#en-marvel-ification?

[silvershadow1711]

I have (mostly) put Arcane s2 from my mind because, for as much as I liked s1, it didn't grab hold of me and demand all my attention. Arcane joins Game of Thrones in the "things I liked that were pretty fucking great at the start and ended up being such massive trainwrecks that 100% of the enjoyment now comes from hearing in-depth critiques about it" category. But there's something that bothers me that I haven't really seen anyone else bring up.

Sevika. Specifically, Sevika's new role as a councilor. The "you lack media literacy" crowd cheers and applauds and weeps tears of joy because this is such a major victory for Zaun, it's a sign that things will be better! The critical crowd (rightly) points out that, given that everything the council does is by vote and everyone else on the council visibly hates her, Sevika will be outvoted any time she tries bring up measures that will help Zaun. But that's not my issue.

Who decided that Sevika gets to be a councilor?

That's not a snarky insult- seriously; who made the choice that this woman gets to represent Zaun?

Did the people of Zaun have an election? (If so, how? Who organized it? What counts as an eligible voter? Is Zaun a true democracy or are there representitives?) Because if they did, I kind of doubt that the majority of people really want Silco's gaurd dog deciding what happens to them. "Oh, but she was only following Silco because she cares about Zaun--" would the average Zaunite see it that way? Would the average Zaunite who we would assume would be part of the voting body see the enforcer for the (former) leader of the chembarons who we have been shown doing nothing but commiting acts of violence in Silco's name and think "yeah, she totally has our best interests at heart"? The one time we see her trying to rally Zaun and call for unity, not one person there wants to hear the shit coming out of her mouth... and these are the revolutionaries! The Firelights and Jinxers, the people who would most want change, still don't want to throw their chips in with Sevika!

So then... the councilors maybe? Did the councilors choose Sevika to join? Why would they? At best, they don't know her and she's some random Zaunite to them. At worst, they know exactly who she is, in which case, it's even less likely that they'd allow her to be on the council. No one in Piltover is going to want shit to do with someone that intrinsically linked with Silco and therefore Jinx.

Did she just... show up? Did they put out a "Help Wanted: Inquire Within" sign and Sevika was the only person who asked for the job? Or did she force her way in, demand a seat and threaten to kill them if they didn't give her a place at the table?

This is what happens when you don't give a shit about the world you're writing for. When you see the setting as nothing more that different action set pieces for cool fight scenes to take place in, rather than a place populated by actual people. This is what happens when you shrink your cast down to a handful of named characters; anything important that happens has to include the named characters, even if it makes no sense in-universe (see: Bronn, a man who admits he doesn't know what a loan is, being the Master of Coin in GoT).