#silco character study

[wishfulsketching]

hands hands hands

[frenchublog]

[viviandarkbloombartylusversion]

The way I see people say that Silco was just blatantly manipulating Jinx the whole time, but actually he genuinely believed a majority of the things he told her (he was heavily projecting as he saw himself in her as he went through something similar with Vander) when he tells Jinx everyone leaves or betrays us, its just us (or smth like that), he genuinely believes it, he's not just trying to keep Jinx close, he feels it's true after what happened with Vander & Vi and is projecting that onto Jinx, when he tells Jinx to let Powder die its because he also left his old self die, hes definitely not like the young Silco we see in flashbacks, after Vander tried to kill him he clearly changed and put who he was behind him for something new, for something stronger, he's far from perfect (obviously) and wasn't the healthiest option for Jinx but he really wasn't this master manipulator some make him out to be (when it came to Jinx)

[velvet-ii]

some arcane portrait studies :3 this show is ruining my life

[srslylini]

Why didn't the joke with the Enforcers talking about Jinx's pants land for me? I thought about it at length to be honest and while I'm still not 100% sure there is a lot of things that now are clearer for me at least.

I understand this is very subjective but hear me out.

Powder grew up with Enforcers oppressing her. The first scene we see her in is her having to shield and protect herself by singing on a bridge with Enforcers killing people she knows and even loves (her parents for one). We see how she views the enforcerers with the painted over faces, the scary creepy smiles.

We see her entire group, and her sister hate Enforcers for GOOD reasons. And so does she.

Well and now people might say "Jinx also made jokes with Enforcers in the first season" but did she? like this?

The humor felt incredibly nuanced and laced with pain. If they were even jokes to begin with. The humor was her leading Enforcers to their death so she could steal from Jayce's lab. The humor was FOR her, she found it funny, she found it amazing and cool. We as the audience weren't meant to "get the joke" so to speak.

That carries on throughout the first season. The humor is never this in your face, and she also doesn't engage in conversations with especially Enforcers, not like in season 2. For gods sake when she enters the bridge she IMMEDIATELY bombs all of the Enforcers. Of course that one wasn't even in universe humor, I'm not saying that.

And then there is of course also the way she sees Caitlyn. How she ridicules her during the shower scene, a big power display. That's her form of humor with the Enforcers.

The Season 1 finale ends with Silco dead and Jinx bombing the council, there is so much pain, so much suffering and then we get to season 2 and all of that is just

gone.

Her jokes and the humor she carries rarely hit because now, suddenly, it IS for the audience. We are suddenly meant to laugh, suddenly she is meant to be funny and ridiculous. I swear to god, we see her cry and scream, justified, when she sees her sister has joined the Enforcers, the scary faces appear on her own sister.

And now you are telling ME that this person, this character, would have this almost civil, "hilarious" conversation with an Enforcer before knocking them out??? This wasn't how Jinx's humor usually works. This almost felt like any random Disney show breaking the fourth wall to make us laugh when what I always felt like Jinx was meant to have her OWN humor. That we as the audience are meant to see but not understand and find funny.

[gaylittleguys]

an illness has taken me

[vi-arcanes-left-biceps]

Coming to terms with the fact that the things I did not like from Arcane S3 are mostly related to what was wanted and needed to be told following time and lore constraints. Or at least I think many things were.

I'd like to start by saying that I do not hate the ending or dislike it particularly. I think the series did pretty well with the resources they had and made very good visual and dialogue storytelling, even if I'd prefer things to be different. However, There was something that bugged me about it and I was not able to put it into words until I rested from the finale-induced-high and got away from silly discourse. This is my interpretation and reading of the story so you don't necessarily have to agree idk.

I feel like Vi's and Jinx's arcs were sort of uncoordinated, which while realistic, it feels kind of unsatisfying, at least to me.

Vi's fatal flaw is self-sacrificing for her loved ones, over and over again. Of course, her arc is about learning to choose herself, open herself to be taken care of and not be always the caretaker, and coming to terms with the fact that she just can't save everyone. The thing is she doesn't choose herself -she is forced to choose herself, two times, by Jinx. The tragedy is that she's unable to learn that lesson by herself and in the end she kind of doesn't. Jinx's sacrifice is what gives her a clean slate to begin again and be able to start from scartch, to finally let go of the past (loosing Vander and Powder again, this time, having a support system and a space to grieve and heal). So, I get that makes sense as a narrative and alligns with how the series had been constructed. I don't think it's bad, though as a storyteller/story enjoyer, I don't personally like unconditional love as the fatal flaw for a greek tragedy-like story.

Then, Jinx's arc is about her feeling that she ruins everything, and that she feels unable to do anything but destroy what she loves. She also needs to let go of years of guilt and emotional abuse. She begins to find herself and start having healthy relationships in S2 and particularly after meeting Isha. She sees herself reflected in her, understands her sister better, and both are able to make amends until tragedy strikes again and she re-lapses into seeing herself as a jinx. Her tragedy seems to be being unable to escape that destiny. And I use "seems" because she sees another way after speaking to Ekko: she's able to learn that there are more possibilities to who she can be and that her identity is not tied to causing pain - that she can create her own destiny.

So now let's go to the final chapter. By ep.9, Jinx is ready to try again and find her identity. She's ready to make peace with all that happened. She's ready to walk away from Vi, not out of pain and a sense of doom, but out of the knowledge that she cannot stay in Zaun/Piltover, she needs to walk away to be able to start again.

So this is what is unbalanced. Jinx was able to mature throughout the series, to see other options for herself, and to see them for her sister, too. Vi was unable to let go and had to be forced.

Jinx dying, from Vi's perspective, finished her personal tragedy. It closes the cycle of pain that she's been re-living the whole series, albeit with a very sad ending, and leaves a space for her to finally grieve for real. And it would also be a tragedy for Jinx, who was so close to recovering, to have an ending like this. She closes the story that she accidentally started with that bomb. Vi's fatal flaw, being unable to let go of Vander, causes the end of the cycle -just like Jinx's tragic 'curse' started it for the sisters. I get this interpretation and that it is somewhat poetic. That doesn't mean I like it, not as it was developed. S2 seemed to be going for a Jinx redemption and for freeing her of the destiny of losing her loved ones. Killing her off, then, seems very unsatisfying because I feel that if we were going for the tragedy angle, some more development would have been needed, and the time constraints did dirty to that narrative.

HOWEVER, and this is my interpretation of events, I think Jinx survived the final explosion and walked away on the blimp. I belive there are enough intentional clues to believe so, even if they do not want to confirm. I don't like the narrative of the suicidal character comitting suicide just after finding a reason to keep going.... I get the tragedy but I'm sorry but that's overdone and also unsatisfying to me given what had been shown so far! So this might be a cope, but bear with me and even if you don't believe she is, pretend she's alive.

Jinx surviving the explosion, from my point of view, is not only a very Jinx-like thing to do, it would allow her to both close the chapter and close her arc in a satisfying way, with her going away to a place where she is not tied to her history in Zaun (Silco's right arm, unwilling resistance symbol, searched criminal, sister to Vi) and she can start again. I'd love that ending for Jinx and I think that's what's happened -as there are many hints to see it.

BUT then, Vi is the one who did not move on. She wasn't given a chance to exit the cycle. She was forced to. She needed to lose Vander and her sister again -that I agree- to be able to grieve properly. But I can see an unbalance in Jinx re-gaining her agency and finally making a choice for herself, and Vi not getting the chance to do so. Realistic, yes, but sort of unsatisfying.

I'll elaborate -I'm not against the tragic angle per se, even if I'd liked to see Vi have more agency, I don't think she as a character was written as ready to grow to walk away (more runtine would have worked to do that, though) and it's cool that Jinx can be the one to protect her sister this once. But then, if Jinx is alive, is Vi really going to be able to grow from this? If she finds out Jinx is alive, would she not be unable to give her up? The cycle is not closed from her end. If the end of her arc is her losing Jinx forcefully, because she was unable to let go, with Jinx alive, and without a proper goodbye, her arc remains opened. That's what bugs me.

I understand lore-wise they probably can't kill off the champions (not definitevely) and Jinx and Vi need to be separate. From the little I know Jinx has more relationships with other champions so it also makes sense for the door to be open to her being alive and explore this in future series (hence providing clues that Jinx may have survived and not confirming it). But this, together with the season having little time to delve into many things that we had to infer, makes the ending of both of their arcs kinda weird and unbalanced. If it's a full greek tragedy ending, with Jinx dying, then her character progress feels cut short. If Jinx is alive, but they could not confirm it because it's not clear what will be done next in the series universe, Vi's arc remains unsatisfyingly open. They could not give a scene of the sisters saying goodbye because Vi was not ready not move on -they needed more screentime to deal with their relationship for that to work- and probably because they did not want a clear "Jinx is alive" ending.

I still think this is an amazing series, the ending is not disappointing despite this and I can understand why certain decisions were taken, but I would have loved for it to be slightly different, with more runtime and less lore constraints to the narrative.

[zvdvdlvr]

Window to the Soul ✰ Silco x Reader

✰. Kind of a character study of Silco? (I guess I shouldn’t say that because I don’t know exactly what a character study is. I just wanted to finally use some of the obscure words on my Notes app.) BOTTOM LINE: straight up waxing poetry about Silco and his eyes and facial expression because I love him your honor!!!

✰. WC: .8k (830words). credits to @strangergraphics for the BEAUTIFUL divider. I love how simple + elegant it is :))

The saying ‘eyes are the window into the soul’- in your opinion- was one of the most truthful statements ever made. At least in regards to Silco.

His beautiful, sharp face paired with his glinting emerald eye and the shocking bright orange in the other eye had you entranced the first time you saw him. He had seen you the very moment you’d looked up- and, surprisingly- Silco had felt a similar jolt in his chest. It was from that moment Silco decided he would be indefatigable in his scheme to earn your heart.

The dance he pulled you into was nothing short of breathtaking: with elegant dips, mesmerizing swirls and twirls, and intoxicating hand placement. But it wasn’t the dance itself you dreamed about during the following nights- it was his eyes.

Silco had held your gaze the entire night, his eyes a perfect blend of vivid green and burning coal of orange. For having only just met, he looked at you like he knew something about you not even you knew. You committed to memory the moment he dipped you for the first time and how his eyebrows relaxed and his pupils widened in his eyes.

He was just as disarming the next time you saw him, those beautiful eyes set between his aquiline nose landing on you once again.

When he took you on a date for the first time, Silco had worn his signature crimson color. It was absolutely stunning and you made sure your accessories matches the color you knew he would wear. He had taken you to a quaint restaurant in Piltover and followed dinner up with the option to stroll along the city street in the crepuscular light or visit the nearby aquarium.

You picked the slow stroll through town, choosing to continue the flowing conversation as much as you would have loved to shower Silco in facts about marine life. Though you took joy in absorbing the sight of all kinds of undulating jellyfish you were more keen on the idea of getting entranced by Silco’s eyes for the numerous time.

Bedroom eyes were a new addition to your list of ways Silco had looked at you. Crude, uncouth, electrifying. Although it was embarrassing to admit, you’d been able to cum just by Silco’s words and eyes. It wasn’t as though he was unaware of your. . . attraction towards him (it was impossible to hide, so sorry to inform you) because he knew the affect he had on you. He didn’t fully understand why you were so attracted to him- his gaze, his face, his soul- but you were. And he knew.

Silco used that to his advantage, consciously communicating with his eyes to you. One such case is the night you were kidnapped. Or rather, when Silco found you and was negotiating with the asinine kidnapper. The only reason he hadn’t immediately commanded his snipers to shoot him was because there was a gun pressed to your temple.

You hadn’t looked away from him when he walked into the warehouse. He captured attention and turned heads with his svelte and dangerous form, but seeing him saunter into the building had pushed oxygen into your lungs and scattered away the fear gripping your body like darkness fled from a flame. He was there. To save you.

The are you hurt, darling? was shown with a barely visible quirking of an eyebrow. When you raised both brows and tilted your chin down in a short nod you saw him relax.

When Silco had you in a tight embrace the very night, he was only mildly surprised at your answer to his statement/question sentance. “Many in your position would have been shaking and crying and begging to go,” he had murmured detachedly. You knew he was blaming himself: Silco being unnecessarily cruel to himself for an unnecessary reason. “Why weren’t you?”

“Your eyes,” you replied, raking your fingers through his hair the way you knew Silco liked. “I can tell how you feel when I look at your eyes, and. . . It’s stupid, but,” you paused to sigh and mentally prepare yourself for the cringe that was to spout from your mouth. “I feel like I know what you’re feeling whenever I look at you.“

Silco’s eyes locked onto yours, eyebrows knitted endearingly. “That’s not stupid.”

You smile. “You’re so expressive, Sil. I see it here,” you trail a fingertip along his brow bone and lightly circle his parted lips. “Here, too.” You stop your finger extremely close to the edge of Silco’s outer eye. “Your eye twitches if you’re mad or stressed enough.”

Silco pulls your hand down and laces his fingers with yours after your coos soften the anger he still held against himself. “You can read me like a book.”

“People don’t say ‘eyes are the window into the soul’ for nothing, my love,” you say sweetly, letting Silco press himself into you and let his tired eyes close.

[bostoncreamdonut]

some notes i took on Silco’s features when I was doing that face study

[spiritually-a-blorb]

gang the arcane brainrot got too good.

so headcannons it is. And character study beacuse my ass is never beating the allegations.

starting off with my schizophrenic princess Jinx

- she definitely did not know she was the favorite for Silco. This is literally a whole arc, I feel like, with her. From my foggy-ish recall of my first watch, Jinx didn't know Silco did the eye thing without her sometimes. She's older, she tries to rebel. It's a thing. That's like, half the plot of the first arc. And she, by the end, looks back and realizes just how much she was really loved. Like a lot of us do, I think.

- Jinx would have totally begged for a cat. A black one, specifically. Silco tried really, really hard to say no. He's the leader of Zaun, he's intimidating, cruel-

- so they have a cat named Lucky. It's a black cat, with a little spot of white in the middle of her chest. And Jinx absolutely dotes on this cat. Or tries to, anyways. The cat is a bit feral at first. But it settles in.

- Jinx and Ekko were SO CUTE IM GONNA CRY. LISTEN THEY, THEY GET A HAPPY ENDING THIS TIME, IGNORE CANON- 😭

Jinx never had someone who chose her and stayed. Silco was great, don't get me wrong. 10/10 dad. But I would argue he didn't choose Jinx. Jinx came to him. Jinx chose him, not the other way around. And he put her above all else after that.

- My point being, Ekko did. He stayed. He found a world that was perfect, everything he had wanted - and he left. For Jinx. And Jinx, this time, had to be the one to let him in again.

- AND ITS SO FULFILLING THAT JINX HELPED SAVE THE WORLD. NO, NO, HEAR ME OUT PLEASE.

In our world, we saw the moment Jinx's trust, her hope in a good life, was shattered by Vi picking Kaitlyn over her, and her dad dying by her hands. She's on that bridge, her dad died, the one constant in her life - and she fires the missile.

But then we see Ekko in the perfect world. Where Jinx could afford to trust in a future. A future she keeps pushing away. To help people. She trusts him, and she helps. And they create the time-travel. And Ekko saves the world, sure. My favorite boy Savior.

But in the end, it was her tech, too.

The narrative... is consuming me...

- Anyways! It's Jinx and Viktor time. They would be the absolute best chaotic besties to ever serve.

- Viktor matches her crazy to an INSANE degree. Like this girl helped invent time travel, a whole ass arm, and a NUKE. I'm never letting anyone forget that thing. And he makes it 10x worse. Like, she says one thing and now they're throwing the Hex crystals into anything they can get their gremlin paws onto.

- I believe Jayce would try, for like three seconds, to mediate. Then he offhandedly corrects their math or something and they turn to him with a wicked grin and he just melts into the floor and wants to die.

- Jinx would create bigger, bolder ideas until eventually Jayce manhandles the two into getting some rest (for once). They are NOT happy about it, don't you DARE assume so. Even when they're very cozy in their onezies.

[colinrobinsonscardigan]

Lot's of upsetting events in recent Arcane episodes, but I'm so caught up in how much of a bullet we dodged with not having man-bun Silco in season 1. I know people were/are horny for him, but the people would have lost their collective shits. The thirst S1 man-bun Silco would have produced could have powered suns

[bumblydumbly]

Crazy how people buy into the ‘Vander and Vi hero, Silco and Jinx villain’ thing like the writers didnt try so hard to tell you its not even close to being that simple

[the-dragon-hearted]

Love in Arcane

There are a lot of themes in Arcane but an overarching theme is the dangers of love. Often times, love is put on a pedestal and mistaken as sacred. Love is always good, always "pure".

Arcane actively pushes against that.

I think a lot of the discourse surrounding some of the relationships wouldn't be as big if we recognized that love is just... not always a good thing. Silco and Jinx, Powder and Vi, Mel and Ambessa, they all display that - let me explain.

Silco and Jinx: Probably the most obvious example of this

Silco loves Jinx. This earnestly cannot be argued, he was willing to throw away his dream of an independent Zaun because he could not handle the idea of betraying her. Not losing her - betraying her. Hurting her. He was willing to give himself up, telling Jayce everything she did was what he ordered. It is not a possessive twisted love where he wants her near - he has spent her entire life promising that he won't betray her and he meant it.

BUT!

That does not mean Silco is a good father. He loves her - absolutely. But love is not always good. Everything Silco passed on to Jinx was an example of how he saw the world. Silco was a paranoid, hurt man and as such he made his daughter a paranoid, hurt woman. Love forms us, it teaches us and builds us. Silco loved Jinx but he hated Piltover. He was willing to use violence and use people to get to his goal and he taught Jinx that those methods were acceptable. And he loves Jinx, so she learned.

And after he dies, part of her healing is unlearning those lessons. It's no mistake the ghost of Silco she sees in that cell is a somber one - warning her about the cycle of violence she knows all too well. It's no mistake that Silco's solution was one he never managed to do.

A parent can love you, but that does not change who they are. It does not change what they teach you. Especially if they think they're right.

Powder and Vi: this one hits a lil personally for me

Violet is a parentified older sister, she doesn't just feel responsible for Powder - it's her purpose. It's more than a role to fill or a job to do, if something happens to Powder it is Violet's fault.

And Powder? Vi was everything to her. She looked to Vi for praise, for guidance. Everything she was supposed to seek out in a parent she had to look for in a fellow child. And when Violet leaves her (not really but that's how she understands it), she is ripped away from the only source of dependency she has. So there's a level of resentment there and a fear of further abandonment. Because if the most reliable person in her life can leave her, who won't?

When they reunite, Vi is trying to fulfill a role Jinx no longer needs. Jinx is independent. A lot of people try to say that Vi made Jinx or Silco made Jinx but remember that at the end of the day, Jinx is Jinx. She is a person who makes her own choices and has to find her own path. Violet can't recognize that until it's too late - and then, because she's known her whole life that it is her purpose to take responsibility for Powder, she betrays everything she ever stood for, puts on an enforcer badge, and takes to the streets to try to atone for her failure.

Vi sees Jinx as her failure.

And Jinx? When Vi comes back she tries to find that dependency she once knew. She tries to figure out if she can still depend on that sister who once meant the entire world to her. But she can't. She never should have. And learning that the person you idolize most sees you as either a child or a threat is gutting. Jinx is not a child, so she must be a threat. Because Vi can't love Jinx, she loves Powder. And Jinx can't be Powder anymore, and if that's the case then Violet can't love her.

They both do love each other. They love the memories of the other. Who they once were. When they start to learn about one another again and rekindle that siblinghood it becomes healthier - it's more meaningful and respectful but before then? No matter how hard Violet tried, even if Jinx had chosen to be Powder again, their love would not have been healthy. Violet needed to learn that Jinx was her own person. And that she was not responsible for her, not anymore. Jinx needed to find herself and recognize Vi's failures. Recognize Violet as a person too.

Because siblings change. They grow. Apart and then back together, usually. Siblings love each other but you have to love more than the person someone used to be. Otherwise, you're just pouring your grief on the person they've become.

Ambessa and Mel:

Perfectionist mother meets over-achiever, independent daughter. This is the clearest cut of all the relationships, in my opinion. We know Mel resents that her mother sent her away because she wanted to stay. She wanted to make her mother proud and if she couldn't make her proud she'd damn well spite her. And Ambessa? She loves Mel. She makes that very clear.

But sometimes, love is not something to desire. Sometimes love is synonymous with prison.

Ambessa's love meant she wanted her children to be survivors. Fighters. Winners. She wanted her children to be her.

Mel? Mel figured out quickly enough she didn't want to be her mother, she wanted to be herself. She feared what her mother could do but recognized the tactics and skills she honed were granted to her from the cradle.

That last word: "You have become the wolf."

The nail in the coffin. All the love, all the adoration in that tone, and yet Ambessa's love condemns Mel to a life she never wanted. Because now Mel is her mother's daughter. She is the wolf her mother raised. The heir. Mel loses everything she built and fought for as her Mother dies in her arms, by her hands.

Love. Succession. They can coexist with hate and damnation.

You can love someone and hurt them. Being loved can be hurtful. Love does not mean healthy. It does not mean good. Because love doesn't really have a tangible definition. You can love someone with everything in your body and still be bad for them. Someone can love you with all they have and yet haunt you long after their gone. I think we've placed love on this untouchable pedestal that we dare not touch or critique.

Because: "If it's bad for you it can't be love. No - people who love you don't hurt you. Love is only good. Love is good!"

It's important to know that being loved does not equal being happy, fulfilled, or safe. Better love exists. Healthy, meaningful, caring love exists. But even that will not always be perfect.

Love hurts. Love can be the most hurtful thing out there. Adoring someone rides a find line with glorifying them - love doesn't do that. Love knows your faults. It comes with faults. And adding the right combination of faults can make love a twisted sort of thing. Toxic is a word that's thrown around a lot and often separated from love.

Love can be toxic. It doesn't always become some separate entity, it just manifests sickeningly. Arcane shows us that.

It also shows us love can be good. It can forgive and accept. It can cradle and hold and save. It can last through dimensions and centuries, even through death. Love, like anything else, has many forms. Good and bad.

Doesn't Singed do atrocious things in the name of Love?

Doesn't Ekko recognize that even if he loves Powder, it's not his world. It's not his happiness to have. Doesn't leaving that love take strength?

Don't Viktor and Jayce find love in faults? In each other's shortcomings, not despite them but because of them?

Arcane encourages us to recognize Love's complexities and contradictions. And I think that's neat.

[sevikas-biceps]

Sometimes, I wonder about Ren; Marcus' daughter. You ever think she thinks of her father and the funny man with the weird eye? The woman with the metal hand and chopped hair, and the man always looking in two directions?

You remember our old friend Vi, don't you? Vander's daughter? She was about your age! Her father went on a long trip, and Daddy here assured me that she left with him. But it seems she never made it. Isn't that sad? Could you imagine being separated from your father?

Right after those lines; I remember finding it odd that Silco dared to explicitly talk about the matters at hand with Marcus in front of Ren. Yes, you can excuse that she's a child—she likely won't remember it, she likely didn't even think anything of the interaction; yes, you can compare her to the Undercity children, who in comparison would no doubt pick up on the undertones and the implications of Silco's words, and to whom in contrast Ren would fall short against. But you also have to note that that day with this funny man was also one of her last days with her father. Doubtlessly, the poor girl was devastated when Marcus died.

She's going to remember it. She's going to remember those last days.

Can you imagine? They're both gone, now. Just like that Vi friend of theirs. Daddy's gone, and I'm alone like Vi. Where's Daddy? Why isn't he coming back? Where's Mister Silco now? He's Daddy's friend, isn't he?

Ren would be looking for her father, yes, we can reasonably assume this—but no doubt she'd also ask around about his 'friend'. Silco, who came to the house unannounced and presumably one of the most interesting people she'd've come across by then. Silco, who showed up for exactly one day and played wooden cards with her, and toppled the little house back down with a giggle. Silco, who she'd recall as a distant face as she grows.

But that name. Silco. She'd learn about him, maybe, if ever she bothered to look into Marcus' old files or decided to go the way of an enforcer. That's far, far off into the future, but it's possible. Ren would want closure. And then she sees it, she sees traces of him: Silco, who was never actually given a mark of identification on official papers—not like Jinx, not like the terrorist who'd come and ruined the relative peace of Piltover.

Imagine if Jayce or Caitlyn recorded him on ink. Slim, slight, rather finely-dressed; with his most notable features being the left half of his face scarred and grey, and a fiery-glowing iris atop a black sclera. Wait. I remember you. You played with me, a long time ago. Daddy was there. You were there. I'd let you into the house. Ren realises just who she'd invited in. The leader of Zaun, or at least one of the businessmen behind it. The pieces come together. Marcus' old notes make sense. Jinx and Silco. Silco and Jinx. Marcus and Silco. Silco, Silco, Silco.

Maybe Ren would understand. She was in direct interaction with one of the Undercity's most notorious figures. At the very least, Silco didn't actually harm her—even if the warning had been clear to Marcus himself.

Maybe Ren would look back on those last days with Marcus and be saddened by it—and not just because those were her last days with Daddy, but because there was also another father in the room. Silco. He wasn't making threats just for the sake of it.

Maybe Ren would also realise what might've been. She'd recall that name. Vi. Vander's daughter.

Maybe she'd hear it in the police department. Vi. Commander Kiramman's former partner. Vi. The girl in Silco's story.

And the thought really hits its mark; she's had it before, but it's only now that she comes to terms with its significance: Oh. She was separated from her father. Vi's just like me. That's the lesson Silco was trying to teach me. To teach Daddy. Would you be so cruel to separate family from one another?

And then the pieces come into place. Marcus was an enforcer—the Sheriff—and it was an open secret in the city that the enforcers as a whole held little to no love for those filthy street rats. They've always been a part of the problem. Why the violence? Why the utter hostility against certain individuals? Why this wall between Piltover and Zaun?

The pieces come into place. It's about family. It's about community. It's about the people you belong to. It's about the people you're willing to protect. Daddy made deals because he had her; Marcus had Ren. His daughter. He was willing to make sins and sacrifices just for her.

Silco threatening Marcus wasn't just a power play. It was also a question of empathy. You deal with yours, I deal with mine. We don't want to end up like Vi and Vander, do we? Imagine being separated from family like they were.

And then, there's that name again. It isn't spoken aloud in the police department. Hush-hush, you see, we don't want to piss off Lady Kiramman. But Ren remembers that name. Vi. And she remembers Silco. She remembers his story about a girl separated from her father. She remembers his little pout to Daddy. Silco wouldn't've asked such a thing if he didn't know the experience of separation—or if he was also facing the threat of it.

And then it's not just business. It's not just politics. And suddenly, Silco himself isn't just a funny man with a weird eye, and his friends aren't just strangers with odd body parts. They're people. Zaunites, and terrible ones at that, but still people.

And maybe Ren would understand.

[jenhoneys]

so so tired of the debate of "powder would have been better off with vi as a caregiver" "no silco was better for her" like, no no! any way it goes, ALL of them loose -- there is no winning in this situation especially for power. this is the point! they are lower class people fighting to survive within a system that hates them and the result of that is rage and fighting that means everyone experiences loss; there is no vi/silco is better for powder, they would have both been detrimental to her growing up because of the elements around them -- without their traumas, outside environment, etc, yes they would be better and loving, but the fact is that they are both incredibly complex characters that work through their issues in flawed ways.

you don't think vi would have tried to fight the enforcers/silco post-warehouse? by this time, she is a tween, she's just lost her family, and she is so extremely full of rage. killing is a cycle, and at this point, vi hasn't learnt to control her rage the way vander does -- both vi and vander are full of love and full of anger, but vander only realises it needs to stop when it hurts someone he loves/he hurts someone he loves. and even though she did hurt powder, because vi is so young, I don't think she'd learn that so quickly -- she's just a child, she isn't equipt to deal with caregiving 24/7, no matter how good she seems at it, she's not equipt to deal with powder's episodes (which I believe would still occur -- more on that later) alongside dealing with her own anger towards silco/sevika/enforcers. plus, she'd be forced to take the adult role in that relationship, more than she already did, and it would be detrimental to them both, especially after experiencing such a trauma.

speaking of, I also think people blaming silco fully for jinx's mental state is assigning him too much credit -- he very much feeds into it by encouraging her paranoia (though I don't believe he does it intentionally, because he doesn't seem to be aware of the voices or taking inventory/staying updated with them as he does other things), but he isn't the cause. she isn't depicted using shimmer, and the same animation effect is already used when she was younger, before she lost her family, the loss of her family (and the realisation that she did it) just worsens her condition.

and with silco, though he loves her more than anything, he is an enabler, and he is also riddled with his own trauma. he maps his trauma onto her, and she inherits a kind of pseudo generational trauam by default. he is paranoid of people, of trusting, of lies, because of how he was hurt by vander, and so jinx has the same mentality. he believes he only has jinx in the world, and so jinx believes the same. he is not equipt to deal with a child, either, and yet he does because she is a child of someone he loved -- and while he seems to have done a good job in the other universe, the main difference is that vander is there, and vander is forgiven. he has worked through his trauma, assumably, with another adult, and he hasn't given it to jinx. he also doesn't seem to be co-dependent with her, because he seems to have other people he trusts in his life (mostly, from the scene in 2×7, vander).

[srslylini]

If I said the scene with Jinx hallucinating Silco in Stillwater is so beautifully done that it being in season 2 ruins it?

Here is a run down of this scenes dialogue

In itself it is just a dialogue but what I find very noticeable is that Jinx does not in fact actually talk with Silco, she talks to him and then gets talked to. Their conversation doesn't flow because Jinx doesn't engange in basically anything Silco says (run with me here I know it is Jinx hallucinating Silco). She tells him to "go away, you're too late" and when Silco starts talking about imprisonment and how "it says something about Marcus that he thought putting Vi here is a greater mercy than killing her" Jinx doesn't react to that. Her only reaction is "killing isn't mercy" but that's not necessarily what Silco was talking about. If you want you could say they are talking in circles.

Even when Silco talks about killing being a cycle and that there is still rebellion "in that husk", she really doesn't react very much to what he is saying. She closes herself off to any sort of conversation. Mostly she only reacts to the last words presented to her. "I'm done running in circles".

This is her completely ignoring the part of herself that still wants to rebell, by the way.

Now the next part, I feel what they were trying to do is draw a parallel to Heimerdingers line in season 1 of how imprisonment is a curious concept since you imprison the body but not the mind. Here Silco kind of contradicts that though, what he is saying is that the mind is a forged prison one needs to escape out of. That is one of the only parallels I can get behind this season. If it was intentionally done at all.

What I find very uneasy about this next part of the scene is that, while the dialogue we found ourselves in was never really a dialogue, it just turned into a complete monologue. It is Jinx completely detached from herself and in the form of Silco telling herself the only way to free herself is to die. There is no beating around the bush here.

Now lets discuss the visuals of this scene

What I find just as important here is the visuals. Season 2 made the mistake to lean too much onto "micro expressions" for most of its scenes but here I find what they did to be quite stunning.

The scene starts out with the Gemstone rolling through the dark. It is a quite chilling opening since we know what this stone is capable of doing. I feel this very much reminds us of its importance and what has happened with it. And then it hits Jinx.

Jinx who, at this point, has been haunted by the Gemstone for what is basically all her life. And it still continues to haunt her. What I find to be just as well done is that we as an audience are never sure if the Gemstone is actually there. It wouldn't make sense to be there, since she is in prison and I do not think they'd just let her in there with that gemstone, but also? By doing this the audience feels about as haunted by the stone as Jinx does. Who in that moment hurts herself, which manifests in picking skin off of her fingers.

She sits in shadows and Silco also comes from those shadows. That's how the conversation starts. They then continue to only show her eye. The shimmer induced eye. That is in stark contrast to what we then, what almost feels like a jumpscare, get to see with Silco. Suddenly his eye is the Gemstone. The two forces of two cities.

What I also find very interesting is that the audience gets to see Silco's new eye addition when he talks about Jinx still having a spark of rebellion. Well how did the Gemstone first come into play?

Jinx was rebelling against her sisters wishes to "stay behind". And that's when the fateful explosion happened and Jinx lost her entire family. Just as in the finale of season 1. Everytime we see Jinx rebell in season 1 it ends with the death of people she loves. I find it just as interesting that all of this comes after Jinx says "it's too late". She only sees her failures infront of her. All of her acts of rebellion, in her mind, caused the misery that now sits infront of her.

Just as Silco says "Killing is a cycle" we get a close up of his new eye. Now that might be a reach but I like how the Gemstone in itself is basically a "cycle". Also the fact that it is now Silco's eye. The sentence "the eye is the window to a persons soul" is very fitting here, I think. Just that Silco isn't actually Silco. He is the manifestation of Jinx' current state. So he is a manifestation of what she sees as her failures.

And is what happened with the Gemstones not what she sees as her biggest one? She lost all her families over that. And then she lost Isha to it as well. During this part of the scene we see Jinx picking her skin again, as if in an act to ground herself. As Silco says the act of "this cycle of killing will continue long after the two of you" he starts to become less of the focus. The blue of the Gemstone in his eye is suddenly almost all we see.

And then it's in Jinx' hand. I think this shows how Jinx thinks she holds that cycle in her hands now. Which also translates into how she wants to break it, by the way. "I'm done running in circles" as she plays with said figurative circle.

The Gemstone in this part of the scene is what Jinx sees as her prison. All her failures, all her pain. Silco talks over this scene in her monologue (as I talked about in my point before the visuals). All her life Jinx saw herself as nothing more than part of this circle. Then Silco says he thought he could break free by eliminating who he thought his jailors were. I do not like what they did here. At all. But this will come later.

In this scene we only see his new Gemstone eye, as he talks about his jailors. The gemstone comes from Piltover, all his life Silco wanted to break free from Piltover, so there is that. I will come to this later, as I said. Then he says the cycle only ends when you find the will to walk away and suddenly we do not see the Gemstone eye anymore.

More on this later. What I see in the next scene is maybe a little hard to get and potentially wrong. We hear Jinx swallow, right? And swallowing is the act of putting what's in your mouth to your stomach. So when she tries to spit out the Gemstone it can't actually land in her hand again. In my head, and please this is literally very much a far reach cause I myself haven't yet figured this part out completely, it's almost like she lost it again, the thread she held in her hand before.

That, for me, is the part where she understood what the Silco in her head was trying to tell her. A convoluted "you have to die". That's why, when Vi comes, we see her even more detached than before.

Why don't I like this scene in the context of season 2 then?

The hauntingly good of this scene is how factually wrong it is.

Or that it should be wrong. And that's why it is bad. The scene portrays this picture of a completely in shambles Jinx who, in a very twisted way, tries telling herself the only way to betterment is death. And in the end that should have been avoided. What the writers did, how ever, was make this scene be correct.

Well the only way out was death and getting away, right? It shouldn't have been. What should have happened is that the scene gets turned on its head and Jinx gets to the understanding that it is wrong, that she is deserving and allowed to stay. In context of a season 1 this scene was very fitting but in the season 2 we got, that excused classism, war crimes and killed its 3 suicidal characters this scene was terrible.

That leads me to my point with Silco telling us he understood the only way was breaking the cycle and not eliminating his jailors. In what they gave us with season 2 this is... definetly something. What they gave us with that is that Jinx apparently now "understands that Piltover isn't the problem but she is". That makes Jinx having to apologize to Caitlyn even worse. What Silco said in this moment is basically this "He now understands that breaking free of the people oppressing them (his jailors) didn't free him but understanding that he is part of the cycle and needs to end it is freeing" and with that in context of Jinx' mind this says

"I now understand Piltover isn't the problem. I am."

This wouldn't even be THAT bad had they portrayed this scene how it should have been shown.

As wrong.

Conclusion

This is basically why in itself this scene is beautifully done and everything that season 1 did great and why I in fact hate that it exists in season 2. It is such a disservice to have such a stunningly made scene in a season that endorsed all that it shouldn't.

I also do not understand them basically showing the two cities conflict with the shimmer induced Jinx and the Gemstone in Silco's eye and then just doing nothing with that. Like you had it right there. All of it. There it was and then you just failed to do anything with it, ignored it and then by doing so hurt your own series themes. Which is why I hate what Silco said with breaking the cycle and freeing yourself even more. Like how wrong can you even be? How can you show how wrong this is and then paint it as correct?