#the idea of silco seeing felicia as a martyr or hero is very interesting to me

[thewistlingbadger]

I don't think the vander/silco fall out was solely because of Felicia's death. I think it was more about their attitudes towards her death.

In the scene where Felicia reveals to them that she's pregnant, she says that she can't try to be a parent for the first time and protect her child from the dangers of Zaun all at once.

"But then I realized I don't have to. Because the second I told you, I put you on the hook. You two are going to figure this Zaun thing out. I don't care if you have to carve it out of the bedrock covered in blisters. You're not allowed to fail anymore. For her. For me."

Except they did fail. The demonstration on the bridge was a massive loss for Zaun. They lost tons of people, including Felicia. This is where the brothers diverged. I believe that Felicia's death made Vander prioritize safety where her death made Silco realize the importance of sacrifice. In the game Jinx Fixes Everything, we find the journal that we saw Silco writing in in the flashback. We don't know when his specific words were written, but what we know that he wrote about Felicia's courage and how much he admired her. At the bottom of the page, he wrote "Blisters and Bedrock", clearly calling back to the night she revealed her pregnancy's.

It seems that this idea of doing whatever it takes to make Zaun happen originally came from her. Or at the very least she's who inspired this idea. Silco saw Felicia's death as a testament to the type of zaunite and woman she was. She died fighting for what she believed in. She risked EVERYTHING because she wanted a better tomorrow. The bravery he saw in her before increased by tenfold when she laid down her life for the cause. This is why Silco is so upset at Vander in S1 E3.

"So you'll die for a cause, but you won't fight for one?"

Vander saw her a death as a sign that the concept of the Nation of Zaun itself was a failure, that it couldn't be done. His job as her friend was to protect her, and he failed to do that. He saw the direct consequences of her death, and he feels the need to take responsibility and clean up his mess. Especially since he knows how much Felicia wanted to protect her kids, especially since he's been around her kids. The bridge made him realize that there's nothing more important than the community they have. Without the ones they love, they are nothing. So Vander gave up the cause to look after everyone else. Which is probably why he felt the need to kill Silco when Silco insisted on pursuing the Nation of Zaun even after Felicia died due to their failure. They already lost their best friend, and for what? For a dream that didn't and can't work? But Silco would be DAMNED if he gave up on the very thing Felicia believed in, her death would not be in vain.

And so they betrayed each other. And their makeshift family was broken.