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Silco out here hitting pose 28 so that we all know what a fashionista he is

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To be clear, I don’t hate the direction Caitlyn’s arc took — rather I hate how it was handled.

Her falling back on her privilege in a state of grief and anger makes sense, and creates a genuinely interesting route for her, which they could have addressed in multiple ways and stuck to the theme of oppression and how Piltover was so quick to switch up at the actions of one Zaunite. I think perhaps it would have worked better initially if Vi’s arc to becoming an enforcer was a season long conflict for her, but other than that, I have no qualms with how Cait’s arc started. The issues begin the further her arc goes along, and it becomes clear, at least to me, that they don’t actually know how to balance making Cait sympathetic/nuanced in her grief, while also still giving her genuine consequences for what she does to Zaun, and the contrast between years of death and hatred causing Zaun to start lashing out at Piltover, vs Caitlyn losing her mother and immediately lashing out against all of Zaun. This isn’t to say her grief is invalid, rather she is hurting and poisoning people over it, whether they be innocent in her eyes or not.

I’ve seen some people say it isn’t that bad because she only targeted gangs or Jinx — her main target — but the fact is gas cannot be controlled like that. It spreads. This is likely the same sort of gas that poisoned Viktor. We know what it does. And hell, the gangs are a product of the system and Piltover’s oppression and ignorance of Zaun, something Arcane acknowledged in season one, and then barely paid mind to in season two.

The fact is, Cait is a privileged cop who causes a rise in violence against Zaunites, and this is only briefly acknowledged in act 3 before we move onto other things. Vi’s confrontation towards her doesn’t feel like a consequence either, because it barely lasts, and Cait’s choices barely have an impact on the story, because even though she and the enforcers plagued Zaun for the first two acts, they still end up joining forces with Piltover, and it feels forced.

Cait simply doesn’t work in season 2, because for her to work, they would have to actively acknowledge the class divide and treatment of those in the Undercity, and season 2 refuses to properly do that, thereby painting Cait in a better light than she should be painted.

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the fact that one currently allyless zaunite, who has proven time and time again that she does genuinely have the cause and zaun’s best interests at heart, and is excellent at executing orders and getting things done, but isn’t really cut out for or interested in leading or politicking, being given one seat on a council that:

- is personally and politically biased against her and her entire city

- makes decisions via majority vote

- requires at least two councilors to support a motion before it can even be put to the vote

is the only progress zaun makes after two seasons, and it’s actually presented in a hopeful light, and not for the tragedy it is, is a disgrace.

also, how exactly is sevika the de facto head of zaun, as they seemed to imply? last season showed zaun being loosely run by an oligarchy similar to piltover’s council. how has sevika managed to take silco’s seat? did she continue shimmer production and inherit his manpower and assets? if not, how is she in this leadership position?

have the chembarons completely dissolved and left zaun without any sort of governmental body, with sevika as their one representative in piltover’s government? if so, how did that happen with no resistance from interested parties in zaun looking to fill the power vacuum, and wouldn’t handing the reins to the council be a backstep so massive that zaun would be left in an even worse place than they were before all this happened?

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I literally wouldn’t have cared if they decided to pull a Cyberpunk Edgerunners and kill off our entire main cast save for one or two characters and let the bad guys(the establishment) win. Tragedy isn’t the problem. The problem is the way they went about it. The show had so many plot threads to tie up, there was never any time to truly reckon with all the tragedies that were occurring.

Ekko losing his tree because of Arcane poisoning would be tragic. Notice I said “would be” because that plot line is literally never addressed again. It gets brought up, and then forgotten about. Vi being hit by her girlfriend after she makes the decision to put on the uniform of her oppressors and contribute to oppressing her own people in pursuit of a little sister who she can’t accept has changed is tragic on multiple levels! That’s some compelling shit! But the show never meaningfully addresses these issues or lets Vi react to them without throwing her into a new situation where she has to fight and lose something again. All Vi has ever done her entire life is try and fail to protect her loved ones. She gets punished for trying. It’s almost like the universe itself is out to get her! But we never see Vi break down and pick herself back up. We never see her make any choices to do what’s best for her. The plot decided for her and that’s the problem!

Vi and Jinx deciding to go their separate ways after all that they’ve been through would’ve been tragic. These two sister who love each other more than anything having to break apart for who knows how long and holding onto the hope that maybe they can reunite and be sisters again is gut wrenching…or at least it WOULD be if they actually decided to separate! Vi didn’t decide to leave her sister, Jinx didn’t decide to leave Vi, the narrative forced them apart! The narrative keeps ripping them away from each other and it’s starting to feel intentional. Trying to tell the audience that the only way Vi can truly be happy and choose herself is by having her baby sister die and being forced to live with her girlfriend in a city that will be extremely discriminatory towards her is not it. I’m not saying that Vi and Jinx have to ride off into the sunset together. But I am saying that if going their separate ways really was for the best, the show wouldn’t spend so much time trying to convince us of that. It would just happen organically. Which, to me, it didn’t

Jinx losing Isha was yet another tragedy! But the show doesn’t really show Jinx grieving and then deciding to fight for what she believes in after Ekko convinces her to try. She tried to kill herself five times. FIVE TIMES!!! How on Earth did she go from that to a badass piloting an airship, dripped out with her new outfit and steeled sense of resolve? We don’t know because it happened offscreen! I understand the show had time constraints, but come on. This plot line deserved more time to shine. Sevika being on the Council is a tragedy. It’s an empty gesture for one, and majority rules for two. That means Sevika will be forced to try to barter for Zaun’s freedom while being surrounded by a bunch of classist Piltie pricks who despise her and everything she stands for. She will be talked over and talked down to. That’s not a happy ending! But the show frames it like it is! And I’m sorry but if you can’t watch interviews of the writers saying their thoughts on the show and you genuinely believe that they have the range to write Sevika being on the Council as thoughtful commentary? No comment😭😭😭

Caitlyn’s corruption arc is yet another tragedy! Both because of what happened to her AND the fact that the arc wasn’t done! Caitlyn’s arc was supposed to show how no matter how “good” and “kind” a privileged person believes them self to be, their unconscious bias and prejudice against the out group will rear its ugly head the second they experience a fraction of what the marginalized group has been experiencing for centuries. It was so easy for Caitlyn to say “I understand now. How easy it is to hate them.” “Those animals!” “I thought you were different, but you’re not. It’s her blood in your veins!” How easy it was for her to weaponize The Gray. How easy it was for her to work with Ambessa and co sign martial law despite knowing better. How easy it was for her to risk killing a child just to get to Jinx. That’s super compelling! But the problem is we never see Caitlyn wrestle with her decisions. Guilt should be eating her ALIVE and all we get is a complete 180 from her after a time skip! Then she does nothing to redeem herself! And once again, no the writers absolutely did not intend that to be commentary on how the privileged are able to get away with things the lower class would be imprisoned/killed for. If they did then Caitlyn could’ve had a confrontation with someone from Zaun, whether that be Sevika, Ekko, Jinx, Vi or someone else, where they call her out on her hypocrisy. Then we would see her wrestle with that and realize the monster that she’s become.

Unfortunately, all these tragedies are not given the proper narrative weight they deserve. Or they’re not treated as tragedies when they so clearly are! THAT’S the problem! It’s not tragedy, it’s the framing! And it’s the way y’all are so condescending whenever someone criticizes the show. Why is every single critique met with “You didn’t watch/understand the show”? Why is it always “What were you expecting?” “You’re just mad it didn’t go your way.” “You’re just a hater.” “You have no idea how hard writing a script is.” “They planned the story from the beginning, this is how it was supposed to be.” And on and on and on. It’s exhausting! Why is it so hard for y’all to understand that it is possible to understand and have love for something but still have gripes with it? It doesn’t mean I love the show any less! It just means I’d love it even more if not for these certain aspects of it. That’s it, that’s all🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️

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The more I think on it, Arcane season two fundamentally doesn’t work as a story for Zaun or Piltover because it misses the entire point of the two cities: in a world of magic, they are cities of invention and science.

Visually, they’re based on Steampunk and Cyberpunk, which works for what both cities represent. Steampunk is associated with the Industrial Revolution, particularly in the Victorian era, and is thereby representative of invention and bringing humanity forward into an era of new technology, fitting for the City of progress. Meanwhile, Cyberpunk is associated with a society oppressed by technology, and often the rebellion against that society, or how the people suffer under it.

To Zaun and Piltover, magic becomes science, notably in the form of Hextech. It blurs the lines between the two, and truly does encapsulate the phrase ‘magic is just science we don’t understand yet’.

A lot of Piltover and Zaun’s champions are designed around this idea, and it’s what creates the unique appearance of the region.

This focus on technology and how discovery impacts the people also worked in season one’s favour, as it felt more down to earth almost, despite the fantastical world, and allowed us to explore the society over the fantasy, which worked for the story Arcane told.

Season two flipping this on its head, and making the science into magic, erased the identity of Piltover and Zaun and what made the lore and the characters unique from the rest of Runeterra in the first place. It makes the world feel smaller in the process as well.

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fuck arcanes animation is so pretty I'm actually so ***** *** ******

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I don't like how season two constantly adds new things to the plot so that old conflicts can be resolved in a pacifist way. Piltover and Zaun is a conflict established in the first minutes of arcane and yet season 2 introduced Noxus so that the cities could resolve without actually resolving. Season two introduces Warwick so that the sisters can resolve their conflict without actually resolving their conflict. S2 also introduces Warwick that way Jinx doesn't have to deal with her internal conflict about Silco. Season 2 introduces parallel universes so Ekko can resolve his conflict with Jinx without actually solving his conflict with Jinx. Like c'mon this is bullshit.

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This is a slow fandom zone

None of that "Oh no they bomb-dropped all the episodes in a week 1 month ago, I'm late!" "The tag hasn't been active all week is the fandom dead?" "I only got a hundred shares the first hour no one cares about my art"

Slow down

Take a deep breath and slow down

Fandom is YOU. And me and everyone. If we doodle stick figures for a show that ended 30 years ago we aren't "late" or "doing too little", we're playing dolls in our own time and having fun with works of art that mean a lot to us

You can literally watch and engage with something that aired in 2004 as if it aired yesterday

If the tag hasn't been active for 14 months guess what? If YOU post there, it isn't dead. Literally you can talk about anything you want whenever you want there is no weird law against watching things that people aren't actively talk about

Let's be deranged about stories together

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I love the little detail of Jinx scrunching up her nose when upset only on one side of her face and how she clearly got it from Silco.

Cos Silco's likely only emoting like that cos half of his face is paralyzed and so when he does it it looks natural, he just can't move that part of his face and it's likely that without the scar Silco would be emoting with his whole face.

However when Jinx does it it looks a little awkward. She has to keep half of her face relaxed meanwhile emote with the other half. So not only did she pick up this face expression from him but also the quirk of only doing it with one side of her face even tho for her it makes no sense. And not only does she mimic his face expression but she also acts a little like a literal mirror, with Silco emoting with the right side of his face and Jinx emoting with her left side.

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Whenever say Caitlyn didn’t apologise or was held accountable to her actions everyone goes nuts and says

ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS , she apologised by letting Vi fee Jinx ,,,, etc

ITS SHOW NOT TELL !!

Some things need to be both SHOWN and TOLD , some things need to be done both by ACTIONS and WORDS , these things are APOLOGIES AND LOVE CONFESSIONS … also others

Let me give an example, parents can show their children love yet the child still needs to hear the world I love you, it’s different.

Someone can help me do something as an apology but I still want to hear them say that they were wrong and they’re sorry and won’t do it again , so we can communicate and move forward.

Yet none of this happens in the show , Cait helps Vi and suddenly everything is okay between them like no there needs to be communication , there should be anger , resentment, betrayal , tension.

The problem in the Show that the Characters DON’T COMMUNICATE AT ALL , there isn’t a single long conversation between them.

Vi and Jinx don’t have a full conversation about their relationship to reconcile fully and understand each other and what happened.

Vi and Caitlyn don’t talk to know the status of their relationship and build the trust again after what happened in Act 1.

Ekko and jinx talk OFF-SCREEN to stop her suicidal intentions and fight in the war

The firelights don’t talk about or to Ekko and how they are now friends with their enemies ( Sevika and jinx )

That’s my biggest problem , the characters don’t talk to each other.

Thus none of the conflicts presented in Season 1 are solved in season 2 ( something I might make a separate post about)

EDIT: they could have shown more , they could show Caitlyn remembering Vi and regretting her actions towards her , show her remorseful for the pain she caused Vi , someone who hasn’t hurt Caitlyn in any way .

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happy birthday vi beloved

just a quick thing for this special day :)

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I'm sick *cough cough*

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ARCANE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS: 2x08 - “Killing is a Cycle”

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Zzzz

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Screencap sketch of a scene.. yah

I can't stop drawing her

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tlou au that i cannot stop thinking about (and when i drew it i realise everyone and their mother has drawn it)