#for the jayce/viktor subplot

[filledwithtomorrows]

I’m writing an Arcane fic! Centered around Ekko, Viktor, and Jayce, it takes the idea that Viktor and Jayce were teleported to some other dimension at the end of S2 and adds: “what if Ekko was sent with them?” A little bit of loose science fiction fun later and here is a fic focused on friendship based in shared respect for intelligence, building a determination to do good, and grappling with whether true knowledge dooms us to solitude or demands we connect. Or, it’s just a little self indulgent thing where Ekko and Viktor become friends because they can’t figure out why Jayce is in a coma.

on ao3 here!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62132596/chapters/158926015

[kacievvbbbb]

Okay my thoughts on Arcane cour 2;

Fuck you! You didnt have to rip my heart out and then stomp on it that was a little excessive dont you think?!?!?!

Thoughts

Arcane knows how to do build up so fucking well I love it

No but seriously god. Just what. I love seeing the little hints int he opening start to unravel and reveal themselves

Vander oh god no oh god 😭

Fucking love sevika

Where did my boy ekko go kind of curious where he fits into everything

I lowkey fuck with Jayce's new look and boy I told you to stop touching that shit now look what you've gone and done.

Forces beyond their power are literally pushing them towards war (obviously most of it is exactly in the piltovers power) but just the timing of shit be crazy. They are an unstoppable object on a lighting fast collision with an immovable wall and the course is rigged against them.

God the fucking animation in this i fucking cant

I still dont understand the Jayce hate like I dont necessarily like him but I dont see what makes him so bad. Like something very fucked up was happened to him and I didn't rust want was happening to viktor either. But god my boy done come back and fucked it all up for everyone.

I really like Ambessa's right hand sad to see him go

ISHA no no noooooo we had our difference but god why do you keep testing your strongest soldier 😭. (te sequence of her memories with Jinx and the song choice where immaculate)

Vander ph god no oh god

the music this season has been so good my god

I'm scared they arent going to be able to wrap this up neatly I just feel like with how many doors they closed we need at least 2 more course or another season. Like it feels too soon to be going into the final arc (or atleast some stories feel like they havent yet reached maturity like the black rose sub plot,and Mel and Jason's arc while others are ready for their finale like the Ambessa - Caitlyn plotline and Vi&Jinx) but here's to hopping for a nice round up.

[atissi]

well that sucked

[volvolts]

Belos watches season 1 of Arcane and immediately becomes a Jinx stan/apologist and Caitlyn's #1 hater

yeah definitely. he would definitely see himself in Powder, just a kid who didn't know any better but wanted to try her best to disastrous results. he would completely be behind her for the murders too lol. i feel he would despise Cait but like, for "taking away" Vi from Jinx ya know?

he would be really divided on his feelings for Vi for sure. subconsciously seeing himself and Caleb in Vi and Powder. the narrative of season 1 arcane also focuses on Vi so he might end up seeing her side. an older sibling who wants to protect their younger sibling but is pulled in all directions with their sibling and their other relationships, barely allowed to think about themselves because they must put others first (that sounds familiar). i think Belos would finally understand what Caleb might have gone through though he would be unable to face the fact that he hurt Caleb by forcing him to pick a side and then ultimately choosing for him

also season 2, belos would be rooting for a reconciliation between Vi and Jinx (projecting much?) and would be devastated that the apparent conclusion was "Jinx is now too much for Vi and should just go away so Vi finally can be happy without her"

long story short probably don't put this man in front of a movie or show that has an emphasis on family

[vonkarma2]

on here the arcane tag is all jayvik posting. whereas on the reddit the top posts are all like memes about the plot or something + I would say majority are about the female characters its bechdel test central over there. and all the thirst comments are about caitvi. it makes the reddit seem so feminist it’s crazy

[knockknockitsnickels]

Mel Arcane shouldn't be with that ugly-ass man she should be with an ugly-ass woman like me

[hadesisqueer]

Caitlyn: My sister in law killed my mom and I'm in my lesbian dictator era

Vi: My girlfriend broke up with me right after we kissed

Jinx: I got reversed adopted by a random kid

Ambessa: *manipulating Caitlyn*

Sevika: *gambling with her new arm*

Viktor: *is Yaoi Jesus*

Jayce, Ekko and Heimerdinger: What the fuck is going on

Mel's subplot:

[theghostofwilburtheworm]

mmmmmhhhh

[1296-very-good-year]

THIS RIGHT HERE was the juiciest, ripe-for-future-conflict season 1 dynamic imo that the season 2 writers either forgot entirely, or didn't give a single shit about.

Season 1 ends with the entire council the victim of a terrorist attack and Jayce just... hides in his lab. Being sad. He gets to care about Viktor and NOTHING ELSE for the rest of the show.

None of his other relationships matter, none of his politics matter. His desire to protect the city and improve lives with Hextech vanishes without a trace. He's given no self reflection after the mother of the child he killed comes after him for vengeance, just goes ahead and makes weapons again. Renni may as well have not said a word to him about her son. He never reacts to it.

Ambessa never tries to speak to Jayce again despite her wanting him to make Hextech weapons. Despite how easy it was for her to manipulate him to recklessness after their one(1) conversation. No, instead she hitches her horse to a worm like SALO and needlessly tries to get Jayce killed... Don't get me started again on how stupid they made Ambessa in general.

And poor Mel gets to act meek before Caitlyn of all people, gets a completely worthless shimmer subplot, and then gets whisked away to magic exposition land. And then she comes back and kills her mom. In combat. With her new magic powers.

God...

They could have let Jayce be the hapless hopeless loser forced into a position of authority he never wanted over two warring cities, ping ponged between the manipulations of two ideologically opposed political powerhouses with family drama. But nooooooo that would be too much work :(((

[idolomantises]

If you could change some things about Arcane's writing what would they be? Oh and do you consider Vi a butch woman bc I also see alot of differing opinions on that. I'll understand if you don't want to answer tho

Vi isn’t butch, though she’s more masculine presenting. That said I think these kind of debates are silly.

In terms of changes to arcane’s writing

-just fucking scrap Mel and Sky as love interests for Viktor and Jayce. I don’t even know why they even bothered doing that if they were just going to go “oh by the way neither of them have romantic feelings for them” at the last minute

-Caitlyn should have been the main villain, not Ambessa. I love Ambessa but she does not work as a main antagonist because she has no connection to this location other than wanting power. But Caitlyn had a gradual and believable villain downfall. You believed she truly was doing things for the greater good and it made more sense than Ambessa blindly trusting some guy just because he promised to supply her weapons.

-Vi and Caitlyn didn’t need to be a couple and just… remove that sex scene

-don’t bring Vander back

-Don’t???? Have Jinx fake her death and run away? I really despise how they basically pulled the “reformed villain dies at the last minute” card with her character. I can’t see Jinx entirely being good but her just abandoning everyone and everything really sucks. Especially since Jinx was like “I should die to break the cycle” and Ekko was like “omg no don’t do that” and then she just… fakes her death. I feel like they just reaffirmed her belief that her death would be for the better

-remove Isha

-remove that damn witch subplot

-the “teaming up to defeat the bad guy” angle did not work here and I honestly felt kind of sick watching a bunch of abused and oppressed people put on cop gear to help a city clean up their own messes

As I’m typing this I realize like. This entire season just needs a do-over. There’s not a single decision they made that I like… except Singed winning I honestly love how him being a two faced coward paid off.

[420technoblazeit]

as a whole i have mixed feelings on that finale. i feel like there wasnt as much payback on certain subplots as i would have liked and i violently disagree with the decision to kill off jinx in the end i feel like there wasn't any closure in that death. but everything with jayce and viktor's storyline was so beautiful im going to be talking about those scenes for ages holy shit. you all doubted me. said we couldnt have a happy ending anymore BUT WE DID IT. NEVER BACK DOWN NEVER GIVE UP

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

arcane s2 - review

okay so now that i have given my two cents on caitvi and i've had enough time to digest s2 of arcane, what do i think about the rest of it?

overall, i have mixed feelings about it. i didn't hate it but i feel like a lot of the themes and ideas were poorly executed, especially compared to s1.

(huge spoilers to arcane below!)

but let me start with the positives:

the animation OBVIOUSLY. huge props to the animators, s1 was already phenomenonal and s2 lived up to the hype, animation-wise. the fight scenes especially were just *mwah* chef's kiss.

the character designs were great. caitlyn looks a lot prettier with the middle parting. vi's emo phase is really hot. jinx's designs in the alternate universe and the finale were iconic. jayce's beard and disheveled look was just chef's kiss. jesus viktor was hot as fuck.

the voice actors did an amazing job obviously, and i didn't expect anything less from them.

jayce's and viktor's relationship was so good despite not having all that much screentime when you think about it. they interact in the beginning when viktor wakes up from his hex-coma and then reunite and fight and make up in the final few episodes. but because of their relationship that was built up in the first season, it all worked out smoothly and made for a very natural progression in their relationship.

jinx's redemption was pretty good. not the BEST but it was carried out well enough, especially in just 9 episodes. i didn't feel like it was rushed or undeserved. her sacrifice in the end was heartbreaking but it felt natural and not shoehorned in for some added angst.

and now for the negatives:

1. the pacing was really bad, in my opinion. they had only 9 episodes but they stuffed in so many subplots into this season that it felt overwhelming.

maybe i'm just stupid but i couldn't keep up with half of the stuff that was going on and some parts of the finale didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

like the whole storyline with mel and ambessa and the black rose was a blur to me. i honestly don't know what happened in the end after ambessa dies.

the whole deal with singed and vander and whatnot was also really murky. like i get the overall premise but it was really hard for me to grasp every single detail.

maybe this is just a me problem and i'm too dumb to follow more than two storylines at the same time. but s1 already had a lot going on and it was still a tad bit easier to follow.

s2 was just crammed with a whole bunch of different characters pursuing different goals and facing different obstacles, 9 episodes weren't enough to give all of it a satisfying conclusion. and as a result, some of the arcs felt rushed and unfinished.

like what happened to the whole found family thing with sevika, jinx and isha? they were beginning to get closer and form a good relationship but then suddenly, sevika is pushed out of the image and we never see how she reacts to jinx and isha's death.

2. while i don't think that caitvi is abusive, i still don't think the ship was great. it was just super rushed and there is a grain of truth to what caitvi antis are saying.

like yeah, caitlyn being an enforcer and seeing nothing wrong with it was.. questionable. wasn't the whole point of s1 that enforcers were ruining the lives of the people in zaun? wasn't police brutality and classism the main theme of this series? how come vi's parents were killed by enforcers and she was unfairly imprisoned for years by enforcers, but somehow she ends up dating an enforcer?

before s2 came out, i expected caitlyn to give up her job after realizing how corrupt it was. i thought that would be the natural progression of her arc, especially since she's seen how much the people of the undercity has suffered at the hands of enforcers. but nope, she keeps her job and it's never addressed in the end.

i don't think that caitlyn hitting vi once out of frustration and once out of necessity makes her a domestic abuser. but i do think it's kind of icky for vi to end up in a relationship with an enforcer, and for the show to frame it in a semi-positive manner. it's not entirely romanticized but the problems with it aren't really addressed either.

3. i feel like the themes of classism wasn't as well addressed in this season as it was in the first one. the first season had a strong message and it stuck to it. the second season was all over the place and then suddenly, there's viktor and the whole glorious evolution or whatever, and the conflict between piltover and zaun is pushed aside.

i like that sevika becomes part of the council in the end but is she the only one representing the undercity? is one person enough to speak for all these people in zaun? at least it's true to real life, i guess.

overall, i felt like the message was a lot more murky in this season. this ties to my first complaint because while s1 had a lot of storylines too, they followed a common theme. war, classism, and how privilege and the lack thereof affects people. s2's storylines are just all over the place and none of them seem to follow a theme. at least some of them could have been discarded.

4. i briefly mentioned this before but the fact that jinx stops experiencing her hallucinations never made sense to me. especially after she accidentally killed silco, shouldn't they get worse? it is implied that she has schizophrenia and c-ptsd so i really don't understand how silco's death suddenly got rid of most of her symptoms.

she still sees and hears the hallucinations from time to time and her mental state is definitely far from stable, but it was still such a huge jump from her psychotic breakdown in the s1 finale.

so yeah, these are my thoughts about arcane s2. there were more pros than cons but the cons still outweigh the pros, simply because of how much impact they had on the plot.

i'm generally not one to demand more seasons or episodes out of a series where the writers have already told the story they wanted to tell, but arcane s2 was so rushed and so filled to the brim with different characters and storylines, i couldn't help but feel like it would have benefited from having more episodes to play everything out more slowly.

i still liked this series a lot and i enjoyed watching it, but i'm not blind to its flaws and i try not to be biased.

[invested-in-your-future]

Having just started to rewatch Arcane S1, one of the things that I like about it is how it lays out its premise and follows through on it.

In episode 1, Benzo tells Vander that the young people want to write their own stories, and won't be held back by the caution of elders, even well-meant. At the end of the same episode, Vi promises Powder that one day the city will know their names.

And the rest of the season follows through on that, both through Vi and Jinx driving the story in spite of Silco's efforts to stop or control them, but also Cait's refusal to take dismissal lying down, and Jayce continually pushing against Heimerdinger. They drive the story and won't let themselves be held back. (It felt, in many ways, like a better-executed version of what RWBY volume 6 was trying to do).

Which is why the most disappointing aspect of S2, personally, is the way that aspect got lost, as the story became dictated by the hexcore, by Ambessa, by outside forces compelling the protagonists to react instead of driving events the way they had before.

Yeah, one of my biggest issues with S2 is that it offloads every major resolution to an outside plot device.

Vander resolves the sisters' feud. The Magic Robogod subplot resolves the Viktor and Jayce subplot for them AND the class divide (LOL). The child plot device resolves Jinx's role (without even starting it). The random traitor girl resolves Caitlyn's position.

Now, don't get me wrong—reacting is an important aspect of character writing (and character building)—outside stimuli are usually how characters change and develop.

The issue is that Arcane S2 is not interested in having characters react.

Viktor's struggle with his humanity could have been fascinating, but he just shifts between his S1 self, a messiah, robot god, and plot device man in an instant, sometimes within the same episode. Vi and Jinx's feud gets resolved via the Vander subplot, but do we get Vi's characterization and screen time dedicated to her processing what happened? No. Likewise, Vi's "I don't care" would have hit harder had she been allowed to react to Caitlyn going full dictator and struggle against it throughout the season—Caitlyn being even a bit remorseful would hit differently for her if we had seen that struggle where Vi is happy to have her back now.

The show posits those plot devices as "resolutions" but doesn't actually use them at all beyond that—it's as if writers are content with having "closed off a plotline" rather than portraying its effects on the characters or HOW they change.

They created all those new out-of-nowhere subplots and plot devices, and then characters aren't really allowed to react or change due to them—because the plot devices are there to close plot threads rather than characterization.

The annoying part is that Arcane S1 gave all the tools needed to tell the same story but through the lens of the key characters' journey.

Season 1 ended with the inciting incident that every character in the cast could be reacting to throughout Season Two.

Jayce's push against Heimerdinger could shift into Jayce's push against Viktor as the city pushes for more aggressive use of Arcane in "handling the unrest."

Vi and Jinx confronting each other was already set up perfectly—it didn't need a death retcon MacGuffin to solve. By just playing out the character conflict here to its conclusion, Vi and Jinx WOULD have ended up in similar positions they did.

The show didn't need Vander, Black Rose, Noxous, or Magic Robo Gods to convey the cycle of violence, resolve the ongoing civil war between the two cities, or address the destructive nature of unrestricted use of arcane/technology.

They could have done that already and not wasted precious final season screentime introducing all the additional subplots.

And that would have led to a proper, worthy follow-up to Season One's greatness.

[lesbianherald]

Hello! I just wanted to share that the subplot of Vi and Jinx reuniting in CHBNTY was one of my favorite things while I absolutely binged that fic. As the reader, knowing just how close in orbit they were kept me on the edge of my seat until the reunion actually happened—got me emotional, too. Major kudos on how you wove that in with the main storyline and how much Jayce and Viktor cared about them.

thank you so much ! that was genuinely so fun to plan out so I'm so happy someone appreciated it enough to say so even if it had nothing to do with the main story really ehehe.

also... had so much fun with the idea of jayce running across the quad like a teenager/cartoon character/teenaged cartoon character sdkfhjd. that was one of the first ideas I had for the fic

love hearing things like this it just makes my day :)

[butchciri]

You guys do realize that jayvik shippers are out here rubbing it in lesbians faces that the show they thought was going to explore complex female relationships ended up as the show where two men become the center of the literal multiverse? right? like Jayvik gets to have stakes that cross space and time, while Vi/Jinx/Cait face the same stakes they had last season with no escalation? And you’re gonna joke at their expense? damn thats cold.

like I’m sorry but going from “jinx is too far gone and I cant save her” to “jinx is still my family but I cant save her” isnt a character overcoming conflict. going from “vander is dead” to “vander is dead again” isnt a meaningful arc. going from “my gf is suffering from a loss I feel responsible for” to “we’re back together based on a contrivance so we can fuck before the shows over” isnt a relationship arc. ekko overcoming his defeatism and seeing jinx as a human is an arc. jinx dealing with loss by breaking the cycle of violence is an arc. Jayce overcoming the mistakes of hextech by showing Viktor compassion is an arc. Vi and Cait barely even changed by the end of the show. wheres the drama, where are they overcoming a conflict based on a choice or a change they have in perspective? is going from losing jinx to losing jinx again a story? is going from losing vander to losing vander again a story to you? seriously if you find the hidden Vi Cait arcs somewhere let me know. maybe confronting Ambessa represents an arc for Cait, but imo that also lacks depth. she just snaps out of her villian arc like "shit i actually care about Vi still" without attention given it. To me it just seems like the writers had way too many complex characters to deal with, and I guess with where they wanted to take the main narrative, jayvik ended up being the one with the highest stakes and climax.

So yeah when you joke about Jayvik being gayer than Caitvi sex just realize how much it must sting to have the main narrative of the show taken over by male characters when you were expecting a character driven story about sisterhood with a lesbian subplot. A once beautiful lesbian subplot that straight women now say isnt even as gay as two men being friends. stfu

[masanstroberi]

Someone tell me why am I seeing praises for Arcane S2 when they basically threw out Piltover and Zaun class struggle plot for an avengers of ultron rewrite with magic?

- Since when did Viktor become all about evolution or some shit. He's someone from the underground who wants to use technology to help his people, why did he suddenly switch into evil jesus after being submerged in slime?

- What happened to treasuring all characters? Why so many careless and unjust deaths? Isha? Loris? Vander? Jinx? No one wants to see a character who has been sufferring all their lives to die for the "greater good." (Thats not even good)

- Who tf would fuck their situationship after losing their dad the 2nd time, witnessing new adoptive little sister's death, and her blood-sister declaring suicide?? All while still inside the prison cell of said sister???

- That you can be the vilest shit and still get the happiest ending? Yes I'm talking about Singed. Also that you can be the most unproblematic character and still have to live a bleak life. Yes i'm talking about Ekko.

- Ambessa being a blood thirsty war monger like she doesn't give a flying fuck about family? Where is the "Is there anything so undoing as a daughter" moment here??? Why is she suddenly just pure evil??

- Wtv the fuck is going on with Mel

- Sevika my girl stopped speaking after act 1

- Why is Cait acting so inconsistently? One moment she's blinded by rage, then she becomes a dictator, then she get cupcaked and switched sides, also she's immune to death after stabs here and there.

- Why does Jinx have to apologize for killing Cait's mom when Cait's mom probably was calling the shots during the Zaunites massacre that killed Felicia and Connel? No one in power is innocent.

- Why would the Noxians and Singed aid evil Viktor into decimating humanity when it means killing themselves?

- Whats all that shit about breaking the cycle and leaving? Clearly they can live happily because "forgiveness goes a long way" as said by AU Silco and Vander.

- Why is Jayce giving speech as if he didn't just fuck over everyone and why would anyone listen to him???

- Zaunites really is destined to eat Piltover's shit. They got dragged into the magic robot war that Piltover started.

I love every character in season 1 but I guess the writers don't. Honestly still reeling from the fact that we go from complex class issues with two traumatized sisters who just want their family back at the center to magic robot fights between an evil jesus, a homeless man, and a third party threat. The show concluded with killing off characters unjustly, putting in shitty eureka moment quotes that don't make sense, and cramming in 10 subplots.