#jayvik if you squint i suppose

[uranium235s]

vestige of affection

+ flat color below because why not :D

insert something interesting here

[oodlyenough]

well now that i think i've talked about more or less all of arcane s2 i suppose i should also address The thing for me personally, which as anyone who followed me in 2022 knows was jayvik lmao

they are simultaneously the unquestionable high point of s2 for me while still also being pretty frustrating. i was never very excited for season 2 tbh because after spending time in fandom and learning a bit about the Sacred Texts of the impending lore, i was dubious of how s1 would lead into that and felt like we were going to get some square peg/round hole characterization and plot points to match up with league and the infamous "divorce era". i was particularly skeptical of viktor, whom I (unpopular opinion here i know) did not feel was set up for a villain arc, and I also felt all this would happen to a backdrop of the show mashing the no homo button repeatedly the way they did in season 1

so in that sense s2 did absolutely nothing i expected and was significantly better for it. jayce in particular had probably the best/most/perhaps only satisfying arc in season 2 for me. i loved him getting attacked by the mom of that kid he killed, i loved him falling down a hole in silent hill to confront his own bisexuality, i loved being validated three years later that he didn't give a single fuck about what viktor was doing with the hexcore lmao

i also loved many of the broader ship moments: loved loved loved the nonconsensual hexcoring to start the season, loved the salo convo, loved (generally) the council chamber fight, LOVED the convo next to dead clicker jayce about "in every possible timeline, only you", looooooooved 90% of the astral plane power of love sequence, loved the reveal viktor gave him that damn bracelet in the first place lmfaooaofhfl. lots of those scenes were very beautiful or hit beats i wanted them to hit and i was generally pleasantly shocked by how much their relationship was central to the final act.

but ... the downside was that imo for a vast majority of his screentime viktor felt like a different character, and not even really in the "possessed by malevolent demon cube" way that was (maybe???????) the intent. just in a flip-flopy way where i could never tell from scene to scene why he was doing anything or how much i was supposed to believe it was really him vs the hexcore and then it all culminated in a speech about weaknesses and imperfections that i don't feel reflects any of the character i saw in season 1. if I really squint, i can kind-of imagine some emotional trajectories to explain things scene by scene, but it overall is just a mess to me. if i try to imagine writing season 2 fic i wouldn't even know where to start because i have no idea what's going on in viktor's head the whole time

in conclusion: my most confused yeah boi ever??????

[everyones-least-favorite-bard]

(arcane s2 spoilers!!!)

i like legitimately feel cheated. like ive been aware of the show since it dropped and i avoided watching it on principle but then the s2 clips started dropping and like listen. im principled only to an extent. and the extent is jayce with a beard. so i watched s1 and it was nice and then act i of s2 came out and it was REALLY promising but then. gesturing vaguely. the everything

like listen i like big cosmic yaoi as much as the next guy but not only was it seemingly at the expense of EVERYTHING ELSE in the show it also. isnt. that good? its fine its just not like. idk a lot of shit jayce says to viktor while hes in viktors hex-mindscape-palace-whatever rubs me the wrong way. its all just vapid like "youre perfect just the way you are" platitudes with no real meaning idk there were better ways to express a lot of what i think jayce was intending to say without it sounding vaguely. eugh.

and i mean its somewhat hypocritical esp coming from an orvie to be mad about giant whole plot spanning bootstrap paradoxes but also. im so mad. we lost a potentially really interesting exploration of classism and imperialism in this visually stunning steampunk-esque world and we got fucking cheated for diet madohomu im killing myself. oh it was viktor all along. theyve been tied together this whole time. everything that happened in between viktor saving him and jayce reaching the other world via the wild rune was because of them. butterfly motif moment. so no one elses decisions really meant anything. its been posthumously overwritten as the jayvik show. are you fucking KIDDING me

THIS WAS THE SISTERS SHOW!!! THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE SISTERS SHOW!! WITH YURI ON THE SIDE AND FLASHES OF YAOI IF YOU SQUINTED. NOT THIS!!! seeing that fuckass jinx + vi record on the intro of every episode of s2 still pisses me off YOU ARE LYING!! YOU LIE TO ME YOU LIE!! IT ISNT ABOUT THEM ANYMORE YOURE LYING