#noxus is definitely to blame

[owuwi]

BOT DUMP.ᐟ

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ARCANE

AU!POWDER

⤷ Exploring her creativity ── (au!powder x gn!user) ── Where Powder decided to explore the more artistic side of herself and asked user for help; using their body as a canvas.ᐟ

JINX

⤷ Loss after loss ── (jinx x isha's sibling!user) ── Where Jinx blames herself for Isha's death and has already accepted her faith of rotting in prison, yet she hasn't had the time to talk to user.ᐟ

⤷ Bonding ── (jinx x gn!user) ── Where user walks in on Jinx painting Isha's hair.ᐟ

MADDIE NOLEN

⤷ She's so whipped ── (maddie nolen x fem!user) ── Where Maddie survived the gunshot and returned to Noxus with her girlfriend. Now, their mornings always start with user taking care of Maddie's wounds; yet the scottish girl can't seem to stop kissing her beloved.ᐟ

⤷ The morning after ── (spy!maddie nolen x fem!user) ── Where Maddie couldn't stop herself from making a move on you, despite needing to have her full attention on Piltover and Caitlyn Kiramman.ᐟ 𓂃࣪˖ 𖦹

SEVIKA

⤷ She missed you ── (sevika x fem!user) ── Where Sevika comes back after a long day at work and all she wants is to spoil her perfect girl.ᐟ

DEXTER

DEBRA MORGAN

⤷ Getting her attention ── (debra morgan x gn!user) ── Where Deb has been way too stressed with the whole bay harbor butcher thing and it's gotten to the point where she's forgetting user's existence, so they decide to do something about it.ᐟ 𓂃࣪˖ 𖦹

RITA BENNETT

⤷ She's totally paying attention... ── (rita bennett x gn!user) ── Where Rita finds what's in user's pants more interesting rather than their day.ᐟ 𓂃࣪˖ 𖦹

YELLOWJACKETS

CHARLOTTE MATTHEWS

⤷ She got hurt ── (outlaw!charlotte matthews x outlaw!user) ── Where a heist doesn't go as planned and Charlotte gets badly injured. She decides to hide her wound instead of alarming user but her partner ends up discovering her little secret.ᐟ

⤷ Welcoming ── (charlotte matthews x gn!user) ── Where user is a new addition to Charlotte's wellness center and she wants to make sure they're adapting accordingly.ᐟ

⤷ Teething ── (charlotte matthews x werewolf!user) ── Where user's need to bite got the best of them and decided to use Charlotte's things to scratch that ick.ᐟ

⤷ Need help? ── (charlotte matthews x masc!user) ── Where Charlotte takes user out on a date after noticing how much they've missed her, though dressing up fancy wasn’t really their thing so neither was wearing ties. The older woman noticed this and decided to offer her partner some help.ᐟ

JACKIE TAYLOR

⤷ Practicing ── (jackie taylor x fem!user) ── Where Jackie feels the sudden need to be a good kisser so she definitely needs to practice, and who else is the one to do so with if not her best friend.ᐟ

JACKIESHAUNA

⤷ Better solutions ── (shauna shipman x jackie taylor x fem!user) ── Where Shauna gets jealous of how close user is to Jackie at a party and it eventually turns into a fight, yet Jackie likes the sight of the two fighting over her.ᐟ 𓂃࣪˖ 𖦹

NATALIE SCATORCCIO

⤷ She stood you up ── (natalie scatorccio x gn!user) ── Where Natalie didn't show up to the date she invited user to, though she quickly regrets it so later that night she goes to user's house in a weird attempt to fix things.ᐟ

[cherrybomb107]

Idk friends, but something about having Jinx, a severely depressed and mentally ill victim of oppression at the hands of Piltover be the one to “break the cycle”(what even is the cycle fr?) by leaving is…not great.

Obviously the way “the cycle” is framed is inherently flawed. The show is telling us the cycle of violence is what needs to be broken, and I’d agree, if not for the fact that they’re putting interpersonal violence on the same level as the state sanctioned kind, and because they’re putting interpersonal have Jinx specifically be the one to break it. There’s nothing wrong with Jinx feeling like she’s the real reason for everything and outsizing her guilt. Thinking that everything would be better if she wasn’t around. That’s definitely something that Jinx, as so deeply insecure and full of self loathing would think. But the narrative never calls her out for thinking this way. In fact, it supports it! And that’s not right.

Saying that Jinx, who has been shown to be capable of becoming a better version of herself, as evidenced by her relationship with Isha, is at fault for the tensions between Piltover and Zaun is just false. Piltover is the real monster. That oppressive institution is the reason why people like Jinx exist in the first place. If not Jinx, then someone else in Zaun would’ve said “enough is enough” and decided to fight back. It was inevitable. Plus the Piltover/Zaun conflict has been going on for centuries. The conflict is a result of institutionalized violence against Zaun more than it is the choices of individuals. The individuals only made the choices they did because of Piltover, yk?

Making Jinx, who is not only a Zaunite but has also had very real struggles with her mental health(which again, were absolutely exacerbated because of Piltover) be the one to “die”(I know she’s most likely not dead. It’s still a shitty message to send regardless) is very strange. I know the show wants to spread the “both sides” narrative, but this is not the way to go about it. Instead of making it genuinely both sides by holding both people like Silco and the Chem barons AND the Council/the institution of Piltover accountable for the conflict, only Zaun loses. Only people like Jinx, Ekko, Vi, Sevika, and Gert lose. Only they suffer. The onus to pick up the pieces and rebuild the relationship between Piltover and Zaun rests squarely on their shoulders.

Furthermore, this is why I take issue with the idea that Jinx leaving is “good” because it “prevents other kids like Isha from looking up to her and wanting to rebel”. Huh??? What the fuck are you talking about? That’s such an awful thing to say! Feel how you feel about kids participating in protest movements(it’s been done since protest movements have existed) but come on! It is not on Jinx if people are inspired by her. It is on Piltover for imprisoning children, gassing the streets of Zaun, enforcing martial law, and much more. It is NEVER the fault of the oppressed for fighting back. The blame always has and always will lie with the oppressors. Blaming Jinx for more kids dying for their freedom is fucking yikes…

Zaunites put on enforcer uniforms and died fighting for their oppressors. Meanwhile, because of time constraints as well as other factors, the oppressors lose nothing. Sure, Noxus and Viktor were defeated, but they were both used to scapegoat Piltover. Piltover is the real monster, remember that. What fundamentally changed after the final battle? Did Caitlyn step down as commander? Issue a formal apology to Zaun and promise to do right by them? Was she ever punished for allowing Ambessa to come in and seize control? Will the remaining Zaunite fighters be compensated for helping Piltover? Will they finally be treated with respect? Will Zaun ever get its freedom? Does there exist a world where the blame is not always placed on that of the marginalized to clean up the messes of those who are responsible for marginalizing them in the first place? We don’t know! And we never will, because the show brushes these issue off because “forgiveness”.

TL;DR Having Jinx be the one who had to sacrifice herself in order to “break the cycle” is icky and weird

[lady-shadow-and-darknesss]

Thoughts on Arcane season 2 :

First of all, the entire plot with the arcane world, the runes, the black rose, all of it is wonderfully executed. I've always been interested in the arcane from s1 but they gave us more questions than answer then, but now! I wonder if the black rose power trapping Mel is in some way tied to hextech and shimmer? It did say 'sister' implying this is either Ambessa's or her lover's child, OR Mel shares the same power with the thing. We'll see.

Caitlyn has become a very interesting character. More so than before. Her compromising morality and ethics for the same of her revenge is literally the definition of "good traits gone bad". Her curiosity has become a burning need to know everything, even at the expense of others. Her leaving Vi and calling her the same as Jinx is representative of how she views Zaun now, monsters. Which is incredibly hypocritical, considering Jinx's act itself was an act of revenge. Their parents, and countless others', got taken first, and she can't even handle one loss. Ambessa is undoubtedly manipulating her, but you can't fan a flame that didn't have a spark to begin with.

Speaking of Ambessa, I would really hope to see the Act III arc end with Piltover and Zaun teaming up to face Noxus and drive them out of their homeS. Working together might make them realise that Zaun has humanity, they just weren't given the luxury to show it because it was always being attacked. I hope Zaun gains independence as well. With a show like arcane, I'm not too sure on a happy ending, especially after the ending of episode 6...but I'll take what I can get. However it ends, I need Noxus out. Now.

I NEED to know more about the plot between Ambessa and her secret lover, what on earth is going on with Mel, why is she so valuable, what's special about her (her gold was stripped away in that chamber), what exactly is the truth behind her birth (the music video with Ambessa on YouTube is a very interesting watch and may shed some light), is Kino alive or dead, what on earth happened to Singed's daughter, how is he keeping her alive, how he got into alliance with Silco, what hextech's origin is, what it's relationship with the arcane is, what Viktor has BECOME, is it good or bad or it can't be grouped, how did the black rose claim Mel's friend etc.

Then....there's Jinx and Vi. I haven't ever been so heartbroken yet so hopeful for the both of them. Sevika grieving Silco with Jinx, them joining forces and actually sticking by it, Zaun looking up to JINX as a HERO, leading a resistance movement in her name, Isha helping her heal Powder and realise meaning to life, giving her someone to look after, something to live for....but then I see Vi and how she was supposed to be the symbol of Zaun, of Vander's movement, how she's lost her parents and Dad and sister and her sister again and Caitlyn and fought against said sister for said Caitlyn who chose her vengeance over her. I see Silco and Vander and their mom together in the bar and think about what ifs and maybe they could've all had it all. And even if all was lost, they were finally together, finally in peace, cat fighting and eating weird fruits in the exact same way and mocking each other....right before it was all stripped away in a second. A single shot. Everything, ruined. Their dad, gone again. Isha, dead. Caitlyn's on their side but at what cost? What good can a three of them so with a beast on the loose? When one of them, no, all of them are grieving? And I just know Jinx is going to blame herself for Isha's death, but being too involved. And I fear that she'll turn on Vi again, that Vi won't understand, that her hallucinations will get worse (they already were when Isha was imprisoned), that Caitlyn's arrival will be seen as an omen of death and destruction, that they're be ripped apart in every way that matters all over again.

To Isha, a child that should've never had to sacrifice herself for the sake of saving someone. For her because she chose her found family over her fears, the smile on her face was one far too mature and resigned for a kid who doesn't even speak, that is the smile of someone of does not fear death and accepts it, if it means it can save someone. Save others. Make a better future and another day, but will it really? Or will it all crumble at the feet of her grave?

And then I put my head in my hands because Viktor is fucking dead. And I do desperately need to see why Jayce made this decision, if this was just him diving headfirst into a reckless plan and ruining countless lives because of it. Or if he has reason, if his time in the arcane has shown him firsthand what it can do to people, not just him. Viktor has been going through what he has for years, alive. That is no justification for a murder of an entire community, knowing the consequences.

I do think Caitlyn's redemption arc could've been executed better, because I knew from the moment that the Vi-Caitlyn reunion scene cut out that there was going to be a "plot twist". It was predictable, and while I don't hate predictable, it feels rushed. It would've been better for Caitlyn to have her morality gnaw at her insides, more than her curiousity consumes her mind. She locks Singed in a rotting cell one episode ago and threatens to kill a 'beast' with no knowledge or remorse that very episode. And all it takes is for Vi to tell her that's her father? No. If she had doubts from the start, it would've been a good scene. But no. Aside from that, immaculate execution! The 2d scenes were great, the charcoal art was phenomenal, the voice actors did a wonderful job, the animation is top tier, the plot is advancing well and we're going to see the end soon.

Till then.

[420technoblazeit]

Author's Note for Chapter 5 of Two Sides of Lonely

this was the chapter i was envisioning when i did my mockup of viktor and mel's room in the sims 4. in the actual chapter i have the folding screen between the bed and the dining table taken down but otherwise it's a pretty accurate one to one. expect the room to fill up to match the pictures as the fic progresses

the current state of viktor's body echoes the anomaly itself, simultaneously self-replicating and self-annihilating. as someone now intertwined with magic itself, i thought it'd be interesting to explore the ways the ways the arcane retreating from viktor's body could affect him instead of the clean break that a lot of writers tend to give him post canon

not sure how well the explanation in the fic landed, but basically the hexgates' flow of power comes from the reactor room near the bottom and upwards towards the top of the tower. in the scene where we see it being operated in season 1, a circle of runes is used in front of any traveling airships to teleport them. viktor's bracers function in the opposite way. the power comes directly from the hexcore in his chest (or as in the last chapter, mel) and moves through the user's body to activate the runes in the ground. it needs a destination, of course, which is why viktor secretly carved another circle of runes into his and mel's room before the heist happened

ionian magic tends to deal more with the elemental and spiritual sides of the arcane. the tricky part here is that the LoL official wiki lists runic magic as a combination of celestial and elemental magic, but hextech as elemental and spiritual magic. not sure if that is still canon considering the retcons and strong implication in the show that hextech is in fact rune magic. they seem to be trying very hard to skirt around the issue of what exactly the hexcrystals are, though in the original lore it came from magic scorpion beings. anyway. it doesn't really matter here, i'd say viktor still has a lot to learn from the books they stole given that hextech definitely uses some elemental magic

i know viktor canonically has a sweet tooth but there's something v amusing to me about him being one of the few people outside of noxus that can handle the spiciness of their cooking. i headcanon that noxian dishes are just as strong as their alcohol

mel was raised filthy rich. i think potentially her noble demeanor can come across as pretentious to those who don't know her. or to viktor, who is very very aware of their class differences right now. i think it also makes her stand out in a way she isn't aware of and might become dangerous in a place like noxus and viktor knows it. she's got crazy main character aura

i'm playing around with the mechanics of hextech a LOT in this chapter. there's not actually any solid precedence for hextech being reliant on the order of activation of runes, i'm just extrapolating from what we know about it and that specific scene of viktor running through rune combinations with the hexcore while jayce gets ready for his council meeting. i think it'd also explain why it took the two of them so long (over 7 years!) to find new applications for the hexcrystals. the idea of built in channels in the devices comes from what i've observed of the models for the atlas gauntlets, mercury hammer, and hexclaw. for further reference rewatch the scene in the progress day episode where jayce and viktor are demonstrating their new inventions to heimerdinger

viktor seems to flip flop constantly in his opinion of mel's family from her perspective. this is mostly because as a zaunite who left his home for better opportunities, he sees a lot of himself in her. and right now he really really hates himself. he feels envy towards her and resentment, partly because she was given so much more than him in life and partly because he can't really blame her for taking advantage of what was available to her. i think a lot about how viktor had to be aware to some extent of how hextech's invention had contributed to the growing class divide between piltover and zaun. to finally give back to his people only to destroy their minds under the influence of the arcane must eat him up inside

the jayvik scene physically pained me to write. sorry about the bait and switch and if you thought for a second that they were going to reunite in viktor's dream. i figured i should establish at some point how viktor found out that jayce was trapped in that rune and i thought it would hurt a lot more if he had willingly left it thinking that jayce would be able to leave too. i imagine it expended a lot of his magical energy to escape and this is probably why he has less of it now

songs for this chapter!

[no-shxme]

not a talonpost but bc its my blog here's my unnecessarily long review of the ambessa novel. there WILL be spoilers, however I'm gonna divide it by type. (including no spoilers)

this post is gonna be long so im putting it under the cut. i'll even use mostly good grammar. (crazy)

Overview: (this zone is spoiler-free)

Obligatory note of: this is just my opinion feel free to disagree. Right off the bat let me just say that this book was hard to get through. Noxus is my favorite region but I don't care much about Ambessa, didn't care much about her in Arcane either. Mel is cool but that's all. This would be remedied if the writing was better but it's also just--not. I took a break from reading other books to read this one (I didn't hold to this by the way, I read two other books while I was reading this one. that's why it took so long.) and the difference is... pronounced. This isn't to say that the writing is all bad. It's more middle of the road for me, mostly. There's definitely some tasty lines in there. There's a line notably that goes: "Every breath was agony. There was not enough air in the whole world." I really like that one. That's the single gem from the prologue, which is single-handedly the worst part of the book.

The prologue is only spoilers if you haven't seen that one blood sweat and tears video as it's literally that, play by play with just a little more background context. And it's so bad. When I got through the prologue I was prepared to be brutally disappointed by the rest of it. It feels like something that a higher-up gave to the writer like 'put that in asap.' Dunno if that's actually the case but it reads like that, so either way, not good.

My opinion is that this book is pretty mid, I think they made poor writing choices and I just didn't believe a lot of it. It reads very much as a 'video game book,' with pacing meant to keep people locked in. I think it doesn't help from a subject matter standpoint that they picked Ambessa in the past, so the stakes are automatically lower because she can't die yet, and neither can Mel, or Rell. I'm not saying this like I was hoping characters would die. I think a lot of writers slap character death into stories (or a lot of readers expect it) when what they really want is for characters to change. (And someone dying is a very easy way to do that.)

The Change: (broad thematic spoilers??)

Ambessa has none. She is a strong fighter making hard choices at the beginning and by the end she is a strong fighter making hard choices still. Throughout the book she continually makes hard choices, strength of the wolf and all that. Mel changes a teeny bit in the beginning (we learn how she gets her tattoos) but then she's the same. To be fair, Mel's not as important of a character in the novel so that's at least more excusable. Anyway, I found Ambessa boring because of it. Her 'character growth' is more or less reaffirming what she already knows, and she reacts to stuff that happens to her but she doesn't really change.

The Characters: (general character spoilers)

There are a lot of non-champ characters introduced. In my opinion many of them uhh a little too fast. LOTS of new names are thrown around and I kept having to flip back. This goes for locations too. There's a map at the front of the book that I kept going back to look at. Could be a skill issue though to be fair. :')

As far as new characters go, the most important is probably Ta'Fik, the primary antagonist, and Rudo, Mel's father. I didn't... reallyyyyy care about either of them. We meet Kino too, Mel's brother, but uhhh. Yeah I mean he's nice but he just didn't leave much an impression to me personally, mainly because he's barely focused on, so I can't blame him.

Rell is also involved as a principle character (spoilers for Rell b plot) and she's like, super bisexual (though I suppose it reads more as lesbian bc she's only showing interest in this girl, but whatever! We know she's bi.) In the story she has like, this budding relationship with this other character, Tora, and honestly like.... I hate it. To me it feels really shoehorned, especially when combined with the pacing. A lot of time is covered in the book. Journeys take months. Totally fine of course, but we don't really experience the bulk of that journey except for some scattered scenes, so it becomes harder (in my opinion) to believe their interest in each other. It's really weird, personally how Ambessa brings it up to begin with. Like when Tora is first introduced Rell sees her and just insta blushes and then she's described as a heart breaker and Ambessa tells her off a little like 'hey don't break her heart' or whatever it was she said. It did serve a dual purpose but it just felt too quick and like, weird. There's also another scene where Rell and Ambessa are shopping in the Immortal Bastion and at one point Ambessa starts to talk to her and Rell's like: oh omg my bad I thought you were going to give me The Talk.

AND IM HUHHHH

I don't know. I'm aro so I dont vibe with romance in a lot of cases, but I can respect it in context. But this just felt really weird and random. It felt like a plot device to say look how happy I get to be before the Black Rose kidnaps me and turns my life to shit. It seems very juxtaposition-serving and I wish it was done differently. Additionally, because of all of the journeying that happens mostly out of view, some conversations happen that I think could have happened much sooner, considering the length of their journeys. We don't even learn a ton about Tora so it feels-half baked. I understand that Ambessa is the main character but if we're going to switch povs and focus on different characters I would like to see more meat there.

A quick tangent about the POV. (no real spoilers) I thought it would be Ambessa's pov only, but the POV actually changes to a bunch of different characters and I understand for storytelling (and the fact that Ambessa has no change in character) why they did it but I wish they'd really pushed it. This is definitely more of a personal writing gripe though. I don't think every switch was necessary or particularly strengthened the book. I think it needed more flavor.

Also, a lot of the writing to me felt like it lacked the necessary emotional dig to make something as compelling as it could be. We dig into some emotions, but not enough imo. I really wish they would have pushed everything a little further. I think I would've liked every character more. Instead it kinda feels like we're being hustled from scene to scene. The story lacks emotional complexity. I don't necessarily think it's the author's fault, though I haven't read anything else she's written.

The Lore: (spoiler heavy)

What disappointing me about this book is how it emphasizes (to me) how little Riot has planned ahead. Rell's not even that old but already her lore is getting reworked. Technically her book lore now fits into her bio lore, but if you read the bio you wouldn't think that, because there's no mention, so it seems unplanned, something they just came up with. And if we're going by this new lore that puts Rell in like what, her 30's? She'd be older then Mel right so... idk. Well into adulthood at the time of 'current cannon,' so it's not even like, the identity that people signed up for. Rell is a teenage girl going on a rampage and its weird to suddenly make her an adult. It's like putting Annie in a story so that her 'canon' age is 45. It's like--weird. It wouldn't be as bad if they'd just planned it in advance but it doesn't read like they did, so (imo) they should just abandon the idea of a shared unified canon. Because it just doesn't work with a champion roster this big. Now there's technically two Rells. The sixteen year old Rell with no mention of Ambessa, and the other Rell who is well into adulthood (if she even lived that long). So what's going to happen with the MMO then? Are we going to get teenage Rell with 11 year old Mel? Or are we going to get Adult Mel with Adult Rell? It's cooked.

Noxian lore in general was the main reason I read this book. (That and for a talon/du couteau mention) and there was a good amount of Noxian lore, though not as much about the Immortal Bastion, rather northern Shuriman settlements. Which is fine, it's just my interest is located in a more Talonish direction lol. Either way, it's nice. There was a surprising amount of drakehound lore, and we do visit the Immortal Bastion once, which is cool. I will consolidate the lore tidbits into a different post later for anyone who doesn't want to read the book lol.

As cameos we do get a paragraph a piece for Swain and Marcus Du Couteau but I'm going to be honest, while the fanservice is cool it reaallyyyy cheapens the book. An Arcane viewer won't necessarily be familiar with either of those characters, so a random paragraph dedicated to them reads as very out of place. When I first read the section I thought to myself: 'thats cool but if they never bring up Swain or Marcus again then this is going to read as shit.' And uhh... yeah. There's actually two du Couteau mentions by the way, but one is only mentioned like 'even a Du Couteau showed up' or whatever, I can't remember the exact line I'll have to look at my notes. And then the paragraph on Marcus. I don't really believe in fanservice, I think even a book based on an existing property should be able to stand alone, (unless its a sequel) so I think the inclusion of bigger sections on characters that are LITERALLY never mentioned again is a terrible writing choice and shows a lack of restraint. AbsoLUTELY would've written that differently.

On the topic of magic, the way magic is written is like.. floaty. I know Riot is using more of a softer system, the rules are not clearly defined. But man I wish we'd at least give it a bit more definition. A lot of runes/sigils are involved in the book and I just--don't fully know what a rune/sigil is in the context of this book. Like I DO. but i also DON'T. It's floaty. They're like, drawing them and putting them on people and I'm just--how are they coming up with them? I wish it was dug into a little more. Agh. Also magic is described pretty loosely and I wish it just had a bit more realness to it. By realness I mean something to ground it more. It felt vague. I would also say that Rell mastered her magic awful fast but at the same time, Mel did pretty similarly I think in Arcane so I'm assuming that's just how it goes you just pop the magic cherry and suddenly it all comes flooding in.

This review is way too long but I have one more like, major grievance:

Leblanc: (spoilers.)

IS SHE INCOMPETENT???? IS SHE INCOMPETENT?? IS SHE SLAYFUL BUT USELESS???

So at the end of the novel Ambessa is visited by Leblanc who says "omg you're so pathetic but you've somehow managed to ruin years of planning AND kill two of my BEST mages. anyway you're intriguing i'm gonna let you live bye."

AND ITS HUHHHHHHHHHHH

AH YES. THE CLASSIC 'YOU INTRIGUE ME, I AM SOOO POWERFUL BUT I'LL SPARE YOU,' SCHTICK. love that. so much. never been done before. It'd be at least more believable if LB HADN'T JUST SAID HOW SHE RUINED SO MUCH FOR HER. I don't know it's kinda crazy. leblanc is painted as this big schemer with eyes everywhere and centuries of plans but here she just seems incompetent not killing ambessa. we know why ofc. If ambessa dies then she won't show up in arcane, but like. DAMN. it just sucks. and it makes me wonder about her other antics. like how in the hell does kayn manage to steel a darkin weapon from NOXUS, if leblanc is clearly interested in a darkin weapon. it's just so ridiculous i think she might be a girlfailure. (and it highlights the lack of planning on riot's part but) idk the book made me respect her far less. don't get me wrong, i like her, but she's also a flop. if there's some power limiter on her that the reader doesn't know about then.... i would like... to know a little bit.... a hint. an inkling. because otherwise she's just a girlfailure...

Minor Nitpicks:

There's one section of the book that uses the word Dancer so many times in a short period that it pissed me off so bad.

Reiterating: there are some good lines but some of the prose is SOO clumsy that I don't know why they didn't change it.

There's lots of explaining things through talking, and lots of summary, including summary of stuff that's already happened.

A yordle gets mentioned.

I think some of the names for the warbands/ops are pretty dog. But that's just my personal opinion. 'The Scar's Rangers' 'The Bloody Thunders,' 'The Shadow Hunters.' Really not a naming style I enjoy. To compare I think of Achilles' Myrmidons which sounds much cooler to me. I wish they could've added at least a lil more variety in terms of naming convection, even throwing in some Shuriman word or something, that'd be cool.

The way they handled language in general disappointed me, but it could've been much worse so it's whatever.

After all that, I dub this book mid. It wasn't the worst, but I didn't care for it much. I won't reread except for lore. I don't think it's a waste of a book or anything I just wish things had been done differently. I'm gonna be totally bold and say that I almost wish we had a totally different character as the only protagonist. I think Kino would have been an excellent choice to focus on both his sister AND his mother, and would have allowed for a unique perspective, provided the plot of the book delved beyond its original scope. Like a tragedy ending with Kino's death would have been really good I think, considering we still don't know how he died. That being said it'd probably have sold like shit or smth because no champ pov. Whatever. 5/10. If you've read the novel I'd love to hear your thoughts, even if you disagree or whatever. All opinions are welcome. Thanks if you indulged me and read the whole thing.

[blue-dream-rhapsody]

Two unconnected thoughts about S2 Mel and Jayce interactions, and Mel’s view of Viktor, below the cut

Not too ship-focused, but contains neutral-to-positive mentions of both MelJay and JayVik. You’ve been warned

I don’t want to gripe about the writing in Arcane or anything (regardless of whether or not one should, I just don’t like to do that), but there is one thing that kinda bothers me

Jayce’s aggressive response to Mel in the Council Room, after he’s back from the commune and she’s back from her kidnapping, feels out of place

His confusion and sort of guilty rage about why Mel saved him and no one else, I understand him feeling and see why he took it out on her, even if he shouldn’t have. I think he’s unnecessarily aggressive and cruel to her about it when she had no choice at the time and did it on instinct, even after she says as much and is very clearly distressed about it. But the weight of everything that’s happened because she didn’t protect anyone else, and what he himself has done since then because she didn’t save Viktor specifically (including the necromancy and then killing Viktor again himself), I understand it making him so angry I guess.

However. His argument that she used him and Viktor to make Hextech happen and therefore he shouldn’t trust her now when she says it wasn’t intentional she didn’t… like. Maybe. Maybe at first she used them.

But the literal last conversation we see him and Mel have prior to this, talking in the lab before Viktor reawakens, she’s telling him that the Council wanted to weaponize Hextech and she drew the line with that because she understood completely that Viktor did not want that. Jayce had expressed willingness to consider doing it if it felt necessary—and indeed does end up doing it behind their backs to Mel’s horror—but Viktor was adamant that it never be used that way, and Jayce just decided to agree with him and oppose it.

Mel puts her hand on his cane and pushes it toward Jayce in explicit acknowledgment that this boundary is important to both of them, but also that it’s Viktor who most insistently wanted Hextech to never be weaponized. She’s honoring his wishes with her actions in the Council Room. And also, frankly, taking the decision off of Jayce’s shoulders so he’s not stuck impossibly weighing his responsibility to Piltover against his desire to honor Viktor. Something he is very clearly grateful to her for at the time, going by him putting his head in her lap in relief.

Even if it started out with them being an “investment” by her own admission, and even regardless of her entanglement with Jayce emotionally, this scene makes it clear that Mel doesn’t just view these two as tools for Piltover’s growth anymore. Their dream for Hextech as a means to help people has shaped her own wishes for it going forward, and even though she’s barely spoken directly with Viktor within the show and really never, in what we’ve seen, as equals exactly, her respect for him now and who he is as an inventor and scientist are made clear in that scene. By doing so, she’s even going back on her own prior instinct to develop weapons with it in anticipation of a conflict with Zaun, which may have been the politically intelligent move at that time, and definitely would be at present against Ambessa and Noxus. She’s choosing a harder path because it’s the right one and it’s at least somewhat Viktor’s resistance that showed her that.

I mean. Maybe it’s that Jayce is so deep in the denial of “I wish none of this had ever happened, I never asked for this,” and knowing what damage Hextech just existing will do thanks to the Mage’s warning, that he’s desperate for a source of blame in the moment, and (also due to the Mage) so unable to blame Viktor at all that he feels right then he has to put blame at Mel’s feet for enabling them to make it. And he does apologize after for taking everything out on her.

But she had just demonstrated in one of the most genuine and sincere ways possible that she did not see either of them as tools now, if she ever did, and he’s just. Forgotten that. And talks to her like she only ever has lied to him about her intentions. This is just not the time of the story for him to be angry with her about this, because she’s literally just demonstrated her care for them the last time we saw them interact.

Not to mention, in his own words, she used both Jayce and Viktor, yet only protected one of them. It being self-interested of her to only save Jayce because he’s an investment doesn’t make sense, because she let her other investment, the other half of the genius behind Hextech, die.

Jayce. I thought you were smart. What are you talking about.

Content warning for the below: mentions of character death and suicide/ideation

And on the subject of final act Mel and Jayce (though not in a critical sense this time), I’m also thinking about the words Jayce leaves her with in their final (private) conversation: “You will never be a passenger.”

And how they feel like parting words to me. Not in the sense of a “breakup” per se (though not adamantly not that I guess?), but like a farewell and last reassurance/wish, that he gives to her with the certainty they will never see each other again after the coming war.

Thinking about what Jayce foresees his future to be at that point, and honestly? I don’t think he sees one for himself anymore, with or without Mel. Because he’s going to confront Viktor.

And Viktor might kill him.

Or Jayce will be able to convince him of what they need to do to put things right, and Viktor will agree—and like they end up doing, they’ll go out together to fix their mistakes.

(Or, if they’re lucky. If we’re lucky. The runes will do what they did to him and Ekko and Heimerdinger at the base of the Hexgate. And wherever they end up, maybe they will just run.)

Or, Viktor might still agree. But in the process force Jayce back, spare him from whatever correction comes from the runestone, so Viktor is the only one to die for it. And Jayce? Jayce, who in the end blames himself for all of this? Who already nearly took his own life once at the prospect of a world without magic? Whose dream just disappeared without taking him with it, and took the person he’d go to the ends of the earth and defy all sense and reason to save in the process?

One way or another, I don’t think Jayce saw himself ever coming back. If he intended to and thought it was possible, even remotely, I believe he would’ve acknowledged that with Mel and not made it sound like he wouldn’t be there to see her flourish—hopeful Jayce, who has never been dissuaded by impossible odds from believing in the best outcome. And while I personally think of JayVik as endgame, I don’t think it’s fair to say it’s a goodbye because “his love for Viktor outweighed his love for Mel” if you see it that way, or that she’d meant nothing to him after all, and so he’s choosing his partner over her—there’s much more at work, much more at stake with the involvement and encroachment of the arcane, and the future Jayce was shown. And I feel he owes it to the world he’s nearly ruined with his dream, and to the person he’s unintentionally brought to this point, to take responsibility for it all.

But I do think he’s making the decision that he is leaving her behind along with his life in Piltover. Or more like, he’s stepping back and leaving her free to carve her own path forward, without the far possibility of his return tying her down or holding her back, if it would’ve. Whatever his feelings for Viktor may be in comparison to her, what Jayce and Mel had was still very real in its time, and I think it’s still with a form of love that he wishes her well, even if he himself has chosen to go where his partner goes, or die trying.

And he is doing so because it’s what he feels he owes to the world and also to Viktor, with a price he has no qualms about paying. So if the process of it doesn’t take him out, one way or another I think he’s made the choice he is not coming back after this—even if he needs to do it himself.

[mysticdragon3md3]

😨..........

Dude, i don't know what corners of the fandom you're wandering into, but that messed up shit you just described from someone who also ships my OTP is definitely not representative of everyone who ships this ship.

I dont know where all this mel hate that everyone describes is---i never see it (except when people complain about it and blame anyone and everyone who ships jayvik, for it). But not everyone who ships jayvik hates mel. Personally, i think she's pretty cool and if she isn't at the center of a Noxus spinoff, I'll be upset. And famously, lots of people ship meljayvik, because jayce has 2 hands.

I'm sorry you keep running into the worst of the fandom. May i suggest sticking to Tumblr's "Your Tags" tab on the Dashboard? That's working for me. It seems to curate out most of the drama.

[avelera]

I expanded on this a bit on Twitter but I kinda wanted to talk about it here where people actually read my meta lol

I want to clarify that I think (Arcane) Jayce would eventually rise to the occasion. He always does.

I just think that Jayce has the most uniquely vulnerable situation if he theoretically went to Noxus, even when compared to every single other Arcane character. Yes, I'm including Heimerdinger and Cait. And here's why:

We've already seen Jayce get manipulated by not one but two Noxians, Mel and Ambessa. And Mel was nice about it! Jayce does eventually figure out Mel's manipulation of him but that's only after months of soul searching with literally nothing else to do (and then he APOLOGIZES to her, after eventually realizing too that Mel wasn't entirely to blame, just to be clear, but he ended the relationship over it IMO).

But Jayce is a unique example of the one character we've seen fall for Noxian manipulation more than once, with different Noxians. And, I would argue, there's nothing else in his arc to indicate he's gotten smarter about it, even at the end, other than figuring out Mel and only in relation to Hextech.

I don't think he's necessarily any better armed against Noxian manipulation after his arc, or manipulation in general. Another Noxian using slightly different tactics to get what they want from him would probably still work.

Jayce also has a unique combination of:

1) A relatively privileged background that makes him more trusting of others (unlike the Zaunite characters) and just being a nice guy in general, which lends to this.

2) An amount of self-confidence that he doesn't necessarily see manipulation coming because he generally tends to see himself as the primary mover of events in his own life which makes him a prime target for a master manipulator (like Ambessa when she masterfully pushed him into a sense of helplessness and rage that ended in his raid on the Shimmer factory). Not saying Jayce never feels helpless, he just has a background and personality that tends to see himself as able to regain control if he loses it and to see himself as a primary mover of his own destiny even when he's being puppetted

3) but most important: he has something Noxians would want and have wanted and would continue to want since we saw Swain's raven go for the gem in his hammer: Hextech. If Jayce went to Noxus, he'd be a target of EVERYONE THERE because of Hextech, either for weapons or for Hexgates. Or, if not Hextech, then the mind that created Hextech is still a worthy prize for anyone trying to get ahead there.

And funny enough, I think every other character in Arcane has more defenses than Jayce, even Cait, even Heimerdinger.

Heimerdinger may be naive but he's also 300+ years old and he's been around the block. I think Heimer's first response to being a target of manipulation in Noxus would be to get the fuck out of Noxus, I mean I can't imagine a country less suited to his whole deal, but he'd know to get out of there and he'd know to be on guard.

Cait post-S2 would be well equipped to recognize Ambessa's tactics in others, but even pre-S2, she's a detective used to reading people. Her instincts are stunted by the grief over her mother's death but she's clearly putting together that she can't trust Ambessa from the start. Cait despite also having a privileged upbringing like Jayce from the start has more tools at her disposal when it comes to understanding and analyzing people to have at least some prayer in Noxus, unlike Jayce the Engineer.

Then when you get to literally any Zaunite character, I think you get a healthy dose of suspicion towards outsiders to make them better able to defend themselves against Noxian manipulation or use.

Not saying it still couldn't happen, but a Viktor or a Vi would definitely be skeptical from the outset towards anyone trying flattery on them and would be immediately resistant to anyone using them for weapons or as fighters.

Jinx is too chaotic and slippery to be used, I'd argue, but she also in general just doesn't work well with others outside of long, long term relationships of trust (and even then). Really, anyone on the list of Zaunite character (Silco, Sevika, Ekko, etc.) just has that healthy dose of skepticism that I think at least puts them in a good position to be aware that everyone in Noxus is potentially looking for a way to use them.

But not Jayce. Oh, I don't think he's stupid, I definitely do not think he's stupid. But I think he could fall for, say, a two-man con, good cop/bad cop, once more obvious manipulator and a second person pretending to protect him from that person thus winning his trust, even in S2.

Now, I do want to add that one caveat to this, as I said, I think Jayce would rise to the occasion. He'd eventually figure out that he's being used and if it's for Hextech weapons, or weapons of any kind, he'd probably catch on sooner.

I think Jayce would probably, in an action story, turn around and drop-kick anyone trying to use him by countering them with his own flashy weapons and skills before long (say hello to this neat trebuchet he just built out of garbage and say goodnight, motherfucker).

I also think that his general demeanor would lull a manipulator into a false sense of security, until he boldly outplays them with him classic "Moving in very direct straight lines and fuck anyone who gets in the way" manner of dealing with intractable problems.

I actually think a "Jayce in Noxus" arc would be delicious, since we've already seen him played on his home turf, I'd like to see his incremental progress forward in figuring out how to be a more savvy player in the belly of the beast.

Alas, I can't imagine we'll be seeing him in an actual Noxus show but if you also are dying for "Jayce in Noxus" now, I'd highly recommend the "Break, repair" series by Lapsi, where the second installment involves just that.

My first impression of Noxus in Fortiche's style:

Oh, this country would have eaten Jayce Talis alive, huh?

[space-blue]

Jinx & the Hound dark AU...

I was talking to a commenter on F&D, and was struck by an AU idea I then discussed over on discord and... I just wanna share, because I'm not going to write it :

Episode 3's ending changes a little:

Silco flees, Vi is still taken by Marcus unbeknownst to Powder, Claggor and Mylo are dead... But the shimmer saves Vander's life, and he regains his (mostly) normal form.

He takes Powder home.

Now, they're both dealing with this very poorly. Overwhelmed dad Vander grieving his friend, his three kids, trying to handle Jinx's fraying sanity... It's rough.

He starts projecting Vi on her, because he's only got Jinx left now, and the way he handled Vi is really the best way he knows. Besides, it makes sense to teach Powder how to fight, right? Because she HAS to survive, she's all that Vander has left. She has to know how to protect herself.

Meanwhile Jinx is projecting and trying to both be her sister and outdo her. She has big shoes to fill.

Now this Vander would be darker. He's learnt his lesson too, at the hands of Silco. The Hound is what they truly need, so the Hound is what they'll get. After a while, he starts hunting Silco down, sending people after him.

Can't have a threat like that running around, and Silco proved he's willing to go after his kids.

Years pass. 2, then 3, then 4. Finally, Ekko tracks down information via an ex-convict that Vi was in prison all this time. Vander grabs Marcus off the streets and "convinces" him it's in his best interest to release his daughter from Stillwater. Like, yesterday.

But you see... You see, all this time, Marcus was still owning his position to Silco. He's sheriff because Silco helped, and Silco didn't rat him out. All this time Marcus worked alongside Vander, but Silco secretly had him by the balls.

Now Marcus has to fess up : Vi was released from Stillwater 2 years ago. Into Silco's care.

And this is where we get even darker (but it's ok, no one can accuse me of being a Silco hater lmao). Because Silco didn't have Vi freed to gain goodwill from Vander or anything like that. No.

For the first couple of years, Marcus tells Vi how Vander is growing increasingly violent in Zaun. The new arrivals in Stillwater definitely corroborate this. He also tells her that he refuses to trade for Vi. That he's replaced her with her sister.

After a couple of years of this, Silco freeing her would cast him into a saviour's light, but it's hardly enough for Vi to trust him, after he killed Benzo and created the incident that sparked her brothers' death. [Mind you, Vi has had a couple terrible years to cook in her cell, and she's deep into blaming herself. If she hadn't brought them, if she hadn't done the job, if she hadn't—]

But hey, it's fine, Silco only has to take Vi down to Zaun, to witness for herself how the Hound is back, and how Jinx has turned into this violent, bomb loving bruiser, with a single braid and half her head shaved, her name at the top of the score board in the old game room...

WORSE, Vi could try to reach out to "Powder". Vi wouldn't know about her ghosts, and Jinx, fearing nothing more than Vi's "return", that would take Vander's attention away from her again, reacts very poorly. And I mean, she fully believes this Vi is a ghost/vision, not her real sister. But the idea alone freaks her out completely.

She screams at Vi to fuck off, that she can't take Vander from her again.

Vi returns to Silco, devastated, and the two of them ship off to Noxus to regroup/use his contacts/be mercs or whatever.

Time goes on and neither Jinx nor Vander realise this interaction happened "for real". By the time Vander learns the truth from Marcus, it's far too late.

While in Noxus, Vi and Silco were tracked down by the assassins Vander set on Silco's tail, further solidifying the antagonism against "the Hound".

Of course Vander didn't know Vi was with Silco when he ordered him killed. And Silco might have gotten Vi because she was the perfect tool and would hurt Vander more than anything when turned on him, but he grows to love her as a daughter too.

How fucked up of a family reunion would that be, when Vi and Silco deem their new plan ready enough to return to Piltover?

You know what, I have no idea. Please feel free to reblog or comment with suggestions and finish up the thing. Heck, feel free to write the AU.

[mediacrushin]

Arcane act 3 spoilers

They really love their framing I swear, there were several shots I was just mooning over.

Anyway, I’m clearly not alone hoping we get a second season to continue this story, but with the note and point it ended on I could see it as a wrap on the series. We have the head of Zaun gone, and multiple members of the Council definitely gone [we know Viktor and Jayce will survive since they’re champions, and people are hoping for Mel as a new champ but I’m not really holding my breath on that, so presumably everyone in that room but those two are dead] cementing the conflict between the two parties continuing. [And hey probably also some issues with Noxus] Vi and Cait are back together to go on to their Piltover’s Finest team up. Echo and Heimerdinger are off fine doing their own thing... There’s a lot left to speculation for all of them from here, but we’ve been given enough to see how each of them got from point A in Act 1 Episode 1 to point B how we know them in the main game. If there’s more, I’ll be ecstatic. If not, I think I’ll be okay with what we’ve got. It was all beautiful.

One other thing I thought was interesting was the final scene with Jinx, Vi, Caitlyn, and Silco. I clocked from the moment the sisters were reunited, that Vi’s feelings for and image of her sister were frozen at the moment of their last interaction. Powder calling for her saying she needed her, Vi hurting her and blaming herself for everything that had gone wrong. She was babying Jinx, pushing for her to be Powder and not worry about any of the things she did. She blamed it all on Silco, and refused to even let herself consider that her little sister Powder could ever do any of the things she’d heard she’d done by then willingly of her own accord. And it’s really heartbreaking that Vi really just did not understand her sister’s mental state. And her last plea for Powder to wake up really just shined the brightest light on that. She begs her to remember their old family, but doesn’t understand that those people weren’t lionized in Jinx’s mind, they were monsters. And it’s wild to have Vi tell Cait about her chasing monsters away when she and Powder were children, but then in this moment basically throwing Jinx to them instead. And Jinx was Jinx before she even walked into that building and gave her sister the choice of which seat she should take... she just hoped Vi could accept the new her even if she wasn’t Powder anymore.

What a phenomenal series, truly. A beautifully told story.

Also Cait and Vi are hella gay and there’s nothing anyone could say to change my mind.

[violinsandchains]

Headcanons about Magnus, Magnus’ family, and some Swain because this is all I’m going to talk about for the next month or so

Cut because it’s long (but bulletpointed. in no particular order though)

Heads up/PSA: Magnus is FtM. I do deadname him and use female pronouns for him when talking about him pre-transition through the perspective of another character who WOULD use that name/pronouns for him at that time period.

Swain was always the calm and composed one at least outwardly while Magnus, especially younger Magnus (childhood through young adulthood) was absolutely balls to the wall rabid

Magnus experiences heats/a state similar to a heat and his PMS is horrible. Swain has the basic cis male understanding of periods probably from being an educated kid and from, well, having an AFAB best friend who told him all about it in gruesome detail as it was happening, but Magnus’ hormones had him literally feral with turbulent emotions and urges while Swain kinda just sat there like “maybe killing your parents over the tone of their voice is a little bit dramatic? would you like a glass of water to calm down sis?”

Swain: says something insensitive once probably without even meaning it or thinkinf much of it. Magnus, leaning into his face, eyes wide: i will bleed all over your mothers expensive white linens and blame y o u

After acquiring Raum swain can sense/smell magnus’ heats and the first time this happened after they reunited it assaulted swain’s senses like a ton of bricks because he didn’t know he can Do That Now That He’s Part Demonic. He never closely associated with any vastaya besides magnus and his family so post-Raum he never got to be NEAR one even, because magnus was MIA and marden is, well, male. Needless to say Swain is bewildered and whenever Magnus is in heat Swain, via raum, gets thrown into an almost primal headspace. You can imagine what he wants to do.

Dextera is a full shapeshifter vastaya while marden is very visibly part animal, with dextera being able to shift forms from wolf to human at will and control her feral behavior to perfection, and marden having his wolf ears and tail constantly out in the open unless he conceals them with glamour potions and generally not understanding or connecting well with humans. Magnus genetically leans towards marden’s feralness, so his animal parts are also always out, but he’s got dextera’s playfulness and charm mixed in with marden’s eccentricity making him sociable but EXTREMELY out of touch with how a human should act and behave, despite dextera’s best efforts to teach him how to blend into a crowd

Dextera would be the type to act perfectly happy and comfortable while mingling with aristocratic humans and Marden would be all awkward, quiet and stiff because he’s just a nerd alchemist with wolf DNA who would very much like Not to be there but gritted his teeth through it for reputation’s sake

Magnus would like to run around on all fours, nuzzled/licked people he liked or inappropriately hugged them/touched them, growled and snarled at people he hated, would DEFINITELY use piss to spite people and was generally considered an absolute weirdo and was picked on despite belonging to a technically esteemed family

Dextera would be sad her kid cant seem to fit in, while marden would be upset and even ashamed magnus was acting like that, torn between being mad at magnus for being an embarrassing child to being mad at humans for being racist.  Marden probably proposed moving to ionia out of sheer desperation but both parents were too loyal to noxus to leave, With dextera being literally born there and refusing to just throw away all her effort to rise up in power and marden being too stubborn to leave after spitting on demacia and deciding consciously to ally himself with noxus.

i dont know how magnus met swain yet Theyre around the same age and i imagine it happened when they were relatively small kids Maybe house swain commissioned dextera for a painting, maybe even an enchanted one so marden had to be involved as well and they took baby magnus with them eventually (dexteras idea. She saw house swain had a child around the same age as magnus and suggested they let the kids play while she and marden worked. Marden was absolutely horrified because wow magnus will do something weird and its house SWAIN and theyre INFLUENCIAL but dextera was like "dw honey its ok let it happen theyre nice clients. ^^")

Magnus inevitably does every weird possible thing much to mardens dismay but baby jericho is kind of intrigued rather than scared or disgusted, and his parents think magnus is cute and jericho doesnt have friends either bc hes a stuck up loner ruvik case and dextera is DELIGHTED her baby made a friend while marden is sweating bullets like "this WILL go wrong" but nope House swain and house kracht sort of become close through the parents' business affairs and the fact their weird, lonely kids bonded

[arcane-ish]

I think the videos definition of what centrist means is way too broad, but I think the message of Arcane is centrist even from the normie definition of centrist (ie good people on both sides, even bad people have good aspects, even good people can go bad).

Arcane is absolutely a show by pretty mainstream people written for a very mainstream audience. Which is precisely why they probably think of themselves as pretty lefty, because they likely live and work in a very mainstream if not actively conservative context and within that context they would be considered as doing lefty things by having a lesbian sex scene, designing Vi for a lesbian gaze or insinuating that Jinx and Silco aren't all bad.

It's of course not up to snuff to a hard leftist audiences, but again, why would you ever think you were the target audience? All the election results show that these views are pretty niche and even within the context of target audiences: the first and foremost target audience of Arcane were male gamer League of Legends fans. And I don't think that the writers were trying to gussy up that audience, but I think that audience was still very much on their mind (it's there in a lot of Christian interviews in particular). "Will the League gamers be mad at us if we design Vi to be not male gaze sexy? Better sweeten the deal for them with cool fight scenes!"

I'm just still genuinely floored why some of those hard leftists fans would rally around Vi? The text of the show is aggressively soft on Piltover in season 1 and Vi is one of the major mouthpieces of it!

It's just so weird to me how in the leftist ideology Vander is the evil traitor pig for ... making a deal with enforcers so they hopefully mostly leave Zaun alone. And Vi meanwhile makes deals with enforcers to go hunt down a fellow Zaunite, killing fellow Zaunites for being guards in Silco's factory and getting slews of people arrested for having jobs in Silco's factories.

All while constantly saying things that sound like what her biggest problem is not that Piltover oppreses them but that there isn't more intervention from Piltover!

Caitlyn: "I suppose topside is to blame for all your misfortunes." Vi: "No. Not all of them."

Vi: "It's where the kind of people you topsiders don't want to think about, wind up."

Vi: "One dead kid? There's hundreds more where he came from, thanks to Silco, and thanks to people like you who stuck their heads in the dirt."

Like at least Vander still carried on Silco's ideology that Piltover and Zaun should be largely seperate.

Vi is constantly talking like the big problem is that Piltover doesn't think enough out Zaun doesn't look enough at the problems of Zaun. (and yes Caitlyn says the same thing "Even though we failed her in countless ways, she risked everything to show me what life is really like down there." and "It's a misunderstanding.", "This city needs healing.") Both Caitlyn and Vi are mouthpieces for "Piltover and Zaun just need to kiss and make up". Vi is a key voice of "Piltover's problem is that it's uninformed and inconsiderate, not that it's oppressive and exploitative".

I think the writers thought that it was just obvious that Piltover is nice/better... they just forgot to actually put that into the text for the most part. But in their heads I wouldn't rule out that it's a conflict between like hard left (Silco/Jinx) and normie left (Piltover) versus actual fascists (Noxus/Ambessa). Because they are normies they of course don't buy into the idea that the normie state of being is the same as fascism (but also forget that most normie left doesn't include bridge riot/massacres and that little accountability as the Arcane setting has, but that Piltover just isn't a democracy, it's a merchant oligarchy, which might be progressive within the setting where most places around are active monarchies, but it's still pretty unjust for most contemporary people).

I actually think that season 1 veers way closer to a soft leftie fairytale where "Piltover and Zaun needs to just make up" and Jinx is the misguided, indocrinated girl who needs to be brought back.

Despite its messy politics, season 2 is actually way more against that fluffy narrative in how it takes Jinx's side, puts Silco into the good AU and of course shows Caitlyn going dark.

I just think they thought of it as their appraoch to balance where they portrayed Piltover and Caitlyn as mostly good/wellmeaning while showing Zaun's dark side and now they show that Caitlyn/Piltover can also have "a weak moment" and go dark.

They don't see that as "Piltover was fascist in season 1 and in season 2 they double down", they probably genuinely thought Piltover was mostly fine and understanding in season 1.

And yes, they generally demphasized Jinx's violence in season 2 as they make her a hero, but again, yes they are centrists/normies, so that's what they do when they make somebody a hero. Because they are not leftist edgelords enough to lean into "yes she's a sadistic terrorist and we're gonna lean into that and celebrate that". Because again, mainstream people producing for a mainstream audience. It just isn't statistically feasible that you would have like hundreds of employees who have exactly that point of view being given 100 million dollars and not a single person in the process (we know that Arcane was extensively shown around within Riot for years) would have objections.

People really wanted to believe into a 10 year 100 million dollar secret sting operations by leftist to sneak in hard left talking points to troll both their financiers and the mainstream audience? That's just not statistically feasible and imo the worldbuilding in season 1 was way too Piltover friendly and generally not that interested enough in hard world building for me to buy it was written by people with a keen eye and hard opinion on the world.

Normies wanting just a little flavor of rebellious and revolution is fully in character. It's the people wearing the Che Guevara t-shirt because it looks cool and feel rebellious but don't know a lick about his politics or know any of his actions or would subscribe to all of the if they did.

I think Arcane still feels leftie but as a "conversation within the left" not as a heroic tale of the heroic hard leftists against the evil oppressors or a tale that takes the position that soft or normie leftists are exactly the same as actual oppressors and fascists. Which again not surprising since the people working for big gaming companies and mainstream tv are much more likely to be normie leftists.

But the idea that hard left and normie left have a discourse and hash out their differences is a fairly leftist audience topic. And yes since it's being written by people from the normie left it is more likely to be wistful or hopeful about reconciliation.

And again if you read it more as a mid lefty tale, season 2 in particular actually shows quite a bit of restraint. Because we don't get a clean happy ending where Vi&Cait make up with Jinx and live happily ever after and we can see Jinx be cool with Piltover and vice versa. Yes we get that moment where Jinx and Cait have a conversation but it's hardly happy preppy kiss and make up. Because we don't get to see Piltover and Zaun characters together in the AU and have that presented as the better world. We don't see Ekko singing Piltover's praises.

(heh, I remember our discussions specifically where based on the content of season 1 I was convinced that Arcane would stay on its full on normie course and you were the big believer that Arcane would pivot to Jinx as the main hero while I thought that Amanda wouldn't let them stray from Vi as the main; so I clocked Arcane as fully normie in season 1 and you had more faith. And since I went in with normie expectations, for me season 2 was a lot less normie than I expected. Like things I thought were at least feasible in season 2 that didn't happen:

Vi and Cait do heroic things for Piltover and Zaun as enforcers showing how good enforcers are

general gesturing at how Cait will reform the enforcers as sheriff

Ekko being pro-Piltie (more active team up or defending them)

Silco being painted more negatively (either the reason for the Betrayal being that he was too dangerous or more blame being thrown at him for the state of Jinx or the state of Zaun after his death)

It being portrayed as this grand tragedy from Vi's point of view that Jinx is unrecoverable Granted it can be seen as part of their pro-Piltover stance that they don't even the bare minimum of Piltover acting nice they can just stay in power without bothering to even try to be nice)

Again, I don't think that Arcane was every written as a political allegory. I think it was primarily written as letting characters bounce off each other in an interesting setting. And yes they wanted the characters be influenced and informed by the settings, but I don't think they ever thought hard about what the implications would be for the settings. I think they were mostly thinking about characters being put in interesting situations. Not tight world building or delivering a thought out political message. They have a message but it's a very generic emotional one (ie circles of violence bad, don't judge people, all kinds of people have good sides and bad sides).

I do still think a good chunk from the revolutionary flavor comes more from the art team than from the writing team. So the idea that it's more aesthetics than substance has some merit.

This is a really good video that also shaped my thoughts on season 1.

[bunnibai]

... *sits down* Let’s talk about Ari’s relationship with love. 

Ari grew up with two parents who did not marry for love. Ari’s dad was a war hero and gifted a spot in the city, and her mother was from another city entirely to an upper class family; it was purely for money and status (particularly being a family of the same race, god forbid they end up with a mixed child). At least, this is the story Aridove was told. With the whole Luxon and Noxus thing, who knows if it’s true. Either way, don’t get it twisted; Ari’s parents never really loved each other. They rarely spent time together at all, even less so that Ari herself saw. But on the occasions she did see them together, it was never lovingly. It was like a business relationship, polite and cordial but definitely not in love with one another. Aridove never saw them kiss, or hug, or say I love you. It was like having two business partners living together. 

Aridove first learned that this wasn’t a normal thing with Edea? Edea herself wasn’t married, but she happily talked about her son and his grandchildren and it confused Ari at first, seeing pictures of them hugging and laughing and being in love. She didn’t get it, how something so business-oriented looked so magical. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but part of the reason Ari is so dead set on Lanna being her friend is because, to Aridove, marriage isn’t something you do because you love someone. She’s aware that that’s how it is in books and with most families, but only ever in theory. Never up close. You can be told that marriage is cute and lovely and magical over and over, but if you only hear about it through stories and books, it won’t seem any more real than other ideals like world peace or ending racism. It wasn’t real. And it definitely wasn’t real for her. 

Ari herself was told she was going to be married off from a pretty early age. She never really minded? She saw it the same way she saw her parent’s marriage; a business transaction. He was sweet enough, at least, from what Aridove saw. She was never ever in love with him, or even really liked him more than a pretty okay friend, but her standards were already so low she had wanted to quietly accept her marriage. At least maybe her and Thallan would be friendly after they were married. That would have been enough for her. 

We don’t talk about it enough, but Ari has a rebellious streak a lot bigger than she lets on. It’s hard to see when she’s surrounded by “5th regicide” gang but when placed in her home she broke a lot of rules, and it’s a miracle she was never killed. That rebellious itch was what she had blamed for the terrible, terrible feeling surrounding the marriage. The way she said and assured herself she didn’t mind, but would purposely dodge any of Thallan’s advances and turn him down when things like dates were ever brought up. It didn’t help that Lanna didn’t like him, and if Lanna didn’t like someone, Ari immediately got weary. Ari doesn’t like to talk about her least favorite birthday, but it’s when she sort of solidified the running-away-with-Lanna thing and really decided that marrying Thallan wasn’t in the plan. 

Did she ever think about marrying Lanna? Not once. To her, marrying Lanna would feel like she was ruining the relationship. Like she was taking something special and turning it into a business transaction. The idea of putting Lanna anywhere near Brinatia customs and traditions made her feel really uneasy and sick. And then after she died, people started teasing her about having a relationship with Lanna. A lot. Only one other person has ever really done this? But he was less “you need to marry her” and more “wow Lanna really deserves better” but like in a joking way (and I can go into more detail about this if y’all want, Olli isn’t meanspirited but if he’s ever openly nice to Ari assume he’s been replaced). Ari is suddenly thrust into this setting where marrying Lanna isn’t only a viable option, but encouraged. And she hates that. Or she did, anyways. 

That’s why she insists she’s straight, that her and Lanna are just friends. To be in a relationship, to add these labels she’s only ever seen be used in order to hurt and manipulate and trap. Well. 

That doesn’t sound like her and Lanna at all. 

If Laci doesn’t mind, I wanna place that conversation the night before they storm the ziggurat. Ari was dealing with a lot that night? A lot of feelings. I’m writing a meta about that next but Luxon really fucked her up in a way that she wasn’t expecting but she doesn’t want to say anything, but basically, she asked Quill what the ring was for? And Quill points Oukki out of the Order, and says that they were planning to get married. Ari says that it must have sucked, having to get married, but like? Quill seems to like Oukki? So Ari was confused. Quill tells Ari that Oukki was the best person, and Ari asks why they got married if that was the case. Ari goes on to explain that marriage ruins everything and Quill is like “no???”. She says marriage is taking two ribbons (pleading,,) and tying you both together and saying that they will be together no matter what. Ari starts stuttering and rambling and says that she’s never seen a marriage like that. 

Quill is. The least traditional person Ari has ever met besides maybe Lanna. I could go on and on about how Ari feels about Quill, but she’s definitely never seem Quill as someone to agree with stupid Brinatia customs. So to her it’s like, that really means something. That Quill spoke such good about it. And it’s the first time she’s ever really considered. 

...

...should she marry Lanna? 

[darkdevasofdestruction]

I'd love to read some of your headcannons for Rakan! Or maybe Vladimir. Your choice! c:

It’s so refreshing to take a break from match ups! Thank you for this request <3

RAKAN

He’s the lover, so basically, he’d do literally ANYTHING for his S/O

Especially if it’s something he can do that would make them smile

This good boi lives to please his partner

If you’re sad, he’s sad, so if you’re both sad, that means the only way to solve this is with ice cream and dancing away your sorrows

Of course, he’s not ALWAYS goofy, since he needs to be serious from time to time and face the reality and problems that you’re facing together, so he’ll act like a mature man, since he’s supposed to be his S/O’s support through and through, protecting you with everything he’s got, but once the threat it over, he’ll just jump on his S/O, showering them with kisses and just cuddling with them like a needy kitten

He’d definitely give random surprise gifts to his lover, just to see how the gleeful sparkle in their eyes

Will tell them he loves them at least 103843471 times a day, and each time, it’s more and more meaningful

Very soft boi who loves you  for life

I can see him as the cold and super teasing kind of boyfriend tbh

He’d act a lot to annoy you and trigger you, wanting to see all your cute reactions and all that, but deep inside, he knows what he’s doing isn’t the best thing and that he’s wrong

He’d also randomly ask to take a taste of your sweet blood, but even if you’d agree, he wouldn’t indulge, because that wouldn’t be good for you, and your well-being is top priority for you

Vladimir is aware that he has tons of enemies and responsibilities, and especially the Noxus that is extremely dangerous, so he has to act in such a way as to make sure there is no threat towards you, because if anything happens to his ray of hope, the only light he has, he’ll literally go insane with grief

If you ever get injured or attacked, he will blame himself and slaughter all the enemies ruthlessly, then hold you tightly, trying not to let himself show weakness, saying how it’s all his fault that happened to you and that he’s too dangerous to stay around

If you choose to still stay with him, he’d show much more affection towards you, letting loose and allowing himself to be human, not some hemomancer murderer as he’s always been, remembering that emotions are worth it, in the end, and love especially, is a one of a kind feeling he’d never get to experience again

[amber-jinx]

Agree with a lot of your points here.

By "music video" I meant musical montages there. The thing is a lot of the really juicy parts that were set up by season 1 was brushed off and barely explored in season 2. Season 2 went off on a tangent and to explore certain new paths that really throw people under the bus. Like the Black Rose bit. A lot of people were confused. Mel and Jayce just brushed off because they wanted to explore Jayce and Viktor as well as to prepare people for their next show, Noxus. Was Maddie necessary? Cramming the supposed "juicy parts" together and leaving out stuff that needs to be addressed left by season 1 just leaves a bitter taste in a lot of the fans of season 1's mouths. Like the intro. They absolutely did not have to put Jinx waving the French revolution flag just to have her in season 2 treat it as a joke. Jinx's mental illness magically fixed by a kid? Silco not haunting the narrative? The political issue that was a key foundation of season 1? Dismissed. Jinx and Vi being completely different people in season 2 despite events picking up after season 1 is why more run time wouldn't have fixed season 2.

The website's description of Vi and Jinx before s2's release already felt wrong as well. Yes, I can ignore Christian's words, but he definitely did have some influence on the plot as well, with his rejected pitch and ideas in S1 picked up again in S2. and that's why people are blaming him as one of the writers. Now I blame Netflix as well, I guess.

About Amanda, let me just copy the comment I was referring to earlier from that post: "If anything, I'd say "these writers aren't great with thematic storytelling or understanding the implications of their own writing sometimes," (mind you, I didn't say this either, I just mean that I COULD say that). But honestly, even if I DID say these things, or direct this post at them, it really wouldn't be that far off considering the BS they've said in interviews. Like how fucking in a prison cell apparently is a "reclaiming of trauma" or how Amanda says, WORD FOR WORD, "In the last conversation she and Jinx have, Jinx understands that she is the one standing in the way of Vi, of letting her make her own choices in her own life, and gives her permission to do it."

She didn't say, "Jinx thinks this," she said, "Jinx UNDERSTANDS this." Aka a confirmation that this is the reality. If Jinx is "standing in Vi's way" according to one of the main fucking writers of the series, what does that say to you? (They could've so easily made Jinx realise they Vi could have both and still make their own choices. But no. They're forced apart and Vi is forced to choose unnecessarily. Choosing to save her sister is framed as "the wrong choice". Wow.)

If that's not enough, she also says, "Either way, [Vi and Jinx] would have to be separated to break that cycle." When discussing the "cycle of violence" theme. So basically they can't ever be together again without violence being perpetuated between them- does that not sound like she's saying Vi is better off without Jinx?

Since I'm not one to make claims without sources, here's the link to an article about the interview I'm drawing these from: https://www.thegamer.com/arcane-interview-amanda-overton-caitlyn-vi-queer-sapphic/"

This is one key disappointment many has. Does the author know that the tag is "dog shit"? Apparently not. Why control what tags people use? Starting a new tag doesn't mean their valid points would be heard. Calling out stupid opinions are fine, but maybe don't hate on the tag itself? 😅 Also in that link she says "we knew we had 2 seasons to tell that story." Now I don't know if they knew or not. Apparently Christian also insisted on it being 2 seasons. At this point it's hard to know what really went down.

About the awards: yes, Arcane is hella impressive at that. But just based on fairness, why wouldn't season 2 be nominated for best writing again if it's writing is good?? Or is the award to blame for not crediting a sequel just because it's predecessor has already won that category?

This is really getting too long. Not gonna reblog any further.

Seriously why are some people defending Arcane S2 like their life depended on it. The music was top tier, some parts were good, Fortiche has topped their game. Marvelous job by Fortiche. While acknowledging the good we also must acknowledge the bad just to be real and so Riot can improve upon their future seasons. Incoherent writers, shitty plot, so many loose ends, the lack of showtime, Cait? Caitvi? Vi??? All the random undeveloped characters (this did not happen in s1)? The discontinuation from season 1?? Using parallels just for the sake of it without much meaning? ...

This is like a flip side to defending Rachel Amber all over again... See both sides of the coin people 😪

[ur-mom-kayn]

Loyalty Chapter 36: The Conference

Kayn Pov

"Shit, I'm so sorry for what happened to you. Damn ... you have to hate me from the bottom of your heart." "Nonsense! Kayn, no one can care for his origins. It's only important what you make of your life. You deliberately chose against Noxus as soon as you had the opportunity." Kayn just felt shitty. He hated his blood more than anything else. Even though he seems very much in love with himself, he hated himself for his origin. He still finds it difficult to claim to be Ionian. It would simply be a lie. "The fact remains that I killed Ionier. Innocent and good people. Even if I did not kill your girlfriend, maybe I killed another man's girlfriend. I'm no different than these monsters." Kayn rarely looked so depressed.

Akio recognized his desperation. He put an arm around Kayn's shoulders and pulled him closer to him. "Shit Akio. Why are you just such a good big brother? You would have the right to treat me like the last bit of filth, but instead, you try to cheer me up as you tell me your tragic story. Crap! Besides Zed, you were my greatest teacher. Except for the little squabbles, you've always treated me fairly, though I have the fucking face of a Noxian." "Yes, but a very pretty face." Akio desperately smiled at Kayn while his little brother pulled on his knees and tried his face to hide. "Honestly, I should have been a much better brother to you. I should have stood up to Zed more than he gave you house arrest. I tried to convince him to release you, but he did not listen to me. Do you know Kayn, I never cared about your origin. You are my little brother like everyone else. You are the only family I have. And when I see one of my brothers suffer, it hurts me too. I promise you that I will protect you at this conference, even though it will be the last thing I do."

Kayn could barely believe what Akio was saying to him. He did not know this side of him. No way the people of the order are cruel monsters. The order is a brotherhood. The fact had lost sight of Kayn lately. Since Rhaast ... Now stop it! I am always to blame for your miserable life. Your brother is trying to tell you all the time that he cares about you and the entire order. Now, raise yourself again and tell him how thankful you are. Rhaast was right for once. Kayn raised his head and sought the hug to Akio. Somewhat perplexed, his opponent also accepted it. "Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to be your brother. I never want to disappoint you and the others again. We have to rock the conference. We must ensure that the Order of Shadow is recognized as part of Ionia. I do not want to see any victims on our site anymore. We need an alliance, otherwise, Noxus overruns us sooner or later. We know that they are not sticking to the League's peace agreements. But we. It is our duty tomorrow to let the cat out of the bag. Unfortunately, I am not the best speaker. I hope you can help me."

Akio pushed his little brother closer to him so he lay on top of him. This closeness was unusual, but not unpleasant. "Kayn, I do not think it would be a good idea to start talking in the middle of the conference. I'll only talk when I'm asked." "And what do you think you think, should I do?" "What you do best. Just be charming. Wrap the old bags around your finger and do not stir. If something happens, I will protect you. You can trust me 100%." Kayn looked up at his brother and smiled at him. "That's why I ordered you here too. I like to go on missions with you. It's lame because it's so boring, but I know I'm safe." "Yes ... Hey, look! Master Zed has an Ace. Is that good?" Akio pointed a finger at the screen. Kayn immediately looked at the replay. "Yes, his triple kill allowed him to score an ace, so his team can now push the base through. The nexus will fall now. He will be with us in about 10 minutes. We should have a concrete plan by then." "I felt I did not understand a word. However, we have a plan. I'll shut up and you're just the dream of all your mother-in-law. Sounds good, right?" Kayn took a seat next to Akio again before Zed would catch them. He definitely did not want to send false signals to his lover, even though this intimacy between Akio and him was purely fraternal.

A few minutes later, Zed appeared in his room. "What? Are you both peacefully in a bed? That I may still experience the day." Zed took off his blades and sat on the edge of the bed. "We have set aside our differences." "I'm glad. And do you have a plan for tomorrow?" Both men bent to their Master. Actually, their plan was nothing to do with it. But Zed did not have to know that. "Well. How about food? I could order something." "Sounds nice, Master, but sometimes another thing. The conference is tomorrow. Where should I sleep?" "You can take my room. I'll just sleep with Zed ... " "KAYN, YOU IDIOT!" Zed screamed at him.

"What do you mean, you can sleep with Zed? Is something going on there?" "NO! This jerk wanted to say something completely different, Kayn agrees?" The young Akolyth was just overwhelmed with the situation. What should he say now? "Eh ... no, there's nothing going on." "And why did you suppose Zed just let you sleep with him?" "Well, I slept with him for about 5 months because I did not have a room." Zed slaps his hand against his iron mask. "Kayn, you've never been so stupid, you know that?" As Zed groused his student, Akio looked shocked. "Look, that means you know Master Zed's face. Is that so? And please tell me the truth." "Well done, Kayn. Now I have to tell the truth. Yes, he knows my face. But not because he did not have a room, but because he was like a son to me. He has known me since he was 12." "Your Seriousness, Master?! I founded the order with you. Why do not you trust me? How did I give you a reason to doubt?"

Kayn felt guilty. Zed's identity was a very sensitive topic and now he is confronted with it because of him. "Akio please believe me. It has nothing to do with you and my trust in you. I never really wanted to show my face to Kayn. I harmed him and he still held to me. I revealed to him out of guilt because I was afraid he would not trust me anymore." "And what about me? You just hurt me too. How do you want to regain my trust?" "Is my face so important to you?" "No. Actually, I do not care what my master looks like because I thought you would treat us all the same. But now I start to doubt. I know you have white-gray eyebrows and a scar on your left eye. What's so bad about showing me the rest?" "Nice ... whatever you want."

Just as Zed was taking off his mask Kayn pushed in between. "Are you really sure? I do not think Akio wants to force you to do that." "Kayn let it be good. We have known each other for so long. He's right. It just would not be fair. He gave up a lot for me. No one trained as hard as Akio. Unlike you, he had no talent. He always was too scared to fight. And now look at him. He is my 2nd strongest man and not without reason. He trusted me when I promised to make him powerful and now I should trust him. He will not hurt me." Zed removes the mask and pulls down his hood. Akio opened his eyes to his fluffy, white back. "Are you really sure? Just that you are ready to show me your face is enough for me. "Zed did not answer his student. Instead, he turned to look at Akio, so that he could inevitably look into his face. A very special moment for everyone present.

Akio seemed a bit shocked, but not horrified. What was going on in him? "So how old are you again?", Akio asked. "28 Why?" At the answer, Akio had to swallow briefly. "I beg your pardon? You were a child when you recruited me. How can that be?"  Do you understand now why I always wore a mask? No one would follow me if they knew what I looked like. I'm not ugly, but young and my look looks very demonic. I tried to find recruits like that, but I did not find one. It was not fair to think that you would not follow me if I did not wear this mask. But let's face it. If you had seen me with that face when you ran against me, would you still have been so confident in asking me to take your revenge?" "No ... I would not have trusted you to do that. I always thought that you are older than me and now I find out that you are 7 years younger. I am shocked. But also deeply impressed. I was surprised when Kayn led the order at the age of 15. But you founded it with ... 17-18 years. You two are real workhorses. I'm proud of you. I am honored to serve you. I do not really care about the look. Also that you have white hair, a few scars and shitty looking young. I'm grateful that you trust me, and I promise you I'll never abuse that trust." "I'm glad," Zed replied, grinning slightly. Even Akio had to start grinning inevitably.

After a leisurely meal, Zed played one or the other match in the summoners rift. When it was finally over, Zed and Kayn met him, Akio slept in Kayn's room for the night. The next morning they met again at Kayn.

Even though the strategy had been clarified so far, it was still unclear what they would look like. "Hey Kayn, I took some of the traditional kimono order. You should wear it." Akio handed him a beautiful violet kimono. "And what do we do with his hair?" Zed asked. "I thought about splitting his hair. The bottom side stays open and the top side back and braided." "Mmmh ... ", Zed thought about the suggestion. "I did not understand anything," Kayn stated. "If you want, I can style you. But only if I'm allowed to touch your hair." Akio suggested. Actually, Kayn just wanted to let Zed by his hair, but he did not believe that he had understood what Akio had imagined. "You may, but only this once. If you hurt me, you'll be a head shorter." "Do not worry, brother." Akio reached for Kayn's crest and set to work. After 5 minutes it was done and the hairstyle was sitting. Kayn had to admit that his brother got it. His braid was a lot cleaner than Zeds. Just as he was about to get ready, there was a knock at the door. Kayn went to the door and opened it to his guest. To his surprise, Shen stood at the door. "Hey Uncle Shen, how can I help you?" "I thought maybe to help you. I just wanted to inform you that the whole conference is only spoken ionic. I hope that will not be a problem for you. Zed said you could speak fluently." "Yes, even without an accent. Do not worry Shen. I'll understand what the old crackers have to say." "That's nice, but please do not call them old crackers. That's not good," Shen pointed out. Kayn was not that stupid again. Shen said goodbye to Kayn and went before.

After they got dressed, Akio and Kayn went to the conference room with the Rhaast and a few blades. The room was inside the Ionian district so outsiders were not allowed in. Unfortunately, exactly what both had feared happened. Two guards were at the door and caught the two. "What will that be, if I may ask?" One of the guards asked, "Ehm, we are from the Order of Shadow and we have been invited." Kayn replied in a quiet tone. "That may be, but you can not get in here with the weapons. Unfortunately, we have to confiscate them." "But Rhaast is more than just a weapon, I even have permission to take him anywhere in the Institution of War." "Everywhere except here," the guard countered, "And what do we do now?" Akio whispered to Kayn. "Plan B.," he replied, annoyed. "I'll call Varus, he's the only one I can give Rhaast now, just a moment." Kayn pulled out his phone and called Varus. Shortly thereafter, the Darkin appeared. "Thanks for coming so soon." "Yeah, I have a match right now, so just get him out of my room when you're done, good luck." Varus took his brother and disappeared as fast as he came. "And that was ...?" "One of Rhaast's brothers." Akio looked after Varus in surprise. "Did not think he looked so ... human." Kayn had to chuckle for a moment, remembering the words Rhaast always used to describe his pants. "Yes, so Varus devoured 2 people, so maybe that's why. But Aatrox is very different, he looks pretty scary, there's nothing human about him, like Rhaast, just bigger," Kayn said.

After that was settled, Akio also gave his weapons off. He did not need it anyway, as long as his counterpart had some. That's exactly what made Kayn so startled. He was sure the others were allowed to keep their weapons. When they were completely unarmed, they were finally allowed to pass. Kayn civilized opened the door and looked around first. The room was a huge conference table covered with name tags so each clan knew its place. Everyone was already sitting, except for Kayn. The guards stood behind one, so, unfortunately, Akio had to stand. Kayn sat down next to Master Wong and Master Shu. Both come from the northern provinces. Actually, Kayn knew that only because he has always taken care of history lessons. It was important for him to know the Ionian story. And now he just sat next to such great, historic personalities. "Hello, young man, who are you? I have never seen you before." Master Shu asked. Kayn smiled charmingly at him. "Pleased to meet you in person Master Shu. It's an honor to meet the man who was able to tame a real dragon. You have to be of real size. My name is Shieda Kayn. I represent the Order of Shadow, rather than Zed." When the name Zed fell, Kayn got all the attention of the table, and the old cracker at the bottom of the head table said, "You two are Zed's students? Underwear models?", Almost amused, stated the elder.

"Thank you for the compliment. In fact, every one of my brothers, including Zed, looks good. We pay great attention to our health and our appearance. I'm sorry if we cause confusion." Kayn just tried to be frank and smile constantly. Not so easy. "Speaking of the new ones, tell us why you would like to take the advice." Master Wong asked. "To be honest, we hope for a possible alliance with other provinces and clans. We are still very often attacked by Noxians on the Navoricoast. While we can ward them off, for the most part, it will only be a matter of time before they completely kill us." "Do not talk shit Kayn," Irelia intervened. "There is peace through the league. Noxus must not attack us." "Ah, is that so? What nonsense. Do you seriously believe Noxian itches such an agreement? We have a pile of documents in which it is recorded when and how often we have defended the coast. I alone have recently extinguished 100 at a stroke. The threat is real and unthinkable. You have to believe me." "I believe you Kayn," Shen said. "In fact, there has been an imbalance on the coast recently. Maybe that's because of the increase in Noxians." While everyone was brooding, Akio slowly leaned towards Kayn and whispered something in his ear. "Even if it does not look that way at first glance, they are all armed. So watch what you say."

Kayn nodded and continued. "So what should we do about the Noxians? We can not tribe alone on the coast." "That may be, but I hope you understand that under no circumstances we want to start another war. Without proof, we can not attack Noxus," said one of the elders. "So what should we do? Spying on the Noxians?" Karma asked. "There is a possibility that they might hold council meetings like us. It would be possible to eavesdrop on them," suggested Master Yi. "Not a good idea. How should we do that? Maybe they will discuss in oldnoxic. It's impossible for us to understand a word," Shu explained. "That does not necessarily have to be. Kayn could spy on them," Shen suggested. Kayn immediately lost his cool expression and opened his eyes wide. "What the fuck Uncle Shen? How do you know that I am just made for this job?" "Well, on the one hand, you can not only run unnoticed through walls, but you can also stay in it. Besides, you can understand oldnoxic." Suddenly all eyes are on Kayn again. Shen, the jerk.

"That is absurd. I can not speak the language. There's no reason to." "Sure, you're a Noxian by birth." Kayn's heart stopped for a moment. For so many years, he tore his ass off to be one of them, and now everyone sees him as a monster again. As if that was not bad enough, Akali suddenly lunged at Kayn. She jumped onto the conference table and aimed her blade at Kayn's throat. Just before the blade could hit the young acolyte, Akali stopped. The Shadow Owner was just up.