#and obviously off topic but Ekko got shoved to the side this season too give my boy more screen time

[bramblesnbones]

this is a vi-centered ramble, but at this point I’m just throwing words out into the wind so pls correct me if I missed anything, or feel free to comment if you feel differently! I’m always down to think from a different angle

I haven’t fully processed the season as a whole yet so I don’t have a lot of concrete feelings about it, but I do think overall this season should have been spread out into two. Like I see what they were trying to do from a narrative perspective, but they sacrificed the actual build-up to those points due to the sheer quantity of what they were trying to fit within a 9 episode time frame.

Take the sex scene for example. In isolation, it’s an amazing scene that was beautifully done— I honestly do love it and it makes me incredibly happy that it exists. It’s the one thing I keep rewatching that doesn’t make me break down. But in the context of the show, the point they were trying to make by having Cait “break her out” again and then having Vi “reclaim” the cell space falls short, because there was no actual acknowledgement or development around Vi’s time in Stillwater nor the power imbalance between them with Cait as an enforcer/commander. (She hits her with the butt of her gun and we’re just gonna move on?? okay)

We don’t see Vi pushing back against Cait for her choices before that final ep3 fight either, which is out of character to begin with—like, I can see Vi deferring to Caitlyn because of her own guilt, but not without SOME pushback when it comes to gassing the undercity. And that’s the build-up that’s missing to make those choices feel real. We don’t see any of Vi’s internal conflict with her actions—with Cait’s actions—so it really just seems like her character has been disregarded at best, and at worst butchered.

(On another note, the “breakup” scene at the end of ep3 is a clear parallel to the end of s1 act1, right? With, assumably(correct me if I’m wrong), the purpose of showing that Vi is now in the place of act1 Powder. Where now she is being left behind and now “knows how powder feels”. But it was already her greatest regret? She’d already been stuck in Stillwater for 7 years?? She doesn’t need to see it from Powder’s perspective to suddenly understand it, she’s been carrying the weight of that guilt since it happened. So why frame it like that at all??)

As a diehard Vi fan, it really did feel like they were just punishing her this season. Like of course I’m biased, but she just kept taking hit after hit after hit and there was no actual acknowledgment or progression in regards to her trauma? the most we got was the 2-minute pit fighter spiral and her breakdown in ep9, and even then there’s not actually much time given to it? And it’s clear that they CAN handle showing trauma beautifully because Jinx’s PTSD was very clear and well explored in s1.

But Vi hasn’t actually developed as a character this season.

She’s still in the same mental place she was before—she’s still self-destructive, self-sacrificing, and she’s still drinking to cope at the end???? She hasn’t learned to live for herself at all and she’s still very clearly blaming herself— “I choose wrong every time. And because of it, I've lost everyone”.

And Jinx forcibly cutting Vi loose from her isn’t my least favorite narrative choice—I actually think it is a fitting choice for them, as heartbroken as I am—but in the end, not only is autonomy being taken away from Vi AGAIN, we don’t actually get to see any development from that choice.

She’s with Caitlyn, so she’s got more support than she did the last time she lost everyone, but who’s to say she won’t fall right back to her old cycle? To throwing her whole self into Caitlyn, making her her whole point of worth? Because VI isn’t the one who made the choice to separate, Jinx is. And we’ve already seen what Vi does to herself when she’s suddenly & forcibly left without anyone to tend to/protect.

There’s more I could say but my brain is still scrambled and I wanted to keep this as short as possible lol. But TLDR— I feel like the biggest fault of the season (and Vi’s writing by extension) is the missing build-up & the amount of time they had compared to how much they wanted to fit into the series.

There’s just SO MUCH missing development in this season and I think it really hurt the final product. A lot of scenes and moments would’ve benefitted from more focus/introspection & the overall narrative would’ve hit harder and landed a lot better.

@blog-i-hate-friday