#i feel like at some point silco makes a lowkey threat about the kids

[somuchbetterthanthat]

Little bit obsessed with the thought of Silco not reading the letter or anything but coming back after the drowning in a way to both say to Vander you will not get rid of me and say to himself I won't let my fear control me.

One evening Vander comes to his bedroom after putting the little ones to bed and there is a ghost in his bed, defiant, cold, bitter, hateful, spitting "this is my home as well is it not?" and Vander does try - several times - to go for an apology or an explanation or a proper conversation - but Silco only snaps: "unless you plan to finish the job tonight, you do not get to give up on the revolution, and I won't give up on what's mine." (whether Vander is technically part of what's his, that's left unsaid, and unknown, for both of them.)

They fall asleep in the same bed.

In the morning Silco's plan to be the constant cold irritating ghost that won't left Vander of the hook IS somewhat derailed by four kids going "who're you?" and "can you cut my meat" and "we have a shower if you wanna" but if the children won't be intimidated, at least he knows Vander is and that's fine by him.

If Vander wanted him gone, he should have finished the job. He did not, he gets to suffer the consequences.

[space-blue]

Question because I’m lowkey curious, do you believe that Vander’s issues and mistakes are largely overlooked by fans because he’s the “good guy?” And while Silco does have a lot of fans, he also has a good amount of haters in the fandom and do you think that’s “unfair” (for lack of a better term)?

Hello Anon! What a good question, thank you for trusting me with it... although I don't think I can speak for the fandom as a whole, I can certainly tell you what rattles in my skull.

I think mostly the fandom at large is not interested in deep dive analysis, or even capable of it — which is not an insult, plenty of people enjoy shows and fandom content without ever engaging with film critical theory of any sort, or even make their own opinionated meta. Many fans are happy to just be fed theories by meta creators, or have a general perception and don't seek out contrary content.

And then, if you don't spend a lot of time decorticating Vander, Silco, Zaun, reading into the implication of single lines of dialogue later on, discussing the show with other people who might point out stuff you missed, etc. it's hard not to just be satisfied with "Vander is a genuine Good Guytm" because the show certainly is happy to let you get away thinking that.

Media at large condones a LOT of violence. Vander's use of lethal force, threat, and coasting on a killer's reputation is absolutely nothing in the eyes of some "good guy hero shit" we see being pulled by some people.

James Bond? John Wick? Fuck, look at Finn in Star Wars, who gleefully kills a ton of troopers without ever stopping to think—even after it was established they're all poor brainwashed orphans, his colleagues until very recently.

Finn has a higher on-camera body count than Vander does!

And Vander is mostly seen through his children's eyes, for whom he's become a true father figure.

On top of that, he's got those big fat centrist inertia energies about him. He's mister Status Quo. Gotta do nothing in either direction, wait until I got no choice, chose the lesser of two evils, etc.

That makes him feel very measured in a world that revolves around incredible political extremes. On a passive first watch, this may seem like the nice guy thing to do.

All this adds up.

On the other hand Silco LOOKS like a villain, talks like a villain, slow claps like an asshole, condones the killing of kids because they chose to get involved without any visible remorse...

Vander seems brighter next to Silco's shadows.

What baffles me is how people don't start doubting the narrative they're being presented when Silco has his PTSD attack when Vander clamps around his throat. It becomes pretty clear that Vander was once a monster, and his betrayal of Silco is what created, well, the "monster Silco" we meet in act I. [Alexa, play The Monster You Created]

They're both shades of grey, and one might have lightened while the other darkened. It's not even subtext. It's flat out said and shown. That's the point where I think tepid takes like "Silco had it coming" and "Vander was doing everyone a service by drowning him" are dropping the ball and being lazy with their "analysis".

I don't think it's unfair that Silco has haters. I love him for his ideals and goals, because he's a champion of the poor and destitute. He's taking the burden of committing extreme violence against an abusive government that will not yield any other way, and would kill him for it. He sacrifices his entire life to this work. But I also love him for being an asshole, and the sort of man who'll make a mountain of corpses to climb up to his goal. He's flawed and very human, defined by his trauma. He's as yummy as a poptart.

But if you're not into revolutionaries, if you think the ends never excuse the means, if you think him loving Jinx is still detrimental to her and her growing up in a shitty Zaun orphanage would still be better for her, or that #PiltoverDidNothingWrong, then yeah, Silco would have very few redeeming qualities lol

Between his extremism and his appearance, it's very easy to make his final encounter with Vander be very black and white. The show literally pulls the rug from under your feet on the Vander-Silco dichotomy minutes before the stabbing and choking! And you've projected along with the kids and seen Vander as a Good Dad for 3 episodes! Silco killing him while he's defending his one surviving child won't exactly help.

Overall I don't think fandom overlooks Vander's faults because he's painted as a good guy, but rather because fandom doesn't scratch at that paint too much. It's easier to dismiss the shades of grey, and you don't have to think about Vander much in act II or III.

Arcane as a show is also a rather depressing, despite how pretty it looks, so I can see how appealing it would be to cling to any "nice" character. They're few and far between.

I mean, there's literally not a SINGLE named and voiced character who can't be made out to be some shade of asshole, outside of like, Sky (and maybe Thieram)!

But yeah, I'm generally not bothered. I think we'll see a ton more takes on Vander when he shows up as a cursed furry serial killer and potentially breaks Vi's heart and whatever is left of Jinx's sanity. I'm looking forward to *that*.

There are lots of valid good takes for Vander, portraying him in varying shades of grey. I think another reason we don't see a lot of stuff outside Good Guy tm is that he's so "minor" compared to the other main characters, and not exactly involved in any popular ship. (No shade of my fellow Vanco lovers, we're still well into rarepair territory)

So yeah. Waiting on the furry army in season 2 to get started on the real hot Vander discourse ( •̀ ω •́ )✧