Arcane Analysis - Blog Posts

Another reason for Vi to pull out might be the phrase "Everything might have been different" as she doesn't know how to approach Jinx's "what if", because it not only implies that Vander wouldn't have "died". It also implies that Jinx, like seemingly happened in the other universe, she could have had both Vander and Silco.

Jinx being the sister that becomes the symbol is important because she is both Vander's and Silco's daughter, she is the legacy shaped by Vander's heart and Silco's ambition, even if she lacks both of them for several parts in the series. But only Vander is Vi's father, and Silco is just the main reason her life became miserable, even without being "responsible for making/forcing Jinx from Powder", so she can't step in.

Even in the other universe she doesn't get Silco as a father, or as a positive part of her life. That idea is so "other" to her that even in another Universe Vi doesn't get to experience that "what if", so she pulls away.

Damn, this scene right here where Vi reaches out to her to comfort Jinx just KILLS me every time.

It's a very small scene, but it carries so much weight because it shows how, despite all that's happened, Vi's love for her sister is still very much present, and the bitterness and resentment she felt toward her all those years ago are withering away.

I also love that when she retracts her hand, she doesn't do it forcefully or speedily, which would indicate hostility or resentment. She does it gently as if she's saying to herself, "Maybe I'll just give her some space for now."

As great as the big emotional scenes are (e.g., Vander reuniting with her daughters), you CANNOT undervalue the little moments that made them all the more impactful.

Silco is an abuser and a terrible father figure and i'm sick of people pretending he's not.

On the arcane fandom, even to this day there's this weird ass narrative of Silco being "the perfect father for Jinx" or "A loving father who only looks for his daughter's best interest" "girl dad" or whatever other shit this people call him right now.

And the way that i fucking despise this cannot be describe with words unless you count screams of rage and foam as words.

But let's go point for point shall we?

First, how did they meet?

Well the show is kind of ambigous with where they met in time, we know that Vander was already present in the girls lifes before the death of their parents but there is no indicator of prior relationship with Silco. I will then assume for the lack of info that Silco was never an uncle figure to the girls, he was probably too busy with their Zaun plan and he does not seem like the kind of person who would get along with children therefore i will declare that his attempt in murdering Vander and the kids was his first formal introduction to the sisters. He knew they existed, but he didn't had a formal bond with them.

So we can say that when Powder thought she was abandoned by Vi was when Silco stablished contact with her.

Now let's look at this scene in a more raw way, no music, no animation nothing. Just words.

This little girl is crying. She is right now processing the fact that almost all of her family is death. This was all just a very awful chain of events, but her mind cannot comprehend this, this is all her fault in her perspective.

Then comes the true culprit. This man alongside all of his goons are ready to kill her, end with her family's legacy.

Then she just clings to him.

She's acting on pure impulse, because that's what children do. She clinged to him not because she trusted him, not because he seem like a good person but because as a child she would be looking for comfort in the moment where darkness was consuming her mind. And this is the exact moment where this man gets a hold of this vulnerable child and will basically set it all up for him to mold this child into his "Jinx".

"OH BUT THOSE WEREN'T HIS INTENTIONS YOU CANT SAY THAT"

Grooming is a manipulation tactict therefore it is not bound to intentionality, most manipulators don't even know that what they're doing is wrong. Silco very much fits in this.

He projected himself in this child, he said it himself "We'll show them all". This is literally not the case, Vi didn't betray her sister she was having a natural reaction to a traumatic situation, but Silco obviously wouldn't care about it, he doesn't know this children out of this surface level interaction, what matters for him is that he has found someone, he might not have the intention of grooming her but this will be his action from now on.

Now let's take a look at the kind of parenting methods he applied. Most of the community will probably call it "gentle" if asked.

I will however describe it as extremely negligent.

First thing first, Jinx's hideout is dangerous af, this place is not appropiate for...Literally anything, not for testing explosive or treat wounds or to let a child be there constantly. Because i really doubt Jinx only started to have this place only around the time where act 2 was starting considering that at the start this place practically looked like a monument to her trauma. So Silco let this girl spend most of her time in this isolated space that looks like it's going to collapse at any minute, let her test dangerous explosives, and also the final episode shows she could've fallen or thrown herself to the bottom at any moment.

"But Silco has some stuff that Jinx painted over! That means he loves her!"

Abusers can be and actually a lot of them will be loving. Plus loving doesn't mean he takes good care of her, we can say that he loves her but that's it, somebody doesn't hate waffles when they like pancakes and Silco isn't a good father figure for loving his child.

And if anything this loves he has for Jinx only isolates her.

Jinx didn't had anybody but Silco before Silco's death.

Her relationship with Ekko was the equivalent of a crater left by a meteor strike.

Sevika and the rest of Silco's goons/allies just saw her as a problem, a mess who will sooner or later kill them or kill herself.

And outside of them it doesn't seem like anybody else in Zaun cared much about her before the attacks on piltover.

Silco is the only one who actually talks to her, and he only ever tells her that she is "perfect". Good to know that you love your child buddy but your child is literally having hallucinations every three scenes where she even talks to her death brothers, has careless behavior for her own and others safety to the point where it almost looks like she's eargerly making the chances of her dying higher, and just generally seems like she has given up on everything but you.

Individuals who suffer through mental illness need help, literally any kind, wether it is a person just helping us with tasks that might be difficult for us or a psychologist (any mental health professional tbh) that assist us in our way to be more healthy and not harm ourselfs or others.

Letting your daughter fall deeper and deeper into a pit where she's literally treating one of her wounds with staples and looking at a shattered mirror while in crisis is not help.

Grooming a child so they can become a goon for a drug lord is not an act that reflects paternal qualities.

And treating Jinx's character as if she was the one who dragged herself in the pit while constantly praising her abuser is not a display of intellectual abilities. The way this fandom is so blatantly ableist when it comes to Jinx should be studied, before we saw AU Jinx almost everyone and their moms was convinced she would've ended similarly all because everyone turned a blind eye to the man behind all of her problems to the man that named her Jinx. Or worse they blamed Vi another child.

All to protect the fragile perception of the ideal father.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

The animators and writers with Caitlyn

"Noooo! We can't show the people of Zaun suffering by a gas that will very clearly affect them since most of the population is homeless and most of them only have the chembarons or the shimmer as their work or medical care options! Let's just put a music video so everyone will ignore it!"

Them again with Viktor

"Yeah let's make this guy who only wanted to cure himself from a terminal illness that piltover gave him the villain, let's also make his community a cult and hive mind to really put on the screen that free healthcare is the literal devil"

tweet i found this from

original tiktok link to support the creator

YESSS. YOU GET IT

When we are introduced to viktor, we are first led on to believe that he has a confident, almost flippant personality— from how he relished in his power as that of the dean’s assistant and practically talked down to jayce. And yet this confidence only stems from his position in piltover, and this also leads into another really fascinating point I noticed between jayce and viktor: what they value about themselves is what society values about them.

Viktor cannot see value in his personality or his character in the slightest. What he sees as worthy is what the good he can do for society. This also ties back to what Viktor said in the finally to Jayce once he achieved godhood: “I was more than I ever was.”

He only truly values himself because he has made an effort to society, because he has done great. The ONLY reason he said that line was because he finally decided that he had reached his goal of helping others through his commune. He had made himself a legacy.

Another really great example of this is his line to jayce during act 2: “Come. Visit me. See what I’ve accomplished.”

He wants to show Jayce his inventions, he wants to show Jayce that he’s worthy. He literally can’t imagine any other reason why Jayce would be interested in him other than his work.

Now onto Jayce: my point might be a little bit of a stretch but I still think it’s an interesting thing to highlight about his character, and it also traces back to your post. In his journal, there’s a page where he disparages the inventions he sees at the parlors for Progress Day, claiming they’re nothing but child’s play and wondering how the world would react to such a revolutionary idea like Hextech.

He, as well as Viktor, both plainly crave society’s validation. You can see it when Jayce steps on stage— he plays along with the crowd, cherishing and indulging in the applause. He very clearly wanted to achieve personal glory for himself, to be congratulated for his efforts, as well as the desire to help the public and give hextech to the people.

Society holds him at high regard, and hence, he does too.

Except, this changes in the finale of s1, where we see Jayce forgoing this sort of attitude and saying to the council: “With respect, I don’t give a shit about what any of you think about me anymore.”

This also bleeds into s2, act 1, with “My place was always in the lab, with you”, and from this point on Jayce just doesnt care about society’s approval.

And here we see that when his consideration for the council and society’s input has completely dissipated, the only thing he cares about is his partner, and his loyalties have always led back to Viktor.

And then we go to the finale, and we go back to Jayce’s line: “I thought I wanted us to give magic to the world. Now, all I want is my partner back.”

Jayce and Viktor before season 1 act 2 had been a tango with society. Attempt to appease the council, avoid being expelled, dont let society find out about your morally dubious lab experiments, etc. etc. but with this line, Jayce has just said “Fuck society’s judgement. Fuck the rest of their opinions. You are my dream. You are the one I value the most. You are the one I want.”

In the last moments of the finale, Viktor finally, finally fucking learns that he didn’t need to change the world, or revolutionize piltover, or have his name to be embossed into history in order to feel fulfilled, but that maybe to be loved was enough.

Underrated JayVik moments/lines (16/∞)

"I suppose your legacy has been well-secured."

How is this a JayVik line? At first and even second glance it isn't, but bear with me for a moment.

What this line does do initially - seeing as it's said in response to Heimerdinger stating he never contemplates his own death - is tell us how important the idea of "legacy", of leaving something good behind to be remembered by, is to Viktor.

This is not a novel idea; I've seen multiple posts talking about the tragedy that is Viktor, in the end, leaving no legacy at all (if he's lucky, that is - otherwise there would only be the tale of that one time a metal maniac threatened to end all of humanity) because all of his accomplishments and good intentions vanish with him and Jayce.

And yes, that sure is one - very bleak - way to look at it.

However, fortunately that's not all there is to his story.

Because if you think about it for a moment - think about Viktor's motivations throughout the show -, there are two additional driving forces that contribute to this desire to leave a legacy, apart from his desire to help and his strong moral compass:

Loneliness and a damaged self-image.

People suffering from both often end up believing they will only ever be as good, as desirable, as lovable as the good they do for others. They wish to be remembered in death because they can't imagine feeling treasured in life.

I think for someone like Viktor - having placed all of his capacity to make a difference in the world on his "gifted mind" rather than his value as a person -, to be loved unconditionally for who he is may have been so grand an idea that changing the world honestly seemed more attainable to him.

Yet as I pointed out in part 4, even after ostensibly achieving what he thought he wanted in the commune ("an immaculate physique, community, the ability to help people and 'make the world a better place' - a perfect legacy"), from the way he speaks to Jayce and goes on to think and act after facing rejection by him, you absolutely get the sense that there is something vital missing from the picture here.

And it's scarcely even new information at that point, really, as we already learned this a lot earlier by how - when faced with the loss of both love and legacy - it wasn't the threat of losing legacy which Viktor's mind got stuck on:

"Jayce will understand."

It's almost as if... oh I don't know, as if Viktor had thought what he wanted was to bring magic to the world, but ultimately...

Oh.

"I thought I wanted us to give magic to the world... Now, all I want is my partner back."

Jayce, same as Viktor, had big dreams of making a difference in the world since childhood, which - while definitely also driven by a strong desire to help people - is proven here to be equally rooted in the very elementary human desire to connect with someone. For someone to understand him and share his dreams ("our HexTech dream").

He found, and was found by, that someone in Viktor. The fact that the very catalyst of Jayce's dreams - the mage - turns out to literally have been Viktor all along only serves to emphasise this point.

And here, at the end of everything they've endured, Jayce concludes that maybe, to love and to be loved in kind can be enough. Can be everything. Can be all he wants.

I like to believe that Viktor came to that same realisation about himself in those final moments of perfect connection they shared.

Part 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16

← Prev | Next →

(Arcane season 2 spoilers)

(Seriously massive spoilers)

(scroll past because the title will spoiler you already)

I can prove Jinx is alive

with a lot of knowledge and deductions

This is based off of a few other theories which I will link respectively.

This theory begins with another theory: Powder made it to our universe.

In the scene where all of these papers fly up, a head with her hairstyle is visible and... in animation, no accidents happen. (Excluding the possibility the animators are sadistic fucks) This means that Powder traveled through universes. So far, so good.

Now, it's very likely she used the machine which Ekko and Heimerdinger rip left behind for this since she helped build it yadayadayada. We can't know for certain the way this machine works, but I would suggest that it works in the same way the Arcane travel that brought these three there in the first place worked since... when Ekko gets back, it all slots into place and he's back in his body. More on this later.

One characteristic of this way of interdimensional travel is that you can't travel to a dimension where you are dead, the explanation for why Jayce doesn't come with the others to the 'happy end' dimension (or the Arcane has its own will and brought him where he landed because of it but that's boring) because in this one, Vi died, the council prohibited the hextech experiments completely so Viktor didn't come to him and... well. (I unfortunately didn't find where I read that his death is why he isn't in this dimension, but I did somewhere).

This means that in order to travel into a dimension, you need to be alive in this very dimension. NOW if Powder traveled to our dimension, that means that Jinx must have been alive at the time of her travel and since we saw Jinx sacrifice herself for Vi when she was very much herself, this means she must've survived the fall so Powder could travel there and take over her body. Also, we see Powder in the end scene and since she'd take over Jinx' body when she travels dimensions, Jinx' body must've been alive at the end of the story.

Now. What does this mean for Jinx? Where is she?

She is alive, that much is clear now, but where is her psyche if her body is controlled by Powder?

There are two options really, and it boils down to how inter dimensional travel works.

Option 1: when you travel to a different dimension, you take over your other selves' body and they just kinda get knocked out. This would mean that while Ekko was in the other universe, parallel!Ekko was just kind of nowhere. This doesn't make that much sense to me since it would mean there's a forward and backward direction for travelling.

Forward means you stack a soul on top of another one, backward means that the soul gets sent back. It's kind of possible, but a bit dull and rough around the edges. Also, this would mean the machine Ekko and Heimerdinger built is specifically designed to bring them BACK which means Powder couldn't have used it to travel forth so... it's a bit scuffed.

Option 2: Symmetrical travel. When you travel to another universe, the soul from that universe possesses YOUR body in turn. This means that the way forward and the way backward is exactly the same, the minds get switched and the direction doesn't matter. This would more easily allow Powder to use the machine to travel forward into another universe since it's the same procedure as travelling backwards. A way to prove this would be to check if Ekko's or Heimerdinger's body have been active in OUR universe while they were there. Actually, now that I think about it, this would mean there IS still an alive Heimerdinger in our universe. This theory makes more sense to me, though, again, that would mean there's someone controlling your body in your universe while you're controlling theirs.

Now, this means that, option 1: Jinx would just be KO while Powder has control of her body BUT option 2 would be: Jinx is in the 'happy end' universe while Powder is in ours which is also just a lot more interesting.

Maybe I'll check if I can find proof for option 2, but this is it in the meantime. BUT anyway, Jinx is alive! And this also means Ekko COULD still get his happy end (I made this theory for him, poor boy deserves a happy end), with Jinx or with Powder.

"Mel is a bad person she manipulated jayce"

Ekko, at the unripe age of 10/11, scammed him, and Jayce still didn't make the connection years later when meeting Ekko again.

ALSO, SO WHAT? She is a politician. That is what they do. They manipulate people to achieve their own agenda. Luckily, the outcome was mutually beneficial for both of them. It was mutually beneficial. Meaning it was not a parasitic relationship like ambassa and cait, for example.

Jayces whole characterisation is that he is an idealistic genius. Yes, he's intelligent but in the field of science. He had not spent his life navigating the realm of politics like Mel had. He is a gullible person. That is what they showed us in the very first episode when ekko scams him.

Mel manipulated jayce yes HOWEVER that does not mean the relationship was manipulation, too. TWO THINGS CAN BE TRUE AT ONCE.

Also, most likely, if Jayce failed again, Mel would also be risking a lot. She would most likely lose credibility among the council and even lose her position as Counciller. Granted, she is intelligent and thought the reward outweighed the but still. She was also risking her position by backing him.

That's all i gotta say. I'm so tired of the Mel hate the only valid hate against her is her not doing anything to help Zaun.

The main issue with season 2 and the writers condensing 4 more seasons into 1 is they lost the plot.

The 1st season introduced Zaun and Piltover and the class divide between it.

Vi and Jinxs story begins as a result of It. Jinx literally says herself the cycle of death began long before her and vi, long before silco and Vander.

In the alternate universe it's so good not only because hextech was never invented but also because Heimerdinger was there for over 1000 days(can't remember the exact amount) before ekko even got there. And I'm assuming after spending time in the undercity he truly saw the changes he needed to make and used that time to make those changes. However the problem with Heimerdinger is that he was content to stay there and ultimately forsake his original world. Which just proves to us he's perpetuating the ongoing cycle of selfishness from the council. Which is unfortunately a characteristic of oppressors. Selfishness and a willing to forsake a people in order to uplift and protect their own. And that will always be what seperates Zaunites from those who live in Piltover. Ekko couldn't stay there it was too selfish to forget about the problems of his own world and steal the life of that reality's Ekko.

The main conflict of season 2 ends up being Viktors eugenics story and Ambessas grasp for power. When that ends we see Piltover rebuilding with Sevika taking a council members chair. While that is nice, what should have happened is the arcane arc and we had another season to explore the problems between Zaun and Piltover being fixed and Zaun becoming a thriving part of Piltover.

I noticed something about Mel at the end of season 2.

Throughout season 1 her make up is purple eyeshadow

While she was kidnapped by the black rose obviously it came off.

When we see her put together again it is after her mother died and she is taking up the mantle.

We can see she still has her purple eyeshadow, however the red under her eyes matches her mother.

Even this photo here Mel is adorned and dressed like a general however she looks so small and childlike compared to how her mother looked there. She's taking up as little space we humanly possible. She's not imposing like her mother was she's struggling to fit into this role.

And someone like Mel who struggles with identity will first dress and look the part in an attempt to transition into this new role better.

So she dresses similarly to her mother, even changing a small detail as her make up to match what her mother was. However we still see little bits of Mel in her identity.

She's come to a point where she's realised in order to be a Medarda she does not have to be the exact same as her mother or elder brother. She can still be herself and be a Medarda. She's still not entirely sure who she is, but she's getting there.

I really hope they explore her journey in noxus as I'm so curious as to how the Noxians will react to their new general who is also a mage and how that will tie into the overall story.

No one gets that one of the core themes of this damn show is love.

Love motivated Vander to protect Vi, Powder, Myles and Claggor.

Love motivated Vi to continually fight for Jinx.

Love motivated Jayce to explore magic as it saved his mom.

Love motivated Viktor to give the rune to Jayce

Love for science motivated Viktor and Jayce to create Hextech

Love motivated Singe to do absolutely terrible things to save his daughter.

Love was the catalyst for every action every character did.

something something despite the all horrors and tragedies of the world, love was there and that's all that matters

This is a very slippery slope but I keep seeing very conflicting views on Cait and I have an opinion.

I'm gna put facts first and then my opinion else I may go off topic.

Season 1 - Cait is very idealistic. She wants to help the undercity and despite her upbringing she's not as prejuidiced against Zaunites as other members of Piltover.

Season 1 ends with Jinx killing Caits motherand season 2 begins with the aftermath.

Episode 1-3 We still see Cait, seeing people from the undercity as people, placing the blame of the bomb on 1 person- Jinx.

Then the memorial happens and it's interfered with. Cait is appointed as head of a unit to do that whole martial law thing.

Not to mention the breakup with Vi and Jayce and Mel going missing. (Her other support systems)

Later on we find out Ambessa has been manipulating everything from behind the scenes in order to gain what she wants - power.

NOW YOU TELL ME If you are someone who is grieving and this motherly figure comes, basically handing everything you want on a silver platter, telling you that you are right to feel this way and right to want revenge. And you don't have much of a support system anymore. Would you not be more susceptible to manipulation? Did this also not happen to Jinx? Did Silco also similarly tell Jinx this stuff? But yall wna see him as a great father when he actively affirmed her abandonment issues and other issues. (I have thoughts on Silco as a parent and luckily I'm not blinded by being attracted to him)

Im not in any way justifying what Cait did with the grey, that was completely uncalled for and of her own volition. HOWEVER similar to jinx after losing silco, that girl was not in a healthy state of mind. Jayce literally used the hexcore to bring back Viktor in his grief. Even after promising not to use the Hexcore. People don't think properly when emotionally distraught this is a fact of life you can disagree with me but I've seen it.

What I'm trying to say is grief and emotional distress makes desperate people do things they wouldn't normally do. I don't agree with Caits actions. But I entirely understand how she got there and while her redemption could have been better unfortunately we aren't lucky like we were with ATLA. I do think Caits villain arc should have been a season and then her redemption take place over another season which would be the final season. Cait also does atone for her actions, she betrays Ambessa and she sets Jinx free. Call her a bad person but then you have to call Jinx and Silco and all the other characters bad people. They're all flawed and they all do things that aren't necessarily good. Vi puts on an enforcer uniform. Maddie Exists. Jinx killed firelights and Caits mother. Viktor became the #1 eugenics fan. They're all flawed hello.

This is so facts, and this kinfa touches on why i dont totally love the addition og isha. I should, right, bc omg cute kid, but she feels like too much of a plot device to supposedly “fix” jinx. The way Vander usually fails to acknowledge Mylo and Clag kinda sucks. Ik its bc we judt didnt get to see em much in canon and it surely happened, just off screen, but its sad.

I feel like I need to talk about this scene. It bothers me not just for personal reasons but for plot reasons as well. I briefly touched on why I despise it so much but I'll elaborate properly, hopefully without being too repetitive.

The girls both quote Mylo that Vander is "their dad too", and yet mention of the boys is completely absent. But it has to be absent, or we might have to be reminded of the entire reason the girls' brothers are dead to begin with: Jinx and Silco both. Because Jinx accidentally killed them, because Silco abducted their dad. And let's be real, Vi and Jinx never had a single meaningful conversation about anything in s2. Everything they went through, all the changes they made, all the people they lost, amounting to a Disneyfied reunion with their werewolf dad. Add the extra layer of irritation of adding Isha, as if she belongs there, as if she's some sort of cheap replacement for the brothers they lost.

Maybe it also speaks to why Jinx doesn't come off as even half as unwell as she was in s1; her hallucinations were Mylo-heavy and they might have to be brought up if she was still having chronic episodes. But no, her replacement family of a small child basically heals her.

I personally feel the complete omission of Mylo and Claggor is disgraceful and downright lazy (but that's s2 in a nutshell). They were Vi and Jinx's brothers, Vander's sons. The loss of them is basically irrelevant in this entire season outside of ep7, where not even Ekko shares a single word with either of the boys, who only get three lines each, who only talk at him. It's like saying "hey look they're alive here, how nice" before pushing them to the side again to make more room for timebomb.

Yes I'm biased because Mylo and Claggor are everything to me, but it's still very much a flaw in the writing not to even mention their names whatsoever. It's not as if their being mentioned would derail the story - it could be sprinkled in when/where necessary, to be touched on. Their presences were still felt throughout s1 long after their deaths but they're irrelevant easter eggs in s2. But seeing as how their were basically two whole writers left in the room for s2, it's not all that surprising either.

Broken record that I am: Mylo and Claggor deserved better.

JUSTICE FOR MYLO SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPSSSDDD

Agree on the case of Vi, thats my GOAT and she was done hella dirty in s2.

Somewhat disagree on the take with Cait. I still like her character but i understand why many dont. Her src was never about becoming a dictator- it was about making a hard, “lesser evil” typa choice in the face of no better options (talkinh sb gassing the undercity rn). BUT what she did was still a terrible abuse of power, and by the end of the show, shes still at a place where shes justifying her actions. Im añl for complex characters, but they need to receive complex consequences. The narrative does not properly punish cait for what she did like it seems tp punish other characters , leaving her gray morality feeling unearned.

Mylo got too much hate over nothing, vi got so much hate over nothing, caitlyn got so much hate over nothing, and those are just some off the top of my head

I am so sad at the sheer lack of media literacy in this fandom.

mylo was a teen orphan who was struggling

vi watched everyone die and it’s easy to blame when your in pain. She didn’t take jinx away from a loving father, it was an abusive situation.

caitlyn was manipulated constantly and giving every hurdle and piece of propaganda that Ambessa gave her.

these are just to name a few, so many characters are hated for one aspect of their complex characters and it’s simply sad.

Mylo my baby he deserved sm better by the fandom 💔💔

Damn OP, go off.

I definitely agree that having caitlyn’s character take that dark turn is interesting. I would like it if she actually suffered consequences from the narrative about it tho. Like yes, on her part, its a morally grey, “lesser evil” choice to prevent the Noxian invasion. And arcane is full of morally grey characters and choices. But usually, the difference is that said moral-grayness is acknowledged in canon in some way. While we the viewers know what Caitlyn did was wrong/cruel/morally grey, she isnt actually punished for it. Nobody calls her out for it to any significance. While i dislike the “dictator cait” takes that come in tandem with writing off jinx and viktor’s actions, i can see why the phenomenon has arisen when the latter are punished for their actions while the former is really not.

to continue talking about why i believe the political commentary of arcane is flawed, i want to discuss how the piltover-zaun conflict not getting a satisfying resolution hurts caitvi’s writing as a couple. i want to talk about them specifically bc they’re the only endgame couple in arcane and the worst takes i see about the show’s political commentary usually comes from caitvi shippers. i will start by saying that i LOVED caitvi in s1, which is why i’m so disappointed by how they were written in s2. while i understood why people were uncomfortable with caitvi due to caitlyn’s position as an enforcer and vi being a victim of police brutality, it didn’t bother me when i first watched s1 because caitlyn fit into the “good cop” trope and i believed that the series would end with her reforming the police force in piltover. my expectations ended up being subverted when i watched act 1 of s2 after seeing the dark turn her character had. i actually liked seeing caitlyn’s descent into darkness in act 1 because it demonstrated that even “good” people in corrupt systems can still abuse their power. i thought that she would eventually be redeemed since caitvi is the endgame pairing and that is the only way i could see the couple working. after watching act 2, i became less confident that caitlyn would get a proper redemption arc since we only see the aftermath of her actions and she gets offscreen development. again, it makes sense that she would grow less skeptical of the crackdown from noxus after 3-6 months, but it would be more impactful we see what led her there when in ep 3 she used the grey against civilians, threatened heenot, and nearly shot a child. i need to emphasize that the grey WAS used against civilians since the mv montage shows regular civilians running away from it and vi says it was used to “clear the streets”. even if the grey was only used against criminals, it is still a war crime because the use of chemical weapons is prohibited under the geneva conventions. the last time vi and caitlyn were together, caitlyn hit vi with her rifle on a place that vi was already deeply wounded from. the fact that their reunion is caitlyn hitting vi multiple times is a good example of how vi’s trauma is rarely explored by the writers, especially since she is so nonchalant about it. during her time in stillwater, vi was regularly beaten by enforcers, she should’ve been a lot more hostile towards caitlyn when they meet again. vi was one of the main characters who confronted piltover about their oppression of zaunites in s1, but in s2 when caitlyn becomes everything vi hates about piltover, it doesn't harm vi's perception of caitlyn at all. another thing i hated was vi having sex with caitlyn in a jail cell knowing that jinx is going to commit suicide. not only is it ooc for vi since she is shown to be very loyal to her family and is a victim of police brutality, but sexual assault by cops is very prevalent in prisons so it's tone deaf to viewers who experienced police violence. i know that the scene is supposed to be vi “reclaiming her trauma”, but is it really reclamation when her trauma is rarely explored? caitlyn is NEVER confronted by anyone for gassing civilians, falsely imprisoning zaunites, torturing zaunites, and raiding their homes; the fact that she never comes to terms with harming zaunites makes it feel like vi is settling. i understand that lesbian representation is important, but that doesn’t mean that we have to excuse bad writing, especially when said pairing is wrapped up in bad political commentary. pinkwashing and homonationalism are real problems and the way caitvi shippers become apologists of fascism and police brutality is reminiscent of how oppressive power structures justify xenophobia, racism, and aporophobia in the name of “protecting” queer people.

Everything here BUT i would like to add that i think meljay was written to fail. Like the way they got together in a fwb not even knowing much about each other way and the obvious implication that they were both using one another - even if they got a side bonus of pleasure out of it - disincentivized the shipping.

Now, relationships started for the wrong reasons is by far from an uncommon trope in fandom discourse (hello, fake dating), but doing said trope successfully involves having both couples GROW as people and change how they percieve their partner. We see that sorta on Mel’s end. She gets a nice little arc about not wanting to be the manipulative person her mother honed her into anymore, but from Jayce’s? No, it doesnt come close. Meljay started with them both allying mainly for personal gain, albeit with the added bonus of fun on the side, but Jayce is never really depicted viewing Mel as something like “a silver tongued, untrustworthy liar” where its clear she views him as a bit of a “good intentioned fool.” Like the misconceptions feel unequal, i guess.

And im not saying this to fault Mel, because i really enjoy her. All the characters in arcane are morally grey. Thats not an issue i have for her character in general but just for her relationship with jayce being anything but temporary.

Now, Melvik, on the otherhand? Well, suffice to say, i love it. It started as a crackship but i slowly grew to love their dynamic. Viktor absolutely would see through Mel’s charismatic persona and call her out for it. He’d get on her nerves and speak out, refusing to fall in line and which would rile her feathers. They would challenge each other in a way Meljay just dont. Thats why i think theyd be neat. It comes from less of a place of spite bc i do enjoy jayvik as well than a consideration of what constitutes an equal/satisfying dynamic.

That being saidddd fuck misogynoir and stan mel medarda!

long-winded ramble about melvik and the arcane fandom

I really do believe the boom in the melvik ship has nothing to do with the show (obviously since they barely interacted) and more with black fans and fans of mel ( a black female character that they, by proxy, would have to be exposed to misogynoir when trying to engage with her content) separating themselves from the anti-black fandom into more niche places where outsiders are less likely to scrutinize. especially when you consider that the ship really started gaining more traction months after the show’s end (as opposed to right after or during, which is usually the case) and I think that correlates to the online harassment of mel (and meljay) fans ramping up. if someone is looking for non-art fan content of a character, most of it is revolved around shipping since solo, non-romantic fan fiction is unpopular and un-incentivized.

anybody who’s been a fan of mel since s1 (or has scrolled more than 3 times in her tags on social media) knows that meljay, despite being one of the few actually canon ships on the show, was disparaged, minimized and scrutinized basically since its inception, with most of the onus being on Mel. as her most popular ship arguably until now, that meant if you were somebody that enjoyed mel (or meljay) you were basically getting flashbanged by vitriol to the point a lot of her content was a) people trashing her character or ship b) people fighting back against that undue backlash and coming in dead last c) actual content for the ship in question. This got significantly worse after the arcane writers took 3 percs each during the s2 writing period and validated fanon malice against her character within the show, further emboldening them. if you were a fan of mel or her most popular ship (and once again, canon relationship), you were signing up to be bombarded by bad takes (im being generous) every time you wanted to engage.

sometimes what happens in huge fandoms amongst marginalized fans, I’ve seen people exhausted of dealing with the vitriol branch off into an unlikely, unpopular ship and make that the new “safe space” and I definitely think that’s what happened here.

with that being said, there’s something very funny (/positive) about melvik now compared to its earliest iterations. a lot of early fan-content had a mean-spirited slant to their interactions that you can tell was adopted from the larger, jayvik fanon that they despised each other. there were also a fair amount of consolation prize polycule fan fiction that felt like the writers weren’t confident in mel and viktor’s relationship on its own and the only thing that glued the love triangle together was wanting to appease jayce which is…lol. now it has its own fanon (e.i. pre-canon bitter exes) and better recognizes the merit of these characters outside of a polyamorous relationship. I’ve also noticed that there seems to be an uptick in fan content (art and fan fiction) that centers mel, or just outright de-centers jayce even if there is polyamorous relationship which wasn’t as common before. i wonder how much that has to do with mel fans using the ship as an escape from the hatred in her other tags.

i think now, despite the parallels the writers either unintentionally created or failed to capitalize on, one of the biggest appeals to the ship (and fandom) is that it just embraces absurdism as a crack-ship that could’ve actually had some merit in the show if arcane wasn’t written like that™️. meljay is always diminished and those two character’s love for each other gets debated every day ending in y, but with melvik there’s no real need to prove itself. it’s a “why the hell not” ship and now that the arcane fandom at large is starting to catch onto the fact it exists, it’s very funny seeing people argue about how a relationship like that could never happen in canon, as if fandom has ever upheld the original content as something non-transformative and above individual interpretation LMAO….

anyway. all of this to say that im a #nooticer and i #nootice things

SICK from thinking about the symbolism of the rune.

Which rune Viktor gives baby Jayce is the only thing we see as a catalyst for change across timelines — it's the butterfly flapping its wings.

The rune switches hands only twice more after that:

Viktor giving it back to Jayce, representing the start of their partnership concerning Hextech,

and Jayce giving it to Viktor in the astral plane, helping him put an end to the arcane apocalypse.

But there's one more important similarity about these moments — they're moments when Viktor and Jayce save each other.

Mage Viktor saves Ximena and baby Jayce, then gives him the rune.

Viktor stops Jayce's attempt, then hands him back his bracelet.

Jayce stops Viktor from losing his humanity, taking the rune from his wrist and together, they use it to save the world.

The rune isn't just about possibilities. It's a representation of their lives.

And they only ever put it in each other's hands.