#make art that will make Silco cry

[fatherofstiri]

My life is currently falling apart so calling all fans of @silcohateslife!

So I think that it would be really cool if I had on of the fans create a new pfp for the blog! Here are the rules!

-Must be original and no AI

-Remember to follow the blog rules and Tumblrs

-Deadline will be March 1st

-Winner will be announced March 2nd

-Please tag either this account or the Silco one

-DM me for any questions!

Now artist, please make your unhinged art that could make Silco cry, or make him beautiful, I don’t care!

[last-smoke]

“i hope you know we had everything” 🩸

[bbugspray]

Sigh.... I love his features. Im so sad about him

[q8qwertyuiop8p]

HELP I NEVER KNEW ABOUT THIS AND IT HAS SILCO IN IT???

And it's so depressing geez

Weibo's promotion for the Jinx Figure

[aclockworkreader]

all my arcane thoughts because i’m feeling entirely normal about this show:

the storytelling!! the foreshadowing!! the parallels!! the pure artistry!! arcane is a masterpiece!!

it has everything: trauma, found family, the corruption of power, complex sibling dynamics, queer relationships (sapphic rep!!), more trauma, social and political commentary, beautiful animation, and even more trauma!! it reminds me so much of so many of my favorite animated shows (avatar: the last airbender, she-ra, fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood) all mixed into one.

the animation was actually something that originally kept me from watching the show because i’m not a big fan of most 3d animation. but my GOD was it beautiful!!! the way they were able to mix art styles and switch between 3d and 2d worked so well! it was incredibly creative and artistic and i’ve never seen anything like it. the fight sequences were STUNNING and easily some of the best moments in the show. every frame was truly a work of art, i’m obsessed.

from the characters to the plot, every element of this show is so well written, it’s restored my faith in modern tv writing.

would absolutely recommend if you’re prepared to have your heart torn from your chest 💔

spoilers below with all my in depth thoughts

okay please bear with me, my brain is all over the place:

- JINX!! MY PRECIOUS JINX!! YOU DESERVED SO MUCH MORE!!! 😭😭 oh i knew it was coming and yet i still cried so much!!! she’s easily my favorite character. i support her in all her rights and wrongs (of which there are none actually, she had every right to do everything she did). all that’s keeping me sane is knowing she’s alive and well in another timeline 🥲 with ekko 🥲 dancing freely and engineering to her hearts content

- i also loved vi so so much. the prideful eldest sibling overwhelmed by the responsibility she feels to her family….yeah that hit hard. these sisters, doomed by the narrative, have DESTROYED me. all the parallels of their relationship throughout the show, down to vi grabbing jinx before she falls in the first vs last episode!! it’s all too much, i’ll never recover 😭

- my biggest complaint is that we didn’t get to explore vi’s grief after losing jinx. i know they jumped forward in time, so it seemed like she just kinda moved on and we didn’t get to see the aftermath of arguably the most traumatic thing she’s ever experienced?? watching her sister die and her father die (again) would have changed her forever so it felt a bit rushed to just….gloss over that.

- and i’m so sorry to the caitlyn stans but…..she’s not my favorite 😬 i don’t even dislike vi/cait as a ship, i just feel like caitlyn as a character is the least developed out of everyone on the show. and also her dictator arc was…something. i feel like we moved on from it so quickly that we didn’t have time to fully explore and address everything there.

- my other favorite character (second only to jinx) is ekko!! a true hero!! every fight scene he’s in is my favorite fight scene—he’s just SO GOOD 🤍 and what he does for jinx??? yeah, that was pure love

- the jinx/vi/isha/vander dynamic was easily my favorite part of the whole show. them as a family hurt me and healed me and UGH i cried so much 😭 isha and jinx too my GOD their whole relationship was so beautiful and jinx getting to be the older sister she never had 😭 i’m still crying over it!

- and sevika???? LOVE her. imagine being that right all the time….she has to be a capricorn.

- also mel!! she took some time to grow on me but i especially loved her arc in season 2! her as a mage is iconic and i wish we could have seen her use her magic more!

- oh and silco?? the most unexpected favorite. i didn’t expect to side with him so often, but that’s what makes him such a great villain. and the tears i shed when he told jinx “i never would have given you to them. not for anything”??? oh i SOBBED

- while i did love the jayce/viktor relationship by the end, i just find jayce to be so….boring, i’m sorry!! maybe upon rewatch i’ll feel more attached to him but (especially compared to nearly every other character) he’s so uninteresting. but the show needed some normie representation, so i’ll let him be.

- but viktor though!! yeah he was an incredible character. i called the plot twist of him being the mage who helped jayce pretty early on, so that wasn’t a surprise. but i did not expect him to have a full on jesus arc?? that was wilddd and i feel like i need more watches to fully process it all.

those are most of my thoughts for now. i’m just in awe of how wonderful this show is and surprised by how much i enjoyed it. i definitely need more time and more rewatches to say for certain if it’s an all time favorite, but it’s definitely up there 💙🩷

[lullabyladybugs]

꒒ꀤ꓄꓄꒒ꍟ ꀭꀤꈤꊼ moodboard + headcanons! 🛸

》 moodboard requests are open! . ݁ ˖ִ ࣪₊ ⊹˚

🛸 she tends to regress when she's feeling lonely, and around to the age of 3-7! she's reclaiming what she feels she didn't get to enjoy.

🛸 little jinx is a clingy little, always wanting her cgs within eyeline. otherwise she gets panicky, screaming and crying until they pick her up/appear again. she doesn't like being left alone.

🛸 she's big on doodling, and draws on anything she can get her hands on, so it's best to not leave personal belongings lying around. (cg!sevika learns this quickly!)

🛸 jinx has got a busy mind. she finds suckling on pacifiers helps her clear her thoughts. she enjoys humming while doing so, and likes to decorate her pacifiers with stickers and paint, markers, etc.

🛸 not one for bottles, favors sippy cups filled with juice & sugary drinks!

🛸 she really enjoys making cg!silco gifts and drawings, and will throw the occasional fit when he forgets to hang them up on the walls of his office.

🛸 her favorite pastimes include; arts and crafts, playing with her stuffies, dancing, and dress up! she thinks it's really funny when silco dresses up with her & enjoys it throughly.

🛸 she's very big on science, and can always be found making "potions" (mixtures of random hygiene products, soap, dirt, etc) or mixing random ingredients together to see how they react.

when silco isn't busy, and she's feeling talkative (around 7 years old) he sets up safe science experiments for them to do together. he enjoys watching her pump her fists with excitement, squealing with joy as things fizzle and bubble.

》 that's all I've got! feel free to share/request your own (^_^) 💙

** NSFW/AGEPLAY/KINK DNI! YOU WILL BE BLOCKED IMMEDIATELY**

[yes-these-obsessions-are-healthy]

It digs at my brain that the soundtrack for S2 is full of passion. These artists truly went all out for the season and the story simply didn’t meet them at their level. “To Ashes and Blood” is so moving. It has a choir of literal children singing a prayer for clean air in a language made up for Zaun. (I’m always a sucker for children’s choirs). I almost cry when I hear it because nothing hits me harder than when art hangs a spotlight on the innocence and vulnerability of children who are so inured to hardship that they sing and pray and play games that mirror or comment on the exploitative forces that make their lives miserable, where praying to a deity for clean air is simply something that exists and is widespread.

It only retroactively makes me even more supportive of Silco. At the very least, before his turn to darker means, he undoubtedly grew up singing that song. And it was children—Felicia’s children (if you want to follow the canon strictly)—that he was trying to fight for. It’s what Silco was referencing during the chembaron meeting. He’s a Machiavellian mob boss that employs child labor but clearly clean air is very important to him. He will not let any of the barons forget what it was like Before. S2 puts a wrench in the works because it introduces shit that should’ve been present or accounted for in S1 and I haaaaate it when that happens. More competent writers would’ve been able to make the integration of new elements more seamless. but moving on…..

There was acceptable set-up in Act I with the introduction of Isha as a little sumpsnipe miner, the Janna imagery, the chembarons scrabbling for power, the scuffle of Jinx + Sevika vs. Caitlyn + Vi …

They had Paint the Town Blue in Act 2 for the police brutality and martial law!! All of this great music telling, compelling, revving up the audience that “these are big themes you guys!” and then the story does nothing with them! Like all you need is to just make a song and you can consider it dealt with. I know it’s been said a thousand times, but this season should’ve been exclusively about Zaun finally throwing off the yoke of Piltover, and I’m gonna say it, it didn’t deserve to win all of those Annie Awards for storytelling/writing because WHAT writing.

[sunshine-zenith]

Modern AU where Ekko is a live wedding painter

He’s still an engineer and budding scientist, still involved in his local company and local politics, but he’s also able to pursue art, and he specifically gets to capture moments of happiness in a unique way, creating memories on the spot for couples to revisit over and over

He obviously gives a hefty family discount when Vander and Silco have their second wedding (and nearly drops his entire paint pallet every time he overhears Benzo joke about not wanting to be dragged into their knife fight again if they get a second divorce). (He realizes as he paints them that even though he sees them nearly everyday, even though they’re practically his uncles, they have more gray hairs and lines around their eyes than he thought. He’s a guest as well so he doesn’t spend the entire time working in the piece, but when he does, he makes sure he captures the joy in the lines around their eyes and mouths when they look at each other)

He nearly overcharges Jayce when hired because Jayce had a flare up of his chronic Foot In Mouth Disease during their consultation, but is able to reel himself in after meeting the person Jayce is marrying (if it’s Mel, they’re able to bond over art and actually eventually have a surprisingly vulnerable and honest debate about politics; if it’s Viktor they end up talking about growing up in the Undercity, what being Zaunites mean to them, and how it ultimately ended up shaping their passions for the sciences, plus they share gardening tips during wedding planning; if it’s both then he and Mylo quietly place bets on Mel and Viktor both leaving Jayce at the alter and just marry each other instead at the reception. They don’t, obviously, and Ekko has to admit it’s a beautiful and surprisingly intimate reception — just close, trusted friends and family, Viktor and Mel dressed in golds that Ekko spent days trying to color match leading up to the wedding, and Jayce and Viktor decorating their mobility aids to match. They’re an odd group, but as he paints he finds they fit together surprisingly well. He makes sure to paint Jayce crying no matter the scenario and gets away with it because the man was sobbing like a baby basically the entire time)

When Vi and Cait get married, Ekko point blank refuses to charge them. He makes it clear that if Mylo or Claggor also get married he won’t charge them either. Sure, the Kirammans can more than afford it, but he will not make Vi pay a damn penny and would be offended if she tried. (They ultimately don’t have him paint during the ceremony or reception, too involved in the wedding party/as a guest, going with a photographer hired by the Kirammans instead, but when Vi and Caitlyn come back from their honeymoon, they find a nearly life sized portrait of them during the ceremony, Vi dressed in her suit, her hair slicked back by Silco, staring up at Caitlyn in her uniform and heels, both of them smiling crooked and quirked smiles. Caitlyn is holding a bouquet of violets, her favorite flower, and Ekko made sure to paint every petal)

At Powder’s wedding, he isn’t hired as a live painter, obviously. He’s a little too busy for that the entire night, given it’s his wedding as well, but both of them do still bust out the paints. Both of them wear white, not because of any tradition or symbolism, but because white makes for such a nice canvas. They get ready in the same room and walk down the aisle covered in spray paint, glitter, and even a few scorch marks, and when they dance together at the reception, Ekko already knows he’ll be painting a thousand pictures of the night from memory

(Their guests also walk away covered in paint and with singed outfits. Powder rigged a few paint bombs because it’s her wedding and she can do whatever she and Ekko want. Scar comes very close to sending them a glitter bomb in retaliation for having to pick glitter out of his daughter’s fur for the next three weeks)

[autistic-regressor]

Age regressor Silco headcannons

⭐A toddler regressor, very quiet too when he's regressed unless he's in a tantrum

⭐Super secretive about it like the only people to ever find out were Vander, Felicia, and Jinx

⭐Regresses from stress which is normally from his workload or drama happening with the chembarons or shipment issues. Used to also be from loud parties and the last drop being too crowded

⭐Has a secret room filled with regressor things that he warns Sevika and his other workers to NEVER go into and to not bother him when he's in there no matter what

⭐Used to be a very well behaved little that just liked to make drawings and play with blocks but after his falling out with Vander he became very fussy and would throw tantrums almost every time he regressed

⭐Masks that he's regressed if he can't get to his safe room which normally means turning his 'crying and hitting the ground' tantrums into a 'beating up and firing the person closest to him' tantrum

⭐The others have learned how to pick up that he's about to throw a tantrum and leave as soon as there are warning signs

⭐This scene was one of his tantrums (s01e06, 'guns for hire' scene)

⭐Most of Jinx caregiving for him is her teaching him how to play as a kid and not just cry and hit stuff

⭐They doodle over stuff together, Silco is always a lot more shy with drawing over random things but Jinx gets him to open up

⭐By the end his art style is almost the same as hers. his drawings start out super scratchy, only using greys and stuff but they turn really colourful

⭐he loves having all his plushies and bottles covered in Jinx's drawings

⭐At first she tries to avoid drawing on his stuff to give him space when he's regressed but she finds he clings onto anything she's drawn on and she starts decorating more of his stuff

⭐If he's feeling really little she'll blow stuff up cause he likes the pretty colours but he always gets mad at her when he's big again

⭐ Jinx also regresses and she started suspecting he might when he first saw her regressed and immediately knew what was going on

⭐one day she heard him sobbing in his safe room and went in

⭐he was super upset and told her to get out but eventually she was able to get him to open up about it and she promised to care for him whenever he needs it

⭐sometimes Sevika will find their agere things around and Jinx will always take responsibility for it

Past Vander and Felica Stuff:

⭐Vander first found out when Silco went into a backroom of the last drop when it got too loud. Vander followed to check up on him and Silco quickly put away his notebook and crayons he was drawing with and tried to do his best impression of being big. Vander wasn't convinced Silco was okay and kept checking in on him.

⭐Later Vander followed up with Silco, asking him if he was actually okay back then and Silco admitted to him he regresses. he was really worried Vander would find him weird or think it was for weird reasons but Vander just asked him more about it and how he can help

⭐Vander then got Silco a bunch of stuff, markers, bottles, stickers, anything he could find

⭐Silco loved being held by Vander, it made him feel so small, being in Vander's big arms

⭐Felica found out when she walked in on Vander taking care of Silco. Vander tried really hard to cover for Silco but Silco decided he trusted her enough to tell her his secret

⭐She would occasionally take care of Silco if Vander was busy but he never liked her style of cging as much

⭐but when Vi was on the way he starting letting her be his cg a lot more so she could get some practice in and feel more sure of herself

⭐he would always be sure to tell her how good of a mama she is

[snortslaxatives]

Creating a post for what I feel was an inspired response: Hot take but I feel like ambessa gives daddy issues and silco gives mommy issues. Silco is like, an overindulgent parent who would hang up ur ugly art on the fridge and refuse to acknowledge any of your (serious) faults at the PTA meeting, while ambessa would tell you to suck it up after falling and crying as a kid. she would begrudgingly show you how to change your oil and make fun of you the whole time for not already knowing how.

[crowwithacomputer]

Thoughts on Arcane S2 so far (devastated) and small predictions (even more devastated)

With Spoilers

On Jinx and Vi

Nothing better than discovering that your dad is actually not dead but a literal fucking beast and now you have to talk to your sister who turned emo/crazy to save him.

+ Silco and Vander were besties.

I'm happy to see the new relationship between these two after all. So much to apologise and so much to say, and also trying to save the country. I just hope they have small sister fights constantly.

On Caitlyn

I must admit I didn't see Cait coming because I thought she just turned evil but turns out people are complex beings and Cait is not Ambessa.

"Caitlyn is not distracted" that's such a hard line from Vi. She was so distracted by Ambessa but she's right back on track. I love seeing THE lesbians back. Now, they have a lot to talk about and mostly with Jinx, because that sister-in-law relationship is, well, it's definitely a relationship.

On Isha

Wow. I don't even know how to feel because WOW. She was one of the strongest characters I've seen. She loved these people, who by the way she (more or less) just met and she sacrificed her entire life for them and many more. THAT'S strong. I'm gonna miss her and I'm sure Jinx is NOT letting this slide.

On Jayce and Viktor

Jayce is so absolutely traumatised he went insane and I'm just hoping Viktor didn't actually die because I will start killing people, but I'm not mad at him. Mostly I want to see how he turns out. Of course he didn't want to kill him but he did what he thought was okay.

I think the final speech Viktor gave was absolutely amazing. Again, the complexity of the characters is something I had definitely never seen before (although I haven't consumed as much media as I would like to), and how the writers were able to build everything has me crying.

My prediction is that Jayne will be suffering quite a lot and think about Viktor nonstop. The thing is (coming from my own sadness) I think Viktor is not dead, but his body is. He transcended human nature and will be talking to Jayce, maybe through whatever the hammer has going on. My boy Jayce has it BAD.

I want at least a hug and Jayce bawling his eyes out. Ugly crying. Snot, tears and drool all over his face apologising to Viktor and not knowing what to do. And then they both smooch in the weird arcane realm they're in. *figurines clicking together sounds*

Now for real, I would love it if Viktor got into his mind when he sleeps of whatever and talks to him. Maybe he explains what he's seen and Jayce and him fight over what to do, because they have extremely different views on Hextech. That will be a good fight to see.

On Ekko and Mel

Oh god what is going on. For real what are they putting my girl and my boy through. Someone help these people.

Like, Jayce got out but where the fuck are Ekko and Heimendinger? And Mel is just lost in the weirdest realm ever, even worse than whatever Viktor has going on. All of this will be cleared out in the next episodes but damn. There's A LOT to clear out.

My thoughts

I must admit I didn't do a rewatch and that's leaving me with a few questions, but I'll probably watch it all over again and see the full show at its finest.

I will say that in the series that I watch I usually pick favourites. If they're not on screen I lose interest, but this show has me on a chokehold. Every one of these characters are so important and so interesting, and I think that's what makes a show good.

Beautiful writing, beautiful storytelling, beautiful art, beautiful pace. I just love it. As an amateur writer I love seeing this, it's such an inspiration to continue. It's so hard to watch knowing my favs will be going through hell but as a writer it's amazing to see how well the writers built that hell. So to conclude:

The girls are all against Ambessa, me and my besties overthrowing the government.

Jayce and Viktor having yet ANOTHER boyfriend fight, biblical edition.

Mel and Ekko are having the worst weed paranoia ever seen, now with magic.

The whole country is collapsing and these stupid bitches have to save it with the power of friendship and gayness, and I'm here for it.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[moriartyyouwhore]

besties I am about to very literally cry into my offbrand coco pops blame everyone making dad!Silco art

[thatoneerin]

okay, I've got some art brewing for my skyvik Epic au, so while that's cooking, I've got some more characters for y'all

Maddie is Calypso, for so many obvious reasons

Singed is Tireseas, cause he honestly just gives off prophet vibes

now I've decided to switch around who's Athena and Poseidon. I'm gonna have Ambessa as Poseidon, because the whole thing with family and wanting to protect them. (thank you to @mercury-and-cry for that idea)

Now for Athena, I feel like Vander makes the most sense (I honestly have no idea how I didn't think of that first lol) and with Zeus, I'm gonna have Silco be him.

lmk what y'all think of the line up and if you have any ideas!

[destinygoldenstar]

Is Screen Time An Issue For A Character?

That’s a tough one.

I see quite a few arguments about some shows I’ve watched that ‘oh, this character is bad because they have too much screen time’. Or ‘I wish this character had more screen time to be interesting.’

Basically, too much screen time is now a valid critique to describe why a character is bad or doesn’t work for you. And to that I say…

Uh… no?

I’ll give some examples where I see this critique, but for now I want to state a case of examples where I expected to see this critique online, but didn’t, and I wondered why.

SPOILERS BELOW FOR THE SPIDERVERSE SEQUEL:

The main character of the Spiderverse movies is Miles Morales. Clear as day if you see ANY promotional concept art. The movies nail that home and give you a solid POV character among the Multiverse chaos.

The sequel begins with an over twenty minute backstory sequence involving Gwen Stacy, a side character in the first movie.

(Fun fact: When me and my dad went to see it in theaters together, he said that backstory was over twenty minutes long and that he thought they could've trimmed it down. Animated-phobia gives you weird opinions. He didn't watch Arcane with me and thought nothing of it because 'it was an animated show'. Not kidding.) (Both of my parents are like this, sadly.)

Now, in the context of the movie, it makes sense to include this to understand the full POV of her character going forward. As she is pretty vital to the story.

I tried imagining a version of the movie where we DIDN'T get this intro, went straight to Miles, and we just had to put the pieces together involving Gwen and her actions. And I don't think the movie would've worked nearly as well.

This brings me to another point involving Gwen Stacy in this movie: She's kind of become a protagonist as well, next to Miles.

Is this screen time theft? Under the screen time critique, it probably would seem that way.

And yet nobody I've seen complains. If anything, this solidified her as one of the best movie adaptations of Gwen Stacy out there. In my opinion.

Unlike the first movie, this one is not driven by the narrative of the main character, but rather multiple.

This is not uncommon. And it's an even bigger case with Arcane.

Yeah, this show is phenomenal everyone who says so is right Jinx is an icon Vi is my cartoon crush next to Petra I was crying so hard at the ending and for that alone this show deserves every ounce of praise it gets and I'm kind of an Arcane stan-

*Inhales*

I think I just have a thing for dystopian stories where characters walk through hell.

(Yes I consider TD a dystopian setting, that'd be a nice hot take to tackle one day.)

The Hunger Games is my favorite dystopian setting that I've seen, just because it's very memorable and inspiring. But Arcane is objectively the best dystopian story out there. If I fade out of my Total Drama obsession, this show might be my next target.

Cupcakes. El fin.

I could stop there, but lets talk about why we're here.

Arcane does not focus on the two main characters only as the driving force of its narrative.

Advertisement tell you that our main characters are the two growing war machines who go around calling each other sisters, Vi and Powder (Jinx. Idk how mad people get for which name I use for her. Sorry if I offend you). In fact, there's evidence to back that up. Other than they're the people with dyed hair, that's instant main character. They're the first characters we meet in the entire show. They're the characters with the final scene that closes off the season. EVERY ending to an act is with them. They're the main characters. Boom.

But wait. Nearly TWO THIRDS of this show doesn't even focus on them!

We have all the Piltover characters we keep switching back to. Jayce, Viktor, Mel, Caitlyn for Act 2 pretty much, Silco kind of becomes his own protagonist in Act 3. Really, the only people who remain consistent side characters are Ekko, and the two boys that get blown to pieces by Powder. And... some other people I'm forgetting the names of. (Sorry, I only had two watch throughs of this show so far and I know nothing about League other than the sisters become enemies.)

Now, why?

Why is this the case? I'm not saying characters other than our mains don't get fleshed out at all, but to the point where they're basically major enough to carry their own show? That SOUNDS like a detriment to the story if anything, especially how unfocused it kind of all gets until the end where everyone's in the same room.

Had Vi or Jinx interact with these characters, their fleshing out makes sense, and you definitely see that with characters like Caitlyn and Silco, who kind of need them to function.

But the Piltover gang? Jinx doesn't meet them at all, neither of the sisters meet Viktor, and Vi does meet Jayce, but in Episode 8 of 9.

Why does nobody complain about this? If anything, these guys are stealing screen time.

Well, it turns out, this is all done in Arcane's benefit, rather than fault. We are all the protagonist of our own story, and there are multiple POVs regarding the world.

It's basically if Hunger Games was third person instead of first, and we actually got a chance to flesh out the other rebels/children.

Me personally, and I know I'm not the only one out there, but the sisters were the most interesting thing about the show, and other characters that talk to them were how they caught my attention. That in no way means I don't care for anyone though, and it's COMPLETELY a PERSONAL thing.

So whenever we DO focus on the sisters and their story, not only do we get these other POVS on the scene that could clash with our view of them, but it makes it so that EVERY. SCENE. MATTERS.

No scene is wasted in fleshing out the sister's story. Everything has a purpose and drives it all to one heartbreaking simulation. There's no wasted space, there's no lack of attention to a certain detail, darn it, it's just right.

(I mean, I guess I would've liked to see what they went through in that time skip, like how Jinx was raised by Silco and processed her new identity, or better yet how tf Vi survived prison when it's heavily implied she beat people to a pulp and got solitary multiple times. But I think Season 2 is gonna cover it.)

Seriously, imagine a version of this show real quick.

Imagine a version of the show that took the Hunger Games approach, and used first person POV on one of the two sisters, doesn't matter which one, they'd both work. Cut out scenes not involving that sister. The other characters that appear revolve around scenes they're in with that sister.

Would that work nearly as well?

I don't think so.

Now First Person POV isn't necessarily a bad thing. Danganronpa is first person. Minecraft Story Mode is first person. Those are probably not great examples, but it can work. (TDDRI, a fic of mine, is first person, and I had to work around that to flesh out everyone else. It can work.)

This show is very hot topic and weirdly paced than what I'm used to. So take everything with a grain of salt as I am nowhere near an expert with this show. The show's story doesn't even get started until Episode 4, as the first three episodes are all flashback to explain where our characters are and why they're motivated to do what they do.

Again, I tried imagining a version of this show where we DIDN'T get those first three episodes, we started with Episode 4, and we just had to ASSUME all the backstory involving the sisters and the titular arcane and put the pieces together through Vi's words and Jinx's hallucinations. I don't think we would have been nearly as invested.

So with these two examples, WHY does nobody complain about screen time involving a character?

Is it because they're just really good pieces of media? Or is there a reason for this?

After all, Spiderverse and Arcane fall under the category of an 'ensemble cast'. A cast of characters in a story where there is no titular main character to drive the narrative, and everyone does instead. It's like if Harry Potter was 'Hogwarts' instead, or some title like that.

But lets take a look at some examples of ensemble casts where there's been a complaint of some sort with screen time:

Total Drama and RWBY.

Now I only like one of these two shows, so I'm gonna put that aside for now.

Total Drama. It has an ensemble cast. The show is about teenagers suffering-I mean competing for a prize, eliminating each other bit by bit as it goes along. Naturally with that setup, early boots are left to dry. But that doesn't stop people from complaining.

Ezekiel gets the most flack for too little screen time, and major fanboys say he should've had more focus. Personally I don't get that based on what role he's deigned to play. Caleb is a more recent example. I thought he was gonna have a bigger role and character than he ended up having, and him being a first boot gag makes even less sense than Zeke. Dawn is a fan favorite who isn't even in that many episodes. Axel is a ripoff of Shawn because of her lack of screen time. Scary Girl is... Scary Girl, who I don't see the fuss about her little screen time as she's comic relief, but the complaint is there. There is SO MUCH bashing about Noah's lack of screen time it is not even funny. So much so that he's sharing screen time with another person.

And who is to blame for this: Well, the characters who make it really far into the game, or course! How dare they steal screen time away from these guys!

I feel like Ripper is the most recent example of this. His character arc was about him breaking a world record. He broke it. It's Episode 5. Now he can leave the show, right-

Nope. He's around till Episode 8. Out of 13. And even then, in Episode 13, he's Millie's partner, which means screen time.

It sounds unjustified because it is. I'm not the biggest Ripper hater, but I definitely see the complaints. (Ripper and Damien swapping places are the only part of the elimination order I would change. Everything else is pretty spot on.)

We already have MK as a pre-merge antagonist and Julia as a post merge antagonist, we don't need this rando bully character as well as it adds nothing. Maybe Ripper would've been better liked if he wasn't a bully and just some morally average comic relief guy, but also... probably not.

But he's not the only fart based character in this show that gets complaints about screen time. Here's where I talk about the first gen.

For what I have seen, the ones with the biggest screen time complaints are Owen, Duncan, and Beth. I don't count Heather cause it's on purpose. I count Sierra because it's a personal gripe I have.

Owen was the original winner of TDI, came back on the show in the second season for a mole subplot nobody likes, and merged season three. He and Noah also got a spinoff.

Beth was the finalist of TDA.

And everyone hates it, including myself.

Then there's Duncan. Easily the character the show focuses on the most. Season 1? 4th place. Season 2? Winner. Season 3? Gone half the season so he's only in 8 episodes not counting what he didn't compete in, but he scored 5th overall. Season 5? Weakest performance, but he still merged. That's 8th place by the way.

By far, THIS is the character in this show that gets the MOST horrendous flack for his screen time. And from what I've learned, if you think this, you probably hate Duncan as a character.

Like, I haven't watched Winx, but I saw videos on YouTube that made fun of Bloom for getting too much screen time.

Somebody do those but with Duncan! I'm not a Duncan hater, but I would like to get a laugh!

So it'd just be easy to say the writers played favorites, it was an issue, and be done with it, right?

Except no.

My GF watched World Tour just recently. (And she was mixed on it.) Her comments regarding Duncan and Gwen were that she wished they had more interactions to sell them (she was routing AGAINST Duncney, basically) and it didn't help that Duncan was gone half the season. She said that it would've helped all the characters involved if he stayed to flesh that out.

To that I went: "Huh. That's interesting how you take no issue with this character's screen time."

But why though? She's not a stan of him, she's a casual viewer, so that can't be it.

And that's when it hit me.

Beth and Sierra. These two make it through an entire season each. And we both collectively hate them as characters. And we hate seeing them on screen.

That's because it's what the characters DO with their screen time.

See what I'm talking about:

Season 1: Duncan is an established character that develops relationships and friendships and learns to open up to people outside of his comfort bad boy zone.

Trent spends 16 episodes sitting still and looking pretty with a guitar. (Okay that's probably not a great example, and I don't hate Trent, but you kinda get it)

Season 2: Duncan is dealing with revenge on Harold for his spoiled relationship with Courtney where he gets abused by her, fights to hold his own, and dumps her.

Beth spends the entire season talking about a fake boyfriend and cheating on it.

Season 3: Duncan, again, is only competing in 8 episodes out of 26, but what does he do? He establishes a new relationship with Gwen, gets her cancelled, forms a friendship with Alejandro, and gets played.

Sierra is there the entire season sexually harassing Cody and passing it off as quirky. We hate to see it. (Seriously, you guys think the love triangle is worse than this? My GF and I agreed we would rather watch the love triangle ten times again, over Sierra being on screen at all.)

What's the difference here? STORY.

Certain characters have story to follow, that NEEDS that screen time to work. Ironically, the plotline of Duncan's that comes across the least genuine, is the season where he's on screen the least. (Not counting All Stars, but they're kind of equal in episodes Duncan's in.)

Again, imagine if we never had that backstory sequence of Gwen Stacy. Yes it eats up screen time, but without it? She would come across as an ingenuine traitor who supposedly ditched her dad for some cool spider society. We NEEDED that sequence.

Duncan is always doing something when the screen is focused on him.

The reason Beth and Sierra don't work despite having all the screen time in the world is that they do NOTHING with the screen time they get. Nothing of value at least. We could've learned a lot about their origins, Beth's underdog status, or Sierra's fanclub, flesh them out as dynamic characters to route for, with different sides of them that slip through time to time that gets the audience thinking.

Nope. Sexual harassment makes up for all of that. (I question why I put up with this show sometimes.)

That would be the case and that's the answer, just do something with your screen time and you're free to have as much as you want.

Except there's ANOTHER key to the puzzle here.

Duncan is in the top 4 of the TD cast for a reason.

He's a main character.

Something Jaune Arc is not.

Hello nemesis my old friend.

Look, I respect people who like RWBY. People can feel any way they want to about a show. Opinions are valid.

If you think Arcane is the worst show ever made, that's valid.

If you think Velma is the best show ever made, that's valid.

It's all VALID.

With that said I think this show is an absolute trainwreck when it comes to writing characters.

Now hold on before you say I hate everything about it, I don't. This show does have SOME merits to it. The music is stellar and I actually listen to the soundtrack from time to time. For a limited budget animation, it's impressive. The choreo is neat. I want these weapons. I actually like quite a few of the side characters. Keep in mind I said side.

But what I look for in a good show is a compelling story and interesting characters to follow.

Something this show just does not have in my opinion.

I keep saying I'll do an analysis post on why Team RWBY are awful protagonists, but I've been busy and my plate has not emptied. But one of my main points regarding them is screen time.

Keep in mind, I've only seen fully up to Season 8. I've only seen clips of Season 9, so whatever I say about 9 may not be accurate.

Team RWBY are the main characters of the show, and yet they have not done a single main character thing throughout EIGHT SEASONS. It's kind of incredible.

If I didn't know the name of the show but saw a clip, I'd assume the main character was Jaune, or Oscar, more on them later.

What have these girls contributed in the battle of Salem's forces?

Season 1: Blake helped stop a robbery. Not even all four of them, just Blake. (So did Sun and Penny.)

Season 2: They broke into the White Fang's secret operation and busted a train into the city to fight off some Grim, in time for Team CFVY to wipe them out. (Those characters appear TWICE in the ENTIRE show, this is the first time. Just to speak my point.)

Season 3: Yang got framed for assault which helped the bad guys. Ruby watched Pyyra die and she blasted an eyeball off Cinder.

Season 4: UH...

Season 5: They housed Oscar, they met Raven, and they took place in the battle of Haven where Yang got the relic. (So did Oscar, JNR, Qrow)

Season 6: They took the relic to Atlas. (So did Oscar, JNR, Qrow)

Season 7: They lied to the general about vital information that could've helped them get one on Salem, and doomed all of Atlas.

Season 8: They caused the death of a kingdom and fell through a hole.

Season 9: UH... (That's not me not knowing what happened in 9, they just climbed out of the hole, basically, as the season has nothing to do with Salem's forces.)

Now, because the main characters are not involved with the main plot very much, does that make them bad?

No. There ARE ways to utilize them outside of driving the external plot.

Some stories are Character vs Self, Internal Conflict. The basis of this show's story is that these kids who grew up to be military soldiers are learning that their lives and the world is not a fairy tale, and they're not the good guys. That SOUNDS like the show is all about internal conflict, right?

Well it's not.

I mean, they DO realize this and make a morally questionable choice with consequences they regret.

In Season SEVEN.

And even THEN, they're treated by gods themselves like they've done nothing wrong!

If you ask me, it should have happened a LONG time ago.

What internal conflicts do these girls have?

Ruby is a naive prodigy who wants to be a huntress and live out a fairy tale reality. And she lives out that dream. Then Pyyra dies and she loses that home. And then she's back to fairy tale land, just doing more crimes and hating authority. And I GUESS she learned a lesson in 9...? I just saw her as depressed.

Weiss is an heiress of a rich company trying to overthrow rule of her father, who hates her. She hates Faunus. She learns not to hate Faunus. And she gains a lot of powers.

Blake is part of a civil rights movement with Faunus and she likes assaulting her own kind and burning their homes. She also has an abusive boyfriend and kills him with a girlfriend by her side.

Yang lost her mommy and wants to find her. She loses her arm. She finds her mommy but doesn't give a s**t because plot. She also gets a girlfriend.

That's like Vi and Jinx's reunion, only they didn't care about seeing each other again after years, they just pointed fists and guns at each other and said, "Where's the arcane?! Where's Silco?! I'm not here for you, I have a police GF now!" "I'm not here for you, I just wanted an easy route to blast Piltover to pieces! Mwahaha!"

See where I'm going with that?

Internal conflict is a key to making characters screen time worth while.

But lets face it, Team RWBY not having very well established internal/relevance to the external conflict is not the full reason why this is a problem with their screen time.

It's their lack thereof.

Three quarters of every season, they're just sitting at some random place that's not even pretty to look at, and the SIDE CHARACTERS do all the plot relevant stuff.

See why I like the side characters better?

Lets look at that chart again:

Season 1: Sun and Penny stopped that robbery.

Season 2: Team CFVY stopped the Grim invasion.

Season 3: Pyyra's story and downward spiral to her death.

Season 4: Nora and Ren the season.

Season 5: Oscar. The tribe.

Season 6: Oscar again as he's responsible for the exposition involved in that season.

Season 7: Ironwood's descent into insanity AND Penny's descent into accidental heroism.

Season 8: Both those characters die. Everyone dies.

Season 9: ...okay, good point, there was no one else.

Okay so maybe Season 9 gets a pass, but the others? Can you really put Team RWBY in a plot summary?

And that's just external conflict talking, let's talk the MAIN CHARACTER with the INTERNAL conflicts throughout the ENTIRE show.

Jaune Arc.

A SIDE character, voiced by one of the writers, has some of the most plotlines to follow due to his internal struggle and conflict in this new war throughout the entire show.

He has something to do in MOST of the seasons of this show. Not unlike Duncan. The only time I think he didn't have anything going on was Season 7.

In the very first season, Jaune has an entire character arc surrounding him trying to find his inner strength with a one off bully character as an antagonist. That sounds fine, so what's the issue?

This character arc takes up FOUR episodes out of 16. A WHOLE QUARTER OF THE SEASON.

"Well, maybe those episodes cut away to other people at some points-"

No. They don't. It's all Jaune in all these episodes.

Season two is less so Jaune focused, but he has a little subplot surrounding letting go of his feelings for Weiss and finding another girl who would gladly take him. I guess it's priority respect because Neptune was into Weiss at the time? But those two wound up never being a thing, so...

The whole time I thought Weiss was just asexual, but then 9 came in to screw that idea.

Season three focuses on Pyyra, Jaune's love interest, and therefore he's vital to her story and her thought process, so much so that the big angst moment in the season is with him and their death kiss.

Season four and five are focused on Jaune's thirst for revenge on Cinder, a member of Salem's forces, for killing Pyyra. He learns about Salem's forces along the way, makes his own opinion about all this lore, and decides to help out due to his personal necessity.

Wow. He has an internal conflict going on, AND he's active with the external conflict. HMM...

Season six is him letting go of his grief after his moral failure from the Battle of Haven nearly getting Weiss killed. And also he pins Oscar to the wall because why not. It's brief but it's also a full on character arc.

Season eight, he kills Penny, a girl he has never interacted with before this point, and he's a grieving mess. So much so that season nine also includes Jaune dealing with MULTIPLE grieving instances and personal failures.

Everyone else got a seasonal break from the story, and yet Jaune could not.

Now, is this a screen time issue?

Yes.

But NOT for the reasons you might think.

Let's go off of Duncan again, a character with a major status in the show's story and conflict from day one. He was designed that way.

Jaune was not designed that way. BUT I don't actually hate his story for the screen time he gets. In fact, he's probably one of the most interesting characters in the show because there's so much time dedicated to his struggle and his story.

The elephant in the room isn't because Jaune has a story.

It's because the main characters don't have a story.

Again, Arcane, that show focuses on a LOT of characters that aren't Vi and Jinx. You could argue Jayce is the Jaune in their universe. But why does it work? Because there is NOT a neglect of characterization of the leads.

In RWBY, there's a serious neglect issue.

And it's not just Jaune. There are other side characters who've been stealing time away from the leads.

Oscar, ever since he debuted Season 4, has been devoted to screen time stealing, and stealing the main character status with a Chosen One narrative and a pretty offensive way of portraying Multiple Personality Disorder. He's the one with the chosen one story, he's the one who interacts with the bad guys, he's toe to toe with Ironwood, he's the one related to Salem, and he does all of it with the personality of a hollow pine tree.

I mean I guess he also has a crush on Ruby, but... I don't want to get into that.

Hell, CINDER, an ANTAGONIST of the show, has more conflict and screen time than the leads. And she's one of my least favorite characters in the entire show, isn't that sweet?!

On top of that, she's a VILLAIN. We shouldn't be routing for her!

Then there's the rest of JNPR. Nora and Ren have a season focused on them, that being season 4. Pyyra is the same case with season 3. Pyyra dies in that season, so she's obviously not getting screen time any further. But Ren and Nora are alive, AND they have a subplot in the Atlas arc. Having a subplot isn't a problem, it just becomes jarring when the main characters don't have an arc and they do.

Penny gets revived and dies in the Atlas arc. That's also a thing.

The fix here should be really simple! Swap roles! Have the side characters sit in the houses with their little arcs, and have Team RWBY on the fields reacting to everything. It wouldn't excuse their lack of inner struggle, but at least they'd be involved with the plot.

There are many ways you could fix this. Like Oscar's role of being related to Salem. Ruby's mom is dead, but like, what if her mom was Salem and was taken out in war and revived/corrupted into this monster figure? That'd be an interesting narrative.

And RWBY is not the only show, the previous season of Pretty Cure, Delicious Party, ALSO has this issue. And arguably they did it worse because I don't even care for the side characters there either. I'd be repeating myself with criticism there:

Yui, the supposed main character, has no character trait other than be a glutton and a stand in for her grandmother, the other Cures are also irrelevant to the plot and just spend their time eating. The boys of this magical girl show are the focus and have all the wishy washy plotlines, and none of them are even that interesting.

I will give RWBY this over Delicious Party to prove I can see its merits:

At least they only have ONE forth wall narration and do know boundaries to that stuff, as opposed to Delicious Party that thinks their viewers are IDIOTS, and needs a narrator to explain EVERYTHING. CONSTANTLY.

(What a new low for that franchise, am I right? At least we have Hirogaru Sky.)

So what have we learned here?

To answer the question: Is Screen Time An Issue For A Character?

No. It's not that simple.

It's what the character DOES with that screen time that matters. And their role in the story that warrants this screen time.

They need to have all the details of their story laid out for you to care about them.

They need every scene involving their story to matter.

They need to have a plotline that justifies the screen time, small role or big role.

They need to be involved with the main story if they are a major character.

They need an internal conflict to keep the time on them engaging.

They need to be doing something.

If they are a minor character, additional screen time is not a bad thing.

A minor character with a lot of screen time could be there to advance the world building, they could be heavily connected to major character, relationship or otherwise.

But the minor characters don't become favorites and neglect focus on the people the story is revolving around.

First Person POV is a difficult storytelling technique when it comes to screen time, but it's not a bad tool. It can be used as a certain perspective for every character involved if done properly.

And just... screen time alone isn't a valid criticism in my opinion. It's WAY more complicated than that.

What's your opinion? Reblog your thoughts, I'm very curious, especially with media with this issue I did not cover.

[applesaucemeow]

Yap session incoming!

For some reason disliking Silco seems to be such a hot take.

He’s a very interesting character who I greatly enjoyed watching in the show, but so much of the fandom babies him and brushes off all the awful manipulative crap he did to Jinx way too easily, even oftentimes trying to make out their father-daughter relationship to be a healthy one 😭

On that note, so many people are way too quick to call him a “good father”, simply because he cared for Jinx. Did he love her? I would absolutely say so, he showed a lot of care for her even outside his convenience. After all, that’s literally his whole dilemma in the last episode, picking between Zaun or Jinx - and if we are to take him at his word in the Tea Party scene, he didn’t plan on choosing the former option. But did he instill healthy behaviors in her, or help her to overcome her trauma in healthy ways, or have a healthy father-daughter connection with her? Absolutely not, and that’s the whole duty of a good dad.

There is obviously no way to completely negate the effects of everything Jinx had gone through before Silco took her in - there’s only so much you can do for a person like that. However, rather than helping her find good ways to navigate her feelings, he insisted that she “let Powder die” and try to detach herself from who she once was… who she was when she was younger and innocent and (comparatively!) carefree, because that’s who Powder was. The gut-wrenching distinction between Powder and Jinx is the entire embodiment of her character arc, and it’s one that Silco strongly enforces. This is harmful for hopefully obvious reasons… trying to separate yourself from and even (subconsciously) villainize the better parts of you is no way to handle guilt and trauma. The effects of this kind of thinking are clearly shown just by looking at the absolute state Jinx is in after the timeskip. All in all, Silco was a bad parent.

That said, I definitely understand the desire to soften the characters and their relationship in the fanon view. That’s absolutely fine, I enjoy a lot of humorous art and lighthearted takes on Silco and Jinx. However, this often turns into heated debates about whether or not Silco was a “good guy” (the conversation ALWAYS narrows down to whether or not he was a good dad), and here a lot of people lose the plot. They’re too quick to remember the “Don’t cry, you’re perfect” scene, and consequently too quick to forget the unhinged, irresponsible, and often downright uncomfortable ways he had treated Jinx in the show.

Just my two cents on the subject, please don’t come for me 😭

[f1shbonez]

❛ can’t sleep? ❜ (@vastayan--vigilante)

It was dark all the time in here. Within the concrete walls of the timeout tunnel, time moved differently from the outside world’s rhythm. The isolation was familiar in the worst kind of ways. Being in here wasn’t too different to the months Jinx had spent tucked away in her prison-room, segregated from the masses. 

Except things were supposed to be different now. She’d been a monster back in those days; Silco’s monster. Jinx hadn’t felt like a monster for a long time, until the shimmer. But that had been for the Firelights. Maybe she was a monster now, but this time it was for them.

The shimmer’s residual impact had been hard to predict, even with Scar’s warning. After the first few days, the core dosage had worked through Jinx’s body, taking with it the near-endless supply of energy. In its absence, it was hard to tell whether the exhaustion was amplified by the high, or whether the uncomfortable sensation of mere existence had been the normal way of things before knowing any difference.

A ravenous emptiness waged war in every way it knew how. First, came the nausea and sickness- crying out for a source of strength other than food or drink and creating a greater demand through amplified weakness. Exhaustion and listlessness followed, but the restless agitation that lingered skin-deep didn’t permit any form of restful sleep. 

The sudden flares of temper were the worst. They came intermittently, and with little warning. Each one came as a fit of desperation, leaving every sense in her body aglow in a vicious tantrum that screamed to replace what was lost. It was different from the way Jinx had felt the same emotions before. These ones came from nowhere, detached from thought, memory or reason. They were frightening. At least when she’d pummelled the punching sack in the timeout tunnel before, she’d known the reasons. 

Food came and went. Everything smelled different now. It was hard to know whether that was from the nausea or whatever amplified senses had decided to stick around. She’d begged the person attached to the last two meals not to bring them in. Today was hard. 

It was almost funny, considering the optimism she’d faced the prospect of a week’s worth of punishment with. A week in isolation, that wasn’t so bad! Nothing old Jinx hadn’t faced before! She’d tried to see the positives in it. It would be fine (or so she’d thought). Just a little retreat away from the bugs. It was about time she got some peace and quiet to focus on her projects, anyway. 

She’d packed everything for a week of isolated productivity.

Half-built trinkets for the kids that needed painting

A comfy pillow

Veera’s stuffed animal and some sewing supplies to do a little surgery

A blank rota for next week’s illustrated chores list to be drawn onto

Paper and pens for arts and crafts

Paper for drafting the next few rounds of silly games and tasks for the bug game night

Some blueprint papers in case a brush of genius decided to make itself known in the dark

Some light reading on Hex-Tech adjacent stabilisation

Everything sat untouched. 

There was a rumble of the door opening. The light that spilled into the tunnel tinted into different colours from the evening lamp-light outside. 

“Can’t sleep?”

It was easy to recognise Scar’s voice without having to turn around. 

“You’re gonna hafta can the lullaby.” Jinx croaked, wishing he’d turn around and leave as easily as he’d popped the lid on her isolation. 

She felt clammy and gross. The oil lamp she’d brought in was untouched. Nobody had warned about the terrible thumping sensation light brought to her head. No. It was easier to be in the dark. The nausea, the pain, the agitation- it was hard to focus on anything at all. She just had to stay in here. She just had to stay in the dark. 

“Visiting hours are over.”