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strawberry-shortcakey · 3 months ago

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my defense of Caitlyn in wake of season 2

Defending my wife rn

Lets get right into this mind you my spelling and punctuation are like non existent so yk

Starting off with the thing i feel people seem to not really understand is whats happening is shes being tugged in like 5 different directions struggling between her obligations to her family name the kiraman family is matriarchal this rests on her entirely she wants to maintain her mothers legacy yet theres the undeniable rage fueled by her mothers death and her feeling of failing all of piltover the feeling that if she had killed jinx before there wouldnt have been so many lives lost she feels ultimately responsible for everything in her life which makes that rage overpower her i mean most of the council civilians enforcers who she had been around her WHOLE LIFE. she feels all that weight in her heart and on her mind much like vi due to her trauma generalizes the people of piltover and enforcers cait blames zaunites and i feel its unfair to give vi a pass and not caitlyn shes trying to hold onto her morals she fights for avoiding innocents getting hurt until the memorial attack where it turns into more than an attack by jinx now an attack from multiples causing her to lose that part of her morals and the last pull is for vi caitlyn loves vi thats something i have never doubted for even a second i mean seriously she puts so much at stake for vi. People don't seem to see that her bringing vi before the council in season one couldve ended poorly for her it couldve reflected horribly onto her family if the council had decided not to hear her out. And on top of all of that shes trying to hold it together. We see her cry a few times but she doesnt ever really let it out i mean shes putting herself under that pressure part of her character has always been that she hates when things are just handed to her as we see in her scene with grayson when she gets upset at the mere idea of her parents paying off grayson to let her win and we confirm that stayed into adulthood when jayce offers her that job for him and shes offended at the mere idea and i feel part of her feels if she shows that pain shes in things are gonna be handed to her out of sheer pity something that would likely fuel her rage further and further.

Next topic is her being willing to kill isha if it meant killing jinx. Now i understand the shock of this how it feels “out of character for her” but it really isnt yes she has been openly against the idea of people getting hit in the crossfire but in her mind its 1 innocent for multiple innocents including her own mother. she also isnt the first character to directly or indirectly result in a child's death and she didnt even succeed so yk but anyway every single councilor is responsible for countless deaths of undercity children and families heimerdinger honestly the most responsible because yk like 200 years of ignoring the undercity and can i also just mention vis switch up on her opinion season one jayce kills a kid when fighting at the shimmer lab and vi has the mentality “you did what needed to be done one life for like 100” yet when caitlyn finds herself in that same mindset vis all “whats wrong with you you're evil now” so uh yeah not an attack on vi just trying to expand on it throughout this i will make comparisons on how we excuse vi but attack caitlyn and why i think thats really telling of how people see her as a character only there for caitvi romance plot!! But anyway caitlyn had every fucking right in that moment mind you she also was running on adrenaline something that i feel a lot of people don't understand in that moment its often impulse you do the first thing to come to mind she was just fighting off sevika shes in that do or die mindset its kill jinx or people die people also don't understand how deep caits trauma around jinx runs we don't know what she was put through during the time between her abduction and the like final scene of season 1 also just yk the entire show. jinx is her personal trauma.

Now onto the caitvi argument in the tunnels lets loop back to the state of mind she was in shes pumped on adrenaline rage and fear. She feels a deep sense of betrayal much like jinx does when vi “picks cait over her” its that feeling of “oh so you care more about someone who deeply hurt me and a random kid than me.” that only fuels her rage/pain that is making her less and less of her core values. caitlyn gets on the defensive she makes a generalization Something once again we see vi do to caitlyn earlier with the oil and water speech which no doubt left a hole in caits heart something that will stick with her dare i even say that plays a part in why she no longer sees zaun and pilover as two sides of the same coin the person who helped her learn something so crucial suddenly saying “actually we are different piltover is all the same you're all horrible. We can never get along, you are not an exception” which no doubt shattered that view and helped cement the separation in her mind. The key difference is that vi didnt get physical cait pushed her and hit her with the rifle but like i said she's on the defense. Also ive seen people saying “oh well cait knows how shes traumatized by enforcers” to caitlyn that trauma is equal to the trauma of what jinx has done to her and honestly it is caitlyn has lost almost everything to this for the sake of what started off as her dreams of justice her need to prove herself has been what she feels like is the sole cause of the downfall of piltover. Which is why i truly believe caitlyn is still herself that the development to her character logical and her actions fully explainable and defendable

Little added thing it’s after getting compared to jinx that she hits vi I mentioned how that’s literally her main trauma jinx killed her mom and ruined her life I’d hit someone with a rifle over that too.

And thats all ive got for now lmk if i should cover more!! And i will be adding as arc 2 and 3 release!

#piltover's finest #arcane #strawb #caitlyn kiramman #lesbian #caitvi #vi arcane #caitlyn x vi #jinx arcane #Defense #caitlyn arcane #Caitlyn did no wrong #Caitlyn isn’t evil y’all #professional yapper #yapping #long post

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aldana-brillantina · 3 months ago

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HERO OF MY OWN STORY, A VILLAIN IN OTHERS'.

Nobody is good in Arcane(maybe Ekko). If you watch the show you can take a side depending on who you empathize with the most or who you consider their reasons to be good and justifiable to a certain point. This is a story of sides, of perspectives.

Caitlyn is a good person, who has never had anything bad happen to her and lives in a perfect world where her city is an example of progress, she is a person raised in a peaceful environment and she never had the need to be bad or wish evil. That makes her naive, like a baby. That makes her even somewhat insensitive in very specific occasions like when she sees a reality that is not hers (You don't have parents? You're wrong) but it also makes her feel empathy because she doesn't conceive that someone can live like garbage (when she hugs that man addicted to shimmer, when she criticizes her mother and the council for the situation in undercity). But what Jinx generates is what I want to discuss. Before her encounter with her, Cait had never been in danger and bad things classified as horror movies had happened to her, that was in the past. That's when you start to think, she was good because she never had or felt the need to be anything else. Hate can warp a person, and someone like Cait who never felt it, really felt it, well. She's still a person.I think bad situations are the ones that really bring out some hard truths about a person. But also, do we all process trauma the same way? No, does that justify any wrong you do? No, it makes it understandable.I think people are very unfair to Cait, Jinx, Vi, and even Jayce. I think it's because we all judge them from one reality, our own. But they have many.

If we look at it from Piltover's perspective, the Enforcers are heroes, people who protect them from those who want to harm them and risk their lives all the time, that it is thanks to them that they sleep peacefully in their beds and that it is thanks to the council and their good management that everyone has what they need to live. If I grew up under that reality, the Zaunites are wild animals, less than them.Jayce did not belong to the elite in the beginning of the series, he really worked hard to reach the position he is in and he believes that with enough dedication one can achieve their dreams. That is not Viktor's reality, because no matter how hard he tries or how much effort he puts into it, he is a Zaunite and people will always look down on him. That is when two realities collide without letting the other be a lie. Because Jayce really tried hard and Viktor is still less.

Jinx is a killer, a monster in Piltover, the bogeyman who took the city of progress out of peace and balance. She is Silco's attack dog, his pet for most of Zaun. She is the daughter of her boss, for Sevika. His daughter, the representation of the city he always wanted and his greatest weakness for Silco. But I think the worst thing is that she is a product of a violent environment, an environment that never saw any other way to survive than by stealing like rats or kicking others, and this was Piltover's fault. How much of the damage she does is justified if we look at it from the Zaun perspective?

For Undercity, Zaun, Piltover's live off their blood and beat them in the streets since before Silco. How many of them lost families, friends and lovers at their hands? The protests are the result of rage, pain and hunger. My dad said that if there's one thing you never forget it's hunger, guys, this is a city that lives hungry and on crumbs. No, Enforcers are not heroes, they're boogeymen and it's been a reality for, if my calculations are correct, over 150 years (I'm guessing a bit here, taking into account Vi's birth date and Piltover's founding in the lore). So the Zaunite mentality is different, like, you slaughter us for a few when you slowly killed thousands over all these years? It's not right because I'm sure there are innocent people in Topside who live in ignorance of the cost of all the pleasures they enjoy and probably see them even more as animals after these "senseless" attacks. But this makes a lot of sense to them. And Caitlin along with Mel's mom, how many lives will they take, how many mothers? She would be someone else's Jinx.

I remember Silco, in his meeting to remind the chemis of their place, mentioned the mines and how they all breathed shitty air and did they remember it. They don't look old, they started young. Vander and Silco met there, young. Because, here I am playing devil's advocate, Silco despite being a shitty person did not invent child labor or all evil as some of us like to believe, he is a product and he grew up with it, it is normal for him. And yes, at some point, even before he died, he wanted something more, believed he deserved something more when many people simply continued to think they belong under the boot of topside. But he also poisoned his people and did not change the reality for younger generations, he only made it harder for them to prosper. Because in his reality, people who want to survive will do so at all costs, for him only the one who manages to reinvent himself deserves to remain standing, because that's what he did to live. Swim or you sink, there's no other option.

And isn't that the reason why Ekko and his community are still alive? They reinvented themselves, but by lifting each other up rather than tearing each other down. And that's their reality. They didn't need to leave anyone behind because they all contributed to the boat instead of swimming individually.

People who work for Silco, do they have families? Children, siblings. When you hurt someone, regardless of whether they're bad or good, it's someone's brother, someone's child, someone's friend. Someone always gets hurt, directly or indirectly. The Firelights are the good guys, probably the most well-intentioned organization in the series. That doesn't change that how much they screw up those Silco jobs (for good reason) they put other people in danger who may have children or family and they'll think, even if they're wrong, that they're the bad guys.

But did Silco have Vander and were leaders in their own movement for independence? Well, it didn't work out and they lost everything. That formed Silco. What would Ekko do if he lost everything? Even though he's done it once, can he do it again?

That's the litmus test for every character, who you are, what's left, after a great loss. You become like Jinx or Cait, who get lost in their grief and punish people regardless of whether they're responsible or not. Or like Ekko, who like a tree, resists blows because his roots are stronger.

#ekko arcane #arcane silco #arcane jinx #arcane caitlyn #piltover and zaun #zaun #Piltover

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cherrybomb107 · 3 months ago

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Okay, so on the topic of Jinx’s actions, I feel like they’re blown out of proportion for several reasons. (Obligatory I am a certified Jinx stan warning. I love my girl DOWN, so take this with a grain of salt.)

Bootlicking is definitely a reason, as is sexism ofc. But, I think a pretty big reason has to do with the fact that people think killing someone is the worst thing you can do to them, when it’s far from it. It’s about who you kill, why you kill them, how you go about it, what did you do to them beforehand, and what you do to their bodies after. Ofc I wouldn’t defend a psycho killer who just went after people for no reason in real life, but that’s not what Jinx does! I’m not saying you have to like her or defend her actions like I do cause my love for her blinds me sometimes, I can admit it. But if you ARE gonna hate on her, do it for the right reasons yk? Lead with love before you hate🤣🤣🤣

Okay so, the fact that Jinx is an oppressed person. Jinx comes from Zaun, where they didn’t even have clean air to breathe. Not to mention the militarized police force that brutalized her people and killed her parents right in front of her all before she hit double digits. As well as the apathetic Council who could give less of a fuck about her, her family, or the Undercity itself. They don’t give a damn, which leads me to my next point: who you kill.

Jinx kills enforcers, Council members, and Firelights. She does not, nor has she ever killed an innocent person. She doesn’t kill random people for just looking at her wrong, as much as the fandom likes to act like she does. Her targets are very specific. Let’s start with the enforcers. My love for Jinx aside, enforcers are Piltover’s version of cops. I’m Black, queer, female and from the US. Ain’t nothing you could say to me to convince me killing cops is “psycho” or “evil”. If you knew anything about the history of policing here, you’d understand my feelings. Fuck em🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️

Same story with the Council. Fuck em. They sat on their asses for centuries while people were suffering right down the street from them. They chose to ignore the suffering of Zaun. They were unfazed by Caitlyn telling them about how Silco flooded the Lanes with drugs, pinned all his crimes on the Firelights, and had Marcus working for him as a dirty cop. They didn’t care. But when Jayce and Viktor told the Council that they could make a deal with Silco and give Zaun its independence? THAT’S when they cared. THAT’S what got them up out of their seats, yelling and screaming about “policies” and “procedures”. NOT when Vi and countless others were thrown in Stillwater and forgotten about. NOT when enforcers killed people in cold blood on the bridge during the opening sequence back in episode one. They only cared when they wouldn’t be able to oppress and exploit people anymore. So, like I said. Fuck em. Jinx shoulda killed more 🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️

Now, onto the Firelights. I love the Firelights, as well as their ideals. I want the best for them, I do! However, they are by no means “innocent”. They’re literally a gang. I’m not saying that to make a moral judgement, it’s just a fact. They are a gang. If Silco is a kingpin, and Jinx is his daughter, then she’s just protecting the shimmer from their attacks. I agree with them wanting to dismantle shimmer. But I am saying that by engaging in direct combat with Jinx, they are not “innocent”. At that point it’s a street fight. Anything’s fair game. Additionally, the Firelights have been shown to be willing to use lethal force. Scar would’ve speared Vi in the back if Ekko hadn’t stopped him. So Jinx actually succeeding when she uses lethal force isn’t this big deal y’all like to make it out to be.

As for why she kills them, with the Firelights it’s because they were fighting each other. With enforcers, it’s by virtue of who they are and what they represent to Jinx. She sees them as monsters. She doesn’t explicitly kill them for oppressing her, but that doesn’t need to be made explicit imo. Jinx’s actions are very politically charged, whether she realizes it or not. With the Council, it’s both because of what happened at the tea party, as well as what they represent. They did nothing to help her people for centuries. Her firing the rocket was for revenge.

As for how she goes about it, she kills people quickly. She doesn’t gloat, she doesn’t play with her food, nor does she torture them beforehand. She shoots to kill or blows them up. For me, it’d be a different story if she drew things out and made them suffer for a long time before she kills them. Now that’s fucked up! But that’s not what she does; it’s quick. I’m not gonna lie and act like they don’t suffer at all, but it’s very quick. The length of suffering means a lot. To continue that, Jinx doesn’t disrespect the bodies after. She doesn’t take souvenirs (the feathers from the crows aside lol). Nor does she prop them up weirdly or kick or hit them either. She doesn’t relish her killing, she just does it and moves on.

In conclusion, killing is wrong ofc. But it’s not always as black and white as it’s made out to be, especially in a show as complex as Arcane. Now before somebody’s like “Omg how can you hate Caitlyn but defend Jinx like this?!” that’s a different conversation entirely. I didn’t say anything about Caitlyn, and bringing up another character’s actions when it’s time to criticize your fave is both unserious and pathetic. I get wanting to defend your faves! I just think that’s a weak defense and you should come harder

#arcane #jinx #jinx the loose cannon #stop blowing jinx’s actions out of proportion #please im begging you #hate her if you want!#just make sure you hate the right way

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helplessavacado · 3 months ago

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Arcane S2 Spoilers below the cut because I have some THOUGHTS

I apologize for the person I will become when this show ends because they are consuming my entire brain rn and I cannot imagine how crazy I'll be when the arcs are resolved

Calling Zaunites animals for attacking a memorial of Piltover's leaders/Caitlyn's mom... and then authorizing an attack on the Undercity's memorial for their leader/Vi's dad. A little bit of a double standard methinks. Just a tad of "it's fine when my people do it." Just a smidge. Caitlyn girl I love you as a character but the hypocrisy and privilege is POTENT and I cannot WAIT to see you get called out for it.

Also everyone was talking about how the JayVik divorce was rushed (which like, fair), but I don't see anybody talking about how Caitlyn's turnaround came out of nowhere. Like I know she wasn't on the best of terms with Ambessa in regards to continuing marshal law but that doesn't negate her quest for revenge and ending Jinx. I just??? I really hope we get a more in-depth explanation in arc 3 because that just felt too sudden. I trust the writers (rare in today's media) but that was very strange to me.

Also unless the orange-haired police officer is plot relevant in the next arc I see no point for her and Caitlyn hooking up other than to induce rage. The scream I scrumpt when that girl popped up on screen was primal because wow Caitlyn you really dumped Vi and decided to screw the Piltover version of Matilda. She wanted a yes-man with benefits and I really thought she was better than that. I am all for women's wrongs but damn.

Ekko. Where's my favorite character. YOU GAVE JAYCE BACK BUT WHERE IS EKKO???????? RIOT CAN YOU HEAR ME????? WHERE IS HE???????????? Heimerdinger is also there BUT WHERE IS EKKO

ANYWAY: JAYCE. JAYCE SHAVE THE BEARD ITS MAKING YOU EVIL. JAYCE. JAYCE WHAT DID YOU SEE IN THE ARCANE WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL WAS THAT. I CANT EVEN DEFEND YOU RIGHT NOW MY GUY. WHY DID YOU DO THAT. LET ME SEE THE VISIONS I N E E D TO UNDERSTAND.

Viktor I know you're gonna live because Duh the divorce arc isn't done yet but holy shit PLEASE backhand your ex-situationship for me

I S H A V A N D E R W H A T T H E F U C K. ISHA. WE HAD A HAPPY MOMENT WHY IS EVERYONE'S SOLUTION IN THIS FAMILY SELF-SACRIFICE VIA DEATH AND OR PERMANENT BODILY HARM???????? Sevika with her arm Jinx with the prison bust Vi with her everything Vander with his Also Everything HAVE YOU ALL PERHAPS CONSIDERED THAT A SACRIFICE COULD ALSO BE STRUGGLING THROUGH GRIEF TOGETHER?????

Ambessa. Ambessa when I catch you Ambessa. Singe what the hell my guy.

Mel honey you got this I believe in you. Kick some ass I NEED to see your badassery and new backstory because this is gonna be FUN.

#irl rambling #arcane season 2 spoilers #arcane s2

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comicaurora · 3 months ago

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spoiler thoughts in no particular order:

The theme of this season seems to be "replacement." Characters are constantly taking on other character's roles. Heimerdinger highlights that Jayce is his former pupil and Ekko is his new pupil. Jinx acquires a Powder-esque kid sidekick and finds herself in Vi's role, while Vi finds herself hurt and abandoned by someone she loves most in a very Powder-y position. Caitlyn struggles to replace her mother, and Ambessa very tactically places herself in that authoritative role to give Caitlyn the motherly guidance she no longer has - essentially replacing Mel in the process. Everyone is being shuffled around, and very few of them are taking it well.

It's interesting to me that, amidst all this replacing, two roles are conspicuously not being filled: Silko and Vander. Silko's death has left a gaping wound in Jinx and Sevika's operation, and neither of them are attempting to replace him - instead, they're trying to figure out their dynamic without him between them. In a strange way, it feels like Jinx is maturing. She's beginning to recognize that she doesn't actually destroy everything she touches; there are things in this world she CAN fix. This is extremely un-Silko of her. If anything, it's a genuinely healthy extrapolation of her dreams as Powder - to be useful, to help. If she's reaching the point where she thinks she really CAN make things instead of just breaking them, that's a legitimately good sign.

Vi is the obvious candidate to become the new Vander, and I think she will eventually. The first three episodes have taken her some of the way along a very complicated journey. A lot of people have pointed out that she sacrificed every part of her identity to try and help Caitlyn in her grief - she put on the uniform of the people who killed her parents and sold out Vander, the people who tortured her in prison. She compartmentalized her love for Powder and convinced herself she could kill her for Caitlyn, even though she demonstrably couldn't. She packed away everything except her moral code, and then Caitlyn nearly shot a child to get to Jinx, so Vi stopped her. And so she learns that Caitlyn didn't appreciate anything of what she was asking of her. She didn't understand the weight of the sacrifice Vi was making for her. She didn't see Vi as a partner, only as a tool for getting her shot at Jinx, and when Vi broke from that purpose, Caitlyn police brutality'd her and abandoned her at the bottom of a hole. We've never seen Vi at this kind of rock bottom before, because she always had her identity, her stubbornness, her anger. She gave them up for love, and when her guard was down, she was punished for it. Vi is the character most reluctant to change. She voices it overtly; she sees everyone else changing, she begs it to stop. Everyone is preserved in her memory from before the night everything went wrong. Powder's not Jinx now, Powder is dead and Jinx is a new problem. Ekko is still "Little Man." I think Vi can't start becoming whoever she's meant to be until she gets past that terror of change, and it looks like she can't do that until she loses absolutely everything.

I'm less clear on what to expect from Caitlyn, but I think it's going to be fascinating. She's really at her worst in this part of the show, and it's incredibly interesting. Her unchallenged worldview is on full display: the undercity is disgusting and evil, the enforcers are the pinnacle of goodness now that the one bad apple has been excised. She was doing Vi a favor giving her the badge, obviously; Vi deserves the badge so she'll kick up whatever fuss she needs to in order to make it happen. Vi's one of the good ones, so Vi can't be like the other Zaunites, those animals. Her mother sealed up The Gray to keep them from asphyxiating from the pollution? Well, they killed her mother, so they don't deserve to breathe that free air anymore. Vi defies her one time and Caitlyn snaps into the only alternative she can currently understand: you're just like them, you're my enemy, you're beneath me. She never really made an effort to understand Vi's world because she clearly thought she was saving her from it. You don't deserve to be down there in the dirt, you deserve to be up here where it's nice. The dichotomy of Piltover Good, Zaun Bad is so deeply ingrained in her that her raw grief has left it completely exposed. If Vi won't help her, she deserves to be left down there. I want to see where they go with this, because Caitlyn's at her own kind of rock bottom right now - a sniper's fixation on her target causing her to hurt and cast away every other priority. Ambessa's correctly identified her as a weapon and is precisely aiming her wherever she needs her to destroy, and Caitlyn is so fixated on Jinx she can't even tell. I expect "what are you shooting for?" to come back in a big way.

I don't know WHAT the hell is going on with Jayce and I am so excited to figure it out. They really sold the whole "whoops you've been meddling with forces far beyond your comprehension just like Heinmerdinger said" thing and the implications are fascinating.

In the same way that Jinx seems to be sort of building a role all her own instead of taking someone's place, Viktor seems to be doing the same thing. He's not taking anyone's place; what he's up to is totally new. He's doing exactly what he wanted to back in season one - using hextech to help the people in most desperate need. He can heal the poisoning of Shimmer and the toxins in Zaun. He has what nobody else in this show has - a form of power that is curative and presently unchallenged. It isn't a fight for him, not like everything else has been. All he's ever cared about was alleviating suffering, and as far as we can tell, now he can. Nobody else was doing anything to help. I am very intrigued to see where this goes and how the magic system gets fleshed out around him.

I have a hunch that wild magic situation might be yeeting Ekko out of the timeline for a bit. The act 2 preview had him on the Remembrance Wall, so I assume the firelights are gonna presume him dead for a minute - bit of a bummer, but if he comes back with his canonical time powers I'll take it.

Minor note, I liked how they highlighted that the council hall was aggressively non-wheelchair-accessible. A very elegant way to underline how Piltover has never actually been a beacon of progress and opportunity.

Have you watched the new Arcane episodes?

my first "oh FUCK yeah" happened during the opening credits when I noticed Ekko's two shadows were moving like the hands on a clock and that momentum carried for basically the whole rest of the viewing experience

#arcane spoilers

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moonsdancer · 3 years ago

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Everyone in this scene is wrong (and lying). But also everyone in this scene is right. And Mel is the most right

A drive-by analysis of THAT ep7 scene.

The fandom reading of this scene has long been a source of frustration for me, which I've written about elsewhere in meta here and by way of fic here. Primarily because so much of the focus was on positioning Mel as a mean baddie conniving villain in opposition to Jayce and Viktor and / or using her evil politico-feminine wiles to drive a wedge between Jayce and Viktor (both readings reinforced by a distinct shippery lens, let's be honest). You can watch the full scene here and even the title of that video frames this scene in the ways I outlined above, it was the only somewhat full clip I could find.

But that's not what's happening in this scene.

All three characters have actually got three different and VALID positions and perspectives playing out here, and the show is wonderfully good enough to allow for that nuance even if fandom doesn't:

Mel, the pragmatist and strategist whose job it is to safeguard Piltover and identify threats is proposing the building of a defensive system to combat the clear, oncoming threat of a soon-to-be weaponized hex crystal. While we know in her heart she wants to foster peace, she believes that "war is a failure of statecraft" and she hopes to figure out a diplomatic solution but she's not unaware of the realities of the challenge confronting them (and she has some pretty clear blindspots that she has to confront as well re: how the council / Piltover are positioned). She is also shouldering the alarming news from foreign allies that potential enemies perceive Piltover as "vulnerable" due to the ongoing unrest in the undercity.

Jayce, who is caught between his role as a scientist and his position on the council, to which he was elevated explicitly to protect Piltover from oncoming threats after the two bombing incidents in ep4 and the theft of the hex crystal. He's always wanted hextech to "protect" and "improve lives" but he's also increasingly aware that the threats facing them may require some kind of active means of defense. He wants to take some kind of action, he always does and it's both his strength and his downfall. We also learn later in the episode that he's always dreamed of building magical hammers with which to play vigilante, so this notion of active martial-militarised "defense" has always been in him. Also, important to remember that Jayce by this point had already instituted some pretty reckless, sometimes fascist policies in his bid to "take action", including the decree to restrict movement from Zaun in the interests of protecting the city.

Viktor, sees himself as something of a pacifist-idealist and he's a Zaunite. He believes hextech should only be used to "help save lives", that they are "scientists not soldiers" and no amount of threat or danger justifies building a defense mechanism that may easily become a weapon that's used against the most vulnerable, and specifically against his people or innocents. For context, much like the two above, we can't read his aggression towards Mel and Jayce in this scene without recalling that mere hours before he had been detained on the bridge between the undercity and top-city like a criminal because of a decree that his best friend put in place. He's likely still justifiably smarting from the indignities of that experience.

Everyone in this scene is withholding information or outright lying.

Mel isn't telling the whole truth about her concerns for the city's safety and what she's heard from her allies, she is afraid and one can see it in her face throughout the scene, but she believes she's not in a position to express that.

Jayce isn't sharing that part of him very clearly does want to make weapons, and he already has ideas down for a prototype that he later completes in ep8 to go on the unsanctioned raid with Vi.

Viktor is lying about the potential of the hex crystal being weaponised at the beginning of this scene. I can only surmise he's lying because Viktor is not a stupid man. He recognises the skill and talent in the crude bomb in his hands, it doesn't take a genius to see that whoever built it could make even more advanced weapons EASILY. But he insists that it's "a stretch" - bullshit.

Everyone in this scene is right, too. BUT, and this is key, the show also wants to show the damning consequences of their stances / carry these positions to their likely damning conclusions.

Like really, I think as I've tried to outline above, each one of them has a pretty valid point of view.

Even Jayce, whom a lot of the fandom somewhat unfairly imo tends to dismiss as an impulsive idiot, makes some sense. If his raid with Vi had been carried out with a bit more foresight, it would've been a sound strategy to weaken Silco's power base. And yeah, the inaction has been a serious issue on many fronts. The narrative quickly forces Jayce to learn the most destructive / harmful conclusion of his approach to act first, think through the potential consequences later, when he kills a child.

Viktor is also correct that this is a slippery slope. It's dangerous to hide behind the notion of having "no choice but to do things" because that can so easily be used to justify reprehensible things. He, like Jayce, is forced to confront some harsh truths and his own hypocrisy when he accidentally kills Sky in his thirst to use the hexcore to strengthen his body.

Mel, who understands war and power plays better than anyone in the room, knows how precarious things are and that the city is essentially a powder keg. She's correct that the crystals will be weaponized and it'll come back to bite Piltover in the arse, and the show's own narrative proves her right (which is why I said above she's kind of the most right). As far as we know, they're all dead right now because no one ever got around to building a damn defense system. Thanks, guys. But like the other two, she's forced to confront the negative sides to her plan in the shape of her mother, who sees any move to develop hextech, even in much-needed defense as an opportunity to exploit for her own benefit and hunger for power.

tl;dr

The one thing this show is fairly good at is multipolar ideas and perspectives. In some instances, this may become frustrating. But in this scene it's one of the STRONGEST times that I feel like it's such a strong narrative choice because it gives us three distinct characters, with three distinct points of view, and none of them undermine each other - but they are held accountable and forced to learn. That's really mature writing.

The unfortunate thing is that so many fandom readings only acknowledge one side or actively shit on individual characters, which, and I'm not afraid to say this, is such a lazy, reductive way to read these three, their positions and the story as a whole, imo.

Anyway, this was meant to be a drive-by post but here we are. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

Other random questions I ponder because of this scene:

Does Viktor ever feel guilty about the fact that he's helped Piltover to widen the gap of inequality with Zaun as part of the Hextech innovator team, and is in some ways, kind of a sellout? Could make for interesting nuances to his journey next season. Is he deemed a sellout?

Just how long has Jayce been playing around with swaggy prototypes of hextech weapons. He was already dabbling prior to this scene at the Talis Forge. Hm.

If they make it out alive, will Mel get to say she told them so? Because I'd really like for that to happen, bye!

#viktor arcane #jayce talis #mel medarda #arcane meta #meljayvik #well kind of....

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st-just · 3 years ago

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Most of your Noxus take is correct but there are a couple of other things i feel like pointing out. Black Noxians are a New Lore thing, so theyre not mostly Black unless you meant morally. In their old lore they were The Place Evil People (who are white) Come From but now theyre trying to reframe it like no nation is specifically just full of bad people so much as the governments are bad while also trying to diversify previously all-white nations like the former Place Good People (who are white) Come From, Demacia (which has flipped conceptually to be very oppressive to anyone who uses magic, leading to a recent event in lore being a mass rebellion of mages).

The Medarda clan to me comes off as possibly Shuriman on origin based on their individual aesthetics and Mel's mom's accent. Shurima is a desert nation which had part of it conquered as Noxian territory, so that's not implausible.

Either way they take the "Only the Strong Survive" mentality literally (their motto is Strength Above All) and for all foreign affairs they are very imperialist/expansionist, trying to unify the world under the Noxian banner. Meanwhile on the inside it is just a lot of political intrigue and backstabbing and assassinations between competing noble houses. One of the places Mel painted is a sunny and happy place (in a sarcastic sense) called The Immortal Bastion so it gives you a certain idea of what kind of place Noxus is tbh.

Piltover used to be The Good Guy Steampunk city, Zaun was The Mad Scientist Chempunk city but when they revamped the lore they took a much more subtle approach and added some class war stuff instead.

With all of this, though, surprisingly casting Jayce as Latino (both in casting and based on his mothers name and accent) and Caitlyn as Asian have been more of a racial shake-up in their world and lore than Black Noxians. Typically their Asian coded characters have been from a place called Ionia, but here's Cait just being Asian without needing to be explained as Ionian immigrants.

Ah okay just Noxus is just basically ye old generic evil empire that they've been trying to backfill some nuance/internal drama in? Yeah makes sense.

Come From, Demacia (which has flipped conceptually to be very oppressive to anyone who uses magic, leading to a recent event in lore being a mass rebellion of mages).

Oh cool I might eventually get a half-decent Dragon Age tv show after all. Preemptively saying the mages did nothing wrong.

I mean I'd just kind of assumed Piltover was kind of just Runeterra's New York or similar, honestly. Like, sufficiently large center of trade and economic growth (and with a sufficiently prestigious university) that previous waves of immigrants are just integrated into the social fabric in time for the next ones to arrive. (Also, racism just doesn't seem to be a thing? Which presumably makes the process rather smoother).

The bigger question is how Viktor has a Russian accent when literally noone else in the show does. Gotta assume there's a Little Moscow buried somewhere in the Undercity, I guess.

#reply #anon #arcane #television

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nathaniacolver · 20 days ago

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(BEWARE: LONG ASS POST AHEAD. LITERALLY 3500 WORDS. IT TOOK ME TEN WHOLE MINUTES TO READ OVER AGAIN, AND I WROTE THE DANG THING. AND BEWARE THE GIFS IF YOU'RE ON MOBILE. SORRY)

ok here's the cornplating essay of all my thoughts:

CHARACTER & DIALOGUE ANALYSES (aka, vi v. silco):

we know that this is vi's childhood home. how betrayed vi must've felt to see that huck literally led silco, vi's NUMBER ONE OPP, to the only place she felt comfortable being, were she to have died from sevika's stab. it's no wonder she calls him a "filthy traitor" when she sees him in s2 -- yes, he helped cait get the potion to heal vi, but he also did so just to sell them right into silco's hands.

silco dangling the shimmer above the homeless, and laughing at their desperation -- THIS is what silco wanted to make of zaun!! at this point, he wants zaun's independence so that people like caitlyn will stay out of his business as he exploits pretty much anyone he can get his hands on, and he does so by targeting the vulnerables -- homeless here, kids in his shimmer factory. idk how to tell y'all this, but silco represents all of the billionaires that we hate in IRL society -- yes, he may love jinx, and may be an appropriate father figure to her. doesn't mean he's not #1 opp for the entirety of zaun.

"vander's prodigy" -- his FIRST WORDS. do you notice how silco is taking out his years-long grudge with vander against a GIRL? one who just got out of prison for 7 years, having been wrongfully thrown in? he's grown to hate vander, he hates vi because of her association to him and bc she protected him in the cannery, and NOW he hates vi bc she is the only person capable of unlocking powder from out of jinx. that's why he freaks out so badly when he hears she's back ("from the dead?!?!!" (s1e4)). he knows that jinx could lose her loyalty to him, if she realizes that her sister never intended to leave her in the first place.

(i'll never not believe that silco was a narcissistic parent to jinx -- he loved her, but in a very fucked-up way. he purposefully tried to separate jinx from vi. JINX FROM VI, BASICALLY HER MOTHER FIGURE FOR HER CHILDHOOD. all bc he holds a grudge against vander. he cherishes jinx's loyalty to his "cause" (exploiting the undercity for his and his friends' personal gain) more so than he does being her father.)

"what have you done with my sister?" "i freed her...she's more than i ever imagined" -- like i said, silco's a big, fat narcissist. parents "imagining" lives or jobs or roles for their children is a pretty narcissistic thing to do. truly loving parents would support their children in whatever they choose. only narcissists try to pigeonhole their own children this hard into roles they never wanted (jinx specifically rejects the "zaun's hero" role in s2). IN CONTRAST -- vi never imagined anything for jinx's life except that she'd have a better one ("i want powder to have more than that and i'm willing to fight for it" (s1e2))

(PARALLEL SCENE TO ABOVE -- jinx approaches silco after having stolen the gemstone, and hugs him -- silco's gaze shifts from jinx to the gemstone, and then back to jinx. he's also trying to figure out which he cares for more. this is where the "is there anything so undoing as a daughter?' line comes from -- he's trying to figure out what to do. and pls correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't think we ever get a definitive answer on this? he negotiates a free zaun with jayce, and then jinx kidnaps him, etc. ...)

"i'm gonna find her, and erase whatever fucked up delusions you put in her head, but first? i'm gonna bring your bullshit empire down all around you." -- BUCKLE UP. this is the line from these scene: 1) vi specifically states that her first priority is to destroy silco's empire. she's known that he is evil and exploitative and cares little for the people of zaun, except as possible puppets or workers. in fact, she's known this for seven years, and apparently so does the rest of zaun. ("he worked for silco?" "uh, they all do, how does anyone not know this?" from caitvi stillwater scene). she's been worrying after her sister for seven years, and even still, she understands that silco IS the kingpin, the hingepoint, the KEY to all the shit that happens in zaun. if vi had it her way, she would've killed silco first before reuniting with her sister (this might've messed up jinx more, but vi hasn't seen jinx & silco's relationship yet, so she dk), but the flare switches her plan, and she MAKES GOOD ON THE PROMISE SHE MADE YEARS AGO. 2) vi knows silco's character, and that's why despite not having seen the man for seven years, she knows that he's groomed jinx into sharing his own opinions and forcing her into his cause. the cannery ensures that vi knows silco likely better than most of the undercity does, and that's exactly why she loathes, abhors, hates him so much. 3) i will never understand the people (including vi defenders) that say "vi never cared about zaun". HELLO?????? she DOES. tell me ab these quotes from vi -- "why? they've [piltover's] got plenty while we're down here scraping together coins. when did you get so comfortable living in someone else's shadow?" (s1e1) // "why answer to them? these are our streets, someone should remind them of that!(s1e1) // "they won't stop! we need to fight back. and if you won't, i will" ... "what i don't understand is how you [vander] can work with them!! [enforcers]" (s1e2) // "what? you wanna negotiate with him? this is insane, did you learn NOTHING? you can't talk to him. he hates you, everything you stand for. he will never back down." (s1e8) // "you [jayce] wanna make silco pay for what he's done?" ... "silco controls the undercity with shimmer. shut down his supply, and it's only a matter of time before his own people turn on him." (s1e8) // "you've always been a part of this. you just never had to look it in the eye. one dead kid? there's hundreds more where he came from, thanks to silco and thanks to people like you, who stuck their heads in the dirt." (jayce: "this is over.") vi: "not for me." (s1e9). tell me -- why does she beat up the jaw guy in prison? bc he works for silco, her #1 opp and part of the reason zaun is suffering so badly. tell me -- why does she accompany caitlyn to the council hearing? bc she's hoping that they will listen to a zaunite's perspective and will actually do something about it. tell me -- why does she find jayce to go destroy the shimmer factory? bc she understands that that's the way to take silco's empire down. 4) this is why no one should be surprised that vi joins cait's strike team in s2 - vi would love nothing more than to destroy anything & everything related to silco's empire. what was cait's plan? jinx, shimmer, agents loyal to silco. the jinx part hurts, yes, and her wearing the enforcer badge is a little iffy, but if it helps her to eliminate shimmer and silco's goons? the things that she witnessed ruining the undercity when she was 15? sign vi right up. if that's what the badge stands for now, she'll wear it (i guess?). (also, reminder that vi's champion title in league is literally "vi: the piltover enforcer"). 5) in summary, vi is just as much a firelight as ekko is bc she has ALWAYS fought to protect people from shimmer and silco. (who do you think ekko learned his sense of justice from ????!?!?!?!?!!?)

"you don't know your limits, girl. it's what got vander killed, it's what drove your sister away, and it's why i'm here right now." -- silco acknowledges vi's power. that's why she's his #1 opp - because she's one of the only people that can truly stop him (by stopping jinx from helping him, but also by beating his goons and then HIM up). silco, ever the lying manipulator, tries to pin all the blame, all of vi's guilt and shame on her power, in an effort to suppress it. he knows if she can't separate her power from her guilt, that she won't want to engage with it at all. luckily, vi doesn't give him any credence, bc like i said earlier, she knows silco's character. "yeah well -- you talk to much." QUEEN SHIT

FILMOGRAPHY ANALYSES:

zaun's "savior" - this could be a reach, but seeing as this show has a LARGE number of other christian allegories (jinx's baptism; viktor in season 2), i think vi's first view of silco after years being posed like THIS is a reference. silco hands shimmer to the vulnerables as if he is providing them salvation. his dialogue confirms this - "i freed her", right as he releases the shimmer into their hands - he would think himself jinx's savior (again, narcissism).

vi and silco are intentionally framed as being at odds. a couple examples:

they're obviously framed as enemies here, but it's one versus 5, or 6, or more. vi is strong on her own (cait is behind her, but not in frame); silco is only strong in how many people he can manipulate to serve him (sevika & jinx both acknowledge this in s2e2 - sevika: "i can't believe you're [silco] dead, and i'm still mopping up your messes". // jinx: "big baby couldn't do it himself." sevika: "couldn't do much himself. about now he'd have me all over the lanes, running his collections" jinx: "building his weapons" "making his deals" "exploding his enemies")

vi approaches him (again, knowing her power) and later, silco lets the shimmered, new goons approach her (his inherent weakness). the camera is angled to let us see how puny silco is when compared to vi's fist, and she clenches "him" in her grip

wide shot, with vi and silco at either end, silco left, vi right. vi's in the light - good, illumination. silco & his goons are in the dark - evil, concealment. the border btwn light & dark falls perfectly down the middle. dare i say - vi and silco are also foils? and guess what that shot transitions directly to? jinx, the subject of the dialogue, the subject of both of their affections, the girl who is literally on the fence/border/edge of choosing between these two. notice how symmetric jinx's shot is? she's not sure which half of her being is correct, true, honest.

jinx walks up to the edge, takes a look left at the gemstone (silco's side, his plan/cause), and right at the flare (vi's side, as her protector, with zaun behind it) that she was given YEARS ago. clearly, she always held on to some smidgen of hope that vi was still out there. AND WE ALL KNOW WHAT SHE CHOOSES -- that's why this scene is so powerful, because we see the two people jinx loves most in the world being at odds in every possible way, and whom does she choose? her sister. to roaring, swelling, beautiful music and filmography

jinx is also right at the edge, at a physical precipice, representing the metaphorical precipice. she seems to live dangerously like this (her airship base having no protections whatsoever). we see both jayce and viktor in similar positions, after they think their lives are over, and that they've lost all agency. the twist is -- this is one of jinx's ultimate acts of agency. silco, or vi? and she chooses vi. her power in this choice is shown by her physical height, in this world (which plays into the extreme zoom out later) -- she is at the utmost power/has utmost agency in this moment, to show who she loves more, and who she seeks.

match cuts from caitlyn looking up -> jinx looking down -> caitlyn looking back up -- match cuts between these two are WAY more common throughout the show than you might think. showing them both as foils -- caitlyn tries to target the systematic/institutionalized issues by hitting at their core/root (why she's willing to go down into the depths of the undercity in the first place), and jinx tries to escape them by ascending above, by distancing herself (vi wouldn't have either of them any other way, btw)

shimmer barefoot shot -- STAY WITH ME -- some would say that this emphasizes the "brutish"-ness of these new shimmer-transformed mutants (? idk right word), but i'm simply reminded of hitchcock's Psycho (1960), and how we only know that slashes actually landed because of the way we see the blood fall around the woman's feet. bare feet are a sign of vulnerability, again reinforcing the fact that silco targets the most vulnerable in his community to do his bidding

vi turns around (which gets a double shot, one of them an extreme close-up, if you look closely), turns away from silco's lying words and does what she knows best: punches, at the base of the rebar -- it pings upwards, and topples the whole building. this is exactly her power - she finds the hingepoint (silco), and strikes at it directly, literally "bring[ing] [silco's] bullshit empire down all around [him]". SHE MAKES GOOD ON HER PROMISES.

for the first time, silco is forced to look upwards, at the metaphorical empire he's built, and how easily it can be toppled by one singular girl.

the blank, black screen - they knew they had an emmy-winning scene. the blankness (except for music chords) is like a visual palate cleanser - it primes us to pay full attention to whatever happens next. the silence does the same - our ears are also tuned in, perked up, etc., just to see what audio cues they drop on us.

the framing of jinx's three shots right before the climax -- they look like they were animated, and then deliberately flipped upside down, which i love. jinx is about to have her entire paradigm of life, her entire worldview shifted, based on how this effort goes. she's choosing vi, and that's about to flip her entire world upside-down, bc for the last seven years, all she's been told about is how her sister left her. the gemstone is now no longer visible, despite having been in her hand just moments earlier. extreme close-up as jinx replays vi's words, showing that she's making her decision.

immediate flip to right-side-up medium shot --> BEAUTIFUL, expertly done zoom out to ULTRA WIDE establishing shot, to all of zaun, with jinx at the center. this is no longer a family matter - what happens in the next act will affect all of zaun. she is the key, she's the true hingepoint of zaun (which we see play out in s2). jinx's blue hair, and then flare, are the only real bits of color, aka of life.

match cut of vi & silco in same position, facing opposite directions (silco left, vi right, again) -- still opps. also, vi has people she can actually rely on (cait helping her up), while silco is virtually alone, without his status as zaun's druglord dictator.

orbital shot around jinx (2 clips stitched together) - another film way of saying that everything in the rest of her life (AND the rest of the plot!!!) LITERALLY revolves around her. this is a life-changing decision. ghosts of mylo and claggor remind her of the life she once knew (as do the film scratches/bits of her psychosis), which she is actively calling back by lighting the flare.

shaky cam going in & out of focus, showing the wildness of silco's blind rage (3 clips together) -- again, this is his true character. he slaps his henchman (like all villains don't hesitate to do), kicks a homeless guy to death. he's mad bc vi has outsmarted him, escaping his attempts to remove her permanently

the purple sign flickering (silco's empire is crumbling around him) cuts to the spotlights that the enforcers have set up on the bridge -- all is about to be illuminated to piltover (silco's villainy, marcus'/enforcer corruption)

cait & vi like bullets, then shooting out of whatever tunnel thing they were in - they are the sniper's shots that could take out silco & his empire. however, they don't know that marcus is waiting exactly to take them out.

overhead, wide-angle shot of silco standing in the midst of the "eye" of the sign -- again, all is about to come into sight, to be illuminated (one of the brightest shots of this whole sequence, may i add? my laptop is BLARING at me alskdfjsalkfja)

the walls of silco's empire may have crumbled, but marcus is erecting new ones, right at the border into piltover. silco's empire has spread far enough that one loss does not ensure defeat (but, cait & vi don't know that yet)

MUSIC/LYRICS:

i clipped the original video based off of when "guns for hire", the song, started and stopped playing. this scene is literally cut to the music.

chris cornell has a pretty good youtube vid where he breaks down the chords of this song, as well as a few others.

i'll give my rudimentary musician's analysis:

despite us basically hearing the instrumental to the chorus from the very beginning of this scene (without the full drama of the strings), we never resolve to the major key until the climax, when jinx pulls the flare. our brains are smart - intuitively, we all know (we've heard in numerous other songs) that a minor key has an equal relative major, yet, up until the climax, the backing music tricks us into thinking we'll just stay in the minor key the entire time. the reason the song is so eargasm-y & chill-inducing is bc we finally go there - we resolve this minor verse and pre-chorus into a decidedly major chorus climax. they visually and sonically give us so much space (and of course, a classic violin, high-strung high note to add tension) right before hitting the climax -- again, prepping us for some massive release, which they FLAWLESSLY deliver on, with such a visually and aurally FULL climax.

(in the actual song, there's a bass pedal tone and then the violin to deliver the tension, the expectation of release)

additionally, right as vi punches the tower, we hear the music sort of bend downwards a half-step - something that also tricks our brains into expecting the resolution back up the half-step, to the key we started in. it gives off an eerie feel.

right at the climax, the violins are in an ascending line, one that peaks at "world's", in the lyrics. the bass is simultaneously dropping, and staying low. the simultaneity of those two creates the "swelling" adjective so often used to describe music. the beginning of the climax is still slow enough (fastest moving notes are the eighth notes in the cello, which provide us with a sense of motion)

second run-around of the chorus is in has another set of violins going in double-time (arpeggiated sixteenth notes). it matches the beginning of silco's tantrum, builds tension as we begin to wonder if vi will even see the slare.

then it drops as the chorus ends, and we're back to the "bare bones tracks" of the piano instrumental, and a high violin tone, and twangy bass (? idk). repeating measures in music often signal either a build-up or a resolution, and seeing as we've already hit the clear climax, this must be the resolution! and it is :)

i swear not enough people care enough to look up the lyrics to this climactic, cathartic, release of a song. literal eargasm EVERY time, regardless.

"kiss your perfect day goodbye" - jinx flare scene - jinx is decidedly choosing to disrupt the status quo, which, honestly, had been working out for her pretty well. silco rage scene - he's lost his chance at eliminating vi, his #1 opp.

"because the world's on fire" - vi and silco at odds, still. enforcers at bridge scene - everything's fucked up - enforcers are working under a corrupt sheriff, silco's empire threatened, and vi & caitlyn now have to warn piltover as quickly as possible.

"tuck your innocence goodnight" - jinx orbital w/ mylo & clag ghosts - she lost her innocence the night she accidnetally blew up the cannery, but she's willing to revisit it now, in hopes of vi showing up.

"you sold your friends like guns for hire" - obviously this can bc about huck selling caitvi out for shimmer, but it's also about silco! he doesn't really have any friends - he only has mercenaries, "guns for hire". he lost his friends the moment he chose to let his rage and grudge fester instead of figuring out how to forgive vander. also! "right as your marionettes cut their strings and run away" is a lyric later in this song that goes right along with the idea that this line pertains to silco.

"go play with your blocks" - referring to childlike innocence (vi & jinx lost long ago), or false illusions of grandeur (silco's dreams of his zaunite empire).

"and now you'll pay when these walls come tumbling down" - again, everything will be illuminated, and that'll hurt literally everyone involved. the corruption was sealed long ago.

keep in mind! this is all a culmination of editors, storyboard artists, animators, musicians, and writers, who clearly must've communicated over and over again on exactly how they wanted this scene to go down, on what tone they wanted it to have. and it delivered, in every possible way. beautiful in every single regard.

~~~

i should just make a youtube video using this as the script, shouldn't i. 😪😪😪

full guns for hire scene

bc i feel like people only ever talk about the climax! the climax is GOOD because of all of the musical, tonal, and character buildup*

#vi defender on main I DON'T CARE #i scored a 5 on the ap lit exam exactly so i could come for all the idiots who lack media comprehension #i'm also no film student but i DO know a thing or two!#i'm sure others have had similar thoughts but the only creator's thoughts i've seen on this scene is schnee on youtube #6 hours just for a tumblr essay......🚬🚬🚬 this should've just been a youtube video #.....#yes i used an online mp4 to gif convertor. and what about it?????#RIP TO ANYONE ON MOBILE #how many times can i say “vi; silco's number one opp”#i love caitlyn bad but this whole scene she did nothing except give vi a very smart idea. like go queen give us nothing #all in all i DO think it's important to analyze this scene as a whole soooo many people just watch the climax #but SIR. how are you going to APPRECIATE the climax without the build-up?!?!!?!?!!?!?!?#not me originally saying i'd write this up after dinner 💀💀💀 girl the demons would get to you !!!#arcane #arcane season 1 #vi arcane #vi character analysis #silco character analysis #guns for hire #jinx character analysis #......on a scale from 1 to 10. how obvious is it that i'm currently unemployed

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takerfoxx · 3 years ago

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Arcane, Season 1, Episode 7, "Oil and Water," First Impressions!

Evolution does not always mean improvement.

It was inevitable that our game characters would eventually take on their final form, become as we know them in LoL itself. Unfortunately, that is not always a positive thing.

In the case of Vi and Jayce, they finally take up their iconic weapons and act as the defenders of Piltover, and we get a pretty awesome fight as they work together to fight off Silco’s Shimmer-induced henchmen. However, immediately after they are treated to a harsh lesson of who ultimately suffers in war, and the consequences of meeting an evil with direct force. Were they wrong to act? No, not necessarily. But to sit atop one’s throne and order violence for the “greater good” is one thing. It’s another to see the innocents that will suffer and die as a result of your order, especially when it’s by your own hand.

In the case of Jinx, Silco’s love for her compels him to seek help from probably the last person one ought to go to in such a situation. Singed is effective, but like the proverbial monkey paw seeking his help will often make you wish that you hadn’t. I mean, dude had to freaking tranq Silco just to keep him from freaking out because of what he was going to do to Jinx. Silco!

Regardless, Jinx’s body has been saved, but her mind has been further fractured, and now she is loose, and coming for Cait, whom she blames for taking Vi away from her.

Also, Singed has a daugher? Was it Rio the Salamander? It seems like something he'd do.

And then we get to poor Viktor, another excellent reason why seeking the help of Singed is a bad idea. Yes, combining Shimmer with those runes and touching the hexcore is “healing” him, replacing his corrupted flesh with metal. But even as he was able to walk and run for the first time, it was hard to feel any triumph for him, because we all know what happens next. It’s not enough to simply restore strength to his leg. His entire body is failing, and so he desperately gives more and more to the hexcore.

And that results in the loss of his childhood friend Sky, poor girl. My man is about to snap.

Though seriously, lock the door from the inside next time you meddle with powers beyond mortal ken.

On a brighter note, Heimerdinger seems to have taken Jayce’s words to heart and has resolved to make up for his neglect of his people and goes to the Undercity to see if he can help. Doesn’t work out at first, but that leads him to Ekko, fortunately still alive, and the two form a bond from their love of machines and their desire to help their people. If ever there was a more unlikely pair that could do the most good, it’s them.

I admit, I was somewhat surprised how little Mel had to do in this episode, considering that she got the lead-in flashback. But aside from that tiff with her mom and the council meeting, she didn’t do a whole lot (unless she did and I just forgot about it). She is an interestingly morally grey character, and one of the few that I really can’t tell where her story will end up. Same for her mom. Why is she really there?

As for Vi, her problems are a lot more personal. She feels that she failed to bring the help to the Undercity like she promised, she feels that she failed in her duty to protect Piltover, and we get her sobbing in the shower over the memory of Vi walking away from her in the rain as water pounds down both in reality and in her mind, a clear metaphor for the oil and water, but also possibly something else often associated with women and water and-

Look, they’re being anything but subtle. Cait is falling for Vi, and much like Jinx, she feels rejected by her, but unlike Jinx, she has no one to blame for it.

Unfortunately, she so happens to be that person that Jinx blames for costing her her sister, and now the newly healed and completelyderanged sister of her crush is on the loose, things are about to get a whole lot worse for her.

Only one episode left. My body is ready, but my heart is not.

#arcane #league of legends #lol #vi #jayce #caitlyn #jinx #silco #singed #viktor #heimerdinger #ekko #mel #ambessa #oil and water #reaction

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bobobono · 3 years ago

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I have no one to talk about Arcane with so here I am

Love Mel, Victor, Vi, Sevika, EKKO

Caitlyn is cool, idk I just feel 🤷

I don’t hate Jayce but god why is this man so quick to fight

Jinx is so unhinged after the time skip I love it

Multiple times I thought oh [character] is dead! But they wouldn’t kill then … right????

To keep my sanity, I googled many characters to find out if they lived or not

I agree with Vi about doin smth but don’t agree with Jayce about doing smth… maybe I just don’t like him

Thought Mel was gonna be more evil and vile when I saw her and was ready to fall in love with a villain, but obviously she isn’t and I fell in love anyways

I also thought the show was gonna be about the sisters getting separated after Jinx is discovered to have some supernatural ability (like the mages they talked about) and she gets sent to the academy. And then there’s a war between the topside and undercity, and they would be on opposing sides. Like I was half expecting Viktor to take her in …. Obviously I was wrong in many ways

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incognito-duo · 3 months ago

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Pls anyone correct me if I misunderstood any of this, but to me, it just made me think about how Jinx attacking the council is seen as bad and terrorism (but if the sheep's always being hurt by the wolf, would it be bad for the sheep to fight back? Would it be bad for the sheep to kill the wolf to ensure no one else in the pack dies?) But Cait can totally just pollute Zaun with toxic gas cus PILTOVER CONTROLS THEIR AIR???

When Vi wants to get revenge on Silco, to kill him, mess up his entire shimmer factory, she didn't care who she was hurting. But she still felt sympathy and stopped when a child got hurt, even though she wanted to continue. Jayce stopped her from getting her revenge on Silco - Piltover's Wonder Boy is telling Vi, a Zaunite who's been deeply hurt by Silco and couldn't get her sister from him cus she was taken by enforcers at age 14 - because it was dangerous and would hurt too many people. Because it was too violent - a violence that she's seen and gotten used to, a violence that she endures every day, one that's inflicted on her and the rest of Zaun from Topside.

So we have Zaunites who want revenge, but they're stopped or seen as bad, criminals, dangerous, going too far. But Caitlyn? She can become a decorated officer immedtately after getting her mom's key, she can LITERALLY POLLUTE AND TAKE AWAY ZAUN'S ABILITY TO BREATHE??? (The gasp I did when I heard the Kirammen archive thing say "The undercity deserves to breathe" LORDDDD LOOK ME IN THE EYE-) and it's ok in Piltover's eyes. It's needed, these are necessary evils. It's seen as different as Vi trying to get revenge on Silco, different from Jinx blowing up the council.

Cait asks Vi to take up a enforcer badge because, in her eyes, that's the only valid way to get revenge. To do it her way, to do it as a enforcer. In Caitlyn's eyes, Vi is one of the "good ones." (And Vi, due to being attatched to her past, let's Caitlyn believe that. She plays the part, she works with enforcers, she BECOMES one - because her attachment to her past makes her... a coward, I'll say it I'm sorry �� like Vi your girl is walking around saying she's a decorated officer, she's not the kind girl you think she is. She "changed" the moment she decided she can let toxic gas out in Zaun and you let her to do that without any protest. The truth is that Cait was always capable of that imo.)

Cait respects Ekko because he wants to stop Silco, which aligns with what Piltover wants. The moment he started calling her out about being a enforcer, about how they work with Silco, about how they're oppressive and killers, she's instantly in his face denying it. Zaunites are only respected if they align with Topside, if they aren't, then screw you. (And your water and air, cus I was yelling with Ekko when Jayce was like "but it's far away from the fissures." Alsooo, yes Jayce deserves to be chewed out for that, but Heimerdinger should be too...? He was a councilman too, and though he was one of the better ones and WAS correct about the Arcane and didn't deserve to be kicked out like that, he was complacent with what was going on in Zaun. But anyway-)

"She's in your blood" when Caitlyn said that to Vi - OH MY GOSHHH. It soldified that Caitlyn wasn’t on both sides, cus you can never actually be on both sides! She's for Piltover, she's a enforcer, she'll kill and hunt Zaunites like animals, she'll pollute their air and water, and she leaves Vi when Vi tries to stop Caitlyn from trying to shoot at a CHILD. (I WAS TWEAKING WATCHING THAT-) She truly thinks that if Vi were to dare say that she's wrong, it's cus she's from the Undercity, that she's born wrong, that she's just like Jinx and isn't "one of the good ones." (You telling me that Cait wasn't in her head justifying that it's ok to endanger a kid cus they're a Zaunite? That they're on Jinx's side?)

When Zaun gets revenge, it's a crime. When Piltover gets revenge, it's justice. And it makes me so very sad and angry.

(This is why Ekko is the best because he's not like Vi where she works with enforcers, but he isn't like Silco, where they were hurting Zaun by controlling them with Shimmer. Ekko is the only character who truly has done not a single thing wrong and is the only one who consistently cares and wants the better for Zaun. Cus like... you can argue that Jinx is fighting for Zaun as a more personal thing cus she's angry about Silco's death, it's less so about wanting to build up Zaun. Well, maybe it will be, but at this moment no - Silco wanted a independent Zaun too. He's not a good man by any means, but that want is valid and shared and is also villainized by Piltovers. Again, I'm very new to the show still and really wanna hear others if I misunderstood something. Ekko is still the best)

I don't really go here (in the sense that I don't engage directly with the Arcane fandom) but I just wanted to point out how the conversation between Caitlyn and Vi where Vi is offered the badge as a test of her loyalty is a prime example of how the show is constantly asking its audience to think about who is allowed to grieve and take revenge and who is not. You can see that theme reverberate throughout their interactions for the rest of the first act; idk if that's something folks are discussing in here but that's what's on the front of my mind rn

#bigsisrb #this is very obvious like OP said if you watched the second season #btw act II dropped today I'mma be watching with my friendsss!!#arcane #arcane season 2 #arcane spoilers #i love ekko #he's the only valid one-#like 100% valid

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