#and apparently that was all on fortiche

[aliferousdreamer]

so that's it huh

[mvmnbnv]

Christian wtf. It's not a shocker, we could tell they didn't give a flying fuck about Vi this season, but maaaaaan. At least he said the truth for once. I can only praise Fortiche for making Vi look so incredible but the writers can all go fuck themselves tbh.

in my head the writers dont give af about her while the animators love her lmao. they always put so much work into making her look so badass and shes apparently special to the guy that worked on her, but yeah these writers just...im so disappointed but not shocked

[mollysunder]

The Inx: Jinx's Great and Terrible Devotees in Spite of Conv/rgence

The most annoying thing about Conv/rgence as a game is that it introduces great concepts, like the Inx, but just fumbles the execution of them and the overall story.

In Conv/rgence the Inx are a new chempunk gang of Zaunite teens and young adults that idolize and borderline worship Jinx to the point where they're said to spread chaos in her name. But the Zaun that Conv/rgence establishes tells a different story about the Inx from the intended description.

The first time the Inx appear is in the Conv/rgence comic, where the lead members like Chadd play at the Triumph Festival. It's supposed to be a Zaunite festival to celebrate Jayce's defeating Viktor, the Machine Herald. If the Inx follow Jinx's lifestyle why would they even play at such an event to celebrate a Piltovan, and why would Zaunites think the Inx wouldn't make trouble over it? I could go on about how weird it is for Zaun to host a festival to celebrate Jayce, a Piltovan champion for a fight unrelated to them and their wellbeing, but that would take too long.

For people who admire Jinx's boldness, the best they can do in the comics is pretty harmless vandalism where they just graffiti Jinx's monkey tag over some walls. The Inx are also nowhere to be seen in major events like the Scraptown Run, which apparently all Zaun gangs participate in.

Then there's members like Moshpit Meg. Meg's a diehard Jinx fan that loves Jinx's attitude and dedication to explosions. Before that Meg was admired Vi, the enforcer, because Vi's gauntlets reminded Meg of her own naturally big fists and it made her feel less self conscious about her own hands. That second half begs too many questions I don't have time for.

Outside of aesthetic choices there isn't really anything about the Inx that says they're people who stake their identity around Jinx. This is largely because Conv/rgence's universe works hard to sanitize Zaunite grievances against Piltover which directly undermines the central class conflict between Zaun and Piltover. It also largely impacts the motivations and general existence of characters like Jinx and the people who follow her, like the Inx, because they wouldn't exist in the absence of Piltover's oppression.

To avoid addressing any real conflict between the two cities the Inx are only vaguely make sense in the story, especially the game. All except for one element, Chadd. I need to say this...

Chadd is Accidentally (on Purpose?) Great

The brief moments the audience gets to know Chadd's character gives us an interesting glimpse at the people Jinx inspires.

The first thing we know about Chadd is that he's a musician, and it's neat trait that connects him to the musical roots of Jinx's character. In League, Jinx was the first champion in League to debut with a music video. It was through Jinx's character that Riot and Fortiche begun experimenting League with music. So it's very fitting that Convergence creates a chorus of sorts for Jinx to continue that musical tradition. To add to that, the game's promo posters decided to reestablish Jinx's connections by making her a talented karaoke singer.

The next thing to know about Chadd is that he was the one who planne and organized the Inx to transform a rundown theatre into an airborne concert arena. Red, Ekko's close friend and romantic interest in the game, confirmed that it was Chadd who was the one to make it happen, within a week too. It's an impressive creative feat that's clearly in homage to "Get Jinxed's" aerial imagery. Despite how cool a stunt that was I couldn't see how it was meant to impress Jinx, she was the most destructive thing in the theater... until I read the transcript "Hold me like a Fermata".

A shotgun, a flame thrower... who's funeral were you planning Chadd!??!? Just for context this was a transcript Ekko found of Chadd and the Inx talking about a new weapon (and sound system?) Chadd seemed to have made. I'm sure Chadd was the one who made it because the Fermata is also the name of a musical note that represents a pause (sometimes dramatic) in a score.

If you're familiar with music you might also know that the Fermata has more than one name, it's also referred to as "the Cyclops Eye". That kind of reference to Silco used on a weapon for a later act to honor Jinx couldn't have been lost on the writers because the Eye of Zaun was already found on an Inx hangout.

When I finally noticed all these details I finally got that Chadd is dangerously devoted to Jinx. All the points in his character can only lead us to conclude the real plan wasn't to just play obnoxiously loud music when the theater reached Piltover's heights, it was to destroy Piltover with all the weapons they equipped on it. That's the best idea I can come up with because Jinx immediately throws bombs at their plan to cause havoc in Piltover... for reasons. It does match Jinx's track record at least, usually other dangerous or apathetic champions tend to appreciate her, like Urgot, Renata Glasc, and Khada Jhin.

Even Chadd's concept art communicates that he's probably more devoted to Jinx than rest of the Inx. The way his early design evolves to reflect Jinx's influence could even tell a story. The more this douchey glam rocker finds inspiration in Jinx the more he changes himself and his art to reflect Jinx's impact. Chadd grows his hair out, wears his tattoo of Jinx in the same place she wears hers, and even dresses more like her, but he still retains his own diva personality.

One last thing, the funniest thing about Chadd is the fact that both Ekko and Red seperately ask him to explain himself and what "statement" he's trying to make with the Inx. Chadd just flat out refuses to answer, and even breaks up with Red over that. I thought he was being douche (he was), but then I remembered Jinx doesn't explain herself in game either about the mayhem she causes, she just taunts anyone who asks. The student learns from the master I guess.

Tldr: In the Converegence game and comics the Inx are characterized by mild vandalism and pretentious artists. And I could almost get behind that idea if only Convergence wasn't so heavily biased towards Piltover the dynamics of a group like the Inx could have had a more interesting exploration in their motivations and goals. Also, Chadd is a dipshit and he makes a great follower of Jinx!

[dude1818]

The new season of Arcane is so good. I was not expecting to feel emotional to an Imagine Dragons song. It's also really neat how they tied the new Worlds theme song into the first episode

The animation is still impeccable. It definitely got experimental in places in the first season, but I feel like it does that more often in this season so far. There were a couple of sequences in the first arc that looked very comic book-y, which was very cool

I had forgotten if they ever explained why the show was called Arcane in the first season. Now I get it. It seems like we should've gone straight from that reveal into dealing with the repercussions though, rather than having a little time skip into the coup and all the hextech glitching apparently being forgotten

The biggest disappointment I have about this show is that Riot and Fortiche are creating this incredible world, conflict, and characters, but it seems inevitable that it will have a terrible ending of them turning into League of Legends characters

[yes-these-obsessions-are-healthy]

Ok, ok, so I genuinely, genuinely interpreted Silco's first meeting of Powder differently than a lot of y'all seem to, so it makes me wonder if I'm just terrible at reading scenarios.

I thought he was searching outside to kill Vander on the offhand chance the man managed to survive all of THAT, because Silco isn't a fool who rushes in blindly without a weapon, and when he saw Powder I thought he was planning on using her as a hostage to lure Vi out in the open so he could take Vi out. The knife would have been his means to threaten Powder, not kill her.

But apparently people think that he was totally going to shank Powder right then and there. I don't know if it was confirmed by Fortiche or not if that's the canon implication of events? But I really thought that even after the insanity at the cannery that occurred not two minutes ago, Silco was still fixated on taking Vi out because she was the biggest threat he could not presently account for.

I suppose it would make sense. You can interpret his question of "Where is your sister?" as 'she's not nearby, is she? Because if you're all alone, then this makes things easier *shank*', OR my enduring interpretation which is "Is she not here? If she is, then I have a hostage. If she isn't, then you'll be bait."

I know Silco doesn't really feel that bad about killing kids, and that since Powder was one of Vander's brood he also wouldn't think twice about it, but considering how as far as I understand he didn't know that Powder was behind the explosion nor heard Vi and Powder's argument (shit's on fire, the man was probably busy making sure his surviving henchmen got out alive), he saw Powder and thought 'Potential leverage'. Because he's a schemer, you see.

[0highlyvolatile0]

this meme got me thinking about how mad I am about Arcane, and i was planning on leaving this in the tags but I'm feeling bold this evening, give or take some additions:

the creators of the show are just like 'waaah wahh no they're not gay they're just BROS just let guys be good friends :( (see link above)

do you know how often we hear that rhetoric when two men do kiss on screen? and who we hear it from? homophobes. we hear that shit from homophobes who are mad they have to see men kissing, fucking, etc.

people are too afraid to let men kiss on screen, and they love to fetishize lesbians. Vi is the most butch a woman can get before y'all get scared, coming from a butch.

it's the same shit behind the smokescreen of a good art style. i love arcane, but let's be real here Fortiche and Riot bombed this show big time

like what do you mean we got the "mentally ill woman kills herself as an act of heroism" storyline? i know jinx isn't dead but she was literally planning on it, we get a whole fucking montage of her setting her hideout ablaze with herself inside it! because it's the only way she can fix the problem she's caused, apparently! that is such dangerous fucking rhetoric I don't even know where to begin.

and yet another "not platonic or romantic but a secret third thing on a deeper level" with a couple of the main men of the story. if we get all of these relationships between two men "on a deeper level," then they're all on the same level! why are we letting them hide behind that when they've been doing it for years? this is still queer baiting!

people should honestly be more mad about this but whenever someone pipes up about it, it's "you're mad your ship isn't canon" or "let men be platonic, not everything has to be about romance" or god forbid "aro/ace people deserve rep too"

first of all, Riot was not doing caitvi for the gays. they really weren't. it was for their straight fanbase who was already making googoo eyes at the lesbians from their shitty video game. also: diversity win! the fascist and her cop girlfriend had sex in the jail cell that cop girlfriend's sister was in before she decided to kill herself for being too much of a burden.

second of all, if not everything has to be about romance, then tell me why every single main character in this show has had some kind of romantic entanglement with someone aside from Viktor? Vi, Cait, Jayce, Mel, Ekko, Jinx/Powder. They literally went out of their way to make sure people knew Jinx was into men by creating a manic pixie dream girl version of her and allowing Ekko to kiss her.

third of all, don't throw aro/ace people under the bus or speak for them about having representation, because they deserve better than straight people's "gay undertone scapegoats."

it's homophobia. it is straight up homophobia and we deserve better than that. we really fucking do.

this barely scratches the surface of the problems I have with this show but honestly this has been at the forefront of it and I'm not the only one who feels this way.

[tknblog]

Despite being cancelled after the second season (apparently the bill for production has been upwards of $250 million and it shows) #Arcane on #Netflix is an absolute, unquestionable masterpiece of #storytelling, #animation, #television, and just plain ol' #artistic excellence, and all from a little know French animation studio called #Fortiche. Even if they got to finish it, you’d never want it to end, but I understand it wraps up rather well anyway.

[oskarmcc604]

4/10: Moïse Hergaux-Essame

Moïse is a character animator at Fortiche Studios which is based in France. His work is that of a masterpiece however what makes it great is that he is part of a system with other animators which means they all get to put in their own dash of creativity. The reason Moïse sticks out to me is one of the scenes he animated in Arcane (Netflix) It is one of my favourite animated scenes and apparently he used his son for reference of it Since it consists of a boy running. This was really cool and I'm looking forward to what he does in the future.

[blood-starved-beast]

So League plans to restructure the way it handles its lore and apparently that’s the reason why there hasn’t been much lore releases. Which is, huh. I’m guessing between the abject failure of Sentinels of Light, the absolute success of Arcane, and mixed response to the latest Star Guardians event are likely causes here. And of course, how LOR has expanded the lore in such a rapid rate without details.

If I have to make a guess as to what they plan to do, it’s that they’re gonna monetize it. If Arcane in of itself did not convince Riot that there’s money in focusing on the lore I hope the responses to the event(s) does something to assure them of it. If not a new animation series (I doubt anytime soon, but again, they did invest more stock into Fortiche recently) perhaps more books. The Ruination novel would likely be a test run (and from what I’ve seen by early reviewers, it’s good) to gauge reception.

Though, I’d be a bit disappointed if all the new lore is locked behind a paywall. There’s a lot of characters and it’ll cost a lot of money if they give lore to all. Of course, the popular champs are gonna get more lore disproportionately, still. I hope they do good by it regardless.

[sylvanas-girlkisser]

Arcane Background Lore/Easter Eggs (Episode 6)

Welp folks, just one more sleep until Arcane part 3 [screams internally].

Mel’s painting depicts “The Immortal Bastion”, the enormous fortress that serves as Noxus’ seat of government. However, the artist at Fortiche who drew it kinda messed up by making it seem like the bastion had two towers connected by a bridge at the top, when in reality it has three (representing the three pillars of Noxian philosophy). I’m willing to bet this is down to them using this specific piece of concept art as primary reference:

That aside, Mel referencing being an outcast from her family, while we see pictures of Noxus is clearly meant to imply to savy viewers that she has familial ties to Noxus. I’m not really sure what to do with her episode 1 line about being the richest person in Piltover, but the poorest Medarda, since according to League lore, clan Medarda is a well-established Piltover house, but it’s also supposed to be led by a patriarch with a man named Jae Medarda as heir apparent… Best guess there’s been a retcon and we’ll need to wait until part 3 to know how it all fits together.

The rune in frame when Viktor pokes the hex core, is the rune for sorcery. You know the thing Viktor is trying to learn.

This motif of a pink eye atop a tower-like structure at the entrance to the sump might be a reference to the “vision ward” item in league which are these little structures you can place that have this pink eye floating above it which reveals invisible enemies and stuff. They have since been renamed to “control wards” and had their color changed to red, but the fandom still often refers to them as “pink wards”.

The character featured in Ren’s storybook is someone named Teemo, whom a significant portion of the fandom (including yours truly) despise for being an absolute menace to play against. Also him and Vi used to be a popular ship with the straight cis boy segment of the fandom, and they even had a semi-canon wedding. I wish I was joking.

There is a kind of pink potion in League called “Corrupting Potion”, which restores health and magic while temporarily increasing the damage of your attacks. However the potion Caitlyn trades her rifle for is a very different shade of pink, more similar to that used for shimmer.

Whatever you do, do not look up what Singed’s looks like in League, cause you will not be able to take him seriously as a villain afterwards. He’s one of the first characters they came up with for the game and his design has aged like milk.

Ravens have made a lot of appearances throughout the show, and so far I have assumed it was mostly just set-dressing. However now that we know Noxus will play a part in the story, I would be remiss not to mention that Jericho Swain, the Grand General of Noxus (essentially their president) is visually heavily associated with ravens, though its not clear whether or not he actually is the Grand General at the time Arcane takes place.

So, here used to be a segment talking about why I didn’t think the leader of the firelights was going to be Ekko, but then act 3 came out, and proved that I was full of shit. Instead let me take this space to highlight some of the clues to Ekko being the Firelights leader, and how they were just vague enough to prevent people from definitively calling it:

- Ekko is very heavily associated with clocks, the first part of the Firelights leader we see is his pocket watch, but in league Ekko wears a wrist watch (sorta).

- Ekko signature weapon is a cricket bat (not a shillelagh) in League, but in a lot of early concept art he does wield a shillelagh just like the Firelights leader.

- Just like with the crystal grenades, in League ekko can both stun enemies and throw grenades, but they are separate abilities and rely on time magic to work.

- In the “True Genius” trailer, Ekko builds a rocket powered skateboard, however its not until Heimerdinger gets his hands on it that it starts to fly.

Breaking a bit with tradition here because I think there is a slight chance that Samira might actually make a cameo in Arcane. She’s basically the person Noxus sends in when they want a messy situation dealt with and don’t care who gets caught in the crossfire, and her fighting style would look amazing in Arcane’s animation style. It’s probably just wishful thinking, but she would make sense to bring in as a character to represent how much you shouldn’t fuck with Noxus.

If there’s anything I missed please let me know, I’m planning to do a breakdown like this for each episode.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

[isolated-bug]

ooOooOooOo I found a mistaaaake XD

I was listening to the Guns for Hire song on youtube and it was someone who clipped that scene and i noticed when Silco looks up at Sevika, hanging from the rafters, his desk is awfully barren of Jinxs trinkets. I thought “ooo is that a detail i missed!!?? did she take them away from him cuz he lied??” so i went back through all the desk scenes to see if i could catch when they disappeared... apparently Fortiche must have accidentally messed up the continuity or maybe they had multiple 3d scenes built and grabbed the wrong file? But in ep. 4 Progress day, we see an overhead view of Silcos desk while he laments the topsiders leaving them behind with the hex gates and the toys are nowhere on the desk and there is a huge bundle of scrolls.

Then  the camera angle changes, he throws his clipboard down and grabs his eye stabby.

Angle changes again he says “what happened?” to the now revealed Jinx in the rafters. when she drops down some papers go fluttering but not the size of those massive scrolls. The papers also dont appear to be reflected in the desk view from above.

SUDDENLY! there is only ONE scroll, clipboard is still there and toys are now present along with.. possibly his cigar box? Then in the next scene in his office in ep. 5 when he gives Markus the bomb to blame the issues on the firelights, we see an overhead view as he tells Jinx “you’re the only one i can trust with this” referring to making the weapon and BOOM, the trinkets are gone again!

They are like MAGIC! they make a return appearance in ep. 6 when Jinx is interrogating Sevika

Gone again when Silco returns from his ‘talk’ with Vi at the Eye of Zaun house and complains “how many problems can ONE girl cause??”

but we do FINALLY see them reflected at this angle in ep. 7 when Sevika is reporting the enforcers searching everyone for shimmer; right before the conversation about how she "has more in common with cave lice than Jinx” and having a spat with her father to get Silco to go to the chem baron assembly.

And at this point the desk is updated to reflect Jinxs angry scribbles as well on the map. We also see the monkey mug is still there covered by a paper in the later portion of Ep. 7 when Jinx stabbys daddy in the face sooo she didnt take away the trinkets <3 rest assured haha

but here, take some happiness at knowing that in the last episode we get to see that Jinx also colored INSIDE the ashtray. And Silco has no shame in this on his desk haha

Im guessing the trinkets are still there and were meant to be assumed to be there but the studio was just grabbing the wrong drafts of the constructed scenes maybe? This is the overhead from the Ep. 9 scene but Sevikas poncho is concealing the spot so no confirmation of their presence

Along this same line of things, in Jinxs workshop I noticed a sudden change as well. Jinx consistently has a wooden board with notes/blueprints/drawings etc on it We can clearly see them in Ep. 4 during the “get jinxed” music scene

and in Ep. 5 when Jinx gets the hex gem working

BUT in Ep. 7 suddenly its the broken mirror. I had noticed this one because i was interested in seeing if when she threw her gun down on the desk it hit the mirror and was the reason it broke. But the gun was thrown squarely on the desk so the mirror was broken prior to that and looks more like a bullet hole possibly...

----EDIT---- Updating with more pics for clarity on this, i could totally be wrong but this is why i think not. The reason i believe the mirror wasnt there prior is because of the following: We can see in this aerial view what the fan blades look like

And we see that she walks into scene with a blood trail past the bathtub on the bottom right fan blade. We can also see the bomb hanging next to the tub in the mirror scene so if we were going to suggest that the tub is just on another fan blade as well, (assuming the one to the top right given the record player position) we would be able to see the bomb hanging as that portion is not obscured :) There isnt a clear shot from the progress day episode but we do see in the overhead from Progress Day that there is a blue crystal hanging down near her workstation and we can see that blue crystal above her head in the screenshot under here too

In these shots all of the decorations around the desk are exactly the same except for the lack of presence of the bunny which had previously been in the present box with the blue smoke signal. the railing on the left is the same though the right railing is missing, lights positioning is the same, paint/discoloration on the central tube wall is the same, etc. BUT the record player does seem to have been moved from the right to the left and was rotated to face the workstation in its new position.

[canmom]

I watched an episode the new League of Legends spinoff tv series Arcane, I will watch the rest later at some point lol. visually it’s pretty interesting but it is 100% what would you would expect

animation mostly seems to be done either in house at Riot or at Fortiche Productions who did various previous music videos for them (not sure how it breaks down exactly, beyond that Fortiche definitely did the title sequence and some of the show animation is in their demo reel). whoever it is, they have a very strong nonphotorealistic shader pipeline that resembles recent trends in digital painting (strong rim lighting, fairly visible brushstrokes on surfaces).

so... it’s probably the first tv series to really bring that kind of high budget stylised videogame cutscene look to an animated series - not surprising since that look is very associated with League and Riot. i’d place it in a tradition with something like Legend of Korra (which it heavily resembles in writing) on the one hand and Star Wars The Clone Wars/Rebels on the other, though the visdev is considerably tighter than the starwars cartoons - very few sparse empty cgi sets, lots of nicely composed “looks like concept art” shots, very strong facial animation. this is definitely going to set a standard for what “expensive western CGI animation” is going to look like, and it’s cool that nonphotorealistic rendering is becoming increasingly popular.

overall though... it’s hard to get that excited because it’s kinda normcore lmao. like you can 100% tell it’s a spinoff of not just a game but a high budget modern MOBA; the character archetypes and writing beats are all pretty much “exactly what you would expect” given the premise. which isn’t necessarily an issue, like i’ve watched and enjoyed plenty of anime that throws a ton of visual flair at a conventional premise... but it feels like it’s so polished that the rough edges of personal touch that make something interesting have been sanded off along with the low budget CGI jank. which is also why I would compare it with Legend of Korra; it’s not just that they’re set in a city with a big class divide and a cool-but-scary police force and a 20s sort of visual style (Arcane is more Art Nouveau than Art Deco) but they both have that kind of “this story doesn’t really merit the animation effort you’re lavishing on it but that’s what capitalism will serve up for us” sorta feel to them!

one of the most interesting touches to me is the fact that the explosions, liquids - “effects animation” - are all clearly 2D, and made of very clean graphic shapes in a way that calls to mind animators such as Lightsoul. (it’s honestly so like his style that I wondered if he did it, but I couldn’t spot him on the credits). this added a ton of character. a slow motion fight scene with some deliciously squashy punch impacts also stood out choreography-wise. I was amused that they had Shohreh Aghdashloo’s extremely recognisable voice for the police chief, playing a character very similar to her role as Chrisjen Avasarala in The Expanse.

I feel like the premise has potential if they fully lean into the characters doing a terrorism (apparently where this is going), but I imagine it will back off to some Korra-style lib shit, because it’s the backstory of a mainstream videogame character and of course we surely can’t countenance blowing up fictional people in our fictional dystopia. that’s the thing i guess... I read V for Vendetta recently and you can really feel Moore’s anger at living through the Thatcher years, and I just don’t feel like this is going to have anything like that spark from 40 years ago, it’s just dabbling in a story about a revolution. but who knows. i’ll give it a chance!

[arcane-ish]

Good point about the Caitlyn vision!

BTW: IMO as funny as the "you will never be her sister" - "I think you have completely misread the situation" meme is, imo from the moment she sees Vi caressing Caitlyn's cheek through the spyglass, she understands that Vi is horny for Caitlyn. Hence the "paid your girlfriend a visit".

I will probably make a separate post about this (I think there is almost a little mini arc there with all the "liar!" stuff and Jinx's feelings about what Vi does here. )

IMO the most likely explanation for "She wouldn't do that, not again" is that she is talking about Vi leaving her again (when she and Vi reunite Vi said to her "I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going to abandon you again.", so if she thinks that Vi is doing that then "liar" would make sense)

[we know that Powder would have extreme "leaving" reactions to relatively minor things like Vi telling her to sit out a mission and Vi "walking around the corner" immediately leads to "she's not my sister anymore!", so Vi running back to Caitlyn being a "she's abandoning me" type of offense doesn't seem that out of character to me]

And that the suicide attempt could be about that too, she is distraught that Vi left her again.

basically just waiting for him to betray her (like she expect with anyone).

But here's the interesting thing though. If you think about it, being afraid of people betraying her or lying to her IS something that is new to Powder/Jinx's psychology.

Powder was always scared of people leaving her.

She was afraid of people thinking she was weak, maybe even of people talking behind her back.

But does Powder ever say anything about lying or betraying?

She for example doesn't seem to have much of an opinion on Vander having a secret deal for example.

This idea of betraying is new and Silco is the one who equates leaving and betraying.

So this seems to be a part that could feasibly have come from him or at least only developed later.

The Marcus stuff... I think it's fun, but it also seems a bit of a stretch to me? Like why would she assume that Marcus would be there in person? If she was on the hunt for him, why wouldn't she assume that she can solo assassinate him (hence a swarm wouldn't be useful).

Plus we just know too little about the mechanical swarm and how it works and what its capabilites are. (I do think that Vi saying that this big number is something she has never seen before is a pretty suspicious thing)

I think the fact that Vi apparently was talking shit about Vi (just like he was talking shit about her in the scene where Jinx fixes up her leg) and the fact that he is getting "big" before Jinx screams liar and unleashes the swarm is supposed to at least make us think that Jinx is making a dark, a Mylo-ish, an anti-Vi choice. (then again: I'm also a big fan of "Fortiche lies to you. Fortiche loves putting in very misleading symbolism choices just to fuck with people" [ie Ekko's broken watch making a lot of non-League fans think Ekko had died and he isn't even that heavily injured])

So I tend to see this more as a "funny irony that it ended up working out that way" rather than "this was a specific attempt on Marcus".

IMO the "Silco" mission also can't be completely excluded, because we do still her being shaken by his words based on her facial expression (those I think are more reliable than picture language/symbolism) and Jinx does still bother to pick up the bag, bothers to take out the crystal and had it clutched in her hand (and of course you she then has it again ready at the dinner party).

(and of course there is the whole thing about why was she there are the fountain, why did she bring fishbones etc, there is this theory that after these events she kind of switched back to the Silco plan, completed the weapon, went to meet him to tell him and then turned against him again when she heard his words)

On the other hand, one can also read it as that the crystal has become her enemy if she thinks Vi or Caitlyn really cares about the crystal. And so it is revenge to deny them the crystal and provocation to have it there are the dinner/on top of the cupcake.

BTW, have we talked about how Jinx presents Vi with the crystal on top of the cupcake? Aka the thing that Jinx originally thought Vi was after and the thing that Vi actually wants ("cupcake") / what Jinx has identified as the actual thing driving them apart.

now[so how did Jinx k that Vi's name for Caitlyn was cupcake? Did Vi have a habit of calling hot girls cupcakes even as a pre-timeskip teenager? who did give/show Vi her first cupcake anyway? or was it a "nose pressed against the window of the bakery" kind of thing, people have theorized before that the nickname comes from Caitlyn's frilly enforcer skirt, so... are we sure Vi actually knows what cupcakes taste like? maybe she is going just by how they look]

Let's talk about that Bridge fight

I have talked a bit of moments where characters made some pretty pivotal and probably undesirable (as in “probably goes against their long term goals”) decisions and what they might have been done differently (Silco’s reaction when Vi comes back, Vi going with Caitlyn at/after the bridge scene).

I think it’s worth doing this with Jinx here as well.

First, let me start off by saying that of course with the circumstances I do not expect Jinx to be rational. This is not about blaming Jinx for acting badly or trying to argue that what she did was out of character.

This is more about exploring how a more well-adjusted Jinx would have acted and what the effects of what might have been.

Also this is got really long, because the bridge has a lot of different “phases” to it. 

The setup:

Jinx has just found out that Vi is back, has contacted her with the flare, during the reunion with Vi met Cait, realized that Cait wants the crystal, lost the crystal to them and had the crystal, Cait and Vi taken from her by Firelights.

After nursing her injuries she confronted Silco who argued to her that Vi doesn’t care about her and implored her to finish the weapon.

Note: my personal read has always been that Silco at this point doesn’t know that Cait and Ekko have the crystal. And my personal read for a variety of reasons is that Silco doesn’t actually care that much about the weapon, he was just trying to distract Jinx from being angry with him about Vi.

The scene

We start by Caitlyn, Ekko and Vi approaching the bridge through a tunnel of some sort

It’s worth wondering whether this comment is meant to imply that Jinx has been shadowing them for a while. 

I have seen some debate on whether the flying butterfly things Jinx uses are Firelights or not.  It’s worth nothing that the Council Archives do refer to them as mechanical Firelights.

Maybe these is supposed to be a dimorphism between male and female firelights?

Anyway, when we meet Jinx again she is sitting on top of a bridge pillar and watching the situation through a spyglass.

Jinx in my mind at this point is torn between two missions:

1.) Retrieve the crystal and make Silco happy 2.) Reunite with Vi because she doubts Silco’s characterization of Vi

In short, Silco temporarily made her doubt Vi’s motivation, but Jinx is not completely sold.

If Jinx fully believed what Silco said (Vi sucks, the crystal is important), then it is worth questioning if Jinx really is watching over them as the Firelight swarm implies, why Jinx didn’t attack Vi, Cait and Ekko sooner, before they reached the bridge rather than spying on them. She has bombs, she has the element of surprise, she has a reasonable chance that Vi is going to be hesitant to attack her, it is reasonable for her to know or assume that Caitlyn doesn’t have a weapon. If she is hesitant to use explosives around the crystal that doesn’t seem to be the case later and of course we know that this type of crystal doesn’t blow up as easily despite being manhandled a lot.

My read: despite being nominally on a mission to retrieve the crystal we see that Jinx is quite invested in how Vi will choose, whether she will go with Caitlyn or not as we can tell by her mutterings and reactions as she spies on them.

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[germainetrittle86]

A Glimpse of Bukidnon

2017 was the last busy year I had for travelling on an assortment of speaking engagements. The downside of my new position at work was that I no longer had much official trips and was compelled to remain in the office as “taong-bahay”. Add to that the fact that I had also reduced my hours spent on advocacy work to focus on family time. Fortunately, by God’s grace and the goodwill of a few close friends, I managed to land a few rackets here and there to keep me sane.

Towards the latter part of the year, I had back-to-back trips to the South to facilitate several workshop-dialogues towards developing a stakeholder’s manual for an elderly program. The audience were from really depressed and remote areas, so we had a great deal of coordinating to do to bring them all to a safe and convenient place. Most of the chosen locations were in urbanized centers of the province with enough facilities, but there were a few times when the best the host-organizers could do was to put us up in seedy pensionne houses and hold our sessions at the available LGU building.

One of our pilot areas was in Region X, specifically Bukidnon province. And while I had the opportunity to go around Southern Mindanao before, particularly the Davao provinces when I was working for the National Amnesty Commission, this was going to be my first time to really see Northern Mindanao. Admittedly, a few years back, I had the occasion of going to Cagayan de Oro and Camiguin island several times. At one point, I was able to make a sidetrip to Dahilayan Adventure Park in Bukidnon to try their zipline. But I had always been curious about Bukidnon and its famed abundance.

My UP Los Banos classmate, Sen. Migs Zubiri used to boast about the rich farmlands of his home province - the sweetest pineapples and horseback riding amongst the cattle on the hills. He proudly portrayed it as the “land of milk and honey”, and perhaps with good reason. Not only were they blessed with fertile agricultural land and sufficient water sources from the rivers and waterfalls from the mountains, high elevation and the passage of very few typhoons granted them good weather all year round.

However, because of Bukidnon’s land-locked and mountainous location, the closest commercial airline entry point was the new Lagunduingan airport by way of Cagayan de Oro. So there we were, coming in by plane and driving through El Salvador in the outskirts of CDO where the airport was actually located. Heavy traffic usually plagues this area but at least the view of the blue sea was a refreshing sight, albeit in between the numerous seafood restaurants which line the road.

Upon reaching the city proper, we headed directly for the bus terminal to catch the earliest trip to take us to Bukidnon. Like Victory and Dagupan buses heading up Northern Luzon, buses here leave within regular intervals, not waiting for the bus to fill up. So besides getting seated comfortably, the aircon bus itself was clean and well-maintained, with its own CR, on-board movies and wifi. Since it was going to be a long 4-hour trip, I managed to buy some food to snack on. Lo and behold, I found the biggest and juiciest grapes this side of the world!

Exiting CDO once more, my eyes were again treated to the beautiful sight of the blue sea. Cagayan de Oro has one of the busiest ports in Mindanao next to Davao. From a distance, we can see that both passenger and cargo shipping lines congest the CDO pier. Leaving the coastline, we suddenly ascend a zig-zagging route and the air changes from hot, humid sea air to a cool, mountain breeze. I am reminded of our summer route from La Union’s beaches going up to Baguio every Holy Week in my youth and the childhood memory made me smile. Soon, pine trees and fog are what I see through my window, and I realize these highlands are a perfect holiday destination because of its cool weather.

In about an hour, we entered Manolo Fortich, best known as the location of Asia’s largest pineapple farm - Del Monte Pineapple Plantation in Camp Philips. Because of its elevation, Manolo Fortich also gives one an idea of the wide expanse of the Mt. Kitanglad mountain range which characterizes Bukidnon. Manolo Fortich is also where the famous Dahilayan Adventure Park is situated. Once touted as having the longest zipline in Asia, it is still a favorite holiday destination of families and tourists.

Along the way, we traversed various croplands planted to rice, corn, sugarcane, and coconut. I am told smaller farms also cultivate bananas and other fruits and vegetables. We crossed some rivers with rampaging waters from the mountains and I can only imagine the power generated by these bodies of water.

After two hours on the road, we reached Malaybalay City, the provincial capital of Bukidnon and its center of political and economic activity. With its government buildings, various transport terminals for buses, inter-municipality jeepneys, and tricycles, it is what would pass as “urbanized” in these parts. The only other “urbanized” place in Bukidnon would be an hour away - Valencia City with the same aura of economic hustle and bustle with its assortment of shops, stores, and restaurants for people passing through. After token stopovers at these main hubs to unload and pick-up passengers, our bus once again traversed the tree-lined mountain roads. At times it opened up into rolling, green hills dotted with free-range horses and cattle gorging on the lush and verdant grass.

Worth mentioning is the fact that we passed through checkpoints where every one was asked to disembark. My legal background has taught me that at checkpoints, one should never to get down from your vehicle, and never let them open your glove or baggage compartment, because anything the authorities wish to confiscate from you should only be in plain sight.

Lining up outside, we were told to show our IDs while the military men boarded our bus to check inside. Only senior citizens were exempted from disembarking, so they stayed inside the bus. There would be a few more of these checkpoints as we continued our travel because Bukidnon and its mountainous areas are also havens for the NPA rebels. It just shows that because the wealth in natural resources doesn’t necessarily translate into reduced poverty for all people, this kind of peace and security situation results.

Nonetheless, I appreciated the times we were stopped and asked to get down for agricultural quarantine issues. We had to dip our shoes in some disinfecting solution placed on mats or rugs so that contamination from Foot and Mouth disease in pigs and avian flu in chicken is prevented. Apparently, the province was afraid of a repeat of an animal epidemic a few years back which gravely depleted their poultry and livestock. These had dire consequences for an agricultural-based province like theirs, so they also impose similar restrictions to protect their crops.

Finally, we reached Maramag and got off at the highway for our provided lodgings. We were staying at the newer building of the only hotel in town because it had a swimming pool and they had a restaurant there. While our accommodations had free breakfast everyday, lunch and dinner were not included. Sadly, there are no fast food restaurants around, so the best thing was to eat at the carinderia stalls at their local wet market. To be honest, I was never a fan of Northern Mindanao cuisine after my bad experience in Camiguin island during my first visit. Except for the famous CDO lechon and occasional seafood buffet sans shrimps, crab, and squid because of my allergies, I was hardly impressed. So I steered clear of the viands I wasn’t accustomed to because even the longganisa and sisig were kinda weird tasting.

Note that Maramag is famous for having the cleanest wet market in the Philippines and has been featured in media often. There are no flies buzzing around, no blood and guts stinking up open canals, no muddy footprints going up and down the stalls. Instead, the beige-brown tiled floors are frequently mopped with disinfectant by designated cleaners. You can smell the Zonrox emanating from their mops as they went about, up and down the whole stretch of the meat section. Truly, it is even cleaner than some fast food restaurants’ floors!

The next day, we headed for the famous RR spring resort near the mighty Pulangi river. This great river has many tributaries and runs through several municipalities of Bukidnon before emptying out to sea. Probably because of its elevation, this river looks more like a mountain lake surrounded by pine trees with its clear, still waters reflecting the sky above.

The whole day workshop-dialogue went well, but since it wasn’t really safe to be going around a place where you are an unfamiliar face, we were told to stay close to our hotel. Not being one of those highly-populated municipal centers, nothing really happens after dinner and at around 7PM, the roads are seemingly abandoned. I opted to take a swim in the hotel pool while my companion took advantage of the cable TV in his room. The next day, we left early to be able to catch our respective flights back to Manila from Cagayan de Oro.

All in all, Bukidnon is a nice place to visit and experience its beauty if only momentarily; perchance to quickly pass through but never to tarry.