so they agree to all join a team together as friends so LLEN can keep her promise to the amazons of Team SHINC who’re basically the cast of Love Live rping as Black Lagoon characters in what has to be my favorite reveal from Season 1. All the teams file into the Squad Jam signups, including several of the teams Pito wiped out last time with her aforementioned crazy Sith Lord shit who are now out for blood. There’s also a few new characters that Pito seems to have killed off-screen or very briefly who’ve grinded up a ton of levels for the tournament. Ironically the winners from last time who just camped out till everyone was half dead are here and they’re not very popular because of their tactics and the fact they’re just a bunch of generic dude models and have no waifu characters because this game works surprisingly similar to real life and if there’s no waifus no one cares. Still these guys get a surprising message and we don’t get to see what it is but they seem pretty depressed about it. The Memento Mori bros Pito ripped apart last time meet up with team SHINC and say they both have other people they want to hunt down first so they’ll be avoiding each other until the finals. Meanwhile LLEN’s team finally comes up and they’re basically the most popular because they’ve got three cute girls and their combined track record is pretty amazing with LLEN being the former champ/second place and Pito being third and basically having the most kills in the last one. They load into the waiting room and have some character banter and they kinda sus out that none of them have really played all that regularly recently with Fuka binging ALO, LLEN just enjoying life and Pito and M being busy with an idol concert tour since Pito is also a Love Live character irl, so yeah, good setup, the good guys are out of practice and everyone is out for their heads, real Rocky 3 eye of the tiger moment going on here.

Trigun: It’s one of those episodes that splits up the party along shipping lines, Inuyasha does these all the time but it’s kinda neat to see this happen in this show given how early on it is where the ships are barely formed yet. Wolfwood and Milly get up to some hijinks protecting a dancer girl on the run but things quickly get more complicated as it’s revealed the girl is running away with the heir to a caravan company that holds the key to trade with the nearby big city. The boy is running, hoping to tank his father’s business after discovering they’re in the slave trade and are going to sell his new girlfriend. Wolfwood sees the complexities of the problem and claims just taking off won’t be a permant solution and will hurt a lot of innocent people that can’t get supplies, trying to get the kid to stay and fight or suck it up. Milly meanwhile in her simple way just kinda goes for helping the kids, simplifying the problem in a way Wolfwood’s moralistic agonizing can’t. Things get more intense as Vash is hired to go get the kid and kill the girl and they make a big deal about Meryl thinking Vash has turned heel but come on, we know he’s not in it to kill these kids. Milly and Wolfwood end up protecting the kids until Vash comes in and fakes their deaths, adding to his own reputation as a cold-hearted killer while sparing their lives. They do get away and somehow everything’ll be okay for the caravan I guess since the kid’s dad set this whole thing up with Vash ahead of time so most of this was a lot of worrying for nothing, still it was a nice little adventure for our main pairs as Wolfwood goes off in his own direction again for now.

Revolutionary Girl Utena: It’s a Nanami clip show episode so get ready for a barrage of the stupidest shit you’ve ever seen. Mitsuru saves Nanami from a wild horse and gets sent to the hospital while Utena, Nanami and Anthy ready his diary and he can’t stop them because he’s naked… I mean he could just call out to them but then we wouldn’t have a nice cheap 90% recycled animation and/or silhouettes episode. It’s kinda funny how oblivious Utena and Anthy are like they read all the shit Nanami’s done and is like “wow you’re a terrible person, why are we still cordial to you?” and… yeah, there is no good reason, I mean if there is one thing the clip show puts into perspective it’s that Nanami HAS grown somewhat and is more willing to step up to bad in her own silly way, like I couldn’t imagine the Nanami that melted Anthy’s dress going hands on against the Black Rose cult, not that she does much anything but still. Anyway yeah Mitsuru basically just Tsukishimas his way into every plot that has anything remotely to do with Nanami and makes everyone relive the cow bell thing again from which my brain will never recover. Still he ends up flashing everyone his dick and Nanami tortures him by reading all his fanfiction plans to woo her out loud. Next time we’ve got the start of Season 2 and the Apocalypse Saga where Anthy and Utena are moving in with Akio, oh boy.

[ohsunshine]

give me jinx and vik for the dynamic meme LETS GO

dynamic meme / accepting. i did this mostly with ur viktor-working-for-silco verse, mostly because i'm not sure how i see them meeting otherwise but maybe s2 will change my mind or we can cook something up.

FRIENDSHIP.     childhood friends  /  work buddies or coworkers  /  family friends  /  friends with benefits  /  smoking buddies  /  adventure buddies  /  fake friends  /  recently friends  /  party buddies  /  friendship of need  /  dying friendship  /  circumstantial friendship  /  partners in crime  /  old friendship  /  [ viktor ] is the good influence  /  [ viktor ] is the bad influence  /  [ jinx ] is the good influence  /  [ jinx ] is the bad influence  /  opposites attract  /  ride or die  /  frenemies  /  roommates or flatmates  /  penpals  /  exes to friends  /  enemies to friends  /  other

tbh i kind of feel like si.lco is the only one jin.x is really ride or die at this point for BUT depending on what kind of thing we write, there's potential there. i was also thinking that maybe they knew each other before vik went off to uni BUT i don't think the ages match up. could be neat in a slight au tho i guess. uhhh partners in crime/friendship of need/circumstantial friendship/work buddies yes yes this all makes sense to me.

ROMANCE.     childhood sweethearts  /  [ your muse is mines ] childhood crush  /  [ my muse is yours ] childhood crush  /  exes  /  exes to lovers  /  forbidden lovers  /  highschool sweethearts  /  secret relationship  /  opposites attract  /  long distance  /  unrequited [ from your muses side ]  /  unrequited [ from my muses side ]  /  unrequited [ from both sides ]  /  skinny love  /  friends to lovers  /  enemies to lovers  /  spurious relationship  /  power couple  /  newly entered  /  soulmates [ metaphorical ]  /  soulmates  [ literal ]  /  awkward  /  turning toxic  /  toxic love  /  cheating [ on your muse ]  /  cheating [ with your muse ]  /  other 

naw

FAMILIAL.     siblings [ half ]  /  siblings [ step ]  /  [ my muse ] is an older sibling figure to your younger sibling figure  /  [ my muse ] is a younger sibling figure to your older sibling figure muse  /  [ my muse ] is a parental figure to yours  /  [ my muse ] is a child figure to your muse  /  guardian figure  /  legal guardian  /  adoptive child  /  foster child  /  [ viktor ] is taken under mines wing  /  [ jinx ] is taken under yours wing  /  other

hmm i guess this one depends on how u see vik coming to work for s. ji.nx might be the one to (re)introduce him to zaun OR the opposite and v is already working for s when he takes in j. so either way could be feasible depending on what's what in ur verse there.

ANTAGONISTIC.     dangerous to each other  /  dangerous to others  /  unpredictable  /  rivals  /  petty  /  developing into sexual or romantic tension  /  based off family matters  /  based of off circumstance  /  based of professional matters  /  based off misunderstanding or lies  /  conflict of ideology  /  betrayal  /  hero - villain dynamic  /  enemies  /  fight club  /  friends turned enemies  /  lovers turned enemies  /  exes turned enemies  /  other 

idk i did all the others earlier and now my brain is soup but. possibly.

[essentialthyme]

My hottest take is that Cait is an interesting character but she becomes infinitely more interesting when I think of her having a psychosexual hate/love obsession with Jinx. Like they'd tear each other apart but Season 2 really wants us to see the two of them as mirrors to each other. Like Caitlyn's moment of frustration in Jinx's lair when she shoots that cutout? You can see Cait's eyes do this haunting flash of black and white for a split second. It's like when Jinx's shimmer kicks in and her eyes leave these trails of light behind her. It's so good.

I'm not loving Vi this season so far, I understand her motives I just think the writing around her is rather weak, which is more of a result of having to keep Arcane somewhat aligned with League's lore. Like Vi is obviously going to be an Enforcer because she's an Enforcer in the game, one of the most famous Enforcers to ever exist and one half of Piltover's Finest. Like she is predestined to be a cop, but her journey to getting there is one I'm not too happy with simply because the path didn't offer a lot of growth or regression, her decision to join the Enforcers is one thing, but her gassing her neighbors is a whole problem in itself.

I would be surprised if a lot of them end up turning on her, simply because she was gone for upwards of ten years, comes back with THEE Enforcer princess Caitlyn Kiramman, is somewhat involved with taking down Silco's gang-- one of the major players in the advancement of Zaunites--then comes back again with a strike force of Enforcers and a toxic gas to choke out her neighbors. Like from their perspective Vi must seem like a total traitor.

Caitlyn is...my baby girl like I adore her so much but girl is taking that steep decline into fascism. Which is colored by both her grief, rage, frustration, and fear; similar to Jinx in act 2 of season 1, she feels betrayed and the people she thought she could count on are failing her. I'm sad she's going through it this season, even though I completely stand with whatever Jinx does to Piltover, but it's a little upsetting that people are either "she's totally evil" or "she's innocent" about her this season. Like I hate what she's doing but I love her character, I love messy characters, I love it when women are angry and violent and evil.

This is ranty, I forgot the main point of this ask was to spread my CaitJinx toxic lesbianisim agenda

There has always been a link between Caitlyn and Jinx, and I can't exactly articulate it well, or better than other people have already done, but yeah, I love that Caitlyn is affected by everything that has happened to her, that she reacts so viscerally to Jinx. I always liked the human element of Arcane's storytelling, and this is no different.

Now about Vi, I don't get the issue many people are seeing. Not only I felt it was shown that the strike team used the gas tactically against the their targets, we're also talking about the same Vi who stormed a factory in season one without knowing who was inside and tried to convince Jayce to keep going after he killed a kid. I'm going to see if I find the post again, but someone talked about how Ekko is the character people think Vi is, and I'm seeing it a lot in fandom rn. I saw someone say Vi was horrified by Caitlyn's questioning, and I just don't see it: Vi has punched first and asked questions later, if at all. I think she is worried. This season Vi is not the focus, just as Caitlyn wasn't in the first season, but we can see three things about her: she is wracked with guilt and grief (which is the driving force of her joining the enforces, "righting her wrongs"), she is worried about Caitlyn, and finally, at the end, she is hurt. The next episodes seem to focus on her, so I'm hopeful!

Ultimately, I think I'm really going to enjoy the season, if the first arc is anything to go by. Caitlyn falling down into this dictatorial path is tragic, but that's the thing about Arcane, there's so many preventable tragic shit happening because of how things play out, of how characters react to things, because of the emotions they feel and can't deal with. I felt the same way watching Caitlyn hit Vi as I did watching Vi hit Jinx. I anguished at Vi ending up in prison in the aftermath, and I despaired when Caitlyn stepped up into Ambessa's play. I think stories like these have the potential to be incredible, and I hope they can stick the landing. Idk lol I'm enjoying it.

But yeah, even though I am a simp for Vi and Cait's relationship, I can see the CaitJinx appeal: toxic yuri rise!

[dayoldbaguette]

you know what? I'm not done.

This season has not only ruined my day, but my weekend too. This is my 'Rise of the Skywalker'

the mage who gave Jayce the stone being Viktor just made Jayce 10 times more boring, and that's a tough thing to do given that I personally never liked Jayce. At first for petty personal reasons, which I have since come to recognize reflect more about my mental state at the time of first watch than his actual character, but. also, the motivation of 'i saw magic once as a kid and was so wowed by it I now want to bring it into existence to help people and if I don't get to do that I will kill myself' felt a little, unreal(?) to me. It can't just be magic and desire to help? You'd have to have more than just 'desire to create magic' on your mind if not getting to do so leads to you contemplating ending your life so there's gotta be underlying self-worth issues there. Like, for aforementioned petty reasons, I kept seeing his desire to help people as a front for his actual desire for admiration, that's how I interpreted his rise to politics and leaving science behind. He gets caught up in the power and fame a little bit too much, until he realizes that his actions and power come with a lot of responsiblity and the crimes you commit in power will haunt you. That was his arc. But at least, for all my petty interpretations of his motives that made certain he was never going to be my favorite, at least he was everywhere. He was everywhere, he knew basically every major character apart Jinx I think, and had some sort of interaction. He also had a unique backstory moment with a character no one else had met, which made him unique and shaped who he is. Finding out that mage was Viktor the whole time ruined any chance of him being an independent actor. His actions were all fated, predetermined by Viktor's wishes. In combination with the fact that him knowing literally everyone went nowhere, in the end only his connection to Viktor mattered and like. Sorry to the shippers, but, that is extremely boring.

Pretty much all of Jayce's other motives and beliefs got thrown out the window when we went into 'now this is about magic and Viktor' territory. None of his other dealings, his changing beliefs of what Zaun's fate should be, come up in most of season 2. He literally knew Silco and wanted to hand Zaun it's independence. Never does he bring this up anywhere in dealings with Zaun, though I suppose they didn't need to cause the political unrest between Zaun and Piltover is basically set dressing this season and once the war began Zaun put up basically no meaningful resistance. Christ, almighty, I could write my bachelor's thesis on this season's pitfalls.

I am going to pretend this entire season didn't exist.

Viktor makes no sense as a main villain for the Piltover and Zaun show, while Ambessa could've been good as a kind of, independent agent working to set Piltover and Zaun against each other but ultimately have idk, maybe Cait be the villain? Make Piltover's oppression of Zaun be the villain. but that was never going to happen because we had to devote half the run time to Noxian succession troubles and whatever the hell the black rose is.

Another thing about Jinx's 'death'. Her flying away is actually such a depressing ending despite how it's framed. It really seems to suggest that for her, healing with the people that now accept her is impossible and the only option to have a degree of peace is to walk away. This isn't 'choosing to build something new' or 'hoping for a better tomorrow'. This is giving up on all that, frankly. Surrendering yourself to aimless wandering and abandoning the people who love you because. reasons. (I guess that she feels her sister will never have peace while she's 'alive' and vice versa?). Like yeah okay, to heal sometimes you need to walk away but. It's not like this was a toxic family scenario we're staying would mean continuing to suffer. This was a case where she didn't feel like her family could accept her as she was, and when they did she thought it didn't matter cause she had already decided the only way out was to run away. It's just. Why are both Jinx and Vi acting like their worst, most self-loathing selves, but this time it's meant to be a happy ending or whatever. Like no. Both of them ended up in places that don't feel happy or even like good resolutions to their characters. Jinx shouldn't end the series alone, having pushed away all the people that love her ('I believe i'm a hassle to the people I love' is literally the crux of her split from powder to jinx when Vi literally says she ruins everything to her oh my god who came up with this ending), and Vi shouldn't end in the worst possible version of Caitvi, eternally chaining herself to a person to protect while seeing herself as lesser than Cait ('im the dirt under your nails' in the context of the completely dropped 'addressing societal inequality' plot is. icky.) Like, it's framed like the good ending, but it's a bit like placing cute rom-com music over a psychological horror movie.

re: arcane season 2 finale

Long summary of my viewing experience under the cut:

A summary:

They really dropped the ball on the whole social issues plot and theme, in like, everyone's stories, huh. rip Sevika, I knew the end was near when they gave you that terrible hair cut (fr, zaun needs better barbers on top of everything else). There was no point where it feels like Piltover was forced to reckon with its actions towards Zaun in a major way. There was no uprising, no recognition that maybe we shouldn't have retaliated like this post council chamber explosion. guess the oppression continues as usual (or okay, small incremental changes through sevika on the council I guess but like, narratively this feels deeply unsatisfying). Zaun should've pressured Piltover into giving them independence or smth during the attack. But no. Turns out Piltover can oppress Zaun all they like and only tear down the barricades when they need more meat for the war meat grinder.

wow. they really ruined caitvi huh. yeah. who went 'i'm the dirt under your nails' would be cute and similarly, who said 'oh yeah this sex scene in A JAIL CELL, right after your sister heavily implied she's about to go off herself, with your ex who has not quit oppressing the city you're from or even apologized for all she's said/done' is about true love and not, you know, reeking of desperation that in another show I would assume would be reflective of like, having such incredibly low-self esteem this would be rock bottom. Grow a backbone Vi, your girlfriend thinks you're an animal and has yet to apologize for it.

magic is boring and I feel nothing now. I liked it more when magic was basically a metaphor for technology in unequal societies. Viktor was more interesting then, and this 'humanity is a weakness' conflict is much less interesting than the social issues conflict we had in the first season. I'm not a jayvik shipper, thoroughly ambivalent towards them, I just. Could not manage to care about that plotline at all basically.

Episode 7 is the only good part. they really teleported into a coffee shop AU/everybody* (except Vi) lives fanfic of their own show. can someone write a season 2 that had episode 7's energy. (and I don't mean I want it to be perfect reality I just want that sort of episode, focused on like, 1-2 events with lots of character work back. It's by no means perfect, but I at least feel something positive about it without feeling hollow so)

visuals and artsy montages are cool but they are not an excuse for literally skipping character development. they literally just. did not give any character development to cait between ep 3 and 4 and just hoped we'd be fine with it. what. last episode she hated these people so much she wanted to gas them and become dictator, next episode post time skip she's gotten what, bored?

This is silly but I don't like jinx's hair in the final scenes. i like the multiple dyes, but she went too short in the back. it's giving witness era katy perry a little bit. and her outfit without the hood to make it cool is just not it.

they really did my girl dirty. justice for jinx, give her the redemption she deserves. by this I mean 1) isha felt like a stock character there to flip jinx's switch from happy to suicidal, felt like a cheap manipulative trick and 2) making her die/fake her death is uhhh, dumb. no, I refuse, she deserves the chance to work to make zaun and piltover better, just like she deserves to finally have a good relationship with her sister

Justice for my boy ekko. give him a seat on the council, why does he end the series alone and mourning a girl who prob isn't dead

the ending feels hollow tbh. the social issue aspect of it is secondary to well, the arcane, and ironically arcane to me was never about 'the arcane', but about everything surrounding it. It's not about magic, but the people it affects. without issues that we face irl to ground a story about magic, it becomes hollow. a pretty dream or thought experiment. what part of 'my friend has become jesus and is now convinced he needs to destroy emotions because they make us flawed' is relatable. wish the resolution to the series was you know, something that felt like a puzzle coming together, a resolution that involves all the characters, not literally just a 'I know you're somewhere in there' fight between Jayce and Viktor, one which Ekko is the only one to contribute to, and this by just, chucking his machine at Vik's head. what. what does that mean other than. if you encounter a magical problem throw a magic machine at it. cool. great story. I love investing my time in this. what thrilling character driven storytelling. don't you feel like all of the character development has been leading to this pivotal drive chucking scene??? Aren't you impressed by our wit and clever writing???

honestly, they should've given us less ambessa and mel drama. all felt very disconnected from the rest of the plotlines

we never get time to linger, we never get time for character development, it's like we have a list of beats to hit with no regard for how we get there. 'evolution has a destination' indeed, victor, and the destination is apparently all this season cared about, who cares about the journey and characters on it, right?

ugh. it's 3 am. I want to go to sleep.