#but i did start to think it when we watched salo and i didn't even blink / when i laughed because i was having fun dfghgfdsfg

[non-un-topo]

I no longer trust anyone's "dIsTUrBinG MoVIeS" recommendations. Come on, man, I want to be kept up at night.

[wingedshadowfan]

and this isn't to say that caitlyn never wanted to become commander, that she didn't have a choice in it or that she was always planning to turn on ambessa. and I'll look into those points separately because they don't undermine her decision in that moment.

1) caitlyn wanted to become a commander bcuz she didn't know what it'd mean and what it'd be like. she probably arrogantly thought she had more control over the situation and more independence from ambessa (her little house kiramman guide she opened with the key she inherited), that she could easily and quickly catch jinx and send her to stillwater or kill her and "any still loyal to silco" without stirring anything in zaun. she didn't expect that nobody in the undercity would know where tf jinx is (stuck in a cave taking care of isha), and that she'd become a symbol of the resistance in the meantime so people would... resist. caitlyn didn't want to hurt innocents but her hands were tied if she wanted to catch this incredibly unstable, violent and dangerous individual who'd attempted to blow her up twice, kidnapped her and asked vi to kill her (we still don't know what happened to caitlyn before vi got there but she hasn't been the same when it came to jinx since), she blew up her mother and half the council and presumably also ruined the statue ceremony and rallied the undercity against piltover. so don't hit me with the "why did she want to kill jinx" or say she was in the wrong for it.

2) there are always choices.

but this was admittedly a hard one and no one seems to have sensed the implications of ambessa taking the rains - her being the person on the inside for the zaunites who ruined the statue ceremony, salo wrapped around her finger calling up the most influential families in piltover, and her, counselor mel's literal warmonger mother (the epitome of authority) who gave her piltover to rule over, holding a speech that basically said "you will declare martial law against zaun rn bcuz i say they're threatening you. you will employ one of yours as a commander (and i'll choose who it is) and i'll generously lend them the resource of my army (making them dependant on me, directly controlling and green-lighting their every decision and breathing down their neck) to fight this war" and then everybody starts beating their chests, including caitlyn's own people. picture it: you've just lost your mother and had her statue ceremony turned into a massacre, your gf chose the incredibly destructive psycho killer who killed your mother and almost killed her and you a few times (after offering to kill jinx herself and telling you to "take the shot"), and this incredibly destructive psycho killer? very much still on the loose. what do you do? everyone's watching. waiting on you to be "a pillar of your community", "decorated officer, leader of house kiramman", the daughter of a deceased counselor. what do you do?

3) she always wanted to turn on ambessa

i think 1) sums up why i don't think she had that intention since the start + the fact that ambessa isn't a random person, she's an incredibly powerful fighter, influential in politics, tactical in war among other things and caitlyn probably thought highly of her and wanted to learn from her (them sparring) before having to work with her up close where she had the chance to see ambessa was unnecessarily brutal and ruthless, had a general disregard for the law when pursuing her goals, was sneaky and manipulative (this even maddie seems to sense because she kept reminding caitlyn it's her call, which, in a vacuum, would've been true). it's literally an idealist cop and a pragmatic warmonger, of course they wouldn't work well together. this tension betw the two of them has been building up for however long the time skip was. because caitlyn is the other face of ambessa's coin in some ways - she's also tactical, knowledgeable, but she's lawful, merciful, has a strong moral compass, etc

⚠️arcane s2 act ii spoilers⚠️

"caitlyn switching sides immediately when vi calls her cupcake again" "caitlyn double crossing her mentor ambessa out of the blue" "caitlyn and vi haven't talked or seen each other in months" "caitlyn randomly changing her mind" SHUT UP

if singed didn't manage to get warwick out his way (which would've still likely made warwick go berserk causing casualties and/or even losing the remainder of vander), ambessa's army of trained warriors, because notice there weren't any enforcers w/ them, would've raided a village of pacifists who don't have a single weapon, in order to catch and tame a monster that can and has turned a dozen people to bacon in minutes undoubtedly to employ it against other innocents (which caitlyn never wanted happening btw, even in her pursuit of jinx and her personal revenge, she thought it was taking too long and being too violent and destructive, which we saw caused tension betw her and ambessa), not to mention caitlyn called singed a monster and we don't quite see her changing her mind after seeing the dead daughter he does animal testing in order to immortalize, she'd alr confronted ambessa for her and her himbo's methods (warmongers not following the lawful procedures, who's surprised), and if in the midst of me potentially spying on ambessa and her people vi of all ppl falls from the sky to say this "monster" is her dad (considering caitlyn is still deeply grieving her mother and has been under the impression vi's dad is dead) and that the village prophet will turn him to a man again (effectively neutralizing a potentially uncontrollable and very severe threat) like i'm sorry but if i was caitlyn and had to act immediately under a time crunch, i'd also go straight to "here's where the guards are placed, i'll walk you in as a hostage" it was the perfect moment to betray ambessa to diverge attention (and it would've worked if jayce hadn't blown a hole through viktor's chest, which i'm actually not exactly blaming him for doing to a eugenics enthusiast) - w/ the help of vi and in the urgency of needing to figure out how to save all those people by herself (and in the undercity too bcuz it's a relatively neutral ground and caitlyn can't go quite back home after this unless she kills ambessa or smth) and why couldn't she have done it before? the stakes weren't as high before and she also couldn't do much against ambessa in piltover without a single capable counselor left (despite everyone telling her "it's your call" it's never that simple in politics)

and even if you took the complete opposite stance and argued that caitlyn doesn't love vi anymore/never truly did bcuz she hurt her, pushed her away, got a rebound and became authoritarian (which isn't a hill you can easily die on if you consider literally any other outside influences on the situations and relationships in arcane imo) guess what? none of these things matter for the decision caitlyn had to make (and vi likely didn't tell her jinx was in the village too)