#arcane ending study

[vi-arcanes-left-biceps]

Coming to terms with the fact that the things I did not like from Arcane S3 are mostly related to what was wanted and needed to be told following time and lore constraints. Or at least I think many things were.

I'd like to start by saying that I do not hate the ending or dislike it particularly. I think the series did pretty well with the resources they had and made very good visual and dialogue storytelling, even if I'd prefer things to be different. However, There was something that bugged me about it and I was not able to put it into words until I rested from the finale-induced-high and got away from silly discourse. This is my interpretation and reading of the story so you don't necessarily have to agree idk.

I feel like Vi's and Jinx's arcs were sort of uncoordinated, which while realistic, it feels kind of unsatisfying, at least to me.

Vi's fatal flaw is self-sacrificing for her loved ones, over and over again. Of course, her arc is about learning to choose herself, open herself to be taken care of and not be always the caretaker, and coming to terms with the fact that she just can't save everyone. The thing is she doesn't choose herself -she is forced to choose herself, two times, by Jinx. The tragedy is that she's unable to learn that lesson by herself and in the end she kind of doesn't. Jinx's sacrifice is what gives her a clean slate to begin again and be able to start from scartch, to finally let go of the past (loosing Vander and Powder again, this time, having a support system and a space to grieve and heal). So, I get that makes sense as a narrative and alligns with how the series had been constructed. I don't think it's bad, though as a storyteller/story enjoyer, I don't personally like unconditional love as the fatal flaw for a greek tragedy-like story.

Then, Jinx's arc is about her feeling that she ruins everything, and that she feels unable to do anything but destroy what she loves. She also needs to let go of years of guilt and emotional abuse. She begins to find herself and start having healthy relationships in S2 and particularly after meeting Isha. She sees herself reflected in her, understands her sister better, and both are able to make amends until tragedy strikes again and she re-lapses into seeing herself as a jinx. Her tragedy seems to be being unable to escape that destiny. And I use "seems" because she sees another way after speaking to Ekko: she's able to learn that there are more possibilities to who she can be and that her identity is not tied to causing pain - that she can create her own destiny.

So now let's go to the final chapter. By ep.9, Jinx is ready to try again and find her identity. She's ready to make peace with all that happened. She's ready to walk away from Vi, not out of pain and a sense of doom, but out of the knowledge that she cannot stay in Zaun/Piltover, she needs to walk away to be able to start again.

So this is what is unbalanced. Jinx was able to mature throughout the series, to see other options for herself, and to see them for her sister, too. Vi was unable to let go and had to be forced.

Jinx dying, from Vi's perspective, finished her personal tragedy. It closes the cycle of pain that she's been re-living the whole series, albeit with a very sad ending, and leaves a space for her to finally grieve for real. And it would also be a tragedy for Jinx, who was so close to recovering, to have an ending like this. She closes the story that she accidentally started with that bomb. Vi's fatal flaw, being unable to let go of Vander, causes the end of the cycle -just like Jinx's tragic 'curse' started it for the sisters. I get this interpretation and that it is somewhat poetic. That doesn't mean I like it, not as it was developed. S2 seemed to be going for a Jinx redemption and for freeing her of the destiny of losing her loved ones. Killing her off, then, seems very unsatisfying because I feel that if we were going for the tragedy angle, some more development would have been needed, and the time constraints did dirty to that narrative.

HOWEVER, and this is my interpretation of events, I think Jinx survived the final explosion and walked away on the blimp. I belive there are enough intentional clues to believe so, even if they do not want to confirm. I don't like the narrative of the suicidal character comitting suicide just after finding a reason to keep going.... I get the tragedy but I'm sorry but that's overdone and also unsatisfying to me given what had been shown so far! So this might be a cope, but bear with me and even if you don't believe she is, pretend she's alive.

Jinx surviving the explosion, from my point of view, is not only a very Jinx-like thing to do, it would allow her to both close the chapter and close her arc in a satisfying way, with her going away to a place where she is not tied to her history in Zaun (Silco's right arm, unwilling resistance symbol, searched criminal, sister to Vi) and she can start again. I'd love that ending for Jinx and I think that's what's happened -as there are many hints to see it.

BUT then, Vi is the one who did not move on. She wasn't given a chance to exit the cycle. She was forced to. She needed to lose Vander and her sister again -that I agree- to be able to grieve properly. But I can see an unbalance in Jinx re-gaining her agency and finally making a choice for herself, and Vi not getting the chance to do so. Realistic, yes, but sort of unsatisfying.

I'll elaborate -I'm not against the tragic angle per se, even if I'd liked to see Vi have more agency, I don't think she as a character was written as ready to grow to walk away (more runtine would have worked to do that, though) and it's cool that Jinx can be the one to protect her sister this once. But then, if Jinx is alive, is Vi really going to be able to grow from this? If she finds out Jinx is alive, would she not be unable to give her up? The cycle is not closed from her end. If the end of her arc is her losing Jinx forcefully, because she was unable to let go, with Jinx alive, and without a proper goodbye, her arc remains opened. That's what bugs me.

I understand lore-wise they probably can't kill off the champions (not definitevely) and Jinx and Vi need to be separate. From the little I know Jinx has more relationships with other champions so it also makes sense for the door to be open to her being alive and explore this in future series (hence providing clues that Jinx may have survived and not confirming it). But this, together with the season having little time to delve into many things that we had to infer, makes the ending of both of their arcs kinda weird and unbalanced. If it's a full greek tragedy ending, with Jinx dying, then her character progress feels cut short. If Jinx is alive, but they could not confirm it because it's not clear what will be done next in the series universe, Vi's arc remains unsatisfyingly open. They could not give a scene of the sisters saying goodbye because Vi was not ready not move on -they needed more screentime to deal with their relationship for that to work- and probably because they did not want a clear "Jinx is alive" ending.

I still think this is an amazing series, the ending is not disappointing despite this and I can understand why certain decisions were taken, but I would have loved for it to be slightly different, with more runtime and less lore constraints to the narrative.

[demaparbat-hp]

YOOOO DEMA YOU LIKE ARCANE???!! omg who's your favorite character??? and favorite moment(s) from s1??? (and fav ship too 👀 👀) will you draw for Arcane in the future???? (peak show with peak art =perfection, just saying)

Anon, you have the. Best. Timing. Ever. I literally just finished an Arcane artstyle study with Katara of the Undercity as a subject!

My favorite Arcane character is and forever shall be Ekko (best boy). Other faves are Viktor (chronic illness baby) and Jinx (trauma gremlin).

As for the S1 scene... Besides the finale and that breathtaking Guns for Hire sequence? The Ekko/Jinx fight from ep 7. It broke me. (And turned me into a Timebomb shipper. Which was arguably worse.)

[riality-check]

Viktor does not have many friends at the Academy, but he is rarely alone. Such is the nature of university life. The academic environment is inherently social; he attends class with other students, eats alongside them, and must frequently bang on his wall so as to alert his neighbors that he can, in fact, hear… whatever activities they decide to do on weeknights. Being alone at the Academy is a difficult feat, and it is one that does not go out of his way to accomplish.

He has learned that surprises some of his classmates. They often remark, when they are paired with him for group projects, about their perceptions of him.

“I thought you’d be meaner.”

“I thought you’d be quieter.”

“I always assumed you were just shy.”

Every time, Viktor must refrain from rolling his eyes. Topside politeness is a strange thing, he has learned. It is very performative, with its big smiles and friendly, useless greetings. He finds it difficult to imitate - why, for example, ask someone “how are you?” if neither they nor him truly care for the answer? - and so he sticks to Undercity standards.

Nod politely as a greeting. Give people space unless they require conversation. Offer a chair or a coat or a snack if someone is in need, with the understanding that the debt will be repaid.

Back home, his parents were often praised for raising such a polite boy. Here, at least once a semester, someone comments on his standoffishness.

It does not matter. He is not here to slack off. He is here to learn. He does not need anything more than the pleasant, occasional company of his classmates, who, he is discovering, will offer their smiles but never their coats.

Every once in a while, he does get more. Someone will stay in his room for a night - they always think they are the ones in charge at the beginning, a fact that Viktor finds equally amusing and irritating - and coo sweet words about his appearance and his intellect.

He is lucky if they look at him the next morning. He learns the hard way that they are perfectly content with a trencher in their bed but never on their arm.

When this finally sinks in - it does not take long; he has always been a quick study - Viktor swallows back whatever odd thing it is that rises in his throat and determines that this attitude suits him perfectly well.

______________________________________________________________

The brace is simple in its concept but difficult to perfect. Considering the amount of time spent constructing his current cane a few semesters ago, Viktor is not surprised. Engineering for biological systems is far more complex than, say, pure mechanical engineering. Pain and discomfort, for example, are complicating factors for his leg bug not for air filtration systems.

Viktor would much rather design air filtration systems than leg braces or canes. They are far more interesting and useful on a larger scale. But the truth of the matter is that he cannot trust anyone else to construct these devices for him. Only he knows how they feel for his body, and the effort he would have to undergo to translate the abstract (but very real) sensations of wrongness, in all their varied forms, into words that another person can understand is not worth it. Not when he can just grab a wrench.

What is that saying? “If you want something done right, do it yourself.”

Story of Viktor’s life.

He sits on his bed, right leg crossed at an uncomfortable height over his left, and tightens a screw. The previous designs are all documented in his notebook, which he flips through using his unoccupied hand. With every problem he eliminates, a new one arises. It is the worst haggling he has ever partaken in.

The brace must be worn underneath his trousers; he will not wrinkle his uniform if he can avoid it. Until recently, this meant that the cold, harsh metal of the brace would chill and bite at his skin. He only had so much salve (fresh unopened tin, left in the communal bathroom for a week with no takers) left, and he intended to save it for injuries that mattered.

He tried once, a few days ago, with a long sock on underneath the brace, but it rolled down so often and so severely that in a fit of exasperation, he nearly cut it off with scissors. Then he remembered that his sewing kit did not have enough black thread to repair that level of damage.

He only had three pairs of socks left, as they had a proclivity for vanishing inexplicably each time he washed his clothes. So, he could not cut it.

This design should, hopefully, “do the trick.” He attached cushioning (A petite girl he had taken a calculus class with, when she woke up the next morning in his room, asked, with a glance at the sewing kit left on his desk, if he could hem a dress for her. She repaid him by purchasing his next meal - real food, finally, not from the university - and letting him keep the scrap. He never saw her again.) to the parts of the brace most uncomfortable to wear.

All the old problems - tension, pressure, weight, bulk - have been resolved. There will only be new ones.

Viktor tightens the last screw. Time to see what those will be.

The brace is multifunctional. Primarily, its design is intended to correct the abnormal inward rotation of his right leg. Secondarily, it supports his knee and ankle to both allow his muscles to stop carrying that burden and prevent the joints from overextending and subluxating, as they often tend to do.

It will be uncomfortable, compelling his leg away from its natural state. But Viktor can live with discomfort if it is in exchange for improvement.

He has been haggling in this manner for his entire life.

With assistance from his cane, he stands. Then, he divides his weight evenly between his two own feet, holding his cane aloft.

There is the discomfort, as he had expected, but there is no pain.

He paces up and down the length of his dorm without his cane. His joints are relegated to a normal range of motion, which is restrictive but more stable. They do not feel as loose. A dull stretch, induced by the rigidity of the brace fighting against his body, along the side of his leg runs from thigh to calf, but that is all.

No other pain. No true pain, other than the dull ache of adjustment.

He nearly falls over with the realization before he catches himself on the wall. He has had days free of pain before, but they occurred far more often when he was a child. Now, they are so few and far between that he had nearly forgotten what it was like to have the distraction of it removed almost entirely. 

He can think more clearly without it whispering talking shouting in his ear. He can breathe more easily.

Walking is awkward, what with the new rotation and the added weight, but he conjectures that he will get acclimated to it. He wants to get acclimated to it.

Outside of his window, he has a nearly unobscured view of the Academy clocktower. It takes him one glance to realize he is very nearly late for his systems course.

In his haste, Viktor nearly forgets to bring his cane with him to class. With how his brace reduces the pain, it is merely a failsafe in the event his balance is compromised by the awkwardness of his gait.

He barely uses it. Once he gets used to the new positioning of his leg, walking is a little easier. Slower, but easier. And the whole time, his cane barely makes contact with the ground.

The whispers are loud as always.

“Did he get better?”

“Has he been faking?”

“I knew someone our age couldn’t actually need it.”

He holds his head up and ignores them. When he catches a look, he returns the stares and wins.

He knows he will never be able to run. He could not when he was a child, and the unfortunate fact that the many non-functioning components of his body will only degrade - a fact he greatly prefers not to dwell on - has prohibited the notion for the rest of his life.

For the first time, he wants to run. So badly, in fact, that it is heart that aches instead of his leg.

He walks into class without the assistance of his cane, with the brace hidden underneath his pant leg, and believes, entirely, that this could work. That maybe he can walk like this, with no outward signal that he is different. Non-functional. Built incorrectly in the compounding of each and every failure inflicted upon the Undercity.

Maybe this is something he can overcome with his intellect. He already crawled up. What is stopping him from walking upright?

What is stopping his brilliant mind from allowing him to run?

He spends all day testing this notion, barely using his cane.

Viktor should have known the haggling would not work entirely in his favor. It never has.

When his body comes to collect, he pays in full. With interest.

The other installments, if you're interested: 1, 2, 3.

[srslylini]

If I said the scene with Jinx hallucinating Silco in Stillwater is so beautifully done that it being in season 2 ruins it?

Here is a run down of this scenes dialogue

In itself it is just a dialogue but what I find very noticeable is that Jinx does not in fact actually talk with Silco, she talks to him and then gets talked to. Their conversation doesn't flow because Jinx doesn't engange in basically anything Silco says (run with me here I know it is Jinx hallucinating Silco). She tells him to "go away, you're too late" and when Silco starts talking about imprisonment and how "it says something about Marcus that he thought putting Vi here is a greater mercy than killing her" Jinx doesn't react to that. Her only reaction is "killing isn't mercy" but that's not necessarily what Silco was talking about. If you want you could say they are talking in circles.

Even when Silco talks about killing being a cycle and that there is still rebellion "in that husk", she really doesn't react very much to what he is saying. She closes herself off to any sort of conversation. Mostly she only reacts to the last words presented to her. "I'm done running in circles".

This is her completely ignoring the part of herself that still wants to rebell, by the way.

Now the next part, I feel what they were trying to do is draw a parallel to Heimerdingers line in season 1 of how imprisonment is a curious concept since you imprison the body but not the mind. Here Silco kind of contradicts that though, what he is saying is that the mind is a forged prison one needs to escape out of. That is one of the only parallels I can get behind this season. If it was intentionally done at all.

What I find very uneasy about this next part of the scene is that, while the dialogue we found ourselves in was never really a dialogue, it just turned into a complete monologue. It is Jinx completely detached from herself and in the form of Silco telling herself the only way to free herself is to die. There is no beating around the bush here.

Now lets discuss the visuals of this scene

What I find just as important here is the visuals. Season 2 made the mistake to lean too much onto "micro expressions" for most of its scenes but here I find what they did to be quite stunning.

The scene starts out with the Gemstone rolling through the dark. It is a quite chilling opening since we know what this stone is capable of doing. I feel this very much reminds us of its importance and what has happened with it. And then it hits Jinx.

Jinx who, at this point, has been haunted by the Gemstone for what is basically all her life. And it still continues to haunt her. What I find to be just as well done is that we as an audience are never sure if the Gemstone is actually there. It wouldn't make sense to be there, since she is in prison and I do not think they'd just let her in there with that gemstone, but also? By doing this the audience feels about as haunted by the stone as Jinx does. Who in that moment hurts herself, which manifests in picking skin off of her fingers.

She sits in shadows and Silco also comes from those shadows. That's how the conversation starts. They then continue to only show her eye. The shimmer induced eye. That is in stark contrast to what we then, what almost feels like a jumpscare, get to see with Silco. Suddenly his eye is the Gemstone. The two forces of two cities.

What I also find very interesting is that the audience gets to see Silco's new eye addition when he talks about Jinx still having a spark of rebellion. Well how did the Gemstone first come into play?

Jinx was rebelling against her sisters wishes to "stay behind". And that's when the fateful explosion happened and Jinx lost her entire family. Just as in the finale of season 1. Everytime we see Jinx rebell in season 1 it ends with the death of people she loves. I find it just as interesting that all of this comes after Jinx says "it's too late". She only sees her failures infront of her. All of her acts of rebellion, in her mind, caused the misery that now sits infront of her.

Just as Silco says "Killing is a cycle" we get a close up of his new eye. Now that might be a reach but I like how the Gemstone in itself is basically a "cycle". Also the fact that it is now Silco's eye. The sentence "the eye is the window to a persons soul" is very fitting here, I think. Just that Silco isn't actually Silco. He is the manifestation of Jinx' current state. So he is a manifestation of what she sees as her failures.

And is what happened with the Gemstones not what she sees as her biggest one? She lost all her families over that. And then she lost Isha to it as well. During this part of the scene we see Jinx picking her skin again, as if in an act to ground herself. As Silco says the act of "this cycle of killing will continue long after the two of you" he starts to become less of the focus. The blue of the Gemstone in his eye is suddenly almost all we see.

And then it's in Jinx' hand. I think this shows how Jinx thinks she holds that cycle in her hands now. Which also translates into how she wants to break it, by the way. "I'm done running in circles" as she plays with said figurative circle.

The Gemstone in this part of the scene is what Jinx sees as her prison. All her failures, all her pain. Silco talks over this scene in her monologue (as I talked about in my point before the visuals). All her life Jinx saw herself as nothing more than part of this circle. Then Silco says he thought he could break free by eliminating who he thought his jailors were. I do not like what they did here. At all. But this will come later.

In this scene we only see his new Gemstone eye, as he talks about his jailors. The gemstone comes from Piltover, all his life Silco wanted to break free from Piltover, so there is that. I will come to this later, as I said. Then he says the cycle only ends when you find the will to walk away and suddenly we do not see the Gemstone eye anymore.

More on this later. What I see in the next scene is maybe a little hard to get and potentially wrong. We hear Jinx swallow, right? And swallowing is the act of putting what's in your mouth to your stomach. So when she tries to spit out the Gemstone it can't actually land in her hand again. In my head, and please this is literally very much a far reach cause I myself haven't yet figured this part out completely, it's almost like she lost it again, the thread she held in her hand before.

That, for me, is the part where she understood what the Silco in her head was trying to tell her. A convoluted "you have to die". That's why, when Vi comes, we see her even more detached than before.

Why don't I like this scene in the context of season 2 then?

The hauntingly good of this scene is how factually wrong it is.

Or that it should be wrong. And that's why it is bad. The scene portrays this picture of a completely in shambles Jinx who, in a very twisted way, tries telling herself the only way to betterment is death. And in the end that should have been avoided. What the writers did, how ever, was make this scene be correct.

Well the only way out was death and getting away, right? It shouldn't have been. What should have happened is that the scene gets turned on its head and Jinx gets to the understanding that it is wrong, that she is deserving and allowed to stay. In context of a season 1 this scene was very fitting but in the season 2 we got, that excused classism, war crimes and killed its 3 suicidal characters this scene was terrible.

That leads me to my point with Silco telling us he understood the only way was breaking the cycle and not eliminating his jailors. In what they gave us with season 2 this is... definetly something. What they gave us with that is that Jinx apparently now "understands that Piltover isn't the problem but she is". That makes Jinx having to apologize to Caitlyn even worse. What Silco said in this moment is basically this "He now understands that breaking free of the people oppressing them (his jailors) didn't free him but understanding that he is part of the cycle and needs to end it is freeing" and with that in context of Jinx' mind this says

"I now understand Piltover isn't the problem. I am."

This wouldn't even be THAT bad had they portrayed this scene how it should have been shown.

As wrong.

Conclusion

This is basically why in itself this scene is beautifully done and everything that season 1 did great and why I in fact hate that it exists in season 2. It is such a disservice to have such a stunningly made scene in a season that endorsed all that it shouldn't.

I also do not understand them basically showing the two cities conflict with the shimmer induced Jinx and the Gemstone in Silco's eye and then just doing nothing with that. Like you had it right there. All of it. There it was and then you just failed to do anything with it, ignored it and then by doing so hurt your own series themes. Which is why I hate what Silco said with breaking the cycle and freeing yourself even more. Like how wrong can you even be? How can you show how wrong this is and then paint it as correct?

[godlygivenanxiety]

look, not to be a hater but the whole ekko/jinx alternate universe situation only proves that jinx was only ever loved entirely and completely by silco, that's kinda the point of how tragic jinx really is as a character,

vi either only sees her little sister out of guilt/sense of duty mixed with a desperate need to come back to something or as consequences to her own actions(taking away agency from jinx in the process);

ekko sees her through the eyes of an idealist which is exactly what he is and that's not bad by itself, but it makes her either A Problem or Someone That Needs Saving, that's what's going on in his head after that AU he transported to. he's comparing jinx to powder and he likes powder much better, so he wants jinx to be powder or to reignite the powder in her - basically, he thinks how vi used to think;

isha is a complicated matter because she did show kindness and affection towards jinx that wasn't equal to anyone else's, it was pure and idolizing, she loved what she knew of jinx.

the people of zaun don't love her, not by a long shot. she became a symbol to some(as we can notice in the reunion by vander's statue) and overall the assumption that she would get involved more after her attack and silco's death is a fair one; that doesn't mean they like her,

sevika maintains a connection to jinx through grief and a sense of helplessness along with familiarity, silco's death affected jinx's psyche but it also affected sevika's dream of zaun, they feel left behind by him;

vander... well, he only got to see powder and warwick quite literally just had the memories,

the ONLY character we see that meets her as powder and stays with her as jinx is silco; yes, he isn't a good guy and he does cause the whole separation, he sharpened her edges to make her into a weapon, he lied to her and manipulated her at times, none of these things exclude the fact he does love her so strongly, with zero conditions.

she fucks up in missions, she does as she pleases around zaun, she kills their people, she stabs him in the eye, has psychotic episodes and breakdowns, she kidnaps him, ties him down, SHOOTS HIM, she doubts him and his love, keeps running after the past when he's done everything to strengthen her and she was, at a point, the only thing keeping him from his dream of an independent zaun - none of these perceived sins and flaws made him wish for anyone other than her, as she is.

all silco wanted was to keep her, while everyone else either wants another version of her or none at all. that's the tragic part, even if she suddenly decided to be good, she would feel like a burden for not being entirely like people want her to be.

[wild-moss-art]

my oh my dead end girl

[weaverofink]

Screenshot redraw of Silco while i try to figure out how tf digital charcoals work

original screenshot:

[arthabz]

i love jayvik and caitvi because of their conflicts. And because they still love each other despite their major differences. I love them because they all still have walls and wounds, and yet, are the hammer and bandage for each other. Obviously, because they still have major conflict and are doomed by the plot, they don’t have a happy ending. That is my hot take, that the ship should include the angst, emphasize it, even. End in the inevitable breakup because they will never not clash. It makes it all the more real and emotional that despite it all they still desperately, selfishly want each other in their life. To fill that cavity with something familiar.

[lonksadventures]

Arcane is so good and now I have to study their rendering style it’s very important

(Featuring my eso oc Rainewyn)

[potatoesarecheese]

dads

I will never get over the trope of the Big Bad Villain or the Dark Edgy Scary Guy and his hoard of children that he loves very much. It's why I love the Batfam it's why I live Silco and Jinx.

I just think there's something so endearing about someone that seems completely evil and inhumane finding someone that they love and care about. It's a fun little juxtaposition that I will never get tired of.

And extra extra points because it's familial love.

Romance is great and whatever, but I think it's overrated. I can also enjoy when the Scary Guy gets all soft and loving around someone that they're attracted to.... but it has a completely different vibe, you know?

Especially since parents (and dads specifically) get a bad rep in fiction. Usually, they're dead or they're abusive and that's... fine. It's good for some plot reasons and trauma reasons and YA novels about independence. But if you don't see at least one story with a cute unconventional family then you're really missing out.

and there's so many different ways you can spin it!

Evil parent with a good kid? yes.

Evil parent with an equally as evil kid? absolutely.

Evil parent with a neutral kid that is fully aware of parent's evilness and simply Does Not Care, because whatever dad does at work doesn't matter? love it.

Evil parent with an actually evil kid that's just going through a rebellious phase and siding with the good guys because it would piss dad off? gimme.

[goddessofroyalty]

I know you've done stuff regarding Viks birth but I was curious what it was like the first time Silco's water broke like did he freak out or remain calm???

I always keep coming back to the question of whether Silco realised he was in labour with Viktor when his waters break. He definitively does with the other two because his waters tend to break later in the labour than earlier, but Viktor comes 3 weeks before he's due (and therefore about 2 weeks before he's expected) and Silco isn't one of those super in touch with his body people as well as being a workaholic so isn't exactly paying attention to the random cramps that are starting to gain a regular rhythm.

I think it catches him off-guard but I don't think he actively freaks out. The first thing he does is definitively doing the math of how far off he is from due (confirming that, yes, it's earlier than expected but not so much that there's no chance the baby will survive). Yells at Vander to go get the midwife and then retreats to their bedroom. I don't think he super worried about labor that much (you know until Viktor decided to come out feet first). He's lived a hard life and is full of youthful confidence, yeah sure he knows it isn't going to be pleasant, but few things in his life have been. But he's also definitively tense and a bit stressed/on-edge about it.

[vi-arcanes-left-biceps]

Spoilers for Arcane S2 Finale❗❗

So, i keep thinking about Arcane's last pieces of dialogue and though they sounded kinda funny when I watched the end at the first time (in a 'really? This took 27h to write?' way), the more I think about it, the more I like it.

I think it has a ton of layers to interpret and I'm still missing a few of them.

Please forgive my multiple tangents while I try to gather my thoughts.

First, how Caitlyn finds Vi: no bandages, a glass of alcohol in her hands.

No bandages means many things for Vi: she's vulnerable -both because of what she's going through and beacuse she can allow herself to be vulnerable for the first time in the show, with Caitlyn-, and her fight is over, she doesn't have to fight anymore (Re: Ep7 Powder saying Vi fights because she's scared of losing everyone, and she has lost everyone). (Everyone but Ekko and Caitlyn, who have repeatedly proven they can fend for themselves and are leaders on their own right, I'd love to say Vi is in a point where she's able not to feel responsible for them too, though this is something I'm not so sure about). Bandages were also an important part of her character design, of herself, so this gives a sensation that she's lost a part of her identity too. Who is she, if not the big sister, the protector, the brawler?

Alcohol is another small details that just says she's not okay. We've seen her drink herself senseless for, presumably, months, in Act II, to cope with all that happened in S1 and particularly S2 Act I: accepting the loss of her sister after the attack on the council, becoming an enforcer even though she was completely against it because she still feels responsible for ending Jinx, recognising her sister again for just a glimpse and gaining faith that Powder is still there (with the realisation that she almost killed her sister -not the monster she convinced herself jinx was, her sister) falling in love with Cait and seeing her become a completely different person out of grief.... So after everything that just happened in Act III, where she saw that many people die, either strangers or friends, and where she lost her sister and father AGAIN, of course she's considering getting back to drinking. So much happened to her in the span of few months that she's considering drowning the pain away again.

Caitlyn's question: "Are you still in this fight, Violet?"

The line delivery is incredibly soft and intimate, and Cait calling her Violet is the cherry on top. She's knows Vi is not okay. She's knows she's going through a lot right now.

Caitlyn's question seeing this is really, at least, three questions:

First and clearest is a check-in: "How are you?" "Will you be okay?" "Do you want to talk about this?"

Second is "Are you staying?" Vi could leave to be alone as she did at the beginning of Act II, could go with Ekko to Zaun... I can also see an "Are you staying with me?" After everything that happens, after the little time that they've had to be together and to solve the many things between them, her asking "Are you still in this fight" can mean both "hey, are you holding up" and "Are we still together in this?"

Third would be "So, are you up to face this, solving things between Piltover and Zaun?". I know some people have criticized the lack of resolution in the Zaun/Piltover conflict. I'd argue, as much as I'd love for the class conflict to be expanded, it is not the core of the series, and both the writers and the characters know that a conflict like this cannot be solved in such little time. The series was not going to solve it. What it does is solve it's main plot and character arcs, and leave a space for this theme to have the start of a resolution. Piltover an Zaun joined against Ambessa's army, and the ending gives us a glimpse of the will to change the relationship between topside and bottom (e.g. having Zaunites in the council). It's not a perfect ending nor it is a resolution for Zaun's class struggle -I'm pretty sure that was never the intent, though I would have liked for both cities' relationship to be more comented upon in this season-, it's the opportunity to advance towards a resolution. So Cait is asking Vi if she is willing to deal with that too. "Are you still in this fight?" can also have an implication to mean fighting to make things better. This also means fighting for them to be together.

Then, Vi's answer: "I am the dirt underneath your fingernails, Cupcake. Nothing's gonna clean me out".

Now, I like this because it sums up to Vi saying "I'm not going anywhere" but the line itself and the delivery gives it a few more layers of meaning.

First of all, Vi is clearly not okay. She's very emotionaly scarred and considering an unhealthy coping mechanism. She looks incredibly sad. And she's deflecting with humour to the question because she's probably not ready to talk about it. So her delivery here, plus the strange joke/comparison and calling Caitlyn "Cupcake" (which she's only done when she's teasing her in a flirty or funny way or deflecting the conversation by doing so) is telling Caitlyn that she's not okay right now, but that she isn't going to leave. "

I interpret "Nothing's gonna clean me out" as her basically saying "I'm tough, I'll get through this" to Caitlyn's "How are you?" and saying "You're not getting rid of me" to Caitlyn's "Are you going to stay?"

Furthermore, calling herself "The dirt underneath your fingernails" has an obvious implication about her being a Zaunite and Caitlyn being from Pilotover. I've seen some people saying this is insulting to Vi's character and to Zaun's storyline.... I don't think so at all. Yeah, I can get to see a layer of self-depreciating humor, but for me this is Vi using her humour as well to reinforce herself and her identity as a Zaunite (which arguably she left aside/lost sight of during Act I) while also teasing Caitlyn for being a topsider. I like to interpret this as Vi saying "Yeah, Piltie, I'm sticking with you and I will keep bothering you". The tone and calling Cait "Cupcake" reinforces this as a tease as well. Reinstating her identity as a Zaunite also gives insight on Vi's position on the Zaun-Piltover new relationship: yes, she's willing to help out manage this, always from the position of a kid from the Lanes.

Zaun and Piltover are also stuck together after the ending - they've fought together against a common enemy and that has also forced Piltover's elite to sit and listen to Zaun's demands. For sure Piltover's aristocracy still has to get their heads out of their asses but this is how I like to read the phrase in regards to Zaun-Piltover, layered upon what Vi is saying: I am the dirt underneath you = I (Zaun's state and problems) am a consequence of your (Piltover's) actions and I am not going anywhere. (You will have to listen).

Anyways, lots of rambling and I'll still be missing stuff!

Another thing is, native spanish speakers as I am use the phrase "Nail and flesh" to say that two people are inseparable, and this has enough similarity to that for it to feel like Vi is also saying they are inseparable. So yeah

[ephemeralcardia]

https://discord.gg/sUkcYj3Z

REPROMOTING MY DISCORD SERVER BC IT'S SEMI ACTIVE!!

DNI- proshippers/darkshippers!!

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[choccorin]

going to watch s2 of arcane THEN catch up on blue lock

[depressedtheatrekiddo]

WHO THE FUCK DECIDED IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO PUT MY FINALS THE WEEK THAT COMES AFTER ARCANE ACT 3 COMES OUT 😭😭😭😭😭

[heaven-dope]

fun fact: when i was putting points into soleils attributes, i was really REALLY torn between mind and heart. haha. could you fucking imagine 0 heart soleil. insane how that decision influenced so much of her character.