#and we don't talk about Forge Jayce

[sup-honey]

Merry Christmas @PhoenixTheThief /twitter

They had such cool prompts for their #JayvikGiftExhange2022 gift, I had to do them all!!

Prompt 1: Pinning

Prompt 2: MH pinning Gio against a wall

Promot 3: Desperate member grinding (covered)

[imjustavenuxwithaboomerang]

finished episodes 7 and 8 with my sister:

she called the show scary a couple times before starting episode 7

"fuck the council" "well he is"

she was very happy when ekko was revealed, "FINALLY FUCKING FINALLY"

^but also went "i got him back and at what cost, HIS LIFE?" after marcus shot him

"i know that her tattoo says vi but i would like to think it says six for the five kids and vander"

she apparently never noticed how high mel's dress slits were until we got to episode 8

"i can't leave her again" "girl, we got in the boat, we paddled in the water, we got up here and now you want to make that decision? you could've told us before we packed up the boat"

"that looks like a nice hug" and "the bickering is insane" (about caitvi)

"i don't think you had to do that, madam" (about the opening scene with ambessa killing the girl)

when it cut to jayce's shirtless scene in the forge, she went "why does it look like he's having a sex dream about him, like "jayce will understand" then it cuts to this" ('he' being viktor)

^speaking of that scene she did in fact need a second after the "don't lose your nuts" bit

"is caitlyn still tied up while we're seeing the sights, taking a trip down memory lane?"

"caitlyn's like 'another bitch you know, another fucking bitch you know? do all you pests know each other?' is that not the face she's giving? look at her!"

"if y'all are just gonna chit-chat, y'all can leave. there's the door" (talking for viktor about jayce and mel)

"tell my daughter that i-" "that her father was a bad guy? sure"

"are you trying to take your daughter's man?" (about ambessa)

all she had to say about sky's death was "that's wild" (okay i'm kinda burying the lead, she was shocked and had her hand over her mouth the whole time but those were the only words said)

"she's such a self-saboteur but i understand" (about vi)

every time heimerdinger appeared on the screen in his cloak, she laughed at him, "he turned around like a thief in the night but he's this little thing"

"jayce, have you checked on your homie?" (no the answer is no)

"the way she walked was like 'there's a new sheriff in town'" (about ambessa's entrance at the port)

^she was also just like me and was disturbed by her interactions with the boytoy (no shade to them tho, to each their own)

"he killed a kid, that's gonna mess with him...i hope it does" (about jayce, also the "i hope it does" is meant to be read like she hopes he doesn't just move on)

"could this bitch die already, she's been close to dying a lot of times" (about sevika)

"MISS FRIZZLE?" (during the scene when we were in viktor's bloodstream)

when episode 7 ended, she did in fact think that jinx had killed herself and ekko (i also explained the whole thing about ekko hitting the bomb away from them, i also explained the thing about him having a crush on her when they were kids)

"i don't like mel's mother, i don't think you're supposed to but i don't"

"enforcer 3 is booo *thumbs down*" (because he was using a lot of force on the kid that jayce killed)

"it's giving zuko alone" (about heimerdinger going into the undercity)

"these hairs are fucking insane like on everybody in this world. like vi's looked like a sideways chicken"

her thoughts on episodes 1 and 2

her thoughts on episode 3

her thoughts on episode 4

her thoughts on episodes 5 and 6

her thoughts on the finale

[twosentencereviews]

Male friendship vs gay romance

Browsing the #arcane tag after the season 2 finale, I noticed something. There are a lot of posts highlighting both Vi x Cait, and Jayce x Viktor, with their respective story arc conclusions. There are even some posts with semi-ironic questions like "which is more gay", nodding to the fact that Vi x Cait feature an incredibly steamy sex scene, while Viktor and Jayce instead have a deep interpersonal, even magical, connection. Several artists have taken it upon themselves to draw a Jayce x Viktor kiss which never happened.

And this…bothers me, for something I'm going to call the "Frodo x Sam" trope, which can be stated thusly:

Any expression of emotional intimacy between men will be interpreted by the audience as homoerotic.

Or, less formally: "Having feelings is gay".

Let's talk about this.

The first observation to make is that spotting queer-coding in media is a deeply ingrained practice in LGBT spaces, and Tumblr in specific. This is not unfounded, and, in fact, is thoroughly justified by historical context of "wink-nudge" queercoding to get around censorship.

The question, though, is what is, and what is not, homosexual coding. Why do communities look at some fictional male-male relationships and say "that's gay" while other relationships are not? What actual difference does that imply for the characters?

The ancient Greeks recognized love as falling under many different categories. These ideas are backed up by modern understanding of neurochemistry and psychology. The Greek ludus (flirting), eros (passion), and mania are the early phase of romantic love, dictated by the neurotransmitters of adrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine. This is the spark and the fire of love, resulting in experiences that are thrilling, euphoric, and addictive.

But the Greeks also recognized many forms of non-romantic love, including philia (intimate frienship), pragma (compromising and acceptance), and storge (supportive protectiveness). These are dominated by the neurotransmitter oxytocin. This kind of love is about trust, belonging, and obligation. It's the near-telepathic understanding between a decades-long married couple, or a mother's protective instinct towards her child…or the warmth between two best friends who share their secrets and support each other.

Getting to that state of stable, deep connection and trust requires going through some kind of emotional trial, where intense emotions are revealed and validated repeatedly. A romantic relationship is one such situation. But, any sufficiently intense experience could be enough; a war, a disease, a disaster.

And, as it turns out, the conditions experienced by your typical fantasy action-adventure protagonist duo is more than enough. The author creates a situation of emotional intensity, shows a pair of protagonists struggling visibly through that, and proves the bond between them is strong enough to overcome all threats and achieve victory.

And then, if the pair is male/female, they often kiss in the finale. It's just kind of assumed that, if a man and a woman work well as a team and are emotionally supportive, that they are automatically an item. This is why so many people were surprised at the end of Pacific Rim when Raleigh and Mako just hug, and don't kiss. You mean this heterosexual duo of attractive people that just went through a harrowing ideal together and forged a bond of emotional intimacy aren't romantically in love with each other??

Now take an example where the protagonist duo isn't male-female, but is instead male-male. We have a cultural idiom of queer-coding and -decoding, where gayness is inferred more than it is stated. And we have the neurocognitive dynamics of love and trust, where the trials of a fantasy adventure are engineered by the author to create a high-oxytocin state of philia between them. So of course people will see Frodo and Sam go through Mordor together, tearfully decompressing as the giant eagles swoop in, and read that as homoerotic.

Here's the problem, though. Toxic masculinity means that in the real world, where men are not commonly pushed into life-or-death, save-the-world adventures, male-male friendships are fucking hard. Male loneliness is an epidemic, and a threat.

Men are conditioned, literally from birth, to believe that asking for emotional support is a failure of masculinity. Ask a cishet man when the last time he cried was--for many of us, it's been a decade or more. I guarantee that every man has had something in his life in that time that was worth crying over; a lost job, a death of a pet or loved one, any number of humiliations or injuries sustained in life. Losing the ability to express sorrow over one's losses is scarring.

Men will, under duress, ask for practical assistance, like moving a couch. But men do not, as a rule, confide their fears and insecurities with other men. Wives get frustrated when they turn to their husbands for emotional support, only for the man to try to "solve the problem" rather than listening and empathizing. That's the only context men are trained to handle.

But queer people don't have this same stigma. Or, more accurately, being a gay man already pushes one far enough outside masculine normativity that other conventions break down as well. A gay man bursting into tears at the end of an emotional movie is seen as, if not normal, at least consistently abnormal. The trope of the "gay best friend" as an emotionally supportive, non-threatening companion is likewise well-established.

This means that when two men in fiction have a close bond with a high degree of emotional intimacy, their masculinity is put into question. Watching a man having a tearful emotional breakdown in full view of another man is…unsettling. I think there's a need to solve this cognitive dissonance, to explain away the outburst. Saying "he's gay" accomplishes that. This is the third pillar that creates the "Frodo x Sam" trope.

Circling back to Arcane, Vi and Cait have a full-on spicy depiction of their relationship reaching its, uh, climax. But Jayce and Viktor are never explicitly shown to be romantic, not even kissing, even with an obvious opportunity to do so. As such, the default reading of the text would be to say that Jayce and Viktor are just friends--really, really, really close friends.

Choosing to instead read Jayce and Viktor as homoerotic is to assume Riot would use wildly different levels of text vs subtext in these two relationships. That is, sadly, plausible. Depictions of lesbian sex often gets a pass under the "male gaze" exception (see: Black Swan), a freedom not extended to sodomy. And besides, texts belong to their readers, what Riot intended isn't necessarily what they created. If you want to read Jayce x Viktor as gay, or anything else, no one has the authority to tell you that you're wrong, least of all some random guy on Tumblr.

But I would please ask, as you're building your headcanons, to consider; what would it mean for the characters if Jayce and Viktor (or Vander and Silco, or Frodo and Sam) were, in fact, not gay? What would it mean, for our cultural understanding of masculinity in general, to say that it is okay for men to have relationships with other men that are just as intense, or more so, as those they have with women? What would it mean for everyone if we acknowledge the existence and value of all love, even that which is not tied to romance or sexuality?

[hexhomos]

hi! i love your jayce takes so much hes been one of my faves for years now so it always makes me happy to read ppl talk abt him! may i ask what reason do you think jayce had for not backing up viktor with the whole blitzcrank situation? ive always thought it was something like. shrugs. jayce vc 'not my problem' but i love hearing abt others peoples opinions abt this very specific bit lol

This feels like one of these questions w/ multiple answers tbh.

The easy answer:

The writing team wants to make sure you know there is an "escalation" of their conflict, so we go by rule of threes: the problem starts by omission (jayce fails to intervene), develops into friction (jayce intervenes with the diving suits, to stupid results), and then settles into rancor (viktor comes to collect a debt with the crystal, they do not see eye to eye, it all blows up even more catastrophically). Via this setup, you don't necessarily Need to dig into why a character has slipped down the rocks the first time- if they do it thrice, you're building a pattern. You are communicating to the audience that they are a person prone to Slipping Down The Rocks. The important part is that it fits, and even more so retroactively.

The "ok let's get in the headspace" answer:

Jayce’s reputation as an asshole feeds into him consciously or subconsciously reinforcing the image of "Being An Asshole" again and again. It's already how people refer to him and what people expect of him, he's grown used to it so far, so what would be the point of bursting golden-hearted pollyanna this late in the game and pledging faith in the one *other* guy everyone else is against? Would it even truly help? When he's accusing a professor? It might be worse.

Full disclosure: I don't think he knows why he did it either. He's definitely aware that it was a dickhead move, but he's also not the kind of guy who'll ever admit he got paralyzed in the face of fear (or at least not without pushing), so it's not like I'm giving him an easy way out for him here. If asked? He’d probably default to rationalizing it as ‘not my problem’ 100%. But… we know full well that he feels massively guilty about it. You really just have to look at these textbits from his runeterra expansion featuring Jayce + one of the forge workers currently working with him (Axel)

And you can basically taste the way he has been manhandling the conversation towards not letting the same mistake happen twice, even when their superiors want him to be the Head Genius. (IMHO this is also perfectly in line with how jayce talis refers to hextech as a shared dream; i like to think of them as made up of the same character putty but environmental development molded them differently. Nurture vs nature etc. He *wants* viktor to be there - but it seems like he’s the only one who does.)

It's a mixed bag. Jayce sucks at communicating and communicating publicly is even worse. But he could have tried; and that's the point of it being a tip-of-the-iceberg mistake.

[arcane-temp-fandomblog]

Ah, thank you for the tags. I think that may be the logic of how mining colonies were presented - personal "enterprises". That's why Jayce gets so angry. It makes me think even more there's an official version in Piltover what was the undercity's rebellion about and that 'it was all fixed now', and what undercity's economic reality was and is like.

Since we know from ie. Caitlyn's council archives - most Piltover folk don't go to the undercity. Enforcer is Caitlyn - from Route to Robbery files

ENFORCER Have you ever seen anyone like this before? RH You ever been to the undercity? ENFORCER No. No I haven't. RH You should visit sometime. ENFORCER So this wasn't an isolated incident. RH I said all I'm gonna say. ENFORCER You need to tell me more. I can help you. RH The fact that you think you can… means you definitely can't.

Because throughout whole act 2 and 3, these mining gloves come back.

Heimerdinger says the tech is not safe enough at the beginning of Act 2 and shouldn't be given to people that may use it in unsafe manner.

At the end of Act 3 Jayce has them in his forge, because he was adding the 'falling rocks' failsafe shield. This is the same mechanism he's working on in his own hammer, just his has on action trigger.

So there must be a reason somehow, that plays into why he still think the miner safety is important. No knowing that it probably never was only adult miners in the mines of the undercity, some maybe - who like Silco & rest of rebellion that lasted to adulthood. And those just didn't want for their children to have same fate as them - like Vi's and Powder's parents.

Well the gautlets did save at least one ex-miner's daughter life. So some wins.

Ahh... is that why we only get Jayce's journal up till end of act 1 - 'coz we'd know what is the official version on history in Piltover about mining colonies and their rebellion.

That's why his and Silco's talk is soo vague - they both know what events they'e referencing but we don't.

Argh, now I need to know - Silco used same mechanisms in Piitover that got the council rich to build up his own cause of Nation of Zaun, right? That's how he ends up with his own version of the "council" he has so little respect for - the chembarons.

That's how we end up with statements like this at the end.

Like season 2 must be wider knowledge of what exactly happened both with the rebellion and with chemtech/shimmer export. Since we know chemtech is the weapon used by some Noxian warlords in Ionia.

Only reason we don't know more is because most characters don't know what they don't know. We focus on shimmer because Caitlyn hasn't even seen chemtech in action outside of Ekko's place where it's nice and good, but she'd recognise those suits and the green substance from case files she read. And that it connects to child abductions.

Arcane plotlines / Fissures, illness & mines

One of the most disjointed narrative lines in Arcane is the air and the mines in the fissures. So I guess season 2 setup? Or is it window dressing? Because nearly every character is connected to it

This is not first time fissures are mentioned but Silco's story is most put together so I'll start with that. And I think it connects to reasons for rebellion he and Vander wanted to do against Piltover.

So Silco came from the mines., Vander did too (Sevika maybe didn't? she needs breathing aid). This must have been the economic situation in the undercity pre-rebellion. We know that since Vander even had hanged the mining gloves in Last Drop. But the chembarons can't handle the air.

Look at the glee of this self made working-class man, Silco is an aspirational figure some of the time. I'd be Silco.

So since Powder's and Vi's parents joined the rebellion, they must have been in similar circumstances to Vander & Silco, right?

Then there is the disaster man himself, Jayce and his not-sister's not-girlfriend. Which is first mention of fissure mining and the story starts like this:

Ah, the good old times right? I really wonder if 'mining colonies' is not like idyllic version going around Piltover of what was happening, looking at Silco, Vander & Vi's parents all deciding to rebel against their city-state. Vi and Powder probably don't remember it thou. But good old days Arcane wise. Everything seemed so simple.

It continues like this: I'm not sure Jayce has right idea where Viktor's illness comes from 'coz I don't trust Jayce asks people before jumping to conclusions.

and that's how it ends. And one maybe small thing - both of them can kind of breath there. So maybe the air has improved. Maybe not? I think this is also the moment the idea how 'mining colonies' work dies alongside the Hextech dream plans. And Piltover's idea of Progress. If I assume correctly 'Snakes' is Jayce's pov/context song.

Then there is connecting piece in council archives because I think Council Archives are for now accessible only till time they're introduced. So aside from Jayce's, all of them cover the time skip. For Caitlyn, it's infuriatingly all from time she's still an enforcer - so she believes enforcers are good and right. So we can't trust her notes. But it's the In Plain Sight chapter.

It starts with a young girl missing from Zaun report to the enforcers. A lot of files are written by Marcus, so even more confusing since he covers up stuff. But most importantly these 3 pieces. It's about a hospital - of sorts. I'll colour what imo. is important:

REJECTED BY ORDER OF CAPTAIN MARCUS ██████████PILTOVER ENFORCER DEPARTMENT PRESS RELEASE Abduction Ring in the Undercity On ██████, a Piltover enforcer on a routine patrol was alerted to strange noises coming from the sewage tracks running between the Fissures and the streets above. Backup was deemed unnecessary, and the enforcer proceeded to investigate the disturbances. Entering the pipes, the enforcer followed the noise - a sort of mechanical whirring (ADD THAT HE HEARD CRYING, TOO). The enforcer gave a verbal warning that he was marching forward. There was no response. The enforcer continued deeper down into the lanes. They reached a wall obstructed by a large metal gate. The enforcer brute-forced the gate open and proceeded down a dark passage in the waste-management system. Some time down the path, the enforcer was alerted to a bright light coming through a crack in the wall. Moving several bricks aside, they entered into what appeared to be a make-shift hospital. In the hospital, several children were sat at (CHANGE TO STRAPPED TO) beds and hooked up to machinery. Syringes at the arms, legs, and neck injected a greyish-green liquid into their squirming bodies. At this time, the Piltover Enforcers suspect that the children were part of scientific experiments. Upon safe return to Piltover, one child was identified as ██████████, a missing child reported over a month ago. They were reunited with their mother, a citizen of Zaun. The other children have yet to be identified. The illegal operation has been shutdown and all equipment confiscated for examination by Piltover Enforcement. Any potential leads should be reported to authorities.

So firstly this is the rejected version, was it silenced by Marcus forever or just rewritten to be published, we don't know. We also - from the edits - can't be sure if the story was already changed. We know that enforcers usually make very grand claims about resourcefulness and bravery on their part from the funeral of dead enforcer's scene with Marcus. So how the enforcer stumbled upon it, we don't know - seems implausible.

These are Caitlyn notes:

Were the children there voluntarily? Why was it shutdown? How did the officer just stumble on the hospital? Tipped off? WHO IS RUNNING THE OPERATION?!

The second piece comes from what allegedly was happening from child that was admitted to the 'hospital', interviewed by the enforcer:

LOCATION: OFFICE OF PILTOVER ENFORCEMENT PURSUANT TO CASE #4435 (...) ENFORCER Good. If you cooperate with the enforcers, that's how we can help you. BGWI know. ENFORCER You seem like a smart kid. ENFORCER Start at the beginning. BGW I have trouble breathing. A lot of kids in the Fissures do. BGW They, um, they offered me a chance to be healthier. ENFORCER ██████████ BGW ██████████ ENFORCER ██████████ BGW ██████████ BGW *coughing* ENFORCER So you're saying that they lied? ENFORCER The chemicals… What did they do? BGW I don't know. ENFORCER Was it shimmer? BGW Not like any shimmer I'd seen before. ENFORCER How was it different? BGW It powered their machines. ENFORCER These illegal experiments. BGW...Yes. ENFORCER And did you ever catch a glimpse of who was running things? BGW She wore a suit- UNKNOWN Officer, stop the recording.

I think the unknown voice is Marcus who recognises it's Renni. But that in a second.

The 'not shimmer' shimmer can only be either still in development chemtech or the 'orange substance' that is also in Jinx's weapons. But I think the orange one is the variant of shimmer that Singed developed later for Warwick (since there are more than one). Chemtech seems to be powering machines like the suits in the mines and firelights' boards. Can't wait to see if it's a moral issue for Ekko that he chose chemtech over shimmer, not knowing that's how it was 'developed'.

Then we also get that many children in the fissures develop breathing problems, which loops back to Viktor. And they may agree to for example very unfortunate experiments to alleviate those health issues from very shady 'hospitals'.

If anyone ever doubted why Hexcore "healing magic" may be actually important to the plot and not only Viktor's one man quest to heal himself. I'm pretty sure that story-plotline would look much different if the technology development was happening in Zaun. Unless these illegal hospital experiments are something Viktor was involved, which idk - maybe? One never knows, the archive for now is redacted. That's the thing - since Marcus is the person compiling that file, we can't be sure if it's not ie. some errant organisation or a hospital run by firelights. But much more probable that Marcus was gathering dirt on all of the undercity's chembarons - just like he kept Vi in prison just in case. A security.

Anyway, then there's connecting 'evidence':

And this suit looks eerily familiar to one from Jayce and Vi fight, but the second piece of evidence has note it was manufactured for Renni. Which would make sense since her child was a "shift overseer" - mask and all. Family business (no that doesn't make his death better, lol, just everyone has to work in Zaun).

But that may mean it wasn't a shimmer mine, shimmer was there to give children strength to do 'chemtech' mining. Maybe? Like with Jayce and Vi - it's the issue of blind leading blind. He was in the undercity last time around the same time as Vi. It was probably Renni's mine, not Silco's.

Anyway, now much more of conjecture link, from Powder's journal of what happened to all the children at the hospital that someone didn't issue 'Missing person' report. Or the one that did.

Entry #4

██████████████

Lined up all the little duckies in a row

Why did they look so sad?

They'll be together after

Wherever people after go

Entry #5

There has to be an after

Vi and I will go there

Entry #8

██████████████

They stared at me

I closed their eyes

But I still see them

I'm really not sure if that's connected, but seems like some sorts of cover-up. Either for 'hospital' children or the one that had family that could start spreading rumours in the undercity about the 'hospital' experiments. Anyway something Jinx witnessed and drew in that timeskip span.

So now the last bits and pieces, Viktor:

Who most probably has the same issue as the child interviewed by the enforcers, from the 'hospital', because he grew up in fissures. Maybe, that's the root of his illness - if that's information they spoke about with Jayce it was infuriatingly in that timeskip part which Jayce's journal doesn't cover since it was published before timeskip.

But I assume yes.

And then finally this connected part maybe:

It kind of points that Singed's daughter he speaks to Silco about when Jinx may die, and for which he most probably started research into Shimmer for, is Orianna (as resemblance in the locket). Since this poor girl had to undergo a lot of painful surgeries and augments, which shimmer would allow to survive. And Orianna in lore:

News of disaster in the undercity of Zaun made its way to their shop. An explosion had ruptured a chemical line, venting clouds of poisonous gas. Orianna insisted they help the victims, but Corin forbade it. Zaun was far too dangerous. So, with as many supplies as she could carry, Orianna snuck away in the night and rode the hexdraulic descender into the depths. The devastation was overwhelming. Debris still filled the streets, and Zaunites walked through the toxic haze, faces covered with little more than oily rags. Night after night, Orianna repaired respirators and installed esophilters. She even gave her own mask to a child who could scarcely breathe. Her father was furious, but soon after her return, Orianna fell gravely ill. Her lungs were ravaged past all hope of recovery. Refusing to accept this, Corin threw himself into his most ambitious project yet: a fully functional set of artificial lungs

Which if it is Orianna, it will be very interesting, because that Piltovian girl went to help people in the undercity and died for it in a manner of speaking. That is why congregation of the 'Gloriously evolved' is aligned with the Grey Lady - matching Orianna's new body appearance.

And him and Orianna both working on body augments trying to save her life, would be the thing against Piltover's ethos that Singed parted ways with Heimerdinger for.

And probably how he crossed pathways with Silco.

Singed why you speak in riddles, if it's 'love & legacy' vs 'Progress', then if your daughter is Orianna - you're the 'love & legacy' part of the equation, and you weren't ready to sacrifice that for Progress. Between you and Heimerdinger that is. Is that your issue with Piltover? They were unhappy with you not letting your daughter waste away due to chemspill in the undercity? Was you both trying to save her against ethos too? Is that how you ended up in Zaun, saving all random daughters like Jinx and Vi with your shimmer invention?

That would be funny twist, wouldn't it?

Anyway, a lot of disjointed plot along most characters is connected to this few points - mines, fissures, illness caused by pollution. And I guess all of that was somehow connected to the first rebellion we see.

Also mandatory, hexcore is evil and under any circumstances shouldn't be researched. Heimerdinger said so.

“Piltover the land of progress, equality, innovation.” What did you do that your own people rebelled against you?

/

Is this plotline why we don't have Caitlyn and Viktor talking to each other whole season? or why Caitlyn and Vi separate because Cait would know it's Renni's mine?

Other posts by me - Arcane meta analysis posts - mostly politics, tech and character parallels

How the fuck am I supposed to tag this, that's most of the cast. The grand conspiracy as Caitlyn called it.

[arcane-temp-fandomblog]

Love your thoughts, it's nice to read other people's perspectives even if I view it differently.

I'm also just talking about his political career and hextech, I suck at interpreting interpersonal or emotional parts of stories - so I'm not really interested in his emotional life. Like in this story the love/emotional part is not necessary to understand plot progression - thank god, 'coz I'm lost when shows do it. I call him dumb but he's alongside Jinx my fav character, because I love his political storyline.

Again, the illegal imports are a great example. No one told him it's okay or expected to let those things slide.

He doesn't have to but decides on it because:

1) Mel tells him, he put a target on his back and his house is in trouble trying to root out corruption.

2) She tells him - he will be able to forge his destiny.

And he's soo easily swayed when someone points him to a solution - just like Vi with Silco.

So imo. the funniest part of the theatre scene is that by allowing all those deals to go on - he becomes one of the most influential political-economic lobbyists in the city. Just doesn't realise it yet because he's such a naive idealist.

The council wants the hexgates trade for their personal gains -> he is the person that allows for their trade to continue and owns the hexgates, from that point on he has enormous political power.

That's why they vote with him on Heimerdinger's retirement - it's not his speech about Heimerdinger's shortcomings, it's the economic profits he brings. It's adorable he doesn't understand that, until he goes to the undercity with Vi.

And then he gets very quickly the idea that council doesn't give a shit about the undercity. He can go behind the back of all political sphere directly to Silco to get a deal with him first, he can go present them the peace terms, be obnoxious asshole and speak his mind to them - and they will still vote on that peace treaty. Profits from hextech trump having the undercity as part of Piltover. Why else would they vote for it, if they react screaming first. Jayce in a very painful manner traded his dream for real power, and from now on - will probably be a very scary man for his opponents. At least that's what imo. this whole ending was about.

He was thrust into politics with absolutely no training or planning. I don't think you can reasonably expect him to do a good job or know how to act.

Maybe, but that's not how he views it in the show right?

He feels responsible - that's why he doesn't take on board Vi's excuse in the mine that 'he didn't have a choice' when he killed Renni's kid.

That's why he doesn't fight Vi to get the mining gloves back - because he also feels that was his decision to give them away, and using more force/spilling more blood won't make it right.

And he is correct.

This is his character growth, that's why he tries to use his knowledge to get peace.

Just like Caitlyn feels responsible for letting down Vi by taking her in front of the council and promising that would help her.

Like lets allow these two misfit siblings their growth. They don't want to be excused.

Also Snakes - the song that plays during the mine fight is his PoV song imo. - of what is the outcome of that fight in terms of realisation for him, the lyrics are hilarious and perfect - "I’m nice but I can get wicked". Whole lyrics are hilarious - 30+ y/o man realises that not everyone had his best interest at heart. Season 2 - I have such high hopes he'll be just as fun to watch.

And what I meant by "too late" is the rocket potentially killing them all. We don't know what happens next, but if he dies, that change won't have made a difference to Zaun.

Maybe Jayce dies, but that would be very weird writing, like why would he? For shock factor?

Mel may die but it'd be a very weird setup with a chime of her golden armour notifying her of incoming rocket.

And I'll be very surprised if Viktor dies, because I'm like 95% sure Arcane Season 2 teaser has his electricity 'magic' not the pure hextech electricity - the one he uses in game for his skills.

@all-thestories-aretrue

I don't see it as much of manipulation as conflict of interests (and nearly every conversation in this story has a conflict of interests in a writing sense - otherwise there's no stakes), which he looses coz he's dumb and doesn't understand society he lives in. Good, being stupid and naive shouldn't be rewarded, having ones priorities not straight shouldn't be rewarded, not knowing your position in the system shouldn't be rewarded. Jayce is not special in this story - so if he fucks up, he looses. Things should not simply turn out good because he wants them to or because he wants them to be good. Now he has the knowledge to at least shape his own path in the system.

And also imo. his change comes a hair breath from too late, because he already very narrowly avoided three darkest - but maybe least painful to his own self image - timelines:

1. Vi doesn't seek him out / he doesn't go with Vi - Silco still dies in similar confrontation, Jinx still nukes the council. He has "confirmation" that people "down there are hell bent on destroying us", makes weapons and hands them off to enforcers - never seeing real cost of life his technology took in the undercity. But he can think himself as doing good and protecting the city, even if he never feels like he achieved anything towards his goal and doesn't understand why.

Sky still dies, and so does Viktor - in same circumstances as nearly would have happened.

2. He accepts Vi excuse and continues with their quest, they kill Silco - Jinx still nukes the council, but he can now continue his excuse "he didn't have a choice". He learns nothing but hey, he can keep good opinion of himself, even if he never feels like he achieved anything towards his goal and doesn't understand why.

Sky still dies, and so does Viktor - since he would be too late to find him - in same circumstances as nearly would have happened.

3. He fights Vi to get the gloves back, even if he wins and kills Vi - he now has to explain to Caitlyn "he didn't have a choice". That's the end of their friendship. He learns nothing but he can keep good opinion of himself, even if he never feels like he achieved anything towards his goal and doesn't understand why.

Sky still dies, and so does Viktor - since he would be too late to find him - in same circumstances as nearly would have happened.

Anyone wants to write these AUs that didn't happen?

Jayce already narrowly avoided three much worse outcomes to his character arc, because this story does not penalise character growth. What's he's getting is not the best but could be far, far worse.

The rocket would still be sent towards Piltover whenever Silco and Vi would have confrontation and one of them died, but now he actually knows how Piltover's political system works.