#dead end season 2 spoilers

[arcanefanpage]

SHE’S ALIVE!! I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL! THE AIRSHIP AT THE END!!! THE GLITCHY END CREDITS!! THE AIR VENTS!!! THE GLITCH! CAITLYN’S SMIRK AT THE END!!!

[consultingfujoshi]

some thoughts wrt the two established "romances" in severance so far (burt/irving and helly/mark) inspired by @figmentof who pointed out how irving had to find out mark and helly kissed from the corporate video in s2 e1 and how he must have felt seeing his co-workers' love affair like portrayed like that, and how it ties into the queer narrative at play here which uses workplace dynamics and policies as very clear analogues for real-life prejudice against queer couples. I mean, just look at this:

it's not just documented, but celebrated. used as propaganda for how the conditions on the severance floor have improved. proof that the severed workers are happy. and how even though he is unaware of the sociopolitical meaning of all this, lumon is very not-subtly telling him that what he had with burt is inherently lower and less valuable than this.

irving doesn't even know homophobia exists and yet he is still affected by it, it still seeps into every corner of the way his and burt's romance progresses. burt is positioned as an unacceptable love interest from the jump. irv is actively discouraged at every turn from pursuing it. their friendship is viewed with disgust and apprehension from their coworkers. burt working in a different department that's hated by MDR. dylan himself not being homophobic in the sense he opposes their relationship because they're both men but his attempts to keep them apart still has a parallel sort of prejudice behind it and still ultimately has the same effect as if it WERE driven by homophobia. irving is made to feel perverse for wanting contact with burt. he's told this is for his own good.

and then, just as they manage to overcome that immediate resistance from their peers and escape to a place where they can explore this blossoming romance on their own terms, burt retires. for all it matters to irv, he's dead. and then irving is given the option to live the rest of his life with grief that will never heal, or kill himself too, because there is no reality where they get to be together. that's just the way things are. of course they wouldn't get to be together. he was unreasonable and childish for ever hoping that could happen. this is just the way it goes for innies. he's told to get ahold of himself and not make a scene.

but the thing is, the standards are not the same for all. a heterosexual romance gets upheld as the shining example of success and fulfilment for the severed employees, whilst a homosexual romance is ridiculed and invalidated, and written off as something that was simply never meant to be. and even more importantly to irving, a heterosexual romance is APPROVED OF by lumon, and by extension, by kier. irv held back from allowing himself to even call his and burt's relationship a romance, because his god had told him it was wrong, he followed the handbook, thinking this was what kier wanted, and then finding out after suffering the worst heartbreak imaginable because of it, that this WASN'T EVEN TRUE. it's simply just that someone like HIM doesn't get to have something like this. his love is not the kind of love god wants. he does not approve of irv's love. cynical and manipulative though that approval may be (even within the context of the corporate video, the helly/mark romance is only being celebrated to further the narrative that lumon care for their workers, but the point still remains that it was THEIR romance specifically used to suit this end), when your entire life has been in pursuit of that approval, it must be devastating to learn it was never on the cards for you.

he and burt even used the fact kier met and fell in love with his wife in the same circumstances as them to justify this to each other - and they were RIGHT, god does approve of falling in love with your coworkers - this simply just doesn't apply to them specifically. and if irving needed any more proof that he no longer has a place at lumon, that he's better off not existing at all than existing with this pain that cannot be remedied, pain that won't even be acknowledged for what it is, a symptom of a sickness which plagues the entire severance system, pain that he is simply expected to choke down and get over - this is that proof.

and that's the POINT. they're TELLING us that this is unjust, and there's a double standard. they're using the ways the innies experience romance and the difference in lumon's reaction (lumon being the collective of all the management we've seen, lumon as a singular entity) to burt/irving vs helly/mark to comment on how queer people are not afforded the same level of respect or validation IN REAL LIFE, for their attachments, their love, their pain, their suffering. it is NOT just incidental that irving's romance is with a man. it would not WORK if his love interest was a woman. the POINT is that they are both men and how that puts them at a disadvantage, even if they aren't aware of the prejudices of the outside world, even if they don't TECHNICALLY apply on the severance floor, there are very clear analogues which still end up oppressing them in equivalent ways that they would be suffering if this were a normal workplace in the outside world.

it genuinely sickens me to my stomach that even in a world so divorced from reality and the sensibilities of regular society, a queer couple is still made to suffer and feel inferior in a way that perfectly mirrors their real-life counterparts. how they will never, EVER be allowed to exist in a world where their love could thrive freely and uninhibited - they never get to taste the joy our world has to offer people like them, but they are still somehow subjected to all the pain it has to offer them regardless. it's such horrifically devastating writing. it makes my skin crawl. I can't stop thinking about it

[eddiewithcat]

i just think it is sooo interesting that the scene where loki is standing in between mobius and sylvie and then he goes after sylvie is clearly trying to make us think he chose her, but then we get to the actual conversation they have and it is so obvious that he chose mobius.

like idk i just think that scene was so purposeful…

[vitrall]

I don't think Jayce and Viktor literally died. They were kind of pulled into another dimension/astral plane/whatever you call it. We see older Viktor, and while it could be another Viktor, I think it would be more meaningful if it was our Viktor, finally free from the arcane, going through the universe with Jayce, fixing timelines together. Kind of like a cosmic mission.

[echo-of-the-eye]

Can’t stop thinking about Viktor and Jon parallels cause I have tma brainrot and anytime I see anything even remotely similar I go “is that a magnus reference?”

Anyways thinking about the differences in the choices they did and did not make and how both of them came back from the dead and were involved in ending the world.

I talked a bit about it before but Jon chooses to come back to life and become a monster. Granted it wasn’t a fair choice but he did choose it. Meanwhile the end of the world was not his choice. As much as he thinks otherwise it was not his fault. He didn’t “accidentally” start the apocalypse, he wasn’t “manipulated into it” he straight up did not end the world. Jonah did. Using Jon. Yes he was manipulated to prepare for the ritual (still not his fault), but actually ending the world? Jonah did that. He straight up took control of his body. Jon was the tool. The key to open the door. Jonah shaped the key and turned it.

Viktor is the opposite. He did not choose to come back to life. In fact he had basically accepted his death and was actively suicidal. Jayce brought him back (and I don’t really blame him for that. He didn’t know the consequences and he was trying to save the man he loved). Viktor did however, almost end the world (and succeeded in some timelines? I’m confused). Now it’s hard to say how much of that was Viktor. He was heavily influenced by the arcane, but Jon was also heavily influenced by the Eye (not that you can really compare them). We don’t know how sentient the arcane is but we can guess that its main goal/instinct is to spread. If it worked through Viktor or if it was simply influenced him, altering his thoughts and feelings to more easily rationalize what he was doing. Either way Viktor would not have done what he did without the arcane. But he did do it. The arcane isn’t a person. You can’t really put all the blame there. And we did see that Viktor was still in there, deep down, enough that he could change his mind. Meaning that to a certain degree, he did choose it. Viktor’s actions were his own, even if they were influenced. He’s the most responsible for what happened. Jayce also carries some responsibility for bringing Viktor back in the first place and creating hextech alongside Viktor, but again, he did not know the consequences of that. Neither did Viktor at first. So how much are they to blame?

I just find it fascinating how such similar events (even if they are still vastly different) happen in two completely different series and how the characters had different levels of agency throughout it.

[olessan]

Re: TLovM episodes 3x07-3x09

[xecutivecucumber]

A thought or two about our current Fandom discussion

*spoilers under the cut*

I have been a Tech lives believer since about an hour after I saw him fall. I also very strongly believe that Tech is CX-2 (I am aware of what Jennifer Corbett said today about CX-2 being a new character, but Tech being presented as CX-2 can be considered as a new character)

I've seen people say they don't want him to be Tech because they don't want to see Tech like that. Totally valid. Not everyone wants to bathe in angst like I do.

But I believe that Tech being CX-2 is going to create the most compelling story and create the most conflict.

I could go on about the reasons, and maybe I will one day. But I want to share the most devastating one that came to me today.

If Tech is CX-2, that means Echo left his brother behind, left for dead, to be tortured and used against their brothers.

Just like he was.

[mettywiththenotes]

I literally just finished Act 2 but

VIKTOR AND JINX ON THE SAME SCREEN THEY INTERACTED THEY DID IT

"Ask for a miracle healer, get a metal fortune cookie." "*cough* Cookie."

"However, I have one condition."

"Looks like you've got a couple."

"You have much to offer this commune, Powder."

"Your talents can be used to build, instead of destroy."

"I'll... stick with what I know, thanks."

AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!!!!

THAT'S 4 TICKS OFF THE WISHLIST BABY

[spooky-lord]

im already seeing people saying caitlyn isnt overreacting by committing war crimes bc her mom is dead. god is testing me specifically

[herefortheships]

The lack of confirmation of Nobara's status leads me to believe Gege has something planned for her as the end of the Everyone vs Sukuna battle Aka the "Decisive Battle" draws to an end. This situation totally reminds me of the "Enchain" plot thread. It felt for a long stretch of the manga like Gege had even forgotten about the Enchain binding vow.

Except he hadn't.

The hush-hush around Nobara might be due to a similar situation. It might mean that she will be a key player to defeat Sukuna. OR she might be part of the conclusion of the story in a different way like bringing a ray of sunshine and hope to the fandom with just the confirmation of her survival, after Gege breaks our hearts one last time before the manga's end lol.

[nightingaletrash]

so we know Vi is dead in the alternate universe, but do you think Jayce is too? not only did his dream never come true, but it led to a kid literally dying in his apartment. He was ready to kill himself over the prospect of never finishing his work in s1 act 1, having the death of a child on his conscience, even if it was a total accident?

I just don't see Jayce trying to defend his work after that, but I can't see him accepting it and moving on, and with no defence for what he was trying to do, Viktor had no reason to seek him out because this is just some guy whose work caused an explosion, not the guy who gives the passionate speech about the champions of discovery.

so yeah... I think Jayce is super dead in the alternate universe, which locked down the 'No Hextech' aspect of that world. And maybe his death and Vi's are what spurs the two cities to try and exist more harmoniously, because now two young people who were so very loved are gone and the root cause comes down to the divide between them.

[brutal-out-here]

Idk about y’all but the line of pink leading to the air ducts Caitlyn is later shown looking at plus the airship scene plus the “the end” thing being as if Jinx wrote it leads me to believe she’s alive

[0vergrowngraveyard]

How are you doing after watching the Arcane finale?

i need to punch i need to maim i need to scream and cry

[stan-joe]

hey link click fans just to make your day worse I'm pretty sure the entire last few episodes happened on lu guang's birthday

[yilinsgarden]

Norma w/ pride flag 🏳️‍🌈❤️

[buckys-arm-and-rios-dagger]

So is this like the End End for the Loki Series because that felt insanely final and also FUCKING OW

Tom better not be done as Loki and Sylvie and Mobius and OB and B-15 and Casey better fucking come back at some point God dammit I love them