#hello wheres piltover accountability

[kworus]

hello im back from arcane wtf

[thekirammanjinx]

idk if you wanna get rambling asks abt arcane so if not im so sorry pls ignore me but im throwin hands with the next person to call caitlyn a fascist LKJFKJLKFJKFJF like,,,, im sorry but u completely ignored how she didnt want the power and how she didnt want things to continue, she literally says the police state has gone on months longer than she ever wanted and LITERALLY the worst thing cait does is,,,, before she's even in power LKJFLKJFKLJF like the use of the grey i the worst thing she does, every other pressure of power is done,,,, by ambessa with caitlyn following at the start but very obviously already working to get out of her grief following her when act 2 starts lkgdkjdsglkjdsg like even when shes in her evil era, shes reforming the prison, shes trying to keep the peace, shes only lashing out when her grief is spun about by jinx and tht is constantly happening bcuz shes become the face of the revolution and Ambessa is constantly manipulating her to stoke the flames of her rage dglkjsldkjglksjgd even at her WORST, cait tried her best to mitigate deaths, to remove only those connected to jinx, and wanted to press for the release of the police state to try and calm the people,,,,, and then when she does give up her power, she literally HANDS IT TO SEVIKA to give her seat on the council, loses an EYE to protect her people, and is probably lauded as a war hero, which is why she won't be investigated like my girl was never a full blown fascist dictator, she was literally trying to wear the mantle her mother left behind her, literally shown in the scenes where she dons the cape, trying to be the person she had to be as a leader in the council where she has to be someone other than herself, something shes always loathed about topside, and she hated it, hated herself, the entire fucking time lgkjksjgdlkjgd i'm not excusing her actions, she fucked up and she will probably spend the rest of her life atoning bcuz thats just who she is but like the lack of nuanced thought when it comes to caitlyn in this fandom is so wild, esp since shes a narrative foil to jinx and so many people love jinx

This got long, ofc, thank you for the discussion anon:

Its like when people call her "kkkiramman" like nothing she did or believed ever aligned with the extremity of that hate group. She definitely became less sympathetic and understanding and colder, but she never full on hated zaun in it's entirety. We can still visibly see her reservations. She did have her hand and role to play but to believe she in anyway compares is absolute blasphemous.

We can hold caitlyn accountable without being god awful extremist about it.

People want to throw alot of buzz words around. But let's be for real for a moment and talk about how ambessa utilized and took advantage of caitlyn's grief to groom her into this person who would write off ambessa war crimes. The way ambessa continued to twist the knife and dangle jinx like a carrot in front of Cait.

Ambess orchestrating the attack on the memorial was the first match lit. Like she did not give a single fuck the collateral to get what she wanted. She took someone she could manipulate in her conquest to start a war so piltover would be forced to make the weapons she desired.

When we see Caitlyn waver in front of ambessa "the sword cuts both ways" ambessa is quick with her trained manipulation. Always coaxing the flames of caitlyn's hatred for jinx. Making sure that she can't even begin to consider if it would be worth it in the end. But also ambessa brought her this far so backing out now would've felt like a waste. Truly a defeat. She would've pushed vi away for nothing, in her mind.

Caitlyn is not absolved of her crimes. She literally says this herself?! Hello people. But people who write her off as irredeemable make my head spin.

If you think saying "she grew up privileged and had the luxury of grieving" suddenly makes every emotion in her go away then maybe you shouldn't be watching any shows or consuming media. Like the class war between piltover and zaun is very important but that's not what the take away is supposed to be and so many people miss that. Everyone wants to think they're truly fighting some irl classist war when they dont extend any nuance to Cait.

"She faced one death and couldn't handle it" girl she faced one murder, by jinx that she believes she could've prevented. She faced being abducted from her own bathroom by jinx. Like jinx truly terrorized her, yall expected her not to see red when it came to jinx. Maybe if they added little squiggly and distortions people would get the message that she was traumatized by jinx.

If this were any other show "the mental illness made them do it" would not be a write off for jinx.

I guess it's fine if silco and jinx terrorize their own people in zaun because they're on the same class level?

I love jinx but I wish people would look at her critically. Look at why she's such an interesting character. Jinx and Caitlyn are so much foils but people don't get that. Caitlyn is really wearing the crimes of every enforcer on her shoulder, at this point I wouldn't be surprised if fandom personally blamed her for killing vi parents.

I think we always saw that caitlyn was never too far gone which made every complacency hurt more. Wanting for her to wake up from her blinded rage that had her being ambessa accomplice, so to speak, so to say she is irredeemable... i cannot.

Someone will misread this and think I'm not holding caitlyn accountable or that I'm dismissing her actions. Which I'm not.

[wynterdyno]

Hello. I hope everything is fine with you!

Can I request the story of Steb with a girl originally from Zaun, but who works as an inventor in Piltover. Suppose, as a child, she was lucky enough to cross a bridge and her talent was noticed by one of the masters. She creates useful everyday inventions. (It is possible, if it will be easier, toys for children.) sfw / nsfw as it will be more convenient for you. I just need more stories with this fish...

English is not my language, I hope I made myself clear. Thanks in advance!!!

First time really writing a fanfic, this will be cross posted on Ao3 and Tumblr, Ao3 link on my account <3. This will be around Christmas idk what they call it in the show and idc, I never played LoL. Steb uses sign language but idk about it sorry if this is bad </3. He also has a tail. Pov second person.

Word count: 865

Warnings: None? kissing mentioned briefly? SFW

You sigh, looking down at the contraption before you. You wanted to have it out before October, so kids would see it and ask for it. Unfortunately, late September already, and you hadn’t gotten anywhere. Scowling you stand up, deciding a break would be good for you. 

You weren’t sure where you were headed, until you found yourself facing down the bridge into Zaun. You frowned, thinking of times long past spent down there. You hadn’t returned since moving to Piltover but you wondered frequently if life had changed. You thought about the kids who lived down there and frowned again. You knew that the toys you spent so much time on wouldn’t be seen by kids down there. You wondered if you should lower your prices, but seeing as you were barely scraping by, lowering the prices wasn’t an option. Turning away you walked back to your house. 

Pushing open the door you wondered if he was home yet or not. Hearing the shower running you guessed he was. You sat down on the couch with a sigh, letting your mind start to wander. Glancing at your desk, seeing schematics for the puzzle cube you’d been working on, you frowned deeper. You weren’t sure how long went by but you jumped feeling hands on your shoulders. You looked up, seeing him. He offered you a warm smile before moving around to sit beside you. You reached out to hold onto his hand. He seemed to sense your thoughts and shifted slightly so you could see his face. He looked concerned. 

“What?” You asked him, sounding more annoyed than you meant. He frowned and reached out with his other hand to cup your face. You sighed, placing a hand on top of his. “Sorry, things aren’t going well with my project.” You apologized sheepishly. He seemed pleased with it but you could read him better. He was worried that you were pushing yourself too hard. He pulled his hands away and signed to you,

What’s wrong?

You looked at him blankly for a moment. 

“It’s… not working. I can’t get it to work. I wanted it out by October, so people would get it for Christmas but… I can’t get it to work.” You said, taking a deep breath before returning Steb’s gaze. He looked thoughtful.

You’ll be able to do it. Take a break for now. Think about it for a few days. The solution will come to you. He smiled warmly at you, wrapping his arms around your shoulders gently. You nodded, feeling re-encouraged. 

“Thanks… for being there for me… always.” You thank Steb quietly, leaning into him. You felt him smile against you, nuzzling into your neck gently. 

The days went by, after 2 weeks you had succeeded in getting the puzzle cube to work and be solvable with a little bit of effort. Surprisingly it sold exceedingly well in October and November. 

“Steb! Ooh! I’m so happy it’s selling so well!” You cheered when you saw him again. He gave you an encouraging smile, the scales under his eyes fluttering briefly. You hugged him tightly, and he hugged you back just as tightly. You pulled away after a moment, your eyes shining. “Thanks for encouraging me when I thought it wouldn’t work.” He simply nodded. 

Weeks later you and Steb were sitting on the living room floor. He was reading, in the dim light from the Christmas tree lights. You stared into his eyes, enthralled with the way the lights reflected in his eyes, shining like the stars in the night sky. You shimmied closer to him, leaning your head on his shoulder, enjoying the comfortable silence between you. He lowered the book briefly to wrap one of his arms around you, his tail curling around you comfortably. You sighed softly, feeling truly content to sit with him, whether he was paying attention to you or not, you enjoyed simply sitting with him. Tilting your head up you can see the little twitches of his ears, and scales fluttering occasionally across his cheeks in reaction to whatever he was reading. You didn’t really care, watching his reactions was enough to entertain you.

After a surprising amount of time he glanced down at you, perhaps feeling your stare. You continued to stare at him, looking into his cool blue eyes. He put the book down and leaned towards you, nuzzling his nose against yours. You kiss his cheek affectionately giggling inwardly as his scales flutter in reaction. It's always amused you how his scales flutter when he's flustered. You also found it strange how easy it was to fluster him. “You’re so pretty,” you mumbled, “I love you.” You could see a small blush pushing its way through his usual green skin tone and turning his cheeks faintly pink. 

I love you too. You’re prettier. He signed back affectionately. You wrapped your arms around him, pushing him down and laying practically on top of him. He wrapped his arms around you, his tail curling around your legs. You kissed his cheeks, multiple times on each side, giggling at how he squirmed. He is surprisingly ticklish, but made no move to stop you.  

[loxalotl]

Piltover is the problem (*Arcane S1 spoilers*)

Throughout Arcane, Jinx is torn between Vi's "Powder", and Silco's "Jinx". Both love her, but neither accept who she is until Silco's final realistion where he switches from "Jinx is perfect" to "You're perfect." 

Something he was desperate to hear from Vander, who gives up on Silco, betrays him and leaves him for dead thinking he doesn't have the capacity to change. But Silco proves him wrong: "Is there anything so undoing as a daughter". Jinx did what Vander couldn't. Gave him something else to believe in. Focussed that anger and injustice.

And Silco did it. He paved the way for peace. And had a good argument for not handing in Jinx for the murder of a couple of guards when Piltover has been systematically murdering hundreds of children and adults alike in the mines etc.. Oh, but it wasn't them directly, so doesn't count? No. Their inaction was what pulled the trigger. And Jayce doesn't even consider being held accountable for the murder of that boy (again, irregardless of all the out-of-sight so out-of-mind deaths). If brokering peace is enough for him, it should be enough for Jinx and Silco too, particularly when Piltover's body count is so much higher.

When it comes down to it, Piltover are the worst kind of abuser. They're the government who acts all nice and shiny and righteous while quietly enforcing child labour, enabling destruction of the environment, gas-lighting anyone who speaks against them, and promoting an unsustainable and lavish lifestyle based on self-interest at the expense of others. The quiet, deep-rooted, insidious evil that points it's finger at any opposers screaming "look, big bad thing threatening our civilised way of life!"

And Vander and Vi are not the "good guys" either. They're another kind of toxic. The "normal" people with a saviour complex who don't understand/accept anyone different, and part of what pushed Silco and Jinx over the edge (because, yes, Silco and Jinx have crossed a line, there is no excusing that). Neither are the Firelights necessarily the "good guys". They are so focussed on infighting in Zaun that they seem to have forgotten about the root cause of their problems. You know, Piltover? The people who have been quietly murdering your families and loved ones for the past X number of years??? Jeez. Remember the bigger picture guys.

Now, we may have been robbed of the "Silco figuring out how to properly dad" in Season 2 as it doesn't fit into Riots universe (looking at you, AO3), but I can only hope it doesn't turn into the "Vi fixes Jinx" show. Jinx doesn't need fixing. She needs people to accept who she is, and access to mental health care so she can focus that brilliance into productive things. People can be not okay but still valid. Yes, Silco was a "bad guy", but he was also a product of Piltover's exploitation, suppression and abuse (hello? Can we address this please?), as well as Vander's betrayal. He was very deliberate in his cruelty. It all had a purpose. Zaun needed someone to step up as nothing else was working (hello Jinx). Was it the right thing to do? Morally, no. But was it the lesser evil that would overall result in the fewest deaths? Who knows.

The key takeaway for me is that Runeterra DESPERATELY needs access to good quality, free mental health services (as do we all). Also, the world could also come a long way if we a) try to be nicer to each other and b) take a closer look at those really in power ('cos there is a whole lotta grey out there).

But that's how I see it. And I think one of the great things this show has done has sparked these discussions on acceptance, equality, mental health etc. It's okay to not be okay. You're not alone, so just be nice to each other. We're all on this lump of space rock together, and for anyone out there who feels lost, I'm sending all the love and hugs in the universe💜

And yeah, watch this show. It's perfect.