#how did they choose him?

[amynchan]

The weeks pass, and your army of wickedness sweeps through the countryside, taking crops out of harsh sunlight and moving to panicked and frenzied outskirt villages.

When your generals return, it's with pitiful news of half-dead farmers, ample bones that could have been used as a force for war or for farming instead, and farming equipment that doubled as ineffective and brittle weapons.

"Not one of them had a sword?" you ask, and Jerry reviews his evil notes with diligence. After a moment, he looks up with a shake of his head.

A wave of disgust hits you. You have been taking weeks, far more than enough time to at least equip the fringe cities for defense. Instead, your armies have invaded far too easily. While the peasants are now resting in their homes while the bones of their friends and family help to cultivate the fields and feed them, it should not have happened that easily.

That will change when the princess and her chosen one are on the throne.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!"

You turn to the hall, curious. "Jerry, I didn't implement anything that should fill the hall with screams of abject terror, right?"

"No, your evilness," Jerry responds. "Just the two o'clock screams of releasing stress and pent up energy to further fuel the aggressive magic of your armies."

"I thought not," you mutter, sweeping out of the war room to check on your minions. The screaming turns into gasps, and you break into a run.

Demon magic keeps you alive, sure, but it also comes with incredible physical benefits. Like being able to run from one side of the castle to the other in less than a moment.

"Gregory? Gregory! Ethan, can you turn it off?"

"I—! I—!"

"It hurts it hurts I can't I'm sorry oh my hell let me die don't do that to me oh hell—"

The room is chaos. The room is painful. The room is too bright.

There is a spell that covers an area in the inkiest night, washing all in pitch black and taking away sight and smell. You use it, and everything turns black.

"Maximus!" The three voices ring in relief, in sobs, in panic. You hear Gregory scramble to you first, and at this point he must be driven only by instinct.

It's the same instinct that saved his life. The instinct to return home, to the holder of his contract. You accept him when he crashes into you.

"My lord," he shudders, and you can feel him shake violently. "The light! The light!"

"I know," you assure him, certain of what you saw with your own eyes. You look at Gregory's eyes, wide and fearful, and cast a spell on them. Very quickly, his pupils, iris, and sclarea are covered in inky dark, and you can feel Gregory go boneless. "I will not let the light touch you again. Stay here."

Sufficiently blinded to his fears—a temporary measure to provide some calm until he is truly out of the light's reach—you adjust the darkness of the room.

The princess stands in the center of the room, her arms having dropped from where she was holding Gregory. She's turned to you, and her face is both grim and determined.

You wonder if your manipulation is coming to fruition sooner than intended. If so, then at least the throne will be secured by an ally. That leaves...

Your eyes catch onto Ethan, and he's standing on the other side of the room, his skin glowing with pure, unadulterated energy. You know from when you walked in that the darkness is dampening what would otherwise be a blinding light.

Even now, it makes you uncomfortable.

"I..." Ethan's voice shakes, and past the glow, you can see him trembling just as much as Gregory.

Something more uncomfortable than Ethan having a natural inclination for light magic settles in your sternum. Or what's left of it.

"I didn't mean to..." he confesses, and the watery tone in his voice finally cracks. Now that Gregory is away from him, enshrouded in a safety of darkness, he seems to be realizing what, exactly, has happened. Ethan gasps for breath. "I didn't mean to hurt him! What did I— What—"

The light pulses with Ethan's panic, and you quickly disregard the notion that you'd have to darken his senses as well. It might hurt him, and you're not in the business of needless torture.

You take a breath. Knowledge. Knowledge is what he needs right now.

"It's a defensive spell," you say, remembering what you learned all of those 200 years ago. Ethan, thankfully, seems to snap out of his downward spiral, looking at you.

Well, if he can look at you with such raw hope, then your manipulation must still be working. Thank the darkness.

"It's also the first spell that demonstrates a person's inclination towards light magic. The light wells up inside until it can no longer be contained, and it typically results in a soft glow. The longer a person holds their magic inside, the stronger the glow when it finally escapes." You remember just how bright the room had been when you came in, and your stomach drops. "You must have been holding it inside for, perhaps months."

You watch as Ethan gulps, and tears run down his face. He buries that face, that expression of loss and despair and regret, in his hands.

"I didn't wanna hurt anyone," he sobs, his shoulders shaking. "Light magic hurts people! It hid her majesty's scars! It hurt you! I hurt Gregory!"

This image before you looks too familiar.

"I didn't wanna hurt anyone!" Two hundred and eighteen years ago. A young magic user. Alone. "Dark magic hurts people! It tripped grandfather! It hurt you! I hurt—"

The similarities pain you more than the light itself could ever. You leaned into being evil. It was what you could do. You no longer care for the affirmation you never got.

But Ethan does. Ethan cares so, so much. It makes him malleable.

It makes him human. As you all are, at some point.

"Ethan," you call, your voice commanding and velvet-soft. Enshrouded in darkness, used typically for sweetening deals, this is a call of comfort and a beckon to trust. Ethan falls into it with ease, weeks of having heard it preparing him to trust you. "I will not turn away from you for this. You cannot change what you are, as I cannot change what I am. Our magics will interfere with each other at times, and there are those uncomfortable with light magic, but it does not make you a different person."

"Yes it does," says Ethan, a mournful note in his first act of resistance. You might be proud if you weren't so heartbroken by it. "I hurt Gregory."

"Other light magic users hurt Gregory," you correct, gently but firmly. "The memory of it pains him, and he can no longer be around light magic, but you have never lifted a hand against him, and you would never cause us harm because of our dark magic."

"I'd never!" Ethan cries out, passionate as a burst of light tries to emphasize his words. It fluctuates with his emotions, and you know that he must be taught.

Like he should have been.

Those fools didn't train him with a sword.

It figures they'd never teach him how to use his own magic either.

Fools.

"I know," you say, "but now there is the matter of teaching you how to use light magic. I remember some lessons, but they are very old. I can teach you basic control, and after that..."

You know what it's like to only be taught to control your gift instead of how to use it. However, for all of your power in darkness, light magic... it isn't your specialty. Perhaps you could abduct a tutor for him, but how to ensure that this tutor wouldn't undo all of your successful manipulation—

"I can take over from there." The princess speaks up, and both you and Ethan turn to her. You raise an invisible eyebrow.

"The kingdom I ran from was filled with light magic users," she points out, and you nod. It is most certainly true. "If I was going to lead them one day, I had to understand how the magic could be wielded and used. Since I don't have light magic, they never taught me the foundations, only the flashy things that could be done by those who had the gift. If you can teach him control, I can teach him how to make it his own."

"But..." Ethan pipes up, "what if I hurt someone else? What if I can't do it? What if I don't want to?"

And here is the crux of the matter. Self-rejection. The cruelest of enemies. More sinister than whatever lay in the dark. More cruel than whatever machinations the light may come up with.

Wicked.

However, you cannot force Ethan to love every aspect of his being, just as no one could do so for you.

"Then you will simply learn to control the light magic and no more," you say. "The magic you have is a magic that is inherent to you. It is part of you, and you are now part of it. However, it does not own you. It is yours to choose what to do with. And if you choose to simply control it, then that is a choice you will be supported in."

"And if you choose to use it, you'll be supported there, too," says the princess, and you nod. "There's no bad magic, Ethan. There are only bad people, and you aren't bad."

Ah, the lesson you taught. It comforts your heart to see it used when it's needed most.

It takes more convincing, and it takes much talking, but you believe, by the end of it, Ethan is reassured and ready. You rise to take Gregory away, ready to spend as long as you need to reassure him and provide what he needs to heal from the shock of seeing light magic in his own home, when another thought occurs to you.

This definitely explains why Ethan puked when he saw your face. Inherent light magic. Huh.

With a chuckle, you guide Gregory out of the room. It looks like your two allies are more powerful than you thought.

It's good that you've manipulated them so well. Good job, Maximus.

Despite your reputation as a Dark Lord, you have a strict moral code. So when a young girl showing signs of abuse wandered into your realm, you took her in. Now the neighboring kingdom is acusing you of kidnapping their princess. You have to choose between returning her to her abusors or war.

[watchingwisteria]

listen there really was just something about how in the book, snow’s 3-page descent from hesitant lover boy to deluded mfer happens entirely in his mind. lucy gray gives him no indication whatsoever that she suspects him, that she’s going to leave or betray him. he’s just sitting quietly in the cabin waiting for her to return when that seed of calculated suspicion, which he has needed to survive the capitol, takes a hold of him and chokes the life out of any goodness left inside him. it really drives home your terror as a reader that “oh my god did he kill her? did she escape? what happened to her? why would he even think that?” in a way that when the movie had to adjust for visualization it lost some of that holy shit this guy has lost it emphasis.

[egophiliac]

finally got some time to finish these guys up! which is sort of ironic considering I started these because I wanted to draw Malleus with a Dragapult, and then I just didn't for a million years!

Malleus has the aforementioned Dragapult, except it's a super special non-canon color Dragapult (like an anime-only form that you could get in-game exclusively through some limited-time event where you have to show up in-person at a specific location in Japan) (it has some wacky overpowered exclusive move/form and the OT is listed as Malleus) (so like that kind of ridiculous specialness) (Leona is extremely salty about this). also hoards and hoards of Dreepy. Dreepy LOVE Malleus. they take naps on his horns inbetween begging him to throw them across the island at mach speeds.

Lilia has a Drampa and a bunch of Woobat that he hasn't actually caught, they just follow him around in swarms because they sense a kinship with him. (also breaking my own rule again to say that he had a Mawile in the past, because...I just really wanted to give him a Mawile...)

Sebek has Sandile for obvious reasons, and also a Pikachu that bullies him relentlessly. :(

Silver has a shiny Corvisquire; I really went back-and-forth on also giving him an Aegislash, but...hm. those pokedex entries though. he can stick with just one for now.

(I hadn't planned on the shiny for him, but after I'd decided on the Corvisquire line and was looking it up for reference, I realized that shiny Rookidee is gold and then turns silver when it evolves and I lost my entire goddamn mind)

[figueroths]

not to be a high elf apologist but ​i have to say it’s actually kinda sweet that old man both expected to see gorgug again and made intentional (albeit goofy) effort to get his name right even if the best that’ll come out of his own mouth is grape nip

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Kiss Kiss Fallen Tree!

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[infinitelystrangemachinex]

Jayce and the fallacy of the butterfly effect in Arcane's narrative

If Jayce's symbol is the butterfly, then my theory is that we're going into a full "butterfly effect" narrative in Act 2. Either we'll watch it happen, or we'll only see Jayce come out the other side of it changed by the experience, knowing - or more importantly, THINKING he knows - what to do to change the future. Literally, to "defend tomorrow."

tl;dr: Jayce will encounter the butterfly effect in season 2. Viktor and Mel both foreshadowed this in season 1. I think Jayce will fixate on Viktor and will believe that stopping or changing Viktor either in the past or the present - most likely the present - will mean he can save the future. I believe this will lead to an even worse tragedy and may have the same effect as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ekko's approach to changing the future by sticking closer to the present - considering only tiny increments of time to alter more immediate future outcomes - will be the superior approach. I also think that Jayce attempting to change the future will create the conditions that push Viktor to become the Machine Herald.

One of the most common reactions even the casual viewer had to Arcane season 1 was this: "If [character] had just done this one small thing a little differently, [tragic event] wouldn't have happened!"

Arcane has been called a Greek tragedy for the main reason that because of how well built up the characters' personalities and reasonings are, there's no other way season 1 could have gone. There was no stopping the multiple tragedies that occurred, because with one event leading to another, the chain of seemingly inevitable events goes too far back to identify what one singular event caused everything, what one character made what one decision to put our characters on the terrible paths they walked.

Arcane is about to investigate this idea in its own narrative, and I think that Jayce will be the character to stumble into the flawed idea that you can change one event, or stop one character, and change the future for the better. This is because Jayce struggles with a few very interesting character flaws, one of them being that he believes himself to be the main character, and it is therefore his responsibility to intervene, be a hero, and fix things.

Viktor and Mel both foreshadow Jayce's future encounter with the butterfly effect.

Recall that Viktor said: "There is always a choice."

Jayce sees choices in black and white, believes that he has no other options but to go along with what he's persuaded and pushed into, and acts too boldly with too much power multiple times.

Recall that Mel said: "We can't change what fate has in store for us, but we don't have to face it alone."

Jayce tries to solve big problems on his own, and though he delegates to Enforcers and the like, Jayce relies on his reasoning and his alone to make important decisions if he doesn't simply become persuaded - usually through strong emotions like fear - by other characters. In addition, since Mel is specifically talking about Viktor's plight here, it's worth mentioning that while Jayce did say that he would help Viktor in acts 2 and 3 of season 1, Jayce does wind up leaving Viktor to face his fate alone. When Jayce tries to change that fate in s2 ep1, ep2 shows that only tragedy can come of this as well.

Viktor and Mel's statements here are not contradictory. Viktor makes the point that you can always make a choice. In context, he's literally referring to the classic "secret third option," because given a choice between aggression and passivity, war and surrender, Viktor chooses to defuse the bomb instead. Mel, interestingly, seems to believe that destiny is fixed in a broad sense, and she operates as a politician and diplomat and investor who navigates that line of destiny in the most optimal way possible. In reality, in context, she is referring to the fact that Viktor can't change the way he was born and so he has no way to change his fate and therefore must face it, which is true - she's only missing the information that Viktor actually does have the means to change his illness and his body. Her wisdom still applies however, because he'll have to accept the hand that fate deals him after he makes that choice. Will he face it alone, or not?

There is always a choice, there's even secret third options, because having a fate doesn't mean that you are doomed to make only one possible series of choices. What it does mean is that each choice comes with a hand that fate deals you. It is impossible to know what all of these branching choices and consequences are in advance, and it is just as impossible in hindsight - the branches are too complex and the end outcomes are all equally meaningful, just different. If Arcane season 2 is to be a tragedy, it may show us that each possible outcome is still tragic if you fall for the fallacy of the butterfly effect.

Jayce is counseled by some of the wisest, cleverest characters with the deepest life experiences in Arcane, but he hardly ever takes that counsel to heart. If he does, he still acts on that counsel in flawed ways that have unintended consequences. This will come to a head in season 2.

Viktor and Jayce both have a butterfly following them around in season 1. The butterfly effect refers to one small seemingly insignificant event changing the course of history, and changing that event therefore changes history. Viktor bled over the railing of a Hexgate in season 1:

And Heimerdinger sees what we can only assume is Viktor's blood contaminating (?) the Hexgate in s2 ep3:

This might be the seemingly unimportant "inciting incident" that Jayce (and Heimerdinger and Ekko) settle on as something that should be avoided or erased by changing the past (if they time-travel with Ekko, for example).

I doubt that, if this is what this crew chooses to fixate on, it will be the only event that is considered as something to change. But let's take this and run with it for the sake of discussion.

As silly as it sounds, how do you stop Viktor from allowing his blood to come into contact with the arcane? Stop Viktor's involvement with the Academy entirely? Don't invent Hextech at all? But what if someone else invents Hextech besides Jayce? What if future tragedy befalls Piltover because it didn't invent Hextech?

The possibilities and what-ifs could branch on forever. But because Jayce is who he is, and because his tragedy with Viktor is still raw and recent and frightening, I think Jayce's butterfly effect experience will have to do with Viktor.

My personal prediction is that the timeskip between s2 ep3 and ep4 will be Jayce experiencing a timeline where Viktor, taken over by the Hexcore, brings about an apocalyptic event similar to what Heimerdinger experienced in his past. Either Jayce and co. can't go into the past to change the present, or Heimerdinger and/or Ekko advise strongly against it to avoid a paradox. This will lead to them re-entering the canon Arcane timeline before this apocalypse, but still after the timeskip. Jayce, believing that destroying Viktor and his cult will save the future, and believing that resurrecting Viktor was Jayce's mistake to fix, attacks him. But the consequences don't unfold the way he hopes, because trying to change fate once the cards have already been dealt has led to tragedy before.

The butterfly is a symbol of something other than just the butterfly effect - change, evolution, and rebirth. If the butterfly symbolizes the butterfly effect for Jayce, then I think it has a different meaning for Viktor - the change and rebirth meaning.

I've always found it very interesting that we see a similar-looking butterfly on Progress Day... but made of metal.

Every time Viktor's situation changes, he adapts and evolves. If Jayce attacks him, if his cult is destroyed, if the Hexcore is causing Viktor to decay, if all of these things happen at once - he'll just evolve again, and I think the Machine Herald is the next step. And the Machine Herald will be a triumph for Viktor, but Jayce will believe that he's created something even worse. The resulting feud will be a personal nightmare for both of them.

I think this still allows Viktor to use his own agency to choose to become the Machine Herald (the MH will probably be the "secret third option" that saves Viktor, or there will be a secret third option that ends the feud) while still allowing Jayce to be offended and horrified at whatever the Machine Herald represents or is trying to do in the undercity. Introducing the element of time travel allows Arcane to explore the meta concept of tragedy and fate that season 1 was built on while showing that you can't "solve" a tragedy, because there are other terrible possibilities lurking behind alternate choices. Especially if what you're trying to change is singular people or events and not systems of power.

This is why Ekko's approach with his Z-drive will be superior to Jayce's sweeping attempt at changing the future. Ekko's goal has always been societal change. He creates his own punk society in the undercity, more progressive and successful than anything Vander or Silco ever created, and a better bastion of safety, hope, and progress than what Heimerdinger founded in Piltover. Trying to change systems by going back in time is most likely futile. But taking what Ekko has already built in the Firelights, curing his tree, and fighting for the Firelights' survival bit by bit by optimizing the present with the Z-drive shows that:

It's more worth it to focus on becoming wise (Ekko's mask is an owl) and making choices you won't regret

It's best if you don't face your fate alone (act as a collective and take care of each other)

Consider every option, not just the obvious black and white choices

Maintain and fix what you've already built instead of abandoning it once things get difficult

Adapt as needed if the choices you made lead to dark consequences, and once again, stick together and take care of each other when the bad times do come

That's my Act 2 but, ultimately, my season 2 prediction based on the butterfly symbolism we've already seen. Ekko's involvement is what will give the series the at least partial happy ending that the creators have referred to. I personally don't think that the Viktor/Jayce feud will end quite so well, but maybe, they will still survive.

[tubbytarchia]

I don't know what this is all I know is that LimL Joel makes me really emotional

[lucdoodle]

A lil comic based on the amazing fic "Up is Down, Sane is Insane"

[the-last-butter]

HC they first met a year or two after Yelan got her vision; post fighting the in abyss but when Kaeya was still navigating his identity from Kaeya, Brother and Right hand of Diluc Ragnvindr to Kaeya Alberich, Cavalry Captain and Quarter master of the Knights of Favonius.

[mohntilyet]

they hated illario because he was a d1 yapper who was bad at assassinating people and was so annoyingly drunk and grief stricken at his cousin’s wake that viago had to drug him to shut him up (so what if he was also the guy who set his cousin up to die/disappear) . and also for working with the venatori and selling out the antivan crows i guess.

[casscainmainly]

I was going to make a post about how Duke is the only Robin Dick chose but then I remembered that Alfred actually chose him first. Then I remembered that Alfred chose Damian, too, by handing him the suit first in Battle for the Cowl. Then I remembered that Alfred also helps convince Bruce to make Tim Robin. So Alfred essentially chooses/endorses every Robin post-Jason, and weirdly has more of a say in the Robin legacy than either Dick or Bruce.

[inquisitor-apologist]

Thinking about how, at the end of the day, at the fatal moment, the sunset of the Republic, it wasn’t Yoda, or Obi-Wan, or even the Chosen One himself standing in the way of Palpatine. It was Mace Windu.

Mace Windu, the inventor of Vaapad and Master of Form VII, the Jedi's strongest duelist, the only person to ever defeat Palpatine in combat. Mace Windu, Master of the Jedi Council and the youngest Master ever appointed to it, the revered leader of the Order. Mace Windu, who forgave even those who tried to kill him, who risked his life over and over again for his troops, who, after 3 years of desperate war, tried to negotiate with battle droids. Mace Windu, who knew the clones were created by the Sith and chose to trust them, who saw every Shatterpoint in the Republic, and loved it still, and fought for it until his last breath, until he was betrayed by Anakin, who he believed in and trusted despite everything.

Mace Windu, High General and hero of the Republic, the embodiment of the Light, the last and greatest champion of the Order, the best Jedi to ever live.

[thatswhatsushesaid]

psa that the day there are no jgy stans left on tumblr dot com is the day i am dead

but rest assured i'll go to my grave exactly as i lived: obnoxiously proclaiming to everyone within earshot how great lianfang-zun is. narratively, metaphorically, spiritually. sexually, too, like why limit myself. i like to keep my options open

[tutterypuff]

also, everyone is talking about how Simon has this huge capacity for empathy this this and that about how empathy is so integral to his character as if this guy didn't just spend the first two episodes of this show torturing a goose to death

[sideblogdotjpeg]

ive been thinking about the red string superstition recently and also sol bufo always and it makes me sick how uncannily caldwell tanner has made sol to perfectly target me personally

(+ cropped versions !)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

He is at his limit.

[First] Prev <–-> Next