#anyway bottom jayce supremancy

[savageserpent]

I can excuse service top Jayce but I draw the line at dom Jayce In a relationship? that's just unnatural

[needanaccount2readarcaneposts]

See, the way S2 kept trying to make this Silco-Caitlyn parallel... bothered me. It's so facile. S2 did a lot of this, where it would intentionally try to parallel or call back to S1 as though that automatically made it meaningful, when... no. No, it doesn't.

By trying to pAraLLel Silco and Cait by giving them a similar aesthetic, S2 is going, "Wow, look. Both these characters made Bad Choices due to Trauma. That's so deep, isn't it? Really makes you think."

No! No, it's not deep, because it completely abstracts both these characters from their political contexts; completely ignores the reasons these characters make these decisions, the circumstances in which they make them, their motivations for doing so, and the incredibly different range of options available to both characters.

Silco's goal is to bring about permanent systemic change; to free Zaun from Piltover's rule. Caitlyn is driven by her personal vendetta against one blue-haired pronoun-haver, and has extrapolated this to the entire undercity full of 'animals'.

Down in the undercity, the default state is one of 'back against the wall'. You can either help each other out, try and get by as best you can, and simply take whatever Piltover dishes out until it all comes crumbling down anyway (until Piltover enforcers flood your streets after a robbery; until Piltover's pollution poisons the tree that gives you food and air and shelter; until Piltover-allied forces march down to your commune to take what they want). Or you can say, "No more, not ever," and push back. The base violence necessary for change.

Caitlyn has a choice. Caitlyn always has a choice. Caitlyn knows that an offer of independence was made to Zaun. Every Councillor left alive voted for Zaunite independence. Caitlyn could, at any point during her fash era, go, "These attacks are motivated by Zaun's desire for independence; they are happening as retaliation for Piltover's actions; the first one happened because we made Zaun's freedom contingent on Jinx's imprisonment, and it bit us in the ass." Supreme Leader Caitlyn could, at any point, make the decision from a position of total economic and military superiority, to simply cut Zaun loose; give them their independence, warn them that Jinx is their problem now and that any further aggression will be treated as an act of war and responded to accordingly, and walk away.

Caitlyn can choose to walk away from her pursuit of Jinx. Zaun cannot choose to simply walk away from oppression.

In the undercity, if Silco decides that the ends (Zaunite liberation) are worth the price it takes to get there, the only currency he has to spend are the lives of his own people. That is why he makes himself into a monster, why he internalises his betrayal as a lesson on ruthlessness and doubles down on it: to become the kind of person who can do the things that need to be done without flinching. His cruelty is born of his own desperate circumstances, and those of his city.

Caitlyn gets to sit on top of the hill and inflict her rage on the people at the bottom. Her ruthlessness stems from her personal grievances, and it's still Zaun who has to pay the price. Even when the consequences of her actions do eventually come back around to incur a cost in Piltovan lives, due to mistakes entirely of Piltover's making, Zaun still has to help pay for those mistakes in blood.

When Silco gets his guarantee of independence from Jayce, he's immediately ready to be done. He's not motivated by a desire for personal satisfaction. He doesn't need to get his licks in, he doesn't need to see Piltover beaten and grovelling, he doesn't need to see the Councillors in jail. If he makes some concessions, and Piltover makes some concessions, and he walks away with an independence treaty for Zaun, that's fine by him - and it always has been. The only thing that nixes it is Jayce demanding his daughter.

Meanwhile, a 1,000 foot wall could spring up around Piltover overnight between episodes 2 and 3 of S2; Piltover could be magically guaranteed protection from any attacks from Zaun now and forever more; their economy could remain untouched and they could live in permanent prosperity and peace without a single Zaunite ever darkening their doorstep again... And Fash Era Caitlyn would still be hunting Jinx down, because that bitch kidnapped her, played fucked-up mind games with her, and then killed her mom.

(Except, I guess, when she changes her mind after Vi calls her cupcake. Or she gets bored of it offscreen during a timeskip. Or she feels bad because she watched a toddler nuke a werewolf. Unclear.)

TL;DR: Caitlyn's motivations are personal; Silco's are ideological. Caitlyn desires satisfaction for her personal grievances; Silco was ready to shake hands and walk away the second a treaty was signed. Caitlyn makes her choices from a position of immense privilege and power; Silco makes his choices from a position of desperation. Caitlyn always had good options available to her; Silco's options were 'die on our feet, or... also die, but more slowly, on our knees'.

Silco is a fucked-up dude who started at the bottom of a trench, breathing in unbreathable air, and when nothing else worked, committed to a fucked-up course of action to achieve liberation for his city. Caitlyn is the 1% of the 1% who, when she suffered a personal tragedy, weaponised the entire apparatus of military authoritarianism in order to seek out and exact her personal vengeance.

"Damn, bro, it's like... a parallel. They both Went Too Far in pursuit of their goals. It's almost like both sides... aren't that different after all... that's so deep..."

No! No, it's not! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

Would anyone like to lie down on the floor and think about the parallels with me