#me rambling abt how great arcane's ost is dont mind me

[leecherish]

Caitlyn, Vi, and Jinx's "breakdown" songs

Let me start by what I define as "breakdown" songs. Within the context of this series and these characters, a breakdown song is a track that is associated with a scene of the character reaching a drastic breaking point. Vi, Jinx and Caitlyn all have their designated breakdown songs in S2, one for each act. I wanted to point out the differences and similarities between them, as I think it highlights just how good the soundtrack of this show is. Spoilers for the entirety of season 2.

S2 Act 1 - Caitlyn - Hellfire This song oozes pure, unfiltered rage and destruction, even at the cost of self-destruction, a good fit to depict Caitlyn's state of mind. She used to care about casualties (even right after Cassandra's death!), but after the attack at Cassandra's memorial she is consumed by rage towards the Undercity as a whole. This song, and the scene it accompanies, depicts Caitlyn in a state of moral decay, her willingness to use anyone and everything in order to reach her goal.

S2 Act 2 - Vi - Cocktail Molotov This is just self-destruction for the sake of self-destruction. As Vi loses herself in the rush of violence and booze, this song also progressively gets darker, messier, and louder, until she hits rock bottom. Powder's gone, Ekko and Jayce have dissappeared, Caitlyn left her. She smudges her makeup over the VI tattoo on her cheek, having completely lost her sense of identity. She has little to no shits left to give about herself, even pushing her only friend, Loris away. All in all, she's clearly suicidal.

S2 Act 3 - Jinx - Wasteland And then there's Jinx. Compared to all the fire and anger of the other two songs, her breakdown song is a quiet, mournful resignation. Having lost all hope, longing for the peace of sleep, and death. Without anyone holding her back from it. And you could say she had multiple chaotic songs for the run of this season that could qualify, but we're talking about Jinx. Chaos is where she thrives. However, after losing Isha, she is put back to the same place where Silco rescued her from all those years ago. Except there is no Silco anymore, and Vi -, well, she cannot afford to let her close again. Look at what happened with Isha. So, she cuts her iconic braids, effectively stripping herself from the identity of Jinx, and decides to end it all before she could hurt anyone else.

I just think it's really interesting that out of these three characters, the song accompanying Jinx's breaking point is the most profoundly sad and hopeless. Overall, it's fascinating that we've gotten to see all of these characters at their absolute lowest, even those, who we didn't think could possibly go lower. And the soundtrack does nothing but making those moments hit that much harder.