#we thought the arcane was corrupting him but no that's literally just viktors love for him and jayce devotion for him right back. crazy

[p4nishers]

the thing that has always symbolized viktor's love for him literally being burned into jayce's SKIN after he learns he's the only one able to save viktor in all timelines oh im SICK

[avelera]

Analysis: Why Jayce broke up with Mel in Arcane 2.08

Since the finale episodes of Arcane dropped this morning, I've been going back and re-watching some of my favorite scenes, and I was struck by Jayce breaking up with Mel.

First of all, yeah, he clearly does break up with her, though I missed how formally he does so on my first watch-through. He does it in the Council chamber, just before Viktor attacks. But since they get interrupted, he finishes breaking up with her (after checking in with her) on the balcony later.

But what really struck me about the breakup wasn't in those scenes, but actually back in 2.07, when Jayce is alone in cavern in the darkest timeline. I definitely didn't catch on the first viewing that this is where he chose to break up with her.

In the background, you can hear Jayce in the depths of his despair and solitude starts going over in his mind all the steps that led him to where he is.

Here are some of the quotes he hears:

"I never asked for this!" - Himself to Viktor, trying to justify his actions up to that point just before Viktor leaves him.

"This research is everything, my whole life," a quote from one of his first conversations with Viktor but, more importantly, it establishes Jayce's entire raison d'etre up to that point. Hextech research was his life.

"He was my mentor, Mel, and I betrayed him," obviously is Jayce discussing the coup d'etat against Heimerdinger he orchestrated to save Viktor, but it was with Mel's assistance and urging.

"You must destroy it. It corrupts. Consumes." A quote from Heimerdinger, warning against Hextech. Which must feel especially prescient now that Jayce is stuff in the evil bombed-out future where Hextech destroyed the world.

"I was trying to create magic." Jayce to the Council to defend his Hextech research and save himself from banishment, but, he only mentioned magic at Mel's goading, which I would guess he's beginning to recognize now for what it was in retrospect.

"It's your time now, Jayce." Mel, part of her goading of Jayce into advancing Hextech research and his political career.

"Perhaps it's time for the era of magic." Mel's words on the night she saw Hextech for the first time, after helping Jayce and Viktor break into Heimerdinger's lab.

"You must destroy it." Heimerdinger about the Hexcore, again, probably feeling pretty prescient right now with Jayce literally in the pit of despair in a the evil Hextech future.

Finally, while looking out over the fire while clearly going nearly insane from the isolation, Jayce begins to hallucinate seeing Mel. But then, her image in the fire gives way to Viktor's.

The decision has been made there. It's not just Jayce reflecting on his two closest loved ones (as I thought the first time), rather, it is the moment Jayce makes his decision: he is picking Viktor over Mel. He has decided that the reason he is here in this terrible place is because of Mel, not Viktor. He is choosing his partner, going back to what they had before she became involved in their life. His new course is set.

Now, I want to preface the next part by saying I love Mel, she's a fascinating character, and though I ship Jayvik I also ship/shipped MelJayVik, so this isn't coming from a place of bias. I'm just analyzing the material when I say these flashbacks were Jayce rearranging the narrative in his head and realizing Mel's been manipulating and goading him in his pursuit of Hextech.

Given where he is when this is happening: starving, freezing, in pain, alone for weeks if not months in a stone box, slowly going insane, surrounded by the burnt corpses of people destroyed by Hextech, I'd say... yeah. His need for someone to blame is pretty understandable. He even starts whispering, "No!" in a panic at the memories in response to what she says in his mind.

So when we get to the Council chamber in the main timeline in 2.08, I'd argue that Jayce is spoiling for a fight. He's had months of agony to decide things are over with Mel and that he's angry at her. He wants to blame her for what happened to Viktor, for what happened to him, and he's in pain and he wants to lash out. The relationship is definitely over.

But then Mel is in pain too. And Viktor shows up, with his own autonomy, showing that they all had their shitty parts to play in this drama.

The attack by Viktor adds another element, Jayce was probably also mourning that he had to shoot Viktor at that point, another thing that was painful and made him want to lash out and blame others for this horrible place he's in emotionally and the horrific place he's been in physically until recently.

It's only after Viktor's attack though that Jayce realizes that this situation is complex, it's not all Mel's fault. It would be easier to just pin all the blame on Mel and make Jayce and Viktor her victims, but Viktor shows to him that he has his own agency and Jayce needs to be clear-eyed going forward about who he is saving, because it's not "Mel's victim". Viktor is his own person.

Jayce also remembers some of the care he once had for Mel when he catches her before she falls (in a tender moment I mistook for a full reconciliation between them the first time but no, it's just him remembering he cares for her wellbeing). Jayce can't trust her anymore, after realizing just how adept she was at manipulating him without his realizing, but he does still care for her as a person. And he's cooled off enough to address the pain she is clearly carrying.

(I admit, I do love this moment of him calling himself an ass, because I adore Jayce but it's a lovely beat of self awareness and really shows his growth as a person that he can say this to someone that just hours before he was squaring up to fight against and blame for all his misfortunes.)

But anyway, the moments you really see that it's over between Mel and Jayce:

When he doesn't explain to her what happened to him. That's not for her to know anymore. He's decided that they're not together or intimate anymore. And he's probably still hurting from realizing how she's used what he told her in the past to encourage/manipulate him to her own ends and therefore wary of sharing. This is also a reason for the breakup: he can't share the immense pain he's been in because he can't trust her anymore, and he knows it. It's over.

In the scene on the balcony when he turns away from her instead of towards her before offering his advice. Jayce is very touchy-feely, he always offers physical comfort to his loved ones. But there, he deliberately turns away instead of taking her in his arms and comforting her. Again: it's over between them. But he still respects her. So he reminds her of how indomitable she is, along with offering the slight backhanded compliment born of his distrust for her: she's never the passenger, she is always the one in control. He knows, because he's realized she used to control him.

I've mentioned in other meta that this season deals in a lot of comeuppance for events in S1, and this is arguably Mel's. She'll be ok, she's got magical sun powers and she's the head of a powerful house now. But she doesn't get to keep Jayce in her life as her lover anymore after what she did, because she did manipulate him, even if she had good intentions mixed with the self-interested ones.

The trust is simply gone now. But he cares for her and wishes her well, so, I'd argue they parted on as good of terms as could be done.

[m0ssxz0mbie]

I've had the realisation that Jayvik and Merthur are Literally The Same Ship. Just in different fonts.

THE PARALLELS!! THE SIMILARITIES!! I KNEW when i was reading Jayvik fanfics that something was familiar. i'm like a crazy conspiracy theorist.

Minor disclaimer, tho Merlin is one of my favourite shows, I have not watched it in a while. I also binged Arcane a month ago, but those who know me irl (if ur reading this, hello bbygurl), know that the way I watch shows and movies is cursed. SO-- if things do not seem to be the most accurate to canon, fanfic is MY canon. also,, SPOILERS AHEAD FOR MERLIN BBC AND ARCANE.

_____________________

ARTHUR // JAYCE

- Both come from the upper class of the society within said media. Arthur is the literal prince (later king), and Jayce is sponsored by a well-standing family (and later becomes the founder of Hextech + a councillor)

- Wants to improve the lives of all people regardless of status, class, or ability. Arthur, tho wary of magic, wanted to protect druids, which he acknowledged were peaceful and not corrupt. Everyone portrays him to also care for peasants and people with lesser status when he is king. You really see this in canon with Merlin, Gwen, Knights of The Round Table, etc. Jayce wants to use Hextech to improve the lives of those in Piltover and Zaun via the use of magic.

- Experiences expectations of others within society which make them do bad things. When Arthur is the prince, you see many instances where he wants to do the reasonable, morally correct thing (for the situation in this POV), and he cannot because of Uther's demands and expectations for him. Jayce has expectations placed upon him by the council to use Hextech for their own gain rather than what he and Viktor wanted to use it for.

- HIMBO. What more needs to be said? NONE. BUT I DON'T CARE, I'll say it anyway. Arthur is literally a himbo knight who swings big sword. Jayce is a himbo engineer who swings big hammer. Both rush into danger and never listen when their sassy twink says something has bad vibes (literally any cursed magical place for Merlin, and the Hexcore for Viktor).

- Both are absolutely OBSESSED, WHIPPED and SMITTEN for their twink. Again, this doesn't need explaining, but I will. Arthur, which is established well into the first episodes of Merlin, has scared off every manservant before Merlin. All the servants were probably good at their job. Yet mans keeps Merlin for 10 YEARS. Merlin calls him thick all the time (both in the physical and mental sense) and sasses him ALL the time. Merlin gets away with so much, not only from Arthur but Uther too??? Uther for sure knows Arthur is ATTACHED. In the first year of knowing Merlin, Arthur literally tries to sacrifice his life for Merlin (Merlin does the same). Jayce did originally wanna help improve the lives of people with magic, but I don't think he even thought about the people of Zaun until Viktor mentioned it. Mans instantly agreed and INSTANTLY called it "their Hextech dream" VIKTORS has BEEN HERE FOR FIVE MINUTES. Jayce moves FAST.

- Both date an independent woman while desperately longing for their twink. We love Gwen here, she is the best. Best Queen, the best person, just The Best. Mel is a complicated character, who is badass in the ending, no denying that, just very stinky she manipulated Jayce for her own gain. Both were badass women who I think needed more screen time cause, at times, they were very much pushed to the side. Both Arthur and Jayce are such pathetic simps, longing for their men, and tbh, both Gwen and Mel knew, there was no hiding it. Especially cause in Merlin BBC, most characters have a crush on Merlin at some point in their life while knowing him.

_____________________

MERLIN // VIKTOR

- Both come from the lower class of society, which faces the brutality of those in power. Merlin is a peasant, and does get mistreated because of it, usually from other knights or nobles coming from out of Camelot. HOWEVER, mans main worry is the fact he has magic, literally is magic itself, and lives in a place where it is ILLEGAL. But he also experiences brutality by being Arthur's servant, and someone doing the Knights job better and stopping anyone from killing Arthur. Viktor comes from Zaun, which is the lower class of the society in Arcane, most of its problems are directly caused by the fact they are oppressed. Viktor not only receives discrimination because he is from Zaun but also because he is disabled.

- Both have an older mentor who provides them a home and sanctuary. Merlin has Gaius, his Uncle, the court physician, who lets him become an apprentice, teaches him more magic, and provides a home when he becomes more unsafe. Thinking about it, being in a kingdom where they kill you for having magic is probably better than being enslaved to be in an army and to use your magic as a weapon. Viktor has Heimerdinger, who is his mentor, to which Viktor is his assistant. Viktor gets provided accommodations in Piltover, presumably at the academy they are at, and is able to use his talents, especially when Jayce enters the picture.

- Both are sassy as FUCK. Merlin is the sassiest with Arthur, always teasing him, calling him a cabbagehead or a clotpole, the banter is STRONG with Merthur (i LOVE banter). Viktor is also super sassy as well, especially to those who don't appreciate him, or his and Jayce's work.

- They both would do ANYTHING for the future they have envisioned (with their bfs). Merlin would literally do anything to keep Arthur alive, even listening to THAT BASTARD KILGHARRAH, FUCK THAT DRAGON. Mans contemplated killing a child, you could even say he has betrayed his own kind in many ways. Merlin loses himself to make sure Arthur is safe, he is SO ready to die for him, to be nothing more than a servant forever, just so he could be by his side. Viktor removes free will from people so that he can create the most peaceful world, mans really just wanted a world where he could have Jayce, as it was the conflict between Piltover and Zaun that made they split apart.

- They both are Gods. This kinda ties into the last point. But Merlin IS MAGIC. He is the physical embodiment of magic. His druid name means immortal. The druids treat him as a leader, a god. Viktor becomes Jesus and performs miracles for people to better their lives, he becomes the physical host for the Hexcore.

_____________________

BOTH

- Both ships are doomed yaoi. again, what more do I need to say? Merlin has waited 1,500 years for his man to come back to him, and Jayvik is,, in the astral plane??? dead??? Hence why fanfics exists, both ships need their happy ending, fix-it fanfics.

_____________________

The parallels not only between the characters themselves and how certain people portray their character in fanfics are insane. Especially the way Arthur and Jayce simp for Merlin and Viktor.

NOW, after reading all that, you may have noticed the colour of the names, and yes, BOTH JAYVIK AND MERTHUR ARE A RED/BLUE SHIP. Which solidifies my points even more.

(I have seen Jayvik x Be More Chill fanart, I've seen Jayvik x Star Trek fanart,, has anyone considered jayvik x merlin bbc fanart???? 👀👀👀👀)

[tuliptiger]

Bro I hate Silco so much. Bro. And don't get it twisted right. He's a good character, he's well written or in THE VERY LEAST incredibly interesting and compelling. To me I guess. I still can't stand him, I hate him and I think he embodies every human flaw a person can have. And every bad decision we make at our lowest points.

And for that I can't stand him in the purest way and I think that's kind of awesome. Get him out of my face though lol fuck that guy. Great presentation of what I feel a lot of people in the world are like or have the potential to be like rn.

For what he was meant to be, having just found out the original plan for him which I really shouldn't consider. Or maybe I should in favor of him, as a little grace for him. I guess Jinx and him were supposed to be like romantic. If that's your thing go for it I guess but I'm not going to talk nicely about it and it disgusts me as a heads up. Fair warning.

I'm forever grateful they didn't pull a Joker/Harley Quinn but because jesus christ I think I actually would've hated Arcane for that. For all you people complaining about Arcane, sure that's your right and it's all personal tastes anyway but it could've been actually, sincerely awful. It would've ruined Jinx as a character and undercut all of her nuance, her autonomy as a real, deeply thought out character. Her struggles, her mental health, her trauma, it would've fucking sucked.

I hate Silco for even the possibility of that and unfortunately i think it explains a little bit about some things. But anyway, back to hating Silco.

1.) He betrayed every single thing he's ever cared about in his life. He betrayed Felicia by trying to and knowingly kill her children. He betrayed the promise he made to not JUST Vander but to Felicia and himself.

Because what? Vander betrayed him first? Because he tried to kill him? Because he probably does feel genuine regret about maybe enacting the event that got Felicia killed? We never get the story but I think it's implied. Either that or Vander really was just deep in grief and rage and put that on Silco. I think they both fucked up for the record but Vander didn't CONTINUE that for the rest of his life.

What did any of that have to do with Vi and Powder/Jinx though? He's the reason everything bad happened, maybe you could blame Viktor since he went back to give Jayce the rune but every bad moment after that is almost exclusively Silco.

2.) He bribed Marcus contributing to the corruption in Piltover and Zaun. He fed drugs to Zaun for the point of nothing in my opinion. Because he couldn't come to terms with his grief, he couldn't make Piltover pay the way he wanted them too? He justified his own terrible actions for some idea of an independent Zaun for what? For who? Piltover may have taken from him but he actively chose to burn whatever he had left by trying to kill Powder and Vi.

3.) He's the reason Vi and her crew lost their loot, and their lives NOT Powder. He's the reason or at least the means for Singed to create more fucked up abominations and shimmer.

4.) He IS A HUGE SOFTIE he's soft as fuck. He loves and he loves deeply but he could never get over himself to do better. And this is possibly the main reason I hate him, he sincerely loved Vander and Jinx and Felicia and Zaun. People get hurt all the time, and it isn't the same as the trauma he faced but I DON'T think a reasonable series of decisions is to betray everything you are and have worked for to fuck over literally everyone around you. He is the scorched earth method, he wanted to hurt everyone and everything for what he felt and experienced. He's so incredibly selfish I cannot stand him.

5. A close contender, maybe even tied because I love Jinx so much. I hate that he is directly related to all of the hurt Vi and Jinx have experienced. I hate, I loath, I detest what he did to Powder and to Jinx. I feel so fed with season 2 episode 7, we DIRECTLY see what happens when Silco doesn't decide every day to hurt the world around him and hurt everyone in it. What happens to Powder without his fucked up influence.

I never thought anyone made Jinx specifically, like there isn't someone to blame because it felt diminishing to Jinx herself. But I'm rethinking it, I would say with certainty Jinx wouldn't have existed without Silco. I don't give him full credit, not in the creation of her and not her herself but the REASON she was reborn into a different person. Powder and Jinx created Jinx, but she created her because she had to, because Silco brought her into a fucked up world where she had to be different to survive.

Silco didn't support her, he enabled her, made her fear the world, fed her insecurities and projected himself into her. And because he does love, he really really did love her I think, that was what she felt she needed as a TWELVE year old girl. She needed a guardian who had her best interest at heart and not just love. Whatever support she had before, he ripped it from her and shredded it, and from that pile of rubble and ash Jinx had to find herself and emerge. But she picked herself up and chiseled herself into who she is in the series not Silco.

She's smart as a whip, she's so incredibly clever. She knew to some extent the reality of what was happening. But reality didn't have any real gravity anymore for her without something to hold her to it. Silco, at any time, could have stopped what he was doing. He could've seen her hurting and said, this isn't it. This isn't worth it. But he didn't, and she didn't need a reason to change because she had someone who fed her love when she had no one. When she thought it was all her fault and where Silco tried to convince her Vander and Vi weren't good people and that they didn't love her, won't love her.

I could go on, I fucking hate Silco. Once again, I think he's the weakest character emotionally and mentally but certainly not writing wise. He's spineless, he can kill sure, but in the main universe he couldn't get over his own feelings of guilt and hurt to do better. Nobody is satisfied with the slow progression of equity, of freedoms and peace. Silco wanted to take it all violently, take it all and take everything around it down with him.

In another universe, he's better. He makes better decisions because a different set of events led to reconciliation between Vander and him. Because Piltover made the first move of peace after Vi had to be sacrificed. Because Marcus saw a dead Zaun child in the arms of her younger sister. Because a lot of things, Silco is a better man and I think he's stronger for it.

The main universe Silco was wrong about everything he did, he made every possible bad decision on purpose over and over and over again.

The fact that I just wrote what feels like an essay on this bastard should at least show how I hate him, in the way I don't like hate hate him. I hate him in the way good art makes you hate it in just the right way. I think he's interesting enough to think about. I don't hate the alt universe Silco, I just hate the main one. He's multifaceted, he's a villain, he just kind of sucks, he moved the story in permanent ways. He forever changed the world by facilitating the events that led to Jinx as a person in Runeterra.

Anyway Yeah I really really hate Silco. Thanks for reading lol If you have some good points or different interpretations of events with Silco I would genuinely love to read them especially if they are different. I'm the first to admit I don't fully understand all the subtleties in Arcane and I love it for that, but I miss things. Changing my view on what actually happened in scenes is one of my favorite things to do right now. I crave the richer and fuller offering of a closely inspected Arcane provides tbh.

[omilkandhoneyteao]

I need to STFU but I literally can’t cause I’m so mad so I’m gonna rant more about Viktor ❤️

Sorry for any typos I’m literally raging typing on my phone 😍

ARCANE SEASON 2 SPOILERS

Viktor is literally SUCH a tragic character and to have him written like that was so ??? His whole life goal was to help others and help himself and he IS (emphasis on IS cause I don’t think Viktor is evil) a good person who was corrupted when he was at his most vulnerable physically and emotionally (literally was born with a disability that he struggled with his whole life, found out he was dying and made terms with the fact that he was going to die young after SO MUCH struggle and to then have that all thrown out the window and him lose the little time he had left because he was going to die in the explosion and to then wake up after having your body changed against your will) and when you’re that vulnerable it’s SO easy to fall in to the wrong things!

Magic isn’t inherently evil as we saw with Mel, it was a CORRUPT MANMADE magic that was causing this!

Like I made this comparison but viktor’s storyline is so similar to Wanda/The Scarlet Witch with the darkhold

Both were at their most vulnerable (Wanda losing all her loved ones plus her kids and finding out she’s essentially some divine magical being and everything I said about Viktor earlier) and were corrupted (Wanda the Darkhold and Viktor the Hexcore) by something that they THOUGHT was helping them with getting their dreams (Wanda thought the darkhold was showing her the only way to get her family back and the hexcore was showing viktor how to heal) and they wanted to fulfill it no matter the cost but when they “woke up” from that corrupted daze they were in, they both sacrificed themselves because they KNEW it was wrong and wanted to make it right!

Viktor’s goal was to just help people and that goal never changed, it was just corrupted by the arcane.

[danidoesathing]

I think the only way Arcane Viktor could become like his counterpart is if he thought Jayce had betrayed him.

In the original League Lore, part of the reason things are so bitter between them is that Giopara didn't do anything when his Viktor was exiled. (My own interpretation of that is that his inaction was more damning than actual condemnation and rejection.) So if something like that had happened, I could absolutely see Arcane Viktor going down a similar route. (Hell, since they're so much closer in Arcane and their bond is so much stronger (to the point of being literal Multiversal Soulmates)... I think it'd break him even more, and push him even further down that path.)

(The sad thing is, I could see S1 Talis being manipulated into making such a decision-like, if he'd been convinced he could give Viktor a lighter sentence (exile instead of Stillwater), if they took advantage of his emotional state after Cassandra's death, or even if he was also paralyzed with indecision and couldn't bring himself to vote... It's not likely, true, but it's also not impossible. It's a painful What Could Have Been.)

All that said, I still think they'd reconcile and make amends much more quickly than their counterparts, due to how much deeper their connection runs. (It's still take a while-but it wouldn't be an entire decade like it was for their League counterparts.)

if jayce betrayed him to the same extent Giopara did i could see him go down a similar path, and even start on the removal of emotions thing. Viktor's machine herald transformation always depends on Jayce's actions (as does the Defender of Tomorrow, but that part comes more in response to the Machine Herald).

the problem is. Talis is a loyal loyal bitch and i dont think he would ever exile viktor unless it was part of a bigger plan. like i get in season one act 2/3 he being kind of an asshole and had the moral backbone of hot pudding but he still very much ready to commit corruption and crimes to protect the people he loves. like when marcus mentioned Caitlyn using his name to get VI out of prison to try and catch her up, and he immediately yeah no i did that. dont even worry about that ill take care of it. or the fact he kicked his mentor off the council just to give Viktor a shot at survival. If viktor got exiled i think talis would at best follow him down and at worst do everything in his power to cause a massive political hellstorm.

and ok sure yeah i could understand the idea that him betraying Viktor with exile if we only had his s1 characterization. but with s2 we get a full scope of how far he'd go to be with Viktor. actual fucking nercomancy. If Talis were more like Giopara or if their bond wasn't nearly as strong as it was in canon, sure. but Talis literally fist fought the narrative and archetype he was assigned to be with Viktor and won.

(I could see ambessa/the council exploiting his anger and guilt, but i dont think even that could be turned effective towards Viktor. the undercity and Jinx? yeah, he could turn into someone like Caitlyn very easily. But even putting aside all the codependency issues, after losing Cassandra and seeing the death and devstation of the war (and then mel's eventual disappearance), i dont think he'd risk losing anyone else, no matter what Viktor did)