#who needs to tell jinx piltover's the problem that's all anyone says in zaun if you're not a chembaron

[mollysunder]

I think that Sevika's speech in the new teaser was spliced. She's not talking to Jinx in the first half. I'm pretty sure Sevika's addressing the chembarons.

Before we cut to Sevika we get a shot of the chembarons' tower. Then we see Sevika stand alone under the spotlight, like she's trying to plead her case. And really, I don't think Sevika needs to give Jinx this particular speech, the chembarons are the ones who need to hear it.

From the few scenes we get of the chembarons, we know they're more occupied with profit than they are with Zaun's independence. Now that Silco's dead, they're divided on what happens next.

Renni's clearly going after Jayce to avenge the son he killed, hence the chemtanks attacking Piltover. Meanwhile Smeech seems willing to turn on Jinx and hand her over to Piltover all the while trying to meet with other chembarons like Margot to get them on his side. It's a mess.

For Sevika, the chembarons are the biggest potential impediment to Zaun's freedom not Jinx because they WILL undermine it for their own profit. I can even see how the line, "You're a symbol", wouldn't be necessarily be directed at Jinx. That line could have come from a flashback with Vander, where she tells him what his defeatism says to the rest of Zaun. She could even be talking to Vi about what she looks like as an enforcer a out what this says about Piltover.

[jazuthevulcanprincess]

Silco thought he could do literally anything to achieve power, and use that power to make Zaun a sovereign nation. But, the moment Jinx tackled him in a hug and basically asked him to care for her, he lost.

We see him look shocked, and then look up at Vander. Likely, he was empathizing with Powder saying "she is not my sister" and applying it to Vander's betrayal and his own feelings about him after. He chose to accept this child who was like him and decided to give her what he had needed when he was in her shoes. "We will show them all" being his promise; that they both will abandon fear and become strong enough to achieve their dreams.

We see it in Jinx's eye when she looks up from his arm, determination to prove that she is better than Milo said, that she can be strong, she wants to be useful and "ready" so no one will leave her behind like Vi did.

Yet, she also has the weight of her entire murdered family. She internalized from Vi's words and abandonment that she truly is a jinx, and therefore she must be bad. Which I think is why she allies with Silco and his gang, because she basically already worked for him by killing Milo and Claggor, and preventing Vander's successful escape. They all would have left and been fine had she not interfered and she knows that. Just like she never forgot what Silco had done. But, they were the same and she chose him as a father figure.

We don't see Silco be physically affectionate or let his guard down with anyone but Jinx later on, which makes me believe more that him allowing Powder to hug him and holding her isn't normal for him. He could have killed her instead like he planned.

Instead, he fully brings her into his confidence and makes her his family, a daughter to replace the brother he lost perhaps. Every human being needs companionship and Silco is not different just because he does horrible shit. He's human and has human psychology. Them showing Silco has Jinx help *stab him in the eye* regularly shows that she is uniquely close, no one did that before, and he has a hard time without her help.

When Jinx is triggered by her experiment with the hex gemstone, where does she go? To Silco's office. He tells her he can't trust anyone else with building the weapon that will win the war and make their future better. She is his #1, Sevika his #2 as the brothel madam says to Vi. But, she is special.

When Sevika fails, she gets a professional reprimand, and when Jinx hits Piltover he confronts her like an enraged parent. He doesn't hit her like you would expect from someone so regularly violent. And she doesn't seem bothered at all. I think she doesn't regularly get consequences, citing Sevika, Finn, and Rennie's criticism of Silco and how he can't control Jinx, and how that has made him weak and unfit to lead.

Sevika says she is bad for their cause and she is right. Silco ignores or shuts down these criticisms and its unusual because he's is a cutthroat man with a one track mind: to defeat Piltover.

If he was using Jinx for that end, manipulating her as is so often said, he isn't doing a good job. If he was using her and shaping her, she would be his ace, the linchpin in his plan to rule Zaun. She would be his perfect soldier.

But she isn't. She's a liability. All we see is him encourage her, remind her that Vi is gone and can no longer control her or hurt her, he is there to help her, and he thinks she's perfect. That's a father.

Granted, he isn't well versed in mental health so his solution to Jinx's triggers is to give her a baptism so "fear of pain" won't control her; that was his solution so he think it will work for her..

He doesn't know what we know, that PTSD can't be solved by a dip in polluted waters. It's all he can do, however. And protecting Jinx from further trauma by eliminating her sister before she finds out she's back isn't something any of us would do, but it makes sense for his character. He kills problems. He's not gonna set up family counseling for them.

He believes Vi can only hurt Jinx, like Vander hurt him, and Jinx is currently unstable so she can't handle the stress of it. It's not healthy, but that's Zaun.

He also raised her and encouraged her "gadgetry", pushes her to relax with her hobbies and take some time when stressed. He raised her to be strong and raised her to survive in Zaun, so explosives and guns are part of that. She was working on them with Vander and Vi too, and Milo thought she should brawl with them.

The only extra violence he allows Jinx is the same coping mechanism he has of brutalizing people to feel good. If he does it, you expect him to teach her differently? Which is why he isn't an ideal father figure. But, he is the best father he knew how to be.

This is shown to us in the little details of the mug and ashtray we see that Jinx made for him, being on display at all times. He is saying he is proud of her. Even though it doesn't fit his kingpin persona. It's shown in how Jinx goes to him for support, how she wants to make him proud, and how she challenges him like when she mocks his drowning story and his "rants and hard earned lessons". Jinx is comfortable and safe with him, and has agency in their relationship. She disobeys when she deems necessary, like children do.

When we see Silco find Jinx on the bridge, he is stunned and horrified by her injury. When he sees the gemstone in her hand, he has a peculiar blank expression I didn't know how to read at first. But, I think it is the beginning of his realization that he can't sacrifice her for the cause. He thought he could lose /anything/ for power. But, he sees the gemstone, and at the same time the voice over has Cait saying "so it was all for nothing" and I think that's on purpose. If he gains the gemstone at the price of his daughter's life, well its worth nothing to him. And I think that feeling does scare him.

Singed later asks if he is willing to lose her and he can't answer, just says with determination that she can't die, like he won't let her by sheer force of will. Him giving her a forehead kiss, and only on the strap no less, his supposed to show he cares for her, even when he has nothing to gain but her life. Singed sees his love and has to sedate him because he understands.

Silcos character arc wraps up in the dinner scene where he reassures her that she is his daughter and he could never forsake her, which he knows to be true now that he couldn't give her up for Zaun. He isn't mad he's tied up, and he isn't angry when she shoots him. His last words are an affirmation of love, and a plea to be strong.

His character arc culminates in him thinking about protecting someone more than accomplishing his dream. Which is what he hated Vander for. He was undone by having a daughter, like Vander was. He dies a father doing what was best for his daughter. Like Vander did. He finally understands why Vander did what he did, and that family, that Jinx, is worth more than anything.

[shangyang]

alright, i'm around halfway through arcane, so here are some of my thoughts on silco. warning for spoilers, but they're vague enough that if you don't really care about spoilers, then you can keep reading and still enjoy arcane's plot' twists and turns when you do watch it.

so, out of all the things that i was expecting to fall in love with in 2021, i don't really think it'll surprise anyone when i say that a fucking league of legend's tv show wasn't one of them. and, i have to say, ignoring the cute lesbians and morally gay - and gray - scientist boyfriends in favor of a slightly fucked up father-and-adopted-daughter relationship also wasn't what i was expecting either.

so, uh, silco. jinx and silco. i've see plenty of conflicting opinions on silco and jinx's relationship, and plenty more on the chem baron himself, but i just gotta say that trying to definitively pin down a character as morally gray as silco was always going to be extremely difficult, when you're just trying to work between binary good and bad.

he's an antagonist in the show. absolutely. he orchestrates inhumane experiments, is one of the leading forces behind the creation and spread of shimmer, which becomes not only a huge problem in arcane's narrative, but also to the larger world of runeterra, and has a very clear vendetta against piltover, which has everything to do with the shining city of progress's disdain and oppression of the citizens of the undercity - now known as the nation of zaun. he aims to destroy piltover, regardless of whatever innocents might live in that nation, and he doesn't really give a rat's ass about who he needs to step over, and step on to reach that goal.

he's also, like, not really a horrible dad. gotta say it. and i know this is a divisive opinion to have, and a lot of people don't really see his relationship with jinx as genuinely paternal, but rather as silco using her for his own ambitions, while jinx desperately clings onto the one person she feels will stay with her and understand her, but i see that interpretation of their relationship and raise you this --

why can't it be both??

look. it's not the healthiest of parent-child relationships, and i'm going to be perfectly honest, i've personally got a pretty fucked up relationship with my dad, which informs my opinions on father-daughter relationships, as usual, but like, silco genuinely seems to care for jinx. when he first finds her, as powder, crying out for vi to come back, he's dead set on killing her. we can see it in his eyes. he has a knife, he has his goons, and this little girl is responsible for killing a lot of silco's men, and messing up what i'm sure would've been a very thorough, but ultimately unsatisfying, personal revenge mission. but instead, he sees himself in her - and side note, i absolutely adore the parallel the writers set up here, with vi as vander, and powder as silco, seemingly doomed to repeat both men's mistakes again - and decides to take her in. he hugs her. holds her close to him, and lets her grieve. it's a poignant moment, and i think, one that speaks a lot to silco and jinx's relationship then and onwards.

so, i don't think it's fair to say that silco either loved jinx, or he was just using her, with no space for that murky in-between. it also feels like a disservice to the show's complex morality when we try to take the easy way out and define every character by binary good and evil. because, really, there aren't any definitively good characters. not even caitlyn, though it's really easy to claim that she is. silco repeatedly tells jinx that she's perfect, that he doesn't want her to change. she's enough for him as she is - and it's jinx's past, and her still rampant insecurities, that lead her extremes in order to, in her mind, keep silco's affection.

i mean, he literally brings her back to life. regardless of cost, political ambition, or any greater goal, when jinx is caught in the crossfire and dies, silco goes to monstrous extremes to bring jinx back to life - not out of some callous need to preserve one of his strongest weapons; because notably, jinx really isn't that good a soldier due to her deteriorating mental stability, and we can tell by the frequent complaints silco seems to get from his henchmen about her, so if he really only saw her as a tool, he'd of just let her die.

and i mean, he does die. for jinx. silco gives up all his political ambitions for zaun's independence from piltover, and doesn't turn jinx in. instead, he protects her until his last breath, and tells her, as he dies, that she was perfect. that he loved her. that he never would've given her up. not for anything, or anyone.

so i mean, yeah. maybe silco isn't a stellar dad. but i think he was a good one, for jinx. he loved her, genuinely, and cared for her too. and i think that matters just as much as how he used her.