#chembaron renni

[mollysunder]

In "Jinx Fixes Everything" Silco apparently keeps portraits of the chembarons in a specific booth in the Last Drop, like a restaurant hangs photos of special guest. Silco really gassed up the chembarons' sense of self importance.

He kept a photo of himself there too.

Silco was also blackmailing all of them.

[q8qwertyuiop8p]

AU Silco concept from artbook

[vaseflowerstt]

yall hating on vi and jayce saying they can’t get shit done (they can’t) wait till you see the chembarons those motherfuckers can’t do anything without getting themselves killed

[arcanecitizens]

Chembaron Renni

Owner of the Slugerunners Renni and is involved in the creation of the chemtanks and a new type of shimmer that can power chemtech devices. We see this "greyish-green liquid" on the chemtanks but also on the augmented parts created by Smeech. She is linked to a missing persons investigation where multiple children were found straped to hospital beds and were being injected with the green shimmer. The purpose of the experiments being done on the children was not discovered.

Post info gathered from Counsil Archieves- The Grand Conspiracy and the Enter the Undercity event

[srslylini]

all the side characters that didn't matter in season 2:

Isha(sadly enough), Lest, Loris, Steb, Maddie, Smeech, Renni, Sevika (lost after episode 4, never forgotten), Huck (lost after act 2 but like wow did he every truly matter aside from s1), that blue haired girl from zaun that then DIED in enforcers clothing like okay god damn, chembarons in general

[ravenking1771]

Silco: The False Revolutionary

Silco throughout season 1 makes claims of representing the cause of Zaunite independence and advocating for its people against Piltover's abuse. However his actions are significant source of the suffering and impoverishment of Zaun and his rise also prevented any effective beneficial movement for Undercity rights.

Silco hasshown a willingness and ability to lie, deceive manipulate and gaslight those around him. From convincing Deckard to become the first Shimmer mutant in Episode 2, and lying to Marcus about what he intended to do to Vander and Marshall Grayson and his continued manipulation and corruption of Marcus over the years. Even Jinx was not beyond his manipulations lying to her about the fate of Vi, SIlco thought Marcus had killed her and told Jinx she had left Piltover. He continued telling this lies even up to the end of Season 1. Silco also tries to pin Jinx's various attacks on the Firelights. Silco also either lies to Jinx when he says "I would never given you up" or he lied to Jayce when negotiating at Battery Point. This means we cannot trust a word of Silco's grand declarations and revolutionary promises. Beyond Silco being an unrepentant liar there is also the possibility that Silco is deceiving himself in addition to everyone else.

Silco's failure to bring about the Revolution could be explained by incompetence or ignorance on Silco's part, but this is undercut by his demonstrated effectiveness in corralling the Chem-barons, running his criminal empire and keeping his business free of Piltover interference until Vi is released by Caitlin. Silco laments Piltover's rise due to Hextech and the backwardness of Zaun but shows no willingness to do anything about it. He has no spies feeding him info on Hextech, Jinx only attacks the Progress Day exhibit in an impulsive reaction to Silco telling her to take a day off. Silco is not robbing Piltover bank's or stealing food or gas masks to redistribute to the poor of Zaun. He is not training insurgents, providing weapons or riling up the populace against Piltover, setting up marches, organizing political parties etc. . These are all tried and true tactics of revolutionary movements and insurgencies in both our history and fictional ones. For example the heist of the Imperial payroll in Andor was direclty inspired by a Bolshevik bank heist in Georgia before WWI. Silco had a decade from the death of Vander to Progress Day and he never took any sort of subversive action beyond those of a gangster. His failure to even try to bring about the independence of Zaun or to fight for its rights is truly damning. I think this shows Silco's actual priorities and they are not for Zaun's benefit.

In fact I would make the case that Silco never actually cared for the people of Zaun, as seen by his selling of Shimmer in the Undercity. In Seasons 1 and 2 we can see that Shimmer use is illegal in Piltover so Silco was not earning his money by selling to the rich and powerful but the truly poor and desperate. This act both impoverished Zaun and concentrated wealth in his and his gangster cronies hands. It created a generation of broken and desperate drug addicts willing to do anything to feed their addiction as seen with Huck in Season 1. This also created another generation of orphans and those abused by the gangsters Silco surrounded himself with. The Firelights who grew out of this despair are actually, truly a revolutionary movement unlike Silco's criminal cartel. When they attack Silco's blimp in Episode 4 they do not steal the Shimmer but burn it and we later see that Echo has deliberately formed them to oppose the ChemBarons and to get justice for those lost to Silco and his drugs. Silco of course then surrounded himself with greedy violent and amoral characters like Finn and Renni who would betray him the moment Piltover placed any pressure on the Chem-barons. The surviving Chembarons then following Silco's death turned on each other and fought a destructive multi-sided gang war as Piltover prepared to invade following Jinx's attack. The Firelights meanwhile survived not just SIlco's criminal reign but also the occupation by Piltover and Ambessa's Noxians. I hope I have sufficiently shown that Silco failed to actually build a movement for Zaunite independence or recruit underlings that actually believed in his cause, even his own daughter Jinx was remarkably apolitical compared to her sister Vi and could not see beyond her own issues except when Isha, or Sevika or Echo talked some sense into her. Silco created a predatory society that cannibalized itself for a decade

Now what about Jinx's theft of the Hex-gemstone and eventually his "deal" with Jayce? One, Jinx acted almost entirely by herself, stealing the gemstone in an unplanned act of mass violence, and she also also acted alone in deciphering Hextech and the building of Silco's weapon. In fact, Silco was positively livid until Jinx revealed she had stolen the gemstone, because she had killed enforcers and no doubt attracted attention from the Upper City. All Silco does is take a meeting with an emotionally broken Jayce who caves in less than a minute. Two, Silco depending on whether you believe him says he refuses to turn Jinx over to Jayce and voiding the peace deal with him and Piltover. Did SIlco on the cusp of achieving his life long dream, in who's name he had murdered Vander and his adopted kids and sacrificed so many Zaunites to the ravages of Shimmer while refusing to do anything to help the poor and downtrodden of the lanes? Or did he merely abandon a convenient lie or realized his own self-deception.

Silco's lies or self-deceptions make me doubt his revolutionary ambitions. As for his motivation I would point to his cruel behaviour towards Vander, seeking to kill his entire adopted family, and if you trust the Season 2 stuff, his friend Connol's two children Vi and Powder (Silco was absolutely going to murder Powder in season 1). This I think is the real motivator for Silco revenge, and in his own words "Respect" Furthermore, Silco reveals he would killed Renni's son if he was not already dead following her coup attempt. My point being Silco was a petty man driven by his own petty desires for revenge for real or imagined slights, he was lacking in any morals or higher ideals save for his love for Jinx which manifested as a toxic lies and violent destructive life.

[yannisdesk]

I don't think Vi becoming an enforcer and fighting for Piltover is the worst part of her arc this season or even a bad writing decision; it's the reasoning we got that makes it come off half-baked. It was known this is where her arc would lead, and I while no, I'm not rooting for anyone to become a cop, I was interested in understanding her choices and hopeful that the arc would do her justice.

What I got instead was more so confusion. And that's the thing with season 2: it lays the ground work for interesting stuff, but it doesn't elaborate enough in my opinion. Stuff just happens and then it's on to the next plot point, especially when it comes to Vi.

What we get in the show is:

Vi is offered the position of enforcer by Caitlyn and she turns it down because of her own bad history with enforcers, and how they treat Zaun.

She has a run-in with Maddie, a junior officer, who hypes her up and says she's excited to work with her on the force.

Vi attends a memorial for Cassandra and the other councilmembers who were killed in Jinx's attack in S1E9. Renni crashes the place and wreaks havoc.

Vi decides to join the enforcers.

What we can infer from this is that Vi joins the enforcers because she feels guilt over the things that are happening, as they are directly tied to her sister, Jinx. It was Jinx who bombed the council chamber, and the people of Piltover believe it was Jinx who sent Renni to attack the memorial (that is later revealed to be Ambessa, but Jinx is never cleared from this). So Vi, seeing Caitlyn in so much pain, which she can relate to due to losing her own parental figures tragically, decides to join the enforcers to put an end to her sister's shenanigans.

And we next see her badged up, and an episode later, using The Grey, a poisonous gas, on her own people and sister, and in the episode after that, defending it.

Oh lord, where to begin...

For one, Vi shouldn't really be that shook up at seeing Renni out for blood. She and Jayce led the raid that killed her son, which while accidental, was the work of Jayce, and afterwards, Vi defended her son's death by justifying it as collateral damage, but we also clearly know that Vi did feel sympathy for the death of the child by her expression after her argument with Jayce and in how she was so insistent on not letting Isha be collateral. Vi knows what Caitlyn is going through, yes, but she also knows that Renni, too, is also going through immeasurable loss, and that it's her fault by proxy, as the raid was her idea. But this is never mentioned, or even hinted at. I'm not saying this to let Renni off the hook, I'm saying that for this to lead to Vi being so staunchly pro-Piltover that she seemingly has no qualms about gassing her own people, is so much of a leap that it's whiplash-inducing. We're shown in the "Hellfire" montage that they're not just roughing up the chembarons, but people who are associated with them, including sex-workers. They gassed an entire brothel. They gassed her childhood hangout spot, and they gassed these places in the hopes of finding her sister.

We know Vi joins, out of guilt. Yet when confronted with Jinx she says that she's done feeling guilty and blaming herself for Jinx's issues. While on paper, that is good - Vi shouldn't be feeling guilty over Jinx's mistakes; Jinx is her own person and makes her own decisions, so Vi finally distancing herself from the burden of responsibility is a good thing. But in saying this at that particular time, knowing the entire reason she became an enforcer, well, if you're done being guilty, then, in the words of Flo Milli: ho, why is you here?

Granted, this could just be a case of Vi saying one thing and doing/feeling another, but still...I'm unsure where I stand on that.

Ultimately, Vi's reasoning for joining the enforcers falls flat. I could see if she were a more privileged Zaunite that probably didn't have too many negative run-ins with the enforcers, but this is someone who'd been on the receiving end of their abuse for years. She witnessed her parents die at their hands. She and her sisters were repeatedly roughed up by enforcers as kids for no reason. She spent the greater part of a decade in prison where she was beaten by them so much that the warden lost count of how many times he'd personally physically assaulted her. Oh, and she was put there as a literal child by a corrupted enforcer who's part of the reason why Silco was able to swoop in and gain power like he did. If she's going to join the enforcers, she needs to have a damn good reason to in order for the narrative to work. Feeling guilt-by-proxy is just not enough.

There are so many different angles they could've taken this that would add up way better. And, given that the show is canon to the game, we know what Vi's LoL personality is like. If you don't, here are some quotes:

"Come on! Resist arrest already!"

"Vi stands for violence."

"Punch first, ask questions while punching."

"Why can't I get a straight answer? It's always 'oh no, stop hitting me, ow, my face!'"

"Piltover's finest."

"If I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you."

These are all quotes she makes as an enforcer btw. When people say that Vi in LoL is A-Okay with performing police brutality, they mean it.

So Arcane didn't show us that, they didn't even hint that she will become that in her final scene. The Vi we see at the end of Arcane is very subdued and not at all like what she's going to become according to the show-game canon, so what gives?

There are many more sensible reasons Vi could've been motivated to become an enforcer that align more with her character. I'll present two. The first is more of a villain-y turn and less in-character, but definitely could be made believable with the right execution. As we've seen, she's always had an insecurity around her status as a Zaunite. Zaun's inferiority complex was actually laid bare in season 1; it's why so many got sprung out on shimmer, as told by Huck, who tells Caitlyn the reason why he started the drug was because he was tired of being afraid, he wanted to know what it was like to make other people fear him for once. Teen Vi says in season 1 episode 2 that she "grew up knowing" that she "was less than them [Piltovens]." Silco even discusses this sort of inferiority when he talks about his drowning. Vi was placed in Stillwater where she gained a fearsome reputation, outside of Stillwater she doesn't have that. She's just another Zaunite with a chip on her shoulder which makes her just like everyone else, but she'll never join Silco for obvious reasons, and maybe the Firelights just don't have enough pull for her to see them as more than just Ekko's last-minute-hope project, so she doesn't see a good way out for Zaun and has a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" moment. She's sick of being constantly backed into a corner, and she sees becoming an enforcer as the only way to make sure she'd never end up like her parents: a victim of state sanctioned violence.

The second version is way more believable. Let's say, you want Caitlyn to be an influence on her decision. That makes sense because Caitlyn is the closest enforcer in Vi's life. She secured Vi's release, and was the first person to show her kindness post-release, as well as probably, the first enforcer to ever be remotely kind to her. It also pays subtle homage to the game lore because Caitlyn offering Vi an end to her prison sentence if she joined her on a case is how she becomes an enforcer in LoL. She could be moved by Caitlyn's idealism when it comes to being an enforcer. Caitlyn was influenced by Grayson who did have altruistic reasons for becoming one - she told Caitlyn herself that she joined the force because she wanted to help and protect people. That was a major motivator for Caitlyn to consider joining the enforcers, and given that a key aspect of Vi's character are that she is a protector, that could very much be what gets her to change her mind and join the force. She thinks she can do good by both Zaun and Piltover by joining an organization that, on paper, exists to "keep the peace." So in a way, that makes her personality as an enforcer an extension of that desire. She becomes someone who's willing to engage in brutality because she unironically thinks this is the way to achieve peace and protect people. It becomes less about guilt, and more goal-oriented. And it could tie in to what Vander said about there being no winners in war and that resistence isn't worth it; and that could be portrayed as Vi tragically taking those words a bit too seriously, and thus joining the opposition and oppressors because she thinks that's the best way to save people and she'll use any means necessary to achieve that. Not only does this make sense for Vi, it also makes sense for Caitlyn, who in the show, stupidly tries to convince Vi to join the enforcers by comparing her mother's loss with Vi's, when, no, they're not the same situation. Vi didn't ask you to join Silco's gang after Cassandra died, so what makes you think that asking her to join the enforcer's on this basis is remotely appropriate? Caitlyn may be privileged and ignorant at times, but she's not that dense. That's some "your head echoes when I knock on it" level of reasoning.

Again, these would not be excusing her actions, but it would make her joining the enforcers have way more impact than "feeling a bit guilty about everything, guess I'll do war crimes now."

EDIT: grammar, clearer phrasing, conciseness.

[constantfragmentation]

Silco Headcanon

Okay, whether you want to believe Silco was crushing on Felicia or he was just fond of her....

It really explains a lot in regards to Jinx and Vi.

I think Silco would have been both devastated at Felicia's death and proud that she died for a cause they believed in. Vander taking her kids, I believe, could have been a major sore spot with Silco.

Depending on when we want to believe the river betrayal happened (prior to the bridge battle or after), Silco doesn't appear to be on the bridge and why? Was he already so terribly injured he couldn't fight? That Silco stoked up the people's anger to where Vander couldn't back out of the battle and Felicia ended up dying?

I want to wonder if Vander prior to the battle, was having second thoughts. Felicia now had two kids and Vander was starting to see things differently. There were too many kids or people that would become collateral damage if they failed against Piltover. I'm thinking Vander began to believe they were going to lose big.

So perhaps, killing Silco was to way to end it before it became worse but by that time there was no stopping the rebellion and he still had to lead them in battle.

Yet, of course, the letter Vander wrote Silco signifies that the betrayal happened post-bridge battle. I wish the animators had not made them so young in Silco's flashback in S1E3 and then Vander clearly with a full beard in S1E1. I have to think that they didn't plan to expound on Silco/Vander post-S1. I believe they added the backstory because fans fell in love with these two characters.

So making her death the reason behind Vander killing Silco?. I kind of wish it was pre-battle that Vander had a change of heart but it was too late to back out, so he took it out on Silco thinking it would be a wrench in the cog and stop it. Silco jokingly claiming "#1" makes me feel like he thought he was the mastermind and Vander was just the muscle. So Vander used that muscle to stop him.

I think it works better if Vander tried to kill him before the battle, but it seems like Riot is making her the catalyst which I think is too easy a cop out. UNLESS, one of those kids is Vander's or Silco's.

Why is Felicia so important to kill your brother over? There are plenty of families, kids being put at risk but she is the big catalyst? Yeah, she's the mum of Vi/Jinx but why is she so important to Vander and Silco? Such importance needs to be explained.

When Silco says in S1E3 that Vander still kept his respect maybe that was because he still went through with the battle. Silco then adds, "until you played lapdog" and it all changed when he saw how Vander controlled the Lanes and worked with Enforcers and gave up all effort to combat Piltover.

So you have Felicia dead. Silco probably was barred by Vander in paying respects, etc. Vander talks to Benzo about Silco as that dark secret no one wants to know about.

Vi being the leader of the kids. She would be more on Silco's radar than Jinx. She is very much like Vander and that probably irks Silco to the bone if he considers Felicia a true patriot like himself. So, by extension he low-key hates Vi.

When he sees Jinx at Vander's dead body. He is vaguely aware she is Vi's sister and probably considering kidnapping or using her to get to Vi. It IS fucked up because these are KIDS. But Silco has a warped sense of life.

Most likely when he was a kid (as he chides Finn at the Chembaron meeting) he had nothing and most likely was a child labourer. So maybe he doesn't see Zaun kids as innocents and they are fair game. Hell, he has child labour making shimmer (Renni's son).

So, JInx tells him Vi isn't her sister anymore and he sees Vander's dead body. Vander isn't his brother anymore. But now he can take Felicia's younger child and mold her to what he though Felicia was? Like him? However, in S1 we don't see any conversation or hint of JInx knowing much about her mother or that Silco knew her.

As Jinx ages, she looks more and more like Felicia and I think that is a positive memory Silco chooses to keep. It makes him happy that he is protecting her daughter, helping her. He encourages her experimentation/scientific skills. Silco molds her into a version of himself, a patriot that maybe he chooses to believe Felicia was more like him than Vander turning her kids to his views.

SIlco lets Jinx gets away with EVERYTHING. He gives her important jobs that confound his subordinates like Sevika and piss off the Chembarons. No one touches Jinx. Silco won't allow it.

Smeech knows she's fair game now because Silco can't protect her anymore.

I think this is why Silco has a fragmented view of Jinx. He's sees a daughter he wants to nuture and protect but he also sees her as an equal and has absolute faith in her skills to build a weapon against Piltover. He struggles between the two. Treating her like his child an d treating her like a member of his team. Basically Felicia 2.0.

In her lab when he is so angry at what Jinx did in Piltover, only to see she stole the stone and he isn't giving her enough credit. And when she hugs him, he's reminded, she loves him like a father.

On the bridge after her fight with Ekko, Silco is mortified that he caused her death/injury. He sees the stone and realizes he put her in this position. She almost died because of him.

I wonder if that triggered a memory of Felicia dying on the bridge. He wasn't able to understand Vander and I think finding Jinx on the bridge was the beginning. He couldn't bear to lose Jinx. She can't die. It will kill him. He can't be the reason she dies.

So when he meets Jayce, he's protecting Jinx the whole time and when the ultimatum is handing her over to get everything he's always wanted, a free, independent Zaun. He can't do it. He cares too much . He still wants freedom but he'll find another way to do it.

At the tea party, he tells Jinx she means more to him than getting what he's always wanted. She knows how important that was to him, and you see it in her face. He calls her his daughter. She has the love and acceptance she's been looking for. It wasn't just Silco being protector/mentor. He sees her as HIS family.

I think that's why "you're perfect" hits so fucking hard. You know he loves her. In his own messed up way, all the mistakes he's made with Jinx, he loves her and was willing to give up his dream to keep her safe.

If Vi knows more about Silco than she lets on.... Sevika turning the knife by saying "she's like his daughter" is a real kick in the face. Because Sevika would probably know, wouldn't she??? Food for thought.

Fuck, I could talk about this all night but I have to go to bed if I want to get up for work tomorrow.

[arcane-temp-fandomblog]

Arcane season 2 predictions

aka Bingo time (blank one for you to make your own below)

Since this images became picture of ants with the text, top down - left right as follows:

Mel becomes disillusioned with Piltover and leaves Medarda clan

Mel’s main conflict is over who rules Piltover after the attack - fighting for influence over remnants of government structures with her mother

Singed and Heimerdingger had a falling out over Singe's attempts to save his daughter’s life

Jayce plays pivotal part in healing Viktor’s illness

Some of chembarons side with Ambessa/Piltover and hunt for Jinx because of the reward for her capture

Caitlyn and Vi have a true heart to heart where they discover the connection of their respective role models and that they were on two sides of the door in the explosion is Jayce’s apartment

Caitlyn uncovers the truth behind the bridge opening scene and how council played into it

Shimmer was initially made by Singed to help his daughter with pain as her organs failed and as possible cure - it is the same illness Viktor is suffering from

Singed is Corin Reveck - a piltovian inventor - whose daughter Orianna died from illness contracted in the undercity where she tried to help people (this is the reason for him joining Silco)

Jinx and Ekko reconcile

Viktor and Jayce continue their partnership - their places switch and Viktor is the ‘public facing’ one in Zaun as Machine Herald

Firelights are destroyed and it’s at leats partially because of Heimerdinger’s knowing their secret base location

Free! Undercity becomes independent

Vi becomes persona non grata in the Undercity because she was seen with enforcers in Ep 8

Silco and Vander learned about Osha Va’Zaun and that’s what sparked the idea of nation of Zaun

Caitlyn is pushed to become sheriff by the council since she’s ‘one of them’  unlike lower class person like Marcus

Caitlyn can not leave her position as sheriff by the end of the story because she’s protecting Vi - even if it’s a ceremonial position making her live behind the desk (something she didn’t want in E4)

Mel (knowingly or not) helped Amara to export chemtech to Noxus through cover of council’s illegal trade

Piltover edits the city’s history to upkeep it’s image as the City of Enlightenment - and that is why Jayce, Mel or Caitlyn don't know much about the bridge massacre

Mel’s golden jewellery that she always wears is Zhonya’s Hourglass

Viktor makes Sevika’s new arm

Viktor can already use magic without knowing it because as  Jayce proposed in E2 Arcane talents can be manufactured

Vi and Jayce are pursued by Renni’s chemtanks for revenge over her son’s death

Hexcore becomes Blitzcrank

Hoskel solves the puzzle Mel gave him

I had stuff like Jinx becomes symbol of revenge on Piltover but that was already in trailers. Same with Vander - Warwick.

Personally I hope for Sevika and Singed flashbacks in S2.

Anyway, if anyone wants to play along

[justanerddummie]

Pt2 of my rant

Ok so, I think Vi has been handed the shittiest hand of cards of all time.

Stuck between Cait and Jinx, still tied to the chair at the mad tea party forced to choose between her crazy sister and the kind enforcer, except this time it's Cait asking her to choose between a full blown war between Piltover and Zaun and putting on an enforcer uniform so Vi has chooses the lesser evil. She sacrifices her entire identity, her heart to save her people and I think that if she hadn't agreed to Cait's offer in the end Jayce would have armed the enforcers with hextech weapons, she managed to stall long enough to avoid it.

So, I really do think that Vi was the only person who so far has managed to make all the right choices. They might have not been the best choices but those were the ones she was handed and she had to work with it.

As for Cait, well, fuck.

Same as Vi, mentally she's stuck at the mad tea party, needing, craving the control Jinx took away from her knowing full well that behind Jinx and Silco there's a whole criminal organization that cheered when Jinx blew up her mother, that if invited to the party they would have loved to play with a councilor's daughter same as Jinx, so to be honest I'd say Caitlyn's need to be in control is pretty understandable, same as her rage.

Is it justifiable? Hell no, but understandable, yes.

Also, for a young woman who is incredibly traumatized she managed to keep her cool way better than anyone has ever given her credit to.

After the attack from Renni, not just Vi but also Cait managed to stop a full blown attack on Zaun by coming up with the idea of the strike team. Mel was getting cornered by both the other councilors and I honestly doubt she could find a way not to be out voted if Caitlyn hadn't barged in.

Anyway, back to the topic.

Yes, Caitlyn sacrificed a big chunk of her morality and legacy using the Grey, but strategically it made sense to use it. It kept them unseen so that the last two chembarons could not protect themselves from the attacks (btw it's left unclear if they were arrested or killed but I unfortunately think it's the latter, which is another extremely fucked up thing to add to the shit Cait's done in only three episodes so far) and also did in fact clear the streets of civilians as Vi claimed, like honestly if I would see a fucking nasty cloud of smoke coming my way I would make a run for my life.

As for the people they interrogated the only logical conclusion for me is that they were the people working in the shimmer factories we see them burn, who also have a much higher chance of knowing where the fuck Jinx is considering they were part of Silco's organization.

As for Heenot, Smeech's man, we can all see how Cait is already barely holding on to her sanity, she's way more aggressive than when we last left her and Vi is caught up to pace, she jumps in front of the guy as soon as Cait activates the rifle as if to protect him with her own body and Cait obviously clocks it and deflates quickly after, powering down the rifle.

Tension was already high.

The kiss was perfect in my opinion, both Cait and Vi were at their softest, and I know a lot of people might not agree with me but I really do feel like Cait was fighting the changes herself, that was all her talk with Jayce was about, how Cait is trying and unfortunately failing not to turn into this.

I also don't think Cait has tried to manipulate Vi in any way, honestly I don't think she had the emotional capacity, to deal with her Jinx trauma, the loss of her mother, her internal fight not to become a bigot and also manipulate the only person she felt comfortable enough to cry around.

Like, I think Caitlyn is smart but that is giving her too much credit she's not a master mind.

I think this also ties pretty well with the way she stopped Vi before going into the temple, I really do think she was about say something on the line of let's turn around, we don't have to do this, you don't have to do this but lost the fight with herself.

As for the fight at the temple, it was obviously full of armor plot, but I applaud the writers for working around it well enough to make it all seem quite believable. I loved it and I also loved Cait's insanity, the way she simply started shooting without aiming as soon as she felt Jinx slipping through her fingers once again and the way Vi had to catch the bullets with the gauntlets was pure madness considering how Cait refused to stop. It was a full blown panic attack at the shooting range happening and Sevika was the only one smart enough or maybe close enough to pull the fire alarm lever.

As for the last part. Well, Vi technically stopped her and Cait technically changed, there is no going back, the trust they once held in each other is completely gone and even though Vi tries to make Cait reason one more time, she can't, Cait is too far gone, in her mind there are no more good Zaunites only judgment and punishment to lash out and the first one who gets it is Vi.

I'm not going to lie, the only thing Cait got right in that episode is leaving after she hits Vi with the butt of her gun. I really think it would have been way worse if she apologized and Vi forgave her out of guilt.

I honestly have no more hope for CaitVi to happen, the things Cait did in only ep3 are enough to make me think that she should not be allowed within a mile of Vi's person. They had something special but it was broken and unless the writers pulled a miracle or reversed time there is no putting the pieces back together.

With that being said, I still enjoy Cait's character, I know it's weird but I really think that she is battling with a fear born from the deepest parts of her heart and hides behind every thought and emotion poisoning her entire being. I really do hope that she overcomes it, however if she doesn't she'd still be an amazing villain, and I support women's wrong, mostly almost all of them.

Bonus

I forgot about Singed in the last post but I think what we see are flashback of him right after the shimmer factory burned in s1.

That's it, I'm done.

[mollysunder]

One of the best examples of Piltover’s lack of genuine self-reflection is when Jayce decided to make hextech weapons for Caitlyn. I understand that he nay have been rattled by Renni's attack during the memorial, but the only reason Renni even had the place stormed was because Jayce killed her son... with a hextech weapon! Renni literally told Jayce to his face this isn't some random act of violence, this is about revenge for her child that he shot and left to die on a cold factory floor.

And instead of internalizing the series of events that caused this specific situation, which was an act of retaliation against Jayce's own aggression. Instead he just made more weapons for Caitlyn and her team, as if that wasn't the reason things escalated in the first place. Jayce may have been remorseful for killing that kid, but any feelings he had about it were largely irrelevant to how it informed his actions later on.

[q8qwertyuiop8p]

Does Silco Know?

I'm surprised by the number of people I've talked who believe Silco is unaware of what Singed is doing to Vander, that it is all happening behind his back. Here I wanted to go over the reasons why Silco almost certainly played a roll in Warwick's creation, and perhaps even ordered it.

Weapon of War

Silco needs terrifying, never-before-seen weapons if an overwhelmingly underarmed Zaun is to scare Piltover into submission- it's why he has shimmer created and why he instructs Jinx to create Fishbones. It is likely that Warwick is intended to be another one of these wildcards.

Money and Strength

Singed's funding comes from Silco, so it would be difficult for him to hide such an audacious project. Singed also doesn't have the strength to carry shimmer-Vander's corpse away to his lab, but Silco's thugs do.

Holding On

Silco's biggest flaw is his inability to let the past and his loved ones go, and the way he, like Jinx, destroys what he loves. Silco romanticizes the betrayal and reminisces of the time he and Vander fought together. He refuses to give up on Vander, even forgiving him for the drowning and trying to reconcile. Vander has moved on, he refers to Silco as "brother" only in the past tense, but Silco continues to call Vander brother, even after the failed reconciliation and his "death." When Silco finds Jinx on the bridge, he tells Singed to keep her alive, even insists that "she can't die," despite being warned that the process will be torturous and it would be more merciful to let her go. He can't bring himself to do this because he loves her too much, too selfishly, to give her up to death or topside. Would it be that much of a stretch to suggest he did the same with Vander?

Hallucinations

After the explosion, Jinx hallucinates Vi, Mylo, and Claggor because she knows she killed them or indirectly caused their deaths. Jinx's bomb also helped to bring about Vander's demise, and she saw Vander's corpse. Despite this, she doesn't hallucinate him- not until e9, when she is already in a severe psychotic episode and Vi yells his name. Plus, in the concept for her minigun, she has scrawled "THREE LIVES" into one of the barrels. Mylo, Claggor, and Vi, but what about the fourth? It seems that Jinx may be aware that Vander is still alive, but how could she know unless Silco also knows?

When she finally does hallucinate Vander, she hallucinates scribbles of Warwick on or representing him.

So, if Silco knows, why would he talk to Vander's statue and not Warwick?

A- Privacy

Talking to Warwick means talking in the presence of Singed, who we see in e8 Silco doesn't trust. It's bad enough before you remember that not only does Silco say that Vander, who the undercity turned against, was right all along; he reveals that he is in the same spot Vander was in and is going to make the same decision; he is going to choose Jinx over Zaun, the same choice that lead to Vander's downfall. Silco is not going to risk Singed knowing that.

B- Pain

Throughout the show, Silco disassociates from pain, both his own and the pain he causes others. You can see this from the way he romanticizes his trauma, flinches and looks away at the cat being ripped apart, and reacts to the death of Renni's child. You can also see this when he kidnaps Vander- the blank, distant expression on arrival, the way he looks down and away when Benzo dies and Vander is punched, and how his good eye shines on the verge of tears. But he doesn't cry and he never does, because in his situation, to feel pain and empathy is a death sentence- the perfect way to prove your weakness and turn your allies against you. After all, it was his empathy towards Jinx that caused him to love her, and it was his love for her that turned Sevika and the chembarons against him. If killing Vander's friend and knocking him out was that painful for Silco, imagine how much worse it would be for him to see Vander disfigured, barely alive and in a constant state of mind-shattering agony, being sliced open and pumped full of chemicals. Singed had to drug Silco to keep him from going crazy over Jinx's similar transformation. Silco simply cannot bear to face the pain that he puts Vander through.

[letters-to-rosie]

on today's episode of doing a materialist analysis of Arcane

okay so in that chembaron meeting, Renni says that trade is stopped at the bridge. what do people from Zaun sell the most when they go topside? what jobs do they do when they go across the river? I imagine it's kinda like a sundown town situation. how do the enforcers interact with these people? how tightly is the bridge usually controlled? is there more bribery going on (like probably lol)? what's life like if you're a regular guy from Zaun who does, say, janitorial work in Piltover?

[reallifetangent]

ARCANE S2 RELATED CONTENT

*taps mic* The Chembarons actually were good for the future of Zaun.

Bare with me now.

Noxus (Ambessa) getting their hands on Piltover and Zaun meant mostly that a war was incoming. They literally lured Renni to attack Piltover and use that to blame Zaun and have an excuse for an invasion. Before that, it was just Caitlyn aiming to get Jinx.

Now, the reason why I mentioned the Chembarons.

The war is imminent. Piltover has the enforcers and Hextech.

Silco and Renni were in charge of the Shimmer. We've seen Silco giving it to people to turn them into overpowered monsters, Renni had the ChemoTanks.

I think Jayce finally made Silco order to stop producing Shimmer by the end of S1. Also Silco's death meant losing the main leader of Zaun.

Renni is killed in her lured revenge, and has no successors like Silco. The ChemoTanks are useless for now.

Smeech was in charge of robotic/metal/mechanic aids, weaponry, prosthetics, you name it. Being killed by Sevika meant losing any robotic upgrades and extras.

Renata Glasc wasn't in Arcane, so she doesn't count.

Margott was pretty useless in a war context. The other guy was just... Who cares. But still, give any person one of the above and you have a soldier, someone to use against Piltover.

Piltover had The Grey weaponized, enforcers with permission to kill, the Medarda Army, Hextech. They were out for blood and the blame wasn't only on Jinx's shoulders.

Unfortunately, Arcane chickened out about the civil war between the cities, but also I'm glad they didn't because we would've seen Piltover destroying Zaun. No Shimmer, no Chembarons with their facilities and directions, only humans fighting prepared soldiers and following a girl who didn't want to be a symbol. Sure, you have zaunite fighters, people with guts, but still, against Hextech and armed enforcers, who are also organized and not just a bunch of rebels? Not even dreaming.

[silvershadow1711]

Adding onto this, just in one small part; the fact that Jayce's murder of a child is meant to be a tragedy for Jayce. Jayce's pain and guilt and turmoil is the important thing here, not the nameless gutter trash he mowed down (because remember that they didn't just kill that one kid; they were killing everyone who came at them), not even the families of that nameless gutter trash. Renni wants to hunt down and kill the people who murdered her son, she's depicted as a monster- literally, she's animated to look like fucking Leatherface, but when Caitlyn hunts down and murders people who are barely even adjacent to the one murdered her mom (her little strikeforce DID kill the other chembarons, remember, and they have nothing to do with Jinx), she gets a cool, stylized music video showingnhow cool and awesome police brutality is.

And you can argue that's because they're the main characters. I get that. But in a show that used the first scenes of the first episode- even before the opening credits began to play- to show the horror, the atrocities perpetrated by the wealthy elites onto the poor and downtrodden, I would expect that show to use those selfsame poor and downtrodden as more than fodder to show the wealthy elites being sad/angry.

No actually I need to add on more to this. Arcane very unfortunately suffers the same issue that a lot of "progressive" shows suffer in Western media, where they go like "here are some real, systemic issues that exist and look at the consequences of these issues", and then either (1) forget to continue with the theme, and/or (2) don't do anything about it beyond slap on a half-hearted Band-Aid solution that never addresses it.

Caitlyn gassing civilians; lack of accessibility for Viktor which created barriers for him due to his disability; enforcers as oppressors, going hand in hand with Noxian imperialism; Jayce weaponzing hextech, and him already having killed a child because of it; not a single moment is really spent on any of these in S2. If anything, the enforcers are really flattened at the end of this season with little nuance, the complexity that shone in characters like Marcus and Grayson disappearing. Many Piltovan characters do not get even a single second of introspection as to how their actions actively contribute to the oppression of Zaun.

[mollysunder]

Renni's attack on the memorial ceremony didn't need to be a part of some larger plot orchestrated by Ambessa. One of the reoccurring ideas in season 1 was that Piltover constantly underestimated and dehumanized their counterparts in Zaun. It was so second nature to the Piltovan cast that they couldn't see the direct line of their actions and consequences that lead to their situation.

Renni's attack is just another one of those consequences, because Jayce killed her son, didn't try to save him, walked away from his body, and didn't even offer Renni an apology. Of course Renni was going to try to kill him, she's a dangerous chembaron who's lost her factory and her child. It's genuinely insane to think no one thought this was a possibility, but it perfectly tracks with Piltover. The Piltovan cast constantly centers their own feelings and perspectives over their counterparts in Zaun.

"How could they do this at a memoria?!?", because Zaunites like Renni are grieving too. Her son didn't get any dignity when he died (and neither did Silco), so why should Piltover? Throwing Ambessa in as the secret puppet master just flattens the whole conflict because suddenly this natural progression in hostilities and critical failures in understanding are sidestepped by an outside party.