#jinx and vi keep getting orphaned

[theladyofrosewater]

General Arcane season two thoughts while Im still shaking

NGL I thought Vi and Jinx's mom, felicity, was in a polycule with Vander and Silco when I watched that scene so I'm incorporating that into my headcanons

WHERE THE FUCK IS ECHO WHERE IS MY BOI

Mel is a mage! or something! but she's smart and can do magic now so keep girl bossing girliepop

Singed is Corin Reveck!!!! He's Dr Reveck and he has Orianna in the coffin like a fairytale princess!! MY GIRL ORIANNA IS HERE (sorta)

Side note it looks like they may have de-aged Orianna??? which I'm not a big fan of since I'm worried it may take away some of her agency as a character also like unless Orianna is the vgu her league design is just going to be....... look I don't want to get into it unless I get an ask about it all right

Vi's pitfighter arc really was just the montage huh? welp she made up with Jinx so sisterhood????yay???

Sevika just dipped didn't she

Viktor just straight up started a commune and was giving up pieces of himself and probably even parts of Sky so they could help people.... my selfless little babies

Jinx getting to be Isha's big sister was so sweet until Isha blew herself up, like honey Jinx is gonna snap again

not a big fan of Maddie and Caitlyn but I've seen worse

Something fucking broke Jayce's mind like TERRIBLY, I'm still pissed at him and it's still on sight since he RE-ORPHANED JINX AND VI and also murdered like a fuck ton of people (also he might have murdered sky again, babygirl can not catch a break)

Also Jayce fully being the reason why Viktor turns into the machine herald... my heart can't take it like worstie you created the monster you were scared of facing

Vander :(

Caitlyn is like less evil now so..... a win???????

[night-triumphantt]

I have some thoughts about the arcane ending w nowhere to go but uh, if ur not here for some critique keep it pushing loll

Now that I’ve had a day to digest I’m actually v disappointed w the way the story gave up on its revolutionary messaging. The focus of season one is the piltover and zaun plot, the oppression of Zaun and its impacts on the characters, it is how vi and powder are orphaned, it’s why viktor is disabled, it is why the undercity struggles, Zauns independence is what silco was fighting for, vander and silcos ideological disagreements are based on it etc etc. the tensions between the two cities is rising and rising and then it just, fizzles out and pivots and makes viktor the main antagonist without any recognition of how he got here. And don’t get me started on how there’s zero consequences for cait who is?? Still an enforcer??

The plot highlights through Vi that the enforcers are an oppressive arm of a system w how she was treated as a CHILD and even as an adult and she betrays her ideals, to do what she thinks is right bc she thinks she has to take out her sister and bc cait asked her to do so as an enforcer. And then in doing so she betrays her ideals so aggressively that she is now the exact thing that hurt her, an enforcer, traumatizing a child, utilizing the gas on the undercity, excusing the consequences. And when she faces Caitlyn, cait obfuscates and says she wouldn’t have missed even tho that’s not *better*. Bc ok let’s say she didn’t miss, she just kills jinx in front of isha? and she just gassed the city w what we know is toxic gas? And then she discards vi bc vi isn’t going along with what she wants. Cait then is never shown reckoning w the biases and cruel things she’s done and said after that. There is ONE conversation w her and Vi and it’s framed as Ambessa is the issue which, she is partially but like, topside enforcers were all behind her and Cait was quick to lean into all her preconceived notions of zaunites. (Speaking of making what’s her name a mole was stupid and imo done just to make it so Cait doesn’t have to have that convo w her?? Idk)

Also, Vi goes on a drinking spree in which we never actually see her reckon w what she did as an enforcer, (it’s mostly framed around Cait) and then she hurts isha and,,, nothing?? No sorry?? Nothing. Vi has no plot that shows us her thoughts, her reckoning w what she did, or anything. In my opinion it’s bc the writers wanted cait/vi to work and if Vi actually had to think about what happened and what she did then they wouldn’t have worked out. Vi w/ no one to protect who has to rebuild her identity and really decide how she ended up where she did, I would have loved to see it. Her and Jinx’s convo where she says u don’t need me to protect u was actually rlly good, them reconnecting as equals & Vi seeing how jinx became a symbol of the undercity, fighting for it together, finding how she lost her way, like, cmon. Jinx not ending her story w yea actually u should die previously suicidal character, (don’t worry, this is a good way to die) and instead doing the hard work of rebuilding, and seeing a future for herself that isn’t painted in tragedy, surrounding herself w ppl who love her and help her grow (while silco loved her he could not help her grow bc of his own unhealed wounds) using her ingenuity to rebuild w ekko, like, ugh. These are very rough thoughts that got kinda, long, but yea in conclusion, while I loved the characters, the refusal to *commit* to the political message they started hurt the show a lot, and I’m rlly sad for what could have been.

I have a lot more thoughts about sevika and Mel as well but I’m mostly just bummed.

[amorphousbl0b]

Arcane does a fun thing with its narrative Darkest Hour.

Or: yet another post about how insanely smart this show is and how absolutely genius its writers are (and how jealous of them I am).

For the uninitiated, the Darkest Hour is the moment just before the climax in which the heroes are at their lowest point. When the Avengers are scattered and Loki opens the portal in NYC, when the Falcon has escaped the Death Star but lost Obi-Wan, when the Fire Nation is set to annihilate the Earth Kingdom, when Frodo fails to destroy the Ring at the Crack of Doom. The heroes must confront their flaws and change for the better for a happy ending.

Arcane’s darkest hour is, of course, in Act 3. One might place it at the very end of episode 9, and that’s certainly where the story is at its most hopeless. But I’d contend it starts as early as the end of episode 8 and carries on through the entirety of episode 9.

After all, that’s when Caitlyn and Vi have separated, lost all hope, and Cait is kidnapped by Jinx. Jinx’s mind is fully gone and throughout the episode everything falls apart around her. Silco is losing control of his chembarons and may well have lost his daughter, the thing most precious to him, and is only barely keeping his powerful façade in line. Zaun has realized how ridiculously outmatched they are in a war with Piltover and the revolutionary cause has become almost impossible. Viktor has manslaughtered his assistant and may never be cured. Jayce has manslaughtered a child and finally realizes how quickly he’s losing his morals. Mel and her mother are fully separating and she is struggling with her warlike destiny. Sevika gets the absolute snot beat out of her and limps to an empty office without a boss.

So yeah. Lot of personal Darkest Hours going on.

“But what’s the interesting thing?” I hear you ask in my ear. I don’t know why I hear you. Shut up. I’m writing. Are you even real?

Excuse me.

Arcane’s interesting twist on the Darkest Hour lies in part of the trope that I didn’t mention. That’s in the villain.

Most stories with a clear-cut villain have a plot structure something like this:

Whether things are going well for one side is inversely proportional to the other. During the Darkest Hour, when the hero is at their weakest, the villain is at their most dominant.

Wait… isn’t Silco the villain of Arcane? Not to be too blunt, but he’s having a shit time. Things are falling apart for him just as badly as for everyone else.

That's the trick. Caitlyn and Vi are suffering. Jinx is suffering. Silco is suffering. Jayce is suffering. Viktor is suffering. Zaun as a whole is suffering. There is only one party in the whole story that isn't suffering, that actually is benefitting from this horrid state of affairs...

EKKO AND HEIMERDINGER

Kidding. They're not really a part of this dance. A big part of Arcane's theming is that acting to help people without an agenda is simply more virtuous than fighting for any invariably-flawed nation that innately perpetuates the cycle of violence.

No, the side that is doing fine is the other that is conspicuously absent from my two prior lists. While the characters that make up its leadership are experiencing personal Darkest Hours, the organization itself is essentially on top of the world, having just scored a huge victory and getting set to bring the war to an end before it even begins. I mentioned how poor the situation for the Undercity looks, but not its counterpart.

Piltover.

Wasn't it so that Piltover started this whole mess? Didn't their oppression cause the revolt that orphaned Vi and Powder's parents? Isn't it their actions that drive Silco to ever greater extremes? Isn't it their normalized political backstabbing that causes Jayce to sacrifice his principles because that's the only way to get ahead? Isn't it their corrupt police force that lets Silco operate his drug empire with impunity?

Silco might look the part. He might be the most personally evil character, might be the one who causes the most misery for our main protagonists Vi and Powder.

But structurally, the shining city of Piltover, its political machine, and its Enforcers are the actual villains of Arcane.

[tobi-rx]

Okay I can’t be the only one who sees this: that a Transformers/Arcane au could work.

Like, imagine a humanformers au where the transformers are inhabitants of Piltover/Zaun, or a transformers au where the Arcane characters are Cybertronians. I just think it could work and translate pretty well, especially given the similar overarching storyline of class struggle and war?

I think I’ll call it the Arcane humanformers au and the Arcane Cybertronians au respectively.

Not sure how I can justify the Arcane characters and the Transformers characters existing together without either making the transformers characters whatever species’ occupies the world of arcane, or making the arcane characters into cybertronians.

Idk yet how character interactions would work if I just stuck humanformers into the arcane world or if I just stuck cybertronian arcane characters into the transformers world, like it’ll take more thinking on my part that I’ll do later.

For clarification purposes I’m thinking about multiple continuities of Transformers, not just the movie which frankly launched me into the rabbit hole.

Keep in mind I am not familiar with all the transformers lore, nor am I familiar with League of Legends lore, and I’m not entirely caught up with Arcane yet.

With my preamble out of the way, hear me out:

Piltover/Zaun = Cybertron before the civil war that destroyed the planet.

Piltover and Pre-War cybertron both have a corrupt council of sorts. There’s a clear class divide, and while the Pilties/Upper caste of Cybertron live in prosperity it comes at the cost of the suffering of the Zaunites/the lower caste of Cybertron, who are the Decepticons-to-be.

Vander and Silco would probably have a similar role to Megatron as rebellion leaders, and in arcane cybertronians au, one of the early decepticon uprisings ended in disaster. Arrests, police brutality, death, etc.

Vi and Powder’s parents were among the decepticon rebels, and they were adopted by Vander, a la Optimus adopting a war orphan Bumblebee in some continuities?

I know Piltover and Zaun are still standing in League of Legends but imagine if in Arcane humanformers au, the use of hextech weapons results in the destruction of both cities, resulting in the arcane humanformers equivalent of the exodus from Cybertron in transformers.

Perhaps Piltover = Iacon and Zaun = Kaon??

The Iacon Hall of Records = Piltover Academy

And given that maybe Alpha Trion and Heimerdinger get similar roles?? Like they’re both the head of their respective academic institutions in the upper class city and also members of their councils.

If we’re going with the archivist origin for Optimus Prime/Orion Pax, he’d be the Dean’s assistant or apprentice, the Dean being Alpha Trion. If we’re going with the police origin for Pax, he’d probably play out a character arc similar to season 1 Caitlyn after meeting Megatron.

Wait, ayo? Caitlyn releases Vi from jail as their first official meeting, and in the IDW comics, police Orion Pax releases Megatron from jail as their first meeting, after Vi and Megatron were wrongfully imprisoned -

Tangent: I declare MegOP or OpMeg lesbians, it’s canon now because I make the rules /hj

The Arcane = Primus? The Allspark?

Shimmer = Dark Energon/the blood of Unicron, but also they’re both purple (referencing TFP).

arcane Cybertronians au: where Singed is studying how to use Dark Energon to bring the dead back to life, like bringing his daughter back to life, without turning her into a zombie or something, like Dark Energon does in TFP.

Cybertronian Silco giving Jinx Dark Energon in a last ditch effort to save her, and while it brings her back, she goes a little insane like Megatron in TFP. Perhaps Silco is still a drug lord? Chem baron? But instead of shimmer it’s dark energon.

Hextech = New upgrades/mods/technologies powered by harnessing the power of Primus or the allspark? Like perhaps hextech crystals are like allspark fragments in TF: Animated 2007.

Maybe in arcane Cybertronians au, the allspark was fractured long ago, but allspark fragements can be found around the planet. Or maybe allspark crystals are rare but can just be found in deposits?? I’m not sure how hex crystals work exactly in the arcane universe. But maybe the Cybertronians start using allspark fragements in their machinery and weapons and it turbocharged stuff, plus has magical properties.

Like, maybe Cybertronian Vi gets upgrades in the form of the atlas gauntlets. Perhaps Cybertronian Caitlyn gets retrofitted with a allspark powered shotgun.

Maybe Jinx’s Shark Gun, Fishbones, is like Megatron’s fusion cannon.

Maybe in Arcane Cybertronian au, Primus (the arcane) went into stasis (sleep) but with the increased use of allspark crystals (perhaps tied to the power of Primus?? I’m not sure what the relationship between the allspark and Primus is supposed to be), and a war ramping up, Primus is waking up like the Arcane does in season 2???

For Cybertronian Jayce and Viktor, I’m considering Viktor’s arc to be kind of like IDW Senator Shockwave. Like perhaps Jayce and Viktor are cybertornian senators, and also scientists of course, and Viktor is Kaon’s senator perhaps?

If we follow league canon, perhaps Cybertronian Viktor gets subjugated to Empurata and Shadowplay and becomes the Machine Herald (Decepticon Shockwave) after trying to help the lower class which he comes from? Opposing the rest of the Council of cybertron? Maybe as a senator, Cyber-Viktor was upgrading mechs, and suspected of building an army, he was punished as a result.

Perhaps Jayce would take a role akin to Ultra Magnus? I mean, Jayce has his Atlas Hammer (I think that’s what it’s called), and Ultra Magnus has his Magnus Hammer (TFA) or has the hammer of Solus Prime for a bit (TFP).

Oh wait what if some hextech weapons in arcane are artifacts of the Primes?

What if in Arcane Humanformers au, the Primes wielded powerful magic artifacts whose power is closely tied with Wild Magic/the Arcane, and that is part of what is triggering the Arcane to wake up?

Anyways, that’s all I got for now.

If anyone else wants to add anything please use the tags and tag me cause I’d love to see what other people might come up with if interested! :D

[dirtytransmasc]

Thoughts on slico?

honestly? I'm still oscillating loving him and needing to bash his head in at a very rapid pace, because that's just the character he is. and I started rewatching season 1 last night so.... my thoughts and feelings are all over the place.

but, the thing that I most steadfastly stand by, is the fact that he attempted to keep his promise to Felecia.

now. he fucked that shit up for a hot minute. he was blinded by his hatred and pain and anger towards Vander— which the anger itself, I think was justified. I understand why Vander was angry, considering Silco's actions for their people killed, got Felecia killed, orphaned her daughters. but Silco was trying to fight for Zaun. he lost his friends too. he was scarred too. and to be cast away so violently, and never hear a word from Vander's mouth (cause I'm assuming that letter meant that Vander never actually tried to have a conversation with him, at least, not until after it was too late). so I get why Silco was angry and turned away from his brother —and let that hate spill onto the girls. I think it goes without saying that taking out violent anger on little girls years after the fact, when they had no hand in what happened to you, is not justified.

in his rage, he forgot his promise. abandoned it in a ditch. and he was a little bitch for that. he was ready and willing to kill Vi and Powder just to get back at Vander. he had no care for those girls.

but you can see the very moment he remembered. when he pulled the knife back from view and looked down at Jinx crying. he remembered, and a war took place in his mind. does he stick to his promise or his anger?

and he chose his promise when that little girl clung to his chest. his niece. the youngest daughter of a friend he lost so long ago. clung to him. crying from the same pain he felt when Vander abandoned him.

and after that, he, in his head, which was superbly fucked beyond doubt, he thought he was keeping to it.

he was protecting Jinx the only way he knew how. and that was to change her. to make her someone people like Vi and Vander couldn't hurt. to kill Powder, so she could thrive as Jinx. and he, again, in his own fucked up way, was doing what he thought was best for Zaun.

I almost entirely disagree with his methods, but I acknowledge he was keeping his promise in his own way. he was being the best father he knew how to be. he was protecting Jinx the best he knew how to. he was fighting for a world where Zaun was a better place, though, being a good place, got lost along the way, in place of Zaun having power.

Silco was too jaded and sardonic and scarred and angry to be a good father or leader or rebel. he was corrupted. so trying to look at him from a moral lense isn't really an option if you want to understand him. but if you look at him through his set of morals and ideals and such, while it doesn't make him a better person, you can see that protecting Jinx and bettering Zaun are still at his core.

so. I don't know. I hate him and I don't. his world view is so fucked. the way he ended up trying to "fix" things was fucked. but I will give him that one thing; he tried to keep his promise, sorta.

[rustonyourfingers]

Rambling about Vi

ARCANE S2 SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

I've been going through arcane s2 tag but I haven't seen anyone mention this so far, and I really need to talk about it.

This post is about Vi, but more specifically -- Claggor's goggles and their symbolism. We know that Claggor's goggles were one of the things that Jinx kept after her bomb worked, and we know she used them frequently -- we see her wear them every time she works on something both in season 1 and in season 2 as well. Ever since season 1 the goggles were set up as a symbol -- of a life and identity lost, of Jinx's insanity and hallucinations becoming stronger and stronger, of lost innocence and fall into maddness and violence. And I love how now this symbol was passed onto Vi -- in such a vital moment of her journey as well.

Just moments before the group enters that hangout place (also, the way we keep coming back here, after all these years that passed between s1 arc 1 and s2 -- brilliant!) Vi decided to join the Enforcers -- the very people who for decades (at least!!) oppressed people of Zaun and treated them like animals, like dirt on the soles of their shoes that didn't deserve so much as to breathe. In that moment she's besically deciding to betray her people, but most importantly, herself -- the little girl who walked across that bridge and witnessed all the death and destruction the Enforcers sown, saw her own parents' dead bodies laying broken on the ground. She betrayed the older Vi, the one taken by Vander that followed him around, one that dreamt of getting the boot the Enforcers kept on their necks off and ripping it apart, so Zaun would finally be free of their brutality. She betrayed the Vi that was locked in Stillwater, beaten by the Enforcers for the simple crime of existing, to the point when anytime someone approached her cell, that's what she expected -- another beating. Young Vi saw the imbalance of power between the Enforcers and people of Zaun -- and she hated it. The Enforcers always had better weaponry, training, every advantage possible, and they used it in the most vicious way possible -- to oppress, to hurt, to make sure that people of the Undercity would never be recognized as human, as deserving to live and to have rights.

And now, Vi's putting on the badge herself. Now, she's the one with the advantage -- hextech weapons and bioweapons, things that even with the use of shimmer would be extremely hard to fight against. With that one action, Vi became the oppressor -- and while we see her refuse to acknowledge that until the very end of episode 3, to me her picking up those goggles was the first sign of her facing that reality.

Because Clagger's goggles are a symbol of the past -- the past where Vi was fighting for the right cause, to make her family's life better, to make sure there would be no more orphans in the Undercity. Vi is no longer fighting for the right cause -- she is now part of the causeless violence released onto the people of Zaun, onto the civillians, onto the kids. She not only stops to examine the goggles -- no, she picks them up and puts them on her head immediately, as a reminder of who she was, as a reminder of why she was fighting in the first place, as comfort because she no longer is who she was, she no longer fights for what she faught for in the past and she needs to belive that she's making the right choice in following Cait's lead, because if she faces the fact that she became everything she hated, the very thing that made her into the person she was in season 1, that'll break her. And Vi cannot allow herself to break. Not in the past, not now, not ever.

To me, the goggles are such a wonderful and important part leading to a) Vi's breakdown with Cait when she asks Cait to never change, and b) when she sees Isha protect Jinx with her body and aim a gun at her head, and realizing the fact that she's becoming to Isha what the Enforcers were to young Vi and Powder on that bridge, and that she was no longer fighting for the right cause.

Anyway, this is super chaotic, but I love how Clagger and Milo's memory lives on and still haunts the narrative for both Jinx and Vi. Just chef's kiss all around, what a wonderful show.

Also, English isn't my first language so hopefully this all makes sense lol.

[that-one-kiddo-in-the-back]

Lily lied about Catra and Adora being incest as well: https://www.tumblr.com/lillian-v-orchard/761419468766347264/so-she-just-made-it-up

Catra and Adora were never "sisters" or "adopted siblings", they were friends. They grew up as friends with other orphans in an orphanage/military-boarding school. Shadow Weaver was their mentor, not their mother, who abused her authority to play toxic favouritism with them.

Once again, this is Lily projecting her disgusting obsession onto a wholesome kids show just so she can throw ND Stevenson, the queer, transmasc creator of She-Ra, under the bus as an "incest-abuse fetishist" just so she can have less competition in the animation industry (as she keeps trying to do with Rebecca Sugar) all while defecting any accusations of her being a incestuous sexual abuser.

Another way you can tell Lily is lying? If Catra and Adora were sisters, she would constantly ship them like she does with Baldur's Gate I and II's Main character and Imoen, ATLA's Zuko and Azula and, of course, Arcane's Vi and Jinx.

Of fucking course she lied about Catra and Adora being sister she can't just say "I don't like the ship." No she has to come up with some bullshit to make the people who do like the ship feel fucking gross about it.

She wouldn't say she shipped them she would just say, "Oh no, I just really like their dynamic. I'm not like my sister." As she plays with her fucking hair to look innocent.

Also, Lily really hates non binary and transmen creators to the point of pure madness like Lily, my child... They don't know you exist they are too busy working an actual job as successful writers for you to degrade them. She's jealous that LGBTQ+ creators were able to get green lit for shows and movies, while if she came to a company like Cartoon Network or Netflix, she'd be banned or denied.

[siblingshowdown]

Sibling Showdown!!!

This showdown consists of 64 sibling sets facing off against each other, as well as a few one-off polls of sets who didn’t make the actual bracket but who I wanted to include in some capacity.  Polls will last a week.  Round One of section A will go live on April 16, with section B going live the day after, section C the day after that, and section D the day after that.

Propaganda is allowed!  I just ask that it be kept positive.  Argue for your faves instead of against someone else’s.  Every sibling set who made it in the showdown is there because someone wanted them to be, so keep it kind.

Will the winners be the siblings that love each other the most?  That are most capable of killing other sibling groups with their bare hands?  That have the most sibling swag?  It’s up to you to decide!  You get to choose the manner and parameters you judge each sibling set for.

Section A:

Edward and Alphonse Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist) vs. Seiko and Ryuunosuke Tanaka (Haikyuu!!)

Wirt and Greg (Over the Garden Wall) vs.  Han Yoojin and Han Yoohyun (The S-Classes That I Raised)

Shigeo and Ritsu Kageyama (Mob Psycho 100) vs.  Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long (RWBY)

Sans and Papyrus (Undertale) vs. Tanjiro and Nezuko Kamado (Demon Slayer)

Jiang Yanli, Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Cheng (Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed) vs. Hikaru and Kaoru (Ouran High School Host Club)

Vi and Jinx (Arcane) vs. Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara (Naruto)

Sokka and Katara (Avatar: the Last Airbender) vs. Maya and Mia Fey (Ace Attorney)

Vash the Stampede and Millions Knives (Trigun) vs.  Lucas and Claus (Mother 3)

Section B:

Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo Hamato (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) vs. Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack Parr (The Incredibles)

Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner (The Animaniacs) vs. Jazz and Danny Fenton (Danny Phantom)

Huey, Dewey, and Louie (Ducktales) vs. Sitka, Denahi, and Kenai (Brother Bear)

Dion, Frazie, Razputin, Mirtala, and Queepie Aquato (Psychonauts) vs. Skipper, Rico, Kowalski, and Private (Madagascar)

Eda and Lilith Clawthorne (The Owl House) vs. Snap, Crackle, and Pop (Rice Krispies)

Bonnie and Clemont (Pokemon X and Y) vs. Annika and Brietta (Barbie: Magic of Pegasus)

Candace, Phineas, and Ferb (Phineas and Ferb) vs. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup (Powerpuff Girls)

Nani and Lilo Pelekai (Lilo and Stitch) vs. Kai and Nya (Lego Ninjago)

Section C:

Maddie and Buck Buckley (911) vs. Steven, Shirley, Theo, Luke, and Nell Crain (The Haunting of HIll House)

David and Alexis Rose (Schitt’s Creek) vs. Dennis and Dee Reynolds (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia)

Jonathan Byers, Will Byers, and El Hopper (Stranger Things) vs.  Prue, Piper, and Phoebe (Charmed)

Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Five, Ben, Viktor Hargreeves (The Umbrella Academy tv) vs. Mary, Billy, Freddy, Pedro, Eugene, and Darla (Shazam! movies)

Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, Cassandra Cain-Wayne, and Duke Thomas (DC comics) vs. Simon and River Tam (Firefly)

Elliot and Darlene Alderson (Mr. Robot) vs. Kara and Alex Danvers (Supergirl TV)

Connor, Kendall, Siobhan, and Roman Roy (Succession) vs. Sharpay and Ryan Evans (High School Musical)

Thor and Loki (Marvel Cinematic Universe) vs. Sarah and Felix (Orphan Black)

Section D:

Maedhros, Maglor, Celegorm, Caranthir, Curufin, Amrod, and Amras (The Silmarillion) vs. Antigone, Polynices, Eteocles, and Ismene (Greek Mythology/Sophocles’s Theban plays)

Coronabeth and Ianthe Tridentarius (The Locked Tomb) vs. Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie (The Chronicles of Narnia)

Nico and Bianca Di Angelo (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) vs. Declan, Ronan, and Matthew Lynch (The Raven Cycle/The Dreamer Trilogy)

Alec, Isabelle, Max Lightwood, and Jace Herondale-Lightwood (Shadowhunters) vs. Lark and Sparrow Oak (Dungeons and Daddies)

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire (A Series of Unfortunate Events) vs. Linus and Lucy Van Pelt (Peanuts)

Boromir and Faramir (The Lord of the Rings) vs. Bellamy and Octavia Blake (The 100)

Katniss and Primrose Everdeen (The Hunger Games) vs. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March (Little Women)

Kiryu Kazuma and Nishikiyama Akira (Yakuza) vs. Cain and Abel (the Torah/the Bible)

[space-blue]

What are your thoughts on Vi becoming an enforcer in Arcane? Do you think there's any way for it to be well-written and how would you prefer it to go down?

I've talked about Vi before and especially how I don't appreciate how the rushed romance destroyed her character in the third act.

So enforcer Vi? I hate it. Unless they take a very bold, very dark angle on Vi's motivations or what it does to her to become an enforcer and betray her people, I genuinely don't expect good things.

Like, the poor, destitute, orphaned by enforcer child, to unlawful prisoner regularly beaten in isolation, to fucking COP pipeline should really never exist, unless it's to explore some sort of really intense psychological trauma and maybe Stockholm syndrom…

I'm scared because she's truly a cop in the game. She's got splash art in cliche cop gear eating donuts, and her voice lines (rehauled for the show) had police brutality jokes. She just wasn't "that deep", and the show made her final position a little more untenable. Knowing her background, it makes very little sense she'd ever align with Piltover. I really hope they don't use her interest in Cait as the main mean to get her in uniform…

Can't we have canon lesbians that aren't fucking cops?? I thought Cait would go more down the rogue investigator route, making her charming, using her family and wealth for her eccentric pursuits and obsession for the truth… But it's not really what we got.

The only way I can see this well done for Vi is if she slowly relents when she's not getting results alone, and resigns herself to asking Cait for help. Maybe then she'd find that she thrives as an investigator or mediator. Like, seeing Vi, throughout the season, slowly realise she's good at policing her own people, and they respect her, and maybe if she's the one doing it, then enforcers won't have to, and she can make it easier on everyone… basically becoming Vander 2.0, is the only way I can see her regularly collaborating with Cait.

That OR go broke and make her a class traitor! I don't mind! It's dark, it's fucked, but PLEASE just don't give us a bird brained Vi who follows Cait because she's horny and can't understand class politics 101. That would be so sad.

I want Vi to struggle with Vander's legacy, to realise that the brutality she's inflicting with her stolen gauntlets is exactly what he didn't want for her. That she's taking her place into the cycle of violence that keeps the place down. Even better if she struggles with Silco's legacy, and realising at last that she'd actually have been on his side if not for all the blood between them and her insurmountable distate for shimmer. 'Oh no, the guy you hate was right about something' sort of struggle. Especially if it pitches her against Cait and BOTH OF THEM have to actually acknoledge how fucked things are, and that patronising idealistic speeches to victims of oppression isn't 'change' or 'good enough'.

I'd love to see Vi demanding enforcer help on her terms because she blames the problems going on in the Undercity on them, on the council, and through Cait's endorsement, trying to use them to fix things. That's a way for Vi to slowly get used to their methods, to feel bad when one dies, to go to strategy meetings and slowly, slowly… become cordial. Even if it disgusts everyone else.

Urgh, idk, honestly. I try not to think about it too much. Cait and Vi are my biggest regret from season 1, as I felt like they were both weakened by the way they were used on each other. I don't expect either of their storylines to be my jam in season 2. I'm going in there for Viktor mostly. Got to see my boy finish drinking Singed's Nasty Juice and go full Machine Herald.

Him, Jinx, Mel and Sevika are my main draws to the show. That and the art and story were rivetting enough that I expect any sad Lesbian Cop disappointment to be dismissable.

[vole-mon-amour]

I'm going to say this once (unless I get caught in it, which I hopefully won't) 'cause I deliberately and completely ignored that during my watch earlier.

The implication of a love triangle (or, well, both Silco and Vander being into the sister's mom, which isn't really a triangle).

The implication of Mom dating Vander (or having some kind of romance with him) while Silco has an unrequited crush on her and is being quiet about it and is pining for him (and they focused on the way he looked at her SO hard—for some I know reason).

And all of that only for it to be revealed that, apparently, she's with another man (the sisters' actual biological dad, hello???).

All of that was weird as FUCK. The idea of Vander finding those orphaned girls and deciding that enough is enough, and he's going to put all that violence behind him (where he already hurt Silco, mind you) and he's going to take care of them was already great and enough.

The idea of Silco wanting to murder Vi only for Jinx to jump into his arms and for him to see himself in her and deciding to embrace her and take her in was ENOUGH. She jumped into his arms with "She's not my sister anymore!" not because she already knew Silco and trusted him, but because everything she knew was gone, because Vi hurt her and abandoned her, and because Jinx (Powder) was so vulnerable and alone, she needed that support and was ready to seek it that way.

Because Silco hating Vi so much and wanting to murder her WHILE he knew her mom and knew about the pregnancy and all of that stuff? It makes no sense at ALL. As well as him being in love with their mom. Plus, it was completely unnecessary and uncalled for.

(sorry is I'm not making sense. it's 2:45 am and I need to sleep. I just keep thinking about all that's happened and what the creators want us to believe now.)

[darkryt]

Hopes and Fears for Arcane Season 2

So we're getting teasers for the best show adapted from a MOBA that you can watch on Netflix getting its second season and a release date of November 24. Just today we got a little teaser clip so here's my hopes and dreams and fears for Arcane Season 2.

HOPES

Vander being Warwick. Caitlyn and Vi relationship A logical progression for how Vi turns from where she was at the start of Arcane into how she is in League in a way that's missing from her compared to most of the other characters. You can watch Arcane and imagine how Jinx in Arcane changes into Jinx in League of Legends, or how Caitlyn does or Viktor does - you might have to make some inference and assumptions, but the arc is trackable in way that is just … not with Vi. How does someone hurt by Piltover's systems so much became a person who works for those systems? Someone who fights because she has to into someone who revels in violence and power? From a loving sister whose every motivation is reuniting with her sister to an Enforcer who just beats people up? The flashback they've mentioned in interviews of Ekko trying to rescue Powder from Silco because that seems like a formative experience for how their relationship is in the modern day. My girls Renata Glasc and Seraphine, even if it justs cameos. OPTIONAL: Vi and Jinx teaming up to fight or subdue Warwick and this allowing them to heal their trauma by proxy (but propbably too optimistic for this series). Exploration of Vi and Caitlyn's relationship. Ideally with kissing and or even sex. Just something that makes it unambigously clear they are gay in a way that bigots can't point to and say "It's ambigious!!!!" More story with Sevika. I saw a theory floated online that Sevika was concieved of as way to give Vi a big fight at the end without her fighting Jinx because the writers decided their relationship wasn't quite at the point where she and Jinx would have this all-out, dragout, knock-down brawl, and I'd be really sad if they spent as much time allowing Sevika to exist and to serve as a rival to Vi only for them to dump her in a closet or kill her off cheaply as the story zeros in on how Vi and Jinx become mortal enemies. Jinx hallucinating Silco the way she does Mylo and Claggor.

FEARS

Timebomb or Ekko becoming Jinx's boyfriend, and espcially not any sort of arc where Ekko's love redeems or reforms Jinx in any way Orianna being Singed's daughter. At first I liked this idea by after a blog-post by Orianna super-fan (here) I'm off it. Jinx getting a boyfriend at all, really. Her story has enough drama without a shoe-horned romance plot! Caitlyn and Vi being queer-baited and doing lots of yearning looks that look good in an AMV but not actually progressing their relationship in any meaningful way. Vi getting amnesia. In at least some versions of League story (and League of Legends has a … let's say loose relationship with things like canon and continuity), Vi's League story involves her losing her memories before mysteriously re-appearing as a Piltover Enforcer. This is an example of a broader trend of League of Legends' approach to storytelling that makes a lot of things ambigious or mysterious (cough, so they can make it up later or change their minds). But Vi losing her memories in Arcane would be such a lazy cheap way to effectively give her an identity death in order to force her to fit into the contour of League Vi without doing any of the character building or dramatic work to explore or explain how someone goes from poor orphan to collared criminal to an Enforcer and I just really hope they don't do it! Skye taunting Viktor in the form of hallucinations that egg him on towards his eventually fall and turn to robotic villainy. Not that it wouldn't be in-keeping with the series as it stands (both Vi and Jinx see people who aren't there), but Skye being oblierated was such an obvious fridging-manpain moment that I don't want to be reminded about it, and I've never really watched the reboot of Battlestar Galactica until it was doing re-runs on streaming but there's a character in there whose whole thing is being a hot sexy succubus projected into someone's mind (and remember that's a sci-fi story) and it was so stupid and tropey that I just don't want to see anything similiar. This may not be Arcane's fault but man. I don't want them to go there! Likewise on the note of Sevika, I don't want to see her just unceremoniously killed off in the first three episodes just to make room for the Jinx/Vi rivalry. Some sort of redemption for Jinx that involves her dying or sacrificing herself. It's 2023! 2024 when this comes out! Support women's wrongs! If you ARE going to let her have a redemption, don't take the coward's way out!

AMBIVALENT Viktor completing his transformation from sickly man seeking cure for his ilnness to a robotic terrorist who thinks everybody should become a robot. Shimmer being linked to the Void. This is a theory I've see floated around due to some visuals in the scene where Viktor introduces Shimmer to the Hexcore. I don't really care if this pans out or not. Some people might want to Whether Cassandra dies. It'd be strange for her to die but Jayce and Viktor to survive (and you know those two will because they are Named Characters) but for Cassandra to die in the same room. It'd provive angst and tension between Caitlyn, Jinx and Vi, sure, but Caitlyn already has reason enough to want to arrest Jinx even if her own mother doesn't die directly from the missile. Whether Camille shows up. Given the focus on conflict between Piltover and Zaun, it's a logical step to have the walking embodiment of Piltover's oppression show up, but I don't feel like she needs to be present.

[bumblydumbly]

Notes I took sometime between my 3-4 watch of s2 act 1

* When cait offers vi the badge and she gets mad i thout it was so funny like ok NOW the cop trauma comes in? Not when you cradled her to you?

* Jayce hitting Renni with a hammer and she just. Doesnt care.

* Also Vi literally hitting Renni with the weapon that murdered her son is. Pretty fucked up to say the least after telling Jayce to get over it when he killed him

* Mel fighting to keep hextech weapons from happening bc of what jayce said and then cait popping up in the council 3 seconds later dripped out with hextech weapons for her and her dogs is so fucking funny

* The way Jinx returned silco to the water. It was always the water for them. Was always going to be. Always will be

* The ‘have you had enough?’ And then the little tiny blue whisp burning away?

* The fucking look on sevikas face when smeech suggested giving up jinx. Like she hates that its her principle but it IS. Even if she doesnt often get along with her. (The thing is. Sevika is probably well aware that it was Jinx that killed silco. Maybe bc she never saw her after Silco died, maybe she just had a feeling. Still she chose loyalty. Chose Jinx)

* Baby blue?

* claggor likely only had one pair of goggles, which we know jinx had in her workshop, and at the table in the s1 finale. It being with her in the arcade plus knowing that his goggles, just like mylos doll, make them more likely to manifest to her (which could be why she listens to music so loudly in her workshop usually) implies that she intentionally brought claggor with her. Wanted him (a fellow tinker, if his connection to benzo and ekko were to imply anything) to talk to her while she built. She even wears them instead of her own. And then Vi took him. She took him while wearing a mask just like the ones they saw on the bridge and wearing piltover blue.

* ISHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

* The talk between sevika and jinx also? “Big baby couldnt do it himself”? The olive branch in that that just made sevika drop the bottle. Like she remembered then ‘right, hes her dad’ and all the fight leaves her. The unspoken ‘but I miss him’ when they complain. Understanding in grief. Its why she jumps when her own arm is waved in her face, bc she let her guard down

* You see Sevikas lip tremble but instead of crying she gets angry and throws a chair. Jinx doesnt even jump. You can see, now why jinx calls her an ogre (derogaffectonate).

* THE HIPSHOT OF SEVIKA FOR LIKE 10 SECONDS?!?! HER FUCKIN THIGHS TOOK UP THE WHOLE SCREEN BRO!!UNNECESSARY VIOLENCE

* Gonna be honest the Ekko Heimerdinger Jayce thing is cute

* Baby blue!!!

* The Fucking. Jinx and Sevika teamup is everything. For the girls.

* Sevika is soooooo yummy this season ✨😭😭

* Viktor. That’s all I have to say. There arent words

* ‘promise you wont change’ is craaaaazzzy bro that is the root of your problems currently btw. the whole going to jail for 9 years and expecting time to have frozen and everything (and everyone) to be the same as you left it, but everyone has the ability and the need to change, as is life

* Baby blue…

* Vi denying Jinx being her sister? Yah you deserve what’s coming to ya

* The fact that she agreed to flood the undercity with the grey is literally disgusting. Jinx should be denying you are her sister

* Despite all the sister denying they fought exactly like sisters do. Wasnt even a fight they was scrappin. Wrastlin.

* Cait biting Sevikas hand and she just smirks? Fuuuuuuuck

* is it gonna be whole thing that generally people from the undercity are just sturdier or is it just the ones who fight a lot bc its looking SO silly for piltover rn these mfs dont even need the mechsuits

* “It had to be you” or you could just kill me. Like shes been waiting for Vi to deliver justice unto her for an ACCIDENT its like reverse itachi and sasuke

* That fact that Vi went with “never thought [my sister] would orphan kids” only to be stopped from killing jinx by a fucking orphan like get outta hereeee 🤡🤡

* A kid from the undercity pointed a gun at Vi with fear and fire in their eyes, bc she’s become the very thing shes always hated. hilarious

* do you hear him, vi? Vanders ghost telling you that your fists dont fix problems they just make more of them?

* Jinx protecting Isha with her body and then Sevika protecting Jinx. Killing myself

* “I wasnt going to miss!” Oh so you meant to shoot jinx in the finger okok

* Wow vi how is that cop pussy you chose over your sister btw? Love loses ig

* And all the kids looking at the rainbow smoke? Knowing it was the undercity who did it? This seems to be foreshadowing something methinks

* crazy how Ambessa is arguably doing this for her family but shes so caught up in warmongering that she has no clue when her daughter gets abducted

* Medardas and forcing a rich rando into positions of power…2!

* The way Ambessa elected cait a dictator and then refers to her as a child anyway. The complex communications going on in their eye contact. That cait can see it, knows Ambessa has an angle but she again thinks herself too smart to be outmaneuvered, apparently even by a war addict. Not that she had much choice.

[callme6olet]

What makes Arcane great: S1E1

I had no expectations for Arcane when it came out. I don't play League and don't intend to. But the show blew my mind, and a year and a half later, I can still say it's my favorite show ever.

Episode 1 is "Welcome to the Playground." The plot is pretty straightforward: a robbery gone wrong. Vi, Powder, and company bungle the robbery, the penthouse explodes, and they lose everything but a handful of crystals. There's pushback from the enforcers, Vander plays peacekeeper, and Silco experiments with shimmer.

What makes this episode stick? Long and short, it's a perfect Episode One: the character building, worldbuilding, and pacing are all on point, and it sets the stage for all the conflicts that drive the show. What follows, it's less of a breakdown and more of a commentary, a zoom-in on some of my favorite moments.

That first scene.

The opening scene is a flashback, our first look into this world, and it does what a good first scene should: it tells us what the whole season, maybe the whole show, is about. On a macro scale, it's the conflict between Piltover and Zaun: class struggles, the oppression of societal structures that built themselves over centuries. On the micro scale, it's the conflict between Powder and Vi: two people who love each other, but who are forced apart by pain. In three minutes, we see everything we need to know about their relationship.

The first shot is the bridge, the dividing line between Piltover and Zaun, in a firestorm. The first line is Powder singing: "Dear friend across the river, my hands are cold and bare. Dear friend across the river, I'll take what you can spare." The first character we see, it isn't either of our protagonists--it's an enforcer, their face demonized by the helmet and the glitched-out scribbling we'll later come to associate with Jinx's schizophrenia. The show is showing us, visually, that this is where Powder's mental illness starts. This is the root of her belief that everyone is out to hurt her, and who can blame her? Too, we're seeing people in order of power: first the city itself, then the enforcers, then the children. We are zooming in through layers of oppression. And in the background, the voice of a girl asking a friend for help, framing the maco conflict beautifully: ask without envy, and violence is what you receive.

The scene keeps showing and not telling. We see Vander's moment of realization, the point when he takes off the cast irons because he's seeing what his violence has wrought--not in the death of his allies, but in the pain of their children, now orphans.

Deeper than that, though, we see the core of Vi and Jinx's relationship--one which is founded in love, but which is deeply unhealthy. Vi is the protector. She will walk through the field of blood while Powder keeps her hands over her eyes. When they see Vander, Powder shies away and Vi steps forward: she will fight, will not let her sister get hurt. When they see their dead parents, Powder is not the first to cry--she looks at Vi. As long as Vi is there, she is safe. When Vi breaks down, Powder comforts her rather than crying herself. She is repaying the favor, learning by example: putting others before her. In short, they're codependent. Powder needs someone, and Vi needs to be needed.

The Job.

They rob the house, we get a chase scene. There's some great visual worldbuilding, and the writers also somehow manage to simultaneously capture the inciting incident of the show and a slice-of-life for the gang. This is just another day for them, and yet it spirals out of control so slowly and so inevitably. It doesn't feel forced, in my opinion, for one reason: the crystals. This is raw power that nobody understands--it's less like the main characters happened, by Main Character Syndrome, to stumble into the plot, and more like something was bound to go wrong from meddling with the arcane.

Another point: everyone--even Powder--is very competent. The heist goes wrong not because they fucked up, but because of bad luck and poor decision-making. Powder slips up, sure, but then, she's doing parkour at the age of . . . 10ish? She's also shown to have a keener eye for tech than the rest, and in the second episode, we get to see what she'd be like if she had access to a gun. The setup and character designs make me feel like Mylo or Claggor is going to slip up in some way and ruin the job; the fact that they don't is a relief. It would've felt like dumbing down the characters, taking the easy way out.

On the chase back across the bridge, one of the enforcers doesn't make the jump. It's not that big of a leap, but it is a very believable stumble. For me, this is such a great moment--it's explaining the world, the style, the rules of the show. It's telling us that people can be skilled, but they're not superheroes, not even action heroes.

Like, normally he'd make that, right? In a movie, anyway. In real life, I'd expect it to go exactly how it does. This sets expectations, sets the tone, and makes the main characters seem that much more competent. All in about two seconds of screentime. It's the small things, sometimes.

the brawl.

Not too complicated of a plot: street tough tries to mug them, they don't pay up, everyone fights. Powder runs and loses the treasure. What makes it stellar is the fact that the fight is only the backdrop, not the main focus. The focus is the characters. We have Deckard, the street tough--such a stock character, but even he has depth. The line "in my experience, trouble finds you" is such a prime example of good writing, of one line doing double duty. It's a threat, sure, but it also humanizes him. It makes us notice the scars on his face, realize that he's had his fair share of trouble that he didn't go looking for.

The fight breaks out, and we get to see Powder experiencing trauma purely through the shot's framing and the slow-motion. The return to a normal frame rate lets us experience her oh shit moment--again, purely visually. She runs, tries tossing a grenade, and the device malfunctions. Powder feels like a failure. There's an argument to be made that she was subconsciously self-sabotaging, that she wouldn't let herself make a working contraption because she needs Vi. Success would mean independence, would mean leaving the shadow of her big sister's protection.

At the end, Deckard pulls a knife and Vi walks up to him, asks if he wants to see how that ends. Because she's just taken a few punches and won the fight, this line feels earned. If she'd won easily, she'd seem arrogant here. If she'd gotten the shit kicked out of her, it would read like she was bluffing. As is, we get to see her as not only a badass, but someone who's willing not to fight. No empty threats from her--unlike Deckard--but she uses her words, this time. Doesn't want a death on her hands.

Welcome to the playground.

The title drop is in a song, both non-diegetic and later, in the Last Drop, diegetic. It's a banger, and the descent into the underworld is also pretty slick. Nothing special, but also beautifully executed. In my head, it's like the Mos Eisley cantina: a quick introduction to the scum and villainy, a vignette of a world that's dirty, inhabited, lived-in.

The other standout moment to me is Vander's introduction--not because of anything that happens this episode, but because the man he helps comes back later on to help Vi. This is just an example of what the show does so well and so consistently: there are no wasted details, and every character has depth. Everyone is human.

We see this again with Marcus and Grayson, the two enforcers. Grayson seems relatively important, but Marcus, in this episode, is just an overzealous nobody. The fact that he then develops into an important side character, that his story is shown with such depth and so little screen time, is incredible.

Vi and Powder.

The penultimate sequence is Vi comforting Powder, whose insecurities have only grown over the course of this episode--and understandably so. But she's not angry at Vi, even after she heard her seemingly agree with Mylo about Powder being a failure. She is not looking to right wrongs: she is looking for her sister's comfort. For attention. Vi is ready and willing to give it. Powder is her motivation for nearly everything she does. Vi rarely, if ever, does things for herself, for her own protection, security, or gain. Her selflessness is a great strength, but her codependence is what ultimately breaks her relationship with Powder.

This screenshot, it says so much about the show. For one, I picked it almost at random. Every frame is gorgeous. For another--look at Vi's face, close to the camera. Out of focus.

Out of focus. It's animated. There is no camera. It takes more work to put her out of focus than it does to put her in focus, and yet that decision was made. It tells us where to look, subtly tricks us into believing that this is real, what we're seeing, that it happened, was caught on film.

And I mean--look at it. At this piece of art. Look a the love in Vi's eyes, those eyes we can barely even see. Look at the hurt on Powder's face, the way she's pouting. How her shoulder's hunched. The art style does an amazing job of capturing emotion, of exaggerating just the right amount, of noticing and capturing the different planes of the face, the micro-expressions that make an emotion seem real. And you can't fault the composition--Vi in the foreground, big, protective. Powder in the background, backlit. She is the focus. Too, she and Vi are both surrounded by light on one side, darkness on the other--but Vi looks at the light, and Powder looks at the dark. It is, perhaps, her only real fault, the defining factor that makes one traumatized sister end up on the good side and the other on the bad side. Everything else Powder suffers is a matter of circumstance. This decision--reflected again in Episode 9 (and probably elsewhere), in a frame so beautiful I painted it and hung it on my wall--is the one thing that, in my mind, truly reflects on Powder's character. She is focused on her failure. She almost forgets to show Vi her success, the bag of crystals she held onto. It's not that she's wrong for feeling dejected, or that it's as easy as deciding to feel happy. It's more like this: looking at the light might not make you happy. You can't control that. But you can control the fact that you gave it your attention. That you tried. That you fought, that you searched, even if you came up lacking.

Vi is a fighter. Jinx, ultimately, is a destroyer.

Silco's lab.

Vi and Powder leave us on a perfect crescendo, a fade out, a vow that this city is gonna respect them--and then the writers leave that, somehow manage to pull off something better. We get our reveal of Silco, who's so over-the-top he ought to be trite, but he's not. The sadism, the scarred face, the orange eye--they're all too much. But they're balanced perfectly with his sibilant voice, his menacing but not overbearing manner.

We see Deckard, learn that he's answering to someone, that this underwater lair is the center of a secret organization. And again, no detail left behind--Deckard, that random street tough, is important.

Silco and his mad scientist--who, best I can tell, is named Singed--feed a rat some shimmer and watch it kill a cat. It's a perfect way to show off the drug. We could've seen a human hulking out, but instead we're also shown what the drug is for: reversing the roles, turning the hunter into the hunted. Making the meek powerful.

And then we fade to black. This scene, it solves a problem I wouldn't have been able to put my finger on otherwise: it escalates the stakes. It lets us know that the conflict we've stumbled onto, it's going to get bigger. Episode 1 is intensely focused on Powder and Vi, is practically a slice of life. This last scene, it's our reason to come back.

[takerfoxx]

Gladly!

Parallels play a strong thematic part in Arcane's storytelling, comparing things that are opposite, and yet run similar paths. Piltover vs. Zaun. Chemtech vs. Hextech. Vander vs. Silco. The list goes on.

In the first third of Arcane season 1, we're introduced to two sibling relationships. You have the brotherly relationship between Jayce and Viktor, who are two young men united by their technological vision and desire to do good for the world, and you have the the actual sisters Violet and Powder, two poor orphans doing their best to look after one another. Now, one of these pairs lives in the high society of Piltover, while the other is scrounging to survive in the streets of Zaun, and yet they have a number of things in common.

In each case, there is the stronger, more dominant sibling. Jayce comes from (comparatively) class and station and is physically fit and charismatic, while Viktor is physically frail, socially anxious, and started life as a poor boy in the Undercity who got to where he is through sheer intellect and drive. Vi is a noted scrapper and natural leader while Powder is small, clumsy, and has to compensate through her cleverness.

Furthermore, in both pairs, the stronger, more dominant one meets someone of a higher class than themselves, which threatens their relationship with the weaker. Jayce meets Mel, who offers opportunities for societal advancement and romantic love, which compromises his ideals. Vi meets Caitlyn, an enforcer from high society, everything that she had grown up hating, and yet treats her better than anyone in her life, angering Jinx.

In the first season, Jayce has sex with Mel while Viktor's health collapses completely. Now, you think that this would be their splitting point, in that Jayce is so hung up on Mel that he wasn't there for Viktor when he needed him the most. Except, no. As soon as Jayce hears the news, he immediately leaves Mel's side to be with Vitkor, showing that their bond is still intact and Jayce values his partner and their work together even over the living embodiment of his new power and status.

The second season of Arcane will largely be built around the conflict between Vi and Jinx as Vi comes to grips with the fact that her sister is truly gone, and to keep her from hurting more people, Vi is going to have to betray everything she was brought up to believe by becoming an enforcer. This will also lead to her building her relationship with Caitlyn, with whom she's been strongly suggested to have mutual romantic interest.

As such, if we are going to follow the parallels between the two pairs, the best way to bring things full circle is for Vi to finally completely embrace her new life and her new love by having sex with Caitlyn while Jinx finds herself at her absolute lowest, perhaps even having her life threatened. And when Vi finally feels that she's found happiness in her new life, she gets word of Jinx's predicament, and like Jayce before her, finds that she now has a choice to make.

And that's why I feel that Vi and Cait having gay sex is where the plot needs to go.

I don't know how common this opinion is, but I for one believe that, in Arcane season 2, it is vitally important to the plot that Vi and Cait have gay sex.

I'm not joking. I'm not being facetious. This isn't me playing silly buggers. I genuinely believe that it is narratively and thematically essential that Violet and Caitlyn have lesbian sex in season 2 of Arcane.

And I don't mean fade to black, cut to curtains, skip to the next morning. I mean we need to see them, on screen, make out like they're trying to suck the air from each other's lungs while tearing the clothes off of one another in the throes of sapphic passion and proceed to make such mind-blowingly artistic love that the animation awards will have to create a Best Plot-Relevant Sex Scene category just to give it its due.

This, I feel, must take place.

[orangechickenpillow]

Losing my mind thinking about an Arcane Western AU. I mean think of how fun that could be?!

Silco

The scariest mother fucker in the West.

Seriously, top-tier bad guy -- smolder, cool jacket and all.

And he's got memorable scars on his face, so he'd probably have a badass nickname given to him by The Law™️

No one crosses him, and if they do they lose a hand (or their head) and it gets mailed back to their wife/sons/whatever.

Has a band of goons that are stupid as shit but follow him around anyway.

Exploits literally everyone.

Jinx

Second scariest mother fucker in the West. Unhinged to the utmost degree.

Silco's second in command (according to her) and don't be fooled -- she waves that shit around like a flag. Gets her whatever she wants, because, threats.

Can shoot like nobody's business. Loves the theatrics of a duel, and always wins.

People tell their children ghost stories about Jinx to keep them in line.

Is a horse girl, and names all her ponies (which are just as crazy as she is - no one can ride them because they are Feral)

For sure blows up a train at some point.

Sevika

Silco's actual right hand man

Sevika in a Pancho take me the fuck out

Does the Torturing™️ and runs the "Errands" (more torturing)

Definitely robs a bank at least once a week

Bar fights. All the time. Sevika enters a bar, there will be Violence

The brothel ladies love her (and she also beats the shit out of the aggressive assholes who threaten them)

Has a long-running beef with the Mayor (of what town, you ask? All of them)

Vi

The Disgruntled Cowboy whose come back from war or something

Has complex PTSD and attitude issues, but once you get to know her she’s just a big softie

Isn’t the best shot, but will still Fuck You Up

Punches her way through everything

Bar fights. Almost as notorious as Sevika, and just as destructive 

Remember those brothel ladies? Yup, they love her too (Sevika and Vi out her doing god’s work for the sapphics, am I right)

Will break like five different bones and still save some poor little town from being overrun by outlaws the next day

Wears a Lucky Hat that she’s had since the beginning of time. Will not let any other hat touch her head. Will go back for said hat even if it means risking her life. 

Thigh holster

Caitlyn 

The damn best shot in the West

Heart of gold, law-abiding citizen 

Probably the sheriff of somewhere

Wears a slouch hat (!!!) and looks damn good in it 

Would not hesitate to shoot a man in the foot. Dude is a misogynistic asshole? Oops, her finger slipped. And no one will ever know because she’s the sheriff. It’s a good system

Likes locking bad guys in the clink (definitely refers to it as “the clink”)

Has a moral dilemma when a certain Disgruntled Cowboy rides into town looking for the nearest saloon

Has a gay awakening because of beforementioned Disgruntled Cowboy and says fuck the law before riding off into the sunset

Thigh holster

Jayce

The mayor that Sevika has beef with

Is that one character in all westerns and western-themed media that provides a little bit of exposition, but is otherwise unhelpful in every way possible

Insists on wearing a shiny badge even though he is not the sheriff (which Caitlyn has told him many times and he still won’t listen)

Probably takes in like five different orphans because look at them he can’t just leave them all alone

Thinks that anyone who breaks the law is a threat to his fine little town and the fine little people that live there

Probably has a mustache, idk

Definitely wears spurs even though he doesn’t have a clue how to ride a horse

Everyone teases him about this

Viktor

Local chemist by day, unhinged mad scientist by night

Wishes everyone would stop coming to him with their injuries because “I am not technically a doctor and you are bleeding all over my lab equipment get outttttttt”

Anyone who manages to notice him thinks he’s a sweet little guy 

Knows how to kill and dismember a man before anyone notices a thing (...don’t ask)

Isn’t great with a gun -- but knives, on the other hand.... (again, don’t ask)

Isn’t above beating the shit out of people with his cane. Which also has a secret knife built into the handle

Has a running tab at the local saloon, which no one but himself and the owner knows about. Secretly never plans on paying it off. 

Can’t ride very comfortably because of his leg, but has a horse, whom he loves very much and always gives treats and scratches to

Thinks the mayor is hot but won’t do anything about it

Has a Sexy Pocket Watch

[theanimeview]

Arcane Family Dynamics: Vander and Vi

Source: Opening, Arcane

By: Beata Garrett | @zhongxia246​

There’s so many great things to say about Arcane, the Netflix show animated by Fortiche and based on characters from League of Legends, but my favorite analyses from fans of the show are about family. Arcane’s first season begins and ends with the fracturing of family as two sisters, Vi and Powder (later known as Jinx), are torn apart, reunited, and ultimately left in tatters by the end.

But their relationship isn’t the only familial one we see as the stories of other characters such as Jayce, Viktor, Mel, and even Marcus come into play. These characters are shown to have sometimes difficult and complex relationships with their families and it’s fascinating to learn just how much those relationships have shaped them into who they are presently.

I’m interested in doing a series of posts analyzing these relationships and I’ve decided to start with Vi and Vander because they are arguably the standout relationship in the first three episodes of Arcane. While Vander is both Vi and Powder’s father, his relationship with Vi is at the forefront of these episodes. As the class conflict between Piltover, the wealthy city across the bridge, and Zaun, the grimy undercity that Vander and Vi live in, builds, Vander and Vi clash in the way only family can.

Source: Episode 1, Arcane

At the beginning of the show, we see Vander adopting Vi and Powder as he takes these kids who have just been orphaned under his wing. Importantly, he has to put down his weapons (the gauntlets) to do so, symbolizing how he’s turned away from physical violence and where his priorities now lie: family. Vander’s name is dropped a few times throughout Episode 1 as if he’s the boss, someone the kids want to impress and don’t want to get in trouble with. While Vander serves as a father figure to all of them, he’s obviously closest to Vi.

Vander sees himself in Vi as she’s inherited all his best and worst traits. Vi is a leader, looked up to by everyone in her gang of kids, similar to Vander’s leadership amongst the undercity residents. However, Vi’s also hot headed and prone to using her fists. As we learn more about Vander, we see just why he’s put down his gauntlets as his part in the initial unrest led to so much destruction. Indirectly, Vander is responsible for Vi and Powder losing their parents. So it’s no wonder that he doesn’t want to see Vi repeat his mistakes and come to regret it like he did later.

After the theft goes wrong, Vander tells Vi, “When people look up to you, you don’t get to be selfish. You say run, they run. You say swim, they dive in. You say light a fire, they show up with oil” (Episode 1, Arcane). It’s very reminiscent of the adage “With great power comes great responsibility.” Vander also points at Vi’s fists and says, “This? It’s not gonna solve your problems. It just makes more of them.”

Source: Episode 1, Arcane

Although Vi understands the responsibility she has as a leader, there’s a clear divide in her vision for her and Powder’s future versus Vander’s desperation to keep them alive through the stability he has forged. However, Arcane delivers a powerful message through this conflict as neither character is fully right. Viewers may lean towards one more than another, but the show seems to say that while stability is good, no change can come from it.

Despite this talk with Vander, Vi still expresses a desire to change Zaun and free the undercity from Piltover’s oppression. At the end of Episode 1, she looks at Piltover with Powder by her side and promises that “One day this city’s going to respect us” (Episode 1, Arcane). It’s no coincidence that the show introduces Silco, the primary antagonist of the series, right after this. The idea of respect links Vi and Silco together, whereas Vander has given up on the idea of Piltover respecting Zaun.

Source: Episode 1, Arcane

It’s easy to see Vi’s desire to be respected as one of a child’s. But I would argue that what Vi wants is the respect that comes with humanizing people seen as lesser than, which is part of the goal Silco is working towards (although his is undoubtedly more corrupt and self-serving). Vi expresses this desire right after telling Powder some stories of the gang’s bad childhood experiences and encounters with enforcers and other people. It emphasizes how these are kids who are desperate for power and change in any way they can take it.

In contrast, Vander is respected because he looks out for the undercity residents and has a deal with the head of the enforcers to keep violence to a simmer. But it’s clear that this respect is running out as a new generation of enforcers (shown by Marcus) and even Vander’s own comrades such as Sevika are tired of this faux peace. They read his reluctance to fight Piltover as him shielding his children and as, worse, weakness (Episode 2, Arcane).

Source: Episode 2, Arcane

Vi is among this group, unsure of why Vander doesn’t use the collective power of the undercity to fight back. Vi argues, “We need to fight back. And if you won’t, I will” (Episode 2, Arcane). The shot emphasizes her fists, her desire to use it and take the respect she believes the undercity deserves and to protect her family. At this point, Vander realizes that just talking to Vi won’t change her aspirations. So he takes her to the bridge where the show began and tells her his story, and the harsh lessons he learned from it as a leader.

Source: Episode 2, Arcane

Vander lays out his regrets to Vi, and it’s important that he recognizes and validates Vi’s anger and feeling of helplessness. He understands and sees the desire to change things within her that he had, but asks, “Who are you willing to lose?” (Episode 2, Arcane). This goes back to Episode 1 as he’s advising her leader-to-leader on the casualties of her crusade if she continues this path, one that could put the family (specifically Powder) in danger.

It is this talk that brings father and daughter closer than ever, but it also leads to Vi sacrificing herself. She contacts the head of the enforcers and waits in the pawn shop for them to come, willing to be taken away if that means everyone else, including Vander and Powder, are safe.  

Episode 3 is a master-class in how to write tragedy. Instead of enforcers taking Vi, Vander sacrifices himself in her place. He tells Vi, “Protect the family.” However, he is taken away by Silco and his crew instead, leaving Vi to mount a rescue mission. It is at this moment that Vi feels a fraction of what Vander must feel as their father. She’s willing to let Mylo and Claggor tag along with her as they have experience fighting and are older, but tells Powder to stay home. Just as Vi didn’t understand why Vander wouldn’t let them fight Piltover, Powder doesn’t understand why her sister won’t take her along.

Vi’s desperation to honor her father’s last words and to protect her sister is what makes the events that happen next even more tragic. She tells Powder, “You’re all I have left” and leaves her, which only makes Powder want to help more. Thus begins the gap that grows between two sisters.

Source: Episode 3, Arcane

Vi not only takes Mylo and Claggor with her, but also takes Vander’s gauntlets and puts the iconic weapons on for the first time. She proceeds to rescue Vander and it seems successful until Powder shows up. Ironically, Powder’s bombs work for the first time. In a second, Mylo and Claggor are dead, and Vander is severely injured after protecting his family for the last time. His last words echo the beginning of the episode as he tells Vi, “Protect Powder.”

The family has been reduced to the two sisters and, in Vi’s grief, she’s unable to comfort Powder. Powder, who thinks that she’s helped her family, innocently approaches in elation and Vi lashes out, hitting her sister and calling her “a jinx.” This moment can be divisive for viewers of the show as some believe Vi crossed a line and is responsible for the tragedy of Powder becoming Jinx. However, I argue that this is an understandable moment of a person, never mind a child, reacting to being confronted with the person who indirectly caused the death of the rest of their family. Vi is still a child who has just lost three members of her family and, after hitting Powder, you can tell that she instantly feels bad.

Vi gets some space between her and Powder, unable to deal with her sister at the moment, but has not abandoned her. She doesn’t keep running away from Powder but is taken against her will by Marcus, and is unable to help her sister when Silco approaches Powder. Vander’s last wish, his desire to keep the family together and protected, is destroyed in this moment.

Source: Episode 3, Arcane

One of Arcane’s strongest traits is how it couches larger politics within the personal lives and struggles of its characters.There are many characters in Piltover and Zaun that we see throughout the first three episodes, but Powder, Vander, and Vi’s story feels the most personal to me. That may be because the writers of the show nailed the struggles of marginalized families and because we see these three characters care and love one another throughout.

There’s plenty to be said about Vi and Jinx, but I wanted to focus on Vander and Vi because the two present many of the themes that we’ll see throughout Arcane. They represent a generational divide and the different visions each generation has for their future, i.e. stability vs change, and their relationship puts forth one of the most damning questions in the show: what would you sacrifice for your family?